Trip Of A Lifetime

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Well helloooooooooooooooooo everybody! :D

So here's the next big blog. I'm guessing that not everyone knows this, so I'll give you a quick heads-up: a while ago an opportunity came up to go to Peru with my host family on vacation! Not only that, but I eventually got them to make Machu Picchu a part of the itinerary--Whoo!!! :D I was writing a detailed account of the trip to my uncle, and then partway through decided it would make a very good blog SO, here's the letter! (sorry I didn't actually send the thing via e-mail, but I'm sure you'll get it anyway!)

PERU TRIP, JANUARY 2011

Hey Uncle Jaime!

How are you? 😊 Hope all is well! You wanted to know about my trip to Peru and Machu Picchu, so here ya go! :D

I went to Peru (including Machu Picchu) from January 24th to the 31st with my host mom (Jackie), host broth brother (Fabio), and a friend of my host mom's (Ellie), and WOW. It was...absolutely breathtaking. In just those few short day I shot over a 1,000 pictures! (Yes, it's normal for me to take an inordinate amount of photos, but this time it was justified!) There was a lot of traveling involved, and alltogether too much time spent on the bus (something like 26 hours each way), but that's the price you pay for traveling, I suppose. And the scenery TOTALLY made it worth it.

We flew from Santiago, Chile, to Lima, Peru, and then took another flight down to Tacna, Peru, which was our main destination. We then hopped on a bus and rode from Tacna to Cusco, which is the largest city near Machu Picchu.

On that trip I first tried what would become a very standard beverage throughout the duration of the Machu Picchu portion of our vacation: Coca leaf tea. Coca leaves contain a natural chemical that help prevent altitude sickness, so candy and tea made from the leaves of the coca plant are very common to find amongst the gear of backpackers and mountain climbers. Plus, it has a really pleasant taste as well. In fact, the only negative thing about it at all is that the leaves come from the same plant that is used to make cocaine. However, the drug is only derived when the plant is combined with who-knows-what-else, so the pure plant is harmless.

Anyway, during the trip from Tacna to Cusco the landscape changed drastically. Tacna is in the Atacama desert, and Machu Picchu is essentially in a semitropical, mountainous rainforest. The mountains near Machu Picchu were unlike any I had ever seen or imagined before; sheer rock faces that erupted out of the ground, towering thousands of feet above us. I mean, normal mountains start out with a slight incline, and gradually get steeper, but these just shot out of the ground at a nearly 90-degree angle. Impressive.

Once we got to Cusco, we had lunch and Fabio and I explored the city center a little bit. Cusco’s main plaza is quite large—the largest I’ve seen, aside from the Plaza de Armas in Santiago. It has two massive cathedrals around it, and the usual fountain in the middle.

From Cusco we took a “collectivo” (taxi for more than one person with a set rout) to a rural/touristic town (don’t ask how that works) closer yet to Machu Picchu called Ollataytambo (it took me absolute AGES to remember that name (oh-ya-tai-TAHM-bo)), from which we would take a train to Aguas Calients, just below Machu Picchu. Ollataytambo was—well, it still IS, but anyway—a very rustic city nestled amongst the mountains. There, I experienced several fascinating, very cultural things.

First of all, were the ruins. In the mountains around Ollataytambo, there are many ruins—presumably remnants of the Incan Empire. However, we were only in Ollataytambo for about three hours so were unable to take a full tour. Fabio and I decided we would explore the ruins alone anyway, just to see what we could see. They were impressive, much of them built into the actual side of the mountain instead of on top, as I would have expected. Presumably this would have provided the inhabitants with 1) a great vantage point from which to survey the vallely below, and 2) a highly defensible position. For us travelers, they mere provided many great photo opportunities.

The second cultural event happened when Fabio and I had lunch. We went to the town plaza to look for somewhere to eat, and found a tiny restaurant with the menu written on a thin chalkboard out front. It had started to rain, but we wanted to sit outside anyway to people watch—there were men in brightly colored plastic rain ponchos working on landscaping the plaza with shovels, a group of women in very traditional, brilliant multihued dress, children playing in the rain, and odd, old automobiles. When asked for our order, we quickly scanned the menu for anything different to try, and found what we wanted almost at once: grilled alpaca and vegetables. It was absolutely delicious! Moreover, we later found out that alpaca has virtually no cholesterol, so the meal was healthy as well.

The third big cultural experience I had in Ollataytambo also involved food. In the street near the train station many vendors were selling corn with butter or cheese (not sure if it was cheese made from goat, cow, llama, or alpaca milk). Of course, I had to try them. The corn there, first of all, was incredibly…disorganized. The sweet corn we are used to in Wisconsin is fairly organized, with the kernels arranged in nice little rows, making it a breeze to eat (well…you know what I mean). The corn in Peru looked as though Picaso had designed them, and the kernels were enormous! There were literally some the size and shape of my thumbnail. The cobs themselves were the same length as “normal” cobs, though a good deal wider. Also… the corn was not sweet. It wasn’t unpleasant, though—quite the opposite. It had a good, hearty taste, and you could really bite in to the kernels. It was delicious 😊 Man…I just realized I wrote an entire paragraph describing corn. And this was the brief version. Sheesh. ANYway, moving on.

The train trip to Aguas Calientes was, of course, gorgeous. The tracks followed a brown, violently flowing river for about an hour and a half to our destination. The river, the mountains and the clouds provided endlessly changing beauty throughout the ride.

There was, however, one part of the journey that was incredibly sad. About halfway through the trip, our train stopped to wait for another train to change tracks so that we could continue onwards. During that stop six or seven children from the poor, rural houses nearby ran to the train to beg for food, candy—whatever we might have given them. An announcement sounded over the train’s speaker system advising us not to give the children anything. It was very sad, the small kids in dirty clothes staring up at as moving their hands to their mouth and then out to us and back, clearly begging for food. Not money, but food, the most basic essentials necessary to survive. Heartwrenching. Eventually the train moved on, but the image stayed in my mind for a long time.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes and were immediately confronted with an expansive market-style…warehouse? Now that I think of it I honestly don’t know how it would be classified. It was like an enormous warren made up of various stands selling everything from high quality jewelry to bookmarks to alpaca wool backpacks (I got one :D). One we had successfully navigated the market, we emerged on the other side to see the tiny village oe Aguas Calientes. It consisted of basically one road/rail line with shops, restaurants, and hostals on either side. An enormous, rushing river lay on the other side of the first line of buildings, and a smaller (though still swift) tributary bisected the town as it joined up with the main river.

We found our hostal, checked in, dropped off our stuff, and then went to eat dinner. When we came back, we met the man who was to be our guide the following day. He gave us our information and the plan for the next day, and then left. We went to bed excited for the next day.

If you Google just about any picture of Macu Picchu, you should notice that the usual backdrop of the city is made up of two fairly thin mountains, one smaller than the other. The larger of the two mountains is called Waynapicchu, and also has ruins on it. However, in order to go up it you have to get up very early, as only 400 people are allowed to visit them each day. Our tour guide informed us that if we wanted to go up Waynapicchu, we would have to get up very early, about 4:30am in order to get in line for the first bus up to Machu Picchu which would leave at 5:30am. SO, at 3:45 in the morning my host brother and I got up to shower and prepare our bags for the trip up the mountain. When we got to the bus station there was already a line of about 250 or 300 people. Plus, we had been advised that some people get up even earlier to HIKE up the mountain, a trek of about 2 hours. So, it was 4:30 in the morning, we were at the back of a huge line, and there was no security that we would actually make it into the first 400. But it could always be worse, right? I mean, it could have been raining--oh wait, it was. Hm. Anyway, we waited until 5:30 and then took the 30 minute bus ride up to the city of Machu Picchu.

When we got to the top, there was a line longer than I had ever thought possible, considering that each person there had woken up at at least 3:00 in the morning and then braved a rainy, two-hour hike to be there. About 400 MORE people were already in line at the front gates awaiting entry. It was ridiculous. In fact, the only thing that out-ridiculoused the ridiculousness of the line length was that apparently not everyone there wanted to go up Waynapicchu. When I got to the gate I was marked as number 286. That means that a good 400+ people had gotten up at 3am for absolutely no reason, because it is perfectly acceptable to arrive at Machu Picchu later in the day. Noon, for example. The rationality for arriving at said time is further strengthened when you take into account that the daily cloudcover and misting rain usually do not clear up until around 11am anyway. Aaanyway, the bottom line is that my family and I made it into the first group. We climbed the spire of Wynapicchu which, honestly, wasn’t as difficult as I had been expecting, due to the Incas’ being a kind, intelligent people who made full use of an innovative technology called “steps.”

We reached the summit of Waynapicchu about around 8:30, and rested, ate a little, and just generally bathed in the fact that we had made it. I, personally, couldn’t believe that I was in PERU. In MACHU PICCHU! It’s one of those places you always read about in National Geographic or see on Discovery Channel—no one ever actually GOES there! And yet…there I was. It was an amazing feeling, even if I couldn’t actually SEE the city from Waynapicchu. At the time. What, you thought I was going to leave the summit without even getting a picture of the city itself? Pfff, not a chance! I waited around up top until around 11:30 when it finally cleared up enough to get a few decent shots (incidentally, that was also the time the guided tour was supposed to start down in the city itself. Oh well.).
Machu Picchu itself was incredible. It was chosen as one of the new wonders of the world with great reason. The city is huge, and to imagine such architecture without the use of modern equipment is absolutely mindboggling. Looking out from Waynapicchu the view was just…unreal. The sheer mountain faces, their stone faces riddled with vines and other stubborn foliage, a rushing brown river thousands of feet below, evanescent clouds that faded into and out of existence both above and below, and there in front an ancient stone city spread out before you on top of a mountain, nestled securely amongst the larger mountains. It was an absolutely awe-inspiring sight.

Alas, we eventually had to come back down to explore the city. We did excitedly, stopping to take pictures every once in a while. However, it was on one of these brief pauses that disaster struck. I was handing my camera to Gisa, a Brazilian girl that we met at the ruins, so that she could take my picture, and we both thought the other had a grip and…it fell straight onto solid rock and into the mud. The screen was nothing but multihued lines. Unresponsive. The telephoto couldn't collapse back into the camera body. It made weird ticking noises when it tried. I was heartbroken and horrified at the thought of the remainder of the trip without the ability to capture moments.
Luckily, this camera’s got as much will to survive as a wild grizzly and as many lives as a cat, so within forty-five minutes it healed itself and has worked just about perfectly ever since.

We explored the ruins for the next several hours, and the entire time I was in complete awe of the place. I know I’ve said it before, but let me say it just ooooooone more time: Machu Picchu is truly spectacular.
ANYway, at 3:30 my host brother and I caught the bus back down to Aguas Calientes where we met up with my host mom and Ellie. We had lunch, did a little bit of shopping and bartering (something I really wish you could do in the US—it’s so much fun! AND I’ve been told, begrudgingly, that I’m good at it ), and then started our journey back to Tacna. We took the train back to Ollataytambo and then hopped immediately into a small van that took us to Cusco to catch a coach bus. The bus was another loooong journey. Cusco to Puno to Tacna overnight. Well, actually, we didn’t board the bus in Cusco until around 11, so the only overnight part was from Cusco to Puno. The next day, though, was absolutely fascinating.

We arrived in Puno at 5:30 in the morning and waited to change buses. As we got in line to board the next bus, at 7:30, and knew immediately that this trip would be interesting because there was large number of people in very, very traditional clothing: women win brightly colored dresses and with a special type of cloth that functions simultaneously as a scarf and a backpack/babypack (some women carried their infants in these). We boarded the bus and started the trip to Tacna.

The first new sight that I saw was a long line of mountains that I can only think to describe as striated. They literally had perfect, natural lines of foliage growing along their faces (I’ve included a picture—it was so weird) that absolutely fascinated me.

The terrain gradually changed to, well, ROLLING mountains. I know, you don’t hear that much, but I have to call them mountains because it was as though your traditional rolling hills had been supersized. The ground just kept sloping up and up for absolute miles before gradually descending again. It felt as though I was in some sort of fantasy novel, the sheer size of everything. I finally understood what is meant when you hear that distances are hard to judge. For example, at one place I saw what appeared to be a gently sloping hill up to the horizon, just a hill, nothing spectacular or impressive. But then I noticed an array of flat rocks jutting out of the ground that one might have been able to pull out of the ground with ease. However, forty-five minutes later we still hadn’t passed them, and it dawned on me that each rock was over seventy feet tall, making the so-called “hill” THOUSANDS of feet tall. It was awe-inspiring, beautiful, and more than slightly disturbing. I thought that being from Wisconsin, where true mountains are nonexistent, I would never feel agoraphobia, but I did feel the slightest twinge of discomfort (truly slight—not the dentist version of “slight discomfort”). There were valleys that stretched dozens of miles below and out to the horizon that truly emphasized just how small we really are. Very humbling.

The smooth, uninterrupted plains of the highlands were occasionally broken by low stone walls that herdsmen had built (without mortar) to control their herds’ roaming. We also passed sporadic clusters of mudbrick houses in which the herdsmen lived. Oh—did I mention that they were both sheep and llama herdsmen? Yeah, that’s right: llamas. Cool. ANYway…

The final fascinating thing that I saw in the highlands was the fabled (okay, maybe not FABLED, but certainly renowned) Bolivian Winter or Altiplano Winter. Basically, the altiplano winter is a phenomenon in which it snows or rains for a few weeks during the region’s usual driest season. In the desert (THAT’S why it’s so impressive). It was absolutely gorgeous, but my camera’s batter died, so I have exactly two photos of the spectacle (well, I shot a few more using my host brother’s camera).

Oh, one more quick thing that I guess I should talk about. I keep saying “highlands,” and some of you may be wondering what exactly that entails. Well, highlands are just what they sound like: a region that is very high above sea level. It seemed fairly normal (okay, beyond all of the awesomeness I have been describing), and because we were travelling in bus we never really realized that we were slowing climbing in elevation nearly the entire busride. I, at least, didn’t realized it until we passed a tiny village that had a sign that stated the village name and elevation. I remember neither the name of the town, nor the exact elevation in meters, but at the time I did the calculation and it turned out our elevation was over 14,000 feet. Wow.

Not long after that, we literally DROVE into the clouds. And not a steep incline, either. We were driving through a grassland and suddenly “Oh, hello clouds”—BAM! White. We passed a highway sign that said “Warning, cloudy area,” which anywhere else would have been funny (I mean, okay, it still is but…you know what I mean). I should also mention here that this day was the only day that I did not drink coca leaf tea, and suffered for it—turns out it actually DOES help prevent altitude sickness.

Anyway, we eventually reached Tacna and spent the rest of the day recuperating from the bus. Later we went out to dinner and then went to bed.

The next day we hit up the markets in the famous shopping districts of Tacna. They’re famous because, for whatever reason, there are NO taxes on anything, so everything is extremely cheap. For example, for a about $60 I got a three movies, a pair of Philips headphones, a very good-quality Adidas jersey of the University of Chile (one of the two most popular soccer teams in Chile), a corduroy dress/casual jacket, and two excellent dress t-shirts. NOT half bad. The leather jackets there are also known for being ridiculously cheap and good quality—the average, 100% leather jacket there costs about $65. Crazy.

The last full day we took a taxi from Tacna back into Chile to Arica, the northernmost city in Chile. It was a two and a half hour ride through parched, flat desert sand, and then we got to Arica.
Arica is a large port city, that the Chileans say is ugly but I enjoyed. We visited the “morro,” which is a butte the Chileans won from the Peruvians during the War of the Pacific (territorial war in which Chile fought against the Peruvians and Bolivians and won a good portion of what is currently northern Chile) and now has a museum, an enormous flag, and a gigantic statue of Jesus. Then we had lunch by the beach (the sand was an interesting grey-tan color I have never seen before) and returned to Tacna.

The following day we took a flight out of Tacna to Lima, and then from Lima to Santiago, then took a taxi from Santiago to La Ligua.

All in all it was an absolutely SPLENDID vacation 😊



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SOOOOO, that was my most recent and arguably the biggest adventure I've had yet (though I'm not sure--the South Trip (next blog) probably beat it, if just barely). I have a few more trips are coming up: next week I will be going to Santiago to stay with my host aunt and uncle for a few days, and when I get back I'll be going to the famous "Festival of Viña del Mar" in...well, Viña del Mar. Then immediately after that I will be embarking on the most extreme adventure yet: I'll be heading down south to climb the Villarrica Volcano, just my host brother and I. I'm particularly excited about this trip because 1) It's going to be the closest to my style as far as caliber of adventure goes, and 2) it's the only trip that I myself have organized. So it'll be a fantastic trip (and a great learning experience).
Anyway, I'll get to work on finally updating you folks on the South Trip! Take care everyone!

-Alex

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Photos

Make Room For...
I think these signs should be in US airports.

OoOh.
So THAT'S the current excahge rate from USD to Peruvian Sols.

Desert Sunset
In the desert northeast of Tacna

Whoo! Bus Travel!...Again!
Me in front of the bus we took to Cusco...but you probably could have figured that out. It was really nice accommodations, actually. Plenty of space for each passenger.

RUUUUUUNN!!
I like this picture, not only because it looks like it could be made into a really dramatic picture if the mountian in the background were made to looklike an erupting volcano.

Typical
Typical Architecture and Street design in Cusco.

La Plaza!
Central Plaza of Cusco

Amen...men..en...en...n...
Big, echoey cathedral by the plaza of Cusco--not the same one as in the previous picture.

Geometry EVERYWHERE!
Augh! A number of similar triangles in this mountain between Cusco and Ollataytambo

Snapshot
On the road to Ollataytambo

Alley
Alley in Ollataytambo

Mototaxi!
Rice Lake needs some of these. Motorcycle tricycles that have room for two passengers and a driver used as cheap, quick taxis.

The Hat Man
This one's for you, Grandpa Jim.

What on EARTH are you wearing?
Apparently a traditional ski mask-type garment in a shop in Ollataytambo. I almost wish I'd gotten one...except that they kinda weird me out :P

Hum-de-hum-day
Man in traditional clothing taking a break from work and having a snack.

Delectable
Lunch of grilled alpaca, fried potatoes, and fresh vegetables. VERY good! It tasts something like a mix of pork and beef.

Did I grow THAT much??
The doors in the ruins in Ollataytambo are quite a bit smaller than normal doors in the U.S. People back then were much smaller than we are now.

Marvelous
Ollataytambo Ruins. If you look closesly, (or maybe not THAT closely) you can see more ruins on the moutain across the valley.

I'm Clean Officer, I Swear!
Coca leaf tea. Absolutely delicious and useful in that it prevents altitude sickness caused by difference in atmospheric pressure. The DOWNside is that we found out later that you test positive for cocaie up to 72 hours after drinking a single cup, similar to how having too many poppyseed muffins can make you test positive for heroin.

Chug-Chug!
The train from Ollataytambo to Aguas Calientes

Trainview
The view out the train's windows.