Most of the time after we left Arequipa, I didn't have any internet, so I just added all the pictures from the remainder of the trip. Below are some short descriptions of each of the albums, just to provide some context for the pictures.
Arequipa-Juliaca: We left Arequipa at 7am, and spent the entire day on the road to Juliaca stopping every 6 km to take measurements, which gave us a lot of opportunities to take pictures along the way. The road out of Arequipa first took us behind El Misti and Chachani, up to the high plateau between Arequipa and Juliaca. We continued along the platueu for most of the day, and then dropped down through some more rugged areas on the way to Juliaca. We arrived in Juliaca after sunset, during what must have been their rush hour - the streets were swarming with bicycle taxis and people, and we ended up circling a few times before we managed to find our hotel. Juliaca is not a tourist town, and it was a bit overwhelming to arrive there in the dark - the streets are narrow, crowded, unlabeled, and unpaved on the margins, and the buildings look a bit dilapidated - I think it was the only place on the trip where I really felt nervous.
Puno-Silluani: At Igor's insistence, we left early for Lake Titicaca so that we could arrive before most of the other tourists. On the lake are the floating islands - giant rafts made of 2-meter thick reed mats, where the Uros people have lived for centuries. These days, the Uros survive by fishing and allowing tourists to visit their islands. Absolutely everything on the islands is made of reeds (called totora), including the houses and traditional boats, although many homes have been modernized by the addition of solar panels for electricity, and most of the fishermen use modern boats. It was definitely a unique experience to visit the islands. Later, we visited the Inca burial site at Silluani, which was not particularly crowded and gave me a nice opportunity to sit and enjoy the landscape.
Juliaca-Cusco: This was mostly a driving day, as we traveled from Juliaca to Cusco, past some pretty spectacular mountain scenery and through ancient Inca territory. It seemed as if we were driving back a few centuries as we passed tiny adobe farmhouses and fields and herds of sheep and alpacas. As we approached Cusco, we began to see terraces in the hillsides where the Incas used to raise crops.
Machu Picchu: I was expecting Machu Picchu to be an obnoxious tourist trap, and was actually considering skipping it and trying to go to the Sacred Valley instead. But, I'm really glad that I didn't - every part of the trip was worth it. The train from Cusco to Machu Picchu travels through a narrow valley bounded by 20,000 foot peaks, and winds along the track of a large river. Most of the time, I would have had to put my face directly against the glass just to see the sky because the walls of the canyon were so steep. None of the pictures that I have seen or that I took can really convey the experience of Machu Picchu - it looks as if someone took Yosemite, placed it in a lush jungle, and then built a city on top. It's mind-boggling to think that people used to live and farm up there, since the whole city is bounded by near-vertical cliff faces. Plus, any slope that is less than vertical is covered in dense tropical growth, which makes it seem completely impassible. It's no wonder that Machu Picchu is one of the few sites that the Spaniards never managed to find.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Atacama Desert
Today we traveled across the Atacama desert, taking gravity and magnetics measurements every 5 km or so. Which means that by the end of the day, we were experts at getting 9 people out of the van, assembling and setting up the instruments, taking readings, and then packing it all up again a few minutes later. Busy, busy, busy....
The Atacama desert looks remarkably like Mars - nothing grows there, and the sand and the rocks are tinted red by oxidation. There are also these odd, isolated, crescent-shaped dunes that travel across the desert and look completely out of place - crescents of white sand on top of the red gravel of the desert floor. I'll probably put up the few pictures I took tomorrow with the more spectacular ones I hope to take on the way to Juliaca and Lake Titicaca.
The Atacama desert looks remarkably like Mars - nothing grows there, and the sand and the rocks are tinted red by oxidation. There are also these odd, isolated, crescent-shaped dunes that travel across the desert and look completely out of place - crescents of white sand on top of the red gravel of the desert floor. I'll probably put up the few pictures I took tomorrow with the more spectacular ones I hope to take on the way to Juliaca and Lake Titicaca.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Lima and Arequipa
I'm sitting in the apartment in Arequipa, looking out the window at an enormous, cloud-shrouded volcano called El Misti. It's 19,101 ft tall, and looks exactly like the cartoon picture of an intimidating mountain - a steep-sided triangle with the top poking out of a layer of clouds. Needless to say, I like this place.
We arrived in Lima yesterday morning around noon, and crammed into some taxis to drop off our baggage at a house belonging to one of the Peruvian collaborators on the seismic network. Driving in Peru is a bit of an experience - there are very few traffic signs and everyone seems to claim right of way, and if they don't get the right of way they just honk. But, because everyone drives that way, traffic is oddly fluid and rarely comes to a full stop. Most of Lima looks dusty and dilapidated, and it's a bit scary to think of what might happen to the rows and rows of cramped brick houses if there was ever a strong earthquake. Since our flight had been delayed for 14 hours, we ended up only having enough time to get a late lunch in Miraflores before rushing back to the house in time to cram ourselves into taxis and head to the bus depot.
The bus from Lima to Arequipa was pretty luxurious - large, reclining seats, plenty of legroom, and even an on-board game of bingo at one point! Although, it seemed kind of weird, traveling at night. All along the road there were shadowy little towns often lit by a few flourescent tubes, and people were outside, sitting at tables, walking around in near-darkness. They were acting as if it wasn't dark outside at all.
We arrived in Arequipa this morning around 10 am, moved out luggage into the apartment and headed out for a tour of an old monastery. The apartment is paid for by Caltech as a home base for visitors helping run the seismic array, and as a receiving station for the data that streams from our antennas that sit at 16,000 ft on the slopes of Chachani, another spectacular volcano just out of Arequipa.
Although I feel like I've gotten a bit quicker with my Spanish in the last two days, I made a pretty silly mistake at lunch today - I thought I was ordering something with artichoke hearts, but instead found myself with these strips of extremely tough, chewy meat - real heart. It didn't taste too bad, but I just couldn't get past the leathery, fibrous texture. Luckily, the side portions were filling enough.
We arrived in Lima yesterday morning around noon, and crammed into some taxis to drop off our baggage at a house belonging to one of the Peruvian collaborators on the seismic network. Driving in Peru is a bit of an experience - there are very few traffic signs and everyone seems to claim right of way, and if they don't get the right of way they just honk. But, because everyone drives that way, traffic is oddly fluid and rarely comes to a full stop. Most of Lima looks dusty and dilapidated, and it's a bit scary to think of what might happen to the rows and rows of cramped brick houses if there was ever a strong earthquake. Since our flight had been delayed for 14 hours, we ended up only having enough time to get a late lunch in Miraflores before rushing back to the house in time to cram ourselves into taxis and head to the bus depot.
The bus from Lima to Arequipa was pretty luxurious - large, reclining seats, plenty of legroom, and even an on-board game of bingo at one point! Although, it seemed kind of weird, traveling at night. All along the road there were shadowy little towns often lit by a few flourescent tubes, and people were outside, sitting at tables, walking around in near-darkness. They were acting as if it wasn't dark outside at all.
We arrived in Arequipa this morning around 10 am, moved out luggage into the apartment and headed out for a tour of an old monastery. The apartment is paid for by Caltech as a home base for visitors helping run the seismic array, and as a receiving station for the data that streams from our antennas that sit at 16,000 ft on the slopes of Chachani, another spectacular volcano just out of Arequipa.
Although I feel like I've gotten a bit quicker with my Spanish in the last two days, I made a pretty silly mistake at lunch today - I thought I was ordering something with artichoke hearts, but instead found myself with these strips of extremely tough, chewy meat - real heart. It didn't taste too bad, but I just couldn't get past the leathery, fibrous texture. Luckily, the side portions were filling enough.
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