Last Day in Cusco

Overall, today has been a fantastic day. It started early, about 6:45. Brennon and I awoke and showered, then showed up late for breakfast. Church was at 8:00, so we hustled through our plate and walked a block to the chapel. I offered to “touch” the piano, as they say it in Spanish, which was a lot easier this time because the sustain pedal worked. I still only caught bits and pieces of the talks (mostly just a word occasionally), but there were a couple of niños that were running around the chapel, which made the meeting entertaining.

Our plan was to go four-wheeling after church; we had it set up and everything. But Cliff, our director, made a stern comment about our integrity and following the rules, which forbids the use four-wheeling. We had a group meeting, and everyone felt bad (which means Cliff did his job well), so we ditched the idea and brainstormed new ones.

We previously had come up with an idea to go zip lining, and the world’s largest zip line is 45 minutes away from Cuzco, so we found the travel office to ask about prices and whatnot. The price was a little high (higher than they would have been to go four-wheeling), but the hour bus ride to and from the zip line is what really deterred us.

The travel office was up on the Plaza De Armas; as we were walking up there, we were impeded by a parade. They had bands planning, masked dancers throwing confetti, and people of all ages dressed in traditional wear marching in the procession. It was fun to watch for a little bit, but the parade ended up taking several hours, marching from plaza to plaza.

We returned back from our mini-adventure, and nobody wanted to do anything. So Susana, Alex, and I made a trip back up to the plaza to go to mass at the cathedral. The decorations in the cathedral were extravagant and gaudy. There were gold statues, for lack of a better work, from floor to ceiling depicting different saints and scenes. They lined the gothic walls and framed the alter where the bishop prayed. We quietly listened as the good people sang their praise and partook of communion. The spirit here was very different than the last cathedral I visited. The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. felt very empty; this one felt sincere, like the people were true to their faith.

Mass only lasted a half of an hour. We found lunch in a corner restaurant in an adjacent plaza, and it tasted pretty good. I had chicken with herbs and a special sauce with a sweet glass of Coca-Cola (Coke is made with real sugar down here). After dinner, we took a taxi up to the Christ statue that overlooks the city, which was the best decision we made all day. It was cool to get our of the tourist part of town, to drive through the residential part of the city, and to get on top of the peak and look over the city. We took our picture over the city, and an old man dressed in colorful clothes playing a ukulele type instrument jumped in our photo. We hiked down the other side of the statue and found some old walls, which Dave had said earlier were part of the fortifications of the original Incan city. We took another taxi back down the mountain and made our way back to the hotel, even more in love with the city.

 When we returned, nobody else was at the hotel. I took the opportunity to catch up on the blog and to rest for a bit. We had some time to kill, so we went to the other market that we hadn’t been to. I found some shirts for Jaren and Jesse that I hope fit because neither of them had sizes on them.

We met again in the lobby with everybody to go out for dinner, courtesy of Cliff and Dave. Dave had made us reservations at fancy restaurant called Chi Cha and said that he and Cliff would pay for part of our meal. We walked up there, hoping they would let us in earlier than our reservations, but they were packed, so we had to kill another hour on the town. We spent some time in the shops looking at nothing in particular. Dave bought all the girls roses from a vendor. Cooper bought a spoon because his grandpa collects them. Nate and Natalie were on the hunt for a birthday present for Aniko because her birthday was the next day. As we were just sitting and chatting in the main square, these cute little girls came up and started selling us their dumb llama key chains and their dumb hats. But they were freaking cute and funny. I ended up buying a keychain for Mom and Jesse; you better like them!

They bugged us and messed with us for almost the whole time, attracting about four other little girls that did the same. Their selling tactics are terrible- they just throw stuff on you then run away so you have to take it and buy it. But they played us bad. It was kinda fun, but it did get annoying after doing it for an hour.

Finally, our table opened up and we were taken to our seats. Dinner was really fun. We had great conversation, and Cliff and Dave bought us all sorts of appetizers to try. I had octopus for the first time, and I did not like it. I ordered chi cha morada, which seemed appropriate given the restaurant. It is a drink made from purple corn, which has a sweet and corny taste to it. I really like it. For the main course, I ordered veal-stuffed ravioli, and it was super tasty and had very dimensional flavors. Brennon, who sat next to me, ordered anticucho, which is animal heart. His plate came with chicken and beef heart, and we swapped tastes. I only tried the chicken heart, and it tasted just like chicken, but I was still a little queasy at the thought that it was heart.

After dinner, which we finished at about 11:00, we walked back to our hotel so some girls could change and get something warmer to wear. We hopped into two taxies and made the trek (again for me) up to the Christ statue. The night view of the city was also gorgeous, and you could also see the stars from up there. It was really peaceful, even with the bumping Cusqueño music. We showed up right before midnight, and when the clock struck twelve, we started celebrating Aniko’s birthday. The taxi drivers said it was a little late for us to go up, but it was memorable, even for the second time.

Machu Picchu!

Early mornings come fast. We had eaten and were out the door by 5:20. Hilariously, we hopped on a bus then literally crossed the street and switched busses; it beats me why we couldn’t just walk there.

The trek to Machu Picchu is a long one. The second bus took us through a bunch of little towns on winding roads, swerving and honking at every car, dog, person, tree, etc., that stood in his way. Being the bus, he had the right of way because he was the largest; at least that is how it works in Peru. I almost got sick. I was sleeping for most of it (the honking kept jolting me awake), but I would wake up sick to my stomach and hope that I wouldn’t have to up chuck. I hadn’t completely ruled out that something I ate yesterday might have been making me sick, which worried me more than just a one-time, motion sickness deal. After a couple more naps on the condensation-soaked window, my stomach had found its strength.

Erin and I were train buddies.

The bus took us to the train station. The train was way more fancy than I had anticipated. We were sitting together, around tables with seats facing each other. As the ride started, we were given a breakfast snack, a lovely surprise. The train ride was about two hours, winding through the Sacred Valley. Houses lined the trail, both currently occupied and haven’t-been-occupied-for-several-centuries. Our tour guide would point out some ruins and have stories every now and then, but he seemed ornery and was more annoying to listen to than interesting.

The train stopped in a beautiful little town at the base of the mountain where Machu Picchu resides. Stores line the streets selling the same junk that I had just looked through the night before, although not everything was open when we got there. With out much time to peruse, we got on another bus that would finally take us to the wonder of the Incans.

The bus followed a trail of switchbacks, but I did not get sick this time probably because the bus ride was only a half of an hour. At the top, there ia a small receiving community; we passed to the other side and there she waited: historic Machu Picchu.

Before you can get to the city, you have to hike up a short trail. Cliff, who is 67 I think, was powering up the hike like he was our age. At the top, the iconic view of the city greeted us. It really is beautiful. After some long-winded explanations of our options, a group of us b-lined it to the hut to hike Huayna Picchu, the mountain than cascades above the ruins.

The problems are that we were not timely in our arrival, they require tickets to hike it (for which hadn’t been planned for some reason), we are gringos, and they only allow 400 people to hike it per day. We almost got in; they let us through the gate, but made us go back out when they found out how unprepared we were.

We semi-disappointedly toured some of the rest of the city, only after trying a couple of more angles to get through. The coolest part of Machu Picchu is that you are right in it all. There are no ropes. There are no guards. You get to hike to almost every part and see and touch it. We decided to hike to the sun gate, which is the opposite direction of Huayna. We started up the trail when it started raining. Dave said in the four other times he had been here, it hasn’t rained. In fact, it rarely rains at all, so we were lucky enough to catch the day when it rains. We stopped under some branches and talked for a bit, but Natalie and Aniko decided to go all the way. Dave, Cooper, Tyler, Nate, and myself turned around after the rain let up, saw a couple more sights on the way down, then hopped on the bus back down. The girls took Tyler’s backpack, which had his bus ticket in it, so he and Nate waited for the girls to come back down while Dave, Cooper, and I got in line for the bus.

Our final view as we left

The ride down was more scary than the ride up. The bus driver hardly tapped the brake pedal, so our heavy bus was driving down a muddy road lined with slick rocks at crazy speeds with other busses trying to make it up the hill. I though it was fun; the drivers down here must know what they are doing. We made it safely down and found somewhere to have lunch. The restaurant offered us free chips and guacamole and 10% off our bill, so we decided to eat there (not that other places would have offered us the same, they have before). 

All three of us ordered lomo saltado, which is a beef stir fry kind of thing with rice and fries. It is a national meal, so everyone has to try it when they come down. It was delicious, especially coupled with a cold glass of Inka Kola.

We met up with the rest walking through the markets in the village. Nothing they had there was any different then every other market I had been to, so I didn’t purchase anything. The train station was packed full of people headed back to Cuzco or to other places in the Sacred Valley. The trip back was about a half hour longer than the way down because we stopped in the middle of nowhere and had a fashion show. The train stewards showed us their alpaca clothes then came around and asked if we wanted to purchase them. They also had a guy who was dressed in a rainbow suit with a jaguar mask and fake hair dance in the aisles.  Aniko was sitting in the aisle, and when he got in her face, she freaked out. And because she freaked out the first time, he did it over and over. Everybody was laughing except Aniko, who probably would have punched the guy had he got in her face one more time. Finally, she traded seats with somebody and got out of his way.

The train took several hours; then we reboarded a bus to take us to our hotel.  The ride was a half hour longer because we were headed back up hill. I tried to sleep the whole way, but it was on and off. We finally made it back and retired to our rooms, well I did. Everybody else went out for dinner, but I was not hungry, nor did I really want to go out the rest of the night. I stayed in and did some laundry in the sink, which I should have been doing the whole time. Tomorrow, we get to sleep in, which is such a blessed idea.

Two Posts in a Day! (Pics to Come Later)

The few hours of sleep seemed multiplied, luckily, by the quality of sleep I got. It seemed to sustain me through the day today, even though I have been going since 3:00. The airport was not quiet, but it was slow, which begged the question, Why are we here so early?  Our flight was not supposed to leave for another three hours, and there was not much of a hurry (at least from what we could see).  We just trusted our trustworthy tour guides I guess.

We sat, clumped together, waiting tiredly for our vuelo to board. I rounded up everybody’s leftover pesos and bought a chocolate chip muffin from Starbucks for breakfast. Soon, our flight was ready, and we all boarded to leave beautiful Chile.

I fell asleep almost instantly when we got in our seats. I barely remember leaving the terminal and getting positioned on the runway. The next thing I know, I woke up to the acceleration of takeoff, then fell back asleep because the back of my eyelids were more interesting than the back of everybody’s heads.

I woke up again shortly before breakfast came, which was a surprise there was breakfast at all (which is where I put in a pitch for LAN Airlines- they are great; way better than American, which we used to fly out of the states). It was airplane food, but actually semi-delicious. After breakfast, sadly, I had a hard time falling back asleep, so I mindlessly closed my eyes and listened to the roar of the engines and the annoying beeps from stewardess calls.

Touchdown, Lima! It seems to be an ugly city- it has a very monotone brown hue with a cloudy mist that adds a dark tinge to everything. We passed through immigration and customs, picked up our bags, then re-checked in for our flight to Cuzco. While we were waiting in line, Cooper (and supposedly Tyler) spotted Luribel, and we were all excited to see her! It was good to feel whole as a group again.

This is a Peruvian specialty: Inca Kola! It is delightful. They had it in the airport, so I took a pic to make Rhett jealous.

The flight to Cuzco was only an hour-ish, but the whole time, we were just climbing and climbing. Cuzco is about 12,000 feet above sea-level, and Lima is about sea-level, so we steadily ascended through the air. I had a window seat next to Luribel and Brennon, and it was fun to chat with them on the plane. When we started getting into the Andes, we could see snow-capped peaks that would suddenly disappear and reappear between nubes. The occasional village popped up from below, revealing winding roads and shanty houses. Suddenly, Cusco’s red-roofed came into view, the buildings looking like a vain of ore in the earth. The houses filled the crevasses and scaled the slopes of the hills around the valley. We pulled around a tall hill, then had a safe landing (apparently, Cusco’s airport is the sketchiest in which to land).

We were warned and warned about altitude sickness. Take it slow. Walk, don’t run. Stroll and peruse; don’t be brisk. I could definitely tell the air was thinner by my shortness of breath and lightheadedness. I could feel it all day actually, although I did not take proper time to rest and get used to the altitude. I didn’t pass out, luckily, and nobody else did either. We took our bags to our carrier, who loaded them and took us to our hotel.

Our hotel is beautiful as well! I am sharing with Brennon this time around, and we are living a luxurious dream. We took off shortly after unpacking to take a look around the town, and I have fallen in love. I seriously love this city.  It is beautiful, diverse, full of character, open, safe, and busy. Almost straight down the street from our hotel is the Plaza del Armas, and the cathedral there is so majestic! It is very European, and very old. I want to stop by and check out the inside before we leave. We had broken into a small group of Liza, Erin, Susana, Dave, Nate, Natalie, Alex, and myself; we walked down some alley where the walls on both sides are pieced together with rocks; the expert masons did not use mortar, so they had to shape each stone so it would fit without cracks or holes. To this day, after who know how many years of erosion and earthquakes, they are still tightly sealed.

We ate dinner at a pizzeria, then made a quick stop at the hotel before we started our shopping. There are numerous ways to buy souvenirs. There are venders on the streets, specialized shops, small hole-in-the-wall markets with many owners, people everywhere. Natives dress up in bright “authentic” costumes and tote alpacas or llamas or baby sheep and you can pay to have you picture taken with them. You can barely walk five minutes with out being solicited by a street vender, especially when they see you have already made some purchases. Susana, Liza, Erin, and I started looking at all of the market stores, trying to find gifts we liked for us or for our amigos. Even walking though the mart, the people were very imploring: “Amigo, es un pricio especial, solo para ti.” You should never take the first price they give you. You can always barter and lower the price, sometimes significantly. I bought a lot of junk in the name of gifts for others so I hope you like it! (and if anybody wants anything, let me know!)

The of Cuzco at night from our room. There's a small plaza right outside the front door, then houses line the hills around the city.

I guess when you travel, there is a habit of getting up early in the morning; we are going to Machu Picchu tomorrow, and we are leaving at 5:20 to be able to spend the better part of the day there. I tried to stay up (only past 10) to watch Emperor’s New Groove with the others, but I fell asleep on the bed. I decided to call it quits and go to bed. We have our alarms set for 4:00, so be grateful I am sacrificing my sleep to show you a wonder of the world!

This is What Happens When We Don't Have Internet All Day

I am really tired tonight, so I might not get my entry posted. On the other hand, we are getting up at 3:00, which right not is in two and a half hours, so I’ll probably just stay up til we leave.

Anyway, today ended up being one of my favorite days here in Chile. After breakfast, we went back to the mall-ish area for our second chance at Pricewaterhouse Cooper. Remember they were the company we had to reschedule on Tuesday. We were dropped off at a huge office building for our meeting at PwC. We were directed to go to the conference room, passing a large framed Chilean flag with signatures penned all over. The director of [some fancy title here; he did something with due diligence] spoke to us, and it was a long-winded speaking. Unknowingly, he replicated major parts of his presentation from almost every other visit we made this week. He told us many stories, including the one about the flag. Chile’s main export is copper, which means mining is a huge industry in the country. PwC works very closely with large mining corporations, even employing an accountant whose husband was one of the 30+ miners caught in the mine collapse. The signed flag was a token of appreciation for the support of that family by PwC.

The last part of his lecture was very interesting. He started talking about the operations of the Santiago branch and about the diversity of employees. He then pulled in three of his subordinates to speak to us. The gentleman was from the UK, and the two ladies were from Brazil and South Africa. We opened the floor for questions, then broke off after and spoke more personally. Tyler and I chatted with the South African who took a special interest in my aspirations to be an actuary and my Ghana internship. It was awesome to speak to professionals and to network.

After our PwC visit, we took a small bus tour of historic Santiago, put on by our tour guides Polo and Guillermo. Polo left us part way through the tour; he has been awesome to take care of us on our trip.  He and Guillermo are really knowledgeable about Santiago. The bus tour was only partially engaging. I read a chapter or two in my book The Kite Runner.

After we returned to the hotel, Brennon, Alex, myself, Susana, and Dave made a trip to the Santiago temple.

We hopped on the metro and walked several blocks and found the temple. The temple is on a campus with many other church buildings: a distribution center, a CCM (Spanish for MTC), and mission offices for the Santiago missions. The grounds are peaceful, even though they are not off the beaten path.

We stepped inside and the first thing I noticed were the beautiful, and I mean GORGEOUS, tile work. Lapizlazule is this beautiful blue stone that is only found in Chile, and it was incorporated into the stonework in the floor and on the recommend counter. The lobby is now my favorite temple lobby.

I pridefully did the session with out translation, which made it hard to pay attention. I also did the veil ceremony in Spanish, which was also difficult mainly because the man helping me was hoarse, and I could barely hear him. The celestial room was brilliantly white, and I was hoping they would incorporate the blue stone in there, but there was not much stonework anyway.

On our trip back, it was rush hour, and the metro was packed. It was so crammed; we were shoulder to shoulder, butt to butt, jammed together like the junk in my suitcase. We barely squeezed out on our stop and trekked back to our hotel, where we were finally able to undress for the day. I started packing my bags, mingled with Internet browsing and visits to amigos. We had a late dinner at some Italian place the other guys had visited earlier, where because we were so late (11:30 ish), the selection was slim. I enjoyed what I ordered, but Aniko was forced to order some pasta with sauce that tasted like nasty BBQ Spaghetti-o sauce.

The plan was to stay up until we had to leave. We didn’t get back to the hotel until half past midnight, and we had to get up at three, so why not just make an all-nighter out of it. But as I was writing, I was falling asleep, so I called it quits and slept for an hour or two.