Class Field Trip to Compare Indigenous and Western Medicine (January 24-28)

The first field trip of winter quarter began last Monday, when we drove north for 2 hours to Otavalo. Our first stop was the Hospital San Luis de Otavalo and we learned about their new birthing areas that respect Indigenous womens' desires to use their traditional birthing positions and have the help of Indigenous midwives as well as trained doctors. The doctors and nurses in the hospital showed us a presentation about this program, which started in 2008. Then we got to see their birthing areas and meet a Quichua midwife. 

Demonstrating a seated birthing with the help of the "husband" behind (actually the midwife here)

Next we took a short bus ride across town to Jambi Huasi (Quichua for House of Health), a private clinic set up to promote traditional medicine, yet serve the urban community with a mix of mestizo and Indigenous patients. We got to see some amazing demonstrations, including a cleansing by a yachac (Andean version of a shaman or elder wiseman) and a diagnostics method using a cuy and one using an egg! Three of my classmates participated and it was fascinating to watch.

A Cuyfichak cleasing Marisol with a live guinea pig

Next we drove up the hill about 2 miles to Hotel Casa del Sol, a luxurious place to spend the night! We enjoyed a super lunch and then had some time to chill in the sun before an Indigenous leader, Enrique Cachiguango, from the nearby town of Cotacachi came to talk to us about the Indigenous perspective of health programs in Ecuador. Afterwards we walked with him to Peguche Falls, just around the corner from our hotel. We headed back and enjoyed another delicious meal at La Casa del Sol and spent the night relaxing, reading and talking.

View from our incredible hotel in Otavalo

Lunch at the hotel with Jenean, Marisol, Geoff, Kate and Michael (L-R)

Casada de Peguche

The whole group in front of the falls with Enrique in front

On Tuesday after breakfast at the hotel we drove about 15 minutes to a smaller town called Cotacachi, which is famous for it´s leather stores and set in a valley between two large volcanoes. Our first stop was Jambi Mascari, an Indigenous health and community action center. The people there told us a lot about their organization and their current projects and then we got to see a simulated traditional birthing with the help of midwives. 

Afterwards the midwives took us to their medicinal garden a few miles away in the country. We returned to Cotacachi for a ridiculously large meal at a touristy restaurant and then we got back in the car to drive further north. Late in the afternoon we made it to our next destination, a hotel in the Valle del Chota, about 1-1.5 hour south of the Colombian border by car. In the afternoon, Salomon Acosta, a local leader of the Afro-Ecuadorian community told us about the groups' history in the valley. The area is predominantly made up of African descendents due to slavery that existed in the region more or less until 40 years ago, when farmers finally started owning their own land.

Right before dinner some of the group decided to climb up the small mountain right outside of our hotel. It was a little bit difficult trying to avoid the cactus plants growing everywhere, but the view and sunset from the top were gorgeous! After hiking back down and eating dinner at the hotel, we managed to amuse ourselves way out in the country by swimming in the hotel's pool, playing ping pong and dancing outside to the tunes of our personal DJ (aka the hotel receptionist). Thank goodness we were the only group staying there!

Demonstating a tradtitional birthing method in Jambi Mascari in Cotacachi 

Sunset from atop a hill above Valle del Chota

On Wednesday we ate breakfast at our hotel and then hopped in the van under very sunny skies to drive a bit further north to the small town of Juncal. Once there we met the only two doctors in town (both women!), running two separate clinics to serve the Afro-Ecuadorian population there. The most impressive part of the day was definitely stopping in on a elderly folks dance therapy class and getting to dance to Bomba music with them! The Bomba is a type of music from this specific area and the dance that goes along with it involves the women balancing glass bottles on their heads! Thankfully none of the bottles fell to the floor! 

After a really nice tour of the town from the doctors, we started heading back south to Quito. On the way we stopped in Ibarra for some traditional all-fruit ice cream (actually more like gelato!), in Cotacachi for lunch and finally to walk around the market in Otavalo again.

The bottle dance to tradtional "Bomba" music with an 81 year old woman at left!

On Thursday we met early at CIMAS again and this time headed in the opposite direction, to Riobamba. We spent the morning at a main hospital in the city which offers three types of medicine; chemical (Occidental), Alternative and Andean. We got to talk to the director and a female Quichua healer ("Yachac") in the morning and when we returned in the afternoon, we also got to see the Alternative medicine side and talk to a woman who coordinates the community outreach programs of the hospital. 

One of the best experiences of the entire week occurred on Thursday afternoon when we visited the Polytechical University in Riobamba, which has a medicine program. One of the professors there talked with us for over an hour and his mentality as a doctor was so impressive. He stressed that doctors need to have a human side and understand emotions in order to relate to patients and treat them in the best way possible. After hearing his perspective, our group had a lot to discuss! We returned to the hotel for dinner and afterwards walked around the streets of the city and bought some interesting South American documentaries for $1.25 each!

Cotopaxi Volcano south of Quito in the morning

View from the hotel balcony of a Riobamba street

Another exquisite CIMAS hotel!

Friday was our final day of this trip and we wrapped it up by visiting two Indigenous towns to see the current state of problems such as malnutrition and high child and mother mortality rates. Our tour guide was the director of the community health outreach programs at the Hospital in Riobamba, who we had met the day before. She directed us first to San Jacinto, where we talked to the principal and 5 teachers at the primary school there. They showed us the facilities and gardens and then we played with the kids there. They were fascinated by our cameras, and much like the old women who we'd met on Wednesday in Juncal, they were so happy that we were visiting them! 

Afterwards we drove to the nearby pueblo of Calerita to meet a group of women who spin wool and weave their own clothing. They told us about their traditions, how they make their crafts and the future demise of their trade with the disinterest of the upcoming generations. 

We drove back into Riobamba one last time and had lunch before busing back to Quito in about 3.5 hours. And now to write the first essay of the quarter...in Spanish, of course!

One of the four classrooms in San Jacinto

Farming areas surrounding San Jacinto

Marisol with some of the girls at the school

Women spinning wool from their own sheep in Calerita

The community weaving loom of Calerita

To the Beach! CANOA (January 20-23)

For our first weekend trip of the quarter, 6 other Washington CIMAS and I headed to the Ecuadorian coast to enjoy the sun, waves, seafood and relaxed vibes! On Thursday night at 9pm we left from the Mariscal and the next thing we knew, it was 5:30 am and we were getting off the bus in San Vicente, a town on the Pacific Ocean. Some of us had definitely slept more than others, and thankfully I got in about 4 solid naps throughout the night. We found a cheap "taxi" (aka back of a truck) that drove us in 30 minutes to Canoa.

The sunrise behind the beach

I had heard that Canoa was the best beach town on the Ecuadorian coast to visit, and even though I don´t have much to compare it to, I wouldn´t doubt this assertion! We got to see the sunrise while we were waiting for hostels to open and pretty much just hanging out on the beach. After a bit we found a hostel that could fit the 7 of us all in one room, had a patio and was right across the street from the beach for $8 per person! Then we slathered on the sunscreen and spent most of the day on the beach, in the sun, playing in the water!
At one point we took a break to collect some garbage and redeem it for free cocktails at one beach-side bar and later in the afternoon we walked down the huge expanse of sand to try to get to some caves, but the tide was too high. For dinner we chowed down on the fresh seafood and then I headed off to bed early because it had been a very long day!

Sea stack to the north

(Photo Credit: Kate)

(Photo Credit: Kate)

Chillin on the beach

(Photo Credit: Olga)

Patio time!

(Photo Credit: Olga)

On Saturday the weather was a bit more cloudy, but just as warm. We grabbed breakfast at a cafe and then took a bus to San Vicente to buy our return bus tickets to Quito a day in advance, so we wouldn´t be stuck on the coast past the weekend. While we were there, we decided to take a quick boat across the bay to the town of Bahía de Caraquez. It was rather unimpressive and didn´t live up to it´s claim to fame as being a super "Ecological City", but we did eat amazing snow cones. We returned to Canoa by boat and bus and in the afternoon where we swam a bit, explored the beach in the other direction (I saw a dead puffer fish, all puffed up!) and ate amazingly cheap fried food! After rinsing off, we spent some time at the "Surf Shak" Bar that was located just below our hotel and we met two nice guys from Montana who are traveling around Ecuador. Saturday was a much more popular night for people to be out and about, so later on we moved across the street to dance in the sand!

On the boat to Bahía de Caraquez

The high rises of Bahía from afar

Dancing on the beach at night under grass-roofed huts

On Sunday morning we packed up, enjoyed our patio one last time, and took a bus into San Vicente. The bus station and market were conveniently located in the same building, so while waiting I grabbed some bus snacks and ate another "bolon de verde" (plantain and cheese ball fried or BBQ´d) with a fried egg and smoothie. It´s definitely my new favorite breakfast! At 10 am we got on the bus and unfortunately the ride didn't end until 6 pm in Quito. I read all of "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck without getting carsick! We also got to see plenty of beautiful scenery along the way, as well as some of the depressing, mangrove-forest destroying, man-made shrimp ponds that are now a large part of the Ecuadorian economy. I returned to my host family´s house just for the night; sandy, a little sunburnt and very tired!

Shrimp pond from the bus

First Weekend Back in Quito! (January 14-16, 2011)

After a non-stop sunny week back in school at CIMAS, I spent the weekend in Quito hanging out with my new classmates and host family. Quito feels a lot more like a home to me now, yet there are still lots of sights that I want to see here and special events that I´d love to check out in the coming months. I got to cross a few of these spots off my list this past weekend.
During the day on Friday Beto from CIMAS took us on a city tour, very similar to the tour of fall quarter. But all of the other students are new, so it was definitely very helpful for them! On Friday night almost all of the other students from CIMAS and I took the bus down to "La Ronda", a recently refurbished street on the south end of the Historical District. At night it is lit up and all of the balconies have flags and flowers hanging from them. There is live music in nearly every cafe and bar on the street and street performers also dispersed among the crowd. We went specifically to see a traditional Andean Dance Performance and it was a treat! For only $2, I got to sit in the first row and watch a spectacular display by the Ballet Andino Humanizarte Foundation. It was so fabulous that I might just try to go again another Friday night! Afterwards we grabbed some warm drinks in a cafe and walked up and down the street, admiring the architecture and watching people.

Jenean (Physical Therapy grad student from MN) and me in front of the start of La Ronda

(Photo Credit for the following three: our classmate Mark)

Michael, Jenean and me with San Francisco Church in the background

Our tour guide from CIMAS Beto with Olga, Maya and Vanessa at lunch

At the beginning of the traditional dance performance

On Saturday I met up with friends from school again and we treked up the hill on the east side of Quito to "La Capilla del Hombre", a museum with a collection of the works by Oswaldo Guayasamin, a famous Ecuadorian painter. He specialized in illustrating the fight of the poor in South America and also seemed to be close buddies with people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. The art was incredible and the building that he designed and constructed to put all of it in was equally impressive. We also got to take a tour of the place in Spanish, which was super interesting.

"El Mestizo"

Painting symbolizing the deaths in Bolivian mines

Condor vs. Bull

My favorite!

On Sunday, I visited my old host family from last quarter in Quito to see how my host dad is recovering from two recent eye surgeries. He seemed a little down and not 100% himself because he still has a few more weeks of recover ahead of him. It was still really fun talking with my former host mom and three older siblings about my Peru adventures and about a trip my host sister took to New York in December!
I hurried back to host family #2 to eat a nice big Sunday lunch with almost the whole family and in the afternoon, my dad, mom, brother Diego (10), sister Erica (6) and I went to "El Panecillo" (the little bread hill), a giant virgin statue in the South end of Quito. The view from up there was impressive, and I was so thankful that they took me because it is a bit dangerous to get there without a private car and it´s something that I had been wanting to do for a while!
Besides the above listed four members of the family, I also have two more host siblings; Santiago (25) and Isabel (20), and there is a maid named Marta that works for them and lives in a separate part of the house. There are also always other people filtering in to say hello or hang out. It is has been a drastic change for me because I´ve never really had siblings before and the house can get so hectic, yet it´s also really fun all the time!
After El Panecillo, we drove back home and then my host mom proceeded to get all the ingredients ready for me to make some Chocolate Chip Cookies! I whipped up about 50 that afternoon, but unfortunately because of the altitude they looked like they were run over by a car! They were quite tasty all the same, though.
At night, after a light dinner, I played Hearts (the card game) with some family members and of course, I won!

The Virgin of the Panecillo from below

Approximately half of the family with the city of Quito behind!

Winter Break Travel Journal: Quito, Ecuador to Cusco, Peru...and back!

PART 4: Cusco, Peru to Quito, Ecuador

On the first day of 2011 I unfortunately had to wake up very early in order to catch my flight to Lima. And because it was so early, as well as New Years day, there were no buses and all of the taxis were filled with drunk people trying to get home! So I ended up walking most of the way to the airport, but it was nice sunny morning, so I had no problems! After an uneventful flight, I found a taxi with two nice guys from San Francisco from the Lima airport to the fancy Miraflores neighborhood.  After a bit of confusion, I found the Inka Lodge at about noon and met Kristen, Kelly’s next traveling companion who had arrived that morning from Plano, Texas. I dropped off my stuff and then we grabbed some lunch and set off to explore Lima! I bought bus tickets to Piura for the following night for myself and Lela and then we checked out the historical center of Lima. Unfortunately few businesses were open because it was a national holiday, but it made for relaxed streets. We took the bus back to Miraflores, walked to the beach and gawked at the ridiculous mall that they built into the side of the bluff overlooking the ocean. After dinner we checked out a giant park with some fountains and a light show, but there turned out to be a few too many screaming children to make it enjoyable. Instead we found some ice cream and headed back to the hostel to talk with other travelers and go to bed early.

Crazy mall built into the bluff of Lima, overlooking the beach

On the morning of the second, Kristen and I hung out at the hostel and enjoyed our complimentary breakfast while waiting for Kelly and Lela to arrive off their 20+ hour bus ride from Cusco. I also took my first HOT shower in Peru that morning (after only 23 days of traveling!) and I finally felt fully clean! Once everyone was ready to go, the four of us set out for Lima Centro again and we walked around the main plaza in the sunshine and heat of coastal Lima. For lunch we checked out Chinatown and the egg rolls were incredible! Afterwards we caught a bus back to Miraflores and then walked to the beach. Even though it was very hot, it looked a bit too rocky and wavy to swim, so we watched the surfers and paragliders and Kristen and I shared an amazing mango strawberry smoothie back on the top of the bluff. On our walk back to the hostel, we passed many nice parks, fancy condos and temple ruins situated in the middle of urbanized Lima! Besides the last part, that area of Lima reminded me so much of some cities in California! Lela and I caught our 15 hour bus headed to Piura at 7pm and overall I was pleasantly surprised by all of Lima. I definitely hope to find my way back someday.

Lela, Kelly and Kristen in the Main Plaza with the Cathedral in the background

Yellow buildings surround the Main Plaza in Lima

Walking to the beach!

After a rather comfy night on the bus, we got off in the hot city of Piura in northern Peru and located our 21-year-old couchsurfing host, Stevens. He took us to his family´s very simple house and soon afterwards we were back in a mototaxi with him to find some ceviche! After that delicious lunch, with fish, octopus and prawns, we headed to the pool for a swim, but unfortunately it was closed on Mondays, so we dropped Stevens off at his work and joined his 16 year old brother Gabriel for a walk to the center of town to get ice cream and hang out in the Plaza de Armas. As it was getting dark we got dinner at a supermarket and Gabriel helped us find our way home. That night we relaxed at their house and talked with the whole family: mom, dad and four kids.

We were up early the next morning to get a start on the day before it go too hot. We found a bus that took us to the hectic port town of Paita and then another combi to the beach in the tiny town of Colán. It was pretty far away from Piura, so by the time we got to the beach it was time for more ceviche for lunch! We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach, reading and swimming. What a nice way to end a trip though Peru! After the combi and bus back to Piura, we found some street grub in the form of papa rellenas and bread pudding and then we walked back to Stevens’ place. At night we caught a mototaxi to the bus station, said goodbye to Stevens and his mom, and used up our last soles!

At about 12:30 am that night we crossed the border into Ecuador and it was a much less stressful experience than when we left the country about three weeks before! At 6 am we arrived in Loja and we were still very sleepy so we took a taxi to our next CS spot at Marcelo´s and slept for the rest of the morning. When we woke up we were ravenously hungry (as usual for Lela and me!) so we walked into central Loja and ate a traditional Ecuadorian set lunch that we had missed so much (haha, NOT!) We did get to try repe (plantain soup served with a sweet banana on the side) so it was actually pretty tasty. We also checkout out Loja´s central market and were once again impressed by how every city in Ecuador and Peru has a big, cheap, diverse market that puts Pike Place to shame! We loaded up on good old dollar bills once again at the bank and then took a city bus to the university south of town. After a little confusion, we found the university’s park, with hiking trails and nice lookouts over the city. We also made a brief stop at the Botanical Gardens across the street before catching a bus back into the main part of town. We got some fried plantain balls, hot chocolate, fresh cherries, empanadas and caramel/chocolate pastries to eat a dinner picnic in the main plaza. We finished up the night at Marcelo´s house, and talked to him a bit about his family in the Galapagos Islands and his plans to open a bar in Loja.

Hiking near Loja with great views of the city below

On the 6^th we went for a nice run along the river in Loja and ended up at the market for a cheap and delicious breakfast sitting next to lots of locals. Lela braved the cold shower back at the house, but I just couldn’t do it, so soon we were on our way again, huge backpacks and all. We caught the 12:30 pm bus from Loja to Cuenca and got in at about 5pm. While in the bus station we bought tickets to get back to Quito for Sunday night and then we did the usual and located our couchsurfing host!

We met the Manolo (an artist and architect) outside of his house, which he is working on turning into a hostel and restaurant. We went out to dinner with him at a delicious café and then we walked to where practically the entire city was celebrating the “Day of the Innocents” a Catholic holiday. There were fireworks of course, people dressed up in costumes resembling Halloween, lots of boys in skirts and people putting on little skits imitating politicians! Afterwards I went to bed and Lela stayed out with some other friends that she’d made in Cuenca when she passed through last time.

Dinner with Manolo on our first night back in Cuenca

The next morning we woke up earlier than expected and went for a nice run along the river. Manolo made us a nice breakfast and we ate it on the porch of his house that overlooks the river and the newer part of the city. It was a sunny and warm morning, so Lela and I spent some time after breakfast chilling in the courtyard and reading in the sun. Then we went out to look for a laundromat and a book exchange, and ended up at the massive and very clean Cuenca market for lunch. We devoured a plate of fried potato cakes and coconut smoothies and then finished it off with some dessert from a nearby bakery! Yum, I love market food! We continued walking around the city and then met up with Lela´s friend Chris, who took us to the hot springs about 20 minutes away by bus. We hung out there and swam in the rain for over an hour and it was wonderfully relaxing! Afterwards we went to a little café across the street for dinner and then took the bus back into Cuenca.

The following day, we made plans to go to El Cajas National Park with Chris and his friends. It took a while for everyone to get going, and it was very difficult to find a bus, so we ended up sharing a taxi and heading up there in the afternoon. The weather had been gorgeously sunny in Cuenca in the morning, but the weather at El Cajas is famously fickle and during our 3-hour hike it rained and hailed multiple times and by the end it was pouring! Another friend from Cuenca, Fabrizio, showed us a really neat route where we passed by some religious statues and climbed up to a series of lakes that were scattered among the grassy mountains. On the way back down we decided to take a shortcut and head straight towards the highway, which saved us a little time, but did not get us back before a huge rain and hail storm! We dried off by the fire in a nearby restaurant and ate delicious potato soup and hot cocoa to warm up.  We easily found a bus back into Cuenca and then got out of our soaking wet clothes as soon as possible!

Hiking in El Cajas National Park with Lela and friends

The grand view from our turn-around point

Lela hung out with our Cuenca friends that night, so she wasn’t ready to venture back into the park the next day, which was our amazingly last day of vacation! It was also raining in the morning and I had a little trouble finding the bus to El Cajas, but it ended up working out in the end and I made it to the ranger station just after noon. The entrance fee had recently been lowered to $2 for everyone and they also gave me an awesome poster-sized map (which unfortunately got ruined in the rain) and sent me off on a nice 3-hour hike past a bunch more lakes and neat mountains. The trails in this part of El Cajas were the most well marked that I had seen in all of Ecuador and Peru and it was so great to finally be able to easily follow a trail! It rained on and off throughout the afternoon and the trail was super muddy in spots. At one point I sunk up to my knee in the mud! Near the end of the hike, I slurped down a mango and took in the awesome scenery, which included a few roaming llamas. The trail dropped me off near the same restaurant where we ended the day before, but I didn’t have time to stop in this time because a bus passed by right then and I was taken back to Cuenca.

El Cajas...the land of a million lakes!

I met up with Lela again and dried off a bit at our CS house and then we went out for Indian food on our last night of traveling together! I was oh so sad! At 9:30 pm we got on a bus and had a restless night trying to sleep before arriving in Quito at about 6 am. It took us 2 ½ hours to bus and walk back to CIMAS, where we were greeted very warmly! Lela headed off to Costa Rica that afternoon for a few weeks of WWOOFing, before she goes back to Washington in the end of January. I jumped right into my next quarter of school at CIMAS studying Public Health and Spanish with 9 new Washington classmates! 

Winter Break Travel Journal: Quito, Ecuador to Cusco, Peru...and back!

PART 3: A Week in Cusco, Peru!

Unfortunately, I had still been unable to book a flight to Cusco, so I had to go to the airport that night to get an expensive ticket, but I knew it would be worth it to not have to spend 45 hours on the bus! I found a really neat and cheap backpackers hostel near the airport and slept for a few hours before getting on a flight the morning of the 24^th to Cusco. When I finally made it to into the town, I still couldn’t believe that I was actually there! My dream of Machu Picchu was getting closer and closer!

After a bit of confusion, I met up with the next couchsurfing host, Luis and we hiked about 20 minutes up the hill above Plaza San Blas to get to his sweet house-turning-rock climbing hostel!

  After dropping my stuff off at Luis´s house, which is surrounded by ruins and a park, I hiked back down the hill to the main (and touristy) part of Cusco. The city is great to just meander around in and to make things even more exciting, there was a giant Christmas market going on in the Plaza de Armas. I made my way to the grand food market of Cusco and went a little crazy bargaining and talking to all the nice ladies working there. I ended up spending about $10 on supplies for three people for about a couple days and this saved us a lot of money because we could cook at Luis´s instead of paying ridiculous restaurant prices! On my way back to the house, a huge rainstorm hit. Unfortunately it didn´t let up much all afternoon, but by the time I got back to the house, Kelly and Lela, my friends from CIMAS last quarter, had arrived and they were just as wet as me! We spent some quality time hanging out and talking about our adventures since we´d split paths two weeks before.

Looking up at Luis's rock wall and fortress of a house! 

As it was Christmas Eve and we didn´t have any plans, we accepted Luis´s invite to a couchsurfing Christmas party! Beforehand we found some lovely street food to tide us over in the Plaza San Blas, rice pudding for me, and hot wine for Lela! Luis also showed us around Cusco a bit, which is gorgeously lit up at night. At about 9 pm we got to the party and the turkey was still not quite ready, so we chatted with the others there, including people from Argentina, Barcelona, Brazil, Cusco, Lima, San Francisco and even West Seattle! We spent the night eating a turkey dinner, talking in Spanglish, laughing, singing, toasting and dancing until 3 am. It was definitely a much different Christmas Eve than I was used to, but filled with new friends and good fun all the same!

The very International Christmas Eve Dinner!

On Christmas Day we woke up a bit later because of the crazy party the night before, but we eventually cooked breakfast and headed into town. While there we saw a few churches and organized a Machu Picchu trip though a tour agency. Afterwards we went back home to cook lunch and relax. Just as it was getting dark we walked though some maze-like ruins literally across the street from the house! Once again down in the center of Cusco, we met up with some CS friends from the night before and we checked out a little bar called Indigo.

Later at night we had another nice Christmas dinner, this time with two girls who were in the U of Minnesota CIMAS program and 5 friends that they met at their hostel. We went to a fairly fancy restaurant and I treated myself to a delicious meal and an incredible chocolate-blueberry cake a la mode for dessert! Afterwards we hung out in their comfy hostel and compared travel adventures.

The following day we planned our own hike and set out on a chicken bus to the town of Chinchero following a resupply trip at the market. It was raining hard when we started, but after our lunch break under the eave of a house, it got so sunny and beautiful that we decided to hike all the way around Laguna Piuray, before getting back to the main road and catching a nauseating bus to Cusco. We did a little preparation for our trip to Machu Picchu and then went home to cook veggies and quinoa and sleep!

Laguna Piuray in the Sacred Valley

On the 27th we started our 2-day trip to and tour of Machu Picchu. Directly after breakfast we went to the tour agency that we booked through and from there we took a taxi to get to Ollantaytambo, a town in the Sacred Valley. We had a little time before our train left, so we walked around the town, saw the ruins and got ice cream. The train ride to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town) was gorgeous and the surrounding mountains were lit up by the sun, meaning that once we got off about a 1000 meters below the level of Cusco, it was nice and warm outside! We had to walk through a giant, overwhelming artisanal market to get to our hostel, which indicated that we were entering tourist-land. In the afternoon we hiked around a bit and found a butterfly sanctuary and a trail leading up a hill with a ladder that was broken and unclimbable.

When we got back in the small town filled with travelers and expensive prices, we checked out the market and went out to dinner. At night we relaxed in our hostel room and right before bed, we met up with our guide for Machu Picchu and the other tourists who´d be with us the next day. This part of the group had not come by train, but rather by car the whole way, which is much more dangerous and after talking to some of them, we were very glad that we hadn’t run into rockslides nor had to walk for 3 hours in the dark along train tracks to get to Aguas Calientes!

Hillside ruins in Ollantaytambo 

Train headed to Aguas Calientes

Plastic bottle Christmas Tree in the main plaza of Aguas Calientes

View of Aguas Calientes from our hike 

On the day of our Machu Picchu tour, we woke up at 4:15 am in order to buy our shuttle bus tickets at 5 am and catch one of the first buses and enter the site when it opened at 6 am. It was a bit foggy in the morning while we went on a 2 hour tour with our guide and about 8 people total, but by midmorning it was starting to clear up and we hiked for 3 hours to the Grand Caves and up Wayna Picchu for great view of the famous Inca site. On the way back down we met a man who lives on a houseboat on Lake Union and is traveling with his wife and two young daughters…what a coincidence to run into another Seattleite! We headed back to the entrance to grab our lunch (they said food was prohibited, but it seemed like we were the only people who didn’t bring it in, so we were starving!) After feeling rejuvenated and with the weather improving by the minute, we went back into Machu Picchu to check out the Inca Bridge and do some more wandering on our own. It wasn’t until after 4 pm that we left and overall we had a stupendous day in Peru´s famous World Heritage Site! We hiked back down to Aguas Calientes in about an hour, then shared a pizza overlooking the river and killed a few house before catching our train and later a combi back to Cusco. We didn’t end up getting back to Luis’s until 3 am, but it was very worth it to get to spend over 10 hours at Machu Picchu!

A very misty morning at Machu Picchu

Looking down on the site from the entrance

In the morning, while it was still a little cloudy

View from Wayna Pichhu

The stereotypical perfect Machu Picchu picture!

We couldn't leave without taking many jumping photos!

Lela's spitting out a rainbow!

December 29th was mainly a recovery day after our Machu Picchu craziness, so we took it easy. We walked to the bus station so Lela and Kelly could buy tickets to get back to Lima on January 2nd after a 20-hour ride. We also stopped by the market again for more food to cook at Luis’s and at night we were all feeling very tired and a little sick, so we went to bed very early.

On the 30th we were back to feeling our finest, so we signed up for a day-long bike tour of the nearby town of Maras and also some ancient salt mines. We were set up with nice Scott single suspension mountain bikes and a guide to show us the way. We had to ride a bus for an hour to get to the start of the trail, but once there we followed dirt roads through the mountains, catching glimpses of snow-covered peaks around us. We stopped for a traditional Peruvian lunch in Maras and talked to our other two biking companions, a brother and sister from Lima. The rest of the ride was almost completely downhill and the highlight was definitely passing by Las Salineras! They are pre-Inca salt collection pools built into the hillside above the Sacred Valley. After more intense downhill biking, we ended up in Urubamba and we boarded a bus headed towards Cusco. On the ride back we spotted quite a few massive snowy peaks and since we were already above 10,000 ft, they must have been super high! We also got off the bus a few miles before entering Cusco, and we followed out guide down some zigzag streets that eventually plopped us right down in the Plaza de Armas! For dinner we tried out one of the Hare-Krishna-run vegetarian restaurants called Govinda, a nation-wide Peruvian chain! I found it quite hilarious that the Hare-Krishnas have been so successful in Peru, but their food was actually very good and cheap! We also met a young Czech traveler there who considered all of South America “a very dangerous place for young women to travel”…and we said pshaw to that! Afterwards we walked into a dessert dungeon and Kelly was highly amused while trying to explain the concept behind a Fanta float. She ended up getting a chocolate chip ice cream cone and a bottle of Fanta! Then we drug our weary legs the 20 minutes up the hill once again to sleep.

Las Salineras salt pools that are still used today

Biking downhill with our guide and a friend from Lima

People watching the sunset on the steps of the Cathedral in Cusco

On our last full day in Cusco we decide to explore some of the ruins near our CS house. Luis and Eddy pointed out the Monkey Temple and a few others that we walked around in the morning. For lunch we explored the street food option in and around the market, including cheese empanadas, chocolate cake, fruit smoothies and a lady with a hot cart of sweet tamales! In the afternoon we relaxed in one of Cusco´s many plazas and after a failed attempt at a yoga class, we hiked up to Sacsayhuamán (pronounced “Sexy Woman”), apparently the second best set of ruins after Machu Picchu in the entire area. We caught a gorgeous sunset at the Jesus statue overlooking Cusco and then descended once again into town for awesome falafel pitas. While waiting for midnight to come, we hung out and played games in the Indigo Bar. At about 11 pm we went out into the plaza and were bombarded by people, fireworks going off in the street everywhere and a Peruvian band playing. As the clock struck midnight, I couldn’t believe that another year had passed and that I was in Peru! 

Cuy Asada (Roasted Guinea Pig), anyone?

Drinking jugos in the market

Another beautiful Cusco street

"Sexy Woman" ruins

Sunset from the Jesus statue overlooking the city

Plaza de Armas concert before midnight on New Years Eve