Back To America

   For my final morning I headed over to the San Pedro Market to look for some souvenirs and barter in Spanish. After some good finds, we headed back for lunch, which included a sampling of cuoy, or guinea pig. It tasted like dark chicken meat and was very bony. Still it is a delicacy in Peru. Finally, we saddled up and got on the bus for the last time. Boarding the bus started my 28 hour travel home. After the bus came 3 planes rides, to Lima, Atlanta and Boston. After each was an 8 hour and 3 hour layover and then 2 hour ride home respectively. Needless to say it was an exhausting day, as well as sad because friends broke off in Atlanta to fly home to their various states and there were more goodbyes in the Logan airport. The trip was a great success, the amount of time spent away from home was easily manageable and made me actually want to stay in Peru a little longer. I definitely plan on studying abroad or doing another dialogue and hope to keep my Spanish going strong. This will be my last blog, hope everyone enjoyed reading them, I will gather all my pictures together soon as well.

Trip to Cusco

   After my first full nights rest in what feels like five weeks, I awoke to the last day of our trip. We had a day entirely to ourselves, except for a group dinner at the end of the day. I spent what was left of the morning walking around the city, and grabbing lunch. In the afternoon, a group of us went horseback riding near Saqsaywaman, the ruins we visited on our first day in Cusco. We saddled up and rode (the horses never went faster than trotting) up a slightly steep trail into the mountains. Riding a horse for the first time ever was definitely fun, and the scenery was an added bonus. The horses were calm, and nobody had any problems even though only a couple of us had prior experience.

   We returned to the hotel and got ready for our final dinner, which was at Monasterio, a fancy hotel restaurant. I had grilled shrimp, quinoa ravioli, and wine soaked pear for desert. The food was rich and delicious, but ended up upsetting my stomach due to the lack of the kind of food during the rest of the trip. Because of this I was feeling sick when we went out at night, which was a little disappointing, but we had so much fun all week that it was alright. The whole night was bittersweet, but it is nice to know that I will see all the people I’ve met around campus.

   Me and roommate Carson set our alarms at the early hour of 4:30 to prepare for our bus to Machu Picchu. Getting to the mountain ruins is quite the trip, and from Cusco it involved three legs. The first was a bus at 5 from the city to the train station. This took two hours and involved some bumpy backroads. After the bus came the train ride, which was equally as adventurous. The train wound around mountains for an hour and a half before we arrived at the town Aguas Calientes, which literally means hot springs. There are hot springs there but we were so hot from all the walking throughout the day that we never explored them. After the train ride came another bus, one that would take us all the way to the entrance to Machu Picchu. It wound up and down the mountain with no guard rails, but offered an amazing view of the Andes mountains.

   As expected the entrance to Machu Picchu itself was flooded with tourists. We met up with our guides and started to walk up to the ruins. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We learned a couple of things right off the bat that surprised me. First off, the mountain behind the ruins is actually called Hayma Picchu. Machu Picchu is the summit behind the ruins, that no one sees in the pictures. In addition, we don’t know what the ruins are even called, but the best guess has something to do with a condor, due to the shape of the city layout and carvings in the ruins. Finally, the Machu Picchu that we are all used to, clearly seen from the view from above, with the amazing Andes mountains in the background, is not how it always was. When discovered, the ruins were completely covered by trees and forest. We spent two hours exploring the ruins and learning about reasons it was used by the Incas. The question we all had on our minds, was why would someone in their right mind decide to build a city in an impossible places to reach. Obviously it was easily defended, but they also studied astronomy in the moon temple, a building at the very top of Hayma Picchu.

   After the tour of the ruins, we decided to hike part of the Inca Trail, up to the Temple del Sol. The actual Inca Trail covered four countries, but the one that current people hike takes around four days. Our hike was only and hour or so both ways, faster on the way down than up. Even after being in high altitudes for almost a week, we were panting much more than normal, while  the guides casually jogged and then waited for us on the trail. We learned that the trail is curved into a “U” so the messengers of the Inca could bounce off of the rocks. When we reached the Temple del Sol, we were much higher than the ruins, and had another beautiful view of the Andes. We encountered some hikers on their last leg of their journey on the Inca Trail. If I ever make it back to Cusco that is first on my to-do list. On the way back I stopped and had a picnic with the greatest view of all time, however the food that I had bought at the grocery store the day before was subpar. The hike was rewarding, and a great way to end the day at the ruins. We repeated the journey home, and arrived around ten ready to sleep for at least a full day.

   Wednesday marked the mid-point of our trip to Cusco and our third to last full day in Peru. Today we visited the Sacred Valley. It is located about two hours outside Cusco city. Before reaching the valley, we made two stops. The first was at a local market and the second was at an alpaca fur harvesting farm where we got to feed alpacas, llamas, and vicunas. We learned about how to tell the difference between the three of them and their importance to the people who live here. All three of their natural habitats are above 2000 feet. When we arrived at the valley, our first stop was the Pisac ruins. They are set in the side of the mountain and are complete with many agricultural terraces. We hiked to the top of the store-houses for the agriculture, which were set at the highest altitude in order to preserve the food stored inside them. The ruins offered a beautiful view of the Sacred Valley below. There were two other sets of ruins, one at the entrance and another that we didn’t have time to hike down to. Also one the mountainside was home to one of the largest cemeteries in the Andes, and you could see little holes in the cliffs of the mountainside where Inca ancestors had been mummified and buried.

   We stopped for lunch at an amazing buffet style restaurant that included alpaca and other Andean dishes. It also had a large garden with a river flowing around the backside. After lunch we headed to another set of ruins, Ollantaytambo. The ruins consisted of large terraces and a religious temple. It is said to be made in the outline of a llama and was one of the main stops on the Inca Trail.  Our final stop was special, because the women in the town play the most important role in society, as they control all the finances of their families. Here we were given a lesson on how alpaca fur is sheared, washed, colored and woven. The particular designs that the women weave have particular meanings, and they are extremely intricate. We then went back to the hotel to get a good nights rest in preparation for Machu Picchu tomorrow.

   The continental breakfast at the hotel is complete with fresh fruit, fruit juice and a variety of good breakfast items that are heaven to wake up to. Today, we traveled an hour and a half outside the city to visit a couple of places. Our first stop was Las Salineras de Maras. It was a group of around a thousand little pools of water on the side of a mountain. The pools are filled with salt water from the stream that flows out of the mountain. There is an extensive irrigation channel system so all the various owners of the pools can fill their pools and then stop the water, let the water evaporate and harvest the salt. All of this is done without machinery, only a small shovel. The salt is exported around the world, but is the cheapest in Peru, I got a small bag for 1 sole (30 cents). To get down to the Salineras, our bus driver drove down a set of switchbacks that were barely wide enough for one car and had a sheer drop off with no guard rail. He was pretty good, but the nerve-racking part was when we encountered a car going the other direction and one would have to back up until it was wide enough to pass. The view from the mountainside with the pools was incredible and like the oasis/desert in Ica, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

   Next was another ruin, Moray. Moray was a set of four different valleys filled with circular terraces. These were used to grow crops that otherwise couldn’t be grown on the steep side of a mountain, and are present in Machu Picchu, and many other places in the Andes. This particular set of terraces are thought to be used for agricultural research to see what could and couldn’t grow at that particular altitude. The guides also informed us that all of the names of these ruins are Quechua words, but most names were given by the Spanish because the Incas left behind no writing. We then returned to the city and hotel and had a presentation from Henry, a lawyer who was our local guy in Miraflores, about law in Peru, as well as the death penalty. Monica then gave a lecture on the past couple of presidents of Peru, as well as a brief background on PPK, the candidate who just won the election. 

   We started out the day Monday very wary about the altitude sickness, but as the day moved on, we realized two things. One, that everyone was affected differently, and the second, that for the majority of people all it involved was being out of breath a lot quicker than we normally would. In addition, I have not felt that you digest food and drinks slower than at sea level. We have two guides who speak English, Spanish, and Quechua (the local language of the Andes). They are very knowledgable and will accompany us through the next three days. Today we went to 6 different places as part of a city tour of Cusco. The first was the Temple del Sol located in the actual city. Originally it was the most important Incan temple, but the Spaniards had built over it when they took over Cusco. You can see where Inca building ends and Spanish begins and our guides mentioned it as a metaphor for the change from ancient to colonial times in Cusco. In addition, the Incas built their walls at an angle to avoid collapsing during earthquakes, while the Spaniards built straight up and down. Because of this the Spanish church on top of the temple has fallen twice now while the Temple del Sol remains.

   The next place we visited was the Cathedral of Cusco. It was ornate with statues and carvings painted with gold leaf and silver everywhere. The guides were quite surprised when he learned very few of us were Catholic. I like the ruins over the churches anyway so I was glad when our next stop was Saqsayhuaman, the second most important Inca temple in Cusco. This one was located outside the city on an adjacent mountain and had an amazing view of the city below. We learned that Cusco was built in the shape of a Puma and Saqsayhuaman was at the eye. The Temple del Sol was located at the heart of the animal. Next was another set of ruins called Pukapukara. This one served as a customs building for those traveling to Cusco in the ancient times.

   After Pukapukara was Tambomachay, a set of ruins farther up the mountain, at almost 3,750 feet. This one included a 10 minute hike and we were all out of breath almost instantly. It was a place to clean both your body and soul and had three water fountains that still work to this day. Finally we stopped at Qenqo, a ruin that was in bad shape but once had a large statue of a puma. In addition there was a stone altar where it was thought llamas were sacrificed for the gods. Our guides told us that while most facts about these places are backed up by archeological finds, because the Incas had no writing system some of the information was actually theories. Finally we stopped at a local market and had a short presentation about how to tell the difference between real and fake alpaca clothing. The real alpaca at the store was crazy expensive and most of the people who had already bought clothing realized that while cheap, their clothes were made from synthetic material. Alpaca fur has been called the gold of the Andes and therefore plays a big role in their economy.

   Sunday morning was my final breakfast with my host family, and I was grateful for everything they did for me. The thing I was most nervous about when embarking on this trip was the host family, and they were perfect. They left me to my own time, fed me enough, and their inability to speak English was a blessing as I got to practice my Spanish with them. After saying goodbye, a bus shuttled us to the airport where we had lunch and boarded our plane. The flight was short, and the altitude problem when we got off did not affect me nearly as much as it had been talked up. Other than being out of breath walking up and down stairs or carrying my bag around long distances, I have felt fine so far (fingers crossed). Me and my roommate for the week, a guy named Carson, found a six sole diner. Thats under two dollars and included chicken, potatoes, soup, and a salad. The hotel we are staying at is nice, and we have a balcony room that has a beautiful view of the city. The Peruvian soccer team was playing Brazil in Gillette Stadium, and we watched that before calling it a night.