Ok, I promise I am going to try to blog more frequently this quarter.
So, I’ll start with my amazing trip to Peru for Spring Break. So, on a Wednesday morning, I made my way to Lima EARLY in the morning, on a flight with various Santiago-mates. Most of them were going off to Cuzco right away, but my friend Aubrey and I stopped in Lima to spend two days there. Aubrey has some family in Lima, so they picked us up from the Airport and took us around Lima. We saw the changing of the guards in front of the presidential palace and we saw a huge gorgeous cathedral. Then we went to lunch in China town, which was nice. Then they drove us around to see some of the beach/coast. I was then dropped off at my hostel, as my friend Lesley was coming in that night to Lima to come meet me. So, after getting to my hostel (which was a little bit odd for a variety of reasons) I left to meet up with another Stanford friend, Kirin, who was in Lima at a different hostel. We met up for dinner in the neighborhood Barranco and ate at a great restaurant right on the beach. Then we went back to her hostel and talked to various travelers and heard their stories and then I went back to the hostel, as Lesley as supposed to arrive at the hotel at about 2 am. 2:30am rolled around and I was a bit worried, because I had been the one who organized the taxi at the hostel to pick up Lesley. At 2:45, I went downstairs and woke up the guy and asked him if someone had gone to pick up Lesley. At first the guy was groggy and unhelpful, so I made him go wake up the guy in charge to go confirm that a cab had been sent to pick up Lesley. Once it was confirmed, there was nothing else I could do, so I went back to my room and went to sleep. About 45 minutes later, Lesley woke me up and had finally arrived. I was a bit out of it when she came in, but I was happy to know she arrive fine, and then we slept. The next morning we woke up and met up with Kirin, who was at the other hostel. We spent the day walking around the Miraflores neighborhood, eating, shopping and exploring. I got a fantastic bright alpaca sweater and also got a much needed mani-pedi. That night we had dinner at Pizza Street in Miraflores. Pizza street is literally a street that is just full of pizza restaurants. After that, we want back to our hostels, and I got about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up to go to the airport.
Here are some Lima Pictures:
The presidential palace in the Plaza de Armas in Lima.
During the Changing of the guards. Note the military police
The Presidential palace.
Tank outside the palace.
A crypt inside of a neat church we saw.
Lesley modelling her new alpaca gear.
Giant bunnies we saw.
Pizza street in Lima.That morning I woke up at about 4am, to go to the airport to fly out to Cuzco. I met my friend Aubrey at the airport and we headed to Cuzco together. As soon as we got to Cuzco, we went to our hotel and slept a bit in order to acclimate to the altitude. That night we picked up our train tickets to go to Machu Picchu, and then me and my friend Kirin, who was at a different hostel got together and walked around Cuzco a bit. Later that night, Kirin and I met up with a bunch of girls who were in Santiago with us, who had gone to Machu Picchu that day. We all met up for Chinese dinner in Cuzco, which was super fun. Then, we all said our goodbyes, as I wouldn’t see any of them till next year since they were all going back to Stanford.
Cuzco:
Llama statues in Cuzco.
The final Peru goodbye dinner in Cuzco.
Procession in Cuzco!
Cuzco!
Cuzco procession!!!
Church in Cuzco!
Cuzco at night!
I love Cuzco!
The church in Cuzco.
Cuzco in gorgeous weather.
Final brunch in Cuzco!The next morning, Aubrey and I got up really early to head to Machu Picchu. We took the lovely Vista Dome train up to Aguas Calientes, which was about a 4-hour trip. From there we took a bus up to Machu Picchu. Luckily, even though we went on a Saturday it wasn’t very crowded, so Aubrey and I had a great, lovely day exploring the ruins and taking pictures. We had fantastic weather where it was so hot that we were just in normal t-shirts. It sprinkled twice and it actually led to the creation of 2 beautiful rainbows, which was great. Also, we walked up to the top of the ruins where we were met by a lovely family of llamas, which was very fun and cute! Afterwards, we took the bus back down to Aguas Calientes and then the train back to Cuzco. On the train ride back, they had an Alpaca fashion show where a waiter and waitress from our car dressed up in various Alpaca items, and traipsed down the “runway” of our car. Entertaining to say the least. Once we got back, Aubrey and I had a nice dinner at a restaurant right next to our hotel.
Machu Picchu Pictures:
On the train ride to Aguas Calientes.
On the The Scenery
More Scenery.
Old Incan terracing.
As we enter Machu Picchu.
The lovely mountains
A great view
Me in front of the great view!
The ruins.
Gorgeous skies. (ps, have you noticed that I cant figure out how to rotate my pictures.)
Me in an Incan window.
Incan terracing
A Chinchilla
Incan stonework
Incan Terracing
Aubrey and I
Condor Temple
Two more chinchillas
Incan Structures
Temple of the three windows
A stone--but I cant remember its complete significance. Something about a sundial?
The sun temple, the only round building at MP
More sun temple.
They carved that out of one stone!
Incan stairs!
Aubrey and I at the top!!!
Me and the llamas at the top! What a reward!
Llamas!
Great overview of the whole sight! What great weather!
On the train ride back from MP!
More train show!
Alpaca fashion show!
Yup!The next day (Sunday) Aubrey and I headed to Pisac to go to the market. First, the drive from Cuzco to Pisac is about ½ an hour in a cab, but it’s a fantastic drive, sprinkled with ruins, and locals dressed in amazingly bright traditional clothing, herding or hanging out with their llamas, alpacas, and sheep. Once we got to the market, we headed to the Church, where we saw some of the mass in Quechua. It was held in a great old church, and was neat that various locals were wandering in and out (often in their traditional clothing). After watching the mass for a bit, we headed out to do some major shopping at the market. We got lots of jewelry and alpaca gear, but I cant go into specifics, because much of it is for various readers of this blog. We shopped until late in the afternoon, and then headed back to Cuzco.
Pisac Pics:
Church in Pisac. Mass in Quechua!
Church in Pisac!
People!
Pretty!
Lady with baby at church!That night we ate at a nice Chinese restaurant in the plaza de armas, shopped a bit, and then went to sleep.
The next morning, we met up with Lesley and her boyfriend, who had just arrived in Cuzco, and with Kirin, to have brunch. It was nice to see everyone, and trade travel stories, and then we all parted our ways once more.
Aubrey and I made our way to the airport to head out to Arequipa. Once we got to Arequipa, we went to the hotel and then went out to find dinner. Our hotel was amazingly located, a couple blocks from the amazing monastery, about 4 blocks from the plaza de armas, and 2 blocks from the street San Francisco, filled with great restaurants. We strolled the various streets for a while, and finally settled on, oddly enough a restaurant modeled after an American diner called Retro.
The next morning we decided to fill it with all the main sights there is to see in Arequipa. But first, we needed lunch. We happened upon a small café that lonely planet had recommended called Ribs Café. We were the only ones in the small storefront joint, but the chef was right there making our food and it was great. I got their specialty, ribs, and they were fantastic. Aubrey and I then headed to the Monastery of Santa Catalina. There we took a guided tour and learned all about its odd history. A rich widow started the monastery once her husband died. Back when it was started, it was incredibly competitive for girls to get in it, and families had to pay huge dowries for their daughters to get in it. There were about a hundred nuns in the monastery at a time, in its peak years, and the nuns used to have between 1 and 4 servants. The monastery was HUGE and really felt like a small city. Today, there are only about 30 nuns at the monastery and now the Church has to pay the nuns to join, as its not as popular these days to be a nun… (I wonder why?!). After that, we headed out to a museum where they house and do research on some of the Incan sacrificed girls that were found frozen and preserved in the Andes. It was neat to hear how the girls were found, but also definitely creepy, as human children sacrifice is sad and eerie, even if it has religious and cultural significance. After that, we went to this gorgeous beautiful church in the Plaza de Armas. Once we did all the big sights in Arequipa, we decided to reward ourselves with an excellent dinner. We had read about a great Asian fusion place, a short drive away so we decided to take a cab and go for it. Our cab got extremely lost, but once we finally got there, the food was excellent and well worth the confusing journey. The next morning we woke up and went to eat breakfast at a place we had seen before which looked like it had a fantastic menu. The food was really amazing and one of the best meals I had in Peru.
Arequipa Photos:
Monastery Santa Catalina
Murals in the convent.
More murals!
More monastery.
Me and aubrey at the monestary!
Guniea pigs at the monestary. Soon to be dinner!
The nuns cant talk to each other.
Me in front of the church
Church lit up at night.
Best breakfast ever!
Church in Arequipa!After that, we walked around Arequipa a bit, and then headed back to the hotel, as I had a plane to catch to Juliaca, a town close to Lake Titicaca, Peru.
When I arrived in Juliaca, I soon found out my only way to get to Puno, the town near Titicaca was through a taxi. So, I got in a cab, and fortunately got a really nice cab driver, who stopped the car on the way to Puno, and let me take some pictures coming down the hill to Puno. Then, I arrived at my lovely hotel in Puno. I rested a bit, as Puno is actually a higher altitude then Cuzco. That night I wandered around the main street a bit, but didn’t want to stay out too late, because I had an early morning the next day. The next morning I got up at 6:30, as I was getting picked up at 7:30 for my tour of 3 islands in Lake Titicaca. As soon as I got in the van to head to the dock, I met a German girl who was 18 and traveling by herself. We started talking and shared our stories and what not. She was in Peru learning Spanish, and working with a non-profit. Once on the boat, we met our other tour-mates which included, 2 British friends, 3 French traveling friends, an older French Canadian couple, a Australian/Swiss “couple” who had met a couple of weeks earlier while traveling in Bolivia, an awesome Australian couple, an Irish couple and another solo traveler an older Italian German woman (who you will hear more about, in a bit). The first stop on our journey, were the Uros floating islands in Lake Titicaca. These islands are something that I think may be entirely unique in the world. They are man made islands created from reeds from within the lake. Apparently, they moved there hundreds of years ago to avoid aggression from the Incas and other natives in Peru. There are about 40 of the floating islands, and they all include houses, and boats created by the reeds. Every few months, the people of each island have to put a new layer of reeds on the top of the islands since they do rot and weaken every few months. You can probably tell more about these islands from the photos, so enjoy!
Lake Titicaca photos:
Overview of the lake!
Lady walking down the road.
On the water.
The island Uros.
More reed islands.
Reed boat! double decker!
Lady on the island.
Me and two kids!
Amantaní
More gorgeous Island of Amantaní
The soccer stadium at Amantaní
More Amantaní peoples
Some girls walking on Amantaní
The Island of Taquile, the main square, a tad shabby
Nicer part of the main square of Taquile
A sign in Taquile of distances to various places.
Girl in the arch of Taquile
Arch of Taquile or Amantaní...i cant quite tell
Nice sky of Amantaní
Bundled up on a cold morning in Taquile
The dock of Taquile
The houses on Taquile
The dock after 500 something steps!After going to Uros, we headed to the island of Amantaní. I got there, and decided to stay in a house with the German girl, and the older German/Italian. Once we huffed and puffed our way to the house, up on Amantaní we were shown our surprisingly nice and comfy rooms. We relaxed for a few minutes and then were called for lunch. The lunch consisted of a nice vegetable soup, purple potatoes, and fresh trout. Well, since I don’t eat fish, I gave my trout to Katarin, the German girl, and just enjoyed the soup and purple potatoes. Then we went back to our rooms to rest a bit. Later that afternoon, some people went up on a hike, but I decided to explore a little bit. I walked around the island and saw their soccer stadium, some old ruins, and some kids playing. That night we had dinner, which was some more vegetable soup, and rice and veggies and potatoes. We were supposed to go to a little party/dance after dinner. However, during dinner it started to pour rain and hail and thunder and lightening so we decided to stay in. But, it was one of my favorite nights in Peru, because me, and my two housemates sat with the two sisters who had made us dinner and sat there talking about life. They asked us questions about our lives, we asked them about theirs, and we just shared random stories. They sat there touching our earrings, looking at our gloves, asking us if we were going to be married soon, etc. Overall it was one of my favorite nights in Peru. We ran to bed to avoid the rain and hail, and fell asleep to the storm clattering on the roof. The next morning we woke up to a still semi-rainy sky and had fantastic dulce de leche crepes for morning. Suddenly, the German-Italian lady burst out with a secret she was apparently dying to tell us. She woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee. She walked outside to use the outhouse, but she was oddly afraid there would be a snake in the outhouse, so she decided to go ahead and pee in the garden. Then she proceeded to talk about random stuff for the rest of the morning, like the fact that she can’t wait to have a German roll when she gets back to Germany. Hmm..Overall she was quite a character. After breakfast, we headed down to the dock, to sail to the next and last island, Taquile. We sailed on choppy rainy seas to Taquile. Once we got there, we had to walk from the dock, about 40 minutes to the town plaza. Once there we poked around a bit. The men there wear different floppy hats depending on if they are single or married. Wouldn’t life just be way easier if everyone wore different floppy hats telling you if they were single or not? Ya, I think so too. After poking around and hearing about the town’s history and culture we went to lunch. After lunch, it was time to return to our boat, and we took a different way down to a different dock, and we had to walk down more than 540 steps to get to the boat.
After we got back to Puno, Katarin and I walked around Puno and I did my last minute shopping since that would be my last day in Peru to do my last minute scooping. We decided to go to dinner at a nice pizza restaurant, and there we ran into some other people from our tour. They invited us out to drinks later that night. So, after using the Internet at a café, Katarin and I headed out to the bar. Katarin and I got there first and ordered some beers. Then 4 more people from our tour came, and we had a nice final night at the bar talking and laughing. Also, the bar was fantastic and included live music from Peruvian bands singing excellent covers of American songs. After saying all of our goodbyes, I went back to my hotel.
The next morning I got up and was picked up by my same cab driver as before. We went to see the ruins of Sillustani, which are old Incan burrial towers. They were quite striking, high up on the mountains, and always leads back to the questions of how Incans created the magnificent things they did. Then, a nice final Peru surprise is that I came upon a Peruvian boy and his dad, herding a bunch of Alpacas and Sheep including some babies. I got some cute pictures from that, and after that headed to the airport to go to Lima.
Pictures from Puno and Sillustani:
This is a really nice church in Puno. I dont think this pic quite gives it justice.Ruins at Sillustani: (most are just ruins)
Me and a little herder boy
LLAMAS
Herder and his sheep and llamas
BABY!
Overall my trip to Peru was fantastic. I loved walking around, traveling, exploring, and meeting people.
