Peru

Ok, I have been really really bad and I have not told you guys anything about the last month of my trip. To summarize since I last blogged, I went to the self proclaimed ¨end of the world¨ in Ushuaia, Argentina in Tierra del Fuego for a few days, then I headed back to Puerto Natales, Chile to catch a flight up to Lima.

In Lima I met up with Chris and we traveled around in Lima, Huaraz (the center of Peruvian Andies) and in Cusco. We both had bad altitude sickness in Huaraz because it is at about 4,000 meters and we were overly ambitious trying to hike up to almost 4,800 meters the second day we were there. Just as future reference, that´s not a good idea. Spend a couple days laying low, then attempt a hike. Otherwise it´s not pretty.

We then traveled to Cusco and did most of the touristy things in the city, like hiking up to the nearby ruins saqusiwahman (sounds like sexy-woman), visiting the plaza de armas, seeing the 12 sided stone and pretty much all the major sites in Cusco. We were planning on doing an alternative to the Inca Trail - a 4 day hike to Machu Picchu- but it turned out to be very expensive and not very direct. So, we decided to make our own way there through the mountains of the Sacred Valley. Chris and I packed up our backpacks for an overnight adventure and walked from the city into the mountains. This was the first mountaineering experience I have ever had. It was full on map and compass reading. But, it was probably one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences I have had in nature. First of all, you are never sure where you are going so all the time you are slightly scared you´re headed the wrong way, but when you end up where you are supposed to be it´s like a miracle! One of the coolest things for me was interacting the the campesinos (the mountain farmers) who are some of the most friendly people I have met here. They were always willing to point us in the right direction and share what little they had with us.



We arrived in a small mountain town North of Cusco called Calca and took a couple crowed minibuses (colectivos) to the jump off town for Machu Picchu called Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo is a neat little city. The entire city is built on Incan foundations and the layout of the town is exactly as it was 500 years ago. Many of the Incan walls still support the city. We spent the night there, then headed to Aguas Calientes- the town outside of Machu Picchu. Aguas Calientes is the ugliest town I have been to during my entire time traveling. It has grown uncontrollably in the last 10 years because of tourism to the ruins with no city planning and everything is geared towards tourists. There are very few real inhabitants of the town and they are the ones who own the cheap souvenir shops.

Anyway, we woke up at 5am to catch the 5:30 bus up to Machu Picchu to see the sunrise. I was astounded by the line of people waiting for the 5:30am bus. I have very rarely seen so many people awake before 6. There was no sunrise over the mountain because it was too foggy, but when the sun did come up it burned holes in the fog and started to reveal the beauty of the ruins to us one part at a time. Wow, this is an amazing place. It is in such great shape. I can´t use enough words to explane how amazing this place is... you will just have to visit it for yourselves. You can get lost here exploring for days. We spent the whole day there and headed back to Cusco that night.

A few days later Chris left to go back to the real world and I was getting ready to start my volunteering. This entry is getting pretty long so I will put the volunteering entry separately. But those weeks were amazing with all sorts of new experiences and adventures.