Hello
everyone!! How are you? If you´re reading this than you must care about me a
little bit and in that case I miss you dearly! So much has happened since the
last time we´ve talked! Where to begin, where to begin.
Monday,
Emily and I got up at the early hour of 6 am to go on an adventure! Julio´s
friend is a professor and is part of the program PorEso
(http://www.poreso.org/POR_ESO%21/HOME_POR_ESO.html), which goes to rural communities high up in
the Andes, who have barely any professors, and teaches once a week to fifth and
sixth graders the importance of farming. They have this little oasis of a
garden and greenhouse, which the students get to work on and harvest. A lot of
the food actually goes to the student’s family which is really nice. Ive never
seen kids fight over peppers and carrots the way these did. I also saw a kid
stuff a whole head of lettuce into his backpack which was a site.
After
visiting with the students we had a little afternoon break where I decided to
play volleyball with all of the professors. They take volleyball very seriously
down here in Peru. I was singled out because I was so bad, but we still won!
That night we then played B.S. aka bullshit with the teachers, a card game for
those that don’t know it, and I won 20 cents. They loved it and it was fun
yelling LIES in different languages across the table. That night Emily and I
shared a children’s bed of a friend of Juan’s, the same place we had lunch and
dinner and the same place I got to hold their baby pig. I was so excited. Only
downside of that night was when their creepy dog who nearly bit me creeped into
the room and made a bed out of bales of hay that were inside. I don’t really
like getting stared down by angry dogs.
The next
day was an early start, our breakfast being of rice, onions and potatoes. We
hopped on the motos and hit three towns during the day that Juan needed to
visit. It was wonderful visiting all of the little kids, all of which schooled
me in soccer. Although I am bigger, they are much faster. I find it so great
what Juans doing and loved being able to tag along with him. We finally made it
down the mountain midday and stopped on the side of the road for a picnic of
granadillas, oranges, pan, crackers and jam that I brought with me from the
mountains. Afterwards Emily and I hopped of in Pisac to explore and check on
the scene for we knew we would be returning.
Wednesday
and Thursday were pretty mundane in the life of Emily and I. Don´t get me
wrong, they were amazing, but nothing like the week of fiestas that we had.
Yesterday Emily and I harvested some more lettuce seeds, which is a painstaking
process, but we made it fun by singing songs that both of us knew. The Beatles
and The Head and the Heart were very popular. We also double dug some more beds
right after we weeded them. There is something very therapeutic about tearing
out bad plants in a bed you´re trying to protect. At night Juana made some
amazing spaghetti, my favorite meal from home that she makes, and we all watched
The Motorcycle Diaries. If you haven´t seen it, you should. It´s incredible.
Friday was
even more chill than the day before. I got up at the early hour of 7:30, early
for me but late for Emily who gets up at six and goes for a run. She´s amazing
and I hate her for it. Kidding! Really though, she is amazing and I wish I
could do that every morning and still be as wonderful and smiley as she is
throughout the day. I decided to get up early because I needed to go into town
and buy a calling card for I had run out of minutes and today is my dad’s
birthday! He´s left on a plane at 2:22 so I had to catch him before he left.
Emily had to send some letters so she tagged along and we took the 3 km walk to
town. Everything was wonderful until we had to actually find the calling card.
No one, not even the police, knew where to buy one. We were finally successful
after about an hour and headed home. Before lunch we collected some Huacatay
seeds with Julio, while talking about the death penalty and our views of life.
I then took a shower, my first in more days than I’d like to reveal, and did
some laundry.
Now the fun
really begins! Emily and I decided that we were going to have a little weekend
adventure/getaway, amiga amiga on our own! Got up around 7:30 on Saturday
morning, packed, had a quick breakfast, and were off! We decided, on Yesicas
suggestions, to buy these 2 day passes to visit 4 archaeological sites for they
were cheaper than buying passes at each location. The first stop was Pisac, by
far my favorite, even though it was the hardest. Instead of doing like all of
the other gringos do, Emily and I decided NOT to take a taxi to the top and
walk down, but instead hike ALL the way up then loop back down. My camera does
this thing where when it takes pictures it will take a clip so that there will
be a little movie slideshow of all that happened during the day. The lovely
background music for all of those pictures that morning? My wheezing/panting.
The ruins were AMAZING though and really worth it, being able to see an old
watch tower and old agriculture fields. Emily and I, or at least I felt, pretty
badass doing the whole hike and decided to reward ourselves by spending some
time at the market at the base of Pisac.
We wandered around for a while looking at all
the beautiful artesian work wanting to buy everything. The perusing was
priceless though for Emily started talking with a llama-yarn dealer for a while
and he asked her for a favor. He wanted to know how to say molestar in English.
Emily said that it was to annoy and NOT to say molest for it is far more
serious in English. When she asked why he needed this specific translation he
merely said that he had a problem with this girl that didn’t really speak
Spanish. Priceless. After Emily’s funny encounter we dined on granadillas and
an avocado for lunch, along with crackers and nuts, and hoped on the bus for
Urubamba!
On the way
there we made a friend, Elio, for I wanted to make sure that we were all set on
transportation to go to Moray which was next. He was from Chinchero and was
wonderful in directing us in the confusement that is Peruvian transport. He
also asked if we had boyfriends and maybe wanted to meet up the next day. We
politely declined. Once at Moray, or second archaeological site of the day, we
met this lovely Australian couple and decided to share a taxi with them. On the
way the husband asked us if we knew the significance of the rainbow flag down
here, which is the flag for Cuzco. We explained such to him and he said ¨Ohhhh.
We were at the top of Machu Picchu and saw that there and were like WOAH they
are really big in to gay pride. How awesome!¨ Although that would have been
awesome, we had to direct him to the right meaning.
Moray was
also at the top of my list of amazing places. Its circular irrigation on a
massive scale that the Incans perfected. I’ve decided the Incans are also
pretty badass when it comes to about everything. Emily and I walked around and
relaxed after our long day and took it all in. Afterward we headed to Urubamba
where our Hostel was waiting!
The hostel
that we stayed at is run by Javier, a native Peruvian and all around hippie. It
was only 10 soles a night and the idea was that while at the hostel you could
help garden and work. The idea of it was community. Sadly, Emily and I got in
late and were the only ones staying so we only got to visit with Javier for a
short while. While we made dinner of lentils and onions he played on his guitar
and sang beautiful music. He also had paintings all around the house, all his,
and he kept asking me what I thought of them. His mood and the atmosphere of
the place was very surreal and magic. Oh yeah, and there was a hot shower.
After our full day Emily and I retired pretty early to our little house, the
bottom floor consisting of a mattress sitting area with pillows, a lantern, and
books about permaculture, women, and sex, while the upstairs was lofted and had
two mattresses for us to sleep on. It was like being in an adult tree house
having to climb a ladder to our beds. I loved it.
Being way
too excited to start our final day of adventuring Emily and I got up around
7:30, left a note for Javier thanking him for everything, and were off again!
We went into town for the local market and dined on street tamales and
strawberry yogurt for breakfast. It was lovely. We then walked back to the bus
station and hoped on the bus for Chinchero! Chinchero is also another archaeological
site with some Spanish influence for there is a church also built on the site.
We walked around the ruins and listened to morning prayers over the loud
speaker, then wandered down to the market before you enter the site to peruse
for gifts. I didn’t end up getting anything and instead decided to save my
money for some lunch that was not vegetables or fruit. It was so worth it. We
found this little local joint where I dined on spaghetti and potatoes in this
peanuty sauce. When I asked how much it was and found out it was only 3 soles,
I WAS SO EXCITED, I got a second helping. I was definitely a happy
camper.
What I wasn’t
a happy camper about though? The typical cramped bus ride back to Urubamba
where I stood the whole way for an hour. Fun times. We were the only gringas on
the bus though so I feel like we at least got a little bit of street cred.
After the bus ride though we were ready for the last part of our trek:
Ollantaytambo! We were happy to actually get seating room on the taxi ride
there, and even more happy that we got ice cream right when we got there. We
had been craving it all day.
This place
was a lot busier than the other sites that we had seen so we decided to try and
make our own path to the top, of course the hardest. After about a million
stairs that was basically a long ladder we got to the top and were able to look
over the beautiful city. We walked through these impressive ruins too that
dangled on the side of a mountain, and I somehow ended up posing with a
Peruvian woman’s husband for a picture. They asked, I don’t know why, and I
thought why not. After a while exploring we walked back down, back through the
markets, and wandered around the forgotten streets of Ollantaytambo. Once it
hit 4 we realized we better make our way back to Calca, and took our last taxi
ride back to Urubamba.
The bus
ride to Calca was uneventful, a first in our adventure, except that I made a
Peruvian friend who was a tour guide who not only wanted to take us out to
dinner, but also wanted me to come on his camping tour. Thanks, but no thanks.
He did give me his train ticket though from earlier that day with his name on
it just in case I decided to contact him. Really sweet, but sadly not going to
be used. We came back to Calca without any electricity and dined on arroz con
leche by candlelight. The electricity came on right before bed though so Emily
and I did some light reading and made a few phone calls.
Now I bring
you to today! After such a crazy adventure we took it pretty slowly, double
digging some beds and watering some little baby seeds and plants. We watched Independence
Day celebrations throughout the day and then went into town, exactly where you find
me now. I will try and post more frequently so that these blogs aren’t so long
winded. I also did not read over this so sorry if it is a little confusing. Thank you for staying along and will post soon!
Besos!
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