Jungle Bound

Friends, I´m happy to report that the decision has been made of where to spend my final vacation in Peru: as of this Sunday, I´m jungle bound.

The trip couldn´t be any better-timed.  Exactly two weeks ago—on November 11, 2011—the Amazon made the provincial list of the New7Wonders of Nature. While the results of this competition won´t officially be announced until early 2012, inclusion into the New7Wonders campaign could mean the beginning of a second tourist boom in Peru. The country´s economy is still riding high off the 2007 competition, which selected Machu Picchu as one of the new man-made wonders amongst the ranks of Chichen Itza (Mexico), the Taj Mahal (India), and the Great Wall of China.

My visit to the Amazon will be based in and around Iquitos, the largest city in the world only accessible by air or boat. But my tracks will only be making a minuscule dent in the Amazon´s density, which spreads an impressive seven million square kilometers and totals over half of the world´s existing rainforests.  Its vastness and diversity (containing 1 in every 5 living species) is incomprehensible.

So what´s on the itinerary? My wonderful roommate Maureen and I will see pink dolphins, jaguars, manatees, toucans, and mosquitoes (default). How will a girl who winces at the mere mention of snakes make it through the jungle unscathed? Well, that´s for another blog. 

In the meantime, I´m preparing for my jungle excursion the only way that makes sense: by listening to songs that make shameless and distasteful allusions to it:

Kool & The Gang/ Jungle Boogie

The Beach Boys/ In the Jungle (The Mighty Jungle)

The Troggs/ Wild Thing

Guns N´ Roses/ Welcome to the Jungle

The Rolling Stones/ Monkey Man

Emma Louise/ Jungle

Jay-Z and Kanye West / Welcome to the Jungle

Stay tuned.

Creamfields Wasteland: A Short Parable

Creamfields Perú, 2011: I could tell you about how my roommates and I prepared for the all-night electronic concert by sleeping all day, shoveling heaping forkfuls of pasta in our gullets and smuggling cereal bars into the remotest pockets of our purses.  I could tell you about how David Guetta got the party started with his Top 40 dance hits and spark-shooting robot aides. I could tell you about the performances of other main stage dance DJs—John Digweed, Laidback Luke, Afrojack.  But instead, I want to tell you a precautionary tale.

Entering Fundo Mamacona (the Creamfields venue) on Saturday night was like locating paradise for twenty-somethings along the Panamericana Sur highway: balmy air, well-manicured lawns, skyscraping palm trees and free cigarettes at the entranceway; stands selling beer, Red Pull, pizza and anticuchos (shish-kebab cow heart) to nourish the mobs throughout the night; tarps laid down in front of the staging areas to catch the fallen debris from careless, hungry/thirsty hands.

At first, the tarp ingenuity seemed to work.  When we stole away to the central open area from the bobbing sea of bodies after Guetta´s set, there was plenty of space to accommodate or group.  We sat cross-legged or stretched out on the grass, idyllically sipping on our beers, breathing in the springtime air, and listening to the pulsing music from afar.

But the harmony between man and nature did not last.  The more beers consumed, the more plastic cups disposed.  Garbage cans piled over.  With the constant movement, the tarps did not catch the debris as anticipated. All of the trash migrated to border between tarp and grass, creating junk fences for concert-goers to leap over on their travels to and from the staging area.

The mobs must have gotten hungry during the second and third sets, because the next time we went in search of green space, plates and personal pan pizza boxes littered the lawn. You had to kick the orphaned cardboards out of the way to make a suitable space to sit, while lying down lost its allure entirely.  When the sun came up again, there were no clean spaces in which to sit at all: bodies still rested, but they slept with plastic pillows.

Sure, sure, I know recklessness is the object of any all-night concert, and that teams of cleaning crews would be coming in the next day to restore the garden to its original pristine state; by the following nightfall, there´d be no traces of the Creamfields wasteland at all.  But where would be that garbage´s final destination, and who would be swooping in then to clean things up?

Not Your Average Travel Guide

Over the past two months, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jason Demant, founder of Unanchor.com, on a 3-day travel guide to Lima’s best attractions. What makes this start-up itinerary site unique from other travel websites is that Jason is 100% committed not only to providing daily schedules for the independent traveler, but also doing everything he possibly  can to ensure he/she won’t get lost. Unanchor guides include clearly-marked routes and pictures with live hyperlinks that jump to Google maps and websites with more information about each destination. Every detail of the itinerary is designed with the tech-savvy traveler in mind: no more lugging Lonely Planets around or popping into internet cafés to double check your direction.

Peru´s new logo, scrawled into a mountainside in Central Lima.

As for my part, my itinerary just went live this week and is now available on the Unanchor site.  Writing my first itinerary has given me an even greater awareness of what this city has to offer.  My tour de Lima includes stops in Barranco, Central Lima, Miraflores, San Isidro, and Surco to visit everything from catacombs and ruins to art galleries and world record-breaking fountains.  I think it makes a pretty compelling case for Lima, whose reputation has been smeared by its crowdedness, its pollution levels, and its seeming lack of “cultural importance” in a country that holds both Machu Picchu and the Amazon.

But the city limits of Lima occupy only a tiny space on the Unanchor itinerary map.  The site includes guides for all over the world, helping travelers plan their next vacations in Seoul, Sydney or even to little-known sites and attractions in their home cities.  I know I’ll seek the expertise of Unanchor guides on my upcoming trips; I encourage you to do the same. 

Guerreros, Monstruos, and Bestias--Oh my!

Tola art installation is one part warrior and one part beast.

Last night I took a peek into the unnerving, shadowy passageways of two twisted creative minds: artist José Miguel Tola and puppet-maker Ety Fefer.  The exhibit, titled Guerreros, Monstruos, y Bestias (Warriors, Monsters, and Beasts), is a celebrated artistic collaboration that dares to confront us with war, marginality and our own humanity. 

One of Fefer´s grumildos.

Fefer´s lifelike plasticine grumildos are adorned with garish war paint, spikes, demon eyes, and hanging tongues, in part inspired by terra cotta warriors and nang yai shadow play; meanwhile, Tola´s weirdly wonderful decoupage-inspired art installations work with motifs like crosses, arrows, rainbows, and outstretched hands. The lucid movements of the lifelike puppets combined with the 3-D textures of the installations produce feelings of exposure and vulnerability for the gawker, as if she or he was one of the displayed pariahs.  Better said—walking through the exhibit is akin to walking through a house of mirrors.  

While Tola and Fefer are both Lima natives, the two were born 30 years apart—in 1943 and 1973, respectively. In this way, their collaboration represents the meeting of two mindsets—the post-modern and the burlesque. Both are innovators in their respective artistic movements, Tola´s work being housed in Lima´s most notable galleries (MALI and Central Reserve Bank, among others) and Fefer´s grumildos recently completing a 40-city international tour.

The exhibit runs at the Sala Luis Miró Quesada Garland in Miraflores until December 4.  For anyone living in Lima, I beckon you to spend an hour in the shadow world. You won´t be disappointed. 

For more information:

Exhibit Preview

Article (in Spanish)

Sands through the Hourglass

Warning: This blog entry is a shameless advertisement for Peru´s mind-boggling diversity.

It´s November (almost mid-November), which means that my return ticket for Christmas has been booked and my days as a copywriter in Lima are numbered.  I´ve got one last crack at a full-week vacation.  The problem? I don´t know where to spend it.

Perhaps I haven´t adequately equipped you with the ¨big picture¨ of Peru in my writings thus far.  I spend the majority of my days in the dry coastal city of Lima, the country´s hub of government and commerce, where one season smoothly transitions into the next without major changes in temperature or precipitation. It´s smoggy, bustling, and grey, but all of those things start to grow on you after awhile.

While nearly one-third of all Peruvians call Lima home, geographically-speaking, it only comprises a small area of Peru´s land mass.  That leaves plenty of terrain to be traversed outside of Lima.  About a month ago, I sent a message to my friend discussing our various vacation options before deciding on Huaraz, a city north of Lima surrounded by two mountain ranges—The Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Blanca.  Having already traveled to Cusco and Machu Picchu three years ago, here´s what is still on the list:

Lake Titicaca (Puno)

Lonely Planet makes Lake Titicaca look breathtaking; but is it worth it?

Serving as a border between the highland countries of Peru and Bolivia, Lake Titicaca´s claim to fame is two-fold: 1) According to Incan myth, the lake was the birthplace of the first Incas and 2) It´s the highest commercially navigable lake in the world.  The lake´s piercing blue color correlates to the region´s icy night temperatures, which dip below freezing in Peruvian winter.  Because of its legendary significance in Incan history, the lake is a popular destination for cultural tourists.  Unfortunately, friends who have gone there have described the interaction between tour guides and native peoples as ¨uncomfortable¨ and ¨exploitative¨, as locals living on the lake´s islands tend to earn only a small fraction from the tours that travel there.

Chiclayo
Located in the northern part of the country, Chiclayo is off-the-beaten path for most short-term visitors to Peru.  I´ve seen guide books call it the ¨second most archaeologically important destination¨ in the country, placing only behind the archeological wonders surrounding Cusco (reasonably so).  Chiclayo´s most important attraction is the tomb of Señor de Sipán, whose ancient grave rivals that of King Tut´s in terms of gold, silver, and jewels.  It´s also home to the Peruvian Pyramids and the hub of all things mystical—brujas, potions, herbs, and hallucinogens.  

Iquitos

The Butterfly Farm is one of Iquitos´most visited attractions.

The largest city that´s only accessible by plane or boat, the colonial city of Iquitos is located in the northern part of the Amazon jungle, which accounts for roughly half of Peru´s land mass.  Here, rare butterfly species and jungle animals like spider monkeys, pumas, jaguars, snakes and ocelots roam free, and it´s possible to book a piranha fishing adventure.  Most of my other coworkers have gone there in the past few weeks, and they´ve called the jungle one of the ¨best travel experiences of their lives.¨ The only setback? My crippling fear of one ubiquitous legless jungle reptile: the snake.

Máncora
This one is perhaps the least interesting (and most narcissistic) option:  the northern coastal town of Máncora is known for two things and two things only—its beaches and nightlife—rendering it a sort of Cancun south of the Equator.  I forfeited two months of summer to come here, so this trip would be taken for the sole purpose of sun worship.
 
I´ve said my piece; which would you choose?