Purah Dahling Purah

Hello hello hello!!! After my week long hiatus, I return with plenty of new stamps in my passport! Last Thursday, six of the Jumbos in Chile headed out for a week long journey to Peru. (Due to different schedule preferences and flight plans, the other portion of the group left on Sunday). Our fun adventure began in the Santiago airport when we realized that, when leaving Chile, you have to go through backward customs. How fun is that? Well not so fun when you don't have the PDI paper that word on the street is that you need to leave and then return to the country! But only 33.333333 (repeating)% of our group had said paper so the other 2/3 of us hedged our bets knowing there was absolutely nothing we could do at that point, accepting possible detainment. I rolled up to the PDI officer (kind of like the FBI of Chile but also still considered half of the chilean police force) a little nervous with all forms of documentation I could produce. He made a joke about my last name ("cómo pronuncias tu apellido? woooowww es muy largo!" yes darling thank you for pointing THAT one out), stamped my passport, and I was on my way! Crisis #1 averted. (Flash forward 1 week later and it turns out I still didn't need that paper! Unclear if you actually do need it and I just got lucky with officers or not. Stay tuned on that one). 

After popping through security and having a fabulous flight from Santiago to Cordoba, Argentina, the 6 of us started to plan our 13 hour layover in this fine fine city. Obstacle #1: there is no place in the entire city of Cordoba to exchange money of any sort into Argentinian pesos. Knowing that was out of the picture, we turned to the ATM to get some cash to pay for cabs to bring us from the airport to the city (about 30 minutes apart). But of course that didn't go as planned because obstacle #2 soon became clear when international cards were not accepted. HAHAHAHA. Ok so no Argentinian pesos, 6 tired gringos, 13 hours to spare, and an airport with one cafe and 4 gates. After asking around at the ~tourism~ desk, we found out that cabs do accept US dollars (which we had to exchange into Peruvian soles), but would not have change. But that was good enough for us hungry travelers dying to leave the airport. 

We ended up in downtown Cordoba where every single human was so gosh darn attractive. It was so wild. We literally walked past a photo shoot just happening in the bike lane. Can't make this stuff up. Honestly I felt like we were on the Amazing Race the whole time. We were lugging our hiking backpacks, we were tired and didn't know where we were going. I swore at any moment we would come across a yellow and red envelope with our next clue. 

But that never happened, and instead we got ourselves a table at a nice Italian restaurant (which we soon learned was about as big of a chain in Cordoba as Starbucks is in New York) where we stuffed all of our luggage under the table and spent an absurdly long time chatting and filling our only-airplane-ham-sandwich-filled stomaches with pretty tasty pastas and pizzas. And our last glass of tap water and vegetables for a week. Gotta love that potable water. As a PSA to everyone: amoebas are not amigas. 

After walking around Cordoba for about an hour after dinner, we hailed some cabs and headed back to the airport for a nap before our morning flight. First sleepover in an airport: check! Shayna tried to get some airport official to let us sleep behind the car rental counter, but that, to ALL of our surprises, turned out to not be a viable option. Shame. Would have been quite a cozy little snuggle spot. So we were ushered back downstairs because it turns out that no one is allowed to enter into the airport (ie go through security) until 2 hours before your flight. And boy did they hold us to that. Our flight the next morning was at 8:10. We tried to get in at 6 and were denied. Tried again at 6:05. NOPE. 6:11 was go time. All we wanted was carpeting for our slumber, but chilly tile had to do. But what more of a abroad travel experience is there than sleeping on the floor of the Cordoba airport with 5 of your closest travel companions! 

After finally being allowed into the airport the next morning, we paid for overpriced smoothies and weird off brand yogurt things that have the compartments of cereal or granola on the top (remember YoCrunch?!?), we settled in for our flight from Cordoba to Lima. Leg 2 of 3. One of my favorite parts of these journeys were all the podcasts that I downloaded before heading out of Santiago. I first experienced this incredible form of entertainment during our bus rides to and from the Desierto Florido where I flew through Serial. This trip allowed me to start 2 Dope Queens, Presidential, and Homecoming. Podcasts are so underrated! Go find one you love and share it! Comment your favorite one that I need to listen to! I also have Crimetown, Code Switch, and RISK in the cue, but I would love to hear about your favorites. 

Our layover in Lima was a blink of an eye even including our delay, and before we knew it, we getting turbulence warnings as we crossed over the Andes and landed at 11,152 feet above sea level in Cusco, Peru in the afternoon of the 15th. This incredible city was the capital of the Inca Empire and our home for the first and last third of our trip. We lived in Pariwana Hostel (password: partywanna which should give you a sense of the music volume) which had comfy beds and a beautiful courtyard. We spent much of our time exploring the incredible markets full of colorful famous Peruvian fabrics, the squares and churches that were conveniently located all around our hostel, and tasting fabulous food. Our time in Peru really showed me honestly how little English is spoken in Chile. It was sort of a backhanded way of figuring this out, but everyone in Cusco talked to us in English because it is such an international destination (everyone flies into Cusco before going to Machu Picchu). On the streets we were asked if we wanted to stop in to get a tattoo here or a message there. "Tour to Machu Picchu" "Happy hour!" We would try to order or ask for things at our hostel in Spanish and frequently they would respond in English. It is an interesting situation because I never really knew if it would just be easier to give up and give in to speaking English or to stay strong to practice my Spanish. I had more than one conversation where they would push to speak English and I would just stubbornly always respond in Spanish. But even more than just speaking Spanish for the sake of practicing, I believe that it is my responsibility when traveling or living in a Spanish speaking country to speak that language. That is easy to do in Chile because not many people (ie my host family or professors or waiters that I've come in contact with) speak English which is honestly why I chose to come to Chile. So if anything, traveling to Cusco really made me thankful that I am putting myself in a challenging position each day, one that I really do want to be in.  

We also had plenty of time for reading and cards 

What beautiful colors!

"Tourist Lane" as I called it... heading down to Plaza de Armas

Cusco Plaza de Armas

Old church and monastery that has been turned into a hotel

But with the beautiful monastery courtyard still maintained! Thank you to Papy for telling me about this amazing gem tucked in the city! 

My favorite day in Cusco was when we went on a hostel run horse tour through the hills above Cusco. For about 2 hours we explored less popular Inca ruins on horseback while getting incredible views of the city tucked in the Andes from above. My beautiful little horsey was perfectly behaved and it was so fun to get back on after not riding for six or seven years. Haley, I was thinking about you the whole time and how much you would have loved it. Maria's Caramelo on the other hand was quite the little biter and Matthew's horse just straight up cantered away with him (which he was NOT thrilled about). But my baby was calm cool and collected and we had a fabulous time together. 

Look at that face!

Templo de la Luna Ruins

View of Cusco!

Now that's a crew

Jesus looking down on the city

Parade!

Part two of our time in Peru took us away from Cusco via colectivo which are mini busses/vans that bring you from Cusco to Ollantaytambo (an hour and forty-five minute trip) for about US$ 3. From Ollantaytambo, we took PeruRail to Aguas Calientes, the closest little city to Machu Picchu. It is tucked quite literally within the Andes as there are mountains that climb up on all sides of the city. There are tourists everywhere you look with tan quick dry safari outfits and hats taking pictures of every angle of mountain they can. There we spent two nights in an amazing eco-hostel where is was not only acceptable but highly encouraged to draw and write on the walls. Every three year old's dream can come true in this place.

Almost as cool as the Hogwarts Express

Like those tan clad, sunscreen slathered, English and German and French and Japanese speaking tourists I mentioned, our reasoning for going to Aguas Calientes was to make it to our main destination in Peru: the famous Incan city of Machu Picchu. We woke up at 3:45 on Tuesday morning to get in line for the bus that brings you up perilous switch backs up about 1400 vertical feet to the city tucked between two mountains (Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu). And here are the views we were met with: 

The famous photo at dawn

Farming terraces

What a good looking crew!

Trying to give a sense of the steep valley

View out to the Peruvian Andes

Famous temple of the three windows

Temple showing damage from the 1492 earthquake

View of the city and Huayna Picchu mountain from our hike up to the Sun Gate

Five days after visiting Machu Picchu, I still have not been able to wrap my head around the location of this incredible city and how its architecture and engineering have continued to hold up to this day with minimal restoration. The same water canal system from the city's construction in the mid 1400s continues to work. The indoor window structures used to protect against earthquakes that frequent(ed) the area have held up over centuries and only show minor cracks every once and a while. The one thing that surprised me the most about our visit was honestly how gigantic the city is. From the famous pictures, I was expecting small ruins tucked between two mountains with perilous drops on all sides. The perilous drops are certainly correct, but the pictures really do not give you a sense of how expansive the city is. We took a tour and walked through and around the ruins for over two hours, and especially when standing inside, you get a sense of how massive this city was. And that doesn't even include the farming terraces that surround the city. 

One of the most incredible parts of the city for me was a temple showing the one major example of earthquake damage. It is less about the damage itself or even the temple that it is located within. But rather the timing of it. The earthquake that caused the perfectly placed rocks to fall apart and lean over to the right occurred in 1492 (see picture above). The Incas living in Machu Picchu at the time took this strong natural disaster, strong enough to hurt the powerful engineering of the city as a premonition of something coming to their city and their people. It was the same year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and exactly 50 years later, the Spanish Viceroy was established in Peru. 

One of the most baffling parts of Machu Picchu itself is how little is known about the city. Most theories of the significance of this temple or that rock structure are just those: theories. The famous three window temple is one of the biggest question marks. Much of the architecture comes in threes representing the condor (sky), the puma (land), and the serpent (underworld) that made up the Incan spiritual religion, but no one knows for certain if that is what the windows signified. The famous Intihuatana rock (below) could have been a way of telling time or studying the stars or a table for sacrifice. And as frustrating as it is to not get concrete answers about the incredible city built between towering mountains in the jungle of Peru, it is also just as special to allow this mysterious city to keep its secrets to itself, along with whatever portions have not been excavated or uncovered. 

I tried my best to include photos that give you a sense of not only Machu Picchu itself but also the incredible mountains that surround it. But there is really nothing like standing at about 8,000 ft above sea level at 6:15am with the fog slowing burning away leaving majestic jungle mountains in view. I felt as though I was sitting within the floating mountains of Avatar rather than on earth. They are so steep leaving direct views of the 1,400 ft drop into the valley of the Urubamba river below, for the second time since August, I didn't feel like I was on planet Earth.  

For those who are in the mood for some bad jokes from my favorite 2010 youtube video from which I derived the title of this blog, be my guest to check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU&t=1s

With love,

Olivia/Liv/Boo

~Incan~ Words of the Blog: Machu Picchu 

Machu = old, old person

Picchu = peak

Machu Picchu is the name of the peak to the south of the city while Huayna Picchu (young peak) sits to the north of the city.