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!