Santi in Peru!

My First Trip to Cusco

Hola a todos!

I had my first visitor here in Peru, my sweet sweet boyfriend, who I hadn’t seen in 265 days! I went to Argentina in the winter to visit before starting Peace Corps, but because of Peace Corps policy and regulations, I wasn’t able to take another vacation until now. Needless to say, we had a very joyful reunion seeing each other for the first time in over 9 months! Santi flew in to visit Peru and go to some of the most popular places in the country, all of which I was dying to visit as well!

Once Santi landed in Peru, we were on the go pretty much the entirety of the trip! We started Saturday morning with a trip to Dunkin (as requested by Santi) and then went for a walking tour of the Historic Center of Lima. I’ve spent some time in this area before during training, but it was fun to get to learn more about the area!

There is one fountain in the main plaza (pictured below from a different trip) that they have filled up with Pisco, a popular Peruvian liquor, a couple of times. However, each time, this event happened on a Sunday, and instead of going to mass, people were lining up outside of the fountain to get some free Pisco. Needless to say, the church was not happy about it, so it only happened twice in the around 2010 and then again this year to celebrate Independence Day. I’m not sure how hygienic it would be, but maybe the free Pisco is worth it?

In the afternoon, we went to visit some of the ruins in Lima, Huaca Pucllana. There were actually three different civilizations that lived here over the course of the last several hundreds of years. The tour guide pointed out different elements from each culture and the suspected use for the grounds for each civilization. This was a cool location too because the ruins are right in the middle of the city. Surrounding the ancient structures, there are city blocks, buildings, restaurants, etc.

Sunday morning, Santi and I woke up bright and early and took a walk along the Malecon, a path near the beach that offers some beautiful views of the ocean.  Afterwards, we jumped in a taxi and headed up to Chaclacayo, where I did my training, so Santi could meet part of my Lima host family! We had breakfast, hung out, and then went to lunch with some of the extended host family. At lunch, Santi tried his first cuy, which he thoroughly enjoyed!

After spending time with my host family, we jumped on a plane Sunday evening to Cusco.

Monday morning, we had a nice breakfast and then did a walking tour to learn more about the city, which was long long ago, the capital of the Inca Empire. We saw lots of old ruins and learned about the Incan culture, and how the Spanish were able to come in and break up this massive empire. A lot of the buildings still have their original foundations, some of which were constructed with HUGE stones in the time of the Incas. They were also made in a way to make them earthquake resistant – in my opinion, engineers today could learn a thing or two from the Incas who built these structures.

Cusco is by far the prettiest city I’ve seen so far in Peru! The beautiful white buildings, the cobblestone streets, the spacious plaza, and the surrounding mountains are like something out of a book. I would have loved to spend weeks and weeks here getting to wander the city and learn more about the intricate history of the Incan and Pre-Incan civilizations that lived here.

During our time in the Cusco region, Santi and I did a two-day tour to visit the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. We woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning to see some of the sights in the Sacred Valley including Pisac and Ollantaytabmo. During the times of the Inca Empire, Pisac  was a crucial administrative, religious, and agricultural center for the empire. During our visit, we were able to hike around some of the ruins to see the terraces, aqueducts, and the area where the nobles of the town lived.

We stopped in a town call Urubamba for lunch between visiting the ruins. We ate at a buffet that had lots of the typical Peruvian foods – ceviche, papa a la huancaina, quinoa salads, and – this was new for me – alpaca meat cooked in a stew of sorts. Of course, I had to take the opportunity to try it. It wasn’t bad, but also I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to eat it consistently. I think it prefer the wool to the meat, let the alpacas live.

After lunch we went to Ollantaytambo, which was a site used for a variety of purposes including a defensive checkpoint for the Inca resistance leader against the Spanish. They were also in the process of building a temple to the sun god, Inti, when a Small Pox epidemic broke out. The people at the time thought this was a sign from the God that he did not want his temple in this place. For this reason, and because many of the workers had died from Small Pox, the temple was never completely finished. There are still huge blocks laying around the site that were intended to build the temple.

As part of the ruins in Ollantaytambo, there was an intricate water system that was constructed hundreds of years ago, and is still completely functional to this day. Granted, there has probably been some upkeep, maintenance, and restoration of the systems. However, I’m still trying to figure out how these systems are pristine, while the water systems in my community are breaking after 30 years.

There are many more sites to visit in the Sacred Valley, although the tour we were on did not have time to visit the other ruins. Maybe I’ll have the chance to go visit the rest of the places with my next visitor ;)

We had a couple of hours to kill in the town of Ollantaytambo after exploring the ruins. We walked around and saw “Incabucks,” like Starbucks, but with a Peruvian twist. We also ran into a party for the anniversary of the town! There was a live band, so we enjoyed some Cusqueña (a favorite Peruvian beer), and enjoyed the festivities while we waited for the train.

We arrived to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu late Tuesday night. November starts rainy season in Cusco, and since we visited at the end of October, we were right on the cusp of rainy season and dry season. I was anxious leading up to the trip about how the weather would be during our trip, especially to some of the main attractions. It’s not uncommon that during rainy season, it is so cloudy and foggy that when tourists go to visit the main sites, they end up not being able to see anything at all. There are beautiful days where Machu Picchu is completely visible, but there are also cloudy days where tourists can see absolutely nothing. It’s a complete toss-up, and the weather apps here are almost never accurate, so needless to say, we had no idea what we were going to see the next day. While we were at Ollantaytambo earlier in the day, we sent a quick request to the Sun God of the Incas, Inti, to ask for a sunny day for our trip to Machu Picchu. It must have worked, because when we got to Machu Picchu on Wednesday, it was absolutely beautiful!

Despite all of the anxiety and the threat of rain and fog, our view of Machu Picchu was absolutely pristine! We also had a great tour guide who explained lots to us and showed us all of the different parts of the town including the homes of the nobility, the temples, the school, etc. He also told us that it only took 50 years to build this site!? To me, that is crazy. The structure is located on a hard-to-reach mountain in the middle of the jungle – where did they get all of these materials? It’s also crazy to me that there are water systems there that are still working!! How is it possible that hundreds of years later these are still transporting water, but the reservoirs in my town built less than 50 years ago are malfunctioning?

I know Machu Picchu is obviously a Peru bucket list item, and all I can say is, it’s definitely worth the hype. It’s immense structures and intricate architecture are even more impressive in person.

The last excursion that we did was to Rainbow Mountain and the Red Valley. This is also a super popular tourist attraction, but far less people visit, mostly due to the extreme altitude. Round trip, it is about a 5 mile journey that starts at around 4,400 meters and finishes just about 5,000 meters above sea level (14,400 feet – 16,400 feet). We started our morning at 3 AM, when the guides picked us up. We had a nice breakfast on the way and reached the base of the trail just before 7 in the morning. Stocked up with water, altitude pills, sunscreen, and Agua Florida (a kind of ointment people put on their hands to smell – it helps open up the airways and increase oxygen intake), we started our trek.

The first third is more or less flat, the second part is “Inca Flat” which means some flat segments followed by some steep segments. The last stretch of the hike is called the “Gringo Killer” – it’s kind of a joke, but I don’t think I’ve ever walked up a hill slower.

Once we got to the top though, the views were incredible! The colors, which are made from different mineral layers in the mountain, were stunning and the valley below was colorful. Even though it was a crazy long day, I’m so glad we made the trek out to the mountain – it was absolutely stunning and 100% worth a visit in person.

After some rest and enjoying the views, we made our way over to the Red Valley, which is only about a 20 minute walk from Rainbow Mountain. A lot less people visit this site, but I think it is equally, if not more beautiful. Everything in the Red Valley is super vibrant – it’s almost hard to believe that it is real. I don’t think the pictures from Rainbow Mountain or the Red Valley really do either of these places justice, but we took lots of pictures to try and capture the immense beauty.

Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Cusco and headed back to Lima. We stayed in a neighborhood called Barranco. I had never visited this part of Lima before, but I would 100% go back! The buildings were beautiful and covered with murals and art. The neighborhood is known for its art and culinary scene.

It is also adjacent to the beach with lots of access points down to the ocean. We hung out in the neighborhood, admired some of the art, and had some of the best ice cream that I’ve tasted since being in Peru. We finished out the day with a walking tour – the guide left us at the beach to watch the sun set.

Finally, the moment came when Santi had to go back to the  airport and we had to go our separate ways. The airport goodbyes never seem to get any easier, but I’m already excited for the next time he comes to visit. I’m so glad he was able to come and share all of these special moments with me getting to know some of the most popular and well-known places in my adoptive country.

Now I am settling back into my site. I had lots of vacation and time away from site in October between my trip to Ancash, this vacation, and other trips to visit volunteers in the area. Things will settle down now a bit and I’ll get back into a routine at my site.

Hasta Pronto!