This time I can’t stay as long. Two weeks will pass in the blink of an eye. But I plan to work just as hard and love just as much and taste every bit of whatever God has in store for me this time around. Not only that, but this time, this crazy adventure is not for me alone. I get to share it with my sister, Cody. So for the next two weeks, you will get to hear not just my story, but our story. You’ll get to see Peru through two pairs of eyes. Hold on tight, though. Because time is going to fly!
July 29th: I’m entirely ready to be done with anything that has wheels, wings, or other parts used to transport people from one place to another. We’ve spent three of the last four days in planes, buses, trains, taxis, and vans, and I can’t wait to finally arrive in Huancayo. However, all of this travel was totally worth it. We decided that, before heading to the mountain school in Huancayo, we’d take a trip to Machu Picchu, a must-see for a history buff like my sister and for pretty much anyone else too. But apparently the Incas did a pretty good job hiding their sacred city because, even today, getting there is quite an ordeal.
Our adventure didn’t start off particularly exciting. Mom drove us to D.C on Thursday, we went through the typical airport procedure in Dulles, ate at Chipolte in the terminal (I guess that part was a little exciting, especially when you compare it to the typical airport food), flew a few hours to Miami, and tried to keep ourselves from dying of boredom during a 6 hour layover.
However, as soon as we boarded the plane heading to Lima, things started to get interesting. Cody was able to experience firsthand the most important lesson of traveling in South America: Expect the unexpected. There are other ways to phrase it, but the important thing to know is that nothing goes as planned. “Normal” doesn’t really exist. Weird things happen ALL THE TIME, and you just have to learn to roll with it.
On the plane, we experienced not one, but two unexpected events. First were the flight attendants coming down the aisle at 1:15am with dinner. Now, I am a firm believer in providing snacks or meals for hungry travelers, and I realize that lots of people eat dinner later than I do, but ONE IN THE MORNING?! The look on Cody’s face when I woke her up to ask her if she wanted food was enough to tell me that she was not remotely interested.
After that, I managed to sleep for a bit before waking up to a call for any doctors on the plane to please come forward. A woman just two rows in front of us was having a medical emergency. That was something I’d never considered before. What happens if you have a heart attack while thousands of feet in the air with no option for an emergency landing? Well, we got to see that first hand. A flock of flight attendants and a few passengers crowded around the woman with an oxygen mask and a first aid kit. I’ll be honest, it didn’t look like they were doing anything particularly helpful. Thankfully, though, the woman was able to hold out long enough to be rushed away by purple-clad paramedics as soon as we landed in Lima.
Soon after arriving in Lima, we took a one hour flight to Cuzco via Star Peru. As soon as we stepped out of the airport, I couldn’t contain my grin…okay, it might have been more of a grimace since I was pulling 35 pounds of stuff for the school, plus a bag and a backpack of my own. But I was happy either way. Already I could see mountains and street vendors and old ladies in traditional dress with babies on their backs. And I loved it. So did Cody.
We took a taxi to the main square to explore for a bit before beginning the next phase of our journey. In the square, we saw typical Peruvian (which means RANDOM) festivities. It was a holiday of some kind, and there was a huge military parade. We surely looked ridiculous walking through town with all of our luggage, but we were too excited to care. Not only did we look ridiculous, though. We might as well have tattooed “tourist” to our foreheads; we were to the street vendors as light is to moths. EVERYONE was drawn to us and wanted to sell us their paintings and flags and pins and bracelets. Cody quickly mastered several different ways to decline in Spanish (very polite ones too, I might add). We made it several hours without giving in to any vendors, but finally, Cody decided she was tired of saying no and thought she’d help out a friendly looking shoe shiner (friendly “looking” being key). He was certainly very friendly until it was time to inform me that he had used “special liquid” that raised the price from half a sole to 16!! That $7 shoe shine better last!!
Fairly annoyed, I hailed a taxi and we resumed our journey to Aguas Calientes. We rode to the bus station and then found a minivan heading to Ollaytaytambo. I couldn’t help being nervous as they tied our luggage to the roof. Two hours later, we arrived in Ollaytaytambo and crashed at the train “station,” which was actually just a covered sidewalk, until our train arrived almost two hours later. I kept expecting Indiana Jones to pop out of the trees during our amazing ride through the mountains and jungle. Around 6pm, we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes. We grabbed dinner, complete with Inca Kola and coca tea, and hit the hay early since we’d be up before the sun the next day.
On Saturday, we got up at 4:30am in order to catch an early bus to Machu Picchu. We got there around 6 and spent the entire day at the ruins. I really don’t know how much I can tell you about that experience. It’s something you really just have to see. I can tell you it was awesome and amazing and incredible, but that really doesn’t help you understand what it was like to be there. You’ll just have to look at the photos. But I will tell you that there were llamas running around (including a baby), and the altitude was high enough that my breath was short and I could literally hear my heartbeat. There were clouds above us AND below us, and the views were breathtaking. After taking about a hundred pictures, we headed to Montana Machu Picchu, a mountain we’d paid a few extra soles to climb. We had NO IDEA what we were getting into. I remember Cody asking about 15 minutes into the climb if the ledge up ahead was the top. We could see a peak way in the distance but were sure THAT couldn’t be the mountain we were climbing.
It was. We climbed for almost 2 hours. And by climbed, I don’t mean that we walked uphill. We walked up STEPS. Steep steps. It was the hardest hike I’ve ever done. By the end, we had to stop every 3 minutes or so. My legs were (and still are, actually) screaming. When we got to the top, though, it was worth it. For the view and for the satisfaction. 1600 feet above the ground and 9 or 10 thousand feet above sea level, we really were on top of the world. We’d climbed 1700 steps (according to someone’s graffiti), and Machu Picchu, where we’d just been, looked so far away. It was pretty crazy.
After climbing back down and grabbing a snack, we hired a guide to show us around the ruins. Sherman’s price seemed steep, but for a 2 hour private tour, we decided to splurge a little. It was so worth it! Sherman told us all about the genius people that built Machu Picchu in the 1400s, carefully constructing it in a way that would prevent erosion from destroying it. He answered all of Cody’s questions (and there were many) and helped her with her Spanish, too. The tour was definitely worth every penny.
We left the ruins around 4 with shaky legs and sunburnt shoulders (despite the fact that my sunscreen had exploded on me earlier in the day when I opened it on top of the mountain). We ate dinner (Cody tasted alpaca steak!) and crashed around 8 while attempting to watch the Olympics on line.
And today? We did it all (minus the ruins) backwards…train, van, taxi, plane, taxi and now BUS. I’m tired of all the traveling, but it’s worth it. And tomorrow, I get to see my kids :)
July 29th: I consider myself a pretty perceptive person. Aware of the world around me, not caught up in my own small-minded, little world. I chuckle at those who treat every miniscule trial they encounter as the end of the world, because I know that for most, life in America is about as rough as a rose petal. I guess I thought that since I had read about other cultures and the struggles they face that nothing could faze me. I was wrong.
It’s funny, because it didn’t even hit me that I had left the country until we landed in Cusco (pronounced Coo-z-co, like the llama from The Emperor’s New Groove). Immediately I was surrounded by a language that despite my years of study seemed completely foreign to me. I felt that everyone was different from me, but I slowly realized, no, I was different from them. This is their home planet. I am the alien here. We were in Cusco for the afternoon and I simply couldn’t, still can’t really, wrap my head around how different it was from the home I know. We arrived in the middle of a military parade in honor of La Dia de Independencia de Peru. Hundreds of soldiers with the colors of Peru (red for sangre-blood and white for paz-peace) painted across their faces. The faces which were so different from my own.
The people of Peru have a look… the woman remind me of Pocahontas, beautiful rusty completion, high cheek bones and almond eyes, the men look have hard jaw lines, intense brows and the same eyes, and everyone has shiny (and for the woman long) black hair. It seemed everywhere my sister and I went hundreds of eyes followed, we were so clearly foreign with our lighter skin, Josy with her light curly hair, me with my lack of hair, oh and the luggage definitely didn’t help. Then the street vendors began. So many people shoving their wares in our faces shouting out prices….was it just me or were they paying us special attention? It was bedlam. ‘No gracias’, ‘no necesitamos’, ‘es bonito, pero no gracias’… I can’t tell you how many times those words crossed my lips….until the shoe shiner came. He seemed nice enough, and my boots were pretty dirty, and he was persistent. So I sat down and had my first shoe shine. It was actually pretty cool, until he extended his hand, 16 sols he asked for, in dollars, about $7, which for a shoe shine is an awful lot. And so I experienced my first ‘rip-off’. I hope he spent our money well. Then we bumped into a woman with a mystery fruit, a small bag for 1 sol (less than 50 cents) now that was a deal. They looked like large cherries crossed with plums, and they were DELICIOUS. Juicy and sweet, akin to a peach.
Fast forward an hour or so and what an attempted bag-snatching, we can’t be sure, but she was hunched over and running straight at us so we can only assume that was what she was trying to do, we sat down for our, well my, first real Peruvian meal. I had a shish-kabob and I don’t know how they season their meat, but I like it. A lot. Then we hailed a taxi and before we knew it we were in a cramped van off to the train station. Something you should know about driving in Peru, there’s only one traffic law: the bigger car wins. After recovering from my initial shock of the speed and sheer amount of honking I turned to the view. The mountains were so beautiful, but when I looked straight out the window, at the places the people called home I was shocked. I counted 68 stray dogs in about half an hour. I had thought that mud houses were a thing of the past for everyone except the poorer regions of Africa, but here they were, crumbling houses with little girls outside washing their clothes in a dirty stream. I was staring poverty in the face, and I slowly realized I wasn’t as “aware” as I thought.
We arrived and checked in and then had a while to wait and during that time I found my bladder full… I went to the bathroom and a man was sitting there with his hand extended ‘un sol por favor.’ What? I had to pay to pee? I forked over the coin and he handed me some toilet paper. I went in and sat down. Big mistake. There was no toilet seat and I caught myself just before my butt became unlikely friends with someone else’s pee. The toilet didn’t flush, there was no soap, and even if there was, the water didn’t run. I paid one sol for this? Finally after sleeping on the ground with the strays our train came and we were off to our hostel. When we arrived at the station there was a smiley man with a sign bearing ‘Josephine Tarantini’, that was pretty cool. He led us to our room and after a dinner of stuffed peppers and my first encounter with two native drinks (coca tea and Inka Cola) we finally got to sleep in a bed. Only to be roused at 4:30 so we could eat breakfast before our bus to Machu Picchu left.
A few words on Machu Picchu: it was the single most extraordinary thing I have ever seen. I’m pretty sure the Incas are the most ingenious group of people the world has ever known. Their systems to prevent erosion and irrigate their land were so effective that after their flight to protect it from the Spanish Conquistadors it survived almost completely untouched for 500 years. It was so beautiful and our guide Sherman’s knowledge astounded me. Being such a history nerd I could have married him right them and there. He told us about the three worlds the Incas believed in: our world represented by the puma, the spirit world represented by the condor, and the mysterious underworld represented by the snake It was fascinating, to me anyway…I also met my first Peruvian llama there; he was cute he even let me pet his head. Josy and I also climbed up La Montana de Machu Picchu a 1,600 foot tall mountain that overlooks the ancient civilization. And although my legs are still sore from the trek, the view was worth it.
That evening after a long hot shower to relieve my aching body we scavenged for dinner and I tried Alpaca steak, it was pretty wonderful. Imagine the leanest beef steak you’ve ever had, now make it juicy, and give it a mysterious seasoning that tastes like chipotle crossed with paprika and that’s similar to what it tasted like. Drooling yet?
Now we’re in back in Lima, which honestly, is one of the ugliest places I have ever seen, but, however ugly the capital is the beauty of the people make up for it. Alfredo (not the pasta, but our taxi driver) was so sweet. After chatting with us the whole ride to the bus station he gave me a book “para pracitcar tu español” . It’s a book about Jesus, what a sweetheart. For dinner we had Pizza hut. Laugh if you will, but here it is a 4 star restaurant and it was actually really yummy. Although in the bathroom I had another shock when I learned you’re not allowed to flush your toilet paper, you have to throw it away. Then embarrassed myself answering, in perfect Spanish mind you, to a woman who wasn’t talking to me, but actually to her peeing son….
Before I left my father told me “don’t be a victim”. Josy is a victim. If someone looks in our direction too long she gets nervous, if a taxi cab is old it is too creepy, and if there’s not enough people on a street she turns us off it. I guess she’s keeping us safe, but it gets irritating, so call me crazy, but I can’t wait to trade in the Peruvian equivalent of New York for smaller, prettier, and safer Huancayo. That’s where we are headed next. It’s what we came for and I’m pretty excited, but not as excited as Josy I’m sure. She misses her kids. But I can’t wait to meet them.
Since it's my blog, I can't resist adding that I am NOT a victim. Someone's got to be the responsible one. Maybe someday she will thank me. And if not, that's okay. I'll take safety first.
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| on top of the mountain! |
1 comment:
Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I LOVE this post. It is so awesome. You all are super gifted storytellers. I cannot wait until the next post!
Oh, and remember, girls, make good choices. Sorry. Couldn't resist!
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