Peru: Day 6 (aka Inca Trail: Day 4)

On our last day on the Inca Trail, we had to get up at 3:30am. At least we were treated to cake at breakfast, along with all the usual goodies:


We were in line at the checkpoint before 4:30am, with only 2 or 3 groups ahead of us. At 5am, the checkpoint opened, and we were on our way. It took over an hour and a half of pretty fast hiking for us to get to the Intipunku (aka the "Sun Gate"), but as a result, we got there in plenty of time to see the sunlight creeping towards Machu Picchu:


I took a billion pictures in the twenty minutes that we spent there, and then realized afterwards that time-lapsed video would probably have been more effective. Oh well. Here's one closeup:


It took another 45 minutes or so to walk from the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu. We stopped a few times along the way, to look at some interesting rock formations, and to take some photos as we approached the site itself.

It was a little strange arriving at the entrance to Machu Picchu. There were tons of people, a restaurant, bathrooms (with toilet paper!), baggage storage facilities (where we were forced to check our trekking poles), etc. Generally, it just felt like there was too much infrastructure, and there were definitely too many people, many of whom looked like they just stepped out of an air-conditioned bus.

After a quick snack outside the gate, and some creative rearranging of our daypacks (Raul advised us that bags of a certain size were not allowed inside, and in fact some people ended up having to check their packs), we finally arrived at Machu Picchu.

For the first hour or two, we continued to follow Raul around while he showed us the important sites and gave us historical background:


After that, we were on our own. Raul gave us our bus and train tickets, instructed us on how to get to the stops and stations, and then we said goodbye to both guides.

I think we all felt a little lost without Raul and Edison, but despite that, we spent another hour or so wandering the (very large) site.

Many of the walls in Machu Picchu have been restored, and indeed we saw some people working on restoring the Temple of the Sun:


I think this particular wall had been left as is on purpose; I don't remember seeing another crumbling wall anywhere else:


The mountain in the background is Huayna Picchu. If we had wanted to climb it, we would have had to run from the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu, in order to be one of the first 400 people in line to buy a ticket. We decided not to bother, and spent our time enjoying the sunrise instead. I think in the end we were all quite happy with that decision:


There were some nice valley views, too:



As we were walking around, we spotted a chinchilla! Unfortunately I had my wide-angle lens on at the time, but Tina managed to snag this shot:


Around 1:30pm, we decided to head down to the town of Aguas Calientes, as we were all starving. It turned out to be about 20 minutes away, via air-conditioned bus. Upon arrival, we went directly to the Apu Salkantay restaurant, where our duffel bags were being stored, and decided it was simplest just to eat there. Their thin-crust brick-oven pizza was quite good (or we were very hungry), and their dessert crepes weren't bad either.

After lunch, some of us decided to check out the famous hot springs. We were unfortunately quite disappointed, as the pools were crowded, lukewarm, and not entirely clean. We spent maybe 30-45 minutes there and then showered and left.

Generally, the town of Aguas Calientes was too touristy for my taste. At first I thought the marketplace looked fun, but we soon found out the prices were ridiculous. So, we walked around and checked out some of the squares and shops, but didn't buy anything:


Our train was scheduled to leave at 7pm, so around 6pm we went back to the restaurant to grab our bags, and then headed to the train station. The station served both the local train and the backpacker train, but there were separate entrances. It was interesting to notice how the local side was crowded and not very well maintained, while the backpacker side had a waiting area with a deli and pretty decent bathrooms.

When we got on the train, we discovered that somehow we'd gotten put on a Vistadome train (one level up from backpacker). As a result, we even had food service on the 1.5 hour ride; a sandwich, a piece of apple cake (pie?), and hot tea. The train took us to Ollantaytambo, where we caught a Llama Path bus back to Cuzco.

We arrived back at our hotel around 10:30pm, after having to walk several blocks with our luggage, due to some kind of street fair in the Plaza de Armas. After re-checking in (D and I got a much nicer/bigger room the second time around), we decided against more dinner. Instead, we took nice long hot showers, and then hung out watching TV, checking email, and catching up on news, before going to sleep.

After nearly four days of camping, it felt really great to be clean, comfortable, and in a bed. Nevertheless, we all agreed that it had been an unforgettable, challenging, but awesome experience, hiking the Inca Trail.

learned something today

Earlier this evening, I was given the opportunity to meet Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, to advocate on behalf of one of my favorite topics. The woman who set up the meeting is well-known in the Taiwanese-American community, but also serves on the board for Center for Reproductive Rights, so she brought a list of choice-related issues. It was quite educational for me, listening to her presentation of those topics.

For example: Until today, I was unaware that military hospitals are forbidden from providing abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother's life is in danger. This holds true even if the servicewoman (or military dependent) wishes to pay for the procedure by herself. So, these women in uniform, who are overseas serving our country, are forced to seek local doctors (I'm trying to imagine how an American soldier would find a doctor to perform an abortion on her in Iraq?), or wait until they are able take the time to travel to a non-military American hospital. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well, two California Congresswomen have introduced an amendment to make it possible for doctors to perform (privately funded) abortions at American bases, in countries where abortion is legal. I sincerely hope it passes.

so true

Overheard today at work (regarding Alexander's Steakhouse):
"White truffle oil *is* crack!"

Needless to say, my coworkers are brilliant.

Vegas wedding

I've been to over 40 weddings in my life, but until last weekend, I had yet to attend a Vegas wedding.

The phrase "Vegas wedding" tends to conjure up images of Elvis impersonators and drive-thru wedding chapels, but this one was actually very classy; no surprise really, since it was at the Bellagio.

Most of the guests arrived on Friday, but D and I flew in on Thursday, and took the bride and groom (D's cousin) to Nobu for dinner:


My favorite dishes were the tuna on fried lotus root (the tuna was well-marinated), the lobster tacos (lots of lobster meat), and the rock shrimp tempura (chopped into smaller pieces, for high batter-to-shrimp ratio).

On Friday, there was a rehearsal of sorts, followed by a group dinner at the Bellagio buffet. I had been disappointed by the Wynn buffet when we went in April (for lunch), because they hadn't any cocktail shrimp, crab, lobster, or interesting meats. Luckily, I was able to eat seafood and meat to my heart's content at the Bellagio; they had both snow crab and king crab, plus ostrich and elk, as well as the usual prime rib, etc. The desserts were so-so, but I managed to find a pretty good chocolate ganache cake, so I was happy.

After dinner, the guys and girls went their separate ways for some pre-wedding fun. There was much drinking and other merriment, but (unfortunately?) all of the good photos have been censored. We did manage to get the bride home around 4 in the morning. Luckily the wedding was scheduled for 6pm, so she didn't have to get up for hair and makeup until after noon.

The ceremony itself was on the "Terraza", in front of the famous Bellagio fountains:


After the ceremony, the house photographer (came with the wedding package) spent about an hour photographing the bride and groom, as well as the guests, all over the Bellagio. We even took some photos at the (empty) craps tables, which turned out nicely.

Here's one that I took in front of the Conservatory:


The reception was at the Prime Steakhouse, conveniently located inside the Bellagio. The decor was subtle and opulent, and the food was delicious. I enjoyed the truffled mashed potatoes and rack of lamb very much. I think the ribeye at Michael Mina's StripSteak might have been slightly better, though. (We also went there in April.)

I was in charge of wedding favors, so of course I bought chocolate from Vosges. I had some trouble with the pickup on Friday morning (will explain later) but in the end I had lots of fun picking all the flavors. I even came in under budget, with 4 truffles per box:


After dinner, we retired to the gorgeous Bellagio suite that the bride and groom were staying in, to have some wedding cake. D had ordered the cake from a local bakery and they had delivered it earlier in the evening. The top tier was chocolate and the bottom tier was white. That was slightly unfortunate because it turned out we liked the chocolate flavor much better, but it ended up not mattering much because there were tons of leftovers anyway:


We sat around for awhile working off the food coma, and then the bride and groom decided it was gambling time. They headed downstairs, along with part of the group, while those of us who remained repurposed the ceremony flowers, using them to decorate the bedroom:


I thought this was particularly inspired:


I'm not sure what time everyone ended up going to bed, but the bride and groom did get up in time for their 11am appointment with the photographer. The studio was amazingly fast; they provided the prints (as well as a DVD) on the spot. I guess a photo studio in Vegas must be used to clients who need to fly out the next day.

Peru: Day 5 (aka Inca Trail: Day 3)

I woke up around 6am on Day 3 and was relieved to find that my headache was completely gone.

Plus, I hadn't noticed the previous day, but there was a nice view from the second campsite as well:


After another yummy breakfast (this time the porridge was made of beans instead of oats), and more of the omnipresent coca tea, we were on our way:


The terrain was gently sloped (uphill), but it felt like a cakewalk compared to Day 2. We stopped often to admire the flowers and the views:



After a few hours, we arrived at a site called Phuyupatamarca:


It was an easy climb, even though supposedly it was the third highest point on the trail (3680m / 12,073ft), and there was a nice view from the top:



From there, it was only a couple more hours to another Inca site called Intipata. The site itself was less impressive than some of the others, but the view was spectacular. In fact, I think it was my favorite view on the entire trail. It probably helped that we were relaxed and well-rested:


We hung out at Intipata for awhile, enjoying the scenery, and I re-repaired my left hiking boot, which had started to fall apart pretty badly during the Day 2 descent:


We also took a couple more jumping photos before heading to our third campsite at Winay Wayna (a relatively low 2680m / 8792ft). It was only about 1pm when we arrived at our camp; just in time for lunch. We had several dishes as usual, but I was most impressed by the appetizer:


After lunch, we had nearly two hours to hang out. The Winay Wayna campsite was very fancy and had a restaurant, a hotel (!), and even hot showers. Some of us decided to pay for the shower (5 soles ~= $1.67). Others napped or rested in their tents:


There was also one game of Dominion played, at the tables outside the restaurant:


Just before sunset, Raul took us to the Winay Wayna ruins themselves. They were an easy 10-minute walk away, and quite impressive:



Finally, we had our last camp happy hour and dinner. Jorge really outdid himself with the vegetable carvings that night!


We were soon off to bed, to prepare for our 3:30am Day 4 wakeup call. (Raul wanted to make sure we got to Machu Picchu in plenty of time...)

sounds fun!

From a recent party invitation:

"he requests - dress in all white"
"she requests - bring a hat, suntan lotion, and comfy shoes"
"Guys will get cigars. Girls will get mini massages"
"For the 21 and over crowd only."

I'm looking forward to it.

Peru: Day 4 (aka Inca Trail: Day 2)

On Day 2, we were woken up at 5:30am with some hot tea. After packing, we ate some breakfast (pancakes, toast, and porridge), and then had a brief introduction with our porters:


We were on our way by about 7am, but were quickly passed up by our porters, aka the "Red Army":


Raul had warned us that we would start Day 2 by hiking 4 hours uphill to Dead Woman's Pass (4200m / 13,779ft), an ascent of over 1000m (nearly 4000ft) from our campsite at Ayapata (3000m / 9842ft). He was right in that it was a hard climb, but I think because of the advance warning, we were all mentally prepared, so we reached the summit in pretty good shape.

just before the top:


view from the top:



It was a great feeling to have made it up to Dead Woman's Pass, and we spent a few minutes enjoying it and taking silly jumping pictures before proceeding. Unfortunately, the downhill climb proved to be harder than it looked:


I was too tentative at first which put a lot of pressure on my leg muscles, and the descent was about two hours long, so by the time we got to the lunch stop at Pacamayu (3550m / 11,646ft) I was almost too zonked to enjoy the excellent (as usual) food:



After lunch we had about 30 minutes to rest, which was very much appreciated:


We then embarked on a second uphill climb, this time for about two hours, on our way to the Runkuraqay Pass (4000m / 13,123ft):


About halfway up, we stopped at the confusingly-named "Runturaqay" (as opposed to "Runkuraqay" which was the second pass). (By that time, I'd given up taking photos due to exhaustion, so I had to steal this shot from someone else):


We spent quite a bit of time here, listening to Raul talk about Inca history and culture. I admit I didn't pay much attention, as I was cold and tired. But, as a result, I had recovered pretty well by the time we left the site, so I actually able to enjoy reaching the second pass, Runkuraqay. It was not as pretty as Dead Woman's Pass, so I didn't bother to take out my camera.

We were soon on our way down again:


This time I seemed to have gotten the hang of the downhill rhythm, and I made good time down the hour-long descent. We passed another small Inca site along the way; unfortunately I've either forgotten or never knew the name of it:


At the bottom, Raul gave us the choice of taking a 20-minute detour to see the ruins of Sayacmarca, or going directly to camp. I thought some people looked exhausted, but not one person wanted to pass up the opportunity, so we all climbed up to the site together.

I think it was worth the effort! (Here, I did take out my camera):



From there it was about half an hour of relatively easy ("Peruvian flat") terrain to our second campsite. At this point my legs and lungs were in good shape, but I was starting to get a dehydration headache. Unfortunately, I was also afraid to drink more water, because I had to pee (the last toilet had been four hours back). I was quite happy when we finally arrived at our camp at Chaquicocha, around 6pm. It had been a very long hiking day.

Happy hour and dinner went by in a blur, as I mostly concentrated on drinking lots of water. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get rid of the headache, so I finally just went to bed.

Father's Day dinner

Both my dad and I were out of town for Father's Day (me in Vegas, Dad in Orlando), so we did a make-up dinner last night at 231 Ellsworth, in downtown San Mateo. I'd never been before, but they recently started doing a $44 three-course prix fixe, which sounded like a good opportunity to check it out.

We got off to a good start, with cute muffin-shaped bread, served with butter that had black sea salt on top:


Next we were given two amuse bouches: a salmon tartare with avocado sauce (okay but not that exciting) and a basil soup fried in a breadcrumb shell. The basil soup was quite good; it was very flavorful (obviously made from fresh basil) and when I bit into the shell it "popped" and the soup came oozing out, nice and hot:



For the appetizer course, I chose the crab cake (not bad, with generous chunks of crab) and D chose the gazpacho (fairly good, but I preferred the yellow tomato soup last weekend at Mon Ami Gabi):



There were three entree choices: chicken, beef, and salmon. We managed to cover all the bases among the five of us:




I myself had the chicken, which was tender and juicy but not all that flavorful. I was actually more impressed with the mushroom bread pudding which accompanied it.

There were also three dessert options: chocolate pudding cake, strawberry souffle, and coffee creme brulee. We all ordered either the cake or the creme brulee, so I can't comment on the souffle, but I thought both desserts were mediocre. I expected the pudding cake to be more "pudding-y" and the creme brulee to be more "coffee-y":



The petit fours were strawberry biscuits, tiny brownies, and madeleines. I liked the madeleines best:


As we enjoyed our desserts, we were treated to complimentary champagne, since I had informed the maitre d' that we were belatedly celebrating Father's Day. That was a nice surprise to end to the evening, and I tipped accordingly.