On the Inca Trail ... well, just a little bit!

Halfway through our stay in Cuzco the six of us (Debby, Mike, Helen, Meghan, Abuela Vonnie & me) stuffed our backbacks and traveled by taxi to Pisac where wandered the Inca ruins there and "warmed up" with a long hike down to dinner and rest in the little town. Next day we used local buses to travel the Sacred Valley through Calca & Urubamba to Ollantatambo, our jumping off place for Macchu Pichu the next day. Our guides would be the expert trekkers Meghan & Helen who had experienced the Lost City of the Incas back in August. Mike and Debby would hike on their own out of Ollantatambo.

Bright and early we caught the 6:30am departure on Inca Rail and traveled in comfort to Agua Calientes where we almost aborted the mission when we bacame totally lost in the craft market that serves as a very effective maze for travelers unware. Finally locating the tourist buses that run constantly from the town to the site we settled in to navigate a series of switchbacks from the river up to Macchu Pichu. Mysteriously, upon debarking the bus, our English speaking guide Felix appeared and latched on to us for a two hour guided walk. He was very helpful, but the girls had more indepth informaton ... especially about the royal "loo!"

"Impressive" doesn't even capture the place - the stonework and the terraces are magnificent in their own right, but the setting - on sheer cliffs is what sets the place apart. Wandering the ruins of the city wasn't enough, however, for our young guides and their grandmother. We neede to ascend up the Inca Trail about a mile (it sure seemed like a mile!), to the Sun Gate - that notch in the ridgeline about a mile up the inclining trail (did I mention the mile? and that we were at 8,800 ft?!) where the rising sun and approching hikers first see the city below. My aching legs and gasping lungs were suddenly dismissed as a gaggle of European students marched right past for the view relegating me to a nice hard stone bench!

An autumn rain shower on the way down soaked all of us good, but a great dinner in Agua Calientes before boarding the train for the return to Ollantatambo and our beds at the Casa de WOW! was the icing on the cake (or mountain!).

An unforgetable day touring with the best guides in Peru!!

Pisac

Today after school we went to Pisac. We took a long bus ride with our grandparents. When we got there and into our hotel we wondered what to do next. Finally we went wandering around in the market and then we went to see our friends the Hasties. They were staying in Pisac for a while. We played and talked at their hostel for a while. They wanted to go to dinner at a restaurant that they liked so we said that we would set our stuff down in the hotel and then come back. When we got back to the Pisac Inn my grandparent's stomachs didn't feel good so they stayed at the hotel while we went to eat with the Cathy, Matt, Katie & Georgia. The restaurant was good but the food made Meghan's stomach hurt so she went back to the hotel with Dad while the rest of us went to get dessert. Once I finished my dessert (ice cream) Mom and I walked back. We had bought Meghan and Dad apple pie. When we got back, I got into my pj's and went to bed. The next morning we ate breakfast and went out. We took two taxis up to the ruins and started wandering around the ruins. My favorite part was when we went into a cave. At the end we went to see how the Incas made water come out of the rocks. At the very end we saw a huge waterfall! There was a lady selling bracelets in front of the waterfall. Grandma bought a bracelet. The woman's name was Ana. We went down the path and back into town. On the way to Ollantaytambo I thought about the trip that we had and how much fun Pisac was.

Exploring Cusco

As we flew from Lima to Cusco the terrain changed drastically from an arid smoggy city to lush green mountain vistas encircling the city of adobe tile roofs. Mike met us at the airport and off we went in one of the thousands of small city cabs which run 6 or 7 abreast on a 4 lane highway zigging and zagging to miss the potholes. I held on for dear life! But no need to worry because the drivers don't want their cars dinged. Three or four Nuevo Sol (about $1.50) will take you anywhere in the city.

Mike, Debby Meghan and Helen live in a very nice third floor apartment. Climbing the stairs was my first indication of the 11,000 foot elevation in Cusco. It REALLY takes your breath away!! We had our first of many glasses of water and coca tea to acclimatize to the altitude.

Cusco, like all South American cities, is a city of plazas. Plaza de Armas is the center of the city. It is surrounded by The Cathedral (which was built atop the foundation of an Inca palace), Iglesia de La Campania, arcades and a beautiful fountain in the center. We visited the plaza several times and always stopped to buy warm tamales from a woman whose family has sold them in the same spot for over 50 years. Meghan and Helen enjoyed feeding the pigeons - buying food from the "little ole bird woman".

Since we were tourists and looked like tourists with our cameras, sun glasses, hats and backpacks we were approached by the many vendors on the street seeling everything from giant corn on the cob with cheese (a great carbo snack), "local" artist's paintings, bead work, t-shirts, hats, decorated gourds, pan pipe CDs, etc., etc. "No, gracias... no, gracias ...well, maybe that one or this one..." I also encountered "The Green Man" - for one sol the advice I received was, "Each failure makes one smarter." True, True, True!!

I loved walking the city streets of cobblestones, steep stairways, ancient Inca walls, VWBeetles, hustle & bustle of everyday life. I love being with the beautiful people of this engaging city in Peru.

¡Por Fín!

School was okay Monday morning but all I wanted to do was get home. Monday is one of our after school days and I take volleyball while Helen is doing Karate. I had a lot of fun. My partner was Lucia (from the other sixth grade class) and it was her first time playing also so we were about on the same level. We took the bus home but on after school days it isn't always so crowded. Usually the girl that rides with us (Blanca) trys to fit 24 children into what most people would call a 15 people bus. Its a tight squeeze! We finally got home and sneaked up the stairs as to give everyone a suprise. We usually sound like (what mom calls) a herd of elephants but we made it up 8 flights of stairs without making a sound. We rang the doorbell and waited until the door opened. Mom had opened the door but instead of giving her our usual hugs we ran inside. Grandma and Grandpa were at the table talking when we came in. After all the love you can get from not seeing eachother for 5 months we just sat down and talked. We talked about school and shared every little detail. Then Helen and I went to change out of our uniforms while they talked with mom and dad about news. We ate soup for dinner and played apples to apples (one of my favorite games in the world) until it was time to go to bed. Its so nice that they're back!

Amazing School, Amazing Friends

School is awesome! I have two great teachers and lots of friends. Miss Karina teaches the spanish half of the day and Wilson teaches english. He will not speak a word of spanish to us and everyone trys to get him to say one word. He goes up to the front of the class, moves his hands like he is presenting someone and says "Wilson". He is really funny. In social studies with miss Karina we are working on ancient civilizations and María José is my partner for the Aztecs.
María José was an immediate friend because she is the other new girl in our class. She is a little shy but very smart. My other friends are, Catalina (likes the bathroom), Ana Lucia G. (crazy and loves pizza), Alessandra (just awesome), Gabo (he is really easy to talk to and on my bus!) and many more.
Math class is very fun but there are some things that will take time getting used to. English class is boring but I am proud to say that I have acheived all A's. HAHAHA!!! My spanish is getting close but the accents are bugging me a lot. I think I'm just going to have to memorize them because as far as I can tell there isn't a pattern anywhere! We got our new uniforms this week and although they are a little big its nice to fit in. We have a nice library with a good amount of english books for us to check out. I also have to read a spanish book by the 28th but luckily it only has 101 pages and I skipped the introduction.
Every Monday the principle comes out to the basketball coutt and sings the national anthem with everybody. Its kind of embarassing to be standing there and not knowing a thing!
All in all it is a really nice school and I can't wait to go next monday!!!

Carnival

Today was a festival called Carnival. Carnival is a festival where people have water balloons and cans that look like silly string cans except silly string didn't shoot out, foam did. Everywhere we went we were shot by foam or splashed by water balloons. Finally we came to the Plaza de Armas and found out that there was a festival going on. The festival was like the one in Santiago, with parade floats and the people around them were spraying at them frantically. So the people on the float were completely covered in foam but they were still smiling. We found out that the restaurant we were looking for was closed so we went to a different restaurant and sat on the balcony so we could see the parade while we ate. When the parade finished we watched the people spraying each other with foam, and some people had huge buckets of water andwere splashing water at people. When we were finished with our lunch we walked out of the restaurant and avoided being splashed and walked around. When we ended up in the Plaza Regocijo we found out that there were booths that were selling food and drinks. We should have ate here! I exclaimed.
Meghan and I got an ice cream from a lady who was walking around. She only had two flavours but that was OK. We finished our ice cream and started wandering around because we had nowhere to go and ended up on a street where lots of people (and kids) were squirting each other and there was a lady who was selling cans of the foam. "Ohhh dad can we get a can, please"! Finally he gave us money to buy two cans for both of us. When I got my can I hurried behind a boy my age (he also had a can) and squirted him on the back, and as he spun around I ran off before he could get me. When I caught up with dad,I asked "Can we go to the Plaza de Armas because there's alot more people". Then of course I regreted my words. When we got to the plaza there was alot of kids spraying each other. I walked up to a boy and sprayed him on the neck. He spun around and sprayed me on my shirt I was about to run off when I was surounded. Ten mean looking boys were circuling around me looking like they were having the best time in there life. The guy in the front looked like the leader. He had two cans and a mean face. He waited one second, two seconds, three seconds and then he shouted "va!". Everybody around me started shooting me wherever they could. I got a ton in my face and it was really hard to see, but I got a couple lucky shots in their faces too. We kept on shooting until I could not see any more, then I saw a blury outline of Meghan and went stumbling toward her. "Will you wipe my eyes", I asked. She did so and I went back to the boys. I shot more until my can was empty.
Meghan and I walked toward Mom and Dad, we felt a couple more shots in our backs but we finally reached them. My eyes were red and I could not see well. Mom wiped Meghan and I off as best as she could and then we took a taxi home for showers.

Gooooaaaaalllllllll!!!!!!

Helen and I made it to our first Latin American Footbal game today. Meghan wasn't feeling up to par so she and Debby stayed back for this one, there will be more to come as we live 2 blocks from the Garcilaso stadium here, home of the Cusco Ciencianos. It is not hard to miss game day, the streets are packed, car traffic is re-routed and people stream toward the stadium. Tickets are not sold in a box office but rather by individuals on the street that get to set their own price, they aren't scalping it's just the free market practices here. We got our tickets from a nice lady at the top of our street, who charged us 50 centimos over face value. There were several choices and I went with the cheap option (because that's what I do) in the Popular Norte section. As we got up to the stadim, and the crowds thickened I realized that we had to enter the coresponding gate to our section. Rounding the bend to the north entrance and seeing the line, I wanted to go back to the nice lady and exchange our cheap tixs for something in another section, whatever the price. This was definitely the popular section. Double checking that the color of tickets in everyone's hand matched ours, we walked and walked and walked to the end of the line and waited.

We probably stood in the same place for a good 20 minutes with no movement when the line disapeared with a lot of yells, and everyone started running up the street toward our entrance. Helen and I didn't run but we did walk fast until the line reformed, but this line was all about business and it was only 2 people wide, with alot of pushing and shoving to determine placement. I took the middle of the line and held Helen's hand who stood outside of the line as to not be squashed. I never could figure out where the first, broad, casual line went to and although we we were 100 yards closer to the entrance, I was not happy for the change. This new line did however begin to move but we were always pinned between those in front and those in back. People would ask to cross our line since it was so long, but there were no gaps and I always had someones chest pressing against my back as I was pressed agains the person in front of me. As we got closer to the ticket checkpoint the crowd around us thickened and I could see the purpose of this determined line to stay intact. We were passing through a crowd just outside the entrance and these folks in line new that any break in the line could offer a new line an opening. Maybe the folks in our last line were somewhere in this crowd.... it was crazy!

After about 10 minutes of that we finally made it into the stadium as the game was just starting. There are four quadrants and we were in Popular Norte. All tickets are general admission and the only seating restrictions are that you don't climb the 20 foot fences seperating the quadrants to better your view. There are no seats but concrete risers with no delineations what so ever, and by the time we got in our section (by far the most crowded of the 4) was about 75% full. We made it around to an open area with an OK view at the top of a landing. There was a constrant stream of folks passing by to the remaining "seats" to our left but we did get to see the Ciensianos score the first against the visting Sport Boys through the gaps. The roar in the stadium was impressive and after hearing many a "Goooooaaaaaallllll" from a TV or radio, it was fun to be there in person.

The stream of people never stopped however until every available space around us and in front of us was taken. People sat on the stairs, on the landings, in the walkways and soon Helen and I couldn't see the field. Crowd watching held our attention for a little while and Helen played a bit with a baby boy next to us, but soon after the lolipops that we had purchased in line were gone we were ready go go. At the end of the first half we offered our seats to the folks sitting at our feet and headed out.

Next game, I think I will pay the extra 2 soles for the better seats, or even sit in the visitor section, it looked quite empty.