21st Century Peru

I'm back from Peru and back to school. However, I am back with a different perspective, changed opinions, different life goals and with a more open mind.

I spent the last 2 weeks of my summer in Peru. It was my first time in South America and I was very excited to eat the foods, wear the clothes, (try to) learn the language and meet the people. The main reason that 14 of us came down to Peru was to volunteer at a rural village called Chupani that was hidden high up in the mountains away from electricity, cars, cell phones and almost anything that came to world after the 18th century. But before we decided to immerse ourselves in this culture, we decided to spend 3 days exploring the part of Peru that belonged in the 21st century.

On August 18th midnight, 13 of us landed in Lima and took cabs to our hostel in Miraflores. We spent a day exploring Miraflores. We toured the museum of the Spanish Inquisition and the Catacombs museum. We visited a water park with gorgeous fountains and saw a wonderful water show which included lights and lasers. While exploring we were getting used to getting complimentary pisco sours with our meals that usually consisted of meat, various varieties of potatoes and avocado.

Kunal and Tom tried to avoid getting wet

Jossie, Ben and Bruna walk through the water tunnel

The next day our volunteer abroad coordinator, Kunal Patel, made sure we all caught our early morning flights to Cusco which is at an elevation of 11,200 ft and warned us of the altitude sickness we were about to experience. We loaded up on water and landed in Cusco feeling a little different. Rob Cerato, an EGL student who took a year off from school to volunteer in different parts of Peru picked us up from the airport. He knew everything about Cusco and our project and soon assumed the role of our amazing guide.

Cusco, Lima

Festival at Plaza de Armas, Cusco, Lima

We spent the first day exploring the local markets and purchasing alpaca sweaters and other peruvian tourist artefacts.

Rob and his tourist hat

That evening we hung out in our hostel for a while and then headed out to Inca Team for some salsa dancing :).

Saqsaywaman and Christo Blanco were on the agenda for Day 3. Saqsaywaman, also know as Sexy Woman, has immense terrace walls that are made of huge rocks that are fit together perfectly by nothing. The Incans were genius civil engineers. They transported the rocks without the wheel and we don't know how they fit them together so compactly. We went through some of the caves which were very low and very dark. Tom decided to have some fun and jump out at me when I was going through. That was however not fun for me especially right after Rob told us a story of how 2 boys got lost in these caves for months and even though they found gold, they couldn't stay alive long enough to enjoy it.

EGL at Saqsaywaman

These were the transportation system that the Incans used for rock transportation. All the kids were sliding down so there was no way we wouldn't (Kevin on slide)

At this time we were already feeling the effects of the altitude. Ian had altitude sickness and the rest of us would be out of breath really quickly whenever we tried to do any physical activity. Climbing up the terraces of Saqsaywaman left us really out of breath at times.

We walked over to Christo Blanco and admired the city of Cusco from the elevation we were at.

Christo Blanco

Nayana, Ben, Rob, Bruna, Colleen, Katie and Tom admiring the view

Day 4 was White Water Rafting Day! We drove 1,5 hours to the river and suited up. We were in 3 rafts and spent a few hours enjoying the level III rapids, water fights and sea weed wars with the other rafts. We were rafting towards the ruins of Ollantaytambo and on the way we came across a bridge that looked ideal for jumping off. Firstly the voice of our EGL advisor echoed through our minds - " If it's not safe, then I won't do it and I won't allow others to do it!". But we were given a safety talk by the guides and we had helmets and lifevests on.. so it counted as safe. We all jumped off this bridge into the water below. I'm pretty sure I started screaming even before it was my turn to jump. It was a TON of fun!

Bruna jumping!

Post jump adrenaline rush

We visited the ruins of Ollantaytambo next, visited the tourist shops and made the 1.5 hour bus ride back home so that we could sleep in a bed for the last time before heading out the village of Chupani early next morning.

Ruins of Ollantaytambo

View!

Nayana