October 10, 2014

Day 8 in Peru. This is our last full day in Peru. Ironically, this day came as a bit of a surprise to us. After being away from civilization for the better part of the week, I got confused and thought that we would be leaving today for San Francisco. Fortunately, we actually have one more night in Cuzco and one more day to explore this country. As a final hurrah, we spent most of that time exploring the neighborhood and streets around us.


The San Pedro Market is one of the largest markets in Cuzco and it primarily serves the local community. There are many fresh fruits, spices, and meat stalls here as well as a small selection of pottery. This photo is one of the many food stalls in and around the market.


Guinea pigs are a delicacy in Peru and are often served for special occasions. My father was not familiar with this tradition, so when he saw a vendor selling live guinea pigs, he thought she was selling them as pets. Unfortunately for that guinea pig (and many more in Peru), it was probably on its way to the dinner table. As proof of this, I led my father next door to a guinea pig butcher shop. There, we found many rows of butchered guinea pigs. Rather than to share those gruesome pictures, I chose to share this: A few silly stuffed guinea pigs I found on the counter. This is probably not the best way to go out, but at least they will live on forever as a colony of stuffed guinea pigs. Of the four, I thought the drummer guinea pig was the most well-done, although the distorted banjo playing guinea pig gives him a run for his money.


In addition to exploring Cuzco on our own, we also enrolled in a walking tour. Our guide for the day, Marco, was a very animated character with a lot of energy. He introduced us to many cute places in the city and delivered many rich stories to us. Surprisingly, the stories I enjoyed most were of his personal stories. Marco was a foster child and bounced from foster home to foster home. He was fortunate in that he eventually was taken in by a Scandinavian couple. This couple introduced him to many places in Latin America outside of Peru. One such place was Bolivia, where Marco discovered villages of poor mining families. These miners worked backbreaking hours in horrendous conditions, but they would regularly open their doors and share what little food they had with him and his extended family. It was through these experiences that Marco discovered that “it is the people who have the very least that share the very most.” This story stood out to me as an area that I have grappled with myself. Although I won't be able to solve this dissonance in the short-term, I do hope that as I look back at my life I can say confidently that I gave back more to others than I received.


This is a typical neighborhood in Cuzco. As you can see, the roads were made in a time before cars, but people have found ways to work around these limitations. More important, I wanted to share the vibrant city views, lush mountaintops, and dynamic skyline. I simply can't say enough good things about this country.


Yes, the costume appeared a bit cheesy, but I thought the music was good. Also, as with the immediate-past photo, you can capture a better view of the larger cityscape and surrounding mountains.


After all the talk of guinea pigs on this trip, I could not help but try it. It took me some time to muster up the strength to do so. In my previous life I had raised guinea pigs as pets, but on my last night I finally made the plunge. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I won't have guinea pig again. The meat is really tough and it taste a bit dry. It was worth trying once, but it would be hard for me to come back to this again.

Overall, I would say this trip turned out very well. It was rough at first having to adjust to the demands of hiking when sick, but after I got through that difficult hump, things turned out well. My favorite parts of this vacation included Machu Picchu, exploring Cuzco, and spending quality time with my father. My father and I have not traveled together since I moved for college, and even then it was always together with the family. This time I felt I learned a great deal about my dad. For instance, it wasn't clear to me at first just how important it was for my father to hike this trail. For him, he wanted to see if he still had the strength to make it all the way. It was particularly important to him given his age and he was ecstatic to make it to Machu Picchu on his own. At the same time, I was thankful I got to share this experience with him. As someone reminded me on this trip, "It is pretty awesome that your dad would join you on this hike!" Indeed, he is very awesome!

October 9, 2014

Day 7 in Peru. We finally made it to Machu Picchu! We woke up at 4:30 to get ready and spent the whole morning exploring the city. It was pretty amazing to see for myself just how breathtaking the views were from the top of this mountain. Also, as I mentioned in my previous posts, the weather is very dynamic and changes quickly here. There were instances where I would look out into the distance and I could watch the cloud and fog cover swallow the canyons below me and just as quickly dissipate. These ever changing weather patterns and high mountaintops provide some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever encountered. Below are my pictures from today.


No Peru trip would be complete without an iconic photo in front of Macchu Picchu. Without further adieu, this our iconic photo in front of "Machu Picchu." I place this in quotes because Machu Picchu is actually the name of the mountain next to us (not pictured), whereas the large mountain behind us is called Wayna Picchu. However, people generally do not distinguish this. Regardless, I would say that we did a great job of making it here together!


The Temple of Three Windows is one of the three main structures in Macchu Picchu. These windows face out into the mountains and based on research, this area is believed to have been an important place of worship for the Incas.


This is another view of the mountains from the city. As you can see from here, the cloud cover is sometimes scattered throughout the mountains and other times completely consumes the area.


This is a more complete view of Machu Picchu and one of the last photos I took here.


Finally, we took the 7pm train as the first leg of our multi-leg trip back to Cuzco. After a bumpy train ride, we rode another hour by car before we were finally dropped off at our hostel. Overall, I would say hiking to Machu Picchu was well worth it. There is something amazing about visiting an ancient city nestled high up in the mountains that is made more satisfying knowing that you hustled your way there.

October 8, 2014

Day 6 in Peru. Today, like yesterday, was relatively easy. We had a big breakfast and went zip-lining all morning. We eventually finished the evening hiking along the railroad tracks that led to Aguas Calientes (the city just below Machu Picchu).


This would be our last breakfast with our chef, Joan. Joan was only 22 years old, but you could tell he was very eager to do a good job. This is just one example of the hard work he put into our meals: Each of our pancakes had a unique caramel drawing on it. This was one of the more simple images, but he also made ones with llamas, a geographic outline of Peru, and other cute drawings. He also made it a point to combine some local cuisines with Western food. Overall, his meals helped make camping and living outdoors more enjoyable.

I did not bring my camera while zip-lining, so I do not have any photos to share of that experience. This was, however, my second time zip-lining, so it was not new to me. My dad on the other hand had never done it before and really appeared to enjoy it. He told me afterwards, “Next time I want to camp here (there was a place to camp on the zip-lining grounds).” I laughed, so many places he still has not seen and he is already planning his return trip to Peru!


On a separate but related note, I did find the most beautiful bathroom in Peru. The bathrooms at the zip-lining site were open-air and faced the forest. It is kind of an awkward bathroom arrangement, but worth sharing!


This is a picture of the train tracks we followed for most of our hike today. This part of the trek was not as scenic as the other days, but I still enjoyed some of the mountaintop views from here. It was also along these tracks that I got my first view of Machu Picchu.


While hiking along this path we came across this bridge. We could either continue to walk along the train tracks or walk along the walkway to the right. What made this bridge kind of scary was that there were large spaces between the wooden tracks where you could easily slip between the tracks and fall into the river. Surprisingly, a few people chose to continue walking along the tracks anyway. Obviously I was not quiet as adventurous.


We found this guy after what was arguably my favorite lunch of the whole trip. Kenny suggested that we try this small restaurant just next to the train tracks. An older couple owned the restaurant and the food there was the best that I have had all week! After we got our fill and continued back onto the trail, this dog chose to follow us. It was cute because he could just balance along the tracks without falling. He eventually returned home when he realized we had no food to give him. Smart dog.

October 7, 2014

Day 5 in Peru. I went to sleep soon after we arrived to our camp yesterday and I woke up feeling much better this morning. Good enough to hold down food and really enjoy this part of the trek. Ironically, this part of the trip was much easier than yesterday. We only hiked 15 km, as compared to 24 km yesterday, and it was mostly flat. We also had a chance to drop by a hot spring after settling into our campsite.


This is a photo of my father and me in front of one of the waterfalls along the way to our campsite. If you look at our faces, we have red markings along our cheeks. Kenny found some red berries that were used as face paint by the Incas and he applied this same dye to each person's face in the team.


One characteristic that made Kenny such a great guide was his enthusiasm with sharing. In this case, he went ahead of us to find us fruits off the beaten path. The first fruit Kenny shared with us was a type of passion fruit that was quite delicious. At the same time, we found this pumpkin-like fruit in the same area. Apparently it was not ripe for the taking, but I suggested that Kenny hide it so that he could scoop it up next week and cook it next time. Sure enough, we helped him cover it with brush. This is what you could see after we camouflaged it.


This was my first hot spring experience and it was amazing! There were three pools – a kiddy pool, a hot pool, and a warm pool. I spent most of my time in the hot pool chatting with Kenny. It was here where I learned a tremendous deal about Kenny, his family, and the modern Peru economy. At one point we were discussing what it meant to be happy and Kenny reminded me that satisfaction is mainly determine by your perspective. It is something that most people know, but it is worth reminding ourselves when life does not go our way. Never let yourself get too low.

October 6, 2014

Day 4 in Peru. Just as Jean had warned me, I got sick. The feeling I had this morning told me that things would not go well today. Fortunately, I did not cheap out on my medication and opted for most of the recommended just-in-case medications. Best decision I made before leaving! Although I hardly ate anything for breakfast and only had Gatorade for lunch and dinner, I was able to keep up. It is said that today is the most difficult day of this 5-day hike. I can’t speak for the next three days, but today was nearly 24km (15 miles) and it was very painful. Still, I am excited that I was able to make it through the day.


Here are the horses and mules that will be carrying our tents, sleeping bags, and kitchen equipment. It is unbelievable that these animals can trek such long distances and with so much on their backs. God bless them.


This is our group at the top of Salkantay (4,600 meters above sea level). Getting up to this point was truly difficult for me. I think the hike itself seemed manageable, but the high altitude really slowed me down. I was always out of breath and it too me a tremendous amount of time to travel a short distance. Still, we made it to the top of the mountain! It was an amazing view from here and we could see the ice caps above Salkantay and the surrounding mountains. We were even close enough to hear and see a few small avalanches.


Once we made it to the top of Salkantay, we took part in an Inca tradition where we prayed to the gods. We each took 3 cocoa leaves, made a prayer, buried them, and create this rock structure just above our buried leaves. My rock is the 3rd rock from the top. =)