Lost In Translation (Part 2: The Cuzco Trip)

Let me just give a short explanation as to why I did not do this earlier. Basically, finals were not easy, packing to go home this Sunday has been difficult to plan, and posts about trips that involve a lot of pictures are difficult to make. It is one thing to just ramble for a few paragraphs about my experiences and thoughts about my daily life here. Talking about a larger experience where we did so much in such a short period of time is a lot more difficult to write. Also, organizing pictures in a way that flows with the narrative is equally challenging, especially if the photos are not in order and from different people.

Now, on to the exciting part. The Cuzco trip!

Oct. 20th.
The night before we left for Cuzco I slept over at a friend's house so we could take a taxi to the airport together. We slept surprisingly well considering that we had to leave by 3 am. Once we did arrive in Cuzco we did not do much for the rest of the day and instead spent most of our time relaxing and drinking coca tea (a tea made from the leaves of cocaine plants, an well known trick that the Incas used to help with altitude sickness. Note: no hard drugs are involved. It's just leaves). However, we did take a quick tour of the sights in the city of Cuzco. We visited the main plaza, a cathedral full of pieces of art done by both European and Peruvian artists, and the ruins of Inca civilization.

Oct. 21st.

Today, we left our hotel in Cuzco to travel to Machu Picchu. The trick to traveling to Machu Picchu is that typical roads can only take you so far. We spent the first half of the day traveling by bus towards the town, Along the way we stopped by ruins of Saqsaywaman and then to a farm where we got to feed llamas and alpacas. The second half of the day was spent traveling by train into the village near Machu Picchu. We arrived that night, completely road weary, and glad to settle into our rooms.

 Oct. 22nd.
Rising early in the morning, we prepared to board the bus to take us up the mountain road to the entrance of Machu Picchu. The first task of the day was to climb to the summit of Wayna Picchu, which is a smaller part of the ancient city hidden away on a much higher mountain.The climb itself was well worth it, but the real trouble came with getting back down. The stairs were all about mid-calf level, which is fine climbing the steep, jagged path. However, that mixed with the moisture made the descent very treacherous. At the end of the exciting day, we took the train back the main roads again and re-acquainted ourselves with the bus and our Cuzco hotel rooms. Since everyone who had been to Peru before me has told me that I have to see Machu Picchu while I'm here, I would have to say that this was a very fulfilling day.

 Wayna Picchu

Oct. 23rd.

Before our group split into two (those who were returning to Lima that day, and those who were staying two days more) we squeezed in a few more places of interest. We visited Moray, which is a site where the Incas used to experiment with agricultural techniques by creating terraces that created different levels of exposure to sunlight as well as varying temperatures. It's a very unique site. We also made a new friend at the site; a young black cat which probably belonged to one of the souvenir vendors or someone living nearby. The cat followed us all the way around the site hoping for some scraps of food or some water, which some of us had to spare. Though I am sure it had a name, we dubbed the cat "Pepe Cat" which is a play on the initials of the current president of Peru, PPK (pronounced Pe-Pe-Ka). We also visited the salt fields, which is a locally run site where extremely salty water from a unique mountain spring is distilled in pools to obtain different types of salt. Afterwards, the group split into two, some headed for the airport and the rest of us on our way to the inn run by the relatives of Abby, one of our group members whose family is from Cuzco. It was wonderful to get to meet some of her extended family. We all bought snacks and water for the next day knowing that it would not be particularly easy.

Oct. 24th.
The day had arrived. The remainder of our group (still decently sized) was about to tackle the Rainbow Mountain trail. It was the highest altitude I had ever hiked. We started off the day traveling by van to the beginning of the trail, and then enjoyed a breakfast with coffee and hot chocolate and maracuya (passion fruit) pie. When we started on the scenic trail, it was not particularly steep, the mixture of the lack of oxygen and my stomach not agreeing with me made for a very slow personal climbing experience. Long before we even reached the location that was these mountains' namesake, the views were already so scenic. Honestly, the most difficult part of the climb was the very last bit which involved climbing up a very steep incline in order to see the full range of the colored mountains and the valleys below. This was made difficult by it lacking oxygen, but also the fact that it was freezing cold. Though many of the photos we took were amazing at the very top, I can assure you that by the end we were all completely numb. By the time we made it back down the trail and ate lunch, all of us surrounding the table looked absolutely exhausted. I'm sure I didn't look much different.
































Oct. 25th.
We caught our flight back to Lima, bidding farewell to our time in Cuzco in exchange for a return to classes and school work once again. Despite not looking forward to attending classes again, I was glad that I got to experience all that I did in an around Cuzco and I was glad to have my afternoon of the next day free to rest after the Rainbow Mountains kicked my butt. It truly was wonderful to experience.

Lost In Translation (Part 1)

Hello again.

Yes, I know, I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping things updated these past two months. Unfortunately, I could not come up with a better excuse than the fact that a mix of trips, schoolwork, and politics have kept me from writing for whatever reasons.

To make things a little easier to recap, let's start with the most recent thing.

As this week was Thanksgiving in the United States, all of us exchange students had a Thanksgiving party at our program director's house. Our host families were invited because this party doubled as the end of the semester banquet. Some of the students even had actual family members visiting this week, so they got to join in on the fun.The banquet was set up like a pot luck, so each family brought a different dish. I made my mom's pumpkin cheesecake recipe, which went over very well, even though I had to use fresh pumpkin puree instead of canned which made the flavor a little different.

After we had all eaten our fill, each of us students went up and each gave a short speech about what we were thankful for, thanking our families for taking care of us during this whole semester. Even though my Spanish is just fine, I always think that whenever I speak publicly that what I am saying doesn't make coherent sense, but Marion assured me that my speech was great.

Earlier this week, I was beginning to prepare for my finals. Most of my classes only have a final project to turn in. One of my classes I have already technically finished, even though we still have one more class. My Quechua class has a final next week, and in another class I have a final project due.

Last weekend, we went camping. Not like middle of nowhere camping, but at a religious retreat. Though our trip was not for any sort of religious reasons, our program did spend the weekend with about 40 sixth graders from the school which I have volunteered at this past semester teaching English. The weather was wonderfully sunny, and I managed to get a lot of writing done. I also got along well with a lot of the students thanks to my love of Steven Universe and Adventure Time, cartoon shows that are as popular in the States as they are here in Peru. I also wowed a few kids with my origami skills. The most eventful part of the trip was when we taught the kids how to make smores. Imagine the chaos of dozens of 11 year olds crowded around a bonfire much too large to be cooking anything, and burning marshmallows on sticks as well as several of their arm hairs. Overall, it was a fun and memorable weekend.

The weekend before that, I went to the movies with two of my friends and we saw Doctor Strange. I was surprised by how funny it actually was, and the visuals were amazing. This week I am going to see Fantastic Beasts, which I have been excited for for about two years.

During the first two weeks of November, I spent the majority of my time hanging out, drawing, watching Netflix, and explaining the politics of my country to pretty much everyone. It is difficult to argue political points in a foreign language, no matter how good you are at it, because you always know you could discuss it better in your first language. The night of the election I stayed up late in order to watch the results live. This made giving the presentation for my class the next morning difficult. I apologized to the professor for being a distracted. He said he understood.

This is where I will end this post because the most notable thing that happened before this was my trip to Cuzco, which I will be including a lot of pictures of. So in the interest of not making this too long, I will see you in the next post.