I have just finished my first week at Parque Ambue Ari. It has been a challenging but very rewarding one.
Every day wake up call is at 6:30. We all roll out of our bunks and start our daily and weekly tasks- things like setting up for breakfast, cleaning out the aviaries, cleaning bathrooms, feeding the piglet, or prepping food for the animals. My weekly task was to help feed Rudolpho the Deer and Herbie the Tapir, so I would go chop veggies and banana leaves, then put on my mud boots and head into the jungle to feed and water them (and give Herbie some love. He is such a sweetie that people used to take turns sleeping in his enclosure at night so he wouldn´t get lonely). At 8:00 we all have breakfast together (two rolls, tea and coffee, and a hard-boiled egg) and then get ready for our morning cats.
I take care of Katie the jaguar in the mornings. She is a lovely girl- I´m really lucky to have gotten her. She was raised as a house cat in a family that actually treated her fairly well, so she doesn´t have any of the issues with people or terrible health problems that so many of the cats have as a result of the abuse they endured when they were little and fuzzy and adorable. Unfortunately, she isn´t able to go outside of her enclosure right now, as there is a wild male jaguar prowling around-we see his tracks around her cage every morning. Therefore, my partner and I grab her food and water and head out to hang out in her enclosure. We bring toys and try to get her to play, though most of the time she just lazes around and occasionally rolls over for belly rubs. She does love to play with the Nalgene she stole from me on my first day, though! We hang out in her cage for a few hours, then wrap her meat up inside banana leaves and stick them in tricky places so she has to hunt for them.
After that we muck through the mud back to camp, then have lunch. Lunch is the best meal of the day- often meat or pasta with rice, salad, and some form of potato (of course). After lunch we have a bit of free time, then change into a second set of wet, muddy clothes and head out to visit our afternoon cats (we can´t smell like our morning cats or the afternoon cats may get upset). My afternoon kittie is Vanesso, a male ocelot. I am on him by myself and walk him on trails through the jungle, and he is by far the most challenging part of my day, even though he is so much smaller than Katie. Vanesso can be a bit of a grump sometimes, and likes to growl and jump on you if you try to keep him walking longer than he´d like, if you get too close to his food, or if he has to get his paws wet. Which is all the time, as all of his trails are under a foot and a half of water. Yay, wet season. Things are getting better every day, though, because he´s learning to trust me and I´m learning not to be afraid of his jumps. The last two days I have been able to relax at times and enjoy watching him stalk through the banana leaves or curl up and take a nap. He has also started giving me a tiny bit of affection sometimes- friendly head bumps on the knees and such.
After I´ve walked Vanesso for a few hours (actually, he walks me) I give him his food and water, then head back for my glorious cold shower and dinner. Human dinner usually consists of a lentil or veggie soup. It´s usually dark by the time we finish eating, so a lot of people walk a mile down the road to ¨the shop¨, an open-air shack that has munchies and refrigerated drinks. Luxury! The other night we had a clear sky, and I saw the milky way more clearly than I ever had before as we walked back. Most people are usually passed out by 10 pm or so.
So that is our life for 6.5 days a week! Saturday (today) we do a big camp clean up in the morning, then just go into the jungle and feed our cats so we can have the afternoon off to hand wash our laundry or take the 45 minute busride to Guarayos to use the internet.
The 40 volunteers we have are absolutely amazing. It´s hard to describe the atmosphere that this lifestyle creates. Everyone here suffers through mosquitos that swarm and bite through three layers of pants, being wet and stinky and covered in mud all the time, and living without the slightest bit of privacy or comfort without a single word of complaint. Painful foot fungus is rampant as everyone is wearing wet boots all day, as are stomach issues and cuts and bites from all sorts of critters. Yet everyone is so obviously thrilled to be there, doing what they are doing. It´s unlike anything I´ve ever seen- very, very cool.
Next Friday we are celebrating Carnaval by having a dress-up party and an auction. I´m not sure how dressing up for Carnaval works when you can´t expose a single centimeter of skin without losing it to mosquitos, but we will see! The auction will be to raise money for emergency repairs on one of the cats´enclosures, and should be a lot of fun. Apparently, at the last one, volunteers sold opportunities to shave their heads or watch them mud-wrestle in the compost pit. Should be fun!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Puno, Peru, to Cochabamba, Bolivia
While all the touristy amenities (and kind people we met) in Cusco were lovely, we were happy to move on to Puno and away from the crazily inflated prices.
We arrived in Puno, a fairly small, scruffy city, just towards the end of their ¨Virgen del Candelaria¨ festival. The entire city celebrates the Holy Virgin by getting decked out in outlandish costumes, dancing, marching around with brass bands, eating lots of Jell-o, and drinking from 11 a.m. on. Unfortunately we seemed to have missed the biggest parts of the festival, but we were still lucky enough to hang out one afternoon with hordes of dancers and revellers in one of the squares. The people were incredibly friendly there- we were just standing around feeling like gringos and taking pictures, when all of a sudden an old guy dressed in drag with a mask invited me to dance, then Ace. I was also offered to share innumerable plastic cups of beer, and we spent a while talking and passing around bottles of Cusqueño with a group of artisans with the most amazing hand-made costumes- all fiberglass skeletons and horns and animal skins. Some of the women were in a rather disturbing combination of the quaint local dress- think felt bowler hats and braids and long sleeved, brightly colored embroidered blouses with puffed shoulders and vests- worn over skirts so short you could see their butts and stilettos.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun taking pictures and talking to locals. One night we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with Raphael and Tereza, our friends from Macchu Picchu, and introduce them to our favorite café. We also took a day trip out to the floating islands (the Uros), where we got to see how the communities live on their 70 man-made islands they have been building and re-building for hundreds of years from floating totora reed roots. It´s pretty touristy at this point, but still fascinating. We also went to Taquile, one of the natural islands of Lake Titicaca, which also has a really interesting, unique cultura of it´s own. It´s famous for the incredible weaving and crocheting culture- the men even crochet their own hats for their wedding, which they wear from then on. The way that government officials distinguish themselves is by wearing those brightly-colored wool caps with the ear flaps and tassels, which I find awesome.
After our three nights in Puno, we headed into Bolivia for a few days of relaxation in La Paz before Ace had to fly out. My sweet parents offered to pay Ace´s entrance into Bolivia so he didn´t have to go back to Lima. The trip was fairly short and uneventful up until we reached Copacabana, the main town in Bolivia on our route. From there, we were supposed to change buses and continue on to La Paz. However, five hours later, our bus was still not there. The group ended up basically camping out in some random hostel´s common area all day, pestering the poor bus company guy who was supposed to be in charge and clearly wanted to be drinking a beer somewhere instead of dealing with us. Apparently the bus that was on the way to pick us up fell off the little raft that was ferrying it across a stretch of Lake Titicaca- oops. Somehow, supposedly, they had to dredge it up and send a new bus all the way from La Paz again. Anyways, in spite of the excitement, we made it to La Paz that night.
Our time in La Paz was lovely- we just relaxed, shopped, explored, and ate well. On Valentine´s day we did a bit of souvenier shopping, ate the best pizza we´ve had yet in S.America , went to a theater and watched ¨Red¨, and met up with our friend Claire-Marie for a drink when she arrived in town. A lovely last day together. Yesterday I dropped Ace off at the airport (sniffle) and hopped on my bus to Cochabamba. It feels really, really weird to be traveling alone! It´s amazing how little I talk to anyone during my day- just the cab driver and the receptionist at the hostel, maybe a little chitchat with the waitress. I am now in Cochabamba, very impatient to get to the animal refuge and start making myself useful, but stuck for today due to a transportation strike. Hopefully the buses will be running tomorrow and I will be on Inti Waru Wassi by tomorrow night!
We arrived in Puno, a fairly small, scruffy city, just towards the end of their ¨Virgen del Candelaria¨ festival. The entire city celebrates the Holy Virgin by getting decked out in outlandish costumes, dancing, marching around with brass bands, eating lots of Jell-o, and drinking from 11 a.m. on. Unfortunately we seemed to have missed the biggest parts of the festival, but we were still lucky enough to hang out one afternoon with hordes of dancers and revellers in one of the squares. The people were incredibly friendly there- we were just standing around feeling like gringos and taking pictures, when all of a sudden an old guy dressed in drag with a mask invited me to dance, then Ace. I was also offered to share innumerable plastic cups of beer, and we spent a while talking and passing around bottles of Cusqueño with a group of artisans with the most amazing hand-made costumes- all fiberglass skeletons and horns and animal skins. Some of the women were in a rather disturbing combination of the quaint local dress- think felt bowler hats and braids and long sleeved, brightly colored embroidered blouses with puffed shoulders and vests- worn over skirts so short you could see their butts and stilettos.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun taking pictures and talking to locals. One night we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with Raphael and Tereza, our friends from Macchu Picchu, and introduce them to our favorite café. We also took a day trip out to the floating islands (the Uros), where we got to see how the communities live on their 70 man-made islands they have been building and re-building for hundreds of years from floating totora reed roots. It´s pretty touristy at this point, but still fascinating. We also went to Taquile, one of the natural islands of Lake Titicaca, which also has a really interesting, unique cultura of it´s own. It´s famous for the incredible weaving and crocheting culture- the men even crochet their own hats for their wedding, which they wear from then on. The way that government officials distinguish themselves is by wearing those brightly-colored wool caps with the ear flaps and tassels, which I find awesome.
After our three nights in Puno, we headed into Bolivia for a few days of relaxation in La Paz before Ace had to fly out. My sweet parents offered to pay Ace´s entrance into Bolivia so he didn´t have to go back to Lima. The trip was fairly short and uneventful up until we reached Copacabana, the main town in Bolivia on our route. From there, we were supposed to change buses and continue on to La Paz. However, five hours later, our bus was still not there. The group ended up basically camping out in some random hostel´s common area all day, pestering the poor bus company guy who was supposed to be in charge and clearly wanted to be drinking a beer somewhere instead of dealing with us. Apparently the bus that was on the way to pick us up fell off the little raft that was ferrying it across a stretch of Lake Titicaca- oops. Somehow, supposedly, they had to dredge it up and send a new bus all the way from La Paz again. Anyways, in spite of the excitement, we made it to La Paz that night.
Our time in La Paz was lovely- we just relaxed, shopped, explored, and ate well. On Valentine´s day we did a bit of souvenier shopping, ate the best pizza we´ve had yet in S.America , went to a theater and watched ¨Red¨, and met up with our friend Claire-Marie for a drink when she arrived in town. A lovely last day together. Yesterday I dropped Ace off at the airport (sniffle) and hopped on my bus to Cochabamba. It feels really, really weird to be traveling alone! It´s amazing how little I talk to anyone during my day- just the cab driver and the receptionist at the hostel, maybe a little chitchat with the waitress. I am now in Cochabamba, very impatient to get to the animal refuge and start making myself useful, but stuck for today due to a transportation strike. Hopefully the buses will be running tomorrow and I will be on Inti Waru Wassi by tomorrow night!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Huanchaco to Machu Picchu
To leave beautiful Huanchaco, we decided to take an overnight bus to Huaraz, which was about 9 hours. So we had to simply get on the bus in the evening, fall asleep, and then wake up and *poof!* we would have arrived in Huaraz, home to all kinds of fun tourist activities. Sounds like an easy trip, right? Well, in the end, it was definitely the most difficult trip I have ever had to take… First of all, Kait was feeling a bit ill a few hours before our bus left, and I felt really bad for her since we were about to make such a big trip. However, once we got on the bus and started moving, I started to feel more and more nauseous after about 30 minutes.
Shortly after, I made my first trip to the bathroom to relieve myself of my lunch and dinner, a trip I would soon get used to. Luckily, our seats were very close to the bathroom. I had only to get up out of my seat and open two close doors in order to reach the bathroom. Unluckily, the bathroom was occupied during two of my trips. (In total, I had about 8-10 trips to the bathroom!) Since it was occupied, I had to relieve myself in the hall just outside of the bathroom. Once I reached the locked bathroom door, the scene sounded something like this:
Me: *KNOCK KNOCK!* *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!* *BLEH!* (on the floor…)
I was glad that there were no seats anywhere near the bathroom that weren’t at least separated by a door. I did regret, however, the bus attendant, upon finally noticing how violently ill I was, helping me clean up my mess on the floor. She ended up giving me a small plastic bag to use for the next time.
Once we arrived at the bus station, we were to meet a friend from couchsurfing. (We call all of the people we have never met from couchsurfing friends because, well, they’re some of the nicest people we have ever met, and that’s how they act towards us.) We were both so weak that we could barely stand up, let alone carry our backpacks by ourselves. Apparently our faces were pretty ashen as well. So our friend hefted our bags and aided us to a taxi which took us to a hostel run by one of his family members. (They gave us a nice discount on the rate and some tea to help our stomachs.) It was at this point, however, that we realized that our ailments were far from finished.
Both Kait and I had to make many trips to the bathroom – for a different reason than when we were on the bus. I knew that I had to keep drinking water, especially since I noticed I was a bit sicker than Kait, but after about three or four hours of this, I realized that the water was simply not staying in my body long enough. In this moment – about noon that day – that I decided we should take a trip to the hospital.
It seems that normally when people think about hospitals in foreign countries, they think of inadequate, dirty conditions that don’t hold a candle to North American or Western European hospitals. However, this one was really very good. Sure, there were a few things that weren’t perfect about it, such as having porous concrete floors or lacking soap or TP in the bathroom, but for the equivalent of $30 USD to get four IV bags to hydrate my and to rest on an emergency-room bed for about four hours, I’d say I had very little to complain about. All in all, after our time in the hospital, Kait and I felt much better, albeit still far from completely healthy. Upon emerging, we feebly made our way to a restaurant where we ordered the simplest soup we could find on the menu. (We continued this process for the next five or six meals.) Then we rested for the next two or three days by sleeping a lot in our hostel and watching some dubbed TV, like The Simpsons or Terminator 2.
Needless to say, we didn’t end up doing much in Huaraz. We did a little shopping, but then we made our way to Lima, but this time, it was via a day bus… I still wasn’t ready to take on another overnight adventure like the last one. Anyways, after making the trip easily without incident, we found our way to a nice backpacker’s hostel. We wanted to do some adventure tourism here, but we found that it was way over-priced, especially since the original prices we saw were from a guidebook that was three years old. It really is amazing how quickly the prices go up for various activities. So Lima was a nice place to relax, enjoy the warm weather, and catch a movie at the local theater.
Then began our next overnight bus trip to Cusco. This time, the trip was 23 hours, and I was prepared with some sleeping pills that I had purchased at the local pharmacy. (Unlike Kait, I lack the ability to fall asleep, cat-like, in almost any circumstances.) So we embarked in the late afternoon, and by about midnight, I decided to go ahead and take one pill because I was not feeling sleepy at all. The effect was fairly immediate; within what seemed like thirty minutes or less, I was completely knocked out and happily asleep for the entire night. However, a problem arose the next morning when Kait started trying to wake me up. The scene went something like this:
Kait: Hey sweety, we are almost at the station. Can you get everything ready?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble.
Kait: What sweety? Hey, can you get up for me?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble. Snore.
Apparently, the pill I took was really, really strong, and I was unable to become fully conscious. Once the bus stopped, I forced my body to walk outside and grab my stuff, but I was pretty dizzy and had a strong desire to sit down (and sleep). I don’t remember how we got to the center of the city, but once there, we tried a hostel that tried to charge us twice the normal rate of a room with a double bed. (This is the norm in Cusco since it is so close to the famed Machu Picchu.) Kait, realizing that I would be the opposite of helpful in trying to find a new hostel, asked the owner if she could “leave my husband here” while she looked for a new hostel. The owner, a sweet old grandma, had no objection. In fact, seeing my discomfort, she ended up giving me some tea, which I thought was really nice of her.
Eventually, Kait came back, and took me to our hostel. Immediately, I crashed on the bed and fell asleep, which I did off and on for the remainder of the day. Kait came back at one point and woke me up, at which time I remarked, “I didn’t realize I fell asleep!” even though I had been sleeping for probably three hours. In the end, I pretty much lost an entire day due to sleep, and then I slept some more during that night, which I didn’t feel I really needed, but I did it anyways.
Our next trip was from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, the pueblo that abuts Machu Picchu. Aside from the shockingly overpriced everything, we had a good time perusing the town before going to bed early in preparation for waking up stupidly early to catch the first bus up to Machu Picchu the next morning.
MACHU PICCHU!
We woke up at 3:50am, grabbed our pre-packed breakfast, and waited at the bus station for about an hour and a half before the first bus was scheduled to leave – and we were still by no means the first people there. The bus ride to the top was windy but thankfully pretty short, and once there, we joined another line to the entrance. Once inside the gates, we hiked along, photographed a bunch of llamas, and continued along the trail. At about the time we saw the llamas, we saw some structures, but it was so foggy that we could not see past them. Apparently, that was where Machu Picchu was! But, being the over achievers that we are, we hiked well past that point up the MOUNTAIN of Machu Picchu, which is completely different than the city/ruins under the same name. Being with a crowd of other people, though, we had no idea.
Eventually, some Japanese tourists figured it out and started to descend, but after we met some savvy travelers named Raphael and Tereza, we decided to continue ascending with them. We hiked along some awesome stone stairs and passed through the sun gate, and after much effort (my legs are still sore; I am not allowed to even touch Kait’s calves…), we made it to the top. However, our view was completely obscured by clouds; even the top of the mountain was covered in a cloud, so we decided to wait for a while in order for things to clear up. That was okay, though, because this gave us a chance to get to know the other travelers. After a couple of hours, we were afforded some really great views of the site, even if it was still partially cloud-covered. We took way too many photos here and hung around for a while longer waiting for the intermittent views of the ruins.
We decided to descend once we had had our fill, and made our way to the ruins which were no longer covered in fog. We didn’t mind that we had accidentally missed the ruins the first time because it was so shrouded at the ground level, and once we returned, we had great fun in taking way too many photos once more.
Before arriving at Machu Picchu, I had been developing the impression that the site in general was overblown, especially compared to some of the other ruins we saw – like Kuelap – that were grandiose and impressive in and of themselves. However, being at Machu Picchu made me realize that it really was a special place. The geography and the quality of the ruins combined even with bad weather provided us a breath-taking view that left us feeling very lucky that we had the opportunity to make it.
Plans for the near future:
We will travel from here to Puno, which is next to Lake Titicaca, and we will relax there for a few days. My flight home leaves from La Paz on the 15th of February, but I recently realized that there is a $135 fee just to enter Bolivia! So I might end up back-tracking all the way to Lima where I have a connecting flight and then just catch that for cheaper than it would be to enter Bolivia. In any case, I will be home on the morning of the 16th, and after that, I will start looking for a job either as a temporary teacher or a substitute, depending on what I can find. Wish me luck!
Shortly after, I made my first trip to the bathroom to relieve myself of my lunch and dinner, a trip I would soon get used to. Luckily, our seats were very close to the bathroom. I had only to get up out of my seat and open two close doors in order to reach the bathroom. Unluckily, the bathroom was occupied during two of my trips. (In total, I had about 8-10 trips to the bathroom!) Since it was occupied, I had to relieve myself in the hall just outside of the bathroom. Once I reached the locked bathroom door, the scene sounded something like this:
Me: *KNOCK KNOCK!* *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!* *BLEH!* (on the floor…)
I was glad that there were no seats anywhere near the bathroom that weren’t at least separated by a door. I did regret, however, the bus attendant, upon finally noticing how violently ill I was, helping me clean up my mess on the floor. She ended up giving me a small plastic bag to use for the next time.
Once we arrived at the bus station, we were to meet a friend from couchsurfing. (We call all of the people we have never met from couchsurfing friends because, well, they’re some of the nicest people we have ever met, and that’s how they act towards us.) We were both so weak that we could barely stand up, let alone carry our backpacks by ourselves. Apparently our faces were pretty ashen as well. So our friend hefted our bags and aided us to a taxi which took us to a hostel run by one of his family members. (They gave us a nice discount on the rate and some tea to help our stomachs.) It was at this point, however, that we realized that our ailments were far from finished.
Both Kait and I had to make many trips to the bathroom – for a different reason than when we were on the bus. I knew that I had to keep drinking water, especially since I noticed I was a bit sicker than Kait, but after about three or four hours of this, I realized that the water was simply not staying in my body long enough. In this moment – about noon that day – that I decided we should take a trip to the hospital.
It seems that normally when people think about hospitals in foreign countries, they think of inadequate, dirty conditions that don’t hold a candle to North American or Western European hospitals. However, this one was really very good. Sure, there were a few things that weren’t perfect about it, such as having porous concrete floors or lacking soap or TP in the bathroom, but for the equivalent of $30 USD to get four IV bags to hydrate my and to rest on an emergency-room bed for about four hours, I’d say I had very little to complain about. All in all, after our time in the hospital, Kait and I felt much better, albeit still far from completely healthy. Upon emerging, we feebly made our way to a restaurant where we ordered the simplest soup we could find on the menu. (We continued this process for the next five or six meals.) Then we rested for the next two or three days by sleeping a lot in our hostel and watching some dubbed TV, like The Simpsons or Terminator 2.
Needless to say, we didn’t end up doing much in Huaraz. We did a little shopping, but then we made our way to Lima, but this time, it was via a day bus… I still wasn’t ready to take on another overnight adventure like the last one. Anyways, after making the trip easily without incident, we found our way to a nice backpacker’s hostel. We wanted to do some adventure tourism here, but we found that it was way over-priced, especially since the original prices we saw were from a guidebook that was three years old. It really is amazing how quickly the prices go up for various activities. So Lima was a nice place to relax, enjoy the warm weather, and catch a movie at the local theater.
Then began our next overnight bus trip to Cusco. This time, the trip was 23 hours, and I was prepared with some sleeping pills that I had purchased at the local pharmacy. (Unlike Kait, I lack the ability to fall asleep, cat-like, in almost any circumstances.) So we embarked in the late afternoon, and by about midnight, I decided to go ahead and take one pill because I was not feeling sleepy at all. The effect was fairly immediate; within what seemed like thirty minutes or less, I was completely knocked out and happily asleep for the entire night. However, a problem arose the next morning when Kait started trying to wake me up. The scene went something like this:
Kait: Hey sweety, we are almost at the station. Can you get everything ready?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble.
Kait: What sweety? Hey, can you get up for me?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble. Snore.
Apparently, the pill I took was really, really strong, and I was unable to become fully conscious. Once the bus stopped, I forced my body to walk outside and grab my stuff, but I was pretty dizzy and had a strong desire to sit down (and sleep). I don’t remember how we got to the center of the city, but once there, we tried a hostel that tried to charge us twice the normal rate of a room with a double bed. (This is the norm in Cusco since it is so close to the famed Machu Picchu.) Kait, realizing that I would be the opposite of helpful in trying to find a new hostel, asked the owner if she could “leave my husband here” while she looked for a new hostel. The owner, a sweet old grandma, had no objection. In fact, seeing my discomfort, she ended up giving me some tea, which I thought was really nice of her.
Eventually, Kait came back, and took me to our hostel. Immediately, I crashed on the bed and fell asleep, which I did off and on for the remainder of the day. Kait came back at one point and woke me up, at which time I remarked, “I didn’t realize I fell asleep!” even though I had been sleeping for probably three hours. In the end, I pretty much lost an entire day due to sleep, and then I slept some more during that night, which I didn’t feel I really needed, but I did it anyways.
Our next trip was from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, the pueblo that abuts Machu Picchu. Aside from the shockingly overpriced everything, we had a good time perusing the town before going to bed early in preparation for waking up stupidly early to catch the first bus up to Machu Picchu the next morning.
MACHU PICCHU!
We woke up at 3:50am, grabbed our pre-packed breakfast, and waited at the bus station for about an hour and a half before the first bus was scheduled to leave – and we were still by no means the first people there. The bus ride to the top was windy but thankfully pretty short, and once there, we joined another line to the entrance. Once inside the gates, we hiked along, photographed a bunch of llamas, and continued along the trail. At about the time we saw the llamas, we saw some structures, but it was so foggy that we could not see past them. Apparently, that was where Machu Picchu was! But, being the over achievers that we are, we hiked well past that point up the MOUNTAIN of Machu Picchu, which is completely different than the city/ruins under the same name. Being with a crowd of other people, though, we had no idea.
Eventually, some Japanese tourists figured it out and started to descend, but after we met some savvy travelers named Raphael and Tereza, we decided to continue ascending with them. We hiked along some awesome stone stairs and passed through the sun gate, and after much effort (my legs are still sore; I am not allowed to even touch Kait’s calves…), we made it to the top. However, our view was completely obscured by clouds; even the top of the mountain was covered in a cloud, so we decided to wait for a while in order for things to clear up. That was okay, though, because this gave us a chance to get to know the other travelers. After a couple of hours, we were afforded some really great views of the site, even if it was still partially cloud-covered. We took way too many photos here and hung around for a while longer waiting for the intermittent views of the ruins.
We decided to descend once we had had our fill, and made our way to the ruins which were no longer covered in fog. We didn’t mind that we had accidentally missed the ruins the first time because it was so shrouded at the ground level, and once we returned, we had great fun in taking way too many photos once more.
Before arriving at Machu Picchu, I had been developing the impression that the site in general was overblown, especially compared to some of the other ruins we saw – like Kuelap – that were grandiose and impressive in and of themselves. However, being at Machu Picchu made me realize that it really was a special place. The geography and the quality of the ruins combined even with bad weather provided us a breath-taking view that left us feeling very lucky that we had the opportunity to make it.
Plans for the near future:
We will travel from here to Puno, which is next to Lake Titicaca, and we will relax there for a few days. My flight home leaves from La Paz on the 15th of February, but I recently realized that there is a $135 fee just to enter Bolivia! So I might end up back-tracking all the way to Lima where I have a connecting flight and then just catch that for cheaper than it would be to enter Bolivia. In any case, I will be home on the morning of the 16th, and after that, I will start looking for a job either as a temporary teacher or a substitute, depending on what I can find. Wish me luck!
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