Turning the Curry Family Into Bloggers One Member at a Time

5/21/10: Peru

[Editor's Note: Zhou and I couldn't be taking it easier... today we feature Dad Curry as the latest guest poster on NHC. Nice work, Dad!]

Wow!

I spent two weeks traveling the back roads of Peru – who would ever have guessed? As a one-time guest blogger, here are a few random thoughts about the trip.

Like many others, for more than eight months I have traveled vicariously each day with No Hurry Curry. It has been entertaining and educational, with amazing photos. So I asked them not to change their travel style, just let me tag along. The hostel-staying, bus-riding, world travel culture is all new to me. And I am a fan. What a great way to see the world.

I actually had one goal in mind in going to Peru – to see Kevin and Zhou. A side benefit would be seeing the legendary Machu Picchu. Some children come see their parents from time to time, or invite their parents to their home, apartment, dorm room, etc. With Kevin and Zhou, you have to fly somewhere and hope to hit a moving target. But it was worth the effort.

Seems like all hostel guests have a netbook or laptop with them.

I suspect I did not see the worst of the hostels that Zhou and Kevin stayed in; the three we visited were all quite decent, and all seemed to have very involved and dedicated owners. Though not the most comfortable, I really enjoyed the hostel in Cabanaconde for its friendly staff and cozy restaurant.

I found the town of Cabanaconde to be fascinating. It is probably as remote a town as I will ever visit and very poor, but in a sign of the times, they don’t bat an eye when tourists wander by in the streets. And those streets that handle the big buses from Arequipa also regularly handle livestock.

In Cusco, our path to the main square from our hostel took us down one of the narrower streets I’ve seen. The lady below is safe with this car going by, but when trucks or vans went down here, you’d have to flatten against the wall to avoid being clipped by a mirror. One driving rule I picked up on in the narrow Cusco streets is this: at a crossroads with stop signs for one road and right of way for the other road, the taxis on the road with the stop signs honk twice as they approach to let the through traffic know they have no intention of stopping. Then it is up to the traffic on the through street to slow enough to check the intersection before they enter it. It sounds a bit crazy, but everybody seems to know the rule, and it works.

Note the nice wide sidewalks.

The Inca Trail was great. I was very impressed with Zhou’s toughness – due to the steepness of the trail, it was physically challenging in many spots, and she took it all without a problem or complaint. Whenever you see her after she returns to the states, offer her a cold drink with actual ice cubes in it, a warm shower and clean towels and I think you’ll have a friend for life.

Picture taking on the Trail takes a lot of behind the scenes coordination and effort to get the perfect shot. Hikers are an unruly bunch.

At one point the mother ship was trying to beam Steve up, but they missed.

We created a stone altar, topped with cocoa leaves, to ensure our safe passage on the trail.

Hiking the Trail is equal parts hard work and beautiful scenery. I am happy to report that everyone thoroughly enjoyed every second of their Inca Trail experience.

The town of Huacachina was also fascinating. In the middle of nothing but sand, someone built an oasis.

It is a sleepy little spot mainly there, I guess, to capitalize on tourists who want to sandboard and take exciting dune buggy rides. It’s really amazing how much sand there is and how tall the dunes are. Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan is a piker compared to this place.

Sand dune behind the El Huacachinero Hotel.

The other great thing about Huacachina is La Casa de Bamboo Café and their lunch special. You can choose one of three delicious pasta dishes, and you get a cold drink and sundae with pieces of brownie and chocolate sauce. I think it was the sundae, but we couldn’t keep from going back. Many thanks to Beth and Ryse, the friendly owners.

Favorite trip moments:

• Looking up from the Arequipa airport tarmac to see Kevin and Zhou smiling down from the waiting roof.
• Chocolate milkshakes at Jack’s Café Bar in Cusco.

Least favorite trip moment:

• Late in the bus ride from Arequipa to Cabanaconde, as the never-ending, LOUD, Spanish music droned on endlessly. Stoic, hell, I was plotting the best way to cause the driver to crash the bus so the music would stop.

To sum it up, it was a trip I would not have missed for the world, made even better by having Steve able to join us. (My wife, while dying to see her family, would have hated the conditions on the trip, so good call there.) Kevin and Zhou are amazing travelers and I think life off the road will take a bit of adjustment. Clean, different clothes, comfortable beds, hot showers, ice, and a few other niceties may help with the transition. I am sure the Zhou and Kevin who left last September are not the same ones returning in July, but we will welcome them back with open arms anyway. Thanks for the great adventure.

(P.S. Just to be clear, the Dumb and Dumber vote did not include me.)
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Picture of the Day: Dad didn’t post a PotD, but I think this one of his arrival brings things full circle quite nicely.

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Classic Curry Competition

5/20/10: Huacachina, Peru

[Editor's Note: Once again give a nice round of applause to one of our favorite guest posters, Steve Curry.]

For the first time in my life, my day began on an overnight bus. And for a time in the thousands, it began to an alarm going off. Unfortunately, it was not my alarm and it was 4:30 in the morning. One piece of advice: when you find yourself traveling on an overnight bus, don’t leave your alarm on in your backpack three rows behind you and then sleep through it going off, while everyone else (except zombie Kevin) wakes up to it without knowing the source. Still, it beats waking up to my alarm at home before work. Because I’m in Peru!

On today’s agenda was the end of a 16-hour bus ride to Ica (and watching the enjoyable Spanish version of Up), a ten-minute cab ride, and 12 hours to discover the oasis that is Huacachina, remarkably surrounded by giant sand dunes.

I’ll gloss over the nice lunch and relaxing afternoon by the pool after arriving in Huacachina, and head straight to the main event: sandboarding. As we learned quickly, sandboarding entails going face-first down a dune on your stomach on a waxed board. Picture warm-weather sledding on sand. Or this:

For those of you who don’t know, Kevin and I are kind of competitive. I would say on an average day that we spend together, we can find a dozen things to compete in. Well, Kevin can find a dozen, I can find thirteen. Suffice to say, it didn’t take long to turn sandboarding into a competition. After a particularly long run by Kevin, he challenged me to see who could ride their board out the longest. While there was a formal challenge extended, it was really understood from the start.

If I had to guess, here is what the Curry family was thinking:

Kevin: “I just breezed past Steve; I should have no problem doing this again.”
Steve: “He wants to challenge ME… I’ll show him what I’m made of.”
Dad: “Here they go again…. I’ll show them what they’re made of.”
Zhou: “I wonder if we can get ice cream after this?”

I started things off with a decent run, down a two-hilled dune. I figured it would be good enough to hold up, but maybe Kevin will get lucky. Well, something went wrong on Kevin’s run because he didn’t even make it to the second hill.

K: “Crapnuts!”
S: “Well, this is in the bag.”
D: “That’s not MY son.”
Z: “I don’t know him.”

As Kevin finally walked down the hill, I was too busy making fun of him to even notice dad take off down the hill. And sure enough, he blew past Kevin’s modest run, hit the second hill, and promptly blew past my ending spot.

K: “Alright! Steve didn’t win!”
S: “Very impressive, Pops.”
D: “Still got it boys.”
Z: “I like ice cream.”

So kudos to dad for teaching his sons that their father still has some game. And kudos to Zhou for having already learned that no matter how much the Curry brothers obnoxiously compete with each other, you can always just ignore them and think about ice cream.
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Picture of the Day: We finished the day with a nice sunset over the dunes.

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Some Things I Will Do When We Get Home

5/19/10: Cusco, Peru

Give up soda.
Give up TV.
Learn how to make carrot cake.
Figure out some kind of way to stay in shape that I don’t totally and completely loathe.
Get a puppy.
Cook more. Eat out less.
Write birthday cards. And mail them.
Not study too hard.

I know we (/Kevin) have written a lot of reflective posts, but this isn’t going to be one of them. It was going to be one of them, but I’m a bazillion days behind on writing the blog and I’m on a tight deadline. I have to finish this post before I go to sleep so we can post it in the morning before (SPOILER ALERT!) we go to the jungle and have no internet for six days, but Kevin turned on the movie Hitch, which of course distracted me from the writing I was supposed to be doing and now it’s midnight and I’m really tired and I want to go to sleep.

So back to the reality of the post. It’s May 19th. We’re still recovering from the Inca Trail. We will take an overnight bus to Ica, which will show the movie Up. The ride itself will go smoothly – nothing worth noting will occur – which is definitely worth noting. None of us will win bus Bingo (sigh).

I have to apologize, because since Dad Curry and Steve have been here, we’ve been pretty lax about spending time writing. The Inca Trail was the first time on the entire trip that we didn’t take the laptop with us (and I’m guessing it shows on the blog). I don’t know if you can tell, but we usually do make an effort when we write these things. No really, we do! Anyway. Unfortunately, we haven’t been doing our best writing these past few days, and I’m not predicting that our (Kevin’s and mine) writing will get any better until Amy comes and leaves. But, luckily for you, there are several guest posts to come, and of much better quality than the one I’m writing right now.

In conclusion (I am violating one of the basic tenets of essay writing that I learned in seventh grade – NEVER write “in conclusion”), I have just written a post about 1) nothing and 2) how the posts will be better soon because other than myself will be writing them, and you’re still here. Thank you. You must really love us.
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Picture of the Day: Kids and stones.

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The Inca Trail: Two Thumbs Up

5/18/10: Inca Trail, Peru

The Inca Trail. Based on our sampling of world travelers, it is the one thing that divides our kind more than any other. It has the power to destroy friendships, but it can also bring travelers together like nothing else. One person will tell you you’d be a fool to miss it. The next will be adamant that it’s a waste of time and money. The first will say that only lazy Americans take the train to Machu Picchu, and that they ruin the site for those who worked hard to get there. The other will tell you it’s ok to be that lazy American – you’ll get a better experience than those elitist Inca Trail folks.

Well, we’ve now completed the Inca Trail and are therefore qualified to join the argument. Our opinion: the Inca Trail is great!

I’ll be honest – we probably would not have done the trail if it weren’t for Dad and Steve. There are many drawbacks for the average backpacker: it costs a lot of money, it costs mucho dinero and then it costs even more money. Let me break down our costs:

• $495: This is the “ticket price.” It theoretically includes everything for the four days.
• $2.50: 5% Paypal fee on the 10% deposit.
• $24: Money lost in ridiculous exchange rate. You have to pay the balance in Soles and even though the actual rate is around 2.85, they charge 3.00.
• $57: Cost for half a porter (you need him to carry the bulky sleeping pads), plus a sleeping bag rental plus a walking stick. Obviously these are all optional, but most people use them.
• $15: Ever since the mudslide, it has cost more to ride the train back from Machu Picchu.
• $17.50: The cost of the breakfast, lunch and dinner that are not included in the four days.
• $55: Approximate money per person tipped to porters, guides and the chef.

Add this up and the four days on the trail wound up costing each person about $666 (I did not intend for the total to end up this ominous). That’s almost $170 per day – way out of a backpacker’s budget. Sure, getting there are your own just for one day will run you close to $200, but that’s for one day, not four. The Inca Trail is expensive.

What a lot of backpackers do instead is take a lesser-known trail such as the Salkantay to Machu Picchu. Doing such a trail allows these backpackers to turn their nose up at the mainstream Inca Trail-ers in the same way that fans of Indie music do so to fans of Britney Spears. (“Have you heard the new Cleats on Concrete song? Of course you haven’t – you’re too busy listening to the radio.”) I’ve found myself almost apologizing to such trekkers after telling them we were going to do the Inca Trail. “Well, we didn’t want to ruin my family’s vacation, so we thought we’d take them on the famous trail. We wouldn’t actually do it ourselves.”

The fact of the matter though is that we did do the Inca Trail, and we loved every minute of it. Our tour operator, Llama Path was amazing. I know a lot of it was aesthetics, but the team uniforms and the togetherness of the porters along the trail really made them look more professional than anyone else. It was always fun to see the Red Army plowing ahead, or pitching the campsite off in the distance. They took all the hardest work out of the experience and let us enjoy the grueling walk with no concerns other than taking good pictures. Our guides were fantastic – they knew seemingly everything about everything, and Marco talked about it all with more passion than Jim Cramer talking about stocks. Not only did I experience the trail by walking it, but I also experienced its history and culture through stories from our guides.

What made everything worthwhile though was the six kilometer walk to Machu Picchu on the fourth day of the trek. Around every turn I strained my neck to try to get my first glimpse of the ruins just a second earlier than I should. I felt like I earned this view over the previous three days, and when Machu Picchu finally came into view it had that much more meaning to me. The “alternate route” backpackers will scoff at this, or say they had the same feeling after finishing the Salkantay, and those who took the train up in the morning will say that Machu Picchu is Machu Picchu, no matter how you get there. But for me, completing the Inca Trail first made it that much more memorable. I could have stood on the hillside overlooking the site for hours on end and not have gotten bored.

I know that people’s opinions about the Inca Trail are as diverse and as strong as those about politics, or sports, and here I have given you mine: do it, and do it with Llama Path. You’ll be glad you did.
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Picture of the Day: A good angle to get the scale of just how big Machu Picchu really is. And these are only the terraces near the entrance.

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A New Member of Kevin’s Top Three

5/18/10: Inca Trail, Peru

For a plethora of reasons, today might have been the most anticipated day of the trip. No other place on our itinerary required such a combination of time, effort, money and intestinal fortitude just in order to get a glimpse of it as did Machu Picchu. Sure, we hiked further and harder in Nepal. We paid comparatively more to see the gorillas in Uganda. We went further out of our way to get to Easter Island. But this had it all. And on top of that, it had more. We had heard from countless other tourists how this would be the best day of our trip. We had seen pictures of the ruins since we were in elementary school. And we had Dad and Steve who flew in from the States almost solely to share this experience with us.

We were not let down.

You may have seen these exact pictures countless times, but this time they’re a bit different: we took them! We witnessed Machu Picchu firsthand. Nothing could ruin these ruins for us. (Although at various points during the day my last night’s dinner attempted to come back up and soil the soil, but in the end it failed.)

The history behind Machu Picchu is incredibly interesting even for a guy who slept through every history class he ever took, but this isn’t a history blog so I won’t go there. And my elementary school level writing won’t be able to do any justice to this incredible ancient site, so I’ll let our pictures speak for themselves. (I’ll caption the pictures just in case you don’t understand them.)

We awoke at 3:30am, lined up at the gate at 4:30am and were released down the trail at 5:30am. Imagine Black Friday at Wal-Mart taking place on a skinny trail on a mountain and you'll have the exact opposite picture of the orderly speed-walking everyone did to get to Machu Picchu this morning.

Our first view of Machu Picchu, from the Sun Gate.

Only three of the 11 of us didn't get sick at some point, but we all made it.

Did Steve just eat the world's hottest chili pepper? Nope, that's just Machu Picchu.

Yellow flowers, courtesy of The Real Steve Curry.

Dad's cowboy hat had the best view of anyone.

Actually, our view was pretty good too.

The green lawns and pretty flowers are the government's attempt to make Machu Picchu more photogenic. It works.

Little known fact: they modeled Huayna Picchu after my face.

There is nothing but pure hate in this faux-bunny's eyes.

Try not to fall off the back side of Machu Picchu – it's a long way down.

I was sitting down to avoid throwing up.

No caption needed – what a honeymoon!

One of the most fascinating things about Machu Picchu is the exquisite stonework and the incredible ingenuity of how it was put together to withstand anything nature could throw its way.

Plus there are spots to keep Zhou-sized people out of the sun and rain.

Steve is definitely buff enough to have helped in the building process.

Despite the awesomeness, it was a long day.

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Puzzles for Postcards

Hidden TV Characters (Find one famous TV character hidden forward or backward in each of these, must be at least five letters long)

Climbing the stairs of this tall urban office really makes the cowboy’s old rural legs sore.
“The Smiley Face is a registered trademark of Wal-Mart, Inc.” ran early morning headlines.
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Ohio Picture: At the end of the trip we’ll conglomerate all the O H I Os and send them to Zhou’s old boss at Vanderbilt: Ohio State president Gordon Gee.

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Picture of the Day: People seem to enjoy bad pictures of us, so here you go. This one reminds me a bit of American Gothic.

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