Spring Break in PERU!!

April 15- Havanna Cafe

So I am sitting here watching the Emperors New Groove in honor of going to Peru and hanging out with llamas for a week. And I figured there is nothing better than writing about the trip while watching the movie.

Day 1- April 5
The trip began with meeting at the Casa at like 5:15 in the morning aka I had to leave my house a little before 5 aka I didn't sleep that night. I went out and hung out with some people for a while and then came home and showered and finished packing and then left. We went to the airport, checked in, all that jazz. Uneventful. From there we had a 4 or 5 hour flight to Lima, Peru. When we landed in Lima we had to pick up our bags and re-check them in to go to Cusco and go through security and everything again. A pain but there is Starbucks in the airport so it was all worth it to get a Starbucks. Haha. From there, we went to get lunch. However, we didnt have much time so we were just going to grab some pizzas and eat them really fast. However, we walked up to the Papa Johns counter and they told us that we had to sit down and get "served". So we sat and we told the guy that we didn't have a lot of time so we wanted them fast and we want to pay right away and everything. However, they didn't get the message and it took forever to get the food. This means that we had to more or less run through security and the airport tax with these drinks and pizza and stuff in our hands. I'm sure we looked quite comical to everyone but we didn't have to wait in lines or anything which was great. Haha. But then we landed in Cusco and Russ went off to his hotel and Kelsey, Amy and I to our hostel. We got a great hostel that was up on top of a hill and overlooking the city. We got to our room that we shared with a few other girls but it was fine and changed and relaxed at the hostel for a while before heading out to explore the city. We first had to pay the rest of our tour and buy our bus tickets from Cusco to Puno but after that we began to shop. And oh man there was a lot that we bought through out the trip. After walking around for a while, we went to a cafe and sat overlooking the main plaza (Plaza de Armas) and just relaxed for a while listening to a band that was playing in the square. Once we were bored of sitting we walked around all the shops more and looked at everything. From there we went looking to try to find a place to eat. All the restaurants put a person outside with a menu to haggle you to get you to come to their restaurant. They add free wine and reduce the prices etc etc to try to beat the other restaurants. But while Kelsey and Amy were trying to find dinner, I walked over to the Plaza to meet Russ so that he could eat with us. However , he had already ate so he just sat with us while we ate. But then we all went to this English pub. However, we didn't really have anything to talk about so I bought a deck of cards and we spent the rest of the night drinking and playing Hearts. We called it an early night and Russ went to his hotel and us our hostel.

Day 2- April 6
Today we slept in for a while at least which was good considering I had slept on planes only the day before. We had the day free to hang out around Cusco and just explore. Russ was out and about doing his own thing so we spent the day just hanging out shopping and taking pictures. It was cool to explore some of the city and just relax too. After walking around this huge building full of all the little shops that you see through out the city, we decided to get some lunch. We found this Pervian chinese place for lunch and I mean it was alright but nothing special. Maybe I have just been spoiled with the BA food, but I wasn't impressed with almost all of Peru's food. But we ate, walked the calories off and then went to a little cafe for dessert and just played some cards and hung out. Later that night we met Russ again for dinner. We ended up picking this place called Baghdad Cafe overlooking the Plaza. The food was whatever but almost the whole dinner and authentic Peruvian band played for us so it was tight to have both dinner and a show. We then left from there and went to this Irish pub/bar. One thing that I liked about Peru is that they had pineapple juice in almost every restaurant and bar and so this bar we went to had amazing pineapple daquiris. But anyways, we got bored so we ended up tearing a bunch of napkins into really tiny pieces and played Texas Holden with napkins. For sure epic. But then we had to go back to our hostel to pack enough stuff in day packs for a day and half while we were at Agua Calientes.

Day 3- April 7
This trip had a lot of days that we had to wake up early... so we woke up early once again and heading down to the train station to get to Agua Calientes which is the closest town to Machu Picchu and where you get on the bus that takes you up the mountain to Picchu. But the train ride was about 4ish hours and more or less uneventful. Our seats where in the front buy where they we selling food so we had the two guys selling food and the other guy that was in charge of the coach talking to us the entire time which was interesting. Haha. But then we got to Calientes and went to our hostel. We had a room to ourselves... actually I am pretty sure that we more or less had the whole place to ourselves. We didn't see anyone else staying there the entire time that we were there but oh well. Esta bien. The town is also a small nothing town where we walked around almost the whole town in about 5-10 min. But we had the afternoon to explore and do nothing so we went to the hot spring that they have there. It consisted of about 5 or 6 small like pools filled with nasty looking water that smelled like pee that was luke warm. Haha I have been to hot springs before but this was an adventure for sure. Oh well it was something to do and a new experience in life. Haha. But after that and showering and everything we had nothing else to do so we decided to walk along this path that followed the river because it said there was signs for an ecology hike there. However, I don't know if there really was ever that walk but as we were walking down the hill we happened to run into Russ and another friend Bryan sitting on the wall. So there went the "hike" but Bryan had to leave to catch his train so we all walked with him to his moldly gross smelling hostel and then once he left the rest of us had nothing to do so we bought Cokes and Milky Ways from a kiosko and went to Russ's hotel room overlooking the river. Las chicas took over his bed as our table to play cards for a while and then we decided to sit there and read on his bed while he played a computer game. haha but then we went to dinner and hung out for a little before calling it an early night so that we would be rested for Picchu the next day.

Day 4- April 8
Machu Picchu day!! Yay! And it was for sure as great as everyone says it is. We woke up early and checked out of our hostel (luckly we could leave our bags there for the day) but then we walked down to the Plaza to meet our guide to go to Picchu. By the time that everyone got on the buses and got tickets and everything it was like 630 when we first saw Picchu. The moutains however were filled with fog in the beginning of the trip so even though we started up top where we could have over looked all the ruins we could barely see anything. However, it was fine because it cleared up later in the day and we were able to go back to the top and see everything later on in the day. We had a tour hour tour planned however there were a lot of older people in the tour that kept wanting to wait to see if they sun would peek through the clouds and everything. This was fine for a little while but soon we couldn't handle it so the three of us ditched the tour and went straight through the ruins to one side to hike Wynapicchu. Wynapicchu is this big mountain that you can see in the back of all the classical pictures of Machu Picchu. They only let 400 people up a day so we wanted to make sure that we didn't miss out. There are also more ruins on top of the mountain along with a spectaular view. But so anyways, we begin to hike this mountain. The beginning was fine but then from about the middle on there was a "trail" but the trail consisted of a bunch of rocks that you walk up. It was definitely a climb meant only for the physically fit as the sign warned us. But the climb up was worth it for the view that we got to see. I didn't know/think Picchu was as big as it was until we climbed up there and could see everything. Once we got to the top, we sat down and busted out some peanut butter and crackers and just relaxed and read for a while. While we were sitting there up comes Russ. But so he went off to explore the ruins of Wynapicchu for a little and then we all walked down together. From there we spent the rest of the morning/afternoon exploring all the ruins and trying to get a feel for/see the entire city. Our train was leaving Calientes around 5 so we had to leave Picchu at like 4 but we decided to leave at like 3 instead and went back to town, bought a drink, picked up our bags and then caught our train. On the way home Kelsey and I were sitting across from this German couple that had decided to put this huge bag on the floor meaning that none of us could stretch our legs out/really move the entire ride. It was a very uncomfortable ride. But then we got back to Cusco, checked back in the the same hostel for another night, grabbed some dinner and crashed for another early morning.

Day 5- April 9
We got up early again this day to head down to the bus station to get on the bus that would take us from Cusco to Puno where Lake Titicaca is. The bus ride was like 9 hours long and not from distance but just because we had like 7 stops through out the ride. We saw cathedrals, Incan ruins of churches and cathedrals, a mueso, the andes and a couple of other stops for lunch and just pictures. The bus we took was one of the big luxury buses but it wasn't even halfway full which was nice because we all got to have our own rows to ourselves. But eventually we got to Puno and got a cab to our really nice lake view hotel. Then we spent that night just hanging out in our hotel room. I took a shower and then we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant which had the best Peruvian food I have had yet. Then we just went back to our room and watched TV and read for the rest of the night.

Day 6- April 10
This was one of the few days that we didn't actually have to wake up early which was nice. We slept in and then got ready and just sat outside in Peruvian sunshine for a while. Once we got hungry enough, we went into the town of Puno (which although it is fairly big there really isn't anything to do) and ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Puno Plaza de Armas. Then we walked around to find a travel agency to try to take a lake tour the next day. We found one easy enough and then Kelsey wanted a lago titicaca t-shirt so we went off in search of that. Once that quest was complete we had nothing left to do so we walked down to the port where they had paddle boating. And from lack of anything else to do and the fact that it only cost a dollar we paddle around in a swan 30 minutes. Quite the adventure. Haha. From there it was getting dark and kindof cold so we bought some dinner (aka chips and candy) and went back to the hotel. Once there, while watching Pirates on TV, we decided we were hungry enough to order room service. So we spent the rest of the night watching TV, reading and relaxing.

Day 7- April 11
This day was the lake tour day so once again we had to be up early but it was alright. After eating breakfast, we walked out the back door of the hotel to wait for the boat to come and get us. Because our hotel was right on the water, we didn't have to go into town to catch the boat, it came to us which was pretty funny. We had a fun group of people on the boat too. But we got on and the first stop was the floating islands of Uros. This consists of about 40 different man made islands that groups of about 30 people live on. These islands are made and consist entirely of reeds. The floor is reeds, the houses are reeds, the boats are made of reeds, they even eat the reeds. I tried reed and it was flavorless but hey it was all about the experience. But so we got into the islands and went to one so that we could get the feel for all the islands. Once we got there we were shown how the people live their lives as each island being a tiny socialist community. The women spent their days weaving and making things for tourists to buy. They also gather fish and these birds where one person goes into town and trades for potatoes and other things of daily life that they need to survive but can't make on their own. They don't deal with cash or credit cards or anything. All of it is based on trading. They also showed us how the islands are made. They cut a huge piece of the roots of the reeds and once they have enough pieces they tie them together to make the base of the island. Then they cover it with 3 or 4 layers of reeds and bam you have a floating island. They then use rocks to anchor themselves so that their island doesn't move. Kindof crazy if you think about it. But after listening to our guide talk for a little we had about 20 minutes to walk around the island and look in the houses and all. Then if we wanted to we could get in the reed boat that that island community owned where they rowed us to another bigger island where there is a hotel that tourists can stay at and where there is restaurants etc. We walked there for a minute or two and then got back on the other boat where we had about a 2 hour ride to an island called Taquila. Once we got there we walked for about 50 min up hills and stairs to Plaza de Armas. From there we took a look around the Plaza for a little until the rest of the group got there and then we all walked as a boat to get lunch at a place overlooking the lake. We had trout for lunch (ugh) but Kelsey, Amy and I were sitting across from this family from Spain and they were hilarious to talk to. It was great to be speaking Spanish too. But it was hilarious to hear them tell us that we weird because we didn't order beer for lunch and how impressed they were that we could actually speak Spanish. Great times. But then after lunch we had to walk down steep (and a lot!) of stairs to get back to the boat. We then had a two to two and half hour ride back to Puno where once we landed we got dinner and just headed back to the hotel. Puno didn't exactly have a great night life and the main town area looked semi shady to us so we didn't go out ever there. But it was totally fine.

Day 8- April 12
The last day of the trip and it was an all travel day. Ugh. I woke up at 4 to get ready and leave the hotel at 5 to take an hour taxi to the airport in the next town over. We planned on getting to the airport and hour and half before our flight leaves (and we did) but we thought that we were going to be pushing it for time because our hotel told us that was barely enough time when we asked them. However, we got there and we were the only ones there and then we had to wait almost half hour before we could even check in. So much for barely making it for our flight. Thanks Sonesta Posadas del Inca. Haha. But then we flew from there to Cusco, sat on the plane for about 30 min and then went into Lima. Once we got to Lima we had about a 4 hour layover so we looked around in the shops (mom I found you a cool Machu Picchu book), ate some lunch, played some cards and then went and got Starbucks. While we were sitting in Starbucks we found out that the freaking airport tax for international flights was 30 bucks compared to the 6 that we were thinking for domestic flights. So we had to scrounge for money but came up with enough. Then we went through customs etc where they made us throw out Starbucks. Freaking Peru. But things got a little better when we got on the plane and had our own individual TV for the flight. I watched Kite Runner which was a really good movie and did a really good job of following the book. I was impressed. But then we landed, got a taxi to the Casa, hung out there for like 5-10 min and then I went home and hung out with my host brothers for the rest of the night.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. Peru was wonderful to see and going to Machu Picchu and the whole trip in general was a once in a life time experience that I am very glad I got to experience.

The past few days has just been filled with school and homework. I actually have work to do this week and next week because it is the last two weeks of the semester. Ugh. I'm still not ready to come back to the states.