@Peru

My program officially ended on the 12th, with a goodbye dinner and a beautifully awkward performance of Stand By Me in our typical fashion. The 15th I took off to Peru with a friend and I´ll be heading back to Quito the 23rd.

The gang

First stop was Cusco, a city that underimpressed me when I landed. Somehow, with all the stories I´ve heard about Cusco, I was expecting a city entirely made of ancient ruins, impressive and overwhelming. Instead, it was a mostly 2 or 3 story city skyline, very muddy (we´re in the rainy season), but overall a friendly, tranquil and pleasant place. Funny story - I ran into a girl buying train tickets who I had met three years ago when I was visiting Reed College. And I met a french couple in the airport in Lima, flying to Cusco and proceeded to run into them in Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, and twice so far in Lima - including this morning!

I must have some weird psychic connection with these people. The world is so small!

We didn´t stay long in Cusco, leaving the next day for Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo was really impressive structurally, but also because it was the site of the last battle in which the Spainards lost - apparently they attacked the fortress, but the Incas diverted the water drains and flooded them out.

Ollantaytambo, weary on the way down

I still can´t comprehend how they got these rocks up the mountain

From Ollantaytambo we took the train to Aguas Calientes, the stop off point for Machu Picchu. Let me just say that I hate PeruRail - they have a monopoly over the trains and tourists are required to ride it and they charge a fortune. Aguas Calientes was also a pretty icky place. It only really seems to house tourists before Machu Picchu and therefore is super expensive and touristy (if you ever travel there and want the cheapest hostel possible, ours was Las Caminatas, for $8 a night, but it seemed to share a building with a warehouse or some industrial plant...)

But, in the end, Machu Picchu was worth every cent. My friend and I got up really early and were in the complex by 6am. We stayed all day until about 4pm when we headed back to Aguas Calientes to catch the train back to Cusco. Due to the rainy season, it was completely covered in fog, but as the morning continued we got to see Machu Picchu in its full glory, with about three hours of wonderful sun and even a few rainbows. I´m still in awe.

Cerca 6am

Cerca 9am

The sun comes out!

 

 With a few more days in Cusco we visited most of the museums on the boleto turistico, including a popular art museum filled with super creative nativity scenes (llamas) and a chocolate museum with free tastings! Be jealous, Dad. Speaking of llamas, Machu Picchu was FULL of them. Very domesticated and friendly, they just wanted to eat their grass and be merry...or so I thought until they all decided to follow me along a precipice and let my just say that it is very scary.

Se Yeon loves llamas

My attitude was a little less positive

Now I am in Lima, enjoying the ritzy neighborhood of Miraflores. It´s so full of expats that the grocery store down the block sells all the same things as any grocery store I´d go to in the US. The walk on the cliff above the ocean and all the parks the municipality has built are really beautiful and safe, though. And, on an even higher note, it´s impossible to get depressed about not being home for Christmas when it´s super hot and sunny and I´m wearing flip flops.