Well, it seems that in my desire to write more frequently I've allowed an even bigger gap in posts to form. Were going to try something new with this one. Lets see if I can describe everything we've down over the last month, but do it concisely.
Ok, so when we left off, Casey and I were just entering our language school in Cusco. We've now completed our classes, and been out in "the wild" for a couple weeks now. The difference in our spanish has been pretty remarkable. Whereas before we could only rattle off a few phrases and verbs in the present tense, we can now pretty much (big emphasis on "pretty much") communicate whatever we want in present, past, and future. Our vocabulary has increased tremendously, as well as our comprehension. We have a long way to go, and understanding native speakers with strong accents is still a big challenge, but we're on our way.
After completing school Casey took a bus trip to Lima and back to retrieve our friend Maddy. Maddy asked me on facebook a few days before she arrived if I needed anything from the states. While she didn't show up with the extra large pepperoni pizza I requested, she did the next best thing by smuggling in 2 bombers of Rock Art Brewery's "Vemonster." After months of drinking fizzy, tasteless pilseners this was an incredible gift. We shared the bottles with 2 guys from Portland, OR and I was pleased to see the same look of euphoria wash over their faces when they took their first sip after months of drinking the same pilseners. I seriously miss Vermont beer.
We hung out in Cusco for a few days to let her adjust to the altitude, then hit the road to see Machu Picchu and the sacred valley after checking out Sacsayhuaman (an Incan spiritual and military complex perched on a hill overlooking cusco). Originally we had planned to do an epic 10 day trek from Choquiqiurao to Machu Picchu, but 2 months in southern peru had us itching to see more of the continent. We decided to cut the treks, and do an expedited run through the sacred valley to Machu Picchu by train.
We left Cusco by collectivo (a "collective taxi" that carries multiple groups of people to a specific destination) and did our first stop in the Sacred Valley at Pisac, home to elegent Incan terraces curving around the hillsides, a fortress high up in the hills, and one of the largest craft markets in Peru. We then hopped a minibus to Urubamba, where we made a connection to Ollantaytambo, the gateway to Machu Picchu. The next morning we ate an american style breafast of eggs, bacon, and toast (you would be really surprised at how difficult this is to find in peru) and boarded a glass roofed train for a 1.5 hour ride up to Urubamba river valley to Aguas Calientes.
The ride was spectacular. The terrain we had seen over the previous 2 months was for the most part dry, sparse, and drab (that's not to say it wasn't beautiful in a much different way). The soaring spires of rock, cloud forests, and lush subtropical vegetation was a huge change for us, as was the stifling humidity when we got off. The town of Aguas Calientes, within walking distance of MP, was nothing to write home about. Half finished concrete buildings, dirty streets, and exorbitant prices. We were visiting during the off season, so everything from the hostel we chose, to the prices of our dinner was negotiable. Having a good handle on spanish really helped us here.
The next day we crawled out of bed and started the 2 hour walk from our hostel to the gate of Machu Picchu. The weather was ridiculously hot and humid, and after the final ascent straight up an Incan staircase we were soaked with sweat. There is a ton of hype surrounding MP, both at home, and from travelers in southern peru...Every conversation inevitably turns into "Have you been there yet? How are you getting there?" With all the talk leading up, I don't think any of us expected to be blown away. Luckily our hundreds of soles spent on train tickets, entrance fees, and poor attempts at mexican food in Aguas Calientes were not wasted.
The complex is massive, with dozens of buildings, acres of terraces, numerous architectural styles, and bizarre shrines and temples. After a pass through one section of the site we climbed up neighboring Wayna Picchu, which gave extraordinary views of MP, and the surrounding valley. I could write all day about what we saw there, but Ill let the pictures do the work for me. We left MP when some ominous clouds rolled in, and took a night train back to Ollantaytambo.
Ollantaytambo is a small town built on the original Incan walls and foundations from the town of the same name (Ollantay has been continuously populated since Incan times). It has its own set of ruins including more abstract walls , religious shrines, fountains, and strange steps and blocks carved out of the nearby cliffs.
From Ollantaytambo we got onto a bus headed for Cusco, and jumped off near Maras, the base for exploring the sites of Moray and Salineras. Moray was an agricultural research complex built into a sinkhole. Incan engineers placed the terraces precisely with respect to air currents and angles of sunlight to create a micro-climate on each level where different crops could be grown. Salineras is a series of evaporation pools originally built by the Inca that allowed them to harvest mineral rich salt from a nearby spring. The site is still in use today, and walking through white terraces was without a doubt the coolest part of the sacred valley for all of us.
Our taxi driver (who we hired to take us from site to site) dropped us off on the main road near Maras. We flagged down the first bus we saw and hitched a ride back to Cusco. Seeing the sacred valley using public transportation, hired taxis, and bargained prices for a fraction of the cost of an organized tour left us feeling like savvy travelers for the first time since we landed.
We gave ourselves 2 nights in Cusco at Loki, a notorious party hostel (for a reduced rate, thanks to Casey's smooth talking), bought some souvenirs, and left for good. We took a long 23 hour bus to Lima (this time we shelled out the extra money for the nice seats), made a 9 hour overnight connection to Trujillo, then took a taxi to the beach town of Huanchaco. After 2.5 months of deserts, and the Andean highlands this was a welcome change. We rented a room in a bamboo treehouse style hostel owned by a guy who clearly learned english from surfers (every other word was "...Wow!"). We settled in for 3 days of fresh seafood, surfing lessons from our hostel owner, and got to tour Chan Chan which was is the largest mud/adobe city in the world. Strangely we kept getting swamped with high school students who wanted to take pictures with us.
Finally we took another overnight bus to Mancora, a beautiful town of white sand beaches, and surfer bums from all over the world. Every chance I get I've been eating Ceviche which is an outrageously delicious meal of raw fish and red onion marinated in lime juice and herbs. The town itself is very nice, but we've met some of the most blatant scammers in our entire trip. The owners of a bar tried to get Casey and Maddy to pay double for their drinks (going as far to produce a different menu with inflated prices)...They only relented when Casey threatened to get the police, but angry "patrons" chased them out the door demanding that they go back to pay. Yesterday we ordered burgers at a restaurant that advertised a list of S11 options. When we got our bill one cost 15, and 2 cost 17.
The waitress then pointed out the nearly indistinguishable asterisk next to the single S10 burger hidden amongst the more expensive options (no other prices were shown). A little "gringo markup" is to be expected, but the shear amount of people that blatantly try to rip you off really put a stain on this country for us. Its unfortunate that these people overshadowed all the awesome, welcoming people we've met as well. Mancora is the last stop in Peru before we head to Columbia and Ecuador tomorrow. We are all excited to experience new countries, and new cultures as we head north.
