For those of you who didn’t find out, my mom and I left the guys on the boat for a couple of weeks and flew to Peru with only two backpacks in hand. The places we went to were:
Lima
So our first destination was the capital of Peru: Lima. It was a big city full of different people. I was actually very impressed by how many spoke English there since most people in South America only speak Spanish.
The hotel we stayed at was run by two, very caring guys (sometimes a little bit too caring until we thought they were maybe crazy) who seemed to really appreciate our being there. The hallways were filled with beautiful paintings that were like replicas of Picasso and Van Gogh painted by the owner’s uncle.
On our first day, we visited many sites around Lima. Our first stop was a Pre-Incan temple called Huaca Pucllana that they started excavating only in the 1980s and they were still not done when we were there. They had found skeletons, pots, fossils and personal belongings around there that they were showing to us (the real things!). It was cool to see the Pre-Incan people’s things since we would soon go see Machu Picchu (which I will talk about later in this blog entry) which is where Incas lived. It was also very fascinating to see real artifacts because the Pre-Incan who lived around this temple lived more than a thousand years ago and the artifacts were still very well preserved!
After we left the temple, the taxi ride to our next site allowed us to see many other things about Lima like: the beach where dozens of surfers were riding away, the underground, outdoor mall, the city park and just the people’s daily life there.
Our next stop was the “Choco Chocolate museum” which was also kind of like a chocolate factory. We found out that there was actually a workshop you could do at any time during the day where you make your own chocolate from scratch so we signed me up for it. The lady who did the workshop with me first showed me all of the machines and explained what they were used for. Then we put some cocoa beans to roast on the stove for ten minutes. Once they were roasted, we crushed them into a paste to make hot chocolate and tea. We made a traditional Mayan hot chocolate so we mixed: water, spices and cocoa bean paste but the only ingredient we didn’t add was blood (thank goodness we didn’t). We also made another hot chocolate and cocoa tea. The other hot chocolate was a traditional Conquistadors (Spanish) drink. The cocoa tea we made apparently gives you a boost of energy (but cocoa is caffeine free) so we bought a bag of cocoa bean shells to bring back.
Then after that the lady got my chocolate liquid out of the machines and I put them into moulds with little candies in them to take back! I had wanted to take them back to the boat but they were milk chocolate so we had to eat them all within the first two days or else they would all melt.
On the second day, we caught a taxi again to see another part of Lima. We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant hoping they would have what we were looking for on their menu which they did. Now, some of you may not be very happy when I say this but what we were looking for and what we ate was guinea pig! It was traditional Peruvian gourmet meal and we wanted to try it! I was very excited to try it but when it was delivered to us, I lost my appetite a little bit, which was okay because there was so little meat on that thing anyway. A tourist that we met the day before had told us to ask the waiter for it without the head but we didn’t think it mattered but apparently it did! It also didn’t make me any hungrier when the waiter picked up the paw, waved it at me and said “hello” in a really high pitched voice!
Planes, Trains and Really Squished Buses!
After two days in Lima, we went back to the airport and flew to Cusco where we were going to catch a bus out of the next day.
When we went to the bus station the next morning at 5:00 am to catch our bus at 5:30 am, the lady there, who had said the day before that we were on the 5:30 bus for sure, said that we weren’t on the first bus, we were supposed to be on the bus that left at 6:30 when on our ticket, it said 5:30 and we couldn’t leave later than 6:00 because we had to catch another bus in the other town. Finally, we explained that we absolutely had to leave before 6:00 so they put us in a small car with three other people so that’s how we ended up doing school for 3 hours shoulder to shoulder in a car.
When we got to Hydro Electrica after been in two buses, we walked along the train tracks for a couple of hours with our new friend who came from Portugal and was a backpacker too but he was also biking around South America which I found extremely cool! We saw many breathtaking sights of the Andes on our walk to Aguascalientes (meaning hot water) which was the town just below Machu Picchu. After two hours of walking with a 35 pound backpack on my back, I was willing to stay the night in a broken shed if it meant we could stop as soon as possible! We ended up finding a very nice youth hostel and a nice restaurant to eat at for dinner. It was very exciting and a bit hard to sleep that night because the next day was Machu Picchu!
Machu Picchu
We had to get up at 4:45 am on the big day to see the marvellous Unesco sight (also one of the 7 wonders of the world!) and it was worth the early wake up! We got to the bus station because we heard that walking up the mountain was very steep and a challenge even for marathon runners so we weren’t going to risk was using all our energy on the hike up to Machu Picchu. We had heard that people started lining up for the first bus extremely early but I was not expecting what I saw! One entire sidewalk plus another quarter of another one was filled by 5:00 am when we got there and the rest of our sidewalk was filled up within 5 minutes! We saw many despaired faces who came at 5:15 hoping to catch the first bus at 5:30! I was really hoping we would catch the first bus and we did so we were up there before the gates opened!
When we got in, we walked through a narrow passageway in between these two huts wondering when we were going to see it and a second later, we did. We saw the entire thing right there in front of us and since we were one of the first ones in, it was completely empty!
We walked all the way to the top to see the famous picture and sure enough, we could see it! We also walked a bit on the Inca trail which is a five day hike but we only did about 5 minutes of it! It was also unbelievably quiet until about 7:30 am when more and more people started showing up but until then, we could hear the birds and the wind and it was just so amazing! For a long time, it felt like I was floating! I didn’t feel like I was there because I couldn’t believe I was!
Later that day, we took a private guide who explained all the important parts of Machu Picchu to us. For example, he told us that after years of investigating, they found out that Machu Picchu was only where the royal Incas lived. It was abandoned by the Incas and the Spanish, who killed all the Incas, never found Machu Picchu. When it was discovered for the first time in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, there were actually some people living there in the ruins (non-Incan, just farmers). Our guide also showed us all the sacred temples like: the temple of the sun and the temple of the condor. The temple of the sun was so the Incas could determine what time of year it was and so they could honour the God of the sun. They would look at the sun gate up on the top of the mountain (which we walked up to) and they could determine by where it shined on, if it was June 21 or December 21 or in between. We also saw the famous temple of the three windows.
Their walls are amazingly built too. Remember, they had no metal tools but still, some of their rocks are completely straight and perfect. They are also so strong that they have survived all the earthquakes. Our guide actually explained to us how they cut the rocks. They would look for the weak spots on rocks and then they carve a hole in there with a rock where they put water into and then lastly put a stick in. After a while, it finally cracks in half! The amount of terraces they had too was pretty outstanding. That’s where they grew all their crops and today, that’s the llamas’ hotspot but people are not allowed on them.
The Incas also had these bowl type things that when they looked in at night, they could see the moon so that is where they would talk to the God of the moon to make him happy. Also, they kept the Inca’s water collector systems which I found very impressive. They got all their water from the mountains which leaked down the rocks to the collecting space. Today, they still have the original water systems but not as much water comes out because it is only for demonstration so they don’t want to waste too much. I couldn’t believe how smart the Incas were and our guide actually said that we are trying to learn what they did and the technologies they made so we can improve our technologies today.
I was also amazed by how many llamas and alpacas were just roaming around Machu Picchu. Apparently, they were put there by the government and so they are domesticated but they roam freely. We were actually walking up the steps when one walked right up to us and pushed past us on the stairs! It was really funny and startling because normally, animals are afraid of humans but these ones obviously think they are more superior than us! Once, a llama went into a little hut and decided to roll in the dirt and it got everybody on the bench beside him completely covered in dust! The only time I would dare not pet them was in the rain because they hate the rain and just by looking at their faces, I’d say that if anybody were to pet them, they would probably do some damage!
Aguascalientes
The little town itself of Aguascalientes was really cute. It was very clean and had many very good restaurants and hotels. I’m pretty sure, it got all it’s money to make it touristic by all the tourists who stay here before going to Machu Picchu! We also went to the hot springs since the town was called “hot water” but they turned out to be more like I-don’t-want-to-know-what-is-in-this-water-warm-springs rather than hot springs!
Ollantaytambo
We left Aguascalientes by train to a miniature town right in the countryside and in the mountains called Ollantaytambo (pronounced O-yan-tay-tam-bo). We stayed there for a few hours and then left by bus to Cusco where we caught an overnight bus to a town called Arequipa near the famous Colca Canyon.
The train was a really cool ride because it had windows everywhere (including on the roof) so we could see the forest, the mountains, the rivers and they even had a full sized window at the front so you could see everything! At one point we stopped and there were these two ladies who came to sell us flowers they had picked themselves. One lady was quite young and looked like she had been gardening and the other one, our driver told us she was over 100 years old! I couldn’t believe that she lived out here, all alone, away from all modern technology and she lived to be this old! That just shows you that fresh air does really help your health! It really made my day to see her smile when some people had bought her flowers!
For the few hours we were there, I know it was for surely my favourite town in all of Peru. It was not full of tourism junk and it was not a very big town at all. The most beautiful part was the market place (where we bought a pair of Peruvian pants, a Peruvian poncho and a Peruvian quilt for very little) because in the background were the amazing Andes and with the market, it just made picture perfect! We also had a chance to take these miniature three wheeled taxis which they call moto-taxis!
Colca Canyon
After a really bad night’s sleep on the overnight bus, we met up with our tour guide named Remi who was going to take us to the famous Colca Canyon! We drove up and down the mountains and we stopped to see many things along the way like: vicuñas (look like llamas but are smaller and have softer fur), llamas, alpacas, the best views of Colca Canyon, condor look out and other really cool things!
When we got to the hotel that night, it was carnival and so we got to see all the villagers dancing and playing music in these amazingly beautiful clothing. I thought at first that surely the clothes they were wearing were only costumes for carnival but Remi explained to us that most people dress like this daily! When we got back to the hotel, they even let us try the clothes on which I found really exciting. I don’t know how people wear these clothes everyday though because they are not that comfortable, they don’t keep you very warm and I don’t know how they never get them dirty if they wear them all the time! You will see in the pictures that mostly only the women are wearing the clothes I am talking about and I think that is because the men’s traditional clothes are the exact same as the women’s (dresses and everything!).
The next day, we went to the condor look out, hoping to see one. We waited for a long time when all of a sudden, one came flying around the mountain followed by two others! Remi was so happy that we were able to see some that he started cheering and clapping because it had been foggy the day before and the day before that too so we were lucky to see them that day! They flew about 10 metres from us so they looked a bit smaller than I thought they would but it was still incredible to see them fly! Condors are the largest flying bird in the world since their wingspan can get up to 3 m long (twice my size!)!!!
After seeing the condors, we went to see a marketplace that also had an eagle that could go on your arm and head and an alpaca which you could hug and take pictures with! Overall, our trip to Colca Canyon was memorable and treasuring!
Cusco
After we said bye to our new good friend Remi, we left on another overnight bus back to Cusco where we spent the last part of our trip.
Just like Arequipa, it was carnival in Cusco too so we got to see their traditional clothes too and this time, the men did have clothes either than dresses so everybody was nicely dressed! As well as Arequipa, most people of Cusco also wear the clothes they were wearing during carnival as daily clothes and at first, we thought it was just to entertain us tourists but it was clearly not, this was how they dressed. I especially loved seeing the women walking around with babies in their ponchos! The only thing I didn’t like about carnival was that everywhere you went, you had to cover yourself up because everybody was spraying soap/foam at you and they especially liked to see tourists’ reactions!
Although the craft market was beyond words, the food market was interesting too. Did you know that Peru has 7 000 different kinds of potatoes?!? I only thought that, like, 2 kinds of potatoes existed! Also, their corn can get very big. Some of the kernels I saw were the size a pistachio nut! There was also corn that didn’t even have kernels, it was just soft like a potato.
The meat market was definitely a shock and like nothing I have ever seen before. There were entire pigs on chopping tables and on the table beside were their heads. There were also entire chickens on tables. They were de-feathered and their legs were sticking straight up in the air as if they had watched a horror movie before they were killed! There were also cow hearts hanging on strings and I couldn’t help but laugh since it was Valentine’s day! I actually found it very interesting to see the meat market because if I buy my meat from there, I would never have to ask what kind of meat I was buying and I would never doubt where my bacon came from! I may never trust groceries stores again!
We also went horseback riding on our last day which didn’t go as planned since we ended up walking quite a bit of the way but that came no where even remotely close to affecting my happiness of the trip! I know I will never, ever forget it and plus, now this has made me want to live in the Andes and raise llamas when I’m older!
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