Week 5, Part 2: Goodbye, Peru.

On our final Saturday in Peru, Senora Marcela made us a final breakfast of chocolate pancakes, bananas, and coffee.  We took pictures with Marcela and Fernando, then caught a taxi to the airport.

Goodbye, Cusco!

Jennie, Senora Marcela, Fernando, and me.

We flew from Cusco to Lima, where we found a late lunch on our own and napped the rest of the afternoon.  Late that night/early that morning, the entire group met in the lobby of our hotel to catch a bus to the airport for our international flight to the states.

Getting ready to leave from the hotel for our international flight to the States.

Sunday, the Fourth of July, we flew all day long.  We ate Chinese food as soon as we hit Miami.  That night, as we flew over the Midwest, we could see the fireworks far beneath the plane.  It was an impressive sight, signaling the grand finale to my adventurous trip to Peru.

Peru was sad to see us go.

Week 5, Part 1: Final Days in Cusco

By the middle of week five, I was ready to go home.  I was tired of taking classes in the summer, and I longed for familiar foods, smells, and faces.

On the morning of our last day in Cusco, Jennie and I woke up feeling sad.  Amazingly, everything I'd accumulated throughout the weeks managed to fit in my bags.  We finished up our final tests in our classes on that day, then we hung around and took pictures with our professors and classmates.

That afternoon, our host brother, Fernando, took us horseback riding through the fields surrounding Sacsayhuaman.  Fernando seemed to think he was a cowboy, as he galloped in circles around us, wearing a 10 gallon hat.  Jennie and I struggled to not fall off our horses!  I was not planning on dying on my last day in Cusco!

About an hour and a half into the rise, we got off our horses and walked (stiffly) to Fernando's favorite place in Peru - a beautiful and hidden cave.  We explored the cave for a while, and then walked back to our horses and rode back to town.  My butt hurt like crazy.

That night we had one last meal in Cusco at Tordos with the entire Rockhurst group and our professors from Wiracocha.  We ate a delicious final meal of salad, fries, and chicken.  That night, we slept in Cusco for the final time.

My conversation classmates with our professor, Erica.

Week 4, Part 2: Rafting with Gilly

On Saturday, June 26, half of the Rockhurst group took a weekend-long side trip to the Amazon, and the other half of us went white water rafting in the Sacred Valley.  I was part of the rafting group - good thing too, because the Amazon group encountered all sorts of creepy creatures (bats, tarantulas, spiders…).  

My water rafting group met up early in the morning to catch a bus to the rafting launch site.  Our group of 10 met our tour guide at the Plaza de Armas, then went to rent water shoes and drive 2 hours to the Southern rapids of the Urubamba river (a Level 1-3 rapid in the non-rainy season).  When we got there, we dressed in wet suits with water-proof jackets, gaudy shorts, life jackets, and helmets, as the crew prepared the rafts.  We had a short lesson about rowing and then we got into three groups.  My group's guide was named Gilbert, so logically we called him Gilly.  We was a little Peruvian man who made a lot of jokes. 

Dressed up in our rafting gear.

The river looks relatively calm at this point.

We rafted for about two hours and met the bus down the river.  We had a late lunch of chicken, rice, guacamole, tomatoes, Coke, and cake.  After a long afternoon full of physical activity, it was quite honestly the best meal I've ever had.  Then we hopped on the bus, all dirty and smelly, and drove the two hours home.

Hanging out with Gilly after we conquered the river.

Week 4, Part 1: Chicha and Fortune Tellers

On Wednesday of the fourth week, my history class took a field trip to a local restaurant to try chicha, a Peruvian beverage made of fermented corn.  Chicha comes in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties, and has a distinct fruit flavor to it.  The chicha we ordered was served in gigantic glasses that cost less than 50 cents.  We made a competition to see who could finish their chicha first.  I don't think anyone actually managed to finish it all.  That night we went to bed early, because we were going to get up early the next day to participate of the biggest Peruvian festival of the season: Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun.

The next morning, we met the group at the Lima Plaza at 7:30 a.m., then walked to Santo Domingo.  Santo Domingo  houses the foundation of an ancient Incan temple that now holds a Catholic church.  In the 1800s, a catastrophic earthquake in Cusco destroyed majority of the Spanish architecture, and only the foundations of the Incans remained standing.

A massive crowd started to form on the plaza in anticipation of the Inti Raymi celebration, which would feature a series of ethnic dances and speeches.  Venders moved about the crowd, selling Cusquenian rosettes and flags, and pamphlets on the history of Inti Raymi.  Once the ceremony started, we had a limited view of what was happening through the crowd, but what we could see was very impressive.  Peruvians danced in colorful native dress and professional actors acted out the beginning of the ancient Incan religious ceremony in honor of the god Inti, one of the main gods in the Incan religion, and celebrating the winter solstice.  For years, the Catholic Church prohibited the practice of Inti Raymi, and it wasn't until recently that Inti Raymi became a tradition again, more as a theatrical spectacle verses a religious experience. 

The Inti Raymi ceremony is comprised of three parts.  Once the first part at Santo Domingo was completed, the crowd stampeded to the Plaza de Armas to witness the second part of the ceremony.  As the Plaza de Armas, we had a clear view of more dancing and ritualistic speeches in Qechua, the native Peruvian language.  The third and final part of the ceremony took place at the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, where the actors acted out the ritualistic slaughtering of a llama (which was entirely acted out with a human playing the llama). 

Friday afternoon, after classes, a small group of us caught a bus to a small town outside of Cusco, famous for its fortune tellers.  There we perused the town, looking for an affordable and "reliable" fortune teller.  We were turned away from one fortune teller who was doing a "demonic cleansing," so we ended up settling for a fortune teller who lived literally lived in a hole in the wall hut.  We went in to see the fortune teller in pairs of two, and paid 15 soles, about 5 dollars, to have our fortunes told.  The fortune teller worked with coca tea leaves to read our fortunes.  The fortune teller wore a knit hat and was missing a tooth.  For each turn, he asked us to place our coins on a pile of coca leaves on the table with our right hand, after breathing on it three times.  Then he folded up the table cloth with the coins and coca leaves, a swayed it around while rocking back and forth and mumbling.  He then asked our name, country, and age, and then he breathed on the cloth three times.  Then he unfolded the cloth and scattered some of the coca leaves, and told us what the leaves meant.  I was told that I will have good health throughout my life, that I will have money problems, lead a relatively short life, and travel a lot.  Interesting…

Waiting for the fortune teller.

 That evening, Jennie and I at a late lunch/early dinner at Cappuccino Café off the Plaza de Armas, where we sat on the balcony and looked over the plaza.  It was a beautiful day outside.  

Week 3, Part 2: Protests and More Incan Ruins

Thursday, June 17, there was a nation-wide protest against the gas crisis in Peru.  According to my understanding, Peru sells the oil that it refines to Mexico, who then sells it back to Peru at a higher price.  The Peruvian citizens boycotted gas that day and protested in the main courtyards of the cities across the nation.  As a result, there were virtually no cars on the streets of Cusco that morning.  It was eerily quiet as we walked to school, since usually the cobblestoned streets with clogged with taxi cabs whose drivers honk and scream with regularity.  Our professors told us that taxi-drivers were forced to abandon their jobs that day, or risk having people throw rocks at their cars. 

That afternoon when Jennie and I came home for lunch, we met a mother and son who were traveling the country and going to stay in a spare room in our house.  Michael and his mother were Americans from California who having one last adventure before Michael was to start school in the fall. 

(From left) Senora Marcela, me, Jennie, Margret, Michael, and Fernando.

After lunch, Jennie and I went to Norm's pub off the Plaza de Armas to watch the France v. Mexico World Cup match, then we went home and studied, talked to the new boarders, and went to bed.

The currency from many different nationalities, posted on the wall at Norm's Pub.

On Friday we went to the Cross Keys after class to watch the U.S. v. Switzerland World Cup match.  That afternoon, after lunch, a small group of us walked through the local markets, including El Molino, the "grey" market of Cusco, according to our host brother, Fernando.  El Molino carries aisle after aisle of pirated movies and CDs, and imitation name brand clothing and shoes.  After El Molino, we caught a taxi to a private Rockhurst salsa class.   Our group of 28 crammed into a teeny, tiny room with hardly any elbow space and proceeded to try to salsa.  I learned quickly that I shouldn't consider a future career in salsa dancing.  Our salsa instructors, Carlos and Paco, put the "bad" salsa dancers in the back of the room.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to catch a tour bus to go to the Sacred Valley.  On our way to the Sacred Valley, we stopped in Pisac, the old agricultural ruins outside of Cusco.  The ancient Incans were highly innovated in the sense that they were able to design ways to farm, despite the fact that they lived in the mountains.  Pisac features layers and layers of flattened terraces that allow for farming and irrigation.  

The agricultural terraces of Pisac.

As we continued on our journey, we stopped at a cliff that overlooked the Sacred Valley of the Incans, after which our group stopped at a local restaurant and had an authentic Peruvian meal of Quinua soup, chicken, and potatoes.  

Jennie, Jamie and I overlooking the Sacred Valley.

fter lunch, we stopped by the ruins of Ollantaytambo, the closest Incan ruins to Machu Picchu.  It was at Ollantaytambo that the Spaniards heard misleading rumors of gold in the opposite direction, so they turned around and failed to discover Machu Picchu for another 400 years.  As the sun began to set, we made one last stop in the small village of Chinchero, where we sat in on a textile demonstration put on by a young Peruvian woman who was educated in English.  Then we hopped back onto our tour bus and went back to Cusco.

The majestic mountains of Ollantaytambo.  the Incans built food storehouses in the mountains to hold winter rations.

Stay Tuned...

We will take a break from the previous planned programming to give an update on the goings-on at Rockhurst.  Spring has sprung and the tulips are blooming.  Classes are becoming mega intense as finals draw closer and closer and graduation looms in the background.

Just last week the Greeks participated in a little friendly competition during Greek Week.  Some of my favorite memories from my time at Rockhurst are related to Greek Week.  Every year, in the spring, Greek Week includes Greek Olympics, a massive campus-wide game of capture the flag, skit night, banner and chalk drawing competitions, a can drive, and fashion show.  The last two years my sorority has won Greek Week, which makes the memories so much sweeter!

This year's theme was "Back to the Future," which everyone carried out through all of the competitions.  The banner design and chalk drawing competition displayed images of Deloreans and Doc Brown with his crazy, white hair.  Skit night had a series of futuristic themes - especially the glow-in-the-dark dance that we choreographed, a la Step Up 3 style!

Courtesy of Taylor Saalfeld (http://web.me.com/tsaalfeld/Taylor_J_Photography/Home.html)

Courtesy of Taylor Saalfeld (http://web.me.com/tsaalfeld/Taylor_J_Photography/Home.html)

Week 3, Part 1: Aguas Calientes and the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art

Aguas Calientes, the popular tourist resting place closest to Machu Picchu, is also home to a series of hot springs, from which the town gets its name.  On the day following our trip to Machu Picchu, we visited the hot springs.  It turns out they were nothing like the rustic, pools of Jaccuzzi-like waters that I imagined.  Instead they were stagnant pools, much like a swimming pool, of lukewarm, murky water.  And they smelled like sulfur.  We had to scrap off the yellowy mildew the pools left behind on our skin in the showers afterward.  It wasn't a terribly rewarding experience, and it paled in comparison to the tourist attraction of actual worth - Machu Picchu.

Throughout the remainder of the trip, a small group of us devised a "Machu Picchu" playlist, which should be listened to if one ever travels to Machu Picchu again.  Here is a sample of the playlist for your listening pleasure:

Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) - Shakira 

Wavin' Flag - Knaan ft. Will.i.am and David Guetta 

Para Pa - Quintino 

Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye 

On the first morning of classes following Machu Picchu, Senora Marcela made chocolate pancakes, melted cheese sandwiches, coffee and juice for breakfast.  It was heaven.  For lunch that day, a group of us met at La Taberna to watch the Brazil v. North Korea World Cup match.  Then we shopped around at the local markets for presents for our families and friends back home.  That night, our host-brother Fernando taught Jennie and me how to play Risk, the board game.  Even though Risk is a well-known board game in the United States, I'd never had the opportunity to play it before. 

Later that week, my Peruvian history class took a field trip to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, which housed an impressive collection of ancient ceramics, and stone- and gold-work.  On our way back to Wiracocha, we stopped by the Plaza de Armas to witness the dancing and celebration for yet another festival.  All of the children were dressed in bright attire and dancing in synchronized dance routines.  Our history professor told us that each of the elementary schools in Cusco have their students dance in the dance competition.  

Week 2, Part 3: Machu Picchu

Early Saturday morning (technically still Friday evening), way before sunrise, our Rockhurst group met on the stairs of the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas to catch our tour bus to Machu Picchu.  Little did I realize at the time how extensive our journey to one of the Seven Wonders of the World was going to be.  The tour bus took us on a four hour drive to a van station, where we waited in line for a van to take us to the train station.  Then we took a half-hour train ride to Aguas Calientes, the closest town to Machu Picchu and a popular tourist resting place.  We checked into a hotel in Aguas Calientes and slept through a good portion of the afternoon.  For many in our group, the hotel offered the first warm shower in a week (many households in Cusco don't have water heaters, which many of us learned of first-hand).  The whole journey to Machu Picchu had taken nearly 12 hours total thus far. 

 The next morning we woke up at 3 a.m. and walked to the Machu Picchu ticket station.  There we waited in line for two hours for a tour bus to take us to the entrance of Machu Picchu.  We also managed to claim tickets to climb Huayna Picchu, the large mountain Machu Picchu rests beneath.  Each day only 400 visitors are allowed to climb Huayna Picchu mountain to preserve the steep mountain trail carved out by the Incans hundreds of years ago. 

It was still before sunrise when we walked through the entrance of Machu Picchu.  We stood on a cliff overlooking the Incan ruins, but we were hardly able to make them out in the darkness.  It was there that we waited for the sun to peek over the mountains and shed sunlight on the ruins.  Once the sun was up, we were given a short tour and then we were set free amongst the ruins. 

Jennie and I wait for the sun to rise.

The sun begins to rise over the mountains.

The Machu Picchu ruins in the early morning sunlight.

The reason why Machu Picchu was built by the Incans is a mystery.  Throughout the years, people have speculated that Machu Picchu was an agricultural village, or a vacation retreat for the Incan emperor, or a sun temple.  Machu Picchu was completely overlooked by the Spaniards in the 1500's, as they were diverted by a false tip on the whereabouts of gold.  So as the rest of the Incan empire was overtaken by the Spaniards, Machu Picchu sat alone for four hundred years, hidden in the jungle-ridden mountains of Peru.  It wasn't until 1911 that American historian, Hiram Bingham, discovered and excavated the ruins.  Bingham had originally been on the search for the mythological city of gold - El Dorado - but instead he found a historical masterpiece and highly intact cultural site. 

Huayna Picchu mountain rests in the background.

After the tour, the first thing most of us did was go to the mountain path entrance at the bottom of Huayna Picchu.  Huayna Picchu, which means "Young Peak," holds several sacred temples, created by the Incans.  The mountain path is very steep, and oftentimes we had to rely on ropes to climb up particularly steep points.  The peak of Huayna Picchu is about 8,000 feet high!  Sometimes the climb seemed impossible, and it was so tempting to give up, but after an hour we made it to the top.  The view was incredible!  I will never be able to forget the feeling of looking down at the Machu Picchu ruins and the valleys below and feeling like I was on top of the world. 

The view of Machu Picchu from the top of Huayna Picchu mountain.

Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley trail in the background.

Looking out over the valleys and rivers from the top of Huayna Picchu.

 Surprisingly, the hike down the mountain was almost more difficult than climbing up.  By that time we were exhausted from all the physical exertion, and hungry and thirsty.  Once we made it down to the bottom of the mountain, we sunbathed on the terraces of Machu Picchu until it was time for our group to take the bus back to Aguas Calientes for the night.  

Week 2, Part 2: Sacsayhuaman and the Cross Keys

Tuesday morning, after struggling through the subjunctive, we spent our break-time sunbathing in the school courtyard.  The weather in Peru was very off and on - in the shadows it could be very, very cold, but in the sunlight it was very, very warm.  Classrooms indoors were freezing, whereas classes that were held outside in the courtyard were almost unbearably warm.  The drastic temperature changes that took place within just one day in Peru was something that took a lot of foresight to prepare for and a lot of getting used to.  While we had to bundle up at night and in the mornings, by mid-afternoon we would have to peel off layers because of the heat.  My arms became very tan from the elbows down because I would roll up my sleeves as the day became warmer.  We were in Peru during South America's "winter" time (remember South America is on the other side of the equator - our summer is their winter, and vice versa).  We were lucky, however, because apparently the summers in Peru are unbearably hot and rainy.

Tuesday afternoon Jennie and I enjoyed a lunch of pumpkin soup and meatloaf, while talking to Fernando, our host brother.  Fernando had been through law school at the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco and was practically fluent in English.  It was easy for Jennie and I to slack on our Spanish-speaking practice because Fernando was so eager to practice his English with us.  We had many opportunities to laugh over the funny ways in which we all pronounced words in our secondary languages, and at one point Fernando told us that we sound like we're from Texas when we speak.  This was a funny observation to us pure-blood Midwesterns, but thought provoking at the same time.

On Wednesday, my conversation class went to the market of San Pedro, about a 30 minute walk away from our school.  San Pedro, for lack for a better description, was like the Peruvian equivalent to Wal-Mart, complete with aisles and aisles of everything imaginable.  The main difference, however, was the real-life butcher counters in the middle of the market.  There you could watch cows, chickens, pigs, and guinea pigs being butchered right before your eyes.  Like in the cathedral, stray dogs ran around everywhere and flies threatened to take over.  Past the butcher counters were aisles of fresh fruits and vegetables, brought in from the farms daily and sold by local vendors.  Our professor pointed out many types of native Peruvian produce and their uses.  Past the produce were many rows of handmade textiles and ceramics. 

That afternoon, following the culture shock we experienced at the San Pedro market, Jennie and I decided to have lunch at a corner American restaurant, Jack's Café.  There I enjoyed a blessedly normal meal of french toast and scrambled eggs, and washed it all down with a chocolate milkshake.  I was taken aback by how much I was beginning to miss American food.

Wednesday afternoon, the Rockhurst group took a field-trip on a bus to Sacsayhuaman (I dare you to try to say that aloud), the ruins of the former grand fortress of the Incan empire.  As Cusco used to be the Incan capital, there are many Incan ruins to explore in the area.  Sacsayhuaman is the location of the beginning of the epic Inti Raymi ceremony, which I will highlight later.  The construction of Sacsayhuaman took approximately 50 years, and the biggest stone within the architecture weights 361 tons, making it one of the most extraordinary megalithic structures of the "new world."

As the sun began to set, we visited Tambomachay, known as the Baths of the Incans, and said to flow from the fountain of youth. 

That night, I slept like a baby.

On Thursday afternoon, following classes, our Rockhurst group taxied to a local elementary school to play soccer and volleyball.  A small group of us went to the Cross Keys, a local British pub (complete with a red phone booth), that evening to study.  There we ordered coffee, chicken curry, and ham and cheese ciabatta rolls with papas fritas (french fries). 

As I fell asleep that night, outside my window I could hear the music and noise on the street for the festival of Corpus Christi.

Week 2, Part 1: Wiracocha Spanish School

On Monday, June 7, Jennie and I woke up bright and early for our first day of classes at the Wiracocha Spanish School.  Senora Marcela prepared fresh juice, café, and cheese sandwiches (with a strange type of white cheese we dubbed "squeaky cheese" because it squeaks when you chew).  After breakfast, we met two of our classmates on the corner of our street and walked down a cobblestoned hill to our school (less than a 5 minute walk away).  We learned very quickly from our fellow Rockhurst travelers that Jennie and I were fortunate to live so closely to the school.  Some students had to take a 20 minute commute by taxi each morning.

Jennie checks out the view from our bedroom window.

Cuesta San Blas: The street we walked to get to school.

My first class of the day was a conversation class with la profesora Erica, where we learned the expectations for the four weeks of class.  Throughout the weeks, that conversation class helped better my Spanish more than I had expected.  Erica did a fantastic job of engaging my small class in conversation, and I felt more free to speak in Spanish than I had ever before.  Erica also made the class interesting by creating discussion over controversial topics, such as gay marriage, capital punishment and euthanasia.  We took field trips to local markets and learned to speak with the locals.  Erica also helped us with our grammar, which served as a very useful refresher.

My Spanish conversation class with Erica, our professor, in the middle.

Abby and I explore the spiral staircase at school.

My second class each day was la historia del Peru with la professora Kendy.  The Peruvian history class turned out to be a lot more complicated than I would have thought.  We plowed our way through information on how the Peruvian natives may have crossed the Bering Strait from Asia, down through North and Central America, and finally settled on the northern west coast of South America.  The history class then delved into the various festivals and feast days of the Peruvian people .  Believe me - there are a lot of festivals in Peru!  There seemed to be celebratory fireworks and music coming through my window every night.  We studied the culture of the indigenous people: their legendary creation story, climates, trades, architecture, agriculture, textiles, and caste system.  The tale of ancient Peruvian history ends with the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors in 1532, who were in search of gold.  

Each day, after the two classes, Jennie and I went home to eat lunch, which usually consisted of soup and vegetables.  Sometimes we would notify Senora Marcela in advance and have lunch at a local pub or café.  There was also a deli two doors down from our school that sold delicious ham sandwiches and pastries.  Oftentimes we would spoil our lunch by stopping by the deli to pick up a giant, chocolate-covered croissant. 

Jennie and I also became accustomed to the everyday functions of life in Cusco.  We had easy access to the laundry mat (called a "lavandaria") across the street, which charged three soles per kilo (about one dollar), and we utilized the internet café down the street.  Internet cafés are typically where the Peruvian youth hang out after school, but if you could often catch a computer before the schools got out for the day.  The internet cafés usually had webcams, so we were able to Skype with our friends and family at home in the United States. 

On the afternoon following classes on our first day of school, we all returned to Wiracocha for a impromptu music lesson.  During the lesson, we learned how to play the pan-pipes, or "zamponas", to the tune of "Hey Jude." 

Practicing on our zamponas.

 That night we had a meal of carrot and cheese tortillas, but after dinner we met up with our friends to go to the McDonalds on the Plaza de Armas to study.  Many people may scoff at travelers going to McDonalds in a foreign country, but it was interesting to see the differences between the McDonalds in Peru and the McDonalds that is so familiar to us at home.  The menu was limited, and the food tasted a little off, but other than that, it was pretty much the same.  Good ol' American capitalism!