Strangely enough, it is now March and I have seven and a half weeks left. Last weekend Maggie got here Sunday morning and we had to rush to try and make our train to Machu Picchu. By the time we arrived at the station in Ollantaytambo about an hour and a half from Cusco, we were about 5 minutes later than the time the train was supposed to leave. I was so afraid we´d missed it. We ran from the taxi and miraculously the train was still there, though it literally started moving once we were on it. The landscape on the ride to Aguas Calientes was beautiful. There were really steep, green mountains and a rushing river. Aguas Calientes is a really gorgeous little town as well. It reminds me a bit of what I imagine a coal mining town in West Virginia would be like, but prettier. The clouds hang over the mountain tops and the river runs right through the town next to the train tracks. Thankfully the train ride was pretty short because we were starving by the time we made it there and immediately went to find lunch. During lunch, it started to pour so we decided to find the nearest hostal possible which actually turned out really well. We stayed at Hostal Jairita for about $11 per night for a double room and the people there were all really friendly. Later we checked out the market and ran into some of my friends from Cusco. We also found out at the train station that no trains would be running the next day because of a strike and so we´d be stuck in Aguas Calientes an extra day. I knew about the strike beforehand when we booked the tickets, but I´d been hoping for the best. The next day we took the bus and went up a scarily, steep mountain to Machu Picchu. We walked up some steps, rounded a corner, and then there it was lying before us. It really was incredible. After walking around a bit, it started to rain on us, which was a minor irritation, but if anything, with the added clouds hanging over the ruins, it made the scenery even more picturesque.
Unfortunately, it would have been too slippery and dangerous to climb Waynu Picchu so we didn´t. When we got back to Aguas Calientes that night we found a restaurant to eat cuy (guinea pig, an Andean specialty) in and were serenaded by 80´s music on the radio. Maggie ended up with the head, and I with the feet. There was very little meat on the bone, and what there was of it was not that great tasting. I didn´t eat the skin because it was toug
h and freaked me out. After dinner, we walked around a bit. We went over a suspension bridge and suddenly discovered another town. It was the real Aguas Calientes, I think, where the Peruvians live. The Aguas Calientes we´d seen previously was the tourist part. It was a bizarre moment, realizing that what we´d seen before was more or less a fabrication. I would have liked to explore the other side of the bridge some more, but it was dark and it didn´t seem like the best idea at the time. The next morning at an internet cafe, I happened to look down and there was a gigantic long, brown winged bug on the modem. Apparently cockroaches in this country have wings. Like the way there, the next day we had to rush back to Cusco in order to get Maggie to the airport for her flight back. I was disappointed that I didn´t get to show her more of the city, but it was so good to see her and have her around for a few days.Wednesday morning, I woke
up early and took the cumbi to the airport and flew to Lima, where I had about 4 hours of a layover. During this time I got a donut from Dunkin Donuts, read about Chris Brown and Rihanna in a magazine in one of the stores without buying it, and ate a delicious chicken and french fry lunch. Then I flew to Trujillo, the city of the eternal spring as it is called by some and also the second largest city in Perù, where I met Patrick, Amanda, and Louisa, but not until I´d first been accosted by literally probably about ten taxi drivers who actually surrounded me as I walked outside of the airport into the desert sunshine.We took a taxi to our hotel in the centro about a 20 minutes ride from the airport. It was really nice and relatively cheap for having air conditioning, really comfortable beds, and breakfast. We walked to the Plaza de Armas and discovered that it was Trujillo week, which meant they had concerts and other events going on in celebration of the city. The buildings surrounding the plaza and all around the city are all painted in bright, vivid colors. For instance, the main cathedral was yellow. While in Trujillo we visited the beach town of Huanchaco nearby. It was not the nicest beach I´ve been to and the water was cold, but it was definitely appreciated after the rain and cold of Cusco and it was particularly beautiful at sunset. At the beach we rode
these boats called caballitos de totoro (little reed horses), which you can sit on while a man paddles you out a bit and then brings you back in to shore. Also, at the beach I tried picarrones, which is fried dough similar to funnel cake but not quite as sweet and comes with a nice fig sauce. I also tried ceviche, which was good and included purple tentacles. In Trujillo we found a really nice restaurant very close to our hotel that had a cheap menu so we ate there quite a few times. My first night I had churrasco, which is steak. My first day there, I ate churros from a vender on the street which tasted pretty incredible.
Trujillo, and the northern coast in general, contains a lot of arqueological sites from pre-Incan civilizatons. It is located in the northern desert, and therefore, a lot of the sites have been really well preserved. We visited three temples and also Chan Chan (¨Sol Sol¨/¨Sun Sun¨), which is a UNESCO world heritage site and the biggest adobe city in the world. We went to the Temple de Arco Iris (Rainbow), Temple Esmeralda and Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon), which was really impressive and reminded me a lot of some of the things I saw in Egypt last year. At both of the first two temples we saw Peruvian hairless dogs which I think are not very attractive, but they are a special breed here. The Temple Esmeralda had carvings of otters, but the guide explained that when it was discovered in the 90´s the team from Harvard that was excavating weren´t sure whether they were otters or squirrels, but decided on otters because of the proximity to the sea. Huaca de la Luna was actually 5 temples that had been built one on top of the other and was really massive. There were paintings there that were 1,800 years old.
Friday night we decided to go out dancing, but the place we went to ended up being kind of lame because most of the people there weren´t dancing, and those that were, were couples.
Afterwards we left and went to the Cheops casino and each got 10 soles (about $3) in coins for the slot machines. Being slightly intoxicated, I didn´t really know how to use the slot machines and just pushed a lot of buttons. However, my technique worked out for me and I ended up winning 45 soles ($15) from a machine, which I was very excited about. Saturday, our last day there, Patrick and I went to the mall which was very bizarre because it reminded me so much of home. There was a food court with McDonald´s and Kentucky Fried Chicken, a movie theater, and a store that was very much like a Peruvian Walmart called Tottus. When we got there, there was even a go kart race going on in the parking lot and a live aerobic dance presentation going on inside as if it was an infomercial. We ate dinner and then watched the movie My Mother´s New Boyfriend in English, which was a little strange but amusing. We got back to Cusco on Sunday and were greeted with cold weather and rain. Today, for instance, it was really sunny and nice in the morning but later in the afternoon it started to pour and hail. I was in a market and the hail was falling through the holes in the tin roof. Also, my friend Ashley and I have decided we are going to be ¨new women¨ which entails exercising more and going to cultural events. I´m doing good so far (I went to the gym Monday and Tuesday and to a video dance presentation at Allianza Francaise last night) but we will see. That´s all for now.Amor de Cusco,
Ashley
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