Thursday, May 14
My friends, Laura, Sara, and I flew over to Perú to visit Cuzco and ancient ruins. We went to a lot of places described better by pictures and National Geographic, but later in this blog I will note my favorite parts.
We decided to take all of our tours in Español. We felt pretty bad-ass for doing this. The three of us were really happy with how easily we understood the tour guides. Someone on our tour group asked us if we were from Spain!! (more cuz we don’t look Latin American, not cuz we sound like we are from Spain, but we were still proud for being mistaken for Spanish speakers.) All the places we toured were packed with tourists from around the world. Going on the Spanish tour we made friends with people from Perú, Brazil, Spain, Costa Rica, and Argentina.
Friends We Made:
-Nearly all of our tours and bus/train rides were with a Costa Rican couple celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. They were soo cute and really fun to go on all the tours with everyday.
-During our train ride to Macchu Picchu, I talked for four hours with a tour guide, Yuber, showing a French couple the sites. His grandparents were Indians that worked in haciendas (rich Spanish houses that had Indian slaves) and only spoke Quechua (indigenous language). His parents spoke Quechua and Spanish, and he speaks Quecha, Spanish, French, English, and wants to learn Chinese. We talked (in Spanish) about the Incan culture and connection with the Earth which I find fascinating and he taught me some Quechua.
-On another tour, I talked quite a bit with a 15-year old girl, Mayte, from Lima on vacation. She was fun.
New Foods We Ate:
ALPACA LLAMA! I did not know that it was edible before, never mind incredibly delicious. I had the alpaca stroganoff and my friends had Alpaca on the grill and Alpaca Cordon Blue. All three dishes were excellent.
-Chicha Morado (pictured to the left of the stroganoff) is a common drink there that is made out of purple corn and tasty.
-We also ate a lot more Quinua there then we do in Ecuador. The Quinua soup I had before my Alpaca might be my favorite soup that I’ve had since being down here (and I’ve had a lot of soup).
The Sites We Toured:
Qorikancha or Convento de Santo Domingo- Perfect example of the Spanish domination of the indigenous cultures. I find it hilarious that the Spanish imposed churches on top of all the important temples but the brilliant architecture of the Incan is far better constructed to survive earthquakes. Spanish styles just don’t work well on a tectonic plate fault where there is a lot of seismic activity. My advice to the world: when conquering an unknown territory and strange culture, try learning a thing or two from the natives, they probably know what they are doing.
Spanish church on Incan foundation
Compare the trapezoidal doorways with the Spanish arches
Religious paintings lining the hallway to the Temple of the Rainbow at the end of the hall.Catedral de Cuzco- Looked a lot like churches in Spain (a lot of gold and exalted statues of the Virgin Mary and other religious figures). The Spaniards forced their indigenous slaves to build this church, but in the Spanish style. This means the cathedral has excellent stone work but since it was in the Spanish style has collapsed in the past from seismic activity.
Sorry I don't have any pictures of the inside. The Spanish missionaries did not worship the sun, so too much light or flash damages their works.Saqsaywaman- Temple of the Serpent (the Serpent represents the world under the ground) These ruins are all that remains after the conquistadors stole rocks for their own churches. Apparently they still practice llama sacrifices here on June 24 where the offer the heart of a black llama to the Sun god. The indigenous people in the area generally practice a mixture of Christianity and their traditional beliefs. The Incans forced their slaves build this and the stone work and architectural layout are incredible.
This is me offering a llama heart to the sun.
This is the biggest rock there.
Note the zig zag layout representing the serpent. I also really like the sun in this picture. Definitely deserving of a llama heart.Q’enqo- Temple of the Puma (the Puma represents the world we live in)
Interesting fact of this place: They used to sacrifice kids here by entombing them alive.
A sacrificial table that you have to crawl into this small cave to get to.
The big rock on the right used to be a giant carved head of a Puma. The conquistadors destroyed most of it cuz it was an Incan religious symbol.Pukapukara- One of the towers the Incans used to communicate with Conch shells.
Tambomachay- Dedicated to water. There are three fountains here that the Incans engineered to have constant and consistent flow of water the whole year. Its a place for physical and spiritual purification. The sun was setting when we got here and it was beautiful.
Machu Pichu-Temple of the Condor (the Condor represents the world above us/the sky/heaven)
One of my favorite pieces of information was that some of the rocks are carved straight out of the mountain. like, they didnt move the rock the just carved the mountain to make a wall. that is sooo cooool and brilliant for a solid foundation.
Read National Geographic for more information (I ran into some dude here walking around by himself with a copied National Geographic article on Macchu Picchu from 1912. He was using it as is tour guide. I found this really entertaining.)
After our guided tour, we got to explore the ruins on our own. We walked around for about 2 hours and ate lunch sitting on the ruins over looking the incredible mountain view.
Macchu Picchu is located in a cloud forest. (note the clouds in the distance.) Apparently sometimes you can't see the view because it is covered in clouds. We were lucky to have a beautiful day. (thank you sun god!)
I think the clouds in this picture add a magical touch.
That big rock is still connected to the rest of the mountain.Pisaq or Pisac -
Three parts:
1. Agricultural part (planted crops on the different levels)
2. Residential area (on that mountain in the center of the pic)
3. Incan cemetery that was destroyed by conquistadores searching for gold (that hill going off the right side of the pic-it kind of just looked like a lot of holes in the side of a rock wall)
I love the Andes.Ollantaytambo- My favorite fact: it is built in the shape of a llama! You can’t really see it in my pics, but it is more visible from an aerial view. They think these ruins are in such good shape because the temple hadn’t been completed when the Spaniards arrived so the conquistadors didn’t feel the need to rip it down to impose their religion.
Half way up the mountain on the right is an Incan designed, 100% sustainable, wind powered refridgerator. While I don't think it was designed well enough to store freeze pops, it is still an incredible archetectual feat. They positioned it where there are strong winds and the narrow windows garantee that the constant breezes blowing through would be cool.
These really big rocks were impressively transported from really far away.
That is my friend Mayte from Lima!
Indigenous women gave us a presentation of how they spin, dye, and weave alpaca wool into patterned colorful cloths.Chinchero- another Spanish church. Our tour guide sang a really pretty religious song in Quechua to us. However, I thought the sweeping view of a mountainous sunset was far more breath taking than the small Spanish church that was really dark cuz they wouldn’t turn the lights on cuz it would damage the paintings. I felt like it was obvious why the indigenous cultures would be so respectful and gracious to the Earth.
Again, note the deterioating Spanish archetechture on top of the solid Incan foundation. Also, please note the awe-worthy sky. The Incans for realz chose an excellent location to build a temple to worship the sun.
Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo & Danza Folkloricas- got to love folk dancing!! and singing in Quechua! I bought an beautiful indigenous skirt and am planning on wearing it Contra dancing.
On the way back to Quito, we missed our connecting flight and had to stay in the Lima airport for 12 hours. We bought 10 minute massages, ate free Chinese food with our food vouchers, played Categories in Spanish, explored the area surrounding the airport (not a lot) and did everything else we could think of to entertain ourselves in an airport. We got back to Quito at 1AM on Tuesday, May 19th and I was in class at 9AM.
Two weeks later...
Thursday, May 28th
My friend Katie and I jumped an overnight bus to Puerto López, a beach town in the Province of Manabí. We hung out with Katie’s friends that live there, went swimming, i got to play volleyball!, we salsa danced A LOT, and went camping on the beach. The people of the Coast are soo different from the Sierra region. While a bit difficult to understand with their accent, they were interesting to talk to and get to know their lifestyle (sleep, surf, dance, sleep).
The highlight of my trip was hitch hiking back from the beach, Las Tunas, where we went camping. This massive truck picked us up and drove us the 20 minutes back to Puerto López. The sun was setting casting a purple-pink shadow over the ocean, town and surrounding hills. Experiencing this view from the top of a truck with winds going through my hair at 40 mph was magical and typing a description here won’t do it justice.
Me, Katie, and our friend Amanda at Las Tunas, the beach where we went camping.
Some friends on our trip in the back of a truck
Sun rising over Puerto LópezTuesday, June 2nd
I had two papers due and four exams. Despite being at the beach for the weekend, I completed everything on time and studied sufficiently thanks to the 13 hour bus ride back on Monday. And after that really loong day, I’m finished my academic semester!!
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