June 19th, 2011

June 19^th

            MACHU PICCHU DAY! I have been wanting to go to Machu Picchu for years, and the day finally came. I was up at 2:15 am, and we left the hotel at 3:30am. We walked in the pitch black toward the entry to where you enter to walk up to Machu Picchu, the only real illumination was the flashlight someone had, and Syeda’s headlamp. I got a rush when I could make out the jagged outline of the Andes against the navy blue sky.

            Surely enough, we were the first ones at the gate entrance. And would have to wait for over an hour for the guard to open the gate that leads to access to the path to climb to Machu Picchu. But then Henry had a brilliant idea to bribe the guard so that he’d open the gate early for us, further ensuring that we would be able to climb Huaynapicchu. So each of us gave the guard a sol, and he made out like a bandit.

            We had to climb up an hour’s worth of stone stairs in the woods to ascend to the entrance to Machu Picchu. It was painful, no doubt, but those of us who had spent the past few days marching up the mountains had already been conditioned to it and knew what to expect. Again, we were the first to the entrance. We would be the first people allowed into Machu Picchu that day. We were again, super early and had to wait for an hour or so for it to open.

            The feeling I got when I saw my first real glimpse of Machu Picchu. I swear my eyes watered and I felt my stomach drop.

            We inched our way to the quintessential, post card viewpoint you always see Machu Picchu photographed from and I almost couldn’t believe it was real. I was finally seeing Machu Picchu. One thing that was very special about our trip to Machu Picchu, and something I will never forget was how deserted it was when we got on the grounds because we were the first ones on the mountain, so we were luckily enough to see Machu Picchu really pure, without swarms of tourists. It was really moving.

            For me, this was a special day that I have been waiting for for years. And I really wanted to take some time for myself, away from the rest of the group, so I could truly absorb my experience at Machu Picchu. I sat, eating an apple, on one of the ledges overlooking that classic view for about an hour. I watched Huaynapicchu go from dark, to completely illuminated and shining from the sunrise. I think I’ll remember those solitary 45 minutes my whole life.

            After I sat their for a while we went on a tour of Machu Picchu which was nice, but we were definitely very tired at this point, and for me, Machu Picchu was something I much preferred taking in on my own, despite its fascinating history. We went straight from our tour to the entrance to Huaynapichu. A few of  us started debating whether or not we would actually would go through with the hike up Huaynapicchu, but I had decided I had come so far over the past four days to back out now, since getting to the summit was one of our original goals. However, the majority of the group opted out of the arduous hike up. And difficult it was. It took about an hour of stone stairs, of all shapes and sizes, and even a tunnel to finally reach the top, where we were able to look down onto Machu Picchu. The top was a bit frightening since it was basically just a bunch of huge slanted rocks that people were cramming onto. There was one man up there who worked on the mountain. We were not allowed to stay on the top too long because he had to usher people on and off the summit to control the flow. But it was a beautiful to look out at the Andes and feel on top of the world.

            Later we took the bus back to the town of Aguas Calientes, where we had a few hours to kill before our train and bus rides back to Cusco. On the train, we continued the tradition that we started during the trek of playing the game ‘Contact.’ We arrived in Ollanatambo on the train and then boarded a bus for the final leg to Cusco. We checked into our hotel at about 1:30am and passed out.

June 18th, 2011

June 18^th

            Day 3. We met at the restaurant at 9:30 for breakfast and then got on a van for the ride over to where the train tracks started, where we would begin our walking for the day. I was definitely feeling those hills in my butt when I woke up on this morning,, so hearing that it was going to be all flat was music to our ears, and relief to our legs. When we got off the bus at the train tracks, we got our very first glimpse of Machu Picchu, and excitement resonated through the group. We started our walk, and then 5 minutes in Chino told us we were stopping for lunch, which was a bit awkward because we had only eaten breakfast like an hour ago… but we stopped anyway, sarcastically remarking how we had definitely worked up an appetite after our treacherous 5 minute journey. 

            We got to Aguas Calientes, in the early afternoon and had all day to hang out there, and we would finally meet up with Monica and the rest of the dialogue group around 9pm when they arrived on their train. The town was fun, but it was such a tourist trap full of rip-offs, since it’s where all the travelers stay before they go to Machu Picchu.  We checked into the hotel Monica had originally booked for the dialogue instead of the hostel included in our trip, and we all appreciated it immensely, after having spent 2 nights in rugged, gritty hostels. I thought this night even promised me a hot shower, since I hadn’t showered since Wednesday and was covered in layers of sweat, dirt, and bug spray, but I’ll get to that later.

            After arriving in the town, we decided to check out the “aguas calientes” of Aguas Calientes, which we had heard were hot springs similar to the ones we had visited the day before. But they were gross, tiled pools that smelled like urine, so we ate our 10 sol entry charge and left without going in the water. We walked around a bit, did some shopping, and went back to the hotel. We were super pumped when dinner time came around because we went to a place that had a sign for Mexican food outside. But, the choices ended up being limited to the standard chicken, lomo saltado, (and vegetarian omlettee!) per usual. Chino convinced us 4am was an appropriate time to leave the next day for Machu Picchu. We were all anxious to leave early the next morning because we wanted to be some of the first people there because the first 400 who get a stamp to climb Huaynapicchu are allowed to.  The rest of the group who hadn’t come on the trek arrived to the hotel, and told u they were planning to leave for Machu Picchu at 3am. So we called Chino and told him we wanted 3am too, just to be on the safe side, since one girl on the dialogue tried to climb Huayna by leaving at 2:30am but still didn’t make the cut.

            That meant an early bed time. I had planned on finally getting to take a nice hot shower on this night, and hearing other people talk about there glorious showers made me even more excited for the one I planned to take before bed. But of course, since I have such good luck, the hot water was gone when I was trying to shower. I decided just not to shower, because I had gone too long to succumb to a cold shower, and would just wait it out until I could get hot water to finally shower. So long story short, I smell real bad.

June 17th, 2011

June 17^th, 2011

            Day 2. We hiked for 8 hours. The first hour or two was no indication of what lied ahead for us. We started on a dusty road and ended in a small town and taking little fruits with orange dye in them to paint our bodies before scaling mountains sides on parts of the Inca Trail, the stairs carved into the side of the mountain. The sights were breathtaking. My eyes almost couldn’t take in everything I was seeing when I looked out, and I couldn’t believe how high up we had climbed. But then again, yes I could, because I could feel the two hours of constant uphill in my quads.

            This day was amazing. And if you ask anyone of us who went on this trek, we will all maintain that one of our top highlights of the day was the guacamole we got at lunch. Best guacamole I have ever had, right there in the Peruvian jungle, and when eating it we could literally feel it being made only 5 minutes ago. I won’t lie, when the bread was gone, we were all scraping at the plates with our spoons to get the last of this guacamole. We still had considerable hour-age of hiking ahead of us, which would conclude at a hot spring. I only dipped my legs in, but the water sure was hot, and everyone had a great time changing into their bathing suits and hanging out here for a while. We opted to van the last leg to the hostel, which was only about 15 minutes from the hot spring, and I was thankful for this decision because I could feel my feet swelling.

            We got to our hostel, had some dinner, and then most of the crew went out to a discoteca that our guide knew about, which was the only discoteca in the town. I stayed in because I wasn’t feeling too good, and at this point the last thing I would want was to get sick and not be able to go to Machu Picchu. The next day was not going to be as long, or nearly as challenging, and we’d be able to sleep until after 9am, so going out that night wouldn’t do much damage to the next day. And I’m quite surprised there even was a discoteca, since there was essentially nothing in the town. But apparently it was only the gringos who were at the club anyway, and our group ran into the some of the people who had stayed at the same hostel as us the previous night. We would end up seeing these same people at our different stops all the way through Machu Picchu because we were all on similar multiple day excursions. 

June 16th, 2011

June 16^th, 2011

            Now I am going to recap my adventure from the past four days. I haven't showered in five. The past several days have been incredible, and have really enhanced the trip for me even more. I am so glad I got to experience this extra adventure, in addition to what was already planned. At 630am Brielle and I were the first ones waiting outside he travel agency at the Plaza de Armas, anxious and ready to start our four day excursion. We had been up late packing our luggage, which we would not see until we got to our hotel in Cusco late Sunday night, and we hoped it was in good hands, for all we would be able to take on our adventure was a backpack with the necessities. The group convened, 14 of us, and Henry, making it 15. And we piled into a van to begin our two hour ride to Ollantatamba, where we would begin our bicycle ride. I fell asleep on Andrew for the majority of the ride to the mouton we would be biking down, but when I finally awoke, I was greeted by an impressive view. I had another “I can’t believe where I am” moment. We were high in the Andes Mountains. Klevis exclaimed, look guys, we're level with the clouds, and surely enough, strait ahead of us was a white cloud at our eye level. Only after ten more minutes of driving up the winding mountain road, nothing was visible, because we were inside the clouds, surrounded by white in every direction. It was a bit eerie, but so cool nonetheless.             When we reached the place we would launch the bike trip from, we were still high in the sky, still encompassed by the white masses. In the distance, we could see the snowcapped Andes. Our guides unloaded the bicycles format he roof of the car and gave one to each of us, along with a helmet and hand gloves, and after a few instructions we were on our way. At first it was absolutely freezing and we couldn't see much because of the clouds, but the ride was supposed to last about 3 hours, so the scenery would surely change without he descent. Unfortunately we did have a little mishap only about 10 minutes into our ride, when Syeda fell off her bike and hit her head, thus ending the bike trip for her, but she was totally fine and just took the van the rest of the way down. This made me thankful we had decided to go with this agency rather than the first one, since there was a help vehicle, and lo and behold, we did need it. Half of the group was too far ahead to have heard abbot Syeda's fall, so they continued, while some of us hung back until we knew she was okay, and then took off, vowing to be more careful. Carefulness and alertness was a necessity on this biking trip, because we were high in the mountains, and the roads were very windy. When I think of the views, I almost can’t fathom the splendor of what surrounded me. Peru is a beautiful, beautiful country,

            We arrived for lunch and to drop our belongings off our hostel. In one room, there were 11 beds., and Jenn, Ilana, Priscilla, and Katy had a room on the first floor for themselves. We loved our room. It was just a giant room with 11 beds with mismatched seats lined up. We called it our orphanage. 

            We met our guide Chino, and a van with a raft strapped to its roof, outside the hostel, and we were on our way to rafting. I have never white water rafted so I was very anxious for what was in store, but it was a ton of fun, a bit scary at times, but totally exhilarating. I’m also  pretty sure I was in the seat that got the most soaked.

            After rafting we chilled at the hostel for a bit and then went down to the same restaurant we were at for lunch to have dinner. When we got back, all of us went to bed pretty early because it had been a long, packed day, and the next day promised to be our longest, most arduous day of hiking. I put my Ipod in, set my alarm for 5:45am, and called it a night. 

June 15th, 2011

June 15th, 2011

            Today after class Monica was waiting at Amouta to talk with us and help us go to the agencies and nail down the details of our Inca Jungle trek. Details have been sketchy, so I was glad to have Monica come help us iron out the plans. We had all the people who were planning to go meet at McDonalds so we could go to the agency we had originally decided to go with. During the break between classes today, Scott and Cara had gone to the agency to put a deposit on our trip, which I was skeptical and uneasy about, but I couldn’t speak for twelve other people. Me went to the first agency with Monica and she was not too happy with the safety of the trip and didn’t seem to trust the lady in charge, so she suggested we go to another agency across the plaza that Patty from Amouta said was trustworthy. We ultimately decided that the second agency was far, far better than the first one and we decided we would go with them. But now we needed to go fight with the first agency to get our deposit back. The lady was horribly nasty to Monica when she told them we intended on getting our money back, so Monica headed to the tourist police to help us. In the meantime, Klevis took matters into his own hands after getting the deposit receipt from Scott and went into the agency to have a word with the lady. He was successful. His skillful way with words got us back all our pooled money for the deposit, aside from about 100 soles, and since Cara had fronted the money for the deposit, we all threw her 5 US dollars to cover that lost money. I’m very confident that the agency we decided to go with was far better than the original for so many reasons. And the four day trek would only cost us 100 US dollars, with meals and white water rafting included.

            After the long day of nailing down our hike plans, me and Brielle went home for dinner, strange as usual, and then went to another discussion session at Amouta. Tonight we were discussing laws with Henry, whereas yesterday we had discussed governmental history with Monica. The discussions were valuable, interesting, and insightful. After the discussions let out, it was time for Indigo, and then bed because we had to be at the Plaza de Armas at 6:30am the next morning for our trek

June 14th, 2011

June 14^th, 2011

            Today for class Patty took us out to the Plaza de Armas to watch the dance competitions that have been taking place throughout the past week. The kids come from all over to do traditional dances in Peruvian costumes in front of judges. The week is very celebratory and filled with life and the kids essentially get the week off from school. Our host mom was telling us her son has no homework during this week. It was really fascinating to watch the dances and know that each movement and the costume designs are symbolic for something in Peruvian culture.

            The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, just some Indigo and chilling in Cusco.

June 13th, 2011

June 13^th, 2011

            Second week of classes of the Amouta School. Our classmates were the same but we had different teachers. One of my new teachers is Patty and I like her a lot. We engaged in a lot of conversation today and it was great. We talked a lot about the recent election in Peru and Patty gave some fascinating personal insight into the situation. She revealed to us that she was worried about Ollanta’s victory and that she may be planning to move to Brazil in the near future to avoid any potential downfall Peru may have under it’s newly elected president.

            After class we paid for a 5 sole cab ride to take us to the supposed best cuyeria in Cusco so that the boys and Brielle could try guinea pig for the first time. The view from the restaurant was incredible and we could looked out over Cusco. Everyone ordered cuy and I asked for a salad, but the man who worked there looked at me and said, no we only serve cuy. I was a bit confused, but it turns out the restaurant legitimately only serves cuy. Lucky me though, we brought me out a plate of onions with some vinegar on them for lunch… yum? At the sight of her cuy, Brielle freaked and couldn’t eat it. It definitely was a sight. The man brought them out on plates and you could see there little teeth so clearly. The boys tore into the little fried bodies and began searching for the organs, getting super excited when they found something and then holding the entrails out on a fork to display their findings. I’ve seen enough guinea pig hearts, brains, and livers to last me for the rest of my life, thank you very much.

            After our interesting lunch (for all since we were either consuming an American household pet, our a plate of raw onions) we had a cabs take us back to San Pedro market to get the amazing juices they make there before we had to meet up with the group for another museum tour at the old house of Garcilaso, the most famous Mestizo. This means the person has one Spanish parent and one native Peruvian parent.  Garcilaso’s father was a Spanish army captain and his mother was an Incan princess. Garcilaso was famous for recording Peru’s history.

            After the tour we unveiled our plan to Monica about the 4 day Inca jungle trek we wanted to take and had been planning for two weeks. Brielle had even prepared a power point. We were not expecting Monica to agree with the plan, but Monica seemed thrilled with the idea and said it was definitely possible, we just needed to get our details straight. We could not have been more excited.

            We had to meet at Amouta for a film, but before that Brielle, Syeda, Andrew, Klev, and I went to Inka Café for some dinner. I adore this place because they have the most delicious vegetable dishes in Peru. The movie we watched at Amouta was about terrorism during the Shining Path movement in Peru and it was very eye opening. It was resonating with me because one of my professors at Amouta was telling us stories about how she lived through these exact events and witnessed these tragedies happening.

            After the movie we headed to Indigo for some hookah and good times.