On our recent trip to Peru, Hope, our 13-year-old granddaughter, traveled with us. It was Hope’s first international trip — and her first time traveling alone with my husband Gene and I. Participating in the ever-growing trend of grandparents and grandkids hitting the road together, our trip was a great way to see the world and get better acquainted.
Peru as a travel destination was Hope’s choice; she wanted to see Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas. Fortunately, Peru is an exotic destination that’s not too far from home — Lima is about eight hours nonstop on LAN Airlines from New York — and in the same time zone. Peru Experiences, a division of Orient-Express, which specializes in private or family travel, offers one-stop shopping for everything we wanted to see and do in Peru, which made planning our trip easy.
In just over a week, we traveled by train to Machu Picchu from the former Inca capitol city of Cusco high in the Andes and in and around Peru’s biggest city, Lima, on the Pacific coastline. At each destination we had private guides and tours, drivers and sometimes an additional escort showing us the best of this beautiful country. We were also given a cell phone to use for the week. Gene and I had traveled in Peru several years ago on a group tour, but this time we saw more of the local people and the countryside, and also heard more about the heritage of the powerful Inca warriors who ruled this part of the world for 300 years, prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the 1530s.
EATING LIKE AN INCA
The Incas didn’t just eat lunch. They feasted at their midday meal. We did, too, at our barbecue at the Libertador Valle Sagrado Lodge in the Sacred Valley outside Cusco. After a giant salad of fresh greens, we were each given a platter of vegetables cooked in a pachamanca, an underground oven. One of the delights was an eight-inch-long bean pod. When our guide, Miguel, told us the big, oval-shaped beans inside were lima beans, Hope said, “I get it — lima like the city in Peru.” We also had a platter of tender meats — alpaca, beef, pork and chicken — plus the local catch of the day, kingfish, all grilled over a smoky fire. We couldn’t eat it all, but apparently the Incas, who got around only by walking everyday, could and did.
The Incas and their ancestors developed the original New World corn, along with peanuts, tomatoes and white, yellow, purple and blue potatoes. I think we tasted them all. The terraces of the Inca architecture that can be seen at Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley outside of Cusco, along with numerous other sites, created micro climates for the growing of hundreds of varieties of vegetables. Along with Peru’s many jungle fruits, such as chirimoya, which tastes like apple custard, we also savored the Inca’s fermented corn drink called chicha and their other national alcoholic beverage, the locally made Pisco Sour.
Hope discovered the flavors of coca tea in Cusco, local salmon trout and sea bass and the surprise taste of alpaca stuffed ravioli at the Sanctuary Lodge. The next day it was creamy corn chowder on the Hiram Bingham train and tamales and thick white guajada curd cheese at the Monasterio Hotel’s breakfast buffet. The LAN flights never disappoint either. This time it was tasty Peruvian steaks and delicate chicken presented with one of the many varieties of Inca potatoes.
REVELING IN THE RUINS
Peru has thousands of archaeological sites, much like Egypt, though none is more famous than Machu Picchu. The Incas built the best-planned cities in the ancient Americas, and many think Machu Picchu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, built in the mid-1400s, is the best of them all. It’s an engineering marvel with its temple ruins, waterways and terraces, tombs and baths.
Why is Machu Picchu here and why was it abandoned? The most popular theory is that it was built for the greatest of Inca emperors, Pachacuti. But others say it was not a city at all, but a royal estate for lesser Inca officials, or a religious retreat, perhaps a holy place just for women. As for its abandonment, maybe a sudden epidemic wiped out Machu Picchu’s inhabitants, or possibly an Incan civil war took its toll.
The Incas left no written language to describe their lost city, and the Spanish never found it. Nearly four centuries after Machu Picchu was deserted and covered with jungle growth, Hiram Bingham, a Yale University professor, guided by a local, climbed up Machu Picchu’s steep mountainside in 1911, and put this ancient site on the tourist map.
On the sunny days we were at Machu Picchu, travelers from all over the world reveled in just being there. Some, like Hope and her grandfather, climbed as many of the steps and terraces as they could while others followed their guides, relaxed on the grassy areas, or peered into structures whose walls were made from stones fixed so close together without mortar that after all these centuries not even a piece of paper fits in between them. Whether a visitor sits on the bench overlooking the rushing waters of the Urubamba River 1,300 feet below or climbs up to the Sun Gate overlooking the whole site, Machu Picchu is like a fascinating old friend that you’re always happy to visit.
MY PERU EXPERIENCE
By Hope Korte
I knew I was in for something special by the reactions people gave me when I told them my grandparents were taking me to Machu Picchu. Even my orthodontist was impressed! How many kids my age get to go on such an exotic trip?
When I first found out I was going to be traveling to Peru, I didn’t really know what to expect. I did some research on Hiram Bingham and read books on Machu Picchu. I went to an exhibit at the Peabody Museum in New Haven, Conn., but I still didn’t quite feel prepared for the experience. I was a little nervous about traveling out of the country, especially without my Mom and Dad. My grandparents put me at ease with jokes and card games on the plane.
One of the things I loved about Peru was the food. We had a barbecue lunch with four different meats, including alpaca, which I liked! I drank papaya juice with breakfast and enjoyed a dessert called lucuma, a Peruvian fruit, mixed with cream so it looked like an icing, only it tasted like banana bread batter. It was really good. We tasted this when we had dinner with the Garcia Alvarado family in Lima where I met two kids my age, Ana Maria and Sebastian, and their grandmother. They even invited me to stay for a whole month!
My favorite part of the trip was going to Machu Picchu. Even though it was winter (in July), the weather was warm and sunny. It was great for taking pictures of the ruins, which were unbelievably beautiful. With my grandfather’s help, I learned how to take some really good photos. We hiked up and down and all over the terraces. The llamas ignored us and continued their job of keeping the grass nice and short. Walking on the end of the Inca Trail at the ruins was so much more exciting than reading about it at home. We traveled back to Cusco aboard an Orient Express train, the Hiram Bingham. The dinner service was wonderful. What an unforgettable experience!
When I got home to Connecticut I realized how lucky I was to have had this chance. It was really great to travel with my grandparents.
INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE:
GETTING THERE:
LAN Airlines, www.lan.com, 866-I-FLY-LAN or 1-866-435-9526. LAN, formerly known as LanChile, was founded in 1929 and is the biggest airline in South America. The LAN Airline Alliance offers service to North America, Europe, the South Pacific and throughout South America, not including its numerous code-share agreements with oneworld, American Airlines and others. LAN is a full-service airline, offering more legroom than many of its competitors and meals — even on one-hour flights — as well as Chilean wines to all its travelers.
ON ORIENT EXPRESS and PERU EXPERIENCES
Orient-Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises , Web page:www.orient-express.com, 1114 Avenue of The Americas, 38th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10036, Tel. (800) 237-1236.
Peru Experiences, www.peruexperiences.com and www.perupackages.com, Tel. (800) 237-1236, ask for Peru Experiences agents. This Peru-based division of Orient-Express arranged all of our tours, including city tours, all-day in the Sacred Valley, and in Lima — a multi-course dinner at the historic Casa Garcia Alvarado, a stop at the Camasso silver factory, the last handmade silver factory in the world and a visit to Las Pallas, the most outstanding folk art market that we’ve seen in our travels in Peru.
Hotel Monasterio, monasterio.orient-express.com, Email: info@peruorientexpress.com.pe, Calle Palacio 136, Plazoleta Nazarenas, Cusco, Peru, Tel. + 51 84 24 1777, Fax + 51 84 24 6983.
Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, machupicchu.orient-express.com, Email: res-mapi@peruorientexpress.com.pe, Machu Picchu, Peru, Tel. +51 84 21 1038/39, Fax +11 51 84 21 1039.
Miraflores Park Hotel, www.mira-park.com, Email: mirapark@peruorientexpress.com.pe, Malecon de la Reseva 236, 1035 Miraflores, Lima 18, Peru, Tel. (51-1) 242-3000, Fax: (51-1) 242-3393.
Peru Rail, www.perurail.com. Orient-Express has several trains in Peru, www.orient-express.com/web/tper/tper_perurail_thetrains.jsp, including the Vistadome and the Hiram Bingham on which we traveled to and from Machu Picchu. They also have Backpacker carriages and the Andean Explorer that runs between Cusco and Lake Titicaca.
