MACHU PICCHU

Slept at 10pm, woke up at 2:45 to meet at 3:00am, which turned into 3:30 naturally, but nonetheless this is the day!  Machu Picchu, finally.

We started off at a brisk walk to the bridge which lets you into Machu Picchu park, we were going at a good pace, and at good spirits until we reached the bridge, and realized that it actually opened in an hour.  Why had we gotten up at 3 then?

But, this being Perú, Henry soon came around and in hushed tones informed us that we could each pay 1 Sol and get in now.  Since that equals about $0.76, we of course paid and went on our merry way.  And thank goodness we got to enter an hour early, because as we walked up an hours worth of stairs we had to stop for breaks multiple times. 

Huffing and puffing we slowly worked our way up the mountain stopping at every crossroad.  With lots of water, bug spray and encouraging words we all made it up and collapsed on the floor outside of the gates.  We then waited around 40 minutes for the gates to open, and got our tickets stamped for Huayna Picchu, a neighboring mountain which only 400 people are let up each day.

We raced up to the overlook for a fabulous first view of Machu Picchu.  As much as you may have seen it on postcards, the first hand view is more than you can imagine.  Buildings, commons, terraces and of course llamas completed the view, but most of us agreed that it still felt like a picture.  The only drawback was the echoing lawn mower that the groundskeepers were trimming with.

The Inca's Face is slowly illuminated by the sun

As the sun slowly illuminated the mountains behind us we waited patiently for it to hit us and Machu Picchu.  As the site slowly lit up, you could see the sun rise straight though a V in the tip of a mountain.  People snapped pictures as we all gasped at the view before being shooed off the wall that we were sitting on.

Tyler and I then went to explore the actual ruins before catching up with the tour and learning more about the city.  We saw parts of the religious side of the city, recognizable by the finer stonework, with little mortar and flat-faced rocks, and also saw the sundial, an important large stone that comes with multiple stories.   The guide told us that it could be a sacrifice stone for the most important sacrifice, a black llama whose insides foretold the future as interpreted by the priests.  Another hypothesis is that it served as a sundial allowing the Incas to track the solstices and plan their year accordingly.

After the tour we took a short siesta with the llamas before utilizing our 10am time ticket to go hike up Hayna Picchu, another 40 min walk of stairs.  Climbing through a tunnel that represented Panchamama (Mother Earth) giving birth, we finally reached the top by climbing up a short ladder.  Who knew that the top of the mountain was really just a couple of large rocks stacked on top of each other, which we are allowed to sit on.  We spent an hour or so relaxing from the hikes before going back down, during which the exertion of the past 8 hours was felt as my legs started shaking a bit.

Hayna Picchu as seen from Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu as seen from Hayna Picchu

Rachel and I resting at the top

More relaxing with llamas followed, and then Leslie, Rachel and I decided to undertake the easy hike to the Inka Bridge, a supposed stone bridge.  We first had to hike up Mt. Machu Picchu a bit but then hit the flat part, which after about 20 min took us to the bridge, which was a bit underwhelming.  Instead of being a stone bridge it really seemed to be a wooden bridge covering a gap in the stones that built the rest of the walkway.  From my point of view the whole thing didn’t seem to make much sense, but it was an interesting thing to see.

Some short exploring in the civilian part of Machu Picchu followed, but we all quickly agreed that we were exhausted and it’d be best to take the bus home, a good 11 hours since we first arrived at the gates.

Dinner, a train to Ollatamba, and a bus to Cusco completed the day and at 2am we arrived at our hotel.  After one of the best showers ever to remove the sun screen, bug spray and dirt that I had accumulated over the day I collapsed into bed and fell asleep.

Cusco: Last Day + Aquas Calientes

Leaving Cusco and our host families was sad, but knowing that Machu Picchu was only a day away helped minimize the sadness.

We met the rest of the group at 9am and took off for our bus ride to Moras & Moray, 2 separate terrace/irrigation sites that displayed circular terraces with free floating stone steps allowing for movement between the different layers.

We also went to a salt mine where families owned around 10 different pools which they filled once a week with salty water from the mountain.  Evaporation slowly took away the water and left about 15cm of salt every few months. 

A hike down from the salt mines took us to lunch, an impressive looking buffet with tasty garlic bread and guacamole but so-so entrees and desserts.  After eating we found more llamas and a talking Macaw that greeted us with ‘Hola!’ and ‘What’s up?’  Post-eating we drove back to Ollatambo that we had visited a week before the frantically food shopped for the next day’s hike.

I purchased a yogurt drink, apples, bread, avocadoes and some churros for right then to go along with the bananas and cookies that I already had.  We got on the Machu Picchu Train to go to Aqua Calientes, the closest town, and arrived at 9pm to see the other half of our group.

Sleep at 10pm to prepare for the next day’s 2:40am wake up time!

Cusco: Last Day

I am loving Cusco (evidently it should be spelled with an ´s´ rather than a ´z`).  From the people to the the scenery the city is wonderful in all ways (not counting the painful altitude).

All too soon we have to leave, and with that on my mind I had a number of things to complete.  First up was our last day of school at Amauta, which started off perfectly with a trip to my favorite Mercado San Pedro.  On the way there we did a little exercise where we talked to a travel agent to learn about the various mountain treks offered to get to Machu Picchu.  Amazingly enough the 3 of us understood all or at least the gist of everything the guide said.  After we went to the market, and I got my bread as usual, as well as some flowers for our host mom.

After we returned to school for Culture class, which was actually extremely interesting as we watched a National Geographic video and also talked about various topics relating to present-day politics, culture and language.  It was definitely our best culture class of the week.

We then had our end of the school celebration filled with kind words, potato chips, and Inca Cola.  We hugged our teachers goodbye and then headed home for a not-so-great lunch of burnt potatoes, cheesy potatoes and rice.  Then it was on to the Artisianal Market and completed most of my souvenir/gift shopping.

Next we will have our last dinner together and then go home to pack at watch Mercado Mollino movies!

Cuzco: Terrorism & Chocolate Museum

Yesterday and on Monday we talked extensively about terrorism. In viewing the movie Tarara and hearing about our professor's own personal experiences with terrorism I have come to much further appreciate Peru's recent history. The bombings and power outages in Lima cast the city into fear and finally caused the government to recognize the threat that the Shining Path posed to Peru.


Terrorism also played a large party in President Fujimori's term. Citing anti-terrorism measures Fujimori suspended Congress and reformed the Constitution. Comparing Peru and the US it is astounding to recognize the differences and realize everything that we take for granted.  Constitutional security, peaceful transitions of power and a truthful police force are just some of the things I have always expected, but cannot be taken for granted.


Yet when you look at where Peru is now, with successful tourism, a fairly stable economy and happy people, it is amazing to think that only a little over 20 years ago the cities and countrysides were filled with scared citizens dreading the next attack.


In other words...

Today was Kat's last day which was sad for all of us to see her go. However besides that, the day started off as usual with class and lunch at home.

Rachel, Kris and I then went to El Museo Chocolate to learn more about the history of Peruvian chocolate making and of course to try some samples. We ended up lucking out and getting 2 samples as well as cocoa bean tea, and after we had chocolate fondue and I got a delicious chai white chocolate bar.

Overall it was an extremely enjoyable process and I learned much about how to make chocolate in addition to harvesting techniques.

For dinner we went back to our favorite vegetarian place where I got a lentil burger, and brought in a delicious lemon+mint slushie from the Bagel Place!

Tasty tasty!

Cuzco: Election Talk

In lieu of an actual daily blog post, I thought we could talk about the election that happened on June 5th.

RESULTS: Ollanta 51.5%, Keiko 48.5%


A bit of background:
Ollanta is a former military man leaning towards socialism.  Ollanta is rumored to have close ties with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and is favored by those in the towns and country.


Keiko is the daughter of former 3 time president Alberto Fujimori.  Educated in the US with a NJ husband Keiko is only 36 and was running on a platform of Security and Jobs for all.  Keiko's bid for presidency was marred by her time as First Lady after her parents divorced as well as her father's connection to human rights violations and severe economic shock.


There is political debate on both sides, with some saying that Keiko was just running to free her father from jail, and others saying that Ollanta is bribing the peasants with food.  With most Peruvians disliking both candidates the election was very tense.  As voting is mandatory here, some Peruvians talked about just paying the S./ 80 fine and not voting for either disliked candidate.


While in Lima most people said that they were voting for Keiko while in Cuzco Ollanta is highly favored.  The high tension election had some chance of getting violent, and we were all relieved that despite the close margin there was no widespread violence.


The thing that I noticed most about the election was the prevalence of electoral graffiti, from Ica to Lima, Lima to Cuzco and everywhere in between there was paint on every available surface proclaiming one candidate over the other.

 

 This election was the runoff election after the 11 original candidates were narrowed down to two.  With the middle-of-the-road candidates splitting the moderate vote it was easy to see how the 2 extremists Ollanta and Keiko came out on top.


Another interesting aspect of the election was the political history of the candidates.  With Keiko as the daughter of a past president, Ollanta having run in the 2006 election, Toledo holding the presidency from '01-'06, and the current president Alan Garcia holding his second term, the pattern of the same elites rotating through the presidency is obvious.

Cuzco: San Pedro Market & Museo Histórico Regional

School today with our new teachers where we talked about current politics and also talked a little about presidential history from the 1960s on.  After school we went back home for a lunch of Arroz Chaufa before heading back to the city center.

Rachel and I went to the Sand Pedro Market to buy some fruits. I got my favorite red plantains, a mango, some bread and also tried some honey which is absolutely amazing.  Next we went to the Museo Histórico Regional to see some of the ancient art of Peru.

We got to see art from all different time periods, from Italian artists depicting the Evangelization of Peruvians to modern Peruvian artists.  The most interesting part of the museum was the Tupac Amaru II room.  Across one of the walls was a huge mural depicting Tupac’s gruesome death being pulled apart by 4 horses.  In the background huddles his wife while his 3 sons are about to meet their deaths off to one side.  The death of Tupac represents the fall of the Incan Empire and starts the deaths of all Incan Royals.

Also in the room were textiles, furniture and a crucifixion that was present when Tupac was executed.

The building that housed the museum is the former house of El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega the chronicler of Incan history.  It was interesting to watch a video on the man who wrote multiple books on Incan civilization while in his father’s homeland of Spain.  Even more interesting was the fact that we had seen the resting place of his ashes in the crypt of one church we went into Friday.

Next we went off for the ongoing wifi search before watching a movie on terrorism in Miraflores tonight.

Lessons Learned:

1.  Dried fruits/nuts are still as expensive here as they are in the States!  Sad.
2. Honey+PB+Bread is an amazing meal anytime.

Sacred Valley

We met up with our same tour guides from the city tour this morning for our trek into the Sacred Valley!  First stop finished off what we had missed on Friday: Tambomachay.

Tambomachay, tourists use to be able to drink the water, but no more!

Tambomachay is a set of Incan baths where the water god was worshipped and is made up of 3 terraces.  The first terrace is the best example of Incan craftsmanship and has 4 crevices which perhaps represented the 4 sections of the Incan Empire.  Across the present day road is a watchtower which our guide said was probably used for communication through a series of polished bronze mirror signals.

Next we went to the Pisac Temple of the Sun.  Built on the side of a mountain the area had areas for soldiers constructed of much lesser stones with mud as mortar.  Though I asked the guide why the Incas would skimp on defense buildings he skirted the question and instead told me that the moss currently growing on the stones would not have been there in Incan times because the rocks where covered with pueblo or clay.

Kris and I with the awesome view

On a mountain across from Pisac we could see holes where mummies had been buried.  While originally covered by rocks the Spaniards looted the tombs for the gold and textiles buried with the 1-3 bodies per tomb.  Over 2000 tombs were found open while only 3 intact sites were discovered.

Sacred Valley

Sacred Valley

We then continued our travel through the Sacred Valley driving through the little towns sprinkled between beautiful scenery.  Weaving between the parades of people carrying crosses and playing music (there is some ceremony going on today), we arrived at a breathtaking colonial building for our buffet lunch.  First course was a variety of salads and a bit of trout capachio??  Next I went to the hot section where I got rice, corn stew, beans and a soufflé.  That was sort of a bust as only the rice and corn was good but the dessert section made up for all of it.  Rachel and I split tastes of all the desserts from Passionfruit Pie, Tiramisu and Chocolate Torte to Maracumba Cake.  Then I made the unfortunate decision of getting seconds on some of my favorites (white chocolate brownies, rice pudding and Chocolate Orange Cake) which was delicious but left me uncomfortably full.

After an end of meal Mate de Coca cup of tea we took pictures with the 2 llamas and 2 vicunas in the garden and along the river.  All too soon we had to move on to our next location: Ollantataytambo.

Kim and I with the view of our hike, straight stairs!

Ollantataytambo was sold to us as a 10 minute walk and then we’d watch the sunset.  Waddling up stairs and inbetween costumed villagers we walked for about 15 minutes before looking up in surprise at a towering set of stairs leading up a mountain.  Turns out it was a 10 minute walk to the actual site, followed by a grueling stairmaster workout and some light hiking.  Luckily every step was worth it as the view from the ruins was absolutely breathtaking.

Since we didn’t get to go Paragliding Tyler and I decided to follow a winding trail up and see if we could get to the top of the mountain.  Unfortunately the trail stopped about 20 ft up from the last wall that circled part of the mountain, but from that location we could see both the village, the farms, and off towards the falling sun.  Determined not to break my neck trying to climb down a mountain when the sun actually set we headed down but stopped midway to catch an aerial view of the villagers bullfight.

Rachel joined us and we headed down to go explore the other side of the mountain.  With a change of plans (no sunset anymore), Kim and I set off for the other side where we got a better view of the village and explored a house (?) with a thatch roof.  Wandering back through the village to meet our bus we saw more of the festivities of the Senor de Choquekillka Holiday.  Children dressed in colorful costumes of wool carried masks and instruments while men performed a perplexing dance of striking each others calves with a whip.

After the long 10 hour day we got back on the bus to drive back to Cuzco where our host family fed us Arroz a la Cubana before I collapsed into bed.

Good night!

Lessons Learned:

1. It is always better to travel with people who own better cameras and are better photographers than you.
2. Sometimes tours and tour buses are the way to go, despite my proclaimed hate they really can be the easiest way to see some sites!
3. Buffets rule, from now on dessert first.  But all in moderation…