Left My Heart in Cusco

Where to even begin describing my trip to Cusco... All of the words I have sound cliche and don't begin to capture the magic of the experiences and places! 

We arrived in Cusco on Wednesday after a short flight from Lima. We checked into our (4-star!) hotel and rested for just a few minutes before setting out on a tour. We went to several ruins: Sacsayhuaman, Tambomochay, and Q'enqo. Each one was beautiful under the big blue sky and surrounded by the mountains. The stones used to build the walls at Sacsayhuaman were huge and so perfectly cut that they have held up through multiple earthquakes and hundreds of years! We were also able to slide down rocks smoothed by glaciers, which was a lot of fun! After our tour, we grabbed dinner in Cusco and then went to bed early! 

Thursday was an early morning. We got up before 6 a.m. and I fully intended to sleep for the three hour drive into the countryside. However, the scenery was so spectacular that I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes! After our three hour drive, we toured several small, sustainable and organic farms run through the Sierra Productiva program, which helps families improve their homes and farms. After touring the farms, we ate lunch, sampling lots of traditional local dishes including cuy-- guinea pig! Yikes! 

When we were done with lunch, we moved on to my favorite part of the day: our visit to a home for abused and abandoned girls. The girls were so excited to see us and performed several traditional dances for us! Then we (attempted) to sing a couple of Disney songs for them! Afterwards we played games with the little girls, blew bubbles, and danced! For some reason, the girls latched on to me more than anyone else so, even as we were trying away from "it" in a game of freeze tag or the "wolf" who was trying to catch us in another game, they wouldn't let go of my hands and I had to run with at least two girls permanently attached to me at all times! They cheated to be on my team in different games and, as we were getting ready to say goodbye, brought me balloon after balloon, hugged me over and over, and told me they loved me and would miss me! It was an incredibly happy experience, but I was also very sad to say goodbye! I definitely left a little piece of my heart with those girls! 

Friday was yet another busy day. We checked out of our hostel and drove to the Sacred Valley. Our first stop was Awana Kancha, a llama farm and textile shop that supports local families. We got to pet and play with the llamas, learn the process for naturally dying textiles, and browse some of their beautiful products! We then headed to the ruins at Pisac-- terraces and buildings sprawling over the mountainside. My first reaction was awe-- how could Machu Picchu possibly top a place so beautiful? 

Once we had hiked through the ruins a bit, we went and got some lunch nearby and then moved on to the market in the modern town of Pisac where I was able to find a couple gifts for people back home! Then we climbed back into the bus and drove to Ollantaytambo, another beautiful set of ruins in the Sacred Valley. These were created to look like a seated llama and were used as an astronomical observatory. Again, the ruins, the surrounding mountains, the sky... everything was amazing! We had a little while before we needed to catch our train, so Ava, James, Brian and I decided to quickly hike partway up a nearby mountain with ruins atop it (we weren't able to hike the whole way as the path had been closed due to a tourist falling off the week before!) The view was pretty spectacular and we then hurried to catch our evening train to Aguas Calientes! 

We spent the night in Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to Machu Picchu, and woke up before dawn to catch one of the very first buses up the mountain! We arrived just as the gates were opening at 6 a.m., which luckily allowed us to get many photos without tourists in them! Somehow I had thought that because Machu Picchu gets so much hype and because I had seen so many pictures, it wouldn't astound me that much. I was so wrong. Breath-taking, awe-inspiring, spiritual, beautiful, transcendent. That's the closest I can come to describing the way the clouds drifted over the silhouettes of nearby mountain peaks, the way the sun rose up through the windows of ancient stone buildings, the way your heart caught looking at this place. Machu Picchu seemed to belong on that mountain more than any man-made place I've ever seen; I can't imagine that jungle wilderness without it. 

After wandering through the ruins for several hours, hiking to an Incan bridge, and laughing at the local llamas, we began our hike of Wayna Picchu, the tall mountain that you can see in all of the pictures of Machu Picchu. The trail was steep, with stone steps cut into the mountain and sheer drops off the cliff most of the way up. I didn't have too hard a time going up, though it got scarier once we neared the top!  Between 45 minutes and an hour after beginning the hike, we summitted and took some photos to prove we'd made it before beginning the descent! Unfortunately, going down those thousand stairs didn't agree with me knees nearly as much as it did with my sense of adventure and they've been hurting since! It was still an incredible experience, however, and something I'd recommend to those not afraid of heights if you get the chance! 

Once everyone made it down from Wayna Picchu, we headed back to Aguas Calientes for lunch and to meet our train back to Ollantaytambo where we caught a bus back to Cusco. Somehow, exhausted as we were, we managed to make it out to dinner and spent a brief time exploring the Cusco nightlife though none of us were really up for dancing! I think we all slept well that night! 

Sunday was our final and free day in Cusco. Brian, Veronica, Kaylie and I started it off with a quick trip to a local market and then got ourselves over to the Chocolate Museum as soon as it opened! We sipped chocolate tea on a balcony overlooking Cusco and sampled various chocolates! Next we grabbed lunch at Aldea Yanapay, a restaurant that supports a social project working with children in need in Cusco, and wandered the San Blas artesian district. We walked to the Mirador for a beautiful view of all the red tile roofs in Cusco as well as some very in-love pigeons, then returned to the hotel briefly before taking a taxi up to the White Christ, a statue that stands protectively on a hill over Cusco. We watched the sky get dark and then walked down into the city for a delicious farewell dinner (and a good helping of ice cream!) 

The next morning we packed our bags and returned to Lima and "real life": school, volunteering, and city life. I'm spending the next couple of days volunteering with Building Dignity in Villa El Salvador, running, and studying for the three midterms I have next week, but, per usual, can't turn down an adventure and will be headed to nearby San Mateo to do some hiking on Saturday and Sunday! More soon! Miss you all! 

To Want, To Need, To Hunger For Adventure

"It is in all of us to defy expectations, to go into the world and be brave, and to want, to need, to hunger for adventure, to embrace change and chance and risk so that we may breathe and know what it is to be free." -- Mae Chevrette 


First of all, sorry I am such a terribly unfaithful blogger. I've been having a bit of a love affair with real life. And, as usual, it's been fabulous! 

As mentioned, we headed to Ayacucho last weekend for Semana Santa celebrations! We stayed in the home of a local family, which was nice in comparison to a hotel or hostel because they gave us lots of good tips on things to do and foods to eat! (And this time we were bedbug free!) We stayed in the city of Huamanga, the capital of the district of Ayacucho famous for its 33 colonial churches (one for each year of Christ's life.) We wandered the city and got to see several of these beautiful churches! The oldest we saw was built in 1552! 

Four of the TEN churches we visited over the weekend.

What did we do besides visit all of these churches? So many things! We arrived Friday morning at about 8 a.m. and spent most of the day wandering through town exploring. We took a taxi up to the mirador, a high point overlooking the town, and got a beautiful view of the city, mountains, and incoming storm clouds! We tried various restaurants throughout Huamanga, discovering our favorite was a place that served up a huge plate of French fries for about $1! I guess we're true Americans after all! In the evening, we admired beautiful flower carpets covering the streets near the Plaza de Armas. They were absolutely spectacular! Once it got dark, a Good Friday procession began through the Plaza with the body of Christ and the Virgin Mary accompanied by nuns, priests, members of the army, and many others. It was a beautiful procession, especially when the parade stopped and a group of women began to sing a song in Quechua.

The view from the mirador.

The Plaza de Armas.

Completely made from flowers! 

Kaylie, Victoria, and I posing with one of the beautiful drawings! 

Christ being carried through the procession.

Whoo! The first of four days and already so many amazing experiences! Saturday was no different! We began the day with a delicious breakfast of chocolate-covered pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast, fresh pineapple juice, and mate de coca for the altitude! Next up: the Jala Toro-- literally "Bull Pull." This was a bit like the running of the bulls only the bulls were on leashes for safety reasons, so it amounted to a couple of cowboys riding through the crowd every half hour with a bull on a leash. There was a huge crowd and, while waiting for each bull, they got up to some crazy stunts-- human pyramids, throwing people in the air, playing guitars while standing on people's shoulders, stripping while standing on people's shoulders... I opted to participate in the first two! 

The Pascuatoro

Me gracefully (haha I joke) flying through the air. 

Once the Bull Pull was over and the huge crowds were finally beginning to diminish, we headed back up to the mirador for a fair/large market. The crowds were insane here too and I was almost robbed! I was holding my purse fairly carefully and felt something unusual. I looked down and a young woman had her hand inside my purse! My instant reaction was to slap her hand away and, fortunately, she simply walked away without taking anything! I was torn because I felt completely indignant that anyone would try to do that, but, at the same time, can't imagine how desperate you must be to turn to stealing. Either way, I'm glad I managed to avoid having my camera or wallet swiped! The fair experience was fairly so-so and we left just in time to miss all but the beginning of a big rainstorm! We hid out from the rain and ate cookies till it ended! We took an afternoon nap, knowing that we wouldn't be getting much sleep Saturday night...

The ferris wheel at the fair. 

Saturday night was an all-nighter for a good portion of Ayacucho. There was drinking and dancing and fireworks galore! It was a lot of fun to see the city celebrating so much! At about 3:00 a.m., we lined up outside the main Cathedral to wait for the doors to open and then all crammed into the church when it opened for 4:00 a.m. mass! In the middle of the church was a giant float, covered in candles and topped by Jesus, which was carried out by hundreds of men at the end of the mass! People were so eager to be a part of the procession that, as we crowded into the church and tried to find an empty pew to sit, many people leapt under the float and stayed there for the whole mass so that they could help carry it! It was an amazing experience to see such a dazzling procession so early in the morning! Unfortunately, my camera is not a fan of nighttime, so my only decent pictures are of the float while it was still inside the church! 

With Kaylie, Veronica, and Megan in front of the float pre-mass.

Fireworks being set off from tall wooden structures built that evening.

All lit up! 

We returned "home" at about 6:00 a.m. and crashed until noon! We spent a very relaxed Easter Sunday doing a bit more exploring. We went back to one of the markets in Huamanga, watched some very talented street artists, and bought a few souvenirs! Kaylie, Megan, and I settled into bed around 7:00 and the other girls were nice enough to pick us up some of those previously mentioned French fries for a very unhealthy dinner! 

This building wasn't anything special-- I just loved the colors! 

Monday was our last day in Ayacucho and it was a very full one! We headed out on a tour in the morning with Wari, the Pampa de Ayacucho, and Quinua on the list. Each was unique, interesting, and lovely! The beautiful drive was worth the price of the tour! We first went to some Wari ruins, the former capital of the empire! We got to see examples of Wari pottery, mummies, and manipulated skulls as well as a couple of council meeting sites, a jail, and a burial ground! The Wari lived before the Inca and were powerful for about 700 years! They were some of the first people to have planned city structures. We also learned that in a cave on a nearby hill the first evidence of humans in Peru was discovered-- and it dates back about 20,000 years before Christ! Also, I was completely in love with all of the beautiful flowers and cactus at this site and we lucked out with a tour guide who seemed to know everything about everything, even showing us the parasitic bugs on the cactus that are used to make lipstick! 

Look at that sky! 

A cactus with unripe fruit. We sampled some of the ripened fruit-- it was surprisingly sweet! 

A circle with 18 seats for representatives from the 18 Wari districts.

We left Wari and drove on to the Pampa de Ayacucho. The Pampa was the site of the Battle of Ayacucho, the last battle for Latin American independence from Spain. There are a couple of monuments here, a more modern-looking one built in the 1970s and a ceramic one built by local artisans, which, unfortunately, is falling apart a bit. While we were at the Pampa, Veronica, Martha, and I also snuck in a (very brief) horseback ride! 

I never can resist a good horseback ride.

The two monuments at the Pampa de Ayacucho.

Our last stop on the tour was the small town of Quinua, known for its beautiful ceramics. We visited several small shops in the village and were able to find some fun gifts for family and friends! Each of the buildings in the village, and in many other parts of the district, have small ceramic houses and churches cemented atop their roofs to bring good luck! 

An example of the many different ceramics! 

Note the little ceramic building on the roof! 

One last time-- in love with the sky! 

We squeezed in one more activity before calling an end to our trip to Ayacucho: a visit to La Universidad San Cristobal de Huamanga. Although the Easter celebrations in Ayacucho, the local ruins, and the art were beautiful and fun, we thought it was important to acknowledge a darker side to Ayacucho's past as well. Ayacucho was the birthplace of the Sendero Luminoso terrorist movement which wreaked havoc in Peru throughout the 1980s and 1990s and killed tens of thousands of people. It was all started by Abimael Guzmán, a professor at this university. Although we couldn't go inside, it was pretty powerful to stand looking at this impressive university, the second oldest in Peru, and realize that something so terrible was born on that very ground.

The university where it all began.

Phew! A very long post to summarize a very amazing trip! The rest of the week has been relatively calm: classes, running, another presentation, a flood in my bathroom, and my designation as the official dog trainer of the house! This weekend will be calm as well and then, on Wednesday, I'm headed to Cusco! I'm so excited for all the adventures to come (and there are going to be a lot of them!) and so ready to just embrace everything that comes my way! 

I also want to give a quick shout-out to my amazing younger siblings: Ethan, congratulations on your soloist award at State Jazz Band and Ellie, you are doing so amazingly well at track! Keep it up! I'm so proud of both of you & wish I could be there cheering you on!! You rock!