Lake Titicaca

Laurel and I had back-to-back adventures. The night after our exciting tour of Machu Picchu, we embarked on yet another bus ride to a city called Puno. Luckily we signed up for the bed bus, so the seats were wide, comfortable, and could recline backwards 160 degrees. We left at 10:00 PM and arrived in Puno at 5:00 AM. Not knowing for sure what was going to happen, we took a taxi to the travel company office for the tour that we signed up for. We weren't actually leaving for our tour until about 6:30. We fully expected to have to wait outside for the tour. When we got there, however, we were escorted up the stairs above the travel office to the owner's house. His name was Victor and this sweet man let us eat breakfast and chill in his house until it was time to go. There were three other travelers there as well, and they were funny and awesome people to get to know.

Once it was time, we left for our tour of Lake Titicaca. This lake is the largest lake in South America and is set at an altitude of 12,500 feet. It is higher than Cuzco and Machu Picchu (yes, I did experience a little altitude sickness. I didn't in the other places, but Puno got me). This lake is famous for its size and for the islands on the lake.

The mountains in the background are in Bolivia

We got onto a boat and first went to the floating islands, called Los Uros. These islands are made from reeds that grow in the lake. The people fasten them together and then the island floats. They use the reeds for their houses, for food, and for medicine. These people speak a Pre-Incan language called Quechua. They speak Spanish as well, but it is taught to them at school. These people showed us how they survive and what life is like on their island.

The inside of one of their houses

The president of the island, Ann

Me eating the reed plant. It sort of tasted like celery

We then went to a much bigger, land island called Taquile. These people also speak Quechua and have a very different culture of their own. It was interesting to hear about their customs. They also fed us an extremely delicious lunch that I quite enjoyed. After lunch we went for a walk around the island.

Men knit (not women) hats to show if they are single or married

Our tour guide is showing the belt that men wear. When a man gets married, his wife cuts her long hair and then he weaves her hair into his belt. This is a symbol of the support the wife gives her husband. Divorce does not exist on this island. 

Once our tour was over and we got back to Puno, again Laurel and I were unsure of what to do with ourselves. Our bus back wasn't until 10:00 again. But Victor came to our rescue again and told us we could stay at his house. He gave us a map of the city so that we could explore a bit, gave us coats (because once it was dark, the place was freezing. All Laurel and I had were sweatshirts), and then he even gave us keys to his house so we could come and go as we please. Such a kind, friendly man! We loved talking to him. He acted as a heaven-sent angel for us on this trip. We checked out the city and then just hung out. We made it to the bus station and then arrived back in Cuzco at 4:20 in the morning.

*Another small miracle that happened today: Our flight was scheduled to be at 11:40 AM but we had nowhere to go after getting back to Cuzco, so we just went straight to the airport. Luckily, they moved our flight up so that it was at 7:40 instead. Laurel was ready to cry tears of happiness for this because we were both in desperate need of sleep, warmth, and a shower.

Machu Picchu

And now for the post we've all been waiting for (myself included).

Machu Picchu was INCREDIBLE!!!! Let me just say, pictures could never do the place justice. I have seen many pictures of Machu Picchu to prepare myself, but I was still left feeling stunned and speechless at the majestic beauty that surrounded me. The mountains themselves are something to be awed at. The Incas picked the prime spot because there is a mountain in every direction. In fact, the guide explained that Cuzco comes from an ancient word that means "center." The Incas picked the center of this particular mountain range. When standing on the ruins, Machu Picchu points exactly South (Machu Picchu is technically just one mountain, not the name for the ruins. It means "old mountain") while Huayna Picchu points North (the "young mountain"). The Incas were brilliant in the way that they used geography and astronomy. They used the star constellations to tell the winter/summer solstices and what the weather was going to be like. Throughout the whole tour, I felt very impressed with this civilization's ingenuity and resourcefulness. The Spanish never found this city, and so for the most part it has been left exactly how it used to be.

From our hostel in Cuzco, Laurel and I took a taxi to the bus, a bus to the train, the train to another bus, and then rode that bus up to the ruins. It is quite the process. Most people take days doing it because they hike in, but since we were limited on time, we just did it in one day. I was okay with that, because this way we had fresh legs and minds to explore all over the ruins. There truly is a lot to see. After the tour, Laurel and I were given free time to explore. We went all over and took lots of pictures. At the end of the day we went through the whole travel process again and returned to our hostel. It was quite the day, but Machu Picchu was probably one of my favorite places that I have ever seen.

Chakana is the the symbol that means "at the center"

These are reflection basins that showed the Incas the constellations

Beautiful mountains

And let's not forget! The llamas and alpacas.

Cuzco: The Imperial City

Guess what happened this weekend?!

Yep, that's right. Laurel and I finally got to see Machu Picchu.

Last Wednesday Laurel and I got on an airplane to fly to Cuzco. Our #1 purpose was to go to Machu Picchu (a few hours away from Cuzco), but we also planned a couple of days to hang out in the city of Cuzco. It is a quaint city that caters to tourists and has lots to do. Laurel and I spent most of our time there exploring the streets and shopping at the Inca Markets.

On the second day we had in Cuzco, Laurel and I went in search of yummy food and a massage. After eating a delicious lunch in the main plaza, we were bombarded with ladies giving us cards to their spas. We started talking to one of them to see what our options were for a massage. We just wanted a simple massage where we didn't have to take any clothes off, but that turned out to be harder to explain to the lady than we thought it would. Our whole conversation was basically Spanglish, because we'd say what we knew in Spanish and what we didn't know in English. The lady wasn't quite understanding that we did in fact want a massage - we just didn't want to take our shirts off for it. Maybe she thought we were weird. My favorite was at one point Laurel said, "No me gusta..." and then made the motion of taking her shirt off. It made me laugh. After a long and rather hilarious conversation, we did end up getting massages, shirts and pants still on us. It was worth it.

The downside of Cuzco was the hostel we stayed in. People would party at the bar until 2:00-3:00 AM, which isn't pleasant when you have a tour at 5:00 AM the next day. Suffice it to say, I hated every minute I was inside the place (and so did Laurel). Unfortunately this hostel negatively affected the way I felt about my stay in Cuzco, but besides that, Cuzco was a fun city to visit.

The main plaza

Cuzco's elevation is over 11,000 feet above sea level

Narrow streets

Inka Cola. My new favorite soda. 

Purple corn

Modeling the shopping carts at the grocery store

Central Lima Attractions

Our friend Tito offered to show us around Central Lima. We first went to the San Francisco Cathedral. We took a tour around the place and learned more about some of Lima's religious history. For the last part of the tour, we were taken into the catacombs. Down there we could see graves and real bones of people from a long time ago. Most of the bones were femurs, but there were some skulls, too. I think the guide said there were around 25,000 people buried there.

Next we went to a museum where we were given a tour about the history of Lima. It had some cool, interactive things like holograms, displays, and even a movie theater setting about an earthquake and the chairs starting shaking. It was a long tour, and unfortunately due to my lack of understanding Spanish, I didn't know most of what was being said.

Last we went to the main square, Plaza Mayor, which is surrounded by government buildings and the Cathedral of Lima. One of the buildings was the president's house, and another was the mayor's office.

San Francisco Cathedral

Being awesome

The president's house

Plaza Mayor

A Trip to the Andes

Laurel and I had quite the adventure this weekend. Lidia planned a trip for the Lima volunteers to go up to a small village in the Andes Mountains. We were told very little about what to expect from the trip, but we looked forward to seeing another place in Peru. We left Friday morning and then got back Saturday night. Here are the events that happened during those two days.

7:00 AM Friday
We all piled onto a bus. The drive took about 5 hours and most of it was rather terrifying. The roads were extremely narrow once we got in the mountains, so we'd look out the window and see a complete drop-off. I think I cringed every time the bus turned around the bend.

You can't really tell the drop off from the picture, but this was taken on the bus showing the edge of the road

12:00 PM Friday
We made it to the school in Lahuaytambo. We sang songs and did a craft with the kids there.

The school

1:00 PM Friday
We walked to the village (the school was a good distance away from where the people lived). We were escorted to a room in a community center/hostel place. We just sat and played Scum while waiting to eat lunch. We ate lunch at 3:00 and then sent back to this same room. Laurel and I watched part of a movie and took pictures of the place. Apparently things weren't going according to plan, and some of the families weren't ready for us to go stay with them. So we just hung out for awhile.

8:00 PM Friday
We broke into our assigned groups. In my group there was me, Mike, and Tifany (Laurel was in a different group). Tifany is Peruvian and speaks both English and Spanish, while Mike is from Missouri. The three of us walked up to our host family. Our host family was an older couple named Teo and Angelica. They were so cute and so sweet! They made us dinner and told us about what life is like in their village.

Angelica and Teo

Group selfie

Mike and Tifany

10:00 PM Friday
We got ready for bed. Teo has two different houses, so we stayed in a different one from them. This house consisted of two rooms (no bathroom). Our group was fortunate because there were beds at this house. Some groups didn't even have a host family (because there was a miscommunication) and others had to sleep on the hard floor (Laurel slept on sheepskin). Mike had one bed, while Tifany and I shared the other. Good thing, too. The temperature dropped to about 50 degrees and we just had two blankets and no heater to keep us warm. It was really, really cold! Tifany and I basically cuddled all night to stay warm.

7:30 AM Saturday
We woke up and had breakfast. Breakfast was homemade goat cheese and potatoes. Teo also took us on a hike to see a waterfall (although it was dried up).

Dried up waterfall

11:00 AM Saturday
We met up with the rest of the volunteers. We went on a hike to see some ruins. It was a hard hike that was basically straight down and then straight up again. Very pretty though.

The ruins that we hiked down to

12:30 PM Saturday
Tifany, Mike, and I went back up to Teo's where they fed us lunch. We had steak and soup. They also served some juice made from purple corn that I thought was pretty much the best thing ever.

Cute little Peruvian boy

2:30 PM Saturday
We started back home. We picked up people and gave them rides on the way down the mountain. We even had some people climb up onto the roof. As if the bus ride wasn't scary enough already...

This was a cool experience. It was interesting to see how these people live such humble and simple lives, but are totally happy and content with everything that they have. They were very warm and friendly. I loved my experience there.