You Went to South America and Became British?

Inti Raymi Ceremony

Hola Amigos. It´s been a very busy week so I haven´t had time to post. I left Arequipa last Tuesday and had to take a different bus company to reach Cusco because the main road was closed due to mining protests around Lake Titicaca. Which basically meant we were off-roading for most of the journey. Very bumpy. It was hard saying goodbye to my friends in Arequipa because it was basically goodbye forever. However, that the sad sentiment lifted when I arrived in Cusco just in time for Inti Raymi, the festival of the Incan sun god. The streets around downtown were alive with celebrations and parades and thousands of people. There were three main events being celebrated: the 100th anniversary of discovering Machu Picchu, Inti Raymi, and Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi was actually the most fun of the events... I became so enamored by the festivities that I joined the parade!

Plaze de Armas

Corpus Christi statue being carried by Peruvians. They used to carry the mummies of dead kings but the Spanish put a stop to that when they conquered the Incans.

I´m currently staying at a party hostel which reminds me of Australia. (I have a very negative association with Australia) This trip is a time to learn about myself and one thing I´ve learned is that I´m not 19 anymore and I shouldn´t party like I am. Yes, it was fun to get hit on by a bunch of European guys on their gap year, but much less fun to be stared at like an old lady when I conveyed my age. Thus, I started saying that I had JUST graduated college. Sometimes its easier to pretend the last 4 years didn´t happen. I thought that since I was traveling by myself that no one could hold me accountable for my actions (omg, do you know what YOU did last night?!), however South America is beginning to feel very small because I keep running into people I know. Therefore, henceforth I will act like a 24-year-old from now on and not fall off any more bunk beds. The other problem with this hostel is that everyone speaks english and I´m completely forgetting everything I learned in my spanish class.

Into Thin Air

The Misti Volcano

This weekend I learned a very important lesson: I HATE mountaineering. I love backpacking, I love rock climbing, and I love glacier travel, so I should love mountaineering. Right? WRONG. I should have know how hard it would be when they told me the Volcan El Misti (Misti Volcano) was 5,825 meters. But I'm an American and I don't speak in meters. It was only after I was about halfway up that hellish mountain that I learned that it was 19,111 feet high! At around 15,000 feet, I became a little light-headed. At around 18,000 feet I stopped being able to breathe for lack of oxygen.

The only highlight of the trip was the really cool black sand.

This is the same mountain where the Incans used to sacrifice children to their gods. I kept thinking that if I was one of those little Incan kids I'd feel ready to die by the time I reached the top. There were no switch-backs, we simply hiked straight up the side of the volcano. There are no creeks on the volcano, just barren rock, so we each carried about 6 liters of water, which is extremely heavy. Apparently they don't do ultra-light backpacking in Peru so all of my rented gear weighed a ton. This of course included mountaineering equipment such as tents, crampons, ice axes and ropes. It was below freezing and incredibly windy and my altitude sickness got so bad that I had to return to base camp and never made it to the top of that evil mountain :( I'm crossing Mount Everest off my list of life goals. On a high note, when I returned to the city I had my first hot shower in Peru! Apparently the trick is to shower mid-day because the water is heated by solar power.

I think this is a match-making service...

Apparently this is the week of mal suerte (bad luck) because I learned this morning that the road from Arequipa to Cusco is closed. There is only one bus company that is apparently brave enough to make the trek, so I booked a ticket for tomorrow! Wish me alot of luck. I've been in Arequipa now for almost two weeks and I'm ready to leave. While on Volcan Misti I kept saying that I wanted to go home, but by home I meant the Casa de Avila in Arequipa. You know that you've been in one place too long if you start to refer to it as home. However, I'm grateful for the time I've spent here. I've become acclimated to the Peruvian culture, I've learned to speak spanish, and I've made a ton of friends whom I'm going to miss. The next time you hear from me I'll be on my way to Machu Picchu!

Wherever You Go, There You Are

Hola Chicos! Here I am, reporting from Peru. Arequipa to be exact. I always said I'd never have a blog - a travel blog no less! But so many people said they'd actually read it, that the peer pressure got to me and I gave in. In reality, probably only my mom and aunt will read this blog (Hi Mom and Nanny!), but that's cool. So you may ask, "why vagabond 2.0? what happened to 1.0?" Well, Vagabond 1.0 occured 5 years ago when I uprooted my entire life to spend 3 months in Australia. But that ended up being kind of disasterous and I swore I'd never do it again. However, I'm not the type of person who learns from her mistakes. So here I go again.... I quit my job, moved out of my house, and left my country to explore South America all by myself!

I've now been in Peru for 8 days, and I've learned so much already about the culture. I've picked up spanish quite rapidly (so far I can comprehend most things but still have trouble constructing sentences), and I've developed an extreme appreciation for fresh, clean water. Basically everything I miss about the USA so far revolves around water: drinking fresh water from the tap without fear of parasites, taking hot showers (the warmest shower you can get in Peru is tepid, to say the least), toilet seats, and toilet paper. The things I like about Peru so far: everyone is so kind and helpful here, and the exchange rate. Everything is so cheap! At first I was concerned because 20 soles for a night in a hostel seemed like ALOT, but after doing a little math I realized it only cost about 7 dollars! Amazing. If only my backpack wasn't already full so I could take advantage of the ample shopping opportunities! Downtown Arequipa near the Plaza de Armas is a GREAT place to go shopping.

At first, I had a bit of trouble making friends because the hostels in Arequipa are not very social. But then someone pointed out that I'd only been in Arequipa for two hours! I was completely alone for about 4 hours before I had a group of friends. :) Over the weekend I signed up to go on a 3 day/2 night trek through the Colca Canyon with my new friends - there were about 11 of us. This canyon is about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Basically the entire trek felt like summer camp. We were picked up at our hostels at approximately 3am and drove in a bus to a little town called Cabanaconde. After breakfast we drove to a site called Cruz del Condor to check out the condors.

The village of Cosnirhua

That day we hiked down the canyon to a little village called Cosnirhua. It was basically as third-worldly as you can get, which I strangely prefer over cities. We cooked dinner in a rustic kitchen with guinea pigs living in it! Amazing! The guinea pigs "cuy" live and reproduce in the kitchens and when the people get hungry they simply pick one out and cook it.

What's for dinner? Cuy!

Here is the group before the trek

I was made fun of alot for bringing the smallest backpack ever on a backpacking trip (there is 3 liters of water in that tiny pack). But during the trek back up the canyon, guess who felt awesome?!

 In Peru, I am an ecologist. And in this role, I can't help but assess the land use. I am impressed with the Incan terraces for agriculture which the local Quecha people still use today. Equally impressive is the stone irrigation channels which feed the terraces. Colca Canyon is crazy steep but I observed very little erosion due to terracing. Maybe the grape growers in California could learn a little something from the Incas! The erosion I did see was related to the newer roads (for mules and donkeys - no cars allowed) and trails. There were also a plethora of "borrow pits" (mini quarries) because pretty much everything is made from stone and dirt. I was stoked to see a type of paddock grazing which I'd only learned about in rangeland class and had never observed. I also saw some old friends (and enemies) here... purple lupine, eucalyptus, and pampas grass!

After I returned from the Colca hike I went to live with a local family. They are probably the most posh Peruvians ever, although they are an elderly couple. Every morning they cook me breakfast, I go to school for 4 hours at La Casa de Avila, I return and they make me lunch, I go walk around the city with friends, come back to their house when it gets dark to have tea with the family, do my homework, and go to bed. A pretty low-key lifestyle. Tomorrow I embark for a 2-day backpacking trip up Volcan Misti. I find this hilarious because that was my former boss's name. When I return I have two more days left of school before I catch the bus to Cusco!
Note: I was supposed to go to Lake Titicaca next but the Peruvian side is shut down to travel because of strikes due to the recent presidential election. The government wants to mine the Puno area and the locals are protesting. Go locals! Mining is TERRIBLE for the environment, especially in an area with such magnificant natural resources as Lake Titicaca.