So yes, I still went on the trip to Peru that I had been planning for over a year (and gather vacation days for...hah!), since it was already paid for and all. Geoffrey, Ann, Laura and Huong joined- Lance had to bail at the last moment due to some silly promotion or whatnot.
So yeah, we started out with 3 flights, in the middle of which was a TWENTY HOUR layover in Lima. Geoffrey, Huong and I did our damnest to sneak into Laura and Ann's hotel room, but as it was guarded by the gestapo, instead I slept face-down on a metal table in the food court. Classy.
But finally we were landing in Cuzco on Thanksgiving day, and were treated to the most beautiful overhead views of the Andes as we landed:
We immediately struck out for the Plaza de Armas, got bombarded with street vendors, and while at first we tried to find turkey at the Gato Market (literally, "cat market," which does not exactly make me hungry), instead we chose an actual restaurant and dined on traditional Thanksgiving fare like alpaca. For some reason we took hundreds of photos of us with our food on this trip, but I'll spare you...all but one, which will come later. And I promise, it's even grosser than the time I ate crickets.
Our first full day, we just wandered the streets of Cuzco, exploring and shopping- and meeting women with alpacas wandering around to charge us exorbitant prices for standing next to her (the first is our hotel):
We also saw what we assumed was a whore house, but it just turned out to be an Indian restaurant or something. Blah.
Seriously, though, Korma Sutra? What do you think we're going to think?
That afternoon we did a bus trip of Cuzco, the following day we did a white water rafting trip (that was amazingly NOT remeniscient of the Penn camping trip- we hit legit class 3 rapids, and also got to witness Huong swimming in open water for the first time in her life. When we chose to jump off a bridge into the swirling waters below (and I screamed like a little bitch, which WAS remeniscient of my bungy experience), we gathered quite the crowd of locals standing by to watch and laugh at us. Luckily, there is no video evidence of my girly stumble off of the bridge. The next full day was spent on the Sacred Valley tour, and to make this simple I'm just going to lump photos from all three of those days together. Oh, and by the way, hilariously, if you go an hour outside of Richmond you lose all cell service, but Geoffrey had perfect 3G coverage even when on the Urubamba River floating through the Andes:
We did get a kick out of some of the signs we came across. Yes, there were a lot of pit toilets, and I think some of my group didn't believe me when I told them you probably aren't supposed to throw your toilet paper in the toilet- that's what the little trash can is for. I found this sign in a very nice restaurant in the main plaza the third night:
Oh, and I don't imagine you'll be surprised to know- though we didn't find a Starbucks there, we found quite a few of the Peruvian versions:
And if you're able to zoom in on this- I'm having computer (operator) errors, but I'm sure Firestone would be proud to know that they advertise in Peru simply by covering up a naked ass with the letter "e". Classy:
Okay, so now we get to the good part. Peru for some reason decided it really didn't like Ann, and struck her dead...okay, not quite, but it did render her incapable of joining us for the 4-day trek into Machu Picchu. So we chose to be good friends and abandon her ailing butt in Cuzco (in the very capable hands of mama Carmen, the owner of the hotel who is VERY concerned that you eat enough when you're sick) and left for the hike. Basically, it was the most beautiful, difficult, rewarding, sweat-inducing, breathtaking things I have ever done in my entire life. We were joined by Nick from Scotland, Radu from Tennessee and Neil from Ohio/Amherst currently. We lucked out with these three kickass guys, who made the trip even more fun, and I kind of wanted to take them all home with me. Anyway. We also had an amazing team of porters- 8 porters to help carry our stuff (including all our food for the week, tents, tables, butane tank, etc), a personal chef who blew us away with the quality and variety of food- we got CAKE for breakfast one morning! In the woods! We slept in tents in some of the most amazing locations ever, next to the river and surrounded by the Andes, used disgusting pit toilets (the debate raged over whether pit toilets- basically, holes in the ground you squat over- or a toilet without a seat was preferable), were woken up by a knock on the tent and a cup of steaming coca tea (good for digestion!), and absolutely killed ourselves getting to the top of Dead Woman's Pass on the 2nd day, at approximately 14000 ft. Here we go:
On the final night, there was one last site to visit, and Juan, our tour guide, though grabbing a beer for our final walk down would be helpful:
And dinner for some reason devolved into some sort of silverware challenge with increasingly complex rules thanks to Geoffrey. No, the fork has to be on the bottom! No, all silverware must be used and necessary! Poor Juan even got involved.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. On that hike the third day, through a micro-system rainforest on the mountain, Juan pointed out the Machu Picchu flower, which I almost killed myself trying to get a picture of. Of course, once I finally got the picture, I realized that it looked exactly like a...well, I think you get it.
Geoffrey and I didn't notice this until I was looking at my pictures a full day and a half later, when we were in a hotel room sporting some flower paintings. We noticed that one of the paintings in our rooms also resembled a...well...
But then simultaneously looked to the other side of the room to be faced with this painting (at which we both made equally horrified expressions):
They're coming to get you!
Anyways, sidetracked...so after our final campsite, we were awoken at 4am to make our final hike into Machu Picchu, and it was quite the payoff. When we first arrived, everything was covered in clouds, and as the day went on, we watched the clouds lifting and the sun beaming through, like it was a present being unwrapped. Cheesy, I know, but a place like this makes you feel like a poet.
So that about sums it up...I know this is possibly the longest post ever and it was only a 10-day trip, but we got about a month's worth of experiences out of it. I was definitely sad when it was over. Thanks to everyone who joined the trip, you're the greatest!
Oh, and as promised, here's my weird food for the trip...Huong and I finally bit the bullet and ate a traditional Peruvian meal, the guinea pig. General review- really greasy, hard to find actual meat, really really greasy, gamey? And overall, not that great. But we can say we did it?
And yes, they put a hat on him.
