TravelStream™ news feed for member laura.tagatac on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/laura.tagatac en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:59:34 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1220917860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1220917860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1220917860/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:59:34 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Cusco, Peru

On Monday morning, Nick and I caught a plane to Cuzco, which only took a little over an hour. We were thinking about taking a bus to save some money, but since the bus route has to go over the Andes, the ride takes about 24 hours. So we decided to spend a little extra and save on time instead. The flight had some beautiful views of the Andes. It was sunny and blue skies when we arrived in Cuzco, a nice change of pace from Lima.

When we arrived I called Nicolas, our next CouchSurfing friend, and arranged to meet up. A taxi took us to where we would be staying, which was only about 5 or 6 blocks south of the main plaza. Nick and I were a little confused about the whole situation because it didn't seem as if Nicolas actually lived there. It was a fairly large house with several rooms, but a couple of them were occupied by other CouchSurfers and there were also some random Peruvians around - maybe some of Nicolas's family? It seemed as if Nicolas was essentially running a free hostel. He never really explained and we never got the chance to ask because he was always at work. But it was a free bed, and I wasn't about to complain so Nick and I dropped our things and went to explore the city.

We easily got winded walking around since Cuzco is at altitude (3,326 meters / 10,912 feet / 2.07 miles above sea level), but there was no noticeable altitude sickness for either of us on the first day. However, we still stopped in a cafe for some coca tea, just in case, because it's supposed to help with altitude sickness. Afterwards we walked around the main plaza and gave ourselves a tour of the cathedral. For lunch we both tried alpaca, a llama relative. I had mine in a typical Peru-style stir-fry dish called lomo saltado, which is typically made with beef, and Nick had his breaded and sauteed. They were both tasty, kind of like beef, but chewier.

After lunch we wandered around a bit more and saw the museum at Qorikancha, a ruins site within Cuzco, but the ruins themselves were already closed for the day. We later got dinner and wrote some postcards before settling in for the night.

On Tuesday, we had breakfast in Cuzco before catching the bus to Pisac, a little town just north of Cuzco. There are some extensive Incan ruins there as well as a big market on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The market took over the central square and spilled off into most of the side streets. I worked on my bargaining skills in Spanish and bought some souvenirs. We also wandered through a courtyard with a restaurant that had a pen of guinea pigs right next to a stove. In Peru, guinea pig, or cuy, is a delicacy - yum! Nick and I got lunch (at a different restuarant - not cuy) before catching a cab to take us up to the ruins on top of the mountain outside of Pisac. The ruins were a lot more extensive than we expected, and we spent a couple of hours trekking through them. The ruins were breathtaking - both because of the beautiful views and the altitude. It was dusk by the time we made it back to our taxi driver waiting for us, and we caught a bus back to Cuzco from Pisac.

Nick and I ate a quick dinner, and got psyched up for our trek that would start the next day. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well after dinner and had trouble sleeping that night. I realized the next day that my altitude sickness was kicking in, a couple days late and just in time to interfere with the hike :-(
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1224432000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1224432000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1224432000/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:37:19 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Lima, Peru

The bus ride from Arequipa to Lima was pretty uneventful. I watched a lot of movies dubbed in Spanish and saw some nice views of the beach as we drove up the coast. We arrived in Lima a little after noon and putzed around the city for a bit since our flight wasn't until that evening. We tried to meet up with Ludo and Julissa again, but that didn't work out. So instead we wandered around and ended up camping out in a restaurant for a long lunch since we didn't feel like lugging our suitcases around the whole city.

We ate at this place called Norky's, which is pretty popular for it's roasted chicken. Nick and I didn't know what we wanted and also didn't know what a lot of stuff on the menu was so we just took the waiter's suggestion and got one of the combo platters to share. When he brought out the food, we were a bit overwhelmed by the huge platter of meat, not to mention the ridiculous portion of fries and salad. Although we weren't sure what all of the meats were, we decided to try everything and ask questions later. All in all we had 9 different styles/kinds of meats - a quarter of a roasted chicken, a boneless chicken breast, a pork chop, steak, intestine, cow heart, chorizo, gizzard, and tripe. It was way too much food. I wouldn't say that any of it tasted gross, but some of the textures were odd. And intestines are very difficult to chew.

After lunch, we headed to the airport early since we didn't have anything else to do. I changed clothes and washed my face in the airport bathroom. While we were waiting to check in, we saw the Argentinian couple again that we had met in our hostel in Arequipa. We passed the time in the airport by playing cards and browsing through duty free shops. Both of our flights to Ft. Lauderdale and La Guardia went smoothly and we actually arrived a little bit ahead of schedule.

Overall, it was an amazing trip, and I'm so glad I let Nick talk me into it. I would love to go back again someday to see more of the country. It'd be nice to see some of the northern regions and maybe day trip through the Amazon or one of the national parks.

Some random notes on Peru:

In general, I found that people were very nice, friendly, and helpful, but there were also many people that were eager to take advantage of tourists. It was sad how young some of the kids started working to make money off of the tourists - selling candy or postcards, dressing up in traditional clothing for photo opportunities, etc. Also, the words Inca and Machu Picchu are like buzzwords or icons that are used in all sorts of marketing and advertising. I even saw a billboard advertising feminine sanitary pads that had a picture of Machu Picchu in the background... not sure what the connection is there.

Overall, I really liked the food. The traditional food on the hike got a little dull after awhile, but I loved the seafood in Lima and trying all sorts of new stuff wherever we went.

A lot of places don't have hot water heaters so they use electric water heads. It looks like a fat shower head, and it works kind of like a hair dryer with water running through it. Most bathrooms had signs asking you to discard the toilet paper in the trash can because the plumbing can't handle it. I also used various holes in the ground along the hike because toilets were unavailable at most campsites.

Nick was a great travel buddy. We got along really well - he fended off all the sketchy guys since most people assumed we were dating, and I spoke Spanish for the two of us so it was a nice give and take. I got to use my Spanish a lot more than I expected. Peruvian Spanish was pretty easy to understand, aside from some local expressions, and I didn't have any problems with their accent.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1220666400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1220666400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1220666400/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:29:59 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Lima, Peru

After leaving La Guardia Airport in the afternoon and a quick layover in Ft. Lauderdale, Nick and I arrived in Lima, Peru around 10:00pm. Thanks to our CouchSurfing friends, there was a car service waiting for us so we didn't have to worry about haggling with cab drivers. There isn't much taxi regulation in Peru, and there are no meters so you have to establish the fare with the drivers before getting in. Of course nationals or even other native Spanish speakers get a much better rate than Gringos. But anyway, we got to skip over that for the evening. The driver took us straight to their apartment in the neighborhood of Miraflores, which is right on the coast. It's also a fairly safe and clean part of the city since a majority of it is hotels, hostels, and restaurants catering to tourists.

We stayed with Ricardo (aka Richi), who I met through CouchSurfing, and his boyfriend Gregg. Richi has a degree in hospitality and is now working on a second in marketing, and Gregg works for a restaurant nearby, mainly focusing on importing wine for them. He is also working on opening up a wine bar, which is separate from the restaurant but under the same head company. Staying with them was definitely a great way to start our trip. They were so welcoming and helpful, full of suggestions for things to do and places to eat. It was also convenient because they both speak English. Gregg is originally from the U.S., and he met Richi while they were both working in Atlanta.

It was technically the end of winter when we arrived since Peru is south of the equator. Lima was pretty warm during the day, in the low 60's probably, but it got rather cold at night. It was also hazy and overcast the whole time, but apparently that's typical for winter. Also, a random sidenote, if you ask anyone from Lima about the weather, they blame it on the Andes mountains.

The morning after we arrived, Nick and I started off by walking around Miraflores. We wandered toward the center of the neighborhood where there is a small park and several artists selling their work. We also visited the Mercado de los Indios (or Indian Market) which was about the size of a city block, and filled with artisans selling local handicrafts. From there, we caught a cab (after much haggling) to the center of Lima. We walked around the main plaza which features the city's cathedral, the archbishop's palace, and the president's palace. None of these buildings were actually the originals though, which isn't uncommon in Peru. It seems there's a major earthquake about every century somewhere in the country so many of the places we visited had been reconstructed at some point. We had eaten a late breakfast so I wasn't very hungry for lunch, but we stopped at a little cart off the main plaza. I was curious about their street meat because I had read somewhere that it's very popular among locals. I ordered a shish kebab and asked what it was, but all the guy said was shish kebab so I smiled and nodded and ate it anyway. It was delicious, and I found out later that it was actually beef heart - only the first food experiment of many.

From there we went to the Monasterio de San Francisco - a Franciscan monastery and church. The tour guide had a very thick accent and it probably would've been easier to understand her in Spanish, but it was still cool to see the monastery, especially the catacombs beneath it. There were some 70,000 burials there, only for the privileged people of European descent of course. We saw a lot of bones, mostly humeri and femurs and skulls since most of the smaller bones didn't survive the many years and the earthquakes.

After the monastery, we walked down the Jiron de la Union, a pedestrian walkway between the two main plazas. It was packed with people shopping, heading to restaurants, or just going for a walk on a Saturday afternoon. Of course, we kept an eye out for pickpockets, but didn't have any problems. At the end of the street is the Plaza de San Martin where we took a short break at the Gran Hotel Bolivar and got a pisco sour, Peru's national drink made with their very own grape brandy.

Our next stop was the Parque de la Reserva. Richi and Gregg had mentioned some impressive fountain there so even though my Lonely Planet guidebook didn't mention it, we decided to stop by on our way back to their apartment. It was after dark by this time, which they recommended since the fountain is lit at night. As it turned out, it wasn't just one fountain, but about 15 of them. There were a few simple ones, a water tunnel, others that came out of the ground that kids were running through, and a couple that were tuned to music so that the streaming water changed directions/colors/etc depending on the song. It was pretty, and of course I took an absurd amount of pictures that didn't do it justice.

That was the last stop on our tourist agenda so we met up with Richi and Gregg for dinner. They took us to an amazing Italian-Peruvian restaurant. I had gnocchi with a sauce made from aji amarillo, a mild yellow chili pepper. After dinner we went to Bar Huaringas, which was recommended by my Peruvian friend from school and also happened to be one of Richi's favorites. We met up with a couple of Richi's friends and later went to Etérea, a club in the neighborhood of San Borja. We danced through the night and went to bed just before sunrise.

Obviously our Sunday didn't start very early. We slept in, and since there were no other tourist attractions that we were dying to see, we joined Richi and Gregg for a leisurely lunch at Pescados Capitales, a great seafood restaurant. For an appetizer we had flounder ceviche. Ceviche is a typical dish that involves some type of seafood marinated in lime juice, onions, and chili peppers. Most people think it's raw, but the fish is actually "cooked" by the lime juice through a process of oxidation. That was more technical than necessary - all you need to know is that it's yummy and you should try it if you get the chance. Nick and I also shared 2 main courses - swordfish, and a shrimp linguini dish. I loved everything!

By the time we left lunch, it was about 5 in the afternoon. We went to the neighboring district of Barranco, a quaint, hippy area, and walked around a bit, browsing through more artisan stands. Afterwards, we stopped at Larco Mar, an ocean lookout and outdoor shopping mall in Miraflores. The view of Lima's coastline was beautiful, but apparently it doesn't get much use even in warmer weather because the beach and water are too dirty within the city. With that, we wrapped up our day and headed back to Richi's to watch a movie.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221746400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221746400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221746400/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:04:51 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Arequipa, Peru

Our hostel in Arequipa was very nice and conveniently located near the center of the city. We ate breakfast at the hostel before heading out, but there was a shortage of tables so we sat with a nice Argentinian couple that was doing a similar route through Peru.

After checking out and storing our luggage, we went across the street to the Museo Santury, the museum that houses Juanita, the ice princess. Juanita is an Incan girl that was discovered on top of one of the mountains near Arequipa after being buried in ice and snow for about 500 years. It is thought that she was a child sacrifice to the mountain gods. We were shown a video before our museum tour that described how she was discovered, why and how she got there, and also mentioned some other mummies and frozen corpses that were discovered in that area. I was shocked at how well preserved she was. Many of the things she was buried with, like ceremonial clothes and vases, were also in really good condition. The museum was very cool, but also a bit creepy/eerie.

Next we visited the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a beautiful colonial-style convent, which is guarded by high walls and takes up a whole city block. Walking through the gates was like stepping back into Spain. The architecture and decorations were so similar to what I had seen in many places during my semester abroad, and most of the walkways were named after Spanish cities. Apparently back in the day, the convent was home to the richest nuns in the country that came from upper-class Spanish families that had to pay a huge dowry for their daughters to be sent there. Their living quarters were pretty spacious, and each nun had between one and four servants/slaves. The tour through the convent was the first time we had any interactions with other American tourists - I was surprised we hadn't run into any others earlier. After the tour, Nick and I ate lunch in the convent's cafe - delicious sandwiches and desserts.

We headed to Yanahuara after lunch, an outer neighborhood in Arequipa, in order to see El Misti from the lookout there. El Misti is a volcano outside of the city that gives Arequipa it's nickname "The White City". Most of the buildings in the city were built with sillar, an off-white volcanic rock, that's beautiful and sometimes blinding in the sunlight. We walked back to the center of the city, shopping along the way and stopping for a break in the main plaza.

We spent the rest of our afternoon at a local market that Nick read about in his guide. I was expecting more handicrafts and souvenirs, but it was definitely not targeting tourists. There were all sorts of produce, cheese, meats, fish, textiles, etc. I bought a bag of yummy olives to munch on while we walked around and checked out all the random stuff. When the market was starting to close up, we headed back towards the main plaza for dinner.

We picked a restaurant that Nick's guide book recommended and ran into some Belgian friends that were eating next door. While we were trekking, there was a group of Belgians doing the same itinerary but with a different tour guide so we passed them several times on the trek. We saw them again on Lake Titicaca - they were also watching the sunset from the peak of Amantani Island. And now again in Arequipa - surprise!

After dinner we picked up our luggage from the hostel and went to catch our overnight bus to Lima - this time we shelved out a little more money for a much more respectable company. Meals were included, and the seats were very comfortable. I slept a lot better than I thought I would, which was a relief since the ride from Arequipa to Lima is 14 hours.

Out of all the cities we visited, I think Arequipa may have been my favorite, although Cuzco was a close second. It was very beautiful and much cleaner than Lima and Puno. I wish we had more time to visit it though since we only saw a small portion of the city. Also, just outside of the city is the Colca Canyon, which is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but we didn't have time to check that out either.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1224079200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1224079200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1224079200/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:05:58 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Cusco, Peru

After waking up back in Cuzco, Nick and I went to meet up with 4 other people from the hiking group that were still around. We had breakfast at a European/American style cafe, and I had the most delicious pancakes ever with fresh fruit and mango cream on top, yummy! After breakfast, Nick and I checked out of our hostel and left our luggage in storage. We also booked our bus tickets to Puno for that night. We would be traveling with Ludovic (the French guy) and his girlfriend Julissa (from Lima) that were also on the hike with us because they were continuing on to Puno as well.

We took a cab up to Saqsayhuaman (commonly referred to as "sexy woman" by tourists), a ruins site just outside of the city. Cuzco and the surrounding area is referred to as the Sacred Valley. One of the Incan rulers once envisioned this territory in the shape of a puma (when viewed from above) with Saqsayhuaman as the head. There were 22 zigzagged walls at the site that were meant to represent the puma's teeth. The ruins were cool, but the weather was not. It rained/sleeted on us a bit, and we had to take shelter under one of the big rock overhangs.

From the ruins, we walked back downhill to Cuzco and did some shopping along the way before taking refuge from the rain in a cafe. We met up again with some of the fellow hikers for dinner and ended up at a tasty Thai restaurant. We parted ways afterwards with Mark (Canadian) and Eddie (British) who would be continuing on to Bolivia. Nick, Ludo, Julissa, and I picked up our luggage before going to the bus station to head to Puno.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221555600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221555600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221555600/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:05:33 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Puno, Peru

We took a sleeper bus from Cuzco to Puno, but the bus arrived ahead of schedule, putting us in Puno at around 4am with very little sleep. We tried to sleep more in the bus station, but it was too cold and too uncomfortable so we gave up and went to the cafe in the station for breakfast and a couple games of cards.

Through a friend of hers, Julissa had arranged for us to take a boat tour of Lake Titicaca and stay overnight at a homestay on one of the islands. This tour was like the exact opposite of the group that we had just been hiking with. It was more of a middle-aged crowd, the tour guide was rather obnoxious and a bit sleezy, and everything was much more touristy and pre-packaged. As Ludo described it - it's a bunch of people who think they're going on some crazy adventure, but they're not. It was just odd to see people in hiking boots with their backpacks to go on a boat ride, especially after the trek that we had just done. In retrospect, I think I would've done our trip the other way around. I probably would've appreciated Puno and Lake Titicaca more if it had come before Machu Picchu since that was really the highlight of the trip.

We were picked up by a bus and brought to the docks where we boarded a boat and met our tour guide Meneleo, or just Leo. The boat's first stop was the Uros Islands, or Floating Islands, about a half hour into the lake. The islands are made completely of the totora reeds that grow in that part of the lake. Leo showed us how they use the reeds to make everything from food to twine to boats and houses. It was interesting to see, but very strange at the same time since it's so touristy. For the people living on the islands, tourism is practically their only source of income so it's very over-commercialized.

From Uros, the boat took us to Amantaní, a real island further out on the lake. It is fairly small, and there are no cars. It took us about 3 hours to get there, and I slept the whole way to try and make up for the night before. When we arrived, the tour group was divided up and everyone was sent with a local family to stay the night. Nick, Ludo, Julissa, and I all stayed with the same host family, which consisted of a mother, father, and 2 daughters (ages 2 and 11 I think). They also have an older son, but he was away at school. There were two rooms for us, and we each had our own bed. We got settled in before eating lunch that our host mom cooked for us. It was a vegetarian meal, which is typical on the island - they only cook meat for special occasions.

After lunch we met up with the group again at the main plaza and hiked up to the highest point on the island, stopping occasionally to hear about Amantaní and the history of the lake. The views were beautiful from the top, and we were just in time to see the sunset. We went back to our homestay for dinner, and after eating, our host parents dressed us up in traditional garb, and we went to meet the rest of the group for a little fiesta. There was a lot of dancing and traditional music. It was all to make us feel as if we got a special insight into the typical life on the island, but I'm sure they do this for every tour group. Like I said, it was all very pre-packaged and commercial, but it was an interesting experience and I'm glad we got to stay on the lake.

The next day we had breakfast with our host family before heading to the dock. We took the boat to Taquile, another island near Amantaní. We walked around the main plaza, saw some more pretty views of the lake, and browsed through some handicrafts at the local artisans cooperative. For lunch we ate some grilled trout from the lake and then went back to Puno.

We walked around Puno for a bit and ate dinner at a restaurant just off the main square. Nick and I ordered guinea pig or "cuy", which is a delicacy in Peru. Throughough the trip we even saw a few paintings of the Last Supper that had guinea pig as the main course. It was tasty, but very bony and a lot of work to eat. After dinner we parted ways with Julissa and Ludo since they were heading straight back to Lima, and Nick and I were catching a bus to Arequipa.

The bus we took to Arequipa was quite a ride. First off, our driver was both shady and crazy. In addition to the scheduled stops at stations, he also picked up randoms along the road, probably to pocket their money for himself. He also drove like a madman and actually hit a mototaxi. At one point, we had to go through customs - I'm not sure why they had a customs office in the middle of the country. The customs officials came on board, and confiscated the luggage of the woman sitting across the aisle from us. She went into the office with them, but came back on the bus with much less baggage. Despite all of the sketchiness, we arrived in Arequipa in one piece - an hour late, but still in one piece.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221382800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221382800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221382800/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:16:04 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, Peru

The last day of our trek, hiking up to Machu Picchu!

We had a quick breakfast very early. It was the last meal provided for us by our cooks so we said farewell to them. They had made decent food throughout the trek, although it got a bit repetitive. We ate a lot of typical Peruvian food - a lot of potatoes, quinoa, rice, vegetables, coca tea, etc.

We started our climb up Machu Picchu around 4:30 or 4:45am so that we could be in the ruins by sunrise. The trek up to the ruins is about 200 meters straight up - we climbed a LOT of stairs. It took almost an hour and a half to get up to the entrance. I was exhausted by the time we got there, but it was amazing to see MP, especially since we arrived before most of the tourists so it was still fairly empty. The whole thing was very surreal.

Machu Picchu, as I mentioned before, is the name of both the ruins and the mountian that the ruins are on. In Quechua, the language of the Incans, it means "old mountain/peak". Next to MP and accessible from the site is a smaller peak called Wayna Picchu, which means "young mountain". After entering MP, we went straight to the Wayna Picchu entrance so that we could get tickets to climb it later that day. To preserve the site, the government put a cap on the number of people that can enter MP each day, and only a small number of those people are allowed to climb WP.

We watched the sunrise over the Andes while in line for tickets, and then John gave us a tour. The site is pretty extensive and could take all day to explore all of it. John gave us a 2 hour tour of the highlights and filled us in on some Incan history. The site has an agricultural section and people lived there permanently, but it was mostly a religious site. We walked through quite a few temples dedicated to the various Incan Gods and holy figures, with an emphasis on the sun and heavens. The parts of MP with larger rocks and more precise masonry signify the more important rooms/areas. MP was considered very sacred by the Incans so they made an effort to hide it from the Spaniards. The Spanish conquistadors had destroyed a number of important Incan sites upon their arrival so the Incans hid the entrances to MP and moved out. Aside from a few locals, no one knew about the site until 1911 when American historian Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it.

We said goodbye to John after the tour and were on our own to climb WP and tour the rest of the ruins. The climb up WP was very steep, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with vertigo. It took about an hour to get to the top, and the views of Machu Picchu mountain and ruins were incredible. Like I said, it was all very surreal, and I spent awhile just sitting on top relaxing and trying to take it all in.

Back at the base of WP, Nick and I found the rest of our tour group and we all decided that we were too exhausted to do more hiking around the site. Even though it was only early afternoon, we had been there for about 8 hours already. We passed a herd of llamas on the way out. They act as MP's landscapers - their herder guides them around the site and they eat the grass to keep it trim. We took the bus back down to Aguas Calientes where we ate a late lunch before collecting our bags from the hostel.

From Aguas Calientes we took a train to Ollantaytambo and then a bus back to Cuzco. We arrived in Cuzco around 9 or 9:30pm, made plans with some of the group to meet up the next morning for breakfast, and then got a very good night's sleep.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221037200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221037200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/2/1221037200/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:30:16 -0400 Backpacking in Peru

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Cusco, Peru

Trek Day 1: Mollepata to Soraypampa
Nick and I got up early to finish packing our bags before a cab picked us up to take us to the bus. Our cab was running a little late so we were some of the last people to board the bus, which was filled with two hiking groups. We had a 2 hour bus ride to Mollepata where the 2 groups separated, and we had some breakfast there before starting the hike. At breakfast we all introduced ourselves to the other people in the hike. There were 10 of us plus our guide John. It was quite a diverse group: a girl from Lima, a guy from France, a guy from Canada, a girl from Korea, a married couple from Brazil, and a guy and a girl from England. All in all a very fun and interesting group of people, and we all got along really well, although there were some language barriers at times.

The hike included a guide, meals, tents, and sleeping pads - pretty much all of the essentials besides a sleeping bag and clothes. There was also truck on the first day and horses later in the trek to carry our packs for us. The first part of the hike was all uphill. We walked all morning, stopping for lunch 4 hours after we began. It should have only taken us 3 hours, but myself and a few others were lagging behind schedule. I've never had asthma, but with the altitude I could easily imagine what an asthma attack is like. I found myself gasping for air, but still not getting enough oxygen. I thought the 2nd half of the day would be easier after a rest at lunch and some food, but eating made me nauseous so I continued on the trail with an empty stomach.

The hike in the afternoon continued uphill. I was dizzy, my whole body ached, and my arms were covered in bug bites. In other words I was miserable. Nick acted like my cheerleader for the afternoon. I wanted him to leave me for dead or send a horse back for me, but he refused to ditch me and relentlessly pushed me towards the campsite. I'm not really sure how he maintained his sanity because I was far from chipper that day. It was dusk by the time we reached the campsite in Soraypampa. I threw up what little I had managed to eat that day and took a nap. I woke up for tea and crackers but was still too nauseous to eat dinner so I went back to sleep.

Day 2 - Soraypampa to Colpapampa
I felt much better after a good night's sleep, but the toughest part of the trail was still ahead of us. That morning our hike route involved climbing uphill to the Salkantay mountain pass at around 3 miles above sea level before descending down the other side of the mountain. Although the dizziness had passed, I was still nervous about hiking on a relatively empty stomach. Lucky for me, we had the option of renting a horse from the farm/campsite that we stayed at the night before. I quickly signed myself up for that along with 3 other people in my group. The horses carried us up to the mountain pass before heading back to the farm. I was finally able to really appreciate the beautiful scenery now that I wasn't struggling for air. We met the rest of the group there - the hikers had a head start on us that morning so we arrived about the same time.

It started to snow just before we reached the pass. I burned my face pretty badly with the combination of strong sun earlier in the day and then snow and wind. At the pass, our tour guide John told us about the Incan tradition of burying 3 coca leaves there as an offering to the Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) for allowing us to safely cross through the mountains. We all left our offerings and continued the trek downhill. We descended for a bit to get out of the cold before stopping for lunch.

After lunch we continued downhill, and entered into jungle territory. You could quickly see the difference - everything was ten times greener on this side of the mountain. Walking through it we saw a lot of pretty flowers and a ridiculous amount of butterflies. At times I had to be careful where I was walking or I would have stepped on a bunch of them. Unfortunately, with the beautifully lush forest also came more mosquitoes and biting flies so we all loaded up on insect repellant. We made very good time that afternoon and arrived at the campsite around 4:30. We hung out and played a bunch of card games while waiting for dinner and then quickly fell asleep after eating.

Day 3: Colpapampa to Santa Teresa
We continued hiking through the jungle and getting eaten alive by bugs, but I think the butterflies and orchids made up for it. Through a conversation in portuñol (portugese/español) with the Brazilian couple, I learned the the word for butterfly in Portugese is "borboleta". Earlier in the hike we passed a lot of cow farms, but now we were hiking past smaller farms with chickens or pigs, and a couple with sheep. There were also a lot of dogs along the hike. Each had it's own territory or farm that it kind of belonged to, but they would accompany us on the trail for awhile before turning back.

The actual hiking this day was mostly downhill, but some uphill as well. We crossed over a few small rivers/tributaries. We ate lunch in a little town called La Playa, which means "the beach" but there was definitely no beach there. From there we took a bus to Santa Teresa, about an hour or two away. We left our bags at camp and took another quick bus ride to the hot springs just outside of the town. It felt amazing to soak in the hot water and rinse off all the dirt and grossness from the hike. None of us had been showering because the most we had at a campsite was cold water from streams nearby so the hot springs were much needed. We relaxed there for a few hours before heading back to the campsite for dinner.

During dinner some of the local children did a dance for us, dressed in traditional clothing. Afterwards we sat around the campfire for awhile, and I befriended a little monkey named Pancho that lived at the campsite. I'm not sure how he came to be living there, but it seemed as if he belonged to the people that ran the little shop at the campsite (each campsite and various places along the trail had little stands set up to sell beverages and snack food to hikers). Pancho was sooo cute and loved playing with the strings on my hooded sweatshirt so we became best friends. He actually fell asleep in my arms and got upset when I tried to give him back to his owners. I went to brush my teeth and get ready for bed, and Pancho tried following me into my tent. It was so funny and cute, but Nick protested and I didn't want fleas or anything so Pancho got kicked out.

Day 4: Santa Teresa to Aguas Calientes
After breakfast I said farewell to Pancho and we started hiking. We passed the ruins of what used to be Santa Teresa. The original town was leveled by an earthquake so the government gave the people money to rebuild further up the mountain. The hiking this day was rather dull in general. For the first part of the day, we were mostly hiking along roads, and after stopping for lunch in Hidroelectrica, we continued along train tracks to Aguas Calientes. We did pass an impressive waterfall and had a nice view of Machu Picchu mountain (the ruins were out of sight on the other side of the mountain), but other than that there's not much to report.

Aguas Calientes is the town at the foot of Machu Picchu mountain where most people stay over en route to the ruins, unless they take a direct train from Cuzco or have enough money to pay for the hotel that's literally right outside of the gates to the ruins. We stayed at a hostel, which was amazing because we finally got to take a hot shower and sleep in a real bed. We ate dinner near our hostel, and I was finally able to finish a whole meal. Even though the dizziness and difficulty breathing passed rather quickly, it took four days for me to shake the nausea from the altitude sickness. We went to bed early in anticipation for our early hike up to Machu Picchu in the morning. John told us that in total we had hiked around 58 km a.k.a. 36 miles.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/malaga-2007/1187125860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/malaga-2007/1187125860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/malaga-2007/1187125860/tpod.html Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:19:21 -0400 Laura's semester abroad in Malaga, Spain!

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Freehold, New Jersey, United States

After a very long flight, I'm finally back home. My last few days in Spain were nice and relaxing. I went to the beach one last time, said goodbye to my friends, and had some delicious paella courtesy of Wolf's mom. It was hard saying goodbye to him, but he plans to come visit some time over the winter to pay me a visit and see what New York is like.

My flight was a little delayed because of mechanical problems, and then I had a layover in Dublin so by the time I made it home I was exhausted. My parents were waiting in the airport for me, and my extended family was waiting for me at home. I came back just in time for a family reunion. Definitely overwhelming, but it was nice to see everyone after being gone for so long.

The relatives have all gone now, and I'm lounging around New Jersey and readjusting to American life before I leave home again to go to school on August 17th. Preseason training for rugby is just a few days away... oh yay.

And now I've come to the end of my overseas adventures. I hope I made it sound at least half as amazing as it was. Thanks for reading!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/malaga-2007/1186521000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/malaga-2007/1186521000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laura.tagatac/malaga-2007/1186521000/tpod.html Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:11:05 -0400 Laura's semester abroad in Malaga, Spain!

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Málaga, Spain

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