I went on the very first Rotary trip, starting on the 15th of September. This involved a 6 hour bus ride up to Arequipa with Annalena, where we met all the other exchange students. They're all pretty cool.
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| I had no idea who this exchange student was when we were taking this picture. Apparently that's how he likes to introduce himself to people. Like I said, the exchange students are pretty cool. |
That day we climbed what felt like Mt. Everest but was really just a pretty tall hill to go see some old pre-Inca tombs. We met some archaeologists from the US who were digging there to retrieve the bones. There were three intact skeletons inside one of the tombs, which was really cool to see. They put their dead in baskets and then laid them in the tombs, along with things like sewing needles and jewelry for the next life.
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| These bones are almost as old as the dirt they're laying on! |
The next day we drove to Colca Canyon. Although it doesn't look like it, apparently it's almost twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It was gorgeous, with awesome plant and animal life. At the top of one of the trails is a huge lookout area, with lots of vendors and LOTS of tourists. And they're all there because of the condors. It was amazing to be that close to that big of a bird. THEY ARE HUMONGOUS.
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| LOOK AT THAT BIRD. THAT IS A BIG BIRD. |
To get the condors to stick around, the locals who live around there and depend on having tourists buy their stuff will sometimes push cows off the cliff for the condors to eat. Oh, and the cows are still alive when they're pushed off. That's some fresh beef.
After Colca Canyon we got back in the bus and drove into the night. One fun fact about highways in Peru: there aren't convenient rest areas every 10 or so miles like there are in the states. So when we all had to go to the bathroom, we had to hold it until we got to this tiny little gas station in the middle of nowhere, and then we all got to experience The Shack. It's a tiny little box of a room, sitting up on a hill away from the gas station. Boards with a hole cut into them make up the floor, which is also your toilet seat. If anyone reading this is planning on traveling Peruvian highways sometime soon, here's a tip: do some squats to make sure you're prepared. The boy from Canada didn't want to get his pants dirty, so he had one of us hold them while he took care of business. They say Rotary is a family. You get a whole new definition of family while on these Rotary trips.
We arrived in Puno late that night, and the next morning set out for Lake Titicaca and the floating islands. The islands (Los Uros) are really cool. They're piles of dead reeds, with more reeds growing out of the top, floating in the middle of the largest lake in South America, which is also the highest lake in the world. And people live on them.
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| That chunk of what looks like dirt is what floats in the water. People cover it with more reeds and live on it. Now that's hardcore. |
The houses on these islands are all about the size of most of our bathrooms back home. Entire families live in them. One thing this trip, and what's been a little over a month of life in Peru, has already taught me is how incredibly blessed I, and everyone else I know, are to live the way we do in America. We have so much that is just given to us, and I honestly didn't appreciate it until now. We never have to worry about having enough food in the house, whereas if the people who live on the Uros don't sell enough of their handmade goods to tourists each day, they might not eat that night. We have whole rooms to ourselves, and their houses, for their entire families, are about the same size as our bedrooms. Just because we don't have the latest iPhone or whatever is no reason to complain, or even to think for one second, that we are being treated badly, or that we deserve more. Instead, I think a little gratitude is needed, because what we have and we consider necessary for life, is the height of unimaginable luxury for some of the people I've met. So, for whoever is reading this, stop and think about how you have a computer to read this with. How you have the free time to read this, how you don't have to be out trying to make enough to buy dinner for tonight. How you are so ridiculously lucky, and how you don't even realize it. Then, the next time that you feel like life isn't going too great for you, realize how great it already is.
Speaking of great, let's talk about the Incas. They were pretty sweet, and pretty good at building stuff. After Lake Titicaca, we drove to some old ruins (Sillustani) where you could see examples of both Inca and pre-Inca construction. Here are two pictures... See if you can spot the difference.
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| This is an Inca tomb. It used to be a tower, but then it collapsed and they filled it in to stop the Inca zombies from getting out. |
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| This is a pre-Inca thing. It might have been a tomb as well, but we'll never know because it just kind of looks like a blob. |
After Sillustani, we drove through the night to get to Puerto Maldonado. Another fun fact: it is practically impossible to sleep for more than 4 hours in a bus while driving around hairpin turns on roads that are under construction and almost falling off the mountain. The seats are really uncomfortable. But on the plus side, at about 1 in the morning we drove through a cloud and it was like it was raining on us. That made me and the other Oregonian, Zoe, very happy. While we may complain about the rain at home, I really miss it here in Peru. It's very dry, and my eyes want to see lots of green plants and trees again. There's barely even grass. But luckily that all changed once we got to Puerto Maldonado, where our adventure in the Peruvian selva (rainforest) began. When we reached Puerto Maldonado at about 7 in the morning, the first thing I noticed was the humidity. Think Southern - Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc. Then at about 7:15, while we were waiting for breakfast, it began to rain. Real rain - practically a downpour. Zoe and I went out to stand in it.
After breakfast, we took a hour long boat ride out to our lodge. At the lodge, there were gamboling monkeys and screeching macaws. Also, there was a cat that seemed to think it was a monkey too. We went out to go swimming in the river, and then came back and ate fried monkey for lunch. They didn't tell us it was monkey until afterwards, but honestly it wasn't the best meat ever. There wasn't very much of it (obviously) and it wasn't very flavorful. After lunch, we went to Monkey Island to find more monkeys (stocking up for the next meal?) but we didn't see any. (Suspicious much?) After the monkey-free Monkey Island, we went on a night boat ride to look for caimans. We saw quite a few, and also an ocelot, which was cool to see.
The next day we woke up at 4 am and climbed 40 meters up into the canopy to watch the sun rise.
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| Obviously, it was gorgeous. |
After we got back, we rested a few hours and then had breakfast at 8. During breakfast, we noticed a pretty big cloud of smoke coming out from under the roof of one of the cabins, but we dismissed it as steam from a shower. Then we realized... The water isn't hot!
Cue the shouts of FUEGO!
One of the other exchange student's bags had caught on fire when a lightbulb exploded, and it and the cabin were slowly being incinerated. Luckily everything was put out safely, her important papers and her camera were saved, and no one was hurt.
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| The bags, however, were not so lucky. (Photo credit: Zoe Estes) |
After the fire, we went on a 3 km walk and then got in a boat and paddled around a lake full of piranhas, electric eels, and sting rays. One girl went swimming, but she didn't know then that they all were swimming around in there with her. After lunch, the guide brought out a fruit that, when smashed up, produces the ink that the natives use for their warpaint, and he drew some tribal tattoos on all of us. (They were really just some stripes, but they were pretty darn cool stripes.) While paddling back to shore we got stuck in a little mini storm, and so spent some time sitting in the middle of the lake while Tyson (the exchange student from Canada) and the guide paddled but we didn't go anywhere. But it was all good fun. After we got back, we ate dinner in town, during which I got to eat anticuchos, which is basically pieces of cow heart that have been grilled and put on a stick. It was delicious. We then got back on the bus, and started the next sleepless night's drive to Cusco.
When we arrived in Cusco that morning, we went out for a tour of the city's museums. I can't really tell you what we looked at, but I can tell you that I am a pro at sleeping while standing up. I would be a great zombie impersonator. After my nap, I mean the tour, we all went back to the hotel, where we waited in one big room for our rooms to be ready. We also pulled a tick off of one of the other girls, and then played a fun game called "whoops we dropped the tick, now let's hope that it didn't jump on one of us." It was great bonding time.
A little while later, after being given our rooms and not finding the tick, we headed off to some ruins called Saqsaywaman. It sounds kind of like "sexy woman" when you say it. There are these huge walls of rock with different designs in them, like a cuy (guinea pig), a llama, a puma paw, and more llamas. It was really interesting and fun to explore.
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| There's a picture of a llama in the rocks behind me. Do you see it? |
After Saqsaywaman, we went to a really long tunnel and walked through it. It was completely dark and so much fun. Apparently there are tunnels like that one crisscrossing all underneath the ruins. We also went to some slides that had formed out of ancient lava flows, and joined the throngs of tourists waiting to slide where the Incas slid. It was really fun, and if I had been an Inca that's definitely where I would have spent most of my time. We got back to the hotel late, and fell into bed to try and get about 4 hours of sleep before waking up at 2 am to head to Machu Picchu.
The next morning, bright and early, (actually, it was so early it wasn't even bright yet, it was dark and early) we took a 2 hour bus ride to the train station for our 2 hour train ride to Aguascalientes, the town under Machu Picchu. After breakfast, we hopped on a bus to go up to Machu Picchu.
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| We almost died at least 5 times. I don't understand how two buses of that size fit on the same tiny road. |
Then, all of a sudden, we were at Machu Picchu.
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| I understand why the Incas hung out here. The view is pretty great. |
It was really incredible to see all of the buildings that were still there after all those years. And the technology was really amazing. We probably couldn't do some of the stuff now that they did then. There was this giant rock carved like a diamond that is a compass. One of the guides put his iPhone, with the compass app, up on it, and it matched up perfectly. Also, the points of the rock match up perfectly with the Southern Cross constellation when it's at it's highest point in the sky. How do you even do that, especially when you're still fighting with sticks and stones?
After Machu Picchu, we went back to Aguascalientes for a late lunch, and then had some time to shop. I bought presents, a sweet pair of shoes, and had the most incredible massage ever. It was so relaxing and felt great. That night we got back on the train and ended up back at the hotel the next morning.
Six hours of sleep later, we headed out for more ruins. We visited this town where we learned how they make all the textiles, with the natural dyes and everything, just like how the Incas did it. Then we went to go see some old Inca terraces, where each one is so tall it's a different climate at each level.
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| Aliens had to have helped with that... |
After the terraces we went to Ollantaytambo, which are basically some really, really big stairs. It was fun to climb them though, and the view from the top is incredible. It was incredibly windy too. After looking around at some other temples and fountains, we headed to Pisaq for some shopping and then dinner. Before dinner, Zoe Bouras and I stopped at a cake shop and attempted to buy half a cake. We ended up buying the half of a cake, but in 5 different pieces, which we split among us all. It was ridiculously delicious, but it took a ridiculously long time to convince the bakery staff that yes, we did indeed want to buy the entire cake and we weren't just speaking bad Spanish. After dinner and cake we went to a show of native dances. The dances were very cool, and I loved all the different costumes. After that, it was back on the bus, and we drove through the night back to Arequipa. Annalena and I spent a day in Arequipa, and the next morning woke up early to catch the bus back to Tacna. When I got home to Tacna, I went to bed and slept for more than a day. The trip was so much fun, and I learned so much, but it tired me out. For the next one, I'll have to sleep a lot during the days beforehand so I'm prepared.
After the trip, I've been going to school and just living life. This Sunday is Dia Familiar at my school, and we've been learning a dance that we dance in front of the entire school with all the parents. It's fun, but I'm not very good at dancing Peruvian style yet. The dance teacher and the girls in my class say that I'm doing well for a gringa though, which is slightly reassuring. I'm just thankful that I'm in the back most of the time, and I'm just going to hope I don't make too many mistakes during the performance. Next week I start soccer with one of the local teams, which I'm really excited for. My school goes from 8-5, and then everyone just goes home and waits until it's time for bed. I can't wait to get out and do something new, not to mention be able to play soccer again.
That's pretty much it for me, so I hope you're all having a great day too. I promise I'll try to post more often, and I hope this one wasn't too long.
Chau for now!
Emily
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