Una pesadilla hermosa~Mi semana libre en PERÚ

Title in English: A beautiful nightmare~My free week in Peru

Holaaaaa!

Ok, so I really wanted to write about my REALLY CRAZY experience in Peru last week. Let me just say that my group and I had many problems during our trip...but you're going to have to read the whole thing to see what actually happened ;) Yes, this blog post is going to be long, but it will be worth it! Trust me haha. I'm going to write it almost exactly how I wrote it from my diary that I kept on the trip sooo here goes nothing :) Enjoy and please don't lose too many hairs on your head from reading this!

domingo-03 de julio de 2011 (Sunday 3th of July, 2011)
We started our vacation/ free week today. I skyped with mom and dad right before I left:) They were so happy although it was a short time. Then, Rachel and I said bye to Ligia and we were on our way. I met up with the girls from my group and we got a taxi to the terminal. 1st problem: we went to the wrong terminal for a taxi from Arica to Tacna. So we asked a lady in the bus terminal, where the taxi terminal was, and so we went outside to the next place where the taxis were. A man with a tourist van tried to get us to go with him, but he wanted $50!!! A guy sitting in the back of his van shook his hand/head no to Jonna while we were talking over our options. After we walked away from the man with the van, the guy that shook his head no came over and he took us to where needed to go. Our 1st angel on the trip! We had another scare when we were waiting in our taxi-the man took our passports and...walked away with them! Jonna and I started freaking, so Janae went to ask what was up. He just gave it to people that needed them to fill papers out to cross the border to Peru, and he was waiting for one more passenger. Ok, eventually, we got dropped off at the wrong terminal again in Tacna! But a nice security man told us where to go for our bus and to exchange money. Also, he taught us how to tell if the money is real because there's a lot of fake money in Peru. We eventually made it to the correct place and saw the other girls from the other group. A relief! We eventually found the other group, and we all made our way onto the bus (pic below of Jonna and I and bus), which was SUPER nice and roomy! If anyone travels in Peru, I do recommend Cruz del Sur (although, we did have a little trouble with the bus line...you'll read about later). The roads from Tacna to Arequpia were super scary!!! Rachel was freaking out BIG time! It was bad, but I jut thought of other things and played BINGO :) We arrived late, and we were a bit hungry because we hardly received anything for bus food, so we went to a little restaurant after we checked in with our hostel. Our hostel wasn't terrible, but the beds were super hard, and when I attempted to shower the next morning it was FREEZING!

lunes-04 de julio de 2011 (Monday, 4th of July 2011)
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!! After my freezing shower, I went up to the balcony of our hostel with Jonna, and WOW was it beautiful! There was a HUGE volcano called Misti volcano close to the city, that I really had no idea was there the night before. Pretty much we walked around the city after that, there was a super cute centro, which actually had some architecture that reminded me of Europe. We found a feria during our time in the centro, and to be honest, we spent most of our day in there. There were so many cute little things for gifts and stuff, and we were even able to bargain with the people-a new experience for me! After that we toured a giant cathedral that is right in the centro, and the picture of me and the centro was actually on top of the cathedral. We then wanted to have a half way decent meal, so we went to a restaurant that overlooked the centro! HOW PRETTY! We went around 5 so we could see the sunset (pic below of the church at sunset), and we even got to wear ponchos that the restaurant gave us!! The other picture below of me in a poncho is with the man that came up and played some really nice music for us. It felt like a scene out of a movie ;) To eat, Liz tried some guinea pig! It actually tasted pretty good-similar to chicken + bacon. It was the WHOLE body of the little guy! I got some shrimp dish that had full shrimp..It was a struggle for me to eat, especially since I had NO idea HOW to eat it haha. Pic below of my lovely shrimp friend and I ;) So after that, we headed to the bus station to continue on our way onto the next city of the trip: Cuzco! We got there, and WOW the bus waiting spot for Cruz del Sur was phenomenal! Comfy orange couches, internet, free coffee or tea, and fútbol (soccer-Chile vs Mexico) was on the flat screen! Definitely felt a little like first class :) Everyone else finally got there, we got there super early just in case anything would go wrong...but guess what?! That didn't help at all! We waited the whole time, and when we were going to board the bus the man was looking for our name on the list, and THEY WEREN'T THERE!!! A girl from our group of 4 had booked them for the 5th of July-not the 4th. I was SO shaken up, thinking that we would not be able to make it to Machu Picchu on Wednesday-which was the WHOLE point of this trip for me. We figured it out though, that we should be able to make our train on Wednesday for Machu Picchu, so we said bye to the rest of the groups and found a different hostel (actually met some girls from ISU helping out in Peru, and they gave us a name of a nice hostel they stayed at). All the hostel had left were two couple rooms, so Jonna and I shared the honeymoon suite haha. It was REALLY nice compared to our last hostel, and we hurried and turned on the fútbol game-CHILE WON!!! So since we just needed to relax a bit after our panic attacks and celebrate the win of the game, we went to a little restaurant and got some ice cream :) it was SO yummy! I swear there was some extra sugar or something in it because we could NOT stop laughing! I was to the point where I was crying from laughing so hard :) So after a really stressful part of the day, it turned out pretty decent!

martes-05 de julio de 2011 (Tuesday, July 5th, 2011)

We woke up and shopped some more today in the ferias, went to another cathedral (said some more prayers to keep us safe), and we also went to a museum that had an ice maiden-a frozen Incan girl who was given up as a sacrifice to the Gods-they believe she would become a God. When it was time for the sacrifice-the Incas chose the most talented and beautiful chile. Supposedly, she was from royalty because the artifacts buried with here were the best of the best. We saw the frozen girl, her name was Juanita. She was hit on the head after she drank strong alcohol, and then she was left on top of the volcano. her tiny body was so creepy, but precious at the same time. Then later that night we ate at Ekeko Restaurant. Ekeko is the god of abundance and prosperity in the mythology and folklore of the people from the Andean Altiplano-he also brings good luck-and is in the pic below with Jonna and me! Our waiter was awesome there-there's a picture with him and us four girls too. We then went back to the super nice bus station and said "Hello again" to the workers haha. We actually left this night, and have a whole bus ride from 9 pm to 6 am. Goodnight from the road!

miercoles-06 de julio de 2011 (Wednesday, July 6th, 2011)

Well, the bus ride wasn't too terrible. I attempted to sleep, but it was kind of difficult. I woke up this morning around 5:50 (remember the bus was supposed to arrive around 6). beginning from the time I woke up, I was SO nervous about making it to Machu Picchu. The adrenaline began...We got ready on the bus, washed our faces & makeup. More time passed..Still NOT at Cuzco. 30 more minutes until our train left the Poroy station..20 min..10 min..well our train left and we were still on our bus. We weren't going to be able to see Machu Picchu!!! :( My hope was almost gone, but we still grabbed our stuff and RAN off the bus. We started shouting as we ran that we need a taxi!! Finally, a taxi man asked us where and we said to the Poroy train station to Machu Picchu. He drove fast and took us there, even though we all knew we missed the train, but when we got there-he and the lady that worked for the train station told us we could get on the SAME train at a different station that was about an hour and a half away(my adrenaline is rolling right now typing this hehe). There was also a 21 year old guy named Brian from Massachusetts who had the exact same difficulties as we had. We all ran back to the taxi-Brian also- and we shoved our backpacks in the back and we were on our way again! Our driver was awesome (but did rip us off a bit), but he drove SO fast and wanted us to get to the train station so bad. Picture of Brian, Liz, me, and Jonna below in the crazy taxi ride! The Andes mountains were BEAUTIFUL, but I didn't even care about taking any more pictures because I was SO anxious and hopeful and nervous to try and make our train. We FINALLY made it to the city of Ollantayatambo (where the other station was located), and our driver pointed and yelled "El tren!" (The train!) We could see it! BUT we had to drive through town to get to the station! All I could think of were the WHAT IFS-pretty much what if we are THIS close to making it on that train and we don't make it!?! We drove like crazy through the tiny town, but there were all kinds of speed bumps-that the bottom of the car hit because we were so weighed down in that tiny car- and there were SO many police. Our driver said that they were most likely there because the president was supposed to be going to Machu Picchu for the 100 year of discovery anniversary which took place the next day. We FINALLY made it to the station-literally jumped out of the taxi-grabbed our bags and RAN!!!!! We ran, a police officer or 2 tried to stop me, but I said "El tren!" and showed them my ticket, then they told us to go! I was waving my tickets in the air yelling "EL TREN! EL TREN! EL TREN!" Then we realized there was a line, but they told us to go to the front. A police officer told the train to wait, and let us through without even checking us over. Then I kept running and had to get to the B carriage which was on the opposite side of where we came in..so I kept yelling "B! Permiso!" over and over. We ran and ran-pretty much it felt like a scene out of a movie! And finally-I handed my ticket to the man and he told us to hurry and get on!...Deep breath...WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!! The rest of the group's faces were SO happy and shocked. I wish I could thank everyone that got us this far onto the train again :)

Ok, so we got off the train, ready to see one of the seven wonders of the world. My group of 4 had to take a quick bathroom stop, and the other groups kept going with the crowd, so everyone else had already found their way by the time that we realized where to go. It wasn't very well marked for an international visit site, but we found our way. There were SO many people dressed up in their traditional and festive clothing for the 100 year anniversary (picture below with me and some dressed up people in background). We saw the other girl group and Emily mentioned that we needed to buy an entrance ticket. So we walked over to get one and we asked the lady if the ticket was just for the bus, and she said eys, then we asked if we needed anything else if we were just going to hike the trail, and she said no. So we started to begin our hike to Machu Picchu. We were sooo happy/tired walking (picture of Jonna and I during the walk up-gorgeous!)! The mountains were so big and beautiful-definitely breathtaking! I couldn't believe how massive and green they were-and the sky so blue! I have seen many mountains in my life, but none like those (It probably doesn't help that I've been in a desert for the past month-so all of the vegetation and rivers were EXTRA pretty to me!). It took us a long time to hike up, and we were about 30 minutes from the top, and there were some people that told us that we needed to hurry because they were closing the park at 2 pm...it was 1 pm! We started hurrying even faster, which sucked because we were exhausted! We decided to take a 1 minute rest and drank some water. We were ready to go and stood up, when all of a sudden Janae yelled "OW!" We turned around and she was leaning over with her hand on her hamstring. Her muscle was in a lot of pain..all I could think it that we have to hurry, but she's in a pain..ahh what do we do? We waited a little bit longer, and then Jonna and I started walking a little bit ahead..when all of a sudden...BOOM "Ahh-ow!!!" Jonna fell and was yelling in pain. Right away I asked if she broke anything-I started thinking of all the scenarios-we're so close, but what if it's broke-what the heck are we going to do?!? Thank goodness she was able to stand up, and slowly we all made our way up to the top. I felt so bad her continue because she was in so much pain, but luckily we were only 10 minutes away and WE MADE IT!!!...to where the bus drops people off to hike a little bit more?!?! WHAT? MORE hiking?! Well, we walked up to the entrance part where the security people are and handed the lady my passport, and then she asked for my ticket. I asked her "um..my train ticket?" She said no, no the ticket for Machu Picchu. WHAT?!?!? Tears started rolling down my face. All I could think was we were screwed and we just spent all of that money and time to get there and we are SO close-it's right over the hill...and we won't get to see it! I have never ever felt so upset/sad/ disappointed in my life. The lady told us that one of us should ride the bus and attempt to buy our tickets before 2 pm-otherwise tomorrow was already booked because of the 100 year festival. I told Liz and Janae to go-I was panicking waaay too much. So then Jonna and I just waited and waited and waited up at the top while all of these HAPPY people around us were going or leaving the site of Machu Picchu..and we were just panicking. The police man and security lady felt so bad for us haha. My stomach felt sick was so nervous, and each tiem a bus drove up, my hope would go up, and then when Liz and Janae didn't get off, it would go waaay down. After 45 minutes of waiting, Jonna and I decided to get a hot dog and ice cream-thought we might as well "enjoy" our time where we were. We both felt a bit better after that, and we even started laughing about everything-we were starting to go a bit crazy. I started taking pictures becuse it finally suck in that where we were was as far as we were going to make it. I wasn't going to see Machu Picchu...After an HOUR of waiting and giving up ALL of my hope, we watched people get off another bus and FINALLY we saw Janae and Liz!!! Jonna and I ran to see them-they had solemn faces on, but when I looked and saw Liz had the tickets in her hand-I ran to go hug them and Jonna and I yelled with happiness!!!! OH MY GOSH! My heart and body way overflowing with happiness and adrenaline. We had until 5 to see the park (which Jonna and I found out after the girls left to buy the tickets), and that's when it officially closed for the night. Everyone around us stared and had smiles on their faces including the police man and security lady :)

When I saw the 1st bit of the most beautiful place ever I said"hey girls wait! Thank you SO much!" I started bawling with joy-after thinking I wasn't going to actually see Machu Picchu about 3 times..I FINALLY was seeing it! (Picture of Janae and me right after our BIG hug and cry hehe) It was a dream come true and a HUGE relief after a physical and emotional day. We started taking pictures right away and we turned a corner and then I saw THE site that I've seen only on TV, postcards, and pictures-I stopped in my tracks and my jaw dropped (that's ME with that one heck of a view!)! Thinking back on that moment brings tears to my eyes. It was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING AND INCREDIBLE SITE I HAVE EVER SEEN! I'm so impressed with the Incas-how the heck did they build that place?! But I definitely can understand why they built it there...it's gorgeous! There were rooms, 'homes', pyramids, a condor, farming area, and so much more-just made out of rocks! BREATHTAKING! There were even some llamas (or alpaca?) near the pyramid. We had to walk around one of the llamas to continue up the pyramid (pic below!)! hehe. It was really cool to because as we walked around the place, there was music in the background-people were dancing to music in one of the places for the 100 year anniversary-so over all it was pretty much an amazing experience :) It was difficult to leave a place that beautiful, but I was okay with it, because I was just happy I was able to see it (picture of just Machu Picchu, one of me chilling and soaking in the view, and also one of Jonna and I right before we left-needed one more! hehe) ! I tried some ceviche that night- a typical Peruvian dish-it was pretty much trout with some good seasonings (pic below that looks like raw fish), and of course we had to have a little more trouble..the lights went out 3 times as we ate! haha. Anywho, I fell asleep on the train back to Ollantaytambo, then we got off and went to our hostel for a good night sleep.

jueves-07 de julio de 2011 (Thursday, July 7th, 2011)

So we woke up this morning and had a great breakfast at our hostel-scrambled eggs have never tasted so good to me! We then looked around the town a bit (picture of the tiny town/pueblo with the ruins in the background), and decided to just leave because there was only another feria and some more Incan ruins that we could see from a far. Good thing we left and got a taxi when we did because they weren't letting any more cars into our town because of the president-once again! So luckily, we got one of the last taxis out of that town!! And we were on our way to Cuzco. By the time we got there, we were all pretty tired. Got some GREAT food (burger with BBQ SAUCE!!! How I miss BBQ sacue!) in a little cafe, went to a chocolate museum, and then went back to the cafe for some dessert (pic below of THE best dessert ever!) :) Pretty much after that, we headed back on the bus to our lovely town of Arica! Not too many problems after our crazy day, except for our taxi driver saying we needed t be super careful and alert while in Cuzco because there were many thieves, especially with the 100 year anniversary. The centro of Cuzco was really cool-there were people dancing in the streets in costumes and it was SUPER busy! (Picture below of some dancers and then, finally, the last picture of me and one of the many of the 100 year anniversary of discovering Machu Picchu signs)

Well, I'm still alive after a crazy trip in Peru...I think the title of my blog pretty much sums it up- a beautiful nightmare! ;) INSANE, but in the end SO worth it! I hope you enjoyed this crazy story, and I hope to write about this past week soon. It was a super busy week with lots of homework, so I didn't have much time to write this. CONGRATS if you actually read the whole thing ;) Enjoy the pictures below, and take care! I love you all :)

Chauuu! Un beso!
Katie Lea~