Perú

"Though we may travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or find it not." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

What an incredible and life changing week I just had, and it couldn't have been with better company, thanks to the lovely Rachel Romero! Where to start, where to start. I guess I'll go with a day-by-day description in hopes that I can be a bit more organized with my thoughts. Here goes!

Sunday, September 30th: Went to bed Saturday night around 11pm with the alarm set for 4am since I needed to leave for the bus station at 4:30am.  I was so excited for the trip, that I didn't end up being able to fall asleep until about 1:30 or 2am! Oh well, as we say here in Chile, ¡así es la vida! Got to the bus station safe and sound around 4:50am, and got on the bus ready for a nice nap on the way to the airport! Once on the bus, all was good. Minus the scary, drunk bum chasing and banging on the bus to try and get on. But besides that, all was good :) Made it to the airport, went through customs, casually got hit on by the customs officer, and then treated myself to a muffin and coffee from the Ruby Tuesday café (yes, there are Ruby Tuesday café's here in Chile). Once in Lima, I waited for about 20-30 minutes and then Rachel walked up to our gate, and the long awaited reunion occurred! BAH! It was everything we dreamed of and more, ha! Once we were in Cusco, we were looking for our taxi driver from the hostel, and after a little confusion of where we actually were, we walked outside the airport gate and saw him there with my name on a board! Kyle Fwigart a Pariwana Hostal. Yup, that's me. Our hostel was great, really big with a bar/restaurant, a little plaza in the middle, and our room was perfect! Two twin beds with the bathroom literally a 15 second walk out our door, and in the quietest part as well! And only a 5 minute walk to the beautiful Plaza de Armas! Que suerte. 

La Plaza de Armas

After resting a bit and getting settled in, we met up with a fellow DU student, Hannah! Hannah is studying in Cusco, and is in the PLP program with Rachel! We met in La Plaza de Armas, and the three of us as well as Hannah's friend who was also studying in Cusco all went on a trek to find the restaurant with the supposed best sangria in all of Cusco, called La Bodega 138! Alas, once we did find it, it was closed! However, all was good, we ended up eating at another awesome and character filled restaurant called Los Perros.  There were no seats at this place, only couches and tables! The food was delicious, we all shared a bottle of red wine and some Peruvian wontons, and then Rachel and I shared a sausage and mashed potato mixture. DE-licious. Needless to say, we went home VERY satisfied that night. 

Monday, October 1st: First things first, this day is Momma Swig's birthday, so it was bound to be a great one! Unfortunately I couldn't be home to celebrate with her, but next year is the big one (she's turning 30! woah!), so you know I'll all be there! This day was our Cusco exploration day. Being broke college students as it is, Rachel and I decided to do our own thing and tour ourselves around rather than go with a company.  The night before, we had seen a lighted figure of Christ on a hill fairly close to town, and decided we should hike to it! We named the figure, "Jesús en la Luz", and went on our way that morning! On the way, we found a little church with a couple of locals hanging around it, and stopped to take a couple pictures of the view. After a little, two Peruvian women asked us if we would like to take a photo with their baby llama, llama, and goat! Of course we knew there'd be a fee, so we asked how much it would cost, and they said whatever we felt like giving. We figured that was alright, and both went to take a photo! It definitely made for good photos... but, the baby llama still had a crunchy umbilical cord on it and may or may not have peed on me just a little. Oh yeah, that happened. The women were also not happy with the 5 soles (about $2USD) we had given them, and so we ended up giving a little more than we had wished. Oh well, all for a good photo right!? 

After running away from the slightly perturbed women, we continued our way up to Jesús en la Luz. We walked up several stairs, and then made it to a place where we saw a small welcome hut and many more tourists! There was a place to drive, so they had all been taken there by tours. We were just about to begin walking around when a man came up to us and asked to see our tickets... which we did not have. He said oh no problem, you can buy them here! When we asked how much they were, we had to ask him to repeat, because there was no way we had heard correctly. Wait, 70 soles ($35USD) to walk around Jesus and some Incan remains!? Uh, I don't think so. We said we would leave and walk back down. But, being the criminals/cheapskates that we are, we decided to walk down a ways to where the man couldn't see us, wait a bit, and then we would sneak up a way that didn't have as good of a path. We saw a local man go up that way, and figured, hey, if he can do it, so can we! After 5 minutes of hiding out, we snuck up that way, got to see Jesús and a great view, and all for free! Woot woot! 

Christo Blanco, a.k.a. Jesús en la Luz

 After this, we made our way back to the square to begin to try to find the restaurant from the night prior, La Bodega 138, to eat lunch! However, on the way we were surprised to arrive and see a parade with music going on! Apparently it was "Día del adulto mayor", basically a day for elderly people! How great that they have that, I think we should too in the states! After watching for awhile, we decided we were very hungry and went on our way to find the restaurant. Alas, being the American gringas that we are, we spent an hour looking for it after getting lost, and then when we finally did find it, it was still closed! GAH! Thankfully there was another delicious looking restaurant on the same corner, where we decided we deserved a glass of wine and shared a salad and sandwich. Then we went back to the hostel, rested, and then set off to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring a local mercado. We then had our first group meeting for our trek at 7pm, where we were briefed on all that would be happening in the upcoming days and got to meet the rest of the people in our group! We were with quite the amazing group of people.  One of the couples, Hala and Gabriel, are both international lawyers from Ottawa, Canada who were spending two weeks in Peru! They had both worked in the middle east in the past and were really interesting to talk to and get to know! The other couple was on their one year anniversary trip, celebrating the honeymoon they didn't get to go on! Their names were Kenric and Beth.  Both are doctors in the Navy, Kenric a radiologist and Beth an anesthesiologist. They were super fun, and absolutely hilarious. So here Rachel and I were, surrounded by lawyers and doctors, about to embark on the journey of a lifetime! The group deemed us the translators, which was a title and position we were happy to hold among such an accomplished group. We also got to meet our guide, James! He was definitely the best guide we could have asked for. After the meeting, we were VERY determined to finally go to the elusive La Bodega 138, so we were off to find it. Since we had really figured out where it was earlier, it was not difficult to get to, and thankfully, WAS OPEN! Woohoo! Definitely well worth the wait. We shared a jar of delicious sangria, a medium pizza, and unlimited garlic bread with the best sauces, all for under $25USD. SO good. Then it was off to bed, because we had to be ready at 5am the next day! With our bellies full and our bodies tired from a full day on the town, we passed out.

Tuesday, October 2nd: Per usual here in South America, we were told to be ready at 5am, and didn't end up getting picked up until 5:40am! We were told it was due to a flat tire... but I really wouldn't be surprised if it was just the usual lateness that people seem to have here! We then embarked on a two hour drive to a small town called Quishuarani, stopping along the way at a small market to buy gifts for local kids along the trails, and then we started our trek, 14km or almost 9 miles today.  Before we started however, we met our cook and porters! The porters accompanied the mules that carried the food, tents, etc. to and from all the places we needed to go, and the cook walked with them as well.  However, I'm not so sure I should say they were walking... we always had about a 45 minute to 1 hour lead on them, but they always passed us and had everything set up at the lunchsites/campsites well before we arrived! They were so impressive. It was hard adjusting to the altitude at first,  but I was able to start readjusting to Colorado type elevations after awhile.  Starting at about 12,000 feet coming from sea level really isn't that easy of a thing to do! The hike was beautiful, we got to see several lagunas and beautiful things along the way! Our campsite that night was about 12,500 feet, so still pretty high up there! Alfredo, the cook, and the porters (who helped cook) made absolutely amazing food the entire trip. It was serious gourmet eating up there in the mountains, even though we were the only people for miles around us! Before and after most of our meals, we played cards as a group! James taught us all a group called "Steal the Llama," which I didn't really understand/wasn't very good at, but everyone else seemed to like it a lot! After a long day of hiking and lots of tea/food in our stomachs, we were yet again ready to pass out. Oh, and did I mention how much tea we drank? When you drink that much tea, you really gotta go to the bathroom. And when you gotta go to the bathroom in the middle of nowhere, what do you do? As James would say, you pick a flower! AKA, you go and find somewhere secretive, and do your business. Picking flowers was rather cold way up there in the mountains! While we were a bit colder this time than in the hostel, when you're that exhausted, the temperature doesn't really matter all that much, you just pass out! Below are some photos from day 1.

Laguna in the background!

Giving a sparkly barrette to a local girl, and a tortuga to the boy!

Wednesday, October 3rd: We were pleasantly surprised this morning when we were awoken with warm teas delivered to our tents! After struggling to get out of our warm sleeping bags to change clothes, we put our stuff together and went to breakfast. Then we got started on what was going to be our longest day of hiking, 16km or about 10 miles, with our highest elevation as well! Before getting to the hardest part of the hike though, we were invited into the home of a local family along the path.  It was an elderly couple who also lived with their daughter and her family.  They told us (in Quechua, the local language) about how they lived, what their daily routines entailed, and many other things! They were so inviting and adorable.  Below is a photo of their grandson, also a cutie!

After this little and much welcomed detour, we went on our way. We hiked until about 11:30am, stopped for lunch, had a nice little siesta in the tent, and again went on our way. This time however, we were walking to the hardest part of our hike, over Auroracasa Pass! After a lot of heavy breathing and small breaks, we made it to the top, 4600 meters or 15134 feet! Woo! I can now officially say I've hiked a 14er, make that a 15er, in Peru! We regained our strength here, while also freezing our butts off, and also got to make a small pile of rocks (I forget the word they use for it in Peru!) with our wishes underneath. We made a small ceremony at the top, and passed around three Coca leaves (yes, the leaves used to make cocaine, among other things!).  The tradition is to have the three leaves, and make three wishes. The first wish is for the person you love most in the world, the second wish is for your family, and the third wish is for your friends and other people in the world.  After we passed around the three leaves, we all picked up a rock, set the leaves on the ground, and made the rock pile on top the leaves. Because this path is so rarely traveled, the piles stay where they are unless bothered by rain or wind, and that is very good luck for the wishes!

Our group at the top of Auroracasa pass! Gabriel, Hala, me, Rachel, Kenric, and Beth!

From here we made our descent in hopes for warmer temperatures, but unfortunately in remained very very cold, as you can see from how much clothing I'm wearing below! Two pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a heavy jacket, rain jacket, headband, and gloves! Brrr!

Brrrrr!!!

This night after making it to our campsite (3900 meters, about 12000 feet), and after yet another delicious meal, we got to have a campfire and a delicious tea called macho tea! The macho tea had a little bit of Peruvian rum in it, and while it definitely wasn't very strong, it and the fire still helped to warm up our bodies a little! Both of the couples ended up going to bed a little early, but Rachel and I weren't all that tired, so stayed up talking to James, sharing stories, and practicing our spanish! A very fun and memorable evening :)

Thursday, October 4th: This was an easy day of walking! We got to wake up at 6:30 today, very nice to sleep in! Then we had breakfast, packed up, and went on our way. Because we had gained so much elevation the day prior, this day was simply four hours of hiking all downhill. I thought I would be glad to have downhill, but my poor ankles and knees were absolutely killing me! We made it to the lunch spot, and also the spot that our hiking would finish.  After our last yummy lunch by Alfredo, we said our goodbyes to him and the porters, and a bus picked us up and took us to a town called Ollantaytambo where we would catch the train to Aguas Calientes, the town before Machu Picchu! We had a little time to kill in Ollantaytambo, so Rachel, Ken, Beth and I decided that a pisco sour was a necessary congratulatory gift to ourselves. We also might have had chocolate banana pancakes. Yeah... definitely one of the best meals I've had so far while in South America :) After waiting a little bit longer, the four of us caught the 4pm train to Aguas Calientes, while James, Hala, and Gabriel were waiting for the later train. The train ride was quite the experience! After being in the mountains by ourselves for a couple days, it was kind of weird being back in the touristy swing of things. Less than 30 seconds after our train had left, practically EVERYone had their cameras out, were hanging out the windows, leaning over other people, and basically being just ridiculous in order to get pictures! I won't deny that the paisaje was beautiful, it's just... really people? Really? We found it almost more entertaining to watch all of the people in the train rather than enjoying the views! Upon our arrival to Aguas Calientes, someone from our travel company met us at the train station, and took us to the hostel. We got our things settled down, and decided we deserved a quick dip in the local hot springs! Our new friend Jonathan, from the travel company, walked us up to where it was. We paid our 10soles (about $4USD) to get in, and made our way up! Once we did arrive, we noticed that we were definitely the only tourists there. This was a very local spot! Unfortunately, the water was not as hot as we had been hoping, and the water quality was... well, let's just say I'm glad it was fairly dark so I couldn't see as well as normally. After this, we went back to the hostel, and enjoyed a shower and dinner.  James called, and unfortunately informed us that they were not going to be able to make it that night! That meant that they would have to take the 5am train ride the next morning, and that we would have to arrive at Machu Picchu 2 hours later than expected. Oh well, on the bright side, we were going to get to sleep in a little longer than originally planned!

Friday, October 5th: Finally the day had arrived! The reason for the trip! MACHU PICCHU!!! We were supposed to be woken up at 5:30am, and be ready for breakfast and to go by 6:30am.  We heard a knock that morning, and got up as planned. After we had washed our faces and brushed our teeth, Rachel looked at her phone clock and said it was only 4:45am... we decided her phone must be an hour slow and continued getting ready! Then we went downstairs, packed and ready to go. After eating breakfast, Ken and Beth still weren't down, and we were starting to get worried! At about 6:35am, they finally came downstairs! It wasn't that important they were late, especially considering the other group wasn't even there yet. However, once we started talking to the two of them, they said, "You know it's only just now 5:35am, right?" And we said, no, no, we weren't supposed to be woken up until 5:30am, plus the clocks down here say it's 6:35am! But ohhhh wait. Apparently our clock reading skills had been altered from the high altitude the past couple days. It was in fact only 5:35am, not 6:35am.  Upset at ourselves for not sleeping in the extra hour, we moved forward, had another cup of tea, and just waited for the others to arrive! Once they did, we had a nice little reunion, and finally (drumroll please) we took the bus up to Machu Picchu! Wahoo! We made it there, checked in, and were in! First thing was first, we had to get the ever popular tourist photo that everyone has! James told us that days liek that day were his favorite, when there were clouds coming down and covering parts of the remains, super cool! Check it out below!

Machu Picchu, with Waynapicchu in the background! 

My Machu Picchu picture!

James told us that in Quechua, the language that had been spoken by the Inca's and still is spoken by several people in Peru, Machu Picchu means old mountain.  Fun fact: Machu Picchu isn't actually the name of this abandoned Inca city, in fact, it is the name of a mountain behind the remains.  When Hiram Bingham was exploring Peru, he was not even looking for this area, he was looking for another city which was said to be one of the last places that the Spanish made it to. During his travels, a boy from the mountains came down to where Bingham was camping, and kept saying Machu Picchu, Machu Picchu, and pointing up towards the mountains and clouds! Bingham, with no other plans, decided to follow the boy up. And once up, he found what we now know as Machu Picchu! Unfortunately, the actual name of the city is unknown, and potentially even forever lost. This city was specifically reserved for the wealthy and royalty of the Inca empire, and was impecibly designed! Because it is located in an incredibly rainy area, it is incredible how the buildings and landscape is able to remain practically unharmed from weathering and natural disasters. This is mainly because of the impressive landscaping and drainage system that had been constructed. There is a drainage system throughout the entire city, that redirects any and all water to the agriculture areas or off the side of the mountain rather than flooding the area! Also, all doors and windows are built with an inclination, and the corners of buildings are with one rock rather than two rocks meeting at the corner, all in efforts to prevent destruction from earthquakes and other natural occurrences!  See some of the buildings below.

After being more and more impressed with the advanced community that the Inca's had there, it was time to hike Waynapicchu! No big deal, we were only going to hike up 1500 steep, steep stairs after having just finished walking about 25-30 miles in the past 3.5 days. Phew. Did I mention it was steep? Yeah, meaning there were steel cables, ropes, and other things on the side in order to assist hikers going up and down! At one point the stairs were so skinny and steep that many people were going down slowly backwards... Elizabeth may or may not have even crab walked down in order to not fall! At the end of that section of stairs, my legs were definitely shaking.  Despite the leg shaking and sore ankles/knees, the view we were granted at the top was more than worth it! It was a birds eye view of all of the lost city as well as the beautiful surrounding landscape. See below!

Rachel and I admiring the view.

We made our way back down, paid for the bus, and were back to the hostel right on time for lunch.  After that, all that was left was getting back to Cusco.  2 hour train ride to Ollantaytambo, and then about a 2-3 hour bus drive from there to Cusco.  We were pretty exhausted at this point, but really wanted to make the best of our last night together and in Peru, so naturally, we showered and got ready, put a little make up on for the first time in a week, and made our way out!  We had talked with James earlier, and he wanted to go out as well, so we met him at the fountain in La Plaza de Armas, and then we went to a bar/discoteca really nearby.  It was great! There was a fun mix of locals and tourists, the music was great, and the mojitos were even better. We spent the night dancing, laughing, and just having a great time! With such early flights the next morning (Rachel caught a taxi at 6am, me at 8am), we were definitely at exhaustion level, but the memories we had made in the past week will never be forgotten!  Thanks to Rachel, James, and everyone in the group for making this experience so unforgettable! My own words cannot even describe how life changing this past week was for me.  Much love to all of you, and since this has probably been the longest blogpost in the history of this blog, and I'm officially out of things to say, I'll let someone else's words sum up this week for me.

"To travel is to awaken." -Lily Tsay