This was March of 2009 and I set out on my great adventure.
I had never been to South America before, and it had been decades since I've been to a third world country - I was extremely nervous but tremendously excited to see different things, take in strange smells, and feel the rhythm of a different space in time. I barely slept and my mom came with me to ship me off into the great unknown.
I was snoozing at the gate at National Airport, when finally came the time to board the plane. But they delayed our plane's takeoff. I was getting extremely nervous, because there was only a 45 minute connection time for my plane. Every moment counted. I had to run, (with my enormous bag and my hoodie falling off every 5 seconds) all the way to the end of the terminal in Newark. I was the last person on the plane. I mean, they closed the door behind me. What a relief!
The plane flight, via Delta, was long and beautiful. I saw the Caribbean islands and their beautiful beaches, the moon rising with a halo among gorgeous silver thin clouds, and a thunderstorm from above and at a distance. As we came down to Peru, the ride got a little bumpy as we went near the mountains.
Landing in Lima, the lights all seemed segmented into rows, and I could kind of make out an island in the dark, but I might have been hallucinating at that point.
I had about a 13 hour layover in Lima to catch my plane to Cuzco. I finished The World Without Us by Alan Weisman during that span. Excellent read, highly recommended by me.
I started to get worried, because Cpt was supposed to meet me when my plane landed. There was a lot of talk about the plane getting canceled. I was terrified, what was I going to do? How would I find Cpt in Peru, where I only know how to say "Donde esta el banyo?" 5 hours late, they decided it was safe to fly, and we boarded and took off. The mountains turned green and beautiful, and landing in Cuzco was a beautiful experience.
The airport at Cuzco is very small, and as I walked into it, and then right out, the Panic set in again. What if Cpt. didn't wait for me? What if I couldn't recognize him? What if I found him?! It had been two months since we'd seen each other, who knows how he changed? What if I didn't like him any more? After denying at least 15 cab drivers the pleasure of carting me off somewhere, I was getting desperate. Someone grabbed me from behind and I turned and almost screamed. I didn't recognize him, not at first. He was so browned from sunburn, peeling and looked like a complete bum. "Surprised you didn't I?" He was so proud. I instantly fell in love with him again.He grabbed my bag, kissed me on the cheek, and nodded to a random cabbie and off we went to my first experience of a real hostel. I mean real, because in Japan, hostels are like a hotel. Clean, with all the amenities you could ever need. Anyway, we walked most of the way once we were dropped off in the center of the city. Cuzco is filled with great architecture, giant stones fitted together like limbs on a tree - no sign of mortar or effort. Not to mention the European influence, it looked like Carcasson except with a darker tinge on the roads, and brighter skies, and no surrounding wall or castle. Old ladies on the street with their babies around their necks in colorful scarves, trying to sell bracelets and other useless articles. Small cars honking every five seconds. Small streets on steeeeep hills, markets with real food and necessary articles. I LOVED IT. I was jet lagged, breathing like I was doing intense cardio (I was at 9,000 feet) and kept looking at Capt., remembering and relearning him. It was amazing. It didn't feel real.
The hostel was clean, and barren. The shower was freeeeeeezing (I have this thing about cold water, I want it to be boiling). After awhile, we went to explore the city and determined our plan for Machu Picchu. The next day, Cpt and I were comfortable again and we took a bus to Ollaytaytambo, stopped at some other cool ruins, and followed the Urubamba River to Aguas Calientes. I love Aguas Calientes (remember what I said about hot water?). Nestled in gorgeous green cliffs and mountains, it gave a flavor of a tourist town that doesn't give a shit about the tourists (LOVE IT). We stayed at a rather low-end hostel where the roof was made of corrugated steel. I didn't care though. It was comfortable in the room and I just avoided the kitchen.
The conquering of Machu Picchu was epic. We hiked from Aguas Calientes, which didn't take that long. We started out at about 5 or 6 am, and got to Machu Picchu pretty early. A dog I named Perro (very original, I know) followed us most of the way up. There weren't that many tourists yet and most of them took the bus up for some stupid reason. We took all the touristy pictures from the watchtower and temple of the Sun and the sundial. The weather was agreeable, it was very misty in the morning, so you couldn't really see the whole of Machu Picchu at first, but eerily beautiful. Then the sun came out in all its glory to turn me into a bucket of sweat. Yuck. I smelled pretty rank, at least that's what Cpt. told me. |
| Me at the Sundail on Machu Picchu |
We walked over to the opposite edge of Machu Picchu, where the Sun Gate is. The temples were beautiful and the view was incredible, but by that point I was seriously dehydrated because Cpt. tends to inhale all my water. He's a camel. So we went down to the gate (it was almost 5 pm by this point) and Cpt. bought me a 5 dollar bottle of Coke... Needless to say, he was pissed but I was dying. So we hiked back to Aguas Calientes, and it felt good to look up from the Urubamba and be able to think that I climbed 3 mountains, right there. We got to relax in the hot water and I never wanted to leave.
But, leave we did, hopped on the train back to Ollaytaytambo (very cool ruins there too by the way, and the hostel we stayed at was pretty excellent), took a bus back to Cuzco and listened to loud music with always the same beat the entire 3 hours back. Still, I had a good time looking at the scenery and seeing Peruvian farmland. We got back to Cuzco, and got to look around at all the cool ruins that were around. At one point we were on some ruins and Cpt. strode off as he is wont to do, and ended up slipping and fell on his butt, and slid right off, arms flailing about. I ran over, he had fallen about 5 feet and when I realized he was OK, I started cracking up. I managed to desecrate some ruins by needing to go to the bathroom, and so we left in a hurry. We went to another ruin nearby, and this one had a cool cave where the Incas used to worship the moon that would shine in at exactly the right moment. We saw a thunderstorm come in from far away and got a bit wet, enough to make me lose a lot of heat really quickly. But the rain felt great at first.We caught a bus (I think it's called a combi or something like that) and that was sooooo cool. So many people crowded onto a old VW van basically, and whenever we came up to a person, the guy would upon the door and yell at people to get on. We ended up at the town center, where we saw some traditional dancing at the theater, which I really enjoyed. Then it happened. Cpt bought some meat on a stick, and I ate it. That night we took the bus to Puno to see Lake Titicaca.
We arrived at Tequile and did the eco-world friendly touristy thing of staying the night in some guy's house. He was really cool, showed us the island and how he works his stuff, and we bought some stuff from him. We got to see traditional dancing and eat the food, which was pretty good. Cpt. had to translate stuff for me, so conversation was awkward at best, and I had all these questions that I couldn't ask, which always infuriates me. But we got to hang out by the beach at the Highest Biggest Lake in the World, with the Awesome Name. And we got to hike the whole island, see the bluest, clearest waters, eat the local shrubbery, and see some ruins. There is also a ton of old pottery smashed in the ground from when the Spanish came, so as a wannabe archaeologist, it was a gold trove. None of what I found predated the European intervention of pottery though. I think you might have to dig some, just a hunch.
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| Kirk at Lake Titicaca |
We caught the boat back and were on our way to the bus station when I started feeling dizzy. We were waiting for the bus, and I kept feeling worse and worse. We got on the bus, and I ran for the bathroom. Juliaca is not a place where you want to be sick and boy, I was regretting that piece of meat on the stick that I had eaten a few days before. The rest of the bus was not happy with me either. It was a 9 hour bus ride, and I was sick for allllll of it. We ended up in Arequipa, got a hostel, and I attempted to clean myself up. When it was a decent hour (10 AM) Cpt. resuscitated me with a coke (which is my only cure for any stomach illness) and his stomach ache pills and we toured the beautiful city of Arequipa. My favorite places were where our hostel was in and the Arms Square. Very European influence on the architecture, and I bought some post cards that were never sent and some excellent Alpaca wool for my mawm. We also got some illegal DVDs. We also saw the neatest museum, where they had mummies, small figurines, pottery and other stuff that fascinates the archaeologist within me. I was still pretty weak though, fighting waves of illness periodically throughout the day. I don't think I ate anything except crackers. Lots of crackers and soda. We took another night bus the next night.
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| "The Monkey" Nazca Line |
The next day, we were in Nazca. We got there at 4 in the morning, and because I was so sick, I watched the sun rise and heard all the cocks crow. Cocks are funny creatures, and it was my first experience with them. I liked watching them strut. We took a taxi to the airport and I got my chance to see the Nazca Lines!!! They were soooooo cool. My favorites, were the monkey and the astronaut. Cpt almost threw up on the plane, he gets motion sickness pretty easily, I was busy taking pictures and laughing and ooohing and all that, he had his head in a paper bag. How the tables had turned. I was still pretty sick though, but the jubilation of seeing ancient artwork of staggering size and be in a Cessna made me forget my sickness for awhile (I love planes). He managed to hold his own, however and we landed without mishap.
In Nazca, we saw the coolest museum - it had peacocks, old skulls with trepanning done, loads of pottery that had BEAUTIFUL designs on them and tons more stuff. It was really out of the way, and once again, I was dehydrated and felt like death coming back from it. So we stopped by the market (the only one that was really open when I was in Peru) and it was great seeing all the fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and everything else that they had to offer. Cpt and I had a delicious mango smoothie (my favorite fruit ever, just ask my parents) at the market, freshly made, and the rest of the day was a delirious blur of heat and waiting for the bus. It is in a desert after, a desert so fierce that when it rains, the ancient Nazcans thought that rain was a terrible thing and did human sacrifices. I saw a bunch of dust devils in the simmering desert flats - not even cacti braved that terrible dryness.
We got to Ica, and immediately left it for Huacachina when we realized the hostel we thought we might stay in was now, literally, a hole in the wall. Huacachina is an oasis in the desert - beautiful and really cool. You can take dune buggys up, and sandboard down the dunes. The first day, we did a tour of some bodegas, where we bought the most delicious wine/liquor - it's called Perfect Love, and I know why. We saved it for when we got back to the US. I wish we had more. Late in the afternoon, after accidentally ripping off a taxi driver and a fellow tourist (we needed to go to change some money, and never got the chance augh!) we went sandboarding which is really, really hard work. First you have to climb the sand dune (if you are too poor to get the dune buggy). Basically one step and the sand brings you back down to where your foot was at the beginning. After achieving the top, then you strap on, get your pants filled with sand, and start sand boarding down. The actual sand boarding was fun, but everything else was a little more difficult. I was still feeling sick and weak, too. That parasite would not go away.
We left Huacachina and Ica behind and headed for Lima. Headed for a Penthouse Apartment!!! Cpt's grandmother was friends with a Peruvian diplomat in the US and she offered it to us while we were in Peru. It had a great view of the city and I basically stayed in bed for a day trying to regain some strength. I could barely move from the parasite or whatever I had that was making my life miserable. Cpt went and saw some ruins and while I was sad that I wouldn't see Lima, I felt so weak that it really wasn't possible. The next day we caught a cab to the airport, and we flew out of Lima and Peru. I was finally getting over the parasite. I had lost 15 pounds in 7 days, nothing but skin and bones when I got back. Of course, the whole plane ride I thought I had shit in my pants, but no, it was just Cpt farting terribly the ENTIRE 9 HOUR PLANE RIDE! And laughing about it the entire time. I will never forgive him for that.
I had not bothered to call or email my parents the entire time I was in Peru, and so they thought I was dead. But, much to their relief, I returned home, with a parasite and very tanned boyfriend, and had to go immediately back to school. What an end to an awesome, debilitating adventure!
