Out of Africa (with my family)
A itinerary form Cape Town to Garden Route and Port Elizabeth. A stop at a Grootbos for whale watching and a safari at Madikwe Game Reserve
Peru: Things you can't see in the pictures
Amidst an immense darkness, broken only by the flickering lights of the plane's wing, lights like fireflies suddenly appeared. With fifteen minutes to landing, only large industrial spaces were visible. Nothing seemed to foreshadow what was to come in the next few days.
The first night was merely a stop-over at a hotel next to the Lima airport. I could have been in many places, but the colorful clothes, the peculiar braids, and the beautiful chocolate skin tone I saw on the people lying on the walkway across from the hotel made me realize I was in the right place.
I was greeted with a pisco, the best-known local drink, accompanied by "cancha", a type of corn they serve roasted and salted. I discovered that cancha could be a substitute for the toasted and salted almonds I was used to in the more traditional bars of Madrid.
The colorful clothes, the peculiar braids, and the beautiful chocolate skin tone that I saw in the people lying on the walkway that crossed towards the hotel told me that I was in Lima
The next day, I flew over the coast from Lima to the north for more than an hour; I would start the trip in the opposite way than usual: on the beach. From the plane, a drastic change was noticeable, going from a mountainous environment to the most arid desert that stretched until the air itself prevented you from seeing out of the plane window.
Dirt and dust made up the only landscape that seemed to exist. I landed at a tiny airport and picked up my suitcase at the only baggage claim belt. I had to take a cab to get to Mancora for a relatively long ride.
The aridity accompanied us during the car ride to suddenly change to a pleasant oceanic humidity. Little by little, plant formations began to sprout until I visualized coastal constructions where my unexpected paradisiacal retreat would be found.
The historic center of Lima, declared a World Heritage Site, is characterized by a series of buildings of the so-called viceregal architecture. This architectural style was developed during the Viceroyalty of Peru, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, and was an adaptation of European baroque and rococo styles.
One of the most characteristic elements of this style is the enclosed balconies with wooden coffered ceilings.
The characteristic closed balconies of the houses in the historic center of Lima. Photo: Manuel G. Olaechea.
Kichic was paradise, but different from the concept we have in mind having as a reference places like Maldives or French Polynesia. Kichic is a different place in the world, which should have its own status. Located in the fishing village of Mancora, this small set of rooms in what can't be called a hotel made me feel relaxed like I hadn't been in a long time.
It felt as if I had arrived at the home of friends who always greeted me with a smile. The sea breeze, sometimes angry, the sound of the Pacific waves, the most exquisite food we could imagine with all kinds of elaborations with tuna as a base... There was no hurry, time had stopped and we did not want to reactivate it.
Kichic is located a few kilometers from Mancora, a seaside resort town of great attraction today for surfers wishing to discover the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
Interior of Kichic, a set of exclusive rooms where relaxation and calmness prevail.
On the last day, I simply did not want to leave, but the journey had to continue. I closed my eyes; when I opened them, a layer of clouds covered the sky. Suddenly, I found myself immersed in a dense white layer as the blue of the sky began to glimmer. An infinite white blanket served as a floor for the blue immensity, crossed by giant icebergs of floating earth: the Andes mountain range. The immense mountain range has peaks that exceed 6,000 meters in height.
After the rest of the last few days, from that moment on, the excitement and hyperactivity that you feel when you go to a new place was triggered. I wanted to fix in my memory every detail I saw: the way the streets of the cities were structured, their architecture, the cars and tuk-tuks moving like ants in a long line, the behavior of the inhabitants... I tried to mentalize the accent when speaking to differentiate it from that of the neighbors from other countries; an impossible task, by the way.
The Incas designed the capital of their empire, Cuzco, in the shape of a puma, which, along with the condor and the serpent, were their sacred animals. The puma symbolizes strength, wisdom, and nature
I landed at the airport of Cuzco. More known than portrayed, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire shows you historical beauties, some of them 3,000 years old, others from colonial times; local markets and places where the contemporary and the range of colorful tones made you know where you were.
At sunset, Cuzco becomes a magical city. Set in an almost circular valley, the lights of the aseptic neighborhoods on the adjoining hillsides make hundreds of fireflies seem to float in the darkness like stars within reach.
Many garments are made with alpaca wool, which acts as a natural thermoregulator.
The colorful weaving and embroidery of traditional dress in Cuzco is one of the Andean handicrafts that has survived from pre-Hispanic times to the present day with few variations.
The most characteristic garments of the traditional costume are the chumpi (belt), the lliclla (female blanket), and the chuspa (bag).
Many of the women in cities such as Cuzco still dress in their traditional dress today.
The Sacred Valley
I would continue the journey fully immersed in the soul of Peru: the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The valley stretches more than 200 kilometers along the Vilcanota River. A kind driver named Tomas picked me up at the Cuzco airport and introduced me to this magical region.
Tomas drove along the steep mountain roads with sharp turns that treated me to increasingly breathtaking panoramas as I ascended in altitude. My pulse was racing in a conjunction of excitement and lack of oxygen from the altitude. The calm driver began to nourish my desire to know more with sincere answers about different aspects of the country, curiosities about its inhabitants, or the differences between the types of corn and the infinite varieties of potato.
"We have more than 3,000 types of potato," he said. He decided to slow down the car and order for me a "choclo", boiled corn with cow cheese that slowed down the crunching of my stomach for a while.
The "puna" is the name given to the ecosystem above 3,700 meters where llamas and alpacas live and from where you can enjoy dizzying bird's eye views of the valley
I finally arrived at Explora Valle Sagrado, my lodging for the next three nights, where I could escape the stress of the city amid cornfields and Andean mountains as a backdrop. On the first day, I would begin from the small community of Viachas a nearly ten-kilometer descent to the actual town of Pisaq.
Along with four other guests, we walked alone on a route through agricultural fields and small streams only accompanied by some animals and local inhabitants, being able to see in the distance the archaeological complex of Pisaq, situated at 3,300 meters in altitude. It looked like a small Machu Picchu that rose timidly in the middle of a valley protected by giants wherever you looked.
The perspectives I had at various points along the first part of the route were unique. I would appreciate it more as I descended and encountered other visitors. Without a doubt, the connection you feel to the place you are transiting and the way you see the highlights make you not forget that experience itself.
The guides even take you through other entrances to the monuments so you can enjoy them. I could see all those places and photograph them from numerous perspectives while enjoying nature.
- In Inca times, the Sacred Valley was a very productive agricultural territory, with corn, potato, olluco, quinoa and coca leaf crops —
- Pisac, in the Sacred Valley, has altars, water wells and the oldest cemetery in South America —
- Llamas are used by Andean villagers for their meat, wool and for transporting goods —
- The condor was one of the sacred animals of the Incas who believed that it communicated the upper world with the earthly world
The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the spa, swimming in the outdoor heated pool, and socializing during the daily meetings to prepare for the next day's routes. The evening would culminate with an exquisite dinner that I opened with the first of many ceviches, accompanied by a glass of Chilean wine and plenty of water for the body to adapt to the altitude.
Even for those who are not big fans of hiking, this is an unmissable experience in Peru. The second of the full days in the region I was encouraged to take a longer route to reach Maras and Moray. Of course, they are places of great beauty and cultural importance: salt production terraces nestled in a valley with pink and ocher tones built by the Spanish where surprisingly salt is obtained from mineral aquifers, in the case of Maras.
Perfectly circular concentric terraces where in other times it would have been discussed the Martian of its origin, but it turns out to be an agricultural research center in the time of the Incas, in the case of Moray.
The Maras salt mines are made up of more than 3,000 natural salt wells that originated 110 million years ago.
It is believed that the Moray circles were used by the Incas to test different crops in the microclimates created in each of the concentric terraces.
Machu Picchu was patiently waiting for me. To enter the historic citadel we decided, once again, to hike the last stretch of the Inca Trail that takes you seven hours along the route that this civilization followed to reach this enclave.
The road was, to my surprise, of remarkable beauty. The valley, inaccessible by road, gives you endless green views and other spectacular ruins that, were it not for its neighboring competition, would be places that anyone would dream of visiting. The long road does not make you guess what awaits you, it simply takes you to a state of disconnection where you feel like a small participant in a wild landscape.
Machu Picchu was built around the 15th century on one of the geodesic lines of the Earth, hence the energy that emanates from this sacred place for the Incas.
The Inca Trail consists of 43 kilometers of road through forests, with millenary steps and breathtaking views.
At last, my guide announced the long-awaited proximity to our goal. One last stretch and an accumulation of visitors, small stone structures, tired steps, and anxiousness to arrive. "La Puerta del Sol," he said as he pointed to that stonework structure. Stupefaction. It was not possible. In the meander of a distant river rises a steep mountain whose sisters rise closer to the blue mantle, all of them covered in lush vegetation and protecting in a circle the central one, Machu Picchu.
I had not seen it in photos. Something like that cannot be portrayed.
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12 MONTHS, 12 STORIES
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