Farewell to my Cusco

I leave on Monday. I´m not sure how I feel about it. To sort out my feelings I decided to make two lists.

Things that I will miss in Cusco:

• The people! My family: They are truly wonderful people, especially my hermanita that always begs me to play with her and show her all my pictures. My friends: My friends at church are incredibly strong and always seem to be happy and cheerful. Also, my friends from the program and the clinic. We have been on so many adventures together that I don´t think I will ever forget them. The nurses also became some of my favorite people here. We would talk for hours about Peru or the U.S. None of them let me leave without a big hug and a picture. In general, the people in Peru are kind, generous, and lively. They know how to have a good time and how to care for one another. They know how to love and they understand how important your family really is. The people were my favorite part.
• The food: I will definitely miss my sweets here. Things like Alfajores and Tres Leches always made my day. Also, Rocoto Relleno became one of my favorite Peruvian dishes.
• The combis: I know that sounds funny, but I will definitely miss the adventure of taking a combi everday. You never know what´s going to happen when you get into a combi.
• The volunteer work: I was lucky enough to see 12 births! I will so miss the miracles that I got to experience. If all goes as planned, hopefully it will become part of my daily life.
• The random things you see here: Examples: The uses of toilet paper can range from anything like a defroster for your car to blowing your nose.
• Being able to see wonders of the world like Machu Picchu or other beautiful sights

Things that I´m excited for in the U.S.:

• Seeing my family and friends!
• Flushing my toilet paper down the toilet. I´m more excited for this than you can probably imagine. I think I´m going to celebrate the first time I use my bathroom. 
• A shower that is always hot
• Water that won´t suddenly run out for the day
• Heating and Air Conditioning
• In-N-Out
• BYU sports!
• Exercising: It´s not so great to go running here. The pollution is really bad and the drivers are worse. I think it´s more healthy for me not to go for a run.
• The beach, need I say more :)
• Cooking my own meals, especially curry or pad thai

So you see, I´m kind of in a tight spot because it´s going to be really bittersweet. I will always miss my Peruanos. I now consider myself a Peruana even though I don´t quite look like one. I think I will always be one at heart. My experience here has been truly unforgettable. If you want to know how to live a wonderful, lovely life, come to Peru! They will certainly teach you what it means to really live. I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to have this experience. I will always look back on it as one of the best times in my life.

Machu Picchu? Check!

Fact: I have officially seen one of the wonders of the world. Machu Picchu is checked off of my bucket list! I can still remember the first time I saw a picture of it in my Spanish class. I remember thinking that one day I would go there. One day. One day. Finally, that day came! It was the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my life. I kept on telling myself that I was there, I was actually on Machu Picchu. Confession: I might have cried a little. Just a little. One tear.You can´t judge me until you go there. On Friday I took a bus to Ollantaytambo and then a train to Aguas Calientes, which is the little town below Machu Picchu where everyone stays the night before. The train ride was hands down the best train ride I´ve ever been on. It had windows everywhere so you could see the jungle and the mountains. It was all so green and beautiful. We followed the Urubamba river all the way. It´s still hard to believe that places like that exist. After I arrived in Aguas Calientes I spent the night getting to know the town and enjoying the sudden pouring jungle rain. The next morning I awoke early and took a bus up to Machu Picchu. I could have peed my pants I was so excited. Fog seemed to cover almost everything and I felt like I was living in the clouds. I wonder what it felt like to wake up every morning living in the clouds. I hiked up Huayna Picchu first thing when I got there at 6:30. Huayna Picchu is the mountain that you always see behind Machu Picchu in the famous pictures. The trail was a little adventurous. It was all stairs and they were so narrow that we had to hold onto something like a metal rope or rocks on the side. By the time we arrived at the top the fog had mostly burned off and we had the most incredible view. It was probably my favorite part. There is no better view of Machu Picchu or the amazing jungle surrounding it. It seemed like everywhere I looked it just got better and better. I had to take a picture of every view I had. After Huayna Picchu we hiked down the mountain the the great cavern, which unfortunately was nothing really, but the views were worth it. At 11:30 I got back to Machu Picchu and started a two hour tour. I learned about the things that grow and live there and the kind of life the people had when they lived there. We´re so lucky that the Spaniards couldn´t get to it because it would have been destroyed like most of the other ruins. When the tour was over I found myself just sitting on a ledge and thinking for an hour or so. I would go there everyday or so if I could. I guess I will just go back in my mind and remember the awe I felt. I ended up hiking down the mountain back to Aguas Calientes and spent the night in the train and bus. There isn´t much more I could say about it because there aren´t words to describe it. I hope the pictures can do it some justice, but they are only a fraction of the beauty I saw. What a beautiful world our Heavenly Father has created for us!

Aguas Calientes

First sight of Machu Picchu

Living in the clouds

Huayna Picchu Trail

One of my favorite views

Machu Picchu flowers

The mountain in the background is Huayna Picchu

Arequipa and Colca Canyon

I would like to first say that I am so sore. So. So. So. Sore. Okay, now my whining is done. Yesterday I got back from my wonderful trip to Arequipa. I went with my friends Anna and Sofia for our four-day hiatus. We started out for Arequipa on a 10-hour overnight bus, which was a little rough with the smelly, snoring peruano next to me, but nonetheless we got there excited for our adventure.

DAY 1:

After our adventure of trying to finding breakfast at 6:30 in the morning, we sat down to a cafe on the plaza del armas. Arequipa is beautiful. It actually reminded me a little of Irvine. Palm trees line the clean and organized streets. It was a nice break from the pollution in Cusco. After breakfast, we went on a tour of the city on the top of a double decker bus. We got to see everything in the big city. We found lunch in a perfect little place that had amazing tomato basil parmesan pasta and headed off to see the famous monastary. The monastary is now just a tourist attraction, unfortunately there were no monks for tourist guides. The place was huge! It had hundreds of little rooms and scary catholic paintings that lined the walls. After we got lost in the maze of the monastary, we met Juanita the ice princess in a museum. There are 6 volcanos that surround Arequipa and during the Incan times they would sacrifice a child to the gods on the top of the volcanos to protect them from natural disasters. A couple of years ago they found Juanita on one of the volcanos. She was special because the cold of the snow had frozen her body to make her a natural type of mummy. We finished off the night early because we were exhausted.

DAY 2:

I woke up early in the morning to go to church, which luckily was just a 15 minute walk away. It was probably half the size of the ward in Cusco, but they made up for their size with their kindness. Practically everyone shook my hand and introduced themself to me. They even introduced me in sacrament meeting as a visitor and had me stand up. Oh how I love these people :) Most of the tourist attractions are closed on sunday, so we took the day to relax and spent a lot of time eating. We tried this place called Crepismo. Oh my goodness it was amazing. They had over 100 different kinds of crepes. I had the avacado chicken crepe and the pear, apple, lime, cinnamon crepe for dessert. Needless to say I was well fed and happy. 

DAY 3: Start of Colca Canyon trek

We had to wake up at 2:45 in the morning (if you can even call it morning at that point) and get on a tourist van. The drive to Colca Canyon was 3 hours long and very bumpy. I never get car sick, and I really thought I was going to vomit. Finally we arrived at a look-out to see the ¨condors¨. We didn´t really see any. After an hour and a half more, we started our trek. We had our own tour guide to tell us all about the canyon and the people that live there. The canyon is like the peruvian version of the grand canyon. It´s absolutely gorgeous. The hike down was 4 hours of a very steep slope. My knees started to give way because I have tendonitis and I ended up falling flat 5 times. I´m good though, I laughed most of them off. I´m used to falling. It comes naturally. Once we got to the lunch site we were utterly exhausted. We had alpaca for lunch and it was actually quite tastey. We got an hour and half break and then hiked another 3 hours to our huts. This part was probably my favorite because it was like a little garden of eden. There was a stream running beside us and we had to push through trees and bushes. There were peach, pear, avacado, and lucuma trees that followed along the path. If only that could have been the whole 3 hours. Unfortunately the second half wasn´t so nice and easy, but we made it. We stayed the night in the oasis in the middle of the canyon. It was beautiful and we ended up going to sleep at 7:30.

DAY 4:

Wake up at 4:45. Ouch. My whole body hurt. A lot. The tour guide was just a little too peppy for that early in the morning as we started climbing. We hiked up the mountain for 3 hours. To say that it was difficult is an understatement. To say that it was crazy is more like it. We climbed up 4600 feet on a 6 km trail. Pretty much  the hardest hike I´ve ever done, but oh how it was worth it. Once I got to the top, the sights were incredible and I got to see some condors! We got lunch at a buffet a little later and headed back to Arequipa and then to the bus station for another overnight bus back to Cusco. I got back yesterday and slept most of the day. I´m still having troubles with stairs. My whole body hurts, but it was so worth it. I love a challenge.

Plaza de Armas

 

One of the volcanos in Arequipa

Monastary

More of the monastary. I took this one for mom and granny, I thought they would appreciate the flowers.

My dessert crepe.... mmm

Colca Canyon. Nope, not a painting.

Me on my favorite part of the trail :)

See that green spot, that was the oasis. This was half way up the 3 hour  hike on the second day.

Llamaface!

I really love llamas and alpacas. Too bad they run away everytime I try and hug them.