PERU!!

So sorry it has taken so long to write about my FANTASTIC trip to Peru! Amy, Jessie, and I flew out Saturday morning of Spring Break to Cuzco, Peru. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Cuzco at Loki hostel, adjusting to the altitude and shopping. The hostel was much nicer than others I have stayed in, and there were a lot of activities going on there. I went souvenir CRAZY in Peru, so most of you will be receiving Peruvian gifts rather than Argentine ones. We ran into our friend Russ, another Pepperdine kid, and went to dinner with him both nights. On Monday morning, we woke up really early (before 6 am) to head for a train to Aguas Calientes, which is near Machu Picchu. We saw part of the Inca Trail on the train ride and were so glad we chose to take a 4 hour train instead of the 4 day Inca Trail hike. Aguas Calientes was a pretty boring town, just a stopping point for Machu Picchu visitors. We went to the hot springs, which were quite disgusting and smelled gross. We stayed for about 30 minutes, and then decided it was time to leave. All of the restaurants begged for us to stop there, all of which offered all-day happy hours, 4 for 1, plus multiple appetizeres or whatever else we wanted. We got bored half way through the day so decided to walk down the road along the river to see where it would take us.....Randomly we see Russ again and another Pepperdine student, Brian. They had already been up to Machu Picchu, so we got advice from them about what to see and at what times of the day. We went to bed early to get up before dawn for the second day in a row to take a 20 minutes bus up to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was AMAZING. When we got there, the clouds were still covering most of the ruins, but the view of the Andes Mountains was amazing. We got to walk along part of the Inca Trail and saw many llamas and alpacas. We took a tour for a few hours with a lot of other people, a lot of senior citizens who I got quite annoyed with. They walked really slow and asked tons of questions. There is one mountain next to Machu Picchu called Waynapicchu and only 400 people are allowed to climb it per day. We decided that was a must and head up at 8:30 ish in the morning, so we left our tour early. The hike was straight up and took about an hour. The "path" was extremely steep, and we were basically scaling a mountain. We were dying and didn't know how we would get down. Amy took a picture of the path and later I looked at it and thought it was a pile of rocks. We were practically rock climbing. Once at the top, we stayed there for several hours, reading and eating lunch (haha...a really early lunch). We spent the rest of the day wandering around the site lookng at tons of ruins, playing with the llamas, and sitting and reading in the beautiful Andes. That night we took the train back to Cuzco, where we again stayed at Loki hostel.

Wednesday, we took a tour bus to Puno, which is where Lake Titicaca is. The bus ride was pretty uneventful. We got off several times to see various sites, like a very old church, and Inca temple, and a few museums. Once we got to Lake Titicaca, we were so glad to be staying in a hotel! For the past 4 days we had been staying in hostels and packing and repacking almost every day. It was nice to have our own room and bathroom. It was also so nice to not have to worry about having to pack everything up. The hotel was much nicer than I had imagined, because it was just as cheap as a hostel. Puno was also a pretty boring town, but the lake was beautiful. There were lots of little guinea pigs running around outside, and I enjoyed chasing them around. Lake Titicaca is the highest lake in the world. It was cold, but very sunny. Thursday we just relaxed and wandered around Puno. Friday, we went on a boat to the Uros Islands and Taquile Island. Uros islands were made up of over 40 man-made floating islands. It was soooo cool. It was probably my favorite thing that we did - maybe even better than Machu Picchu. Everything was made out of reeds... the ground, the houses, the kitchen, the boats, everything. But, the funny was is that they had televisions and solar power on the small islands, they even had cable! We got to ride in a reed boat, and buy some more souvenirs from the locals. The next island we stopped at was actually an island. We walked around the island and had lunch there, and visited a museum and some stores.

Saturday, we returned to Buenos Aires. Overall, I really liked Peru - except for the food. Delicacies in Peru include alpaca and guinea pig, which were not very appealing to me. The people were nice and the country was surprisingly clean. Peru has beautiful landscapes and the best souvenirs. Peru was my favorite country so far, probably because it really felt like South America. I really enjoyed all the people being dressed in traditional clothing and doing traditional activities. Also, it was fuuny that their currency was called soles. We had a wonderful trip and I am so glad that we chose Peru for our Spring Break trip!

Cuzco & Machu Picchu:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050313&l=5fe29&id=8506204
Llamas & Alpacas:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050314&l=094e9&id=8506204
Lake Titicaca:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050315&l=4810c&id=8506204
More Peru:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050317&l=64dee&id=8506204