cusco and the sacred valley

its been nice to set the backpack down for a while. after spending one night in the hostal with a couple friends, they no longer had space and i moved way up the hill to Home Sweet Home, an adorable little hostal/bed and breakfast in the san blas (artsy) neighborhood of cusco. it has an incredible view of the city and is a great escape from the herds of tourists roaming the center below, the ladies who everywhere you turn are offering ¨excuse me miss, massage please? maybe later...¨ and the bazillions of people trying to sell you souvenirs. the ladies that work here are wonderful and there has been a fun group of people to hang out with.

Inti Raymi was cool to experience, but in reality just overwhelming with the huge crowds. i had a good view for the part that was performed at the plaza de armas, but the main act was held at saqsaywamán, some ruins up the hill and unless you paid the $90 for a seat in the arena you really couldn´t see anything from up on the hill. i´m still glad i came because it was interesting to see the costumes and experience the event.

since then i have just been hanging out and exploring the city and area. on saturday afternoon i went out into the sacred valley to visit some of the villages and ruins. i just went with the flow and ended up exploring the ruins of pisac with some french people i got off the bus with, which i wasnt planning to do. traveling alone is so much fun because it opens doors to meeting people that are harder to find when traveling with other people. on sunday morning i wandered around the market and made friends with a little boy who was begging by giving him half of the orange i was eating. i met an older couple from australia over coffee and ended up sharing a taxi with them to the next town because we were all headed that way. i explored the ollantaytambo ruins with doug then wandered around town and hung out in the central plaza. i love to just sit in parks and people watch and be outside. i spend a lot of time doing that.

the next morning i went back to a place called heart cafe where i had eaten dinner the night before. it was founded by a british woman who has been doing development work with women in the area for many years and all the profits go to support the projects. she happened to be there, so i joined a group of young women who were chatting with her. it was inspiring to hear about some of her experiences, especially in the context of my studies in global development. the other girls were going to a theater performance, similar to inti raymi but ollantay raymi, which was performed on the terraces of the ruins. it was so much better than inti raymi because we were sitting right there, barefoot on the grass enjoying the perfect weather and the performance. it was a perfect afternoon. i made plans to go bungie jumping with a couple of the girls on friday!

the past few days i have been exploring museums around cusco that are included on the tourist ticket i had to buy to get into the ruins. although i am not much of a museum person, it has given me something to do and experiences i would not have had otherwise. the contemporary art museum i went to today was nice and had some awesome photographs.

i have also met up with a couple grinnellians who are here! random but fun! in the past 24 hours i have run into everyone i have met in cusco or knew was maybe here. its got a nice small town vibe in that you see the same people over and over.

my sis, puki and her friend remi get here tomorrow! well, they are probably on a bus heading to cusco from lima right now! i am so excited to see my sis! it has been far too long...

next up: bungie jumping and machu picchu!

the journey of death

so about a week and a half ago i decided to go cusco for Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun.

its been a looooooooong past 56ish hours. summary: depart salta, argentina at 7am on sunday morning. salta to calama=12 hours. calama=waiting 3 hours. calama to arica=10 hours. arica=waiting 2 hours bc the border doesn´t open until 8am. arica to tacna=sketchy car ride for a couple hours. tacna=i find out there are no buses from there to cusco and probably none from arequipa to cusco. the strikes in peru have made transportation difficult. tacna to arequipa=7 hours. arequipa=i almost give up because all the bus companies are saying buses are not going to cusco. then just as i was about to go get a hostel and shower i hear someone in the corner shouting CUSCO! i ran over and was like en serio? en serio? and yes, they were going an alternate route leaving at 8:30 pm...supposedly 13 or 14 hours instead of the normal 9 to 11. 19 hours later of winding through the mountains on gravel roads on a crappy bus i made it to cusco!

i hadnt slept in a bed for 2 nights. i smelled. i ate shitty sandwiches with the meat picked off. BUT i´ve made good traveling companions. i´ve laughed. i´ve listed to all the songs on my tiny ipod several hundred times. i´ve slept. i´ve watched bad movies. i´ve contemplated life.

somehow i made it to cusco alive. barely, but alive. 56 hours of travel straight is a bit much. but now im showered, have clean clothes, am full of coca tea. i got a bed in the hostal with friends. so life is good.

today is the festival! im going to enjoy!

thoughts on travel

yes, travel is about seeing things and places. it is about eating new foods. it is about adjusting to new cultures and customs and ways of doing things. it is about meeting new people--both locals and other travelers. it is about sharing experiences. BUT more than anything its about learning how to survive and thrive outside of your comfort zone. it is about meeting each new inevitable challenge with a smile and figuring out how to overcome it. its the moments you realize you are on the wrong bus or you wander into the neighborhood lonely planet said to avoid at all costs. its the little adrenaline rush of being lost or threatened or confused. but somehow it all works out. then you can breath. and what you are left with is the confidence that you can do anything and overcome any challenge. you have a little more faith in the universe and in people and that everything will work out in the end. and then you have a story to tell. because what is a travel story without some challenges and obstacles to overcome?

the other night i was in a hostel in mendoza, argentina and i overheard some girls talking that they had been on this 3 day tour in that place then were heading from there on another 5 day tour to somewhere else and from there they were joining another tour...BORING! they could never get lost. they could never be confused. to me, that just loses the adventure and the real POINT of travel.

brief summary of the past week or so:
-left Chloe and valpo (sad day :( )
-Santiago, Chile- couch surfed (CS) with a sweet girl from Ecuador, went out to a party with a bunch of CSers to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the website, went to a ¨gringo¨ themed party with a guy we had met the night before, checked out some urban agriculture projects with a guy a emailed after coming across his blog.
-Mendoza, Argentina- bike and wine tour with 3 irish guys and a danish girl i met in my hostel, hanging out and resting up to recover from a bit of a cold after many late nights, couch surfing with an incredibly creative and fun guy, enjoying the beautiful autumn like weather!
-Córdoba, Argentina- currently traveling with 2 girls i met in mendoza from germany and denmark, spent the day enjoying the history, art and culture of the city.
-Next stop: Salta, Argentina tonight then i will begin a several day journey heading up to Cusco, Peru in a hurry because i decided to get up there for Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun and Cusco´s biggest festival of the year, which is next week.

I love the freedom of traveling alone!

Abrazos!

awkwardness

witnessing chloes life in valparaiso is incredibly awkward and highly entertaining. highlights of the day:

host mom offers to wash my laundry cheaper than at jumbo (where i washed my laundry when i first got here). i decline bc i hadnt washed my laundry for like a month so i did it before leaving for buenos aires got but now its only been like a week so clearly i dont need to do laundry again...shortly after host grandma offers to sew some clothes for me. i decline saying i dont have anything for her to repair. this all occurs while chloe is at class and i am alone.

in the afternoon i busted out my mate gourd that i bought in buenos aires and while trying to make the tea host mom insists i put rum in it. then host dad arrives and insists i should put marijuana in it. there is no marijuana in the house...that i know of...

everytime host brother enters the room chloe and i make awkward turtle signs with good reason. nobody knows what is going on so we giggle.

host dad thinks it is highly entertaining to teach me the chile chant and every 10 minutes make me do it bc there is a big game today. chi chi chi le le le! Viva CHILE! i changed it to cheese cheese cheese cake cake cake! viva CHEESECAKE bc chloe and i wanted to eat the cheesecake that we made. they laughed at me.

they all laugh at me a lot and usually i have no idea what is going on po. and i thought i understood spanish...lies.

tomorrow i hit the road again. santiago for the weekend where i will couch surf and celebrate the 10th anniversary of couchsurfing with people in Santiago, celebrate the 21st birthday of a friend from grinnell who is studying there, and meet with a guy involved in urban agriculture there. on sunday i will head to mendoza for a few days, then up through northwestern argentina.

Adventures with Chloe

Somehow managed to meet up with Chloe Neely in Santiago, despite getting dropped off of my bus in a huge parking garage terminal that opened into the most confusing shopping mall I have ever seen. There is something to be said for cell phones, but I have really enjoyed living without one the past month or so.

We got to Valparaíso that evening and spent 2 nights there before taking off. I got a taste of Chilean Spanish which is really really hard to understand and made me feel incompetent. I did some laundry and got to catch up with Chloe which was amazing after 6 months apart from my best friend.

On Wednesday we took off by plane for Buenos Aires. This city is incredible. I still can´t put a finger on exactly what it is about it, but the vibe is just good. Its beautiful, its open, its clean, its colorful, its diverse, its liberal (for south america), its quirky, its alive. We met some great people in our hostel in San Telmo the first couple nights. Learned a bit of Tango, the dance that is widely popular in the city, and went out to a Milonga--a social gathering for young people to hang out and tango. We´ve been wandering the city and exploring the sights and tastes and sounds.

Tonight we went out with a guy from Grinnell who is studying abroad here this semester and some of his friends. The empanadas here are awesome!

Pretty sure I will be coming back to Buenos Aires someday soon, maybe to stay a while.

San Pedro de Atacama

The past 3 nights I spent in a small desert town of San Pedro de Atacama, near the Chile/Boliva/Argentina borders. The town is very touristy with about a bazillion tour companies offering the same excursions and another million restaurants with the sameish menu. But it also has a rugged feel about it and is very quite outside of the bustling main drag. We were in a cute hostal with puffy colorful comforters which was by far the cleanest hostal I have stayed in on my travels...particularly impressive considering all the roads are sand and dirt.

Day 1. we arrived after an overnight bus trip and just got ourselves oriented. There are only 2 ATMs in the town and only one that accepts visa, which of course was broken. Ash needed cash so she turned around and went back to Calama. I slept in a hammock at the hostal all afternoon then cooked dinner for us.

Day 2. the plan was to rent bikes and bike out to valle de la luna for sunset but there was a vicious wind storm stirring up sand all over town. bikes got canceled. then we booked a tour to salar de atacama which the company proceeded to cancel on us due to the wind but really because there were only 4 people on the tour because other agencies went. we ran after another group going on a tour to valle de la luna and jumped on the bus with them. worth the trip other than the fact we got utterly abused by the sand and the wind on top of a ridge by a dune where we were watching the sunset.

Day 3. much nicer day. actually went to salar de atacama and saw flamingos in salt flats with the setting sun over the mountains. pretty epic.

Now i´m on my way down to Santiago/Valparaiso. i have a 24 hour bus ride ahead of me which sounds awful, but i actually quite enjoy buses. lots of time to stare out the window, think, sleep, listen to music, read, and stare out the window some more.

And Chloe Neely will be waiting at the station for me! YAY!

Chile

Lake Titicaca was worth the trip, but the side from Puno, Peru is not the most beautiful and not open to the whole big part of the lake which is more or less divided into 3 sections. The people think the shape is like a puma, their sacred animal...I didn´t really see it, but sure. We went out to the floating islands of the Uros people which were created to escape the Spanish invading. They have continued to live on these islands built out of reads that literally float in the lake. Now they are anchored down but its pretty incredible how they continue to live. The material is really cushy and i just wanted to lay on the bed of reeds that is the island and sleep in the sun. It was a very ¨touristy¨ experience but worth it.

From Puno Ash and I got on an overnight bus to Tacna. We were in the front two seats and finally remembered to bundle up. Bus rides always start out a comfortable temperature but somehow end up freezing in the middle of the night. We brought my sleeping bag on board, layered up and snuggled through the night to keep warm. From Tacna we crossed the border into Chile where we have spent the last couple days enjoying the sunny warm weather, enormous sandwiches and huge plates of fries at a place called Roly´s and lounging on the beach.

Tonight we get on a bus to San Pedro de Atacama. There are cool natural things there like geysers and valle de la luna. We´ll see. Chloe Neely, my best friend from Grinnell, is going to be there this weekend with her dad who is visiting. Such luck! i get to see her a few days sooner than expected! Ash heads back to Lima on Sunday then to Quito to fly home. I have 2 months to the day left of traveling!