Adventures as a Tourist in Peru

I left Lima on a flight to Cuzco at 5:37 in the morning on December 26th. From there, the rest of the YAVs and I spent two weeks exploring Cuzco, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Puno, the Colca Canyon and Arequipa. Not including the nights we spent at Debbie and Harry's apartment to bookend the trip, over the course of our two week vacation, I slept in 8 different beds/hostals. It was definitely the most travel-intensive vacation I've ever done, and altough it was amazing, I'm actually kind of relieved to be back in some sort of routine. I'll go ahead and use this blog entry to sum up what we all saw and did during our tour of the "other" Peru.

Cuzco and the Sacred Valley

Cuzco was our first stop, as well as our third stop. (We flew into cuzco, spent one night, then departed for Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu before returning to Cuzco spend two more nights there, including New Year's Eve.) As we technically went there during the "rainy" season, the weather was pretty cold and dreary. This time of the year is also supposedly the "off" season for tourists. And although I'm sure being there during New Years meant that there were still more tourists than during the other parts of January/February, I can't imagine what Cuzco must be like during the July/August "high" season, because we saw other gringos/tourists EVERYWHERE. We spent a good deal of time exploring small local artisan shops and an outdoor market where people sold mittens, hats, gloves, socks, chess sets, traditional musical instruments and a whole bunch of other cool stuff. We also ate some fabulous pizza (and maybe McDonalds too... shhh!) and took a tour of one of the majestic colonial-era Spanish cathedrals on the main plaza. Sean and I rang in the midnight hour on New Year's eve on the main plaza, where we were surrounded by people shouting, hugging, kissing and shooting off fireworks EVERYWHERE - totally undeterred by the 40 degree weather and nonstop rain.

When we left Cuzco (the first time), we took a colectivo taxi to Ollantaytambo, a small town on the way to Aguas Calientes, the town with the only road into Machu Picchu. During our taxi ride, we stopped two or three times on the way to check out more Inca ruins that at the time seemed incredible, but would pale in comparison to the majesty and sheer size of Machu Picchu. One of my favorite places where we stopped (yeah, I forgot the name of it) was basically a set of platforms built in the shape of concentric circles within a valley. Somehow, using these different elevations, the Incas were able to simulate different climates to grow crops that would normally only be available in other regions/seasons.

Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu
From Ollantaytambo, we took a 5:30am train to Aguas Calientes. After leaving our luggage at our hostel, we immediately bought our tickets into Machu Picchu. Although it was quite cloudy and misty when we arrived, within a couple hours the clouds burned off and we actually ended the day quite sunburned. As for Machu Picchu itself, we quickly understood why it was declared one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Words nor pictures really do it justice. You simply just have to go there. Everything is so green, and I can't begin to imagine how most of those stones were gathered, moved, and made to fit together so perfectly. We wanted to also go up Waynu Picchu, the "other mountain" that you see in all of the postcards. However, Waynu Picchu has restricted access - only 400 people are allowed to enter every day. Unfortunately, we must have been right around number 430 or so, so we didn't make the cut. Instead, we opted to take an hour long hike to the Sun Gate, which offers a spectacular view of both Machu Picchu and Waynu Picchu from afar (and above).

The next day, we went to a Machu Picchu museum in Aguas Calientes that I kind of wish we had visited before we went to the ruins. The museum detailed the history of the construction and discovery of Machu Picchu. The exhibits explained among other things, that this Inca City wasn't constructed thousands of years ago, like we assumed, but actually fairly recently - sometime in the 15th century, right before the Spanish conquistadores arrived. And because of the timing of the arrival of the Spanish, it was only used for maybe as little as 100 years before being largely abandoned. After visiting the museum, we decided to try out a "walk" that our guide promised us would offer us a great view of Machu Picchu. We started up what we assumed would be an easy 1/2 hour trail around 3:30 in the afternoon, only to find out that the "trail" is actually a 2 hour ascent up the side of one of the mountains. The first half mainly consisted of a series of steep ladder climbs, complicated by the fact that the BOTTOM of the trail is about 7,000 above sea level, so the air is pretty thin. What started as a fun afternoon stroll quickly turned into a personal test of strength and endurance, but determined, we made it to the top. Luckily, we made a few friends at the summit who had brought flashlights, so we hiked back down with them, knowing it would be dark by the time we were through.

Puno and Lake Titicaca

After spending New Year's eve in Cuzco, we got up bright and early on New Year's day to catch an 8am bus to Puno, a small town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia and is the highest navigable lake in the world. We spent the majority of our first day resting, but did manage to go out to lunch at a vegetarian restaurant that also offered whole grains, fruit and yogurt. This was very exciting for us, because as some of you might recall from an earlier blog post, Peruvians in general aren't too big on foods that aren't meats or starches. During our stay in Puno, we spent the night at an amazing bed and breakfast that was run by possibly the most friendly, hospitable family I've met in Peru. They basically did all they could to make sure we were happy and comfortable (and we were only paying about $8 per night!). For me especially, it was a great reminder that despite the occasional thieves in highly populated or touristy areas, Peru is largely filled with welcoming, friendly and genuinely nice folks.

The next day we set off on a day long boat tour of Lake Titicaca and some of its islands. The tour was fun, but really we spent most of our time just sitting and talking on the upper deck of a small tour boat that never really made it above 15 miles an hour or so. However, the scenery was beautiful - a fact that we were quickly beginning to take for granted, because the entire two weeks was jam packed with some of the most awesome natural/environmental features that I've ever seen. Some of the islands we visited actually float on the water (they're anchored to the bottom of the lake), are permanently inhabitated, and even include hostals where you can spend the night on a floating island if you so choose (we chose not to). The other island we visited (and again, I didn't write down the name... I'm really bad at that type of stuff. I think it started with an 'A'....?) was very much a real, natural island inhabited by indigenous people who, we were told, mainly speak Quechua, not Spanish. But it looked like they've largely adapted their way of life to being a tourist stop, and I have a feeling much of the way the dress and act is for show (they'll charge you a little bit of money if you want to take a picture with them). All in all, Puno and Lake Titicaca were pretty fun, but I wouldn't call it the highlight of the trip.

Arequipa and the Colca CanyonAs opposed to Puno, Arequipa may have been THE highlight of the trip (besides Machu Picchu of course). Interestingly, wWe didn't do anything terribly exciting there, because by this point we were definitely running out of gas. But they city itself was incredible. In comparison to Lima, Arequipa is much cleaner, modern and very "European." And the weather was absolutely beautiful - sunny and warm - as opposed to the cold, overcast/raining days we experienced during the first half of the trip. We used our relaxing days in Arequipa to continue indulging in some of the foods we had been missing in Peru - huge cheeseburgers, burritoes, and homemade grill cheese sandwiches with tomoato soup. On our first full day we went to Santa Catalina Monestary, the "city within the city." It would have been a great place to play sardines or hide and seek - the place was HUGE, and included countless different corridores and different rooms tucked away.

In the middle of our stay in Arequipa, We took a 2 day tour of the nearby colca canyon, the deepest canyon in the world. The big drawing point of colca canyon tours is the opportunity to see condors circling above as they hunt just after dawn. And even though we were awake and ready to go by 5:30am on the morning when we were supposed to go see the condors, our tour ended up leaving very late. We sat around the breathtaking vistas of the condor pass for about 2 hours, but didn't see a single condor (note: I don't know if this is THE "Condor Pasa" of Peruvian folkloric music, but I like to pretend that is). However, two of the other YAVs, Katie and Leslie, ended up with a different tour agency, and apparently 10 minutes after our tour group left, the other group actually saw 2 or 3 condors that flew directly overhead. And this is after our tour guide asked us if we wanted to wait another 10 or 15 minutes and we said no! Such is life. We still had an amazing time enjoying the incredible vistas, and Katie and Leslie promised to share their pictures.

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And that was pretty much our trip. We returned to Lima exhausted, but having bonded tremendously as a group, and with plenty of memories that we won't soon forget. It was definitely a jam-packed two weeks. Afterward, I personally experienced another bit of culture shock returning to my placement and family - I had gotten used to speaking a lot of English and just being a tourist. But it's good to be back, and I will keep you updated on all of the surprises that are sure to come as I approach the halfway point of my year as a YAV in Peru.