El Lago Titicaca

To end my completely cliche-touristy visit to Peru, I spent the last 3 days in Lake Titicaca. But you know what? Those touristy spots are the hot traveling sites for a reason. The Lake is really awesome. We stayed in Puno, which wasn´t so awesome, it´s kind of a dingy town. But we quickly left and spent 2 days touring the nearby islands. First we went to the famous Islas Flotantes. These are artificially made islands, entirely constructed of mud and the reeds that grow naturally in the area. Originally, these islands were made by the Uros people of Peru who were escaping persecution, but tradition held until now. The concept itself is cool enough, but it was so fun to actually walk around on these things. One can really tell that you are on a floating pile of grass, a very weird sensation for sure.
After these islands we boated out to Isla Amantanì, a pretty desolate mountain in the middle of the lake. Amantaní was were we spent the night. Our tour was us 3 americans, 1 australian, and about 20 argentines and each group of 3 or 4 spent the night with a family in the town. That was a pretty amazing experience, because the families really welcomed us in and showed us how they live on the island. Their lives were simple and VERY traditional, with the woman doing the cooking and cleaning and all. Yet, during the meals, we would have really interesting conversations about peruvian and world politics, so clearly they were well-informed and more or less worldly. The other aspect that struck me about his village was that in Peru at least, the indigenous villagers are not putting on a show for the tourists (which I´ve seen on my other travels). It´s not as if they have these traditional towns where everyone wears traditional clothing and cooks over a fire, but then when the tourists leave the villagers return to their apartments in the nearby city wearing suits. In these towns, the villagers really have continued the traditions of their ancestors. It was a lot of fun to learn about them while sharing the experience. That night we had a dance party and our families made us dress up in the traditional clothes too! They were warm but not so comfortable unfortunately. Even with all these interesting activities that day, my highlight was watching the stars that night. We could clearly see the milky way it was so dark.
The next morning we left for a nearby island, Isla Taquile. This was a supposedly more-touristy island, but the only difference was a few restaurants and a weaving market. We didn´t do anything but eat lunch here, but that meant a nice long hike up and down the mountain, complete with the most gorgeous views. The Lake is famous for it´s bright blue waters, but you can really only see this color from above, so it was nice to get the chance on this island. After that trip, we just took the boat home!
So that pretty much ends my trip to South America. Today in a couple of hours I leave for the nearby airport with almost 24 hours of traveling ahead of me. It might be hell, but I´ve done worse, that´s for sure!
Stay tuned for the uploading of lots of photos in the next couple of days.

First half of Peru

I got to Peru on the night of Jan. 11th, which was 6 full days ago. Boy were they full. That night I met up with the two friends who were to travel with me throughout Peru, and we proceeded to work our way through Lima at a rapid pace. Lima is gigantic, kindof scarily so. It has something like 12 million people living in it and it sprawls for forever. Needless to say, we didn´t get to finish, but I think we were all ready to leave 36 hours later. I think it was a little TOO big for us, we got overwhelmed and freaked out. We did like the artsy district, which has a number of fun bars mainly for tourists it seems.
So we quickly left Lima for Cuzco, probably the second most-famous city in Peru. It is a hot-bed of Inca history and culture, situated right above the Sacred Valley for the Incas. Plus, Machu Picchu is only 3 hours away. As soon as we arrived at our hostel, a travel agent pitched us a schedule that would get us through all of the important sites in the five days we were staying in the area. Normally, I´m not a fan of these types of tours, but it was just so easy and not really that expensive, we couldn´t resist. So, we toured around Cuzco, around the Sacred Valley, and of course, Machu Picchu. The Sacred Valley is pretty cool, there are a lot of really neat ruins on hill tops and cute towns with markets. Plus, the area itself is absolutely gorgeous. It is a giant valley (hence the name) with a white-water river going through the middle, surrounded completely by really extreme mountains. It´s not hugely developed, so you can fully appreciate the natural beauty.
The next day we went to Aguas Calientes, which is most know as the town right below Machu Picchu. It´s totally full of backpackers and tourists, but it still managed to maintain a wholesome mountain-town feel. We all really like the town, even though the famed hotsprings were stinky and not-so-hot.
We woke up to go to Machu Picchu at 5:00 the following morning, but we were so excited it didn´t matter. We had actually planned to hike the Inca Trail (the 2 day version), but we tried to reserve way too late so were stuck taking the bus up. Actually, this turned out to be a really good disappointment because we talked to an avid hiker who said it was ¨really tough¨ and didn´t say a word in favor. I think this is a good hike to do in the dry season, but you can´t even see any views at this time of year. Anyway, we road up to Machu Picchu and had a 3 hour guided tour around the area. I´m still not entirely sure why this place is SO famous and important, but I think it´s because it is the most complete Inca city ever found. It is also the second to last city occupied by the Incas (probably). They built the city, then found out the Spaniards were coming, and so abandoned it in the early 1500s for the ¨Last City¨ a little further away. Of course, once there, it is obvious why the place is so captivating. All the terraces, the walls, the houses, temples...everything is amazingly complete. I mean, you can totally visualize the city without much imagination. It´s also situated on the peak of a pretty incredible mountains, so the views are amazing (when the clouds temporarily shift). These mountains were different than anything I´ve ever seen before, because they stick straight up out of the ground. The Appalacians, for instance, are interconnected without space in between individual mountains. But not here. Plus, the degree of the slope is almost 90 it seems. It´s a little hard to explain in writing, but soon I´ll add some pictures. Anyway, it was an amazing experience and one I recommend to anyone who can.
After that, we took a tour of Cuzco that was mostly of the ruins close-by to the city. It was interesting, but after Machu Picchu, it was hard to really appreciate these. The best part of this tour was a visit to temple that was made out of a giant rock formation. It was like interactive sculpture.
The only other really interesting thing that has happened is I just ran into two friends of mine from Oberlin (Dan L. and Vanna) on the street in Cuzco. They are going to come out to drinks with us tonight. Crazy.

Ecuador in a whirlwind

All in all, I had 5 full days in Ecuador and 6 nights, which isn´t nearly enough to see such a jam-packed country. The tourist industry boasts that even though it is the 2nd smallest country in South America, an adventurous tourist can do a huge range of activities. And unfortunately, I didn´t get to do nearly all. What I did do was explore Quito, explore some surrounding towns, and make some friends. Quito is a really cool city, though not my favorite. It´s huge and has a wide range of neighborhoods, from quiet and ancient, to modern and lively. It´s also pretty catholic, so there are gorgeous old churches all over, especially in the old section. While it was nice for us to explore the city a bit, my favorite part of being in Quito was going out at night. On the plane ride over, I sat next to an Ecuadorian who moved to Miami 8 years ago for college. He was going back to visit his mother and friends, so invited us out for a couple nights. I decided during these adventures that clubbing in Quito, and probably many other Latin American locations, is way more fun than in the US or Europe, mainly because most clubs play a mix of all the popular music in the region (salsa, reggaeton, house...), so you never get bored. It was also fun to get to know some natives of the city, they could show us around a lot better than we could do ourselves. Also, one of his friends is a super-famous soccer player. That was neat.
Other than Quito, we went to the equator and a small indigenous town called Otavalo. The equator has a really cheesy town/complex built around the wrong site. It´s about 200 meters off. On the real equator there is a lesser-known, way-cooler museum about indigenous life and the freaky ¨science¨ experiments you can do on the equator. For instance, water draining clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the north. The best part of this was the guide would say ¨and now lets move to the northern hemisphere¨ and we´d walk 4 feet. Otavalo was really just a place for some shopping. They have a famous handicrafts market there. But it was also nice to see the country side outside Quito. After I left Quito I spent 3 days bussing down to Lima, 31 hours total of being on the bus, not including the 4 hours we waited when the bus broke down. I´m glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever opt to do that again. Like the Mark Twain quote. In Lima, I met two friends, Aimee and Rocheene, and thus began the next stage of the adventure.

I just got to Quito yesterday night, so I don´t really have anything interesting to say yet. Quito seems like a really cool city. It is super high up, right in the middle of the mountains, so the setting is breath taking. There aren´t a whole lot of skyscrapers, so you can see a relatively unrestricted view of the mountains that almost completely surround the city. The altitude also means that it is actually pretty cold here. I´m wearing pants and a long-sleeved shirt right now, even though we are about 30 km from the equator! Not what I was expecting.
I´m only in Quito for 3 more days and four nights, then my sister goes back home and I´m heading for Lima to meet up with Aimee, a friend from AmeriCorps, and her friend. It´s a 30 hour busride in total, so splitting it up over 3 days. First I´m taking a 13 hour busride to a city near the south western border, called Machala. Then I´ll take a 10 hour trip to Trujillo, a peruvian town on the beach, and then a 9 hour ride to Lima, so I'll get there on the night of the 11th. The three of us are then spending 1 day and 2 nights in Lima, then flying to Cuzco. We haven´t planned much past that, but we´re of course going to see Macchu Pichu and explore Lake Titicaca. I have to be back in Lima by the 21st, and then I fly back to NC late that night. So there it is, my itinerary. I´ll keep y´all posted.