I got into Lima, Peru the 21st of August and met up with my friend from Guatemala, Ling. I spent one night in Lima, staying at a hostel named Zig Zag and tried my first bite of Chifa, the name for the baby that Chinese and Peruvian food made. The next day I took a LATAM flight out to Cusco, deep into the towering mountains of Peru.
As soon as I got into Cusco I headed to the center of the city, Plaza de Armas, and got to see some of the ancient buildings that line the streets. I then climbed what appeared to be a small hill to get to some of the old Aztec ruins that are right outside of town. I wasn’t sure why my body was sucking so bad at walking until I realized Cusco is 11,200′ above sea level. There were a few ruins nearby so I decided to knock them out the same night. It was already 5 and they closed at 7 so I had 4 ruins to get to before they closed.
What was truly unique was the way the Incas placed the rocks to make the buildings and walls. Rather than using mortar like every other civilization they cut the rocks so precisely that they stick together like glue due to the friction. You can also see the marks from the notches they made in order to carry them. Over time they tried to smooth it out with the end game being ultimate smoothness.
Since I didn’t have much time in Peru I did what I hate to do and I decided to cram everything into as little time as possible. I bought train tickets for Machu Picchu and back that left early the next morning and would get back at night. You have to buy the entrance tickets online which are $47. The train there and back was $180 total and a $24 bus to the top and back. All in all it’s a large price to pay for one of the wonders of the ancient world, but after going there and seeing it I can attest that it’s well worth it.
The trainride there was probably my favorite part of the trip. I had the privilege to sit next to Linda, an older lady who was an absolute ball of joy. It was the first trainride of her life so I felt the need to mansplain her all of my train knowledge of which I have none.
To get to Machu Picchu you have to take a bus from the town of Aguas Calientes up a really steep hill of switchbacks. The drivers drive like insane people and people get hurt there all the time.
I met this really cool Canadian couple at the entrance of Machu Picchu and we decided to pay for a tour guide together because I like a good story. He showed us around the ruins and showed us these rocks that the Inca’s carved out to try to match the mountains behind them. He also told us that they had some crazy architectural stuff going on with their buildings matching astronomy and apparently, “Inca” is actually the word for the king of the people of the area way back when and the Spanish butchered the word and just started calling everyone Incas. Not a clue if any of it is true, but like I said I like a story.
After Machu Picchu the train back had a fashion show where this terrifying sight happened. This guy just walked around the cab dancing and whispering in people’s ears for a solid 45 minutes.
I was exhausted but I decided screw it no time for sleep and I met up with some couch surfers the next morning to head on a hike at Rainbow Mountain. The locals actually call it, “seven color mountain” in Spanish but I guess they’re about the same.
I met up with Mathilde, a super sweet French girl and 2 awesome Peruvian dudes, Sebastian and Stefano. This is us suffering from lack of O2.
It has just recently become a tourist attraction so it was extremely hard to get to and the locals were excited to see us and interact with us. Children would run out of their houses to wave at our car.
We arrived at the base and started hiking. It was a wonderful 2 hour hike to the top where we got to talk to a lot of locals, I got to practice my Spanish, and I got to wonder why my legs wouldn’t move when I wanted them to.
I didn’t find out until later that it goes up to above 17,000′.
I have never hiked above 15,000′ before and on our way down my head started to pound with altitude sickness. We did the smart thing on the way down and decided if we went off the trail we could probably find a quicker way to get to the bottom. Of course we got desperately lost and here is me climbing up a ridge to see if I can see anything. You can also see by my dirty butt that there was a lot of falling. I can’t even describe how exhausting this was at 17,000′.
Eventually we finally found the trail again, made it to the car, and my head stopped pounding about 30 minutes into the drive down.
All in all Peru was an amazing experience. I had some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables in my life. Peru had some of the sweetest people I have ever met, always looking to help and loving my attempts at speaking Spanish.
