Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu deserves it’s own post. The hundreds of photos I took while in Perú and at Machu Picchu do not portray the beauty that I witnessed with my own eyes. I can’t even find the words to describe how gorgeous and mystifying Macchu Picchu was. The beauty was unbelievable and to comprehend that people, the Incan’s, had created such a place so high in the Andes Mountains was surreal. All I can say is you have to go there!

We arrived to the park bright and early to ensure our entrance into the park. Due to my illness the day before and money, we didn’t do the hike up the mountain that everyone talks about. Instead we did hike to the Sun gate first (for those of you who know what I’m talking about). It was really foggy in the morning and one point started raining. However, the clouds would clear for a few seconds and we would quickly try to snap photos of the sights. By the time we were done with our hike to the Sun gate, the fog had cleared and we were able to see everything!! The sun came out and it was unbelievable.

As I mentioned before, we traveled from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (town where Machu Picchu is) by train on Monday, March 23. We left early in the morning from Santiago and arrived in Aguas Calientes around noon. It was a 4-hour train ride as the train had to continuously change directions in order to change tracks and gain momentum to climb into the mountains. I really enjoyed the train ride (until I started throwing up) as it was an opportunity to see the true life of Peruvians in the countryside and in the mountains and the poverty that exists within Perú. As a foreigner and tourist, it was hard to see the people and their lives. To think that we were traveling on a train that runs through their neighborhoods everyday, blaring its horn, disturbing their daily activities (going to school or work-must wait till train completely passes through and while they are trying to sleep) and that they have probably never or could ever travel by to see one of the most beautiful places in the world. One of the Seven Wonders of the World. Since I was able to travel as a tourist and had the privilege to see Machu Picchu in all its beauty, the next time I go back to Perú I would like to go with a different motive. I’d like to go back as a volunteer to do social work there.

Beautiful Perú!

Perú: March 20-27, 2009

My trip to Perú was amazing! I went with three of my friends from ISA and we didn’t really have a plan, other than the fact that we all knew we going to visit Machu Picchu one of the days that we were there. We had made hostel reservations prior to departing but as far as any plans, we just left with a Southern American travel guide and decided we’d talk to people to see what and how to do things and if that didn’t work we’d have our travel book. On Friday we had to take a bus from Valparáiso to Santiago, where we would then spend the night in the airport as our plane departed Saturday morning at 6am. The Santiago airport and how we got there is another story. Nonetheless, we made it to Perú in the early afternoon and spent the afternoon wandering around Cuzco. Other than the two days we spent in Aguas Calientes and visiting Machu Picchu, we spent our time wandering around Cuzco. Cuzco was touristy and filled with backpackers, but it was also filled with culture and plenty of different places to visit. We visited several Artesian Markets and local restaurants and markets.

I absolutely loved Perú and would love to go back again someday. It is very different from Chile in many different aspects. It is not modernized to the extent that Chile is and is actually quite poor. In fact, everything there was ridiculously cheap. At one restaurant, we each paid 10 sol for a full course meal, which is equivalent to a little more than 3$. The economy of Perú is heavily reliant on tourism and that was quite evident as we walked through the streets, people would ask you to come to their restaurant or shop and try to give you a deal. It was really interesting! Peruvians there were always very friendly with us and willing to help whenever we asked. It helped that we spoke Spanish as they were more appreciative we could speak THEIR language instead of them struggling to speak English. We met a bunch of different people throughout the trip. The great thing about traveling is everyone is outgoing and excited to meet you. They want to know where you’re from and where you are going. It truly is a great spirit and never once did we feel scared or unsafe (of course we were smart about what we were doing so that helped too).

Homesick

For the first time, I really felt homesick. As you know this past week I went to Peru with some friends for the whole week. We had an amazing time (more on that soon!) there. Needless to say though, I ended up getting violently ill on Monday on the train ride to Machu Picchu. At first I thought it was altitude sickness, as I felt light-headed and queasy the higher the train climbed into the mountains. I threw up on the train and the miserable action continued the rest of the day after we made it to Aguas Calientes, where we had a hostel reservation. To make a long story short, I couldn’t hold anything down. I threw up 13 times and spent the entire day running from the bed to the bathroom. My good friends and the hostel staff were worried about me and called a doctor. As a real bonding experience, they all saw my bare white butt as I received a shot on the hostel bed (what a sight). Turns out I had food poisoning and was clearly dehydrated. Thankfully I was able to see the Peruvian doctor (who was quite friendly and made me feel comfortable in such an awkward situation but who cares about embarrassment when you’re that sick, right?) and we made it to Machu Picchu bright and early the next morning. Thanks to my Electoral (equivalency to Pedialyte, I’m sure) I didn’t die at Machu Picchu.

Anyway, before the trip was over three of the four of us were all sick and all we talked about was eating some good food from home. We didn’t want to eat the food anymore in Peru due to how miserable we felt. To be honest, all we really wanted was some home-made chicken noodle soup (we bought packaged Ramen to try to satisfy that need) and to be sick in our own beds in our own homes instead of in some hostel bunk-beds. When I arrived home on Friday night and my host mom asked how our trip went, I informed her of my illness. To my surprise she made me chicken noodle soup and all day Saturday she took care of me. She made me dinner in bed and prepared some delicious herbal tea for me as some sort of medicine. Since we were returning from Peru to our host families in Chile and not back to the states as much as we wanted, this was the closest thing to feeling at “home”. And it was awfully nice…

Púcon

This last weekend we traveled 12 hours by bus through the night to Púcon with the organization. It was one of the best weekends I have ever had. We spent the weekend doing different outdoor activities as the town is a tourist-mountain town. We stayed in cabins where we could walk to the downtown area very easily. The first night the girls from my cabin and I cooked together and the second night we all went out for dinner to a classy restaurant that served the best pizza.

The day we arrived there (Friday) we went on a scenic tour, visiting different lakes and waterfalls. The tour ended with swimming at some natural hot springs. Awesome!

I went whitewater rafting and did canopy (zip lining) through the mountains on Saturday. Sunday I was suppose to climb this active volcano with a group, but to make a long story short, I ended up having a dream the night before about the volcano erupting so I had anxiety about going the next morning at 5am when we were suppose to leave. I would have loved to try trekking the volcano but it is hard work. Two of my friends went and made it to the top. However, they were about dead afterwards. Some students in their group didn’t make it as the guides felt they couldn’t go on for various reasons. (It was a big deal to do this. You had to have certain amounts of food and water. The group that went on Saturday didn’t get to go very far due to high winds. It was too dangerous) I probably would have been one of those students so it was better that I spent my day wandering the town and hanging out at the beach…

Now I am off for my adventure to Peru!

First Week of Class (and second too!)

My first week of classes was alright. It was a little stressful trying to find them and make sure I was in the right class and whatnot. It was like being a freshman all over again. Here in Chile, it’s normal to be 15 minutes late for everything so that concept helped. I really like my classes. I am taking all Spanish courses that focus on the language.

This last week was my second week of classes. I was really busy as I had HOMEWORK for the first time in a few months. However, it was real easy and nothing too time-consuming. The nice thing about my classes is that I don’t have to lock myself away and spend all night studying. It’s more about experiential learning, which is awesome. Yesterday (Thursday) in my Chilean Culture class we had to go out of the classroom and ask Chileans to give us definitions to words our professor had provided. The words were “Chilenismo”, which is the language here; different from Spanish. We had to ask them what the word meant and to use it in a sentence. Most of the words were provocative and inappropriate so that made for a good time. It was super intimidating and scary to approach other Chilean students in such a way. Most of them laughed at us since we didn’t know what we were asking in Spanish anyway. Haha It was fun though.

I really like all of my professors too. They already know our names! The professors here are so laid back. They wear jeans to class and answer their phones in the middle of lecture too. Definitely not what I’m used to but it definitely takes pressure off trying to be formal in situations.

First Week

Viña del Mar:

Valparaiso:

This past week was my first week in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. I live in Viña with a family but go to school in Valpo. They are very close to each other but very different. Viña is more modern and touristy looking, while Valpo is more colonial and colorful-looking. I like being able to experience both because they are really different from each other.

Along with tours and school orientation meetings/business, I have been trying to adjust to a new culture. It’s really hard for me to talk in Spanish here. I feel as though I have forgotten everything I’ve learned and all that I have learned is invalid. They speak super fast here and drop the ends of half the words in their sentences. Half the struggle is trying to understand what they are saying… then how to reply in Spanish. Hopefully it will get better and my Spanish can only improve at this point.

My family is really nice and sweet. I’m privileged to live with them as they are quite wealthy. The house is huge and I have my own room and bathroom. The best part of the household is the food. Chilean food is known to be bland but the food I have been eating here is everything but bland! It’s amazing and let me tell you, I will never go hungry because she feeds me like there’s tomorrow. After a few days of packing me lunches, I had to ask her to give me less because I couldn’t waste it but couldn’t eat it all either…

We toured Valpo and Viña in order to get to know the cities. We toured downtown both cities, took a boat ride in Valpo, visited several different beaches/piers, Pablo Neruda’s house (second of three), and the Mueseo a Cielo Abierto (Open Sky Museum). All excursions were very interesting but were rushed so I hope to go back to the places on my own time.

This last week we also registered for classes, which is another story in itself. I don’t think they could have made it any more harder for us and before it was over, I think we all wanted to cry. We are restricted by the classes we can take but they also had put them back-to-back, as well as overlapping them all. So, there was not a lot of flexibility to schedule and not to mention, the campus buildings are scattered all over Valpo and Viña so you have to allow time in between classes to get from one building to another by bus. Since I am volunteering, I plan to only take 3 classes (still 14 credits) and tried to schedule them so they were all in the same building or at least directly next to each other. We start classes tomorrow (Monday). Wish me luck as I try to find my way around carrying a Spanish dictionary….

Santiago: Feb. 26-Feb. 29

Santiago was really cool. It was quite an overwhelming experience there. We had arrived after a 12-hour plane ride from Texas and had less than an hour to get to our apartments, clean up and prepare for the several hours of touring the city. It was quite a rush, and without much sleep, I just wanted to go to bed. But we were in SANTIAGO, CHILE, no time for sleep.

The weather in Santiago was very humid and smoggy. I didn’t bring the appropriate summer clothes for this weather only because its important to blend in, not stand out, especially as an American… Santiago is very polluted, mostly because 1/3 of the population lives in the city. But I was surprised at how clean the streets were- more clean than some cities in the United States that I have been to.

While in Santiago we visited:
Cerro San Cristóbol
Took a Teleférico Ride to view the skyline
Palacio Presidencial La Moneda (The Presidents Palace-but she does not live here)
Paseo Ahumada
Plaza de Armas
Mercado Central (Central Market)
Viña Cousiño Macul (Wine tasting tour!)
Barrio Bellavista (“The Beautiful View” where we had lunch one day- Bohemian-feel neighborhood/plaza area)
La Chascona (One of three homes of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda)
Cerro Santa Lucía (where Santiago was founded)
Pueblo de Los Dominicos (arts and crafts shops)

The entire weekend in Santiago was overwhelming. In between tours, we had orientation meetings to prepare for living in Chile, as well as going to school. It was a ton of information to absorb but it was definitely really nice to have as I imagine some international students do not have such a great organization as we do to prepare them like this. We were all getting to know each other throughout the weekend as well. There are about 50 kids here in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso studying abroad with ISA. I was amazed at how many American students chose Chile… it was/has been fun getting to know everyone. Immediately I connected with my roommate (only for Santiago) Nicole, and we befriended a few other girls who we hung out with the whole weekend. Sunday evening, February 29, we boarded a bus to meet our host families… I was so nervous, yet so excited.