THE UNFORGETTABLE LANDSCAPES OF PERU

NOVEMBER 2020

Points Beyond for

2021

THEBYMAJESTY OF PERU DANIELLE CHARBONNEAU

THE UNFORGETTABLE LANDSCAPES OF

PERU

SACRED PEAKS, LUSH JUNGLES, INCA RUINS AND ROLLING SAND DUNES AWAIT ADVENTUROUS TRAVELERS IN PERU

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY DANIELLE CHARBONNEAU

T

he global pandemic has shown me that life, as we know it, is fragile.

Faced with rapid changes to our lifestyles, and a sudden awareness of our own mortality, I think many of us have been inspired to reassess our visions. What are the dreams we once had that we have buried? What fantasies have we put away? What items on our bucket lists have remained unchecked for far too long? Have we really experienced the world and all it has to offer?

Personally, I asked myself all these questions last year when I was faced with a different life-altering chapter — one that made me stop in my tracks and say, “Screw it. I’m not waiting to live my dreams anymore.”

The decision to go travel came swiftly as I lay awake one morning at 3am. I scrambled for my laptop and impulsively booked a plane ticket to Peru, then secured a permit to hike the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. I had never really thought about visiting Machu Picchu before, but for some reason, as dawn approached that morning, the Andes mountains were calling my name.

RIGHT One of the Ausungate glacial lakes rests peacefully below the rugged peaks of the Cordillera Vilcanota range of the Andes Mountains in Peru.

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THIS PAGE TOP A campground along the Inca Trail MIDDLE One of the Inca ruins along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu BOTTOM Danielle Charbonneau and a group of Inca Trail Hikers at the start of the trail OPPOSITE The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin, also known as Cusco Cathedral, is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cusco. The Cathedral is on the edge of Cusco’s main square, Plaza de Armas. It is situated on a sacred Inca site and dates back to the 16th century.

THE INCA TRAIL

A few months later, standing on top of Huayna Picchu with my arms outstretched, overlooking the legendary 500-year-old ruins of an ancient Inca civilization, I experienced my mountaintop moment (a moment now pictured on the front of this magazine). In that moment I felt empowered, vibrantly alive and overwhelmed by gratitude. I had spent four days hiking the Inca trail — a 26-mile-long trek that takes hikers to the summits of several high peaks, through mountains and subtropical jungle, and traverses multiple Inca ruins and archaeological sites.

The Inca Trail was rediscovered by an explorer named Hiram Bingham in 1915 during an expedition he took in search of the Lost City of the Incas. It is believed that the Inca Trail was a route of pilgrimage to Machu Picchu that was used by the Sapo Inca in the 15th century. The Incas are known to have revered nature as holy, so it is widely accepted that the route was used to perform religious rituals honoring the majestic peaks. The valley is thus aptly named, the Sacred Valley. And the experience of hiking through it most definitely feels sacred.

If you’re interested and fit enough to hike the Inca Trail, I highly recommend the experience. I took the trek with Alpacca Expeditions, but there are many companies to choose from that operate in a similar manner. Since some of you may have no idea what a trek like this entails, I will elaborate.

Hikers make this trek in small groups of about 12 hikers, two guides, and a team of porters. The porters are a pack of insanely strong, agile men (and in recent years, a few women) who mostly grew up in the Andes. Thus they are accustomed to the altitude and make racing up and down the rugged peaks look graceful and easy, even with fifty pounds on their backs. They wear bright matching outfits according to their trekking company, and move methodically like coordinated armies. The porters carry the bulk of your stuff — tents, duffle bags, cooking supplies, propane tanks, etc. — and treat you and your fellow hikers like royalty.

You will be awoken in the morning at your tent with a cup of hot cocoa tea, which both warms you from the inside out and helps combat altitude sickness. Then you will meet your group in a tent for a hot breakfast. You will refill your water bottles, then strap on your daypack to start hiking. The hike is arduous and steep and loaded with rocky, endless steps, but the scenery is breathtaking. At lunchtime, the porters set up a midway camp where you will rest and eat lunch. At the end of your hiking day, the porters setup a tent with hot cocoa, tea, popcorn and sweets for a pre-dinner happy hour. Dinner on my trek consisted of seven (yes, seven!) homemade courses, packed with Peruvian flavors.

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Along the trek, the archeological sites and Inca ruins feel magical, transporting you to an ancient era. They are also generally almost empty as they can only be reached by hiking. The different hiking groups rarely meet at the same ruins at the same time, so each stop feels like a private excursion. The guides are true raconteurs and will share rich bits of history along the way. You’ll also get plenty of time to bond with your fellow hikers, who come from all over the globe.

On the last day, you and your group will wake before sunrise to lineup at what is called the Sun Gate. It is the upper entrance to Macchu Picchu.

You will reach the top of the ruins as the sun rises over the mountains. You will be some of the first visitors to enter the park (before the busloads of tourists arrive).

Once inside the park (if you booked a permit well in advance), you will have the option to hike Huayna Picchu, a challenging trek up an additional peak that sits high above the ruins, and high above the crowds. This part of my entire Peru trip was by far the most rewarding of them all. Standing at the highest point, looking down at the Lost City, is unforgettable.

BELMOND HIRAM BINGHAM TRAIN TO MACHU PICCHU

If a four-day, 26-mile trek does not sound like your cup of tea, you can opt for the more lavish experience. You can take a luxury train trip aboard the Belmond Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu. The 1920s parlour cars are elegantly decorated, adorned with wood panels, brass finishes, warm lighting and pressed linen dining tables.

The train will wind through the Sacred Valley and ascend into the Andes from Cusco while you devour gourmet meals and listen to live Peruvian music. The route itself is 57 miles and lasts about three and a half hours in each direction. You’ll traverse along the Urubamba River (the Sacred River), go through ancient towns and lush cloud forests, and admire the towering mountains and vast grasslands dotted with llamas. The train takes you to the gateway city of Aguas Calientes. A short shuttle ride from the train will take you to the entrance of Machu Picchu.

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OPPOSITE TOP The Sayacmarca Inca ruin OPPOSITE BOTTOM A baby alpaca and her mother rest atop the Sayacmarca Inca ruin. THIS PAGE TOP The charming dining room at Vida Vegan in Cusco MIDDLE LEFT The grounds at El Balcon, a hotel on the mountainside overlooking Cusco MIDDLE RIGHT A chocolate demonstration at a small shop in Cusco

THE CHARMING CITY OF CUSCO

Cusco will be your home base from which to take day excursions into the Andes, to a vast array of archeological sites and to Machu Picchu. But the city itself is also a fascinating, wondrous place to explore.

Cusco was once the capital of the Inca Empire before Spanish conquistadors conquered the area. The city thus boasts elements of both the ancient Inca civilization and Spanish colonial architecture. Cobblestone streets branch out from the central square called the Plaza de Armas. Incan temples, Spanish Catholic churches and a baroque convent are all found around the city. An arts district, with an abundance of narrow cobblestone alleys lined with artisan crafts is a reasonable walk from the square. Llamas roam the streets, guided by women in colorful, traditional Andean fashion, while street musicians compose a lovely soundtrack for your exploration.

Cusco is the type of city that will charm you instantaneously, then grow on you more and more as you wander. On my first day in the city, a free walking tour departing from the Plaza de Armas, was the perfect introduction.

The culinary scene in Cusco is also rich with options.

And don’t miss visiting one of the many chocolate shops which will demonstrate how to make chocolate straight from the native cacao fruit.

THE AUSUNGATE GLACIER LAKES

ABOVE A vegan appetizer served at Vida Vegan in Cusco. RIGHT One of the Ausungate glacial lakes.

For another day trip, I ventured out to hike around the Ausungate glacial lakes.

The trailhead is a long drive from Cusco (about three and a half hours), but it is worth it. The drive takes you through a variety of scenic areas and by fields full of alpacas and llamas.

The Ausungate glacial lakes are created by the run-off of 700-year-old glaciers, which hang magnificently on the rugged peaks of the Cordillera Vilcanota range. The peaks are stunning, towering above you as you wander around the glacial lakes below.

Each lake has a different shade of blue, turquoise or green based on the mineral content and plants they cover.

The area feels totally remote and far-removed from Cusco. A few local Andean people live in grass huts along the river and a small town of llama and alpaca herders sits near the trailhead. If you go with a tour group as I did, a local woman will make you and your fellow hikers breakfast and lunch in her own home.

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OPPOSITE TOP

The hike around the lakes is relatively easy and flat (which was welcomed after my trek on the Inca trail). The area is a fairly new attraction, so does not gather the hordes of tourists that the more popular Humanatay lake does. The hike to Humanatay lake is reportedly much steeper and challenging. I personally was happy we opted for the Ausungate lakes, where the mood was serene, the landscape seemingly untouched. At the end of the day, hikers can swim in the thermal baths that rest below the lakes.

FLOATING REED ISLANDS

After our time in Cusco, I headed to the city of Puno by overnight bus (eight hours), then hopped on a shuttle to the harbor on Lake Titicaca for a trek by boat to the Floating Reed Islands of the Uros people. The Uros are an indigenous, preIncan people dating back 3,700 years who live on a series of floating islands handmade of dirt mounds and totora reed, a sort of thick, wet, grass, like the Everglades. There are more than 120 small floating islands, each with their own village leader.

The island we visited housed only five families.

After stepping off the boat and onto the island, which feels a bit like walking on a squishy, wet mattress as the reeds give way to a mild bounce, the leader of the island circled our group up to demonstrate how his community created their floating home: first, they cut the dirt mounds with a giant saw, then they roped the mounds

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together and layered them four feet thick with the totora reed. In some spots, the leader showed us a hole had been cut through to the lake below for the people to fish. The community also catches ducks, then cures the meat with salt and dries it in the sun for a sort-of duck jerky. Thanks to the Euro-Solar Programme, which was started to help poor communities get sustainable power, the Uros people now have solar power panels to electrify their grass huts.

After exploring the little island, the local Uros women serenade you with a version of “Row, row, row your boat” in multiple languages, then usher you onto a homemade vessel for a ride to the islands’ “capital” to buy coffee, pastries and get your passport stamped. This boat is made of reeds and rope, with two gondola-shapes on either side of a wooden platform, painted colorfully and crafted into animal shapes, giving the craft a Chinese New Year vibe.

While the experience feels somewhat contrived, with hordes of tourists all paraded through the same programming, it was fascinating to see how the Uros people live.

LAKE TITICACA

After visiting the Floating Islands, we re-boarded the motorboat and set out on a two-hour ride across Lake Titicaca to the island of Taquille. The ride is long and monotonous but gives one an idea of how massive Lake Titicaca is — more like a vast

Tourists sit aboard colorful boats made of Totora reed. The boats travel around the Floating Reed Islands near Puno, Peru. The islands are home to the Uros, an indigenous, pre-Incan people dating back 3,700 years.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM LEFT A local man

living on the island of Taquille gives a weaving demonstration. Men in Taquille learn to weave in childhood and must prove their skills in order to marry. Taquille sits in the middle of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in South America.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM RIGHT Uros Women

at the Floating Reed Islands serenade tourists in multiple languages. LEFT Danielle Charbonneau and Nicole Sloss take a break by one of the Ausungate Glacial lakes.

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OPPOSITE The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin, also known as Cusco Cathedral, is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cusco. The Cathedral is on the edge of Cusco’s main square, Plaza de Armas. It is situated on a sacred Inca site and dates back to the 16th century. TOP Nicole Sloss smiles after riding a sand board down a steep dune in Huacachina, Peru. MIDDLE Sand dunes surround the Huacachina Oasis. BOTTOM Sand buggy tours are an adrenaline-packed way of exploring the sand dunes.

ocean. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in South America and rests at a dizzying altitude of 12,500 feet above sea level. It was formed during the pre-ice age about sixty million years ago when massive earthquakes shook the Andes Mountains splitting the range in two and forming a hollow that eventually got filled with water from melting glaciers.

The lake is a sacred lake to the Incas and was home to one of Peru’s most ancient pre-inca civilizations, the Puraka, dating back to 200BC. Legends tell of a “lost city” underneath Lake Titicaca.

On Taquille, we hiked around, had a home-cooked lunch (including a quinoa soup, green trout and papas fritas) and got a weaving demonstration by a local man. On Taquille, we were told that both men and women learn to knit from a young age, and unless a man can knit successfully, he is not marriage material. The man showed us his process from start to finish: first he makes a natural shampoo by grinding a local leaf, then he shears a sheep, cleans the sheep’s wool with the homemade shampoo and dyes it in a boiling pot of natural plant dyes. He spins the wool into string, then knits it into intricate patterns.

Approximately 2,500 people live on Taquille, crafting their own wares and living off agriculture planted on tiered terraces. The way of life on the island feels pure, albeit a bit boring.

HUACACHINA OASIS

About four hours outside of Lima rests the Huacachina Oasis, a small, quirky desert town. There you can take an adrenaline-pumping, scream-inducing, rollercoaster-ride of a sand buggy tour up and down the steep dunes. You can also rent sand boards. Long rides on your stomach aboard a wooden board, head first down steep terrain, is enough to bring out anyone’s inner child. At the end of the day, the

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sunset casts golden shadows across miles of rolling dunes.

The desert scenery is such a wild departure from Lima and Cusco that it feels as if you have been abducted and transported to another planet. The dune buggies are actually Mars rovers. It is a surreal sensation to suddenly be in a hot, remote desert when only days before you were wearing a winter coat, hiking around glacial lakes at the bottom of the Andes. This rapid change in environment and climate as you travel across Peru is undoubtedly one of the allures to this South American country.

ABOVE The sun sets over the sand dunes in Huacachina BOTTOM LEFT Danielle Charbonneau kisses an alpaca in Cusco. BOTTOM RIGHT Danielle Charbonneau sits in the driver’s seat of a sand buggy in Huacachina.

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