Back from Machu Picchu!

This past weekend, three volunteers and I took the PeruRail train from Ollanta to Aguas Calientes, but before that took a car ride from Cusco to Ollanta. Booked through a travel agency, the agent literally placed us into a car, set for Ollanta, when the driver just peeled off his unofficial 'TAXI' sticker to suddenly be a personal car. We were curious, if when we arrived at the train station in Ollanta, that he would suddenly stick a 'TRAIN' sticker and then drive us straight to Aguas Calientes. But no, the driver was very nice, pointing out the various landmarks along the route. Unfortunately, because of a car accident blocking the road into Ollanta, he could only drop us off at the foot of the town and we trekked the way to the train station, which was 15 min of a mad dash to the train station with fear that we were going to miss the train. But of course, since the entire country of Peru runs on Peruvian time, we caught the train just in time, but with my jeans splattered with mud, since the ground with flooded with mud from the rain the night before.
The train ride was gorgeous! I would recommend the train ride over a bus anyday, since it is only an hour forty compared to the six hour bus ride zigzagging through the mountains. We had seats on the Backpackers car, where we all commented that we've never seen that many gringos (white foreigners) in a month. The town of Aguas Calientes is composed mostly of restaurants tailored to foreigners, pharmacies for altitude sickness, and the typical souvenir shops. But I do warn you, everything is hiked up in prices, typically double the price in Cusco. We did go to the Hot Springs in Aguas Calientes located up the hill from the town, which in my personal recommendation, I would say you're not missing anything if you don't go. Actually, save your ten soles that is the admission price. The hot springs is probably false advertisement considering that the water was more warm, edging lukewarm, and the company of middle-aged European men with skimpy swim trucks is questionable. Afterwards, we just ran back from the springs to shower in our hostel.
We ended up taking the bus up to Machu Picchu in the morning. Travel Tip: Wake up early for the bus. The first bus is at 5:30AM but people start lining up at least 4:45AM. Machu Picchu was amazing! Totally deserving the honor of a World Heritage site and one of the Man-made wonders of the World. I would highly recommend having a tour because there is so much significance in the structures itself that are not easily grasped by simply staring at it.
I am currently sick with another stomach virus so I've had to cancel my trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca, which is heartbreaking to do. But, I do hope to recover by the weekend to do something absolutely stomach-turning, like paragliding.

More Pictures: http://myproworld.goabroad.net/collection.php?type=traveler&ID=11727&context=traveleralbum&genID=1908

Things Learned/Developed While in Cusco

A short list of things that I have learned or developed while living in Cusco:

• Showers are typically heated with electricity, meaning that more water pressure is colder while less water is hotter. In actuality, there's only two choices cold and boiling hot trickle.
  
• Night do hit freezing here. On a bad night, below freezing. Thank God for my Denali.
  
• I have developed a sixth sense for oncoming cars. Cusconians (sp?) have never heard of the concept, pedestrian's right of way, instead it's cars' right of way here. So when crossing the street, the slightest hum of a car engine would trigger me to walk faster or not walk at all.
• My seventh sense is for dog shit. The city of Cusco, and not surprisingly probably most of Peru, are the stray dogs' bathroom. So while power-walking through the cold, I know to swerve from fresh or dried dog shit. Oh, how I wish Harvey Milk lived here to introduce the concept of picking up your shit.
• Related to the previous note: I have never seen a dog on a leash here. Dogs are simply guard dogs here and my house has a dusty lil' grey terrier; yes, I feel safe.
• Never expect to get a seat on a Cambi, vans acting as buses. Not matter the gender, the age, or the disability, it's a first come, first serve world here.
• How to look for an official taxi: there are plenty are cars acting as taxis by simply attaching a sticker, saying TAXI on the front window. So instead you have to look out for the checkered pattern on the side of the car. At night especially, but the occasional non-lighted street poses a probelm.
• Because of the high altitude here in Cusco and the fact that soda is probably shipped in from Lima, the soda explodes on you, when opening. So open the bottle of soda in bag.
• Taxis honk at you, especially gringos, in order to get some business. Taxis also honk at you when you're about to crash into them. So never ignore them.
• Like there exists Filipino time, which is typically 15 minutes plus the designated time, there is Peruvian time, which is probably edging 20-30 minutes. So, always bring something to do.
• As una china riding a Cambi everyday, I get stares from all the passenger on the van/bus. The best way to make them stop is to stare back, and then they eventually back off.
• Learned not to be insulted that Peruvians insist on slanting one eye when having learned that you're Chinese. Not that I ever was, considering my Dad jokes around, calling us Orientals.
• That your body may just never warm up at night. Even under four layers of blankets.

¡What a Weekend!

Just to review, on Saturday, I boarded a busvan, along with my fellow interns and semester students to Huanocondo, a small town an hour outside of Cusco, to build stoves. Yes, you've heard it through the horse's mouth-slash-blog, I built a stove. Out of mud, probably feces as well because it doesn't discriminate, straw, rocks, and brick. The local women actually brought our jugs of water, poured it onto the dirtstrawfeces, and stomped on it with their bare feet. Impressive! It did take us two hours to build one, and at one point, I swear the entire block's housewives were crowded around our stove (which was outside because the house will be built around it. I do appreciate their priorities about which part of the house is most important). They just kept chatting to each other in SpanishQuechua about how our stove will not hold up and until we brought in our local liaison person to explain how it's perfectly fine. But, our stove was a beauty! We slapped on that mud like professionals! After only a half-day of that, we returned back to Cusco exhausted and honestly looking as if our limbs mud-wrestled. After a lukewarm shower (after the water cutoffs, I've lowered my shower standards to just have water be there), we headed out to Paddy's, the Irish pub in the city square (unlikely but necessary). I think I have acclimated to living standard here too much, which is a 1-3 USD for more or less everything, but I paid 18 Soles6 USD for a Guinness. It honestly made my wallet teared up a bit.
Now the fun doesn't just stop at my expensive can of beer (yes can, not even bottle), Sunday, we went out to Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexywoman, honestly, as any Peruvians you know, I dare you to) and other Incan Ruins. Apparently, we weren't told about the slide that Sacsayhuaman has, off to the side. But, I did spot the BIG JESUS, or Cristo Blanco, as it accurately called, over looking the city, and I just had to go. I bugged to tour guide repeatedly if we were going there that day and how to get to the Jesus Grande until she told us that she'd led us half up a small mountain to get there. Oh, what a sight! It's huge! So, we found Jesus on Sunday, which could not be more appropriate.

Having been through several orientations for study abroad and such, and hearing how they made culture shock out as an actual disease, something along the lines of a stroke, I think I'm finally feeling it, and what I'm feeling is hunger. Yes, my culture shock is the fact that they eat their meals late. 2:30 for almuerzolunch and 8:00 for cenadinner. Why would anyone ever put off their meals or food in general until later? But Gaby's (my host mother) meals are to die for, so I guess it is worth the wait, not that I have any other choice.

Location: Cusco, Peru

P.S. Despite not knowing how to type out the (at) symbol, I do love the Spanish keyboard for its variety of symbols to chose from, when typing this out, such as , ¡, ¿, °, ¬. Also, before I forget, last week, my host family said I look like Mulan, yes the only Asian Disney character, but they meant it as a compliment because apparently Mulan is very pretty. Pues... mucho gracios

ParaPor° mas fotos: http://myproworld.goabroad.net/collection.php?type=traveler&ID=11727&context=traveleralbum&genID=1833
°I will learn which one is appropriate soon.

¡Hola Gringa!

It's been five days here and I'm still wrestling with the Spanish keyboard, and as you can see, I think it's winning, since I'm still copy-and-pasting my (at) symbol to log on.

In the past few days, I have:

• eaten trout and alpaca meat on a pizza, which is delicious! It tastes like tender steak with the after-taste of lamb
• riden by myself on one of those small buses, more like vans that drive with the sliding door open. If you've ever been to Hong Kong, it's like a siu ba, but more van-like and cramped to the last standing room. Costs 60 cents Soles, which is 20 cents American.
• eaten Chinese-Peruvian food, which is actually pretty good. Better than Panda Express.
• gone to the black market, Molina, which sounds scarier than it actually is. Hong Kong reference: think Shenzhen or Guangdong.
• gone living through two days with water on and off. It is currently off.

Having hosted international students before, this experience is definitely switched, awkwardly placed in a household. The house and family are lovely, and we have a little terriar guard dog, Aldana; what she can guard I don't know but she is adorable. I'm currently trying to win over the little six-year-old, Abigail, with the colorful hairties I brought for her. It's a work in progress.

I currently live with another college volunteer, an educator-volunteer, and a Spanish professor from Ireland, teaching in the program. Along with the three kids and parents, we surely make a big table for dinner. It's quite a hodge-podge of personas in one household, but in the midst of the Spanglish thrown around the table, we somehow all understand Ricardo's (my host papa) jokes.

Having Spanish at 8:30AM to 10AM Monday to Thursday, one on one with a teacher, is really improving my Spanish. I think now I have improved from dramatic telenovela one-liners to speaking like a four-year-old, struggling with suvject-verb agreement. I think Aldana, the dusty grey terriar, understands more Spanish than me.

P.S Gringo/a means foreigner or American in Spanish. I have yet to be gossiped about on the street with the word, but the professor sure loves to call the volunteers that.

Houston, Lima, Cusco, 27 Hours Later

Extracted from parts of my travel journal:
Lima International Airport
"The sight of airport workers and immigration agents with masks makes me a bit paranoid and permenantly attached to my personal bottle of Purell (hello, ugly American: Cate Blanchett in Babel). Having a 7 hours layover is awful, especially in Lima's international airport. The first floor (the check-in floor) has loitering taxi drivers who, at the sight of a North Face backpack, knows that you're a tourist and then pester you about getting a hostal for the night. Having been pestered twice and trying to pass out that I have a flight to Chile soon, I sat up on the second at the food court for 5 hours. Hello Tom Hanks in The Terminal, who totally made it out to be more fun than it really is."

27 hours later, I'm here in Cusco! Travel note: Continental Airlines is awesome. Of course, the food's not Zagat-rated and probably taste more along the lines of 2 dollar-microwave dinner, but they at least give you one. As well as a turkey sandwich at 9:30 PM, which is universally known as late-night snacktime. Cusco was freezing when I landed (fine, actually high 40s). I got picked up from the teeny-tiny airport by my program and placed in a taxi. After checking in, my tour guide just said bye and see you tomorrow, which left me in shock because I was the only arrived volunteer and had 24 hours to spend by myself. I ended up writing out a request for a map and directions for La Plaza de Armas (the city square) on my handy-dandy notebook because I tend to blank when I'm approaching someone to speak Spanish. Easy enough, four blocks away from the hotel. The weather surprisingly from my initial frozen finger tips when I arrived was warm, think mid-60s. I've read travel books saying that the temp really range throughout the day since Peru's so close to the equator. The city square is gorgeous! Every building is a shade of brown/tan here, but the streets are easy to navigate, and despite the high attitude level, after two hours on walking with two layers of jacket, I wasn't a bit struggling for air. That coca tea, a traditional Peruvian tea which I got right as I checked in, really works. Later that night, I did find that all my toothpaste, lotions, etcs. all immediately squirted out right as I opened it.

By the way, the hotel I'm staying in is gorgeous! Pictures will be up. But I actually sleep on the ground floor, looking out to the backyard/junkyard so I feel a bit like Harry Potter under the stairs here. Shower was a bit of a challenge. There's a tickle of water that comes out of the shower with two options: boiling hot or deathly cold and you can't mix the two. Once you turn on the cold water to your already hot water, it just turns cold. The nights are freezing here; the weather report actually says it hits 32 degrees F. I slept under a pile of blankets, leg warmers, and hiking socks, but I was cozy. Off to my second day!

P.S: typing on these Spanish keyboard is so frustrating. The keys don't actually match up.