It's now been over a month since we returned from Peru (just about 5 weeks), and it already feels like a dream.
We had a little bit of a misadventure right at the beginning -- I had made an appointment at the Aveda Institute to get my hair cut and to change back to a "normal" color (from the purple bangs I had last semester) for the day before our flight. We were flying out of Ft. Lauderdale and decided (after the appointment was made) to leave the day before and spend the night in Ft. Lauderdale with Molly's family. My appointment was in the morning, though, and we were planning on leaving in the early afternoon, and so I thought it would be fine. After all, how long could a simple cut and color take??
If you guessed 8 hours, you were right. Yes, I sat in a salon chair from 10am until nigh on 5pm. And I didn't get the color I really wanted, nor did I actually get the haircut because by the time the color was done, I pretty much just bolted out the door as fast as I can. Luckily we weren't on a SUPER tight schedule -- we ended up leaving around 6pm (instead of 2). And our flight wasn't until the following afternoon.
When we made it to Lima, we waited overnight in the airport for our flight to Cusco the next morning at 6am. (Note to self: next time, book a hostel.) We finally got into Cusco around 8am on Saturday morning after spending a sleepless night sitting on the airport floor and got checked into our hostel, which was a beautiful building -- an old mansion repurposed into a hostel. It had a lovely courtyard where we napped for a couple hours on beanbags before taking a quick walking tour of a local flea market.
Cusco is absolutely beautiful. I really loved all the architecture, but I'll be honest: the altitude and the hills KILLED me. Our hostel happened to be perched near the top of a pretty steep hill. I climbed up it that first day on our way back from the walking tour, and by the time we got to the hostel, my heartbeat felt like a hummingbird's. I vowed to not walk back up that hill again. Luckily, taxis were very cheap.
I slept for nearly 12 hours our first night in Cusco, so on Sunday I felt a bit better. We walked down to the main square where there was some sort of parade happening, and then we took a walking tour. Though the worst of the altitude sickness had worn off by then, the hills were still brutal and I very nearly didn't make it to the end of the tour. But Molly pushed me to keep going (she didn't want to get separated) and I'm glad she did. There was a cooking demonstration at the end where we got to try ceviche (a Peruvian specialty -- raw fish marinated in lemon juice) and a quinoa salad. Even though seafood usually makes me feel queasy, the ceviche was actually really good. Later that day, we walked down to the textile museum where they have an exhibit on the history & tradition of weaving in Peru and women who sit and weave right in the shop. They also have lots of exquisite pieces made by local women. I picked up some alpaca wool yarn spun by Peruvian women that I hope to turn into... something. A scarf maybe. That night, we tried alpaca meat for dinner (alpaca kabobs) and it was really good -- a little bit like lamb.
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| Celebration in the main square |
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| Cathedral |
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| Alpaca being fabulous |
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| Alpaca got a haircut |
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| Weaving |
On Monday morning we took the train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo). The train ride was so lovely. (I know, I'm super biased because I just adore train travel.) We paid a little extra money for our tickets to take the slower moving train with extra large windows, and it was well worth it. The route goes through the mountains and part of the Sacred Valley. I'm not sure what it is about mountain landscapes, but they always take my breath away.
We had decided to spend a night in Aguas Calientes instead of trying to cram the round trip journey from Cusco AND seeing Machu Picchu in one day, so once we arrived, we had time to relax in the smallest, most charming tourist trap you'll ever see. The town pretty much built itself around the tourism industry of Machu Picchu, so you really can't blame them for the host of places boasting pizza and spaghetti on their menu. In terms of hills, Aguas Calientes has Cusco beat by a mile. The whole city is built on the side of a mountain basically, so the train station is at the bottom and you walk up, up, up to get anywhere you want to go. There are also hot springs at the very tippy top edge of town (hence the name "Aguas Calientes" -- literally "Hot Waters"). We ventured up there in the afternoon and enjoyed a relaxing swim with mountain scenery before descending back into town to try another Peruvian specialty: roast guinea pig.
For those of you that know me, you'll know that I hate eating anything off a bone and I'm not particularly fond of eating meat that looks like the animal it came from. (Chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs = fine; chicken nuggets shaped like chickens = less so.) When the waiter set the guinea pig on our table -- front paws and back legs splayed out with feet and claws attached, head complete with one beady eye (not sure what happened to the other one) and teeth -- I wasn't sure I'd be able to actually eat anything.
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| Roast guinea pig |
But I braved it and picked gingerly at a hind quarter with my fork. The fork proved entirely ineffective, so I eventually picked it up and tried to eat it like the waiter had suggested. Honestly, it was pretty good -- the skin tasted like bacon and the meat itself tasted like a cross between chicken and frog. We both ended up refusing to eat the head, so I guess we'll never know if it was served with brains still inside. (Anyone braver than us who can share?)
On Tuesday, we got the first bus out to Machu Picchu at 5:30am -- making it up the mountain by 6. I had decided on Monday to try to take diamox for altitude sickness (I was still pretty tired and not very hungry on Sunday) just to see how bad the side effects were (they were minimal), so I took them again Tuesday to combat any possible altitude sickness while we were there (and again on Wednesday in Cusco).
Before we left, I had bought a Machu Picchu guidebook, written by people who had actually worked as archaeologists on the site -- Molly and I both read it before departing as the reviews on Amazon had suggested. So we started by following the route in the book -- heading up to the guard tower for "the most amazing first view of the city". The first view? Honestly: unimpressive. But this was largely due to the fact that there were thick clouds still blanketing the mountain so you could maybe see about 20 feet down and that was about it.
We sat around for a bit (I had already tripped on the stairs on the way up) to try to wait for the clouds to dissipate a little bit. They did, but only minimally, so we finally decided to head down into the city, figuring that we could always climb back up afterward if we wanted.
I let Molly take the guidebook and lead us around while I took photos. The entire thing was just incredible. I won't go step-by-step through our visit, but I'll just say that I am 1. in awe of the Inca people and 2. pretty proud of myself for making it DOWN some of the most terrifying staircases in existence (Hello, my name is Katie and I'm TERRIFIED of heights) as well as UP those very same staircases and all the way back up to the guard tower.
By the time we finished exploring the city, I honestly thought it was going to take everything I had just to make it back to the exit, let alone all the way back up to the guard tower for the "quintessential view" of Machu Picchu. But we sort of accidentally ended up on a one-way path up there and before I knew it, we were so close that I decided that I would kick myself if I didn't. I told Molly to go ahead (I was moving pretty slowly) and that I'd meet her at the top. And I did!
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| Llamas are the most adorable animals (other than my kittens, of course) |
In hindsight, taking a vacation to one of the most physically demanding places at what is probably the low-point in my physical health was a pretty bad decision, but I made it! And I'm super proud of myself for doing so. I would like to get fit and maybe return to Peru later in life so that I can actually hike the Inca trail and climb Hyuana Picchu.
After climbing to the guard tower, we decided to head back down to Aguas Calientes to do a load of laundry before catching the train back to Cusco.
Since our train back to Cusco was mostly after sunset, there were no spectacular views on the way back, but the crew put on a little fashion show for us to model the alpaca wool garments they sold. When we got back to Cusco, we headed back to the same hostel that we had stayed in before.
Back in Cusco, and feeling a LOT better thanks to diamox, we were able to do a bit more -- we went to the San Francisco Monastery to see the catacombs (small, but creepy), the cathedral, and the Monastery of Saint Domingo as well as taking a cheap bus tour up to Sacsayhuaman (pronounced a bit like "sexy woman"). If we had had time, I think Sacsayhuaman would have been interesting (it was another Inca site), but as it was, we only had about a 5 minute stop where we could take pictures from a distance.
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| View from the top of the bus |
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| Cusco from above |
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| Sacsayhuaman |
The next day, we flew back to Lima early in the morning (even though our flight was a bit delayed). We checked into the hostel and relaxed for a couple hours before heading out to get lunch and books (me for my soon-to-be-born niece and her for her recently-born nephew). Then Molly wanted to walk into the center of the city. We were staying in an area of Lima called Miraflores which is almost like a suburb of the city. It was about a 3 hour walk, but it was straight down this beautiful boulevard lined with trees and benches. By the time we got to the center of town, we stopped to relax in a park before heading toward the main square where we looked around and got a taxi back to the hotel.
On Friday, we took a taxi into the city center and did a bit of church hopping -- we went to the cathedral and a monastery. We also found a little literary museum. In the early evening, we took yet another taxi (Lima is HUGE -- much bigger than I expected) out to Hard Rock Cafe, which happened to be in a giant mall where we found a fantastic bookstore and bought yet more books. Then we got a taxi back to Miraflores where we went to Larco Mar which is a mall (another one, I know!) that is set into the cliffside. We ate at a restaurant there for Molly's birthday (which was Saturday) and we were right in front of a window looking out over the ocean.
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| Center of the main square |
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| The monastery |
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| The coast at night from our dinner table |
On Saturday, we basically walked along the cliffs all day -- we went down to Barranco, then made our way through several of the cliffside parks and stopped to watch some parasailing before heading back to our hostel to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.
Since we got back, life has been a bit of a blur. I got a bad cold almost immediately upon our return to Tallahassee (at least it held off until I was at home), and then spent a week trying to clean and organize my apartment while packing for MI. I made the 19-hour drive to Michigan and spent a wonderful week and a half with my parents and family -- we went to the zoo, IKEA (where I got my very first piece of IKEA furniture), and to my brother and sister-in-law's baby shower. Finally I drove home to Tallahassee where I had less than a week to get my apartment in order and pack for France.
Yesterday morning, I took the bus from Tallahassee to Orlando and spent the night near the airport and now I'm waiting to board the first of my 3 flights on my way to France -- first to Toronto, then to Frankfurt, then finally to Marseille. I'll have about a week in the Provence region before I head up to Paris for the month of July and then once the students go home, I'll be spending about a week and a half exploring Lille, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
