Ephemerratic - 3/25 - Independent travel blog with stories, travel guides, photos, travel art, and local food
Beasts, birds, and bugs of Colca Canyon, Peru
The Andean condors of Colca Canyon, Peru attract all the tourist paparazzi attention. Evade the camera flashes and flee down a trail, and there’s a captivating natural diversity in the sky, underfoot, and in the brush.
Bird perched on a cactus in Colca Canyon, Peru
Huff, puff, and smell the flowers of Colca Canyon
Who’da thunk that hiking up the steep, deep, Colca Canyon, Peru would have been easier than hiking down the same 3,300-feet?
Going downhill was so rough that I couldn’t stop and smell the…well, I don’t know what they’re all called, but the flowers of Colca Canyon are fascinating. Going up, tiny petals shudder in canyon wind, strong shoots covered in buds obstinately grow toward the sun, and strangely shaped fruiting plants follow the trail up to the top of the canyon.
Walk with me.
Blooms and view.
The greatest fool in Peru
During dinner in a rustic hiker guesthouse at the bottom of Colca Canyon, Peru, Todd decides to treat our fellow travelers to a conversation to remember, for all the wrong reasons.
His choice? A story about a penis.
D’ya trust this storyteller?
Hitting rock bottom in Colca Canyon
I’m not the kind of chick who cries. Though I’m overflowing with empathy, I’m cut from stoic stock. I cry more often while cutting onions than from sorrow or joy.
Yet, at the bottom of the world’s deepest canyon, I bust into a savage crying jag just because it’s off season for the hot springs and no one told me.
Maybe don’t go exactly where the arrow points.
Small town, big sky
There is a noticeable lack of urgency in Cabanaconde, Peru. It’s likely that this placid state is related to the lack of people and of things to do. Buses arrive, buses depart, one set of backpackers replaces another. Yet, it’s not boring here. Not by far.
The donkey? He’s tired. From all the excitement.
The condors of Colca Canyon have a posse
Who would travel deep into Colca Canyon via a pot-holed, fear-inducing, six-hour bus ride and still say to hell with seeing the area’s acclaimed and rare Andean condors?
Anyone who hates early morning wake-up calls.
Namely, me.
This condor’s available for viewing, anytime, any day.
Let’s terrace the clouds
This bus smells like I imagine alpaca farts must smell — a mix of ripe compost, dry grass, wet wool, and barnyard sweat. For the next six hours, I have no choice but to breathe it in.
As we begin our long bus ride from the Peruvian city of Arequipa to Colca Canyon, the fog- and pollution-shrouded mountain of El Misti is at our backs. Past the city’s edge, we start to rise up. Soon, our bus has hauled so high that we’re traveling above the clouds. In the distance, the Andean land throws skyward even higher, mile-high peaks, the dark volcanic tops of Coropuna and Ampato capped with snow.
The volcano, El Misti, and vicuñas, a type of Peruvian camelid.
I have not yet conquered my fears of heights and of the bus driving off the road down down down into the valley far below. To endure this ride, I need to mentally distance myself from my anxiety.
So far, I’m not doing a very good job.
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Cusco, Peru travel guide – The YEH, MEH, NAHs
Cusco, Peru is a town teetering on a precipice of unpalatablility. Touts interrupting private moments, taxis careening through small streets, tourists drinking to excess, smutty air pollution, and slutty corporatization threaten to bury this otherwise charming town.
And the charm factor is high. If you ever tire of grand Incan ruins, museums, churches, and panoramic views, there’s always people watching and getting lost in Cusco’s stone alleys.
I do recognize the irony of complaining about the negative effects of a town’s tourism popularity while still recommending it as a place to visit. The town itself is hanging on to its overall YEH, but headed toward a MEH.
Happiness Tea and quark cheesecake at Granja Heidi restaurant
Wetting my whistle with someone else’s spit
“Chicha de jora? Isn’t that the stuff they make with spit? Eww.”
Such was the typical reaction when someone heard chicha de jora in the list of foods and drinks I wanted to try in Peru. That or a confused, “Chicha de huh?”
Before I got to Peru, the eww attitude was about where I was at too. While I’m determined to be open minded and try anything, drinking someone else’s spit is a hard notion to swallow.
Sprouted corn for making chicha
“Lauren’s bucket list” on Jetpac
I blew my writing wad this week on a fun guest post on Jetpac and on a Peru travel story about the deaths of two guinea pigs, one a pet, one a meal. I liked the guinea pig story so much that I’ve pitched it to a travel editor in hopes of achieving fame and fortune (or more likely: a byline on paper and few cents per word, but that’s not a complaint).
While the guinea pig story has to stay under wraps (bacon wrapped, that is), I can share the guest post. Jetpac asked me to write out my travel bucket list, and I agreed so long as I could skip the tropes of listing big-bang sites or countries. Instead I focused on bucket list items that have no lasting tangible value and some that seem a little, well, weird; thus: Ephemerratic!. When they finally happen, I expect to treasure these experiences more than any souvenir.
For example:
1) Talk politics and culture with a Columbian – in Spanish
“What do you call someone who speaks two languages?” — Bilingual
“Someone who speaks three languages?” — Um, trilingual.
“Someone who speaks one language?” — American!I may write a mean metaphor, but I can only do it in English. I’ve never been swift at learning another language, and my half-baked efforts at learning Spanish have thus far been confounded by confusion with the little high school Italian I still remember. One day, hopefully not too far off, I’d like to travel to Columbia with enough Español in my noggin to have a meaningful conversation about politics and culture with a local. And why Columbia? ¿Por qué no?
What’s next on my travel bucket list? ▶
What do you think of a travel bucket list that only includes ephemeral experiences? What would be on yours?
