Peru: Spanish Intensive and Cultural Immersion

Last night my traveling party and I went to Santa Teresa´s famous hotsprings.  It was like something out of a James Bond movie, with a cabana atmospher and olympic-sized hotspring pools.  Pool chairs and grass-covered huts permeated the ¨spring¨side, and it was a mesh-pot of South American and International atendees.  I wonder if we all paid the same entrance fee…

My friends camped in a field just outside the hotsprings.  I opted to stay in a hotel close-by.  The next morning we met up for breakfast, and then began our hike.  One member of our party, the only Peruvian among us, went to arrange for the heavy camping gear to be put on a train to Aguas Calientes, and was planning on meeting us at the hydro-electric plant, the halfway point of the hike.  When we arrived, halfway, she was nowhere to be seen, and my friends grudgingly waited for her, while I decided to carry on.

Santa Teresa, Peru

The second half of the hike was beautiful, the route was along the railroad tracks, with a rushing river parrallel the entire time.  When it began to rain violently, I ducked under the shelter of a tin-roof ¨shop¨, basically a lady selling soda, gatorade, and chocolate to hungry tourists.  I talked to her for a half hour, complementing her on the paradisical location of her house, the United States, and how much further  I had until Aguas Calientes.

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When the rain stopped I continued on, and after a long day am finally in Aguas Calientes.  It´s a scam of a town, ripping tourists off at every corner, flanked by the masses because of its proximity to Machu Picchu.  I spent $13 on a very nice room, which seems lucky for Aguas Calientes, and I plan to wake up at 4:00 am to start hiking into Machu Picchu.

School resumes Monday, I head back to Cuzco tomorrow afternoon.  It has been a whirlwind of a weekend, with the catalyst being Machu Picchu tomorrow.

At Fairplay´s most recent Clase de Cocinar, which is essentially a giant dinner party in which the students help prepare the food, I met a fellow traveler who was planning on doing the exact same itinerary into Machu Picchu as I was.  And so it is, I have postponed my Friday classes until Monday, and early tomorrow morning I venture out on the search for a cheaper way into the once thriving city of the Incas.

Every traveler that wants to visit Machu Picchu must go through the city Aguas Calientes, a town only directly traveled to by train.  To avoid the ticket price,  about $40 each way, (the train to MP is monopolized by a British company) seven of us are traveling by bus to Santa Teresa, and hiking for six hours to Aguas Calientes, visiting the ruins the next day.

This scheme of mine to join up with these folks started last night at Clase de Cocinar, where Sam told me of her plans for Friday.  Intrigued, and suggesting I meet her other accomplices, I accompanied her to a kareoke bar after dinner, and met the other five people in the hiking party.  Through poorly rendered versions of Michael Jackson, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, and certain Latin American tunes that I did not recognize, we realized it was a good fit, and thus our cohort has formed.

 Tomorrow morning the adventure begins, I should arrive back to my homestay sometime during dinner on Sunday, where I have been assured a hot plate of food will be waiting for me.  Ciao.