Wanderlust

Okay, I´m being melodramatic. Tomorrow morning, not so bright but definitely early, we start off on our 4 days of hiking the Inca Trail. We´ve packed up the stuff we´ll need for the trek and stored the stuff we won´t need in my backpack at SAE. I´m feeling a little crummy today–just generally sapped of energy. This could be because I didn´t sleep enough or that I don´t have much of an appetite (yesterday I had eggs for breakfast, a pastry for lunch, and a little leftover pasta mush for dinner). We´re going to take it easy today and stock up on candy bars for the trip–I think some Snickers bars and peanut M&Ms will go a long way for moral as well as fuel while we hike. And I like packing things that we´ll eat because it means my day pack will get lighter as we go!

I´m still a little nervous. Maybe more so now that I´m not feeling very well. But we leave tomorrow regardless, so I´m just going to relax and read today. I´ve been reading ¨The Pillars of the Earth¨by Ken Follett. I bought it mostly because it´s very long, and I´m surprised that I like it as much as I do. It´s very epic and engrossing. I like the characters a lot which is the main thing for me and books. I probably won´t finish it before we leave, and I think I might miss reading it while we´re hiking. But I might be too exhausted to care! Here comes four days without showering, sleeping on the ground, and sharing (probably) very disgusting toilets along the way. But there will also be amazing vistas, neat bugs and plants (we´ll be hiking through the Cloud Forest which from what I understand is similar to the rain forest but actually easier to see the interesting plants because they´re not all very high up in the canopy) , and hopefully good companions. I also hope the food will be tasty since they´re providing all of the meals and other than our candy we´ll be foodless. Mostly I just hope that I feel okay along the way. Tomorrow is the easiest day and Sunday the hardest. I´m sure we´ll be fine. Steve is carrying our clothes, sleeping bags, and sleep mats. And they carry the food and our tents. I´ll just have my day pack with snacks and water bottles (which I´ve carried on many hikes in California without problems).

I´ll be out of communication range for at least four days. But I´m bringing a tiny notebook to write down any thoughts or important blogging topics for when I get back, so hopefully I´ll be writing a full report on my triumphant journey to Machu Picchu sometime mid or late next week.

Wish us luck and sunshine and good food–and pretty orchids and leaf-cutter ants!

Gina. Cusco, Peru.

We finally got a room with a kitchen! Yay! It´s a tiny shared kitchen, but it´s clean and it works. It´s so nice to eat our own food. Even simple things like scrambled eggs or spaghetti. One thing I´ve noticed is that noodles cook very strangely here. I don´t know if it´s the brand of noodle we bought or the high altitude, but they come out a little mushy and creamy. But who cares! Food!

We had a pretty good time in Pisac at the market. There were so many stalls of weavings, knitted alpaca clothing, painted gourds, and every other imaginable handicraft. Everything was very brightly colored, so even though the day was a little overcast, the market was almost blindingly bright. We ended up spending some time talking to a very nice man named Oscar whose whole family paints. We bought one of his watercolors and he through in a couple of his younger brother´s oil paintings (very small little scenes) into the deal. We paid about $16 for the lot, so we´re pleased. The Pisac market is famous, so it was very crowded, especially since it was a Sunday–the biggest day. It being Sunday also meant that there were local people selling their produce and some livestock. I kept seeing little girls all dressed up in pink and blue walking around with baby lambs wrapped in a blanket hanging around their front. They were so cute and I just assumed they were buying or selling a baby lamb. But I realized later when I took out my camera to take a picture that they were just there for tourists! Three little girls with lambs immediately came up to m and started smiling and gesturing. They wanted me to pay them to take their picture! I guess on one hand they were very cute and it would have made a nice picture, but on the other hand how sad that these little girls are forced to dress up and walk around trying to look as cute as possible for tourists. It makes me a little sad.

But we´ve seen more of the same since getting back to Cusco. The big festival is on–the 24th is the biggest day, but the weeks before and after also have festivities. It was a little shocking to go from Cusco last week which was pretty calm and not crowded at all, to Cusco this week. You can´t walk anywhere without people trying to sell you things, give you an advertisement for massages or bars, or someone in native clothing with an alpaca wanting you to take their picture. It all feels very staged and sad. There have also been dancing and music performances in the main square every day which has turned into a crowded mob of people.

We leave Saturday morning (at 6:30 am) to start the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. We went to our tour agency yesterday to confirm our reservation and pay the remainder of our fees. We meet the guide tomorrow night–and presumably the other people in the group. According to the woman we spoke to at the agency, there will be 10 of us in all–all ages and nationalities. I´m looking forward to meeting everyone and learning more about the trek from the guide tomorrow night.

Yesterday we went to a few museums and did other touristy things. One museum is also a convent that was originally almost an Incan convent. It was a place where the most beautiful girls were chosen from the Incan empire and they lived there as virgins for their whole lives. They were considered to be married to the sun, since the sun was their main diety of sorts. The museum church had lots of murals on the walls painted in what´s called the Cusco School. They´re basically Catholic religious themed paintings that also incorporate some of Incan symbolism and local customs. We saw a painting in Lima from the same school that was of the Last Supper. But the food being served was a guinea pig and potatoes! The church we went into yesterday also had an example of one of the boxes the missionaries used to explain the Bible stories to the natives. It was literally a giant trunk that opened up into a scene complete with little carvings of people and animals. The carvings were attached to the box, so that you could just open it up almost flat and have Bible scenes. The birth of Christ was the main scene, but there were others as well. They also incorporated Incan symbolism like the sun, moon, and stars. It was really interesting, and it seems like a good way of explaining religious stories to someone outside of your religion–especially if you´re trying to convert them.

Otherwise we´ve just been relaxing. Walking around the city and trying to avoid large crowds. We´re both trying to get our energy up for the trek. Steve is doing much better with the altitude this time around. And my stomach is still not so happy, but I don´t feel quite as drained as I did.

Today we were going to go walk around some of the ruins just outside of Cusco, but we decided instead to relax (for Steve) and shop (for Gina). I really wanted to buy an alpaca sweater, but the nicest ones are very expensive, so I´ve settled with a pretty alpaca hat for 22 soles, or about $8. And then tonight we´re going to a free movie night at the South American Explorers´club house. I´m really glad we signed up with them–both for the information and for the socializing. It´s a nice place to relax outside of our hostel.

Gina. Ollytatambo, Peru

We went outside today! Yay! I´m posting photos right now of the Incan ruins around Ollytatambo, flowers, and the silliness we got into along an Incan wall. It´s really amazing how accurately they cut the rocks for some of their walls. They don´t have any mortar holding them together, and yet they´ve survived for so long. And they´re really very pretty. Some of the details are interesting, too–like rounded protrusions that no one really knows what they´re for. There are theories that they could have helped in the transportation of the giant stones or that the Incans could have just liked the way the shadows from them looked. Unfortunately today was a bit cloudy, so there were no shadows on the wall for us. But every day since we left the Lima fog has been unnaturally blue and sunny, so we were due for a  cloudy day.

I feel very uncomfortable taking pictures of the local people. But they´re so photogenic with their incredibly tan, wrinkled faces and bright woven clothing and headpieces. I snuck a couple of photos of some children, though. Maybe I´ll get more bold as time goes on. Or maybe it´ll be easier to take photos in more obviously touristy places like the market tomorrow.

Today really was a wonderful day. Not only did we get out walking around, but we also didn´t eat in a restaurant all day! Yay! We´re both sick of soup and rice and chicken. Almost everything we´ve eaten so far has been oversalted, almost to the point of being inedible. We´re trying to be extra cautious about what we eat. Soup is generally safe since everything in it has been boiled. Other than that we´ve been avoiding any uncooked vegetables or fruits, and anything with cheese or milk in it. I miss cheese and milk. It hasn´t even been two weeks and I´m seriously craving a giant glass of milk and a big hunk of cheddar extra sharp… But, back on topic, today we ate our own food. We went to the outdoor market and bought 2 carrots, a cucumber, an avocado, and 4 bananas. Fruits and vegetables are okay to eat raw as long as they are peelable. So these were all good choices. We also bought some chocolate cookies (coca soda is their name!), a loaf of bread, and a pack of 3 small tuna fish (atun in Spanish!) cans in oil. I sliced up half the cucumber (after peeling it) and half the avocado and we put tuna fish with it on the bread and they might have been the best sandwiches we´ve ever had! Even Steve had some tuna, and he´s always been against it. Then we peeled a carrot and munched away! It was great. I dreamed about food last night, so it was great to make something so tasty without the fear that has started to come with food prepared by someone else. For dinner we had ramen in a cup and an orange. It´s been a good food day! And I mean that without any irony. It´s funny what you miss and what tastes comforting.

Tomorrow morning we´ve off to Pisac and the market. We´re going to spend the night there so that we can go see their ruins and relax. Both Ollytatambo and Pisac are little towns outside of Cusco that generally get either passed over or just quickly visited for the ruins or the market. It´s nice to have the freedom and the time to get to know the places a little better and see them once the hordes of tourists go home.

Gina. Ollytatambo, Peru 

We´re such sad, sick little Americans. I´m feeling much better. The 15 bus ride from Ica to Cusco almost did me in, though. It´s not just 15 hours on a bus… it´s 15 hours on a bus with almost nonstop, incredibly loud music or movies, directly into the mountains. 15 hours of switchbacks on the second level of a bus, in the back, near the stinky bathroom was a bit much. I got car sick immediately once we started off. Immediately. I was really sad. But, coca tea to the rescue! I got a cup of hot water and tried out the nifty little coca teabags I bought in a store before getting on the bus. It really helped. I was still pretty miserable during the ride, but I survived it.

I was so excited to finally get to Cusco, though. It´s really breathtaking here both because of the natural beauty and the fact that it´s at 11,500 feet elevation! Our hostel was up a couple of flights of steps, so we were both out of breath by the time we got there. But it had a beautiful view of Cusco and was only a couple of blocks from the main square. We spent two nights in Cusco, with Steve suffering from altitude sickness. I swear, between the two of us we´re just taking turns being sick! We didn´t do much in Cusco since Steve wasn´t feeling well and we´ll be there for four days before hiking the Inca Trail. But we did go get memberships at South American Explorer´s Club. They´re a pretty awesome nonprofit that has offices in Lima and Cusco in Peru, and in Quito, Ecuador. It´s a place to get information on everything from where to go and what to do to safety information and warnings. They´re also a nice, safe place to hang out and meet other people and they receive mail for you if you need it. We got some information on what to do around Cusco for the next few days, and so now we´re in Ollytatambo in the Sacred Valley. It was about a 2 1/2 bus ride from Cusco. The elevation here is lower, so it´ll give Steve a chance to recover and adjust. It´s a really small town with lots of Incan ruins. We talked to some American volunteers at a weaving shop/museum and they gave us some good ideas of hikes to do tomorrow.

The view from our hostal in Cusco

It´s really pretty here. It´s one of the last Incan villages. The streets are narrow and cobblestoned, and there´s water running in stone drains along most of them. The town is surrounded by mountains and we can see a couple of ruins from our hostel´s balcony. I´m excited about getting out walking tomorrow. We´ve been so couped up since we´ve been sick, that it will be nice both to stretch my legs and to take some pictures. We´re planning on staying here for two nights and then heading to Pisac on Sunday morning for the famous (and probably touristy) market.

Gina. Ica, Peru

 So, I´m taking a little poetic license on my title here, since the phrase is usually Matazuma´s Revenge. But we´re in Peru, not Mexico, and this seemed like a more appropriate way to go.

But the point is, I got sick. I knew it would happen. I just hoped it wouldn´t happen so soon. I´m not sure what the culprit was: something I ate. On the upside, I´d rather get sick 2 weeks before Machu Picchu, so I have time to recover.

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Gina. Ica, Peru 

Huacachina quickly lost its charm. It´s really not its fault…. The combination of getting used to traveling, getting sick, and our hotel literally having about 20 French Canadians staying there (everyone but us) was just too much for us. Between the cute little pet monkey, the parrots, swimming pool, and the awesome hang out backyard of the hostel it would have been a nice place to relax for a while. But we felt lonely and a little claustrophobic since Huacachina is literally surrounded by towering sand dunes. You feel like you´re at the bottom of a giant bowl.

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Gina. Huacachina, Peru

Huacachina is beautiful. It´s an incredibly small little resort type town that is literally a desert oasis. There are towering sandunes all around the little green lake that the handful of restaurants, hotels, and dune buggy rental places surround. Huacachina is just outside of Ica, which is South of Lima. It tooks us about 5 hours by bus to get here. The bus was more comfortable than a plane… it was also pretty expensive. We chose Cruz del Sur mostly because there is no central bus station in Lima, so in order to compare bus prices we would have had to take a taxi into bad areas of town, jumping from company to company before settling on a ticket. In retrospect, we should have asked our very nice taxi driver Juan since he was usually outside of our hostel and was very friendly. But oh well. It was 55 soles a piece, which is roughly $20. So not so bad for getting out of Lima–two days there was definitely enough.

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Gina: Lima, Peru

We arrived safely in Lima Tuesday night after a very long day of plane rides. The TACA planes were very nice and clean. They played a movie and a tv show on shared screens and we even got a little omelet breakfast on the first flight to San Salvador that was surprisingly good. We both slept most of the flight, except for two occassions when roller coaster like turbulence woke us up. We´re both so cute–we each thought the other one was sleeping and didn´t want to wake them, so we both were freaked out for a while! I finally decided that Steve comforting me was more important than him sleeping, so I grabbed his hand and we cuddled in our seats. It was fine, just not a good way to be woken up on your first flight on a S. American airline that you´re not very familiar with. There was more turbulence later on, but this time we were awake and it was light outside. We literally watched the plane fly into a giant tower of a cloud. Personally, I think we should have taken evasive maneuvers, but I guess that´s not really practical. I got friendly with the guy beside me as we both grabbed for the armrest and briefly held hands. I felt like I was on the Phoenix at Knoebles Grove in Pennsylvania (an old wodden roller coaster), I literally flew out of my seat a little since my seatbelt was loosened. But, we got through the cloud safely and all was well.

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Wow.

I could fill a whole post just with that one word. I’m glad I’m finally really excited. The past couple of days have been stressful with coming down with a cold, saying good-bye to everyone, and checking things off of our lists. I’d gotten to the point where I was trying not to think about the reality of the trip but instead thinking of each task as just something to check off the list. But at about 4:30 today, everything was done and I finally had a chance to de-stress and get excited. We’d run all of our errands–including getting both of our Hep A booster shots and an MMR booster for me ($130 total at the Santa Rosa health clinic), going to our banks to get some cash in small bills and take off our overdraft protections (I believe it was Laura who pointed out that having overdraft protection wasn’t such a good idea because a. if our cards were stolen, then the thief would be able to spend more than what we have in our checking accounts–we’re keeping $1,000 in each–and b. we’re using them for taking cash out of ATMs, so the overdraft is useless since you can’t use it for cash withdrawals, only purchases). We also let our banks know that we’d be traveling outside of the country so (hopefully) the cards will work for us while we’re traveling. We repacked our bags, checking off each item on our pack lists as we went. The packing lists ended up being really great. I made them months and months ago with the help of travel books and how to pack light websites. Having the lists helped us buy stuff as well as made packing a lot less stressful. Steve weighed our bags–mine is about 32 lbs and Steve’s is around 40 lbs. So we’re under the 50 lb airline requirement for checked bags (and the ‘oh my god I’m not carrying that amount on my back’ limit). What else? I’ve called friends and family to say good bye. I’m sure I didn’t get to everyone on the phone today, but for those of you I didn’t call, I’m sorry! It’s been a long day and I need to relax a bit before the plane ride. So now there’s just showering and getting dressed in trip clothes and getting on the plane.

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I just got back to California last night after spending two weeks of visiting my friends and family in Alabama and Pennsylvania. It was great to see everyone, so I’m really glad that I went. But now I’m pooped, and I have a whole list of things to get done before Monday night when we fly away!

I really can’t believe that there are only two days before we go. To be honest, I’m a little freaked out. I’m sure we’ll get everything on our list done (they’re little things and reminders, nothing major). But I still feel really overwhelmed. Actually, I feel so overwhelmed, that I don’t want to think about it anymore. I’m just going to get busy checking things off of the list.

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