Machu Picchu and Peru

Machu Picchu... so where do I start. Well 7 of my friends and I spent the past week in Cusco, Peru, one of the greatest historical cities of the Americas. The main highlight of the trip was certainly the day we spent at Machu Picchu. The secluded and sufficiently hard to get to ancient Inca city took us a taxi ride, train ride, and bus ride to get to, but man was it worth it. I decided to pass on the extremely popular Inca Trail 4 day hike. Although I'm sure it would have been a great time, it was pricey and due to porters, sleeping in pre-arranged camping villages and eating food prepared by the guides, it wasn't really the hiking experience I would have been looking for. I'd much prefer a more individual hike, without the masses of people, and one that relies on my own ability to carry my pack, pitch my tent, and cook my food.

Instead, we took the other very popular Machu Picchu strategy, staying a night at Aguas Calientes (AKA Machu Picchu Pueblo, the town at the base of the mountain containing the ruins) and waking up obscenely early in order to be one of the first 400 people into the park, allowing us to climb Wayna Picchu, the mountain seen in the background of my ubiquitous post-card shot above. The summit promised truly unique views looking down upon Machu Picchu from about 1000 feet above. Our day started at 4:00, when we awoke in our hostel, with plans to hike up to the monument in the dark, assuring us one of the first spots in line when they opened the doors at 6:00. One problem... it was pouring rain! As a steep climb through mud and slippery stone stairs didn't seem to make a ton of sense, we instead went and stood in line for the first bus, departing at 5:30. After getting our spot in the surprisingly long line for such an early hour, we secured our spot to climb Wayna Picchu, as well as the opportunity to explore Machu Picchu before the masses of tourists arrived on their day trip from Cusco..

Through the pouring rain, we trekked our way up the steep steps of Wayna Picchu, stopping frequently to catch our breath in the thin air and snap some impressive pictures (A great excuse to catch our breath!). Machu Picchu itself is not only amazing, but the surrounding mountains are also awe inspiring, their steep, vegetation covered cliffs simply gorgeous. Although at first the rain seemed to be a damper on our special day, the combination of the clouds, fog, and rain added a mystical sense to the already magical place. Weird as it is, I think I actually had a better time at Machu Picchu because it was raining! After descending from Wayna Picchu, realizing we still had a full day ahead of us (it was only about 9:00!), we started exploring the wonder that is Machu Picchu, being simply amazed with ever corner we turned. Without a doubt, THE coolest place I've ever visited in my life, combining natural beauty with amazing architectural accomplishments. It just doesn't seem sensible, let alone possible to build a city in such a remote area. I wish the pictures could do the place justice, but they can't. I found it fascinating to sit up on a high hill and just imagine what the city must have been like with real life, not hundreds of tourists running around.

After Machu Picchu, I realized that the rest of the Sacred Valley of the Inca's, home to many other spectacular Inca sites was going to have a real hard time living up to the thrills of the main attraction. Despite thinking that we maybe should have visited these ruins first, saving the best for last, the ruins of Ollantaytambo, Moray, and Pisac did not disappoint. We spent a night in Ollantaytambo, waking up early to visit the ruins in town and rent a taxi for basically the whole day (for only $10!) to visit the surprisingly distant ruins of Moray and Pisac. I found the concentric circles of terraces used as an agricultural laboratory at Moray to be especially interesting and loved our 4 km hike down Inca trails and stairs from the hilltop citadel at Pisac.

After getting back to Cusco, we spent our time visiting some ruins in town (most notably ancient Inca walls that are still in flawless condition) and and a couple of museums. But the highlight of Cusco was the food. Peruvian food is delicious, cheap, delicious, and cheap. Oh, and delicious. I ate every strange thing I could get my hands on. Topping the list was anticucho de corazon (shish-kebabed cow heart), but close seconds were ceviche (raw trout marinated in lemon), cuy (guinea pig), and alpaca (relative of the llama). For those of you who are curious, the heart tastes very much like regular steak, but with a much more intense flavor and extremely tender, ceviche tastes like lemony sushi, guinea pig tastes like chicken, and alpaca tastes like a mixture between pork and lamb. Man, food may very well be my favorite part of travelling!

A cool unexpected addition to my stay in Cusco was catching the end of a rally car stage on Wednesday night. As this didn't really interest the rest of my group as much as me, I joined the crowds and listened as the cars flew by, engines sounding like airplane jets. The sounds were intoxicating, well at least to a car buff like me they were.

An unfortunate aspect of my trip in Peru was that I missed the rescue of the 33 miners trapped in Northern Chile. Truly an amazing story that has captured everyone here in Chile and many outside. There is some serious Chilean pride in the air for the successful rescue. I'll plan to fill you in on more Chilean news in my next post.

On some other notes, I shaved my beard off. It was great while it lasted but wore off it's appeal to me and became more of an annoyance. It never really looked great, and I had a lot of bare spots, but it showed potential.

I also went to a Dave Matthews Band concert last night in Santiago. Not exactly immersing myself in the South American culture, but hey, it was a great time. Dave has really compiled an amazing group of musicians in his band, joining together for a truly unique sound. Highly recommended for anyone who has the opportunity to catch a concert.

Lastly, I took a trip back to my favorite South American city Valparaíso this past Friday and Saturday (Cusco being my second favorite). This time I went with my ND program. We had a fantastic tour, our guide sharing many of the eccentricities of the city with us. The fantastic colors, old port influence, and openness to showing the tourist everything about the city from the beauty to the ugly parts has really attracted me. I keep describing it as a beautiful city to my host sister and she keeps refuting me that it is not beautiful. It may be unique, fascinating, or interesting, but she holds beautiful is not the right word (probably with some truth).

That's all I've got tonight. I hope everyone back home is doing well. I miss you, but not enough that I want to come home yet! :)