Cuzco and the Sacred Valley -- Our Inca Journey: Days Three and Four

(Hint: Scroll down to see our adventures from Days One and Two!)

The alarm went off that morning at 5:15 a.m., but it was unnecessary as the roosters had been crowing since well before dawn. After a hasty breakfast, we boarded a bus at around 7 a.m. that would take us up the mountain. I sat in a window seat which was very fortunate because I got an amazing view of our ascent. The road that the bus takes up to Machu Picchu is winding and serpentine, zig-zagging up the mountainside. Every time the bus turned to my side, I got an amazing view of the mountains surrounding the valley in which Aguas Calientes lies. The mountains in this section of the Andes are huge, giant monoliths covered in dense, thick, dark green foliage. They are so high, misty white clouds swirl around the tips and dip down into the valley.

The ruins of Machu Picchu with the peak Huayna Picchu rising majestically in the background. 

With about five minutes left in our bus journey, Marion drew my attention to the window where I got my first glimpse at the site itself, dwarfed in size and splendor by the mountains all around. Upon arriving at the archaeological site of Machu Picchu, we were among the first tourists there, meaning it wasn't as congested. Machu Picchu typically receives between 1,000 and 1,500 visitors a day, so it's best to go earlier when it is less crowded and much cooler.

The first think Patrick did was take us up to the ruins of the agricultural terraces overlooking the main ruins so that we could take iconic photos of the site (see above!). Machu Picchu means 'old mountain' and is actually the name of the mountain peak opposite the ruins. Nobody knows what the original name of Machu Picchu was, just as nobody is exactly sure of its purpose. Patrick said it was probably constructed in 1440 or 1450, had its peak in 1480 or 1490, and was deserted by 1520. No one knows why it was deserted -- maybe disease, maybe news of the Spanish arrival, maybe a mass exodus to fight in the civil war between Atahualpa and Huascar. 

These are the huge, majestic mountains capped with fluffy clouds that surround Machu Picchu on all sides. 

The mountains that ring Machu Picchu are incomprehensibly large and are covered in foliage. They are very different from the mountains outside of Lima, the mountains at Cuzco, those at Ollantaytambo or those in the Sacred Valley. You simply stand on a ridge with a clear view and become absolutely entranced. It's like you can't pull your eyes away, and you never get tired of looking at it.

A deliberate rock formation within the ruins that is thought to mirror the shape and slope of the mountains behind it. 

After taking our fill of pictures, we descended into the ruins themselves. The ruins feel more "real" than do any of the other ruins we had seen on the trip. It's so easy to imagine a settlement of 500 to 700 people living there, and as you round a corner, it's almost as if you are just a step behind an Inca as he moves throughout the city. The ruins themselves are impressive, and I can only imagine what Machu Picchu must have looked like in its prime, a glittering jewel in the heart of the Andes Mountains. Some theorists believe that the site existed as a summer home for the Inca royalty of Cuzco, but to a culture that held religion in such high regard, the site is in a location far too beautiful and powerful to have just been used solely for leisure.

The so called "Temple of the Condor" inside the ruins. The curved rocks look like the spread wings of the famous bird. Hiram Bingam named a lot of the formations when he came upon the site in 1911, and thus they should not be considered the true names given by the Incas who lived here in their time. 

Me standing at the edge of the stairs to nowhere -- they drop down nearly vertically after this point almost all the way to the valley floor. 

After we finished our tour of the ruins, the majority of the group decided to hike up the opposite ridge from Machu Picchu to a place called Intipunku, which translates more or less to "sun gate." Along the way, we were treated to a panoramic view of the mountain-scape. Thick vegetation lined either side of the rough, choppy stone path, and bright orange butterflies flitted along with us as we walked. Tropical pink and purple flowers also sprout among the vegetation, and we stopped several times to catch our breath, rest our legs, and drink in the amazing scenery.

It took an hour to walk up the steep ridge trail, but we finally arrived at the end to the ruins of Intipunku. This part of the day was nice because there weren't nearly as many tourists, and much of the path we were able to walk alone. Us CIEE kids sat on a wall of the ruins and looked out at the breathtaking Machu Picchu spread. It was almost magical because during the day, there was a mixture of sun and clouds on the mountain top, but when we were sitting on the ridge, the entire mountains and valleys were in shadow, and the only thing gilded in sunlight were the ruins of Machu Picchu. It was eerily beautiful and definitely worth the walk to get there. At Intipunku, we were almost completely level with the tip of Huayna Picchu, the iconic peak that rises behind the ruins. 

The view from Intipunku. The light green and grey patch in the left of the picture are the ruins of Machu Picchu, and the giant mountain is the peak that rises behind it in all of the classic photos. The tan strip cut into the green vegetation is the road that the bus takes up the mountainside. 

After a long day, we were finally exhausted from the hiking and the altitude, so after getting our passports stamped with the official stamp of Machu Picchu, we boarded the bus that took us back down to Aguas Calientes. This time, the mountain view was even more impressive because there was more sun. We boarded a train for the four hour journey back to Cuzco where we would spend our final night. 

Day Four was our travel day back to real life in Lima, and so we boarded a plane early in the morning and were back home by lunchtime.

Cuzco and the Sacred Valley -- Our Inca Journey: Day Two

Our second day in Cuzco was devoted to an all day tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, also known as the dozens of Inca sites that are spread across the valley from Cuzco to Machu Picchu. Our first stop was on the outskirts of the city to see the impressive remains of the popular site Saqsayhuaman. The ruins are made of giant stones cut perfectly to size -- like the majority of Inca ruins -- and featured many terraced layers. The Spanish originally thought that it was a fortress, but archaeological evidence now shows that it was most likely a temple of some sort, probably one devoted to Mother Earth.

The stone ruins of Saqsayhuaman. The top most stones display an excellent example of precise Inca stone masonry. 

After a disappointingly short time spent at the site (we needed to move on in order to see everything on the schedule AND catch a train later that day), we got back on the bus to continue into the valley. Our guide, Patrick, told us that during that section of the ride, we were ate the highest altitude of our Cuzco trip -- just under 3,600 meters. Even Machu Picchu was lower than that. Driving through the Andes was amazing because the slopes were so huge and everything was green, brown and very rugged. Every so often, we would see the clusters of tile collections that signified a small Andean settlement. On the way, we saw the round tower-like ruins of Pacapucara, which was more than likely an Inca stronghold or lookout post as its name means "red fortress" in Quechua. Patrick speaks fluent Quechua, and even treated us to a small lesson on the bus.

We drove through a valley that still had Inca-age terraces on the mountainside and current farm fields in the valley. Even though there were modern roads, cards, and telephone wires, you could alost feel that time and conquest had not passed and that the people living in the towns and fields were livling in much of the same way as the Incas had. 

Our next stop was the little town of C'orao, a place known for its fine quality alpaca and llama products. Here we stopped at the living museum of Awana Kancha, a place dedicated to the preservation and practice of traditional textile weaving, coloring and making. They had live alpacas that we could pet, feet and take pictures with as well as an excellent display of traditional pigments used for dyeing. 

Feeding the llamas at Awana Kancha. They broke their way out of their pens to come and play with us. 

A traditional textile expert at Awana Kancha. She showed us the natural ingredients used to make different colors as well as taught us how to tell the difference between natural and synthetic wool products. 

Women in traditional Andean clothing sat barefoot along the path, working traditional looms and demonstrating how the fabric was made. They had a fancy store of their finished products, all of which were very beautiful and very, very expensive.

After the pleasant stop in C'orao (none of us thought we would have had the chance to feed and pet llamas!) we continued with our Sacred Valley tour until we reached the Mirador Turay, the spot on the side of the road that offers the classic yet beautiful view of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Running between the base of the peaks in the distance is the Vilcamayo -- which means sacred river -- later renamed Urubamba by the Spanish. 

The "classic" view of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

The entire CIEE group in the Sacred Valley from left to right: Alicia, our professor Sonia, Garrick, Jesse, Natalie, Hank, Ariana, her friend Stefanie, Me, Andrea, and our program adviser Marion.

Our next stop on our tour was the town of Pisaq -- also spelled Pisac -- which is a settlement at the base of a huge terraced, green-faced Andean peak. Pisaq also had Inca ruins, a old settlement with a breathtaking view of the surrounding slopes and fields. Here we were able to see the traditional leveled terraces used by the Incas for high altitude agriculture. These terraces -- which are now protected -- are slowly being destroyed, ironically because they are not being used. We climbed all the way to the top of the settlement, a demanding climb in and of itself, let alone combined with extremely high altitude, but the view was worth it.

The terraced agriculture fields used by the Incas at Pisaq. 

A view of the scenery from the top of the Pisaq settlement. 

Our final stop of the tour was in Ollantaytambo, a beautiful city with some of the best Inca ruins outside of Machu Picchu. I fell in love with it from the moment we arrived. It's located in the middle of three majestic peaks in the same spot where three valleys converge, making it a wind tunnel in the extreme. Ollanta was the star of the Inca version of Romeo and Juliet, and Tambo was where he made his last stand against Emperor Pachacutec. Thus, the place is now named after him. The town is in the valley and the Inca ruin attractions are on the mountainsides all around it.

One one of the mountainsides sits the ruins of Ollantaytambo itself, an unfinished Inca project from right before the Spanish conquest. Experts believe it was meant to be a sun temple because the rays from the sun during the summer solstice rises behind the eastern peak and would fall directly on the ruins. In ancient times, the ruins would have held plates of sliver and gold, setting the entire valley alight with shimmering light. Unfortunately, the project was never completed due to the outbreak of civil war between Atahualpa and his brother Huascar. After this conflict, the Spanish arrived, and so Ollantaytambo now sits unfinished, a masterpiece of unrealized potential. 

A view from the ruins overlooking the modern town and the giant peaks of the surrounding mountains. 

A famous wall near the top of the ruins. The rounded bump in the middle of the bottom panel used to be a carved jaguar head, one of the sacred animals of the Incas, but it's believed that when the Spanish arrived, they smashed off the carved heads in an effort to destroy the traces of indigenous culture and religion. 

On the upside, the unfinished site does give us a little insight into how the Incas managed to build their wonderful structures. Large unincorporated stones sat near the top, and Patrick explained a theory in which the Incas used knowledge of local plants to make a kind of acid to make their super straight cuts in the massive stones. We climbed all the way to the top of Ollantaytambo and were able to look down on the entire valley.

Off to the west, through a gap in the peaks, we were able to see distant peaks that were capped in snow. The three mountains that surrounded the Ollantaytambo Valley had peaks so high, the clouds swirled around the tips. Across the valley on the opposite peak, we saw a columned yellow stone fortress built into the mountainside. To its left, was a face-like natural rock formation that apparently resembles one of the Inca gods. 

The incomplete temple of Ollantaytambo cut into the mountainside. 

After we were finished taking in the breathtaking sights, we descended back into the town to kill some time before our train left. A few of the other students and I bought beef kebabs from a street vendor which were delicious. I followed a stone path that ran on top of an ancient terrace in the modern town. On one side was one of the famous gurgling canals that are present all through the town along with the well-kept gardens of beautiful flowers. On the right side of the lower terrace, I could see the backyards of some of the local residents. The houses were rather run down and their animals roamed free, but brightly-colored laundry snapped from the clothes lines, and the people and their children laughed and talked. It was neat to get away from the tourist places and see something more akin to real life.

After a lovely day, we regrouped at the train station to depart. The train had glass ceiling windows, but because it was night, we couldn't see much. Instead, we played a rousing game of Uno, and finally arrived in our hotel in Aguas Calientes, the mismatched tourist down at the base of the mountain, and the starting point for our final stop in our journey -- the ruins of Machu Picchu.  

Cuzco and the Sacred Valley -- Our Inca Journey: Day One

After a busy month and a hectic couple of weeks of study and preparation for our midterms, I finally have the time to seriously sit down and write about the amazing, once-in-a-lifetime trip that we took to Cuzco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. It was a four day weekend filled with history, culture, travel, and wonderful panoramic mountain views.

Our trip began very early on a Thursday morning, which necessitated our rising at 3:45 a.m. in order to catch a 6:50 a.m. flight out of Lima. After a week of classes, we waited in the airport, exhausted but ready to travel. Our plane was a tiny little thing that would take us on the hour long journey east over the Andes Mountains to land in the city of Cuzco, approximately 3,400 meters or 11,150 feet above sea level. Because I somehow scored a prime window seat, I was able to see the flat coastal area of Lima fall away to be replaced by staggering brown peaks of the start of the Andes. From our altitude, we looked down upon the mountain tops as they broke through the clouds; they looked like islands with the swirling white clouds flowing between them like ocean water.

The city of Cuzco, nestled in a valley between towering Andean peaks.

I have never been at a high altitude before, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I stepped off the plane. However, the first deep breath I took was as cool and sweet as a brisk November day, and I luckily didn't suffer from any adverse affects from the altitude.

Our bus picked us up at the airport and trundled us away to the Royal Inca 2 Hotel, close to the Plaza de Armas in the center of Cuzco. As we passed through the heart of the city, the cobbled streets and colonial architecture transported us back in time, and it seemed as if the setting and atmosphere belonged to Rome or Venice, not the middle of the Peruvian mountains.

A colonial arch at the beginning of one of the main avenues. 

A Spanish-era cathedral in the Plaza de Armas during sunset. Cuzco, Peru.

On the first day in Cuzco, it is highly recommended that you take it easy so as not to over exert yourself at the high altitude. With this in mind, most of the students in our group rested in the hotel, but a friend and I decided we would go out and explore the city instead -- at a very slow place. One thing I wanted to see was the convent of Santo Domingo that sits on top of the ruins of Koricancha, the ancient Inca sun temple that once stood covered in gold. Even though the gold had been stripped away in the 16th century to help pay for Pizarro's ransom of Inca emperor Atahualpa, the stones still stand, black and dark grey in a curved wall beneath the ornate colonial convent. Both still stand in tandem, and it was impressive to stand there and gaze at all that history and how it was preserved throughout the centuries.

The convent of Santo Domingo is the large building on top. Beneath it, you can see the black walls of Koricancha. Though it's hard to see in the picture, the stones of Koricancha are fitted together with amazing precision, without mortar. The Spanish built the church atop the temple ruins as a symbol of strength and superiority, yet in one of the numerous earthquakes, many of the Spanish colonial structures were destroyed, revealing the much sturdier and older Inca ruins beneath.

After Koricancha, we simply lost ourselves in the cobbled winding streets of Cuzco. Cuzco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world because it is a jumble of antiquity and modernity, and relics of the Spanish and Incas can still be seen. The most impressive of the Spanish contribution are the stunning, giant cathedrals and basilicas that dot the city, with beautiful crenelations and 16th century architecture -- especially the two that stand in the Plaza de Armas. These two giant churches take up two sides of the square, and yet in the middle is an elaborate carved fountain with a gold statue of Pachacutec, a great Inca emperor. This is perfect symbolism of how these two cultures continue to coexist in Cuzco.

Statue of Pachacutec as he points towards the mountains.

The feel of Cuzco is very colonial with its carved wooden balconies, ornate lampposts, and narrow, winding lanes and staircases that traverse the rolling city, and yet the streets are filled with Peruvians in traditional Andean bright clothes and bold prints, and many of the street names are in Quechua. We even saw a woman on a street corner with a platter of six or seven cuyes, or roasted guinea pig. 

Later in the evening, we ventured out to an Andean craft market to shop and bargain for souvenirs. Cuzco is considered to be a main location to buy products made from llama and alpaca wool, and the vendors are more than happy to haggle with you in order to earn your business. We even got the chance to meet a sweet baby lamb from a kindly Andean woman we met. Later, we crossed through the Plaza de Armas at night on the way back to our hotel, and saw the surrounding slopes lit up with blue and orange balls of light, marking the homes of those living in the outskirts of the city.

Wine, Dunes, Sun, and Sand -- A Weekend Trip to Ica

Hola, amigos!

This past weekend, the CIEE group decided that we would embark on our first ever adventure outside of Lima by traveling 4 hours south to the coastal desert region in which lies Ica, Peru. We traveled south along the Panamerican Highway, passing through natural and man-made oases used for agriculture during the first 2 hours and barren, windswept desert during the last 2.

 

View from the bus of the countryside along the Panamerican Highway that runs from Ecuador, through Peru and down through Chile. 

Every so often, the brownish-grey dessert would be broken by little clusters of small but colorful clusters of houses. The houses often had tin sides and woven palm roofs and were accompanied by piles of rubble and abandoned buildings, and yet as we passed one little settlement, a crumbling wall had been whitewashed. In big blue letters facing the highway, the wall said in Spanish: "Welcome to Our Beautiful Home." Also dotted along the highway and most often painted on the ruined walls of abandoned buildings were political advertisements for Peruvian politicians who are running for mayor of the different districts and cities of Peru. Even in the remotest stretch of Peruvian coastal desert, we still saw the political signs, advertising to Peruvians and promising change and a future.

After our long and daunting bus ride, we finally arrived in the city of Ica at about noon on Friday. Ica is a fairly large city that sits between the deserted coast, towering sand dunes, and the foot of the impressive Andes mountains. We traveled for a short distance by taxi to an oasis resort town called Huacachina, a sleepy little lagoon settlement in the middle of the scorching Peruvian desert. We stayed at a cheap but very nice hostal called La Casa de Arena, or House of Sand. It sat at the base of a huge sand dune and had a very lovely pool and bar area for relaxing. After dumping our things in our rooms, we got ourselves organized and went out for lunch at one of the numerous inexpensive restaurants facing the lagoon. With our stomachs full and filled with new energy from the bright sunshine (which we had not seen for over a month in Lima) we set out to book ourselves a wine tour from three of the best bodegas in the surrounding area. 

Colorful boats on the Huacachina lagoon

A view of Huacachina from the surrounding desert. 

The first bodega we went to was called Tacama and was built in the 16th century, formerly a monastery. We took a tour out in the grape fields while the guide explained to us that they grow three different types of grapes: for wine, for pisco, and for eating. The buildings of the vineyard were a cheerful pink and numerous planted flowers added to the overly romanticized feeling of the place. The tour guide took us into the production building where she explained that they received a mechanized bottler machine from France in 2008 which reduced the vineyard workforce from 100 down to a mere 12. After the tour, we were invited inside to try several different types of wine and pisco. The wines were sweet, dry, and semi-dry, and the pisco was strong and powerful.

The vineyards of Tacama with the impressive sweep of the Andes mountains in the distance. 

After the majestic beauty of Tacama, we traveled to two smaller wineries on the borders of Ica itself. These wineries were different because they were woven seamlessly into the city, unlike the remote beauty of Tacama. I have to admit I do not remember the names of these wineries, but I will describe them. The first one we went to was interesting because they had preserved the century-old machinery for pressing grapes and making wine. We explored the ingenious engineering of the time, including a system of heater and pipes that would be used to distill the fermented vapor from the grapes to produce the famous clear and powerful pisco brandy. After the tour, we sampled more wine and pisco, and then piled into the taxis for the journey to our final winery of the day.

The last winery was a combination of winery and museum. It was located in this underground dug out where clay casks of wine stood shoulder to shoulder underneath walls and a ceiling that were heaped and hung with artifacts and relics from the pre-Hispanic cultures in Ica and Nazca. Our taxi driver gave us the tour of the bodega himself, dipping a long bamboo rod into the clay casks of wine in order for us to try it. This bodega held some of the strongest wines we had yet to try. Our guide jokingly called one wine the "Baby-Making Wine" because he said that women who drink it while out partying find themselves in a predicament 9 months down the road. At one point, I drifted away from the rest of the group with my second little cup of sweet red wine to explore the antiques lining the walls. Our guide, ever helpful, explained to me that the owner of the bodega was apparently a living descendant of San Martin, the Peruvian hero of independence. He also showed me several Inca artifacts which he insisted were authentic as well as dried, yellowing skulls which were also apparently relics from the pre-Hispanic days of headhunting and trophy collecting. 

The winery that was also a museum. The clay pots are used to store the wine after it has been produced. You can see the wine spillage on the one in the bottom right corner; this is the one we drank out of.

Our guide teaching us how to pull the wine from the pot. He grew up in a Quechua speaking family in the Andes mountains and moved to the coast about 30 years ago, around the time that terrorism was running rampant in the mountains. I asked him if it was hard to make the transition from the mountains to the desert. He replied, "Maybe at first. But after so long, I don't even notice. I was born in the mountains, but now I live here. I have wine running through one vein and pisco in the other." 

Our tour of the wineries was an amazing experience as each one was different than the last and showed a different aspect of Ica culture that is so dependent on the production of wine.

Saturday morning marked the start of a new adventure. Our little group decided to take advantage of the sun and beautiful weather by journeying 40 minutes west to the Pacific coastal town of Paracas. The islands off the coast of Paracas are famous for their wildlife (including penguins!) and have been compared to the natural beauty of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. We did not go to the islands, but were content to pass the day on the beach, drinking in the sun and enjoying the coastal climate. Because of its obvious proximity to the sea, the restaurants of Paracas have menus filled with seafood options, and since there are so many restaurants in any given street, the owners compete with each other to get large groups of people to pick their establishment over the others.

Dozens of boats sit in the water to take tourists out to the island nature reserves, and the skies are thick with seagulls and pelicans, dive-bombing the fish-filled sea.

The pelicans were unafraid of people, and so I was able to get very close without having them fly off!

Our morning in Paracas was beautiful, and we managed to pack up and leave in the early afternoon, right before crowds of tourists from the city showed up to clog up the beaches and the restaurants. The taxis took us back to Huacachina where we had just enough time to relax by the pool before the start of our next activity: dune exploration. 

Our hostal organized dune buggy expeditions for a small fee starting at 4 p.m. Our whole group piled into a dune buggy -- which was basically a jeep but a lot bigger and with a huge metal frame -- and we thundered out of Huacachina and into the desert sands. The dune buggy can go a lot faster than it looks, and when you hit a dune at 35 miles and hour, the jolting jerking ride is almost as good as any roller coaster. A few times our driver stopped so that we could pile out and take pictures. Then, we came to a screeching halt at the top of one of the highest dunes yet so that we can go sand boarding. 

Sand boarding is exactly like it sounds: the same concept as snowboarding but with a lot less cold and fluffy sand to land on instead of cold, unforgiving, icy snow. Our dune buggy driver snapped a wax candle into pieces so that we could wax the bottoms of our boards, and then he showed us how to position our weight and lay on our stomachs so that we could go whizzing down the dune face first at surprising speed. Some of the more adventurous of our group actually rode the boards standing up, but the rest of us played it safe and emerged mostly unscathed on the other side. We got to slide down and hike up a total of 6 dunes, and it was such a unique experience to be doing something exhilarating and fun without caring that you were coming away with sand literally everywhere. We ended up having to hike up a dune ridge to get back to where the dune buggies were waiting for us, so by the time we had all piled back in, we were too late to see the sunset over the sand dunes. However, we did get a chance to stop atop a dune looking down at Huacachina, and a desert at sunset is still one of the most beautiful sights to behold. 

The dune buggy that took us out into the desert. 

My sandboard. Sandboarding is surprisingly more difficult than it seems, because if your weight is not exactly right on the board, your board will just sink in the sand leaving you sitting foolishly on the side of the dune with nowhere to go.

The whole CIEE group after our dune and sandboarding expedition. You can see Huacachina behind us and the towering sand dunes behind that. 

After we returned from our sand dune expedition, we went out to eat at a nice little place in town that made pizza, and then returned to our hostal for drinks and conversation by the pool. Past midnight, a friend and I decided to climb the giant sand dune behind our building to get a magnificent view of the stars and the countryside. It took over an hour to get to the top, but as we sat on the ridge at the top of the highest dune, we could see the entirety of Ica, the mountains off to one side, and the desert off to the other. It was humbling to have completed a climb like that and to be able to see the mark of civilization on the desert and hear the echoes of music of the people who had made this place their home.

Adventure to the Costa Verde!

Hola, amigos! As my second full week in Peru comes to a close, I thought it was time to give an update on what's been going on.

Tomorrow is the last day of our Advanced Intensive Spanish class, and we will spend the entire day taking the final exam. It's been two weeks of Spanish Boot Camp, reviewing grammar, practicing reading, writing and speaking, all so that we don't fall flat on our faces when we directly enroll in classes alongside Peruvian students. Here at PUCP, international students get the chance to observe classes before they actually enroll in them. So next week, I will be going to as many classes as I can to see which ones I like, which professors are worth it, and which ones I can cross off my list. Then, on August 25, we will all wait in line for hours with hundreds of other international students from around the world to officially register in our fall semester classes.

Academics aside, today we got to leave the university early, and so another girl from the program and I ventured down to la Costa Verde, the rocky beach immediately below the towering cliffs on which Lima sits. To get down, you have to take this steep, winding stone staircase that has been cut into the cliff side. Once at the bottom, we were able to clamor over the huge rocks to see the ocean and feel its spray against our faces. A little further along, there was a smoother beach area where I got the chance to shuck off my shoes and dip my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The water was shockingly cold, and yet the not-so-distant white-tipped waves were dotted with dozens of valiant surfers, all taking advantage of the huge swells that advanced towards the coast. After taking our fill of the ocean, we clamored back up to the main beach road. The beaches along this section of the coast were more like the rocky shores of England or Scotland as opposed to the warm sands and bright blue water of the Caribbean, but the ocean was still a beautiful sight to behold.

On our way back to the trail to climb back up the steep cliff, we got our first taste of Peruvian inquisitiveness. A surfer who was getting ready to head out paused what he was doing to stop us and ask us where we were from, why we were in Peru, for how long we were staying, and how we liked the country so far. Back in the US, an interest like this would be perceived as unusual if not actually suspicious, but we have learned that most people in Peru are immensely curious about foreigners and are very willing to help them and ask them about where they are from and how they discovered this country.

The view from the top of the cliff looking down towards the beach

This is the path you have to use to get down to the beach. It winds along the cliff and cuts into the rock with steep inclines and an intense number of stairs!

This was out on the rock jetty. You can see the metropolis of Lima stretching along the top of the cliff and extending across the picture. 

My feet in the Pacific Ocean! The sand was rough, the water was freezing, but it was still amazing to stand ankle deep in the water and look out across the vast ocean!

A Whirlwind of a First Day

Preface: This entry (and let's be honest, probably every entry to come) is a long one because there is just so much to see, describe and tell! Feel free to skim and/or read as much or as little as you'd like!

The time is closing on my first full day in Lima, Peru. It was a wild ride with many adventures, and it flew by. We started off the day by doing an orientation meeting with the leaders of our small little study abroad group. They talked about the city, safety, money, which was all very routine but still important.

The fun started when Marion (a super sweet lady who runs the CIEE program and has basically been our lifeline thus far) told us that we were all going to get lunch, which meant leaving the relative familiarity of our little hotel. We are situated in the Miraflores district of Lima, which is a super nice neighborhood full of trendy shops, restaurants, pretty houses, and tall, crowded buildings. We were going for lunch at an amazing place called Puro Peru in the neighboring nightlife district of Barranco.

Marion led us out of the hotel, through the bustling streets of Miraflores (think downtown Manhattan with narrower sidewalks, far fewer traffic lights, and twice the amount of blaring car horns and you'll come close to getting a feel for it), and came to a stop outside a small park. In Spanish, Marion started to explain to us that we will be taking the micro, a tiny, cramped bus that has extensive routes all over the city. The micros don't have route maps, have fewer stops, and are private lines. As she passed out 1 sol coins to all of us, she explained that in order to ride the micro, you must first ask the driver if the bus is traveling in the direction that you want to go. If the bus is not going that way, you better hope you didn't already climb on and instead must get off pronto. She told us that we were headed to Barranco, and we all crowded inside. A micro looks like a VW bus that someone redid inside to have enough seats for at least 20 people to sit in. The rest of us crowded into the aisle and held on to the poles for dear life as the tiny bus thundered through the city.

In Lima, traffic is a nightmare. A nightmare filled with blaring horns and swerving cars and where things like proper traffic lights, crosswalks and blinkers are few and far between. The micro lurches forward with surprising speed, meaning you get a full upper body workout as you try to keep from crashing into people on either side of you. While all of this is going on (and while at the same time you are meant to be guarding yourself against thieves) a man who works for the bus pushes his way through and asks each person where specifically they are going. You have to tell him, and then he tells you how much you pay. He then gives you this little piece of paper that you must keep for some reason. Since there is no set route, you must also watch out the windows for where you are going and holler up at the driver when and where you want to get off. All of this chaos is worth it, however, because the micros only cost less than fifty U.S. cents to ride.

I emerged from the micro quite shaken and had no idea what was going on. We were in a completely different area of the city, but in many aspects, it still all looked the same. There were still tons of shops, tons of people, and tons of cars barreling through the streets. Marion led us on foot for a while, until we suddenly turned into this little doorway that was pretty much indistinguishable from the colorless buildings around it. Inside, however, was a beautiful restaurant, decorated with all sorts of boat parts and ropes, with huge chalkboards displaying what was on offer and long black tables with brightly colored napkins. It was very elegant, very classy, and very busy. It was called Puro Peru, a buffet style restaurant serving the best and most delicious of Peruvian cuisine. We got to wander around the huge place, picking out anything that looked good and getting a feel for what Peruvian food looked like and tasted like. You could see the Asian influence in some of the dishes, as well as the Peruvian chefs taking advantage of the sea being so close and using a variety of seafood. After a delicious lunch, we returned to the hotel to complete some final orientation things.

For dinner, we were left to our own devices to find some food somewhere in the city, and so our group of CIEE students decided we would walk the several blocks down to the seaside cliffs to a shopping center called Lacromar. Lacromar is cut into the cliff side, giving it some spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean. We went at night and well after the winter fog had settled in, so we weren't able to see much, but the site will definitely require future trips in the day time. At Lacromar, some of the girls and I went to a little Peruvian fast food chain called Bembos, which is similar to a McDonalds.

We finished up our first day in Peru by stopping at a bar on the way home. The guys ordered beer and my roommate from the hotel, Natalie, and I each ordered a pisco sour, which can basically be considered as Peru's national drink. It tasted like quite a few thinks mixed together, had a slight fizz, and was coolly refreshing. After our drinks, we all headed back to the hotel to catch some sleep before we took the Spanish language placement exam on Saturday morning.

T-Minus Four Days to Lift Off!

Hey everyone! Welcome to my little travel blog, where I will post all of my lovely little stories and pictures from my 4 month adventure in Peru! I will be studying at one of the oldest and largest universities in Peru's capital city of Lima!

Aerial view of the Pacific Ocean cost of Lima!

Lima is a city that is home to about 10 million people with a variety of neighborhoods and different areas. It's a huge city with tons to see, and it is a city that I will be exploring over the next four months before I return to UW-Platteville to complete my final semester. One of the greatest challenges of this trip is that everything--daily life, classes, life with my host family, places around town--will be in Spanish, meaning that English and I will have to say adios for a little while. 

I hope to post updates and pictures regularly. In addition to attending classes at the university, we will have to chance to participate in a number of cultural excursions throughout the semester, including museum visits, a cooking workshop, dance workshop, and observance of Lima's many festivals and traditions. In early September, we will take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Cuzco to see the famous Machu Picchu, one of the most impressive Inca sites high up in the Andes Mountains. In mid-November, we will journey to another place in Peru called Lunahuana, which is in a river valley known for its natural beauty.

I look forward to sharing the details of my trip with you all, and will see you again once I land back in Wisconsin in December!