This was my favorite trip so far, half because it marked the end of my time abroad, half because I didn't have to worry about needing money afterwards, and half because Peru is great. Since getting back I've been rushing around a bit to get ready to fly home tomorrow night. Well, rushing in the sense of "playing hearts on the computer and not doing anything." My bags are packed already and I have extra space (again! I should have bought bigger souvenirs!).
Well, Peru. We flew into Chile's northern-most city, Arica, and got a taxi to Peru's southern-most city, Tacna. The ride's about an hour through the Atacama with an easy border crossing in the middle of nowhere. The desert is definitely not boring, the dunes and rocks and huts all break up the landscape. But not really my favorite -- I just miss plants too much.
From Tacna we took buses for about 14 hours to Cuzco, Peru's tourist capital. All of our bus rides were rather enjoyable because of the ridiculous movies we were forced to watch ("Beverly Hills Chihuahua" anyone? and games of Bingo with free return tickets as prizes. Cuzco was the Incan capital (also known as the Belly Button of the World) and has many ruins nearby. The main church was built on the foundation of the Incan emperor's palace and they still use the Incan walls in many buildings. After visiting Macchu Piccu we spent a couple of days in Cuzco just chilling. But at first we just spent the night before catching a train through the Sacred Valley.
The train follows a couple of rivers and we were able to watch the Peruvian countryside as we moved along. The people are clearly poorer than Chilean farmers but still seemed to have productive land. As the train kept going we ended up further in the mountains and the valley was incredibly steep. The landscape turned greener as we entered the western edge of the Amazon. I read that the river we were moving along, the Urubamba, is considered to be the beginning of the Amazon River -- cool!
We got to Aguascalientes which is this little town near Macchu Piccu that exists solely because of tourism. There were tons of stalls selling souvenirs and I got some. Okay, I got quite a bit. But it was so much cool stuff!
Anyway. That night we tried cuy, or guinea pig. It tastes like chicken, but there's maybe four mouthfuls of meat in the entire thing and it sits there looking scary. Not worth the money and it's a good thing we ordered pizza as well or we would have starved. Tell me if you want to see pictures, I'm not putting any of the ugly things up on here.
We got up early in the morning to be in the first 400 up the Macchu Piccu. Why? Well there's a Peruvian law that only 400 people a day can climb Wayna Piccu, the peak right next to Macchu Piccu. You can see it behind me in the picture above. [By the way, Wayna Piccu means Young Man and Macchu Piccu means Old Man] Unfortunately, we were numbers 400-403, so we didn't quite make it. The clouds were covering the peaks of all the mountains and it was just beautiful. The ruins were incredible, too, and we got a tour. I took a lot of pictures, guess I should put those on Facebook.
We ate lunch right outside the ruins and watched Germany-Argentina. Once we decided Germany was winning we headed back up. Although Wayna Piccu was off-limits, there are a number of other hikes around the ruins -- the Sun Gate, the Inca Bridge, or the mountain Macchu Piccu. Our guide had recommended the mountain for us because we are "young and fisic." It's a harder climb, but there are few others and the view is great. She estimated we could do it in an hour and a half. At the base there was a guy in a stand checking people in (in case we don't come back, gulp) and he thought we could do it in 40 minutes. Well, we showed them! It took us two hours, probably because of our frequent and lengthy breaks. Totally worth it, the view was incredible in every direction and there was a cool breeze from the glaciers.
Since we were on the peak of that mountain everything has been a step getting closer to home. We spent a few days in Cuzco, then another in Arequipa, Peru's second largest city. It's also known as the White City because of the bright volcanic rock used in many of its buildings. Heading back into Chile we spent a day in Arica enjoying the ocean and the food (best restaurant in Chile!). Despite being the driest city in the world, Arica is also a surfing hotspot. The flight back to Santiago was even great because I could see the coastline, the ocean and the sunset.
Tonight we're having a going away party/barbecue. I'll be home in less than two days!
