The people who run the hostel drove me and another traveller, Lee, up to the mountains near Templo de la Luna (Incan ruin) where they have a house. There were two other people (Brett and Andy) who were also drinking the cactus, and two others (Renee and Dave) who were there too. Outside there is a courtyard with mats and umbrellas and we sat outside and drank the San Pedro cactus juice. At first it was nauseating, and after about 40 minutes you´re supposed to throw up (the plant is poisonous so it´s a good thing to throw up after it´s been in your system for 40 minutes or so).

There were 4 of us drinking it and a few people from the hostel there to make sure everything was okay. At first after I threw up a little bit, I felt this intense paranoia, but it only lasted for about 10 minutes. I kept shaking the whole time, but the Incans believe the shaking is just the release of energy that needs to come out. After that I was still shaking, but felt really, really mellow. We laid around on mats in the sun, which was nice because there was a slight breeze and it was warm and nice out.

I felt really in tune with the universe and the world around me. The effects were really spiritual and you could feel a connection with everything around you. You could feel the energy of different rocks, plants, crystals, etc. At one point we lit a small fire and just watched the flames and smoke dancing around in the air, enjoying the aesthetics and healing smoke. Time just seemed to slow down, in fact, time stopped existing. I could just enjoy and soak in the present moment. I felt like I spend too much time worrying about and thinking about the negative things in life, instead of enjoying the simple but beautiful things all around us. I laid on my back and watched the leaves of the tree above me dancing in the wind. I looked at these orange flowers and could really appreciate the miracle of a single flower. I listened to the sound of the wind accompanying the meditative music playing from the house.

The San Pedro cactus is a borderline hallucinogenic plant, and for part of the time I thought that my hand had turned into a desert. I could see the sand and the veins in my hand had turned into different roads. Then the desert turned into organic material that was the same thing as the earth, the ground, the trees, etc. It was this feeling of complete connectivity and unity. It was weird, but interesting and very relaxing. Then I thought this giant cactus was hugging me and talking to me, but it felt very calming.

I had some interesting conversations with the other people on the San Pedro journey. Usually when you meet new people, the first things you ask are where you´re from and where you´re going. Here, none of that seemed to matter, just the present moment in which we had come together. I felt like oftentimes people rush through life without taking time to enjoy the smaller but equally important things. Here we were, strangers from different walks of life, united together in the experience of San Pedro. One of the people in particular seemed very different than myself, but from the cactus I learned to appreciate everyone, regardless of their different views, and to embrace them for who they are, to accept everyone. Before San Pedro, the idea of accepting others seemed like a nice idea, but something I couldn´t realistically do. We talked about different places, astrology, time, and balance.

At one point I looked in the mirror and saw my eyes. My pupils were enormous and there was almost no blue part left. I´d gotten more sunburn, but it didn´t matter because as I looked in the mirror I realized I felt happy, and it really didn´t matter what I looked like. I liked the person who was staring back at me in the mirror, and I realized I was accepting myself exactly as I am. This was probably the first time I´ve felt a hundred percent comfortable with the person I am / the person I´ve become. As crazy as it may sound, the cactus showed me that the only real thing in this world is love. Everything else may or may not be an illusion, a matter of perspective.

Simon (the hostel owner´s son) and I walked to Templo de la Luna, which is an Incan temple. It was a little windy and just starting to get dark, but we climbed up the rocks and stood in the wind. Then I went down into the cave, and Simon explained about the puma and snake carved into the entrance to the cave. I said that there was another cave like this I´d been to before. He asked, ´maybe you were here before.´After descending into the cave, I realized I HAD been here before, the day I came up here on horseback. But now it seemed so completely different. I could see the rays of the moonlight shining into the cave and illuminating the table the Incans had used as an altar. It felt like a completely different place, yet familiar at the same time. As I emerged from the cave into the light, I I felt like I was being reborn again. Something echoed in my ears that a co-worker had told me years ago: ¨This moment is the first day of the rest of your life.¨ I was seeing the world in a different, more beautiful way, and I felt completely happy.

At about 6pm the hostel´s driver took me back to the hostel where I showered, changed, and walked around the corner to another curry restaurant called Korma Sutra where I met the two guys from England for dinner. I tried to explain what the effects of the cactus were like, but I don´t think I was able to clearly put it into words. It was nice talking to them though, but talking to them made me feel really homesick for Oxford.

After dinner at the curry place, I went back up to the mountain (the people up there had invited me to come spend the night up there, watch the stars, and sit around the fire), so I took a cab back up there and brought the pizzas the rest of the travellers up there had ordered. It was beautiful at night, and we were all still high from the cactus. We continued talking, and I had some garlic bread and water. They have different rooms travellers can stay in, and I slept in a room on the second floor. It was a little chilly but I´d brought extra clothes. I slept pretty well that night.

I realize this whole thing probably sounds really weird, and most people reading this probably can´t relate, but I wanted to try to explain my experiences...at the very least so I could look back and remember them.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 17, 2010 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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The Sacred Valley was beautiful. I went with a small tour group because according to Peruvian law, everyone who visits Machu Picchu has to go on a guided tour. We stopped in the towns of Pisac, where there are ruins, terraces, and a GIANT art and crafts market. I bought two CDs of traditional Andean music and talked to the shopkeeper for a while as I decided which CDs I wanted. I was able to negotiate the price and end up paying about US $6 for two CDs. Then I met a painter named Muña who had studied at Bellas Artes in Cusco. I had already bought a painting of Cusco yesterday, but one of his oil paintings caught my eye. It was of Machu Picchu in shades of oranges and black, and there was a condor flying in the sky. After negotiating the price I decided to buy a second painting. Art is original, and I felt if I didn´t buy the painting I´d regret it. It is probably the favorite thing I´ve bought in Perú so far.

Our tour group ate lunch in the town of Urubamba. It was interesting talking to everyone. There was a couple from Australia, a guy from Japan, another couple from Italy, and a chef from Lima who was living in France. We had a buffet lunch and we ate outside overlooking the Urubamba River. Some Andean flute players serenaded us. I really enjoyed the vegetable soup and chips and salsa. I tried chicha, which is a type of drink made of corn. I´ve heard it referred to as corn beer, but it tasted more like juice. And it was purple and sweet and nothing like beer. Chicha is about 1-3% alcoholic.

Then we continued to Ollantaytambo where we saw more ruins (Temple of the Sun), and took the train to Aguas Calientes. On the train I sat next to a guy named Ryan from Portland and we talked for most of the train ride. The train went past Verónica, the tallest mountain in the area. It was a beautiful ride on the train, and there were windows in the roof of the train. At this time, I felt like the mountains really were gods, just like what the Quechua people believe.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes where I checked into el Hostal Viajeros, which was really nice. I got my own room on the third floor with its own private bathroom. Aguas Calientes is a really beautiful, picturesque town, and I enjoyed it . There were markets and lots of little shops and restaurants all set into the hills there. I bought a pair of onyx earrings, one with the sun and the other with the moon. I found a quartz crystal ball that was calling to me, and I bought it from a girl working there who couldn´t have been more than nine years old. I also found a necklace made out of some kind of stone...I´m not sure what kind it is, but I liked the energy it had. Back at the hostel, I met a few of the other tourists who´d be joining me the following day (a German couple and two women from Australia), had some pumpkin soup, and went to the market to buy some snacks to avoid paying overpriced prices at Machu Picchu the following day. After writing in my journal, I went to bed early because I had to wake up at 5am the following day.

Waking up at 5:10am wasn´t so bad, especially since I was looking forward to Machu Picchu. On the bus ride up, I talked to my guide, Alberto, who told me about more places in the Cusco area that he recommended visiting. There was this sort of mist in the mountains as we drove up the winding, heavily-forested road. Machu Picchu was incredible. I got to see it as the sun was coming up behind the mountain. I took a tour of the ruins and then went hiking around the area for about 7 hours. I walked to Inktipuntu (Sun´s gate) and the Incan Bridge. I also saw their different temples. One of them they used for meditation where the groups of people would chant. The walls of the temple had little square grooves in the walls, and each person faced one of them and chanted into it. With everyone chanting you could feel the whole temple vibrating. It was neat. I got sunburned, but not too badly.

When I returned to Aguas Calientes I found a Mexican restaurant where I ordered some guacamole, hot salsa, and vegan nachos. The restaurant wasn´t that busy so the two waiters talked to me and sat at my table while I ate. We spoke in Spanish, and they talked about the Cusco area, Peru, and their culture. They were really nice, and it was good to speak in Spanish. The Peruvians are a LOT easier to understand than the Chileans, and I really feel my Spanish is improving. On the train / bus back to Cusco I met two guys from Ireland, two guys from England, and a Swiss couple, and we got to talking. We agreed to meet up for a few pints back in Cusco.

When I got back to Cusco I got my backpack out of the storage unit of the hostel and told my co-worker I wasn´t comfortable traveling with him and was going to find a different hostel. He was really rude and still wouldn´t own up to anything or apologize. He said a lot of really hurtful things and started screaming at me, saying it was my fault and I hurt his feelings. I told him I was going to travel around Cusco by myself, and I left. I still have no idea where he is or what he´s doing, but I don´t care. I don´t need to be around people like that. It makes me upset that people often aren´t who they seem to be.

My trip has been SO MUCH better after that. I found a really nice earthy / hippie kind of hostel down the street in San Blas called Casa de la Gringa I and checked in. The people working there were really nice. It´s decorated nicely and they gave me my own little room. Here, the rooms don´t have numbers, but they have names. Mine is called ´Wind´ and it is painted in shades of aqua. You have to climb up a little ladder and across a catwalk kind of thing to get to my room. My hostel is decorated with paintings of the sun, moon, different rocks, crystals, and plants, and it has a mystical feel. I really like it, and have enjoyed the rest of Cusco so far.

I met up with the people from the train at Paddy´s Irish Pub near the Plaza de Armas. The place had stopped serving food, so I ate at a Thai place in the San Blas neighborhood near my hostel where I enjoyed spicy curry. The waitress was really nice and I talked to her in Spanish for a while. After that I met up with the two Irish guys, the two Brits, and a couple from Switzerland at the Irish pub, but by that point I didn´t feel like drinking, so I just hung out there for a while and we talked about Machu Picchu and travelling.

Then I walked back up the narrow, cobbled streets to my hostel for a good night´s sleep. My hostel had a sign up announcing the next San Pedro journey. I didn´t know much about San Pedro so I asked the guy working at the hostel. It turns out tomorrow will be the next San Pedro spiritual journey, so I decided I want to try it. I have no idea what it´ll be like, but it´s supposed to be healing and a spiritual experience. And right now after the past few days, it seems like it´s an experience that´s meant to be. Sometimes I can be impulsive about things, jumping into experiences head first, but the energy here seems right for it, calm and peaceful, so I figured why not. As for the present moment, sleep is beckoning me from my quiet little room called Wind...

written by  Sara Florecita on September 16, 2010 from Aguas Calientes, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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After stopping at the pharmacy for some meds, I took a mystical tour of the ruins (Qenq´o, Templo de la Luna, Templo del Mono, Puka Pukara, and a few others I don´t remember the names) on horseback. The horse I rode was a Peruvian Paso, and our guide was a Quechua guy and he explained all about the ruins and spiritual views of the Quechua (Incan) people. It was nice to ride a horse again. The Incans believed in spirituality through nature, and I thought it was very fascinating and peaceful. They believed in animal spirits and each thing in the world, whether it be animal, plant, rock, earth, sky, thunder, etc, had its own spirit. They believed in the four worlds, each represented by an animal (puma, condor, snake, and llama), and each had its own energy and represented different things. They thought the mountains were gods, and believed in appreciating the present moment rather than worrying about the future or dwelling on the past.

After the tour of the ruins I was hot, tired, and dehydrated. I took a nap for about an hour and then got up to have a massage. Massages in Cusco are really cheap compared to the US, and I thought it would make me feel better. I got a massage for an hour and fifteen minutes, and it was a full-body Novo Inka massage, which is a massage with more pressure and it ends with a hot stone massage. After the massage I felt amazing and so much more relaxed. I ate dinner at a curry place on Tandapata near the hostel, but still was having a few stomach issues.

Overall I really like Cusco so far. I like all of the artisan markets, the local food, the cobbled streets, and street vendors. Hopefully I get over this stomach thing soon. Even so, I love Cusco. I´ve never been anywhere like it.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 14, 2010 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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While waiting for the bus I talked to some other travellers, so at least the time passed quickly. The bus ride was really bumpy. At one point the bus went down the wrong road and had to do a two-point turn to get headed back in the right direction. At first it was really weird because the road was right on a cliff and there were no guardrails, and the road itself was pretty narrow, but then I started laughing because only in Perú would this happen without people freaking out that the bus was going to go over the cliff.

Cruz del Cóndor is really pretty. There are mountains all around and the sun was bright and beautiful. It is a lookout point to watch the condors as they soar over the valleys and peaks. There were vendors there selling all sorts of things. I talked to some of the artists and bought a necklace, bracelet, some earrings made of silver and serpentina (aka ¨the Machu Picchu stone¨because it´s really commonly found in the mountains of Perú). Then I saw a lone condor gliding in circles over the lookout point. It was just circling gracefully around and around above us. I tried to take a picture but it didn´t turn out well. It sort of reminded me of how my family and I used to go down to Starved Rock to watch the bald eagles.

For a while I sat on the ledge overlooking the mountains, thinking and enjoying the scenery and sun. Then the bus came and I got back on to head back to Chivay. In Chivay we found a buffet lunch restaurant. The food was really good and there were surprisingly a lot of vegan options in the buffet. Peruvian food is so much better than Chilean food. It has a lot more flavor and tends to be more spicy.

Then I took the bus back to Arequipa, where I got to spend a little bit of time in town before the bus departed for Cusco. I got a vanilla-hazelnut soy latte at a place called Cusco Coffee Company and walked around looking in different shops. I ate in the falafel place before taking a cab back to the bus station for a very long and uncomfortable overnight bus to Cusco...

written by  Sara Florecita on September 13, 2010 from Cabanaconde, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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I walked to the hot springs at Calera, which was about a half hour walk from Chivay. The landscape along the road was really pretty. The hot springs themselves were great, maybe a little bit too hot especially since the sun was extremely bright in the skies above. I had thought it would be a natural hot spring, but there were three man-made hot springs there. It was nice and relaxing, but there wasn´t enough space to swim around like I´d wanted. I back floated around the pool for a while before drying off, taking a taxi back to Chivay, where I showered and packed my stuff into my backpack.

Lunch was okay. I went to a traditional Peruvian restaurant which served rather bland food. I asked for salsa de ají and the lady came back with a plate of ketchup. She never did bring the tea I ordered, and she added up the bill wrong, but at least she undercharged me.

I took a taxi to Yanque, a small town on the way to Cabanaconde. There was a museum there dedicated to canyon life. Although it was small, it was pretty interesting. However, there is absolutely nothing else to do in Yanque, so I took a walk along the canyon, which had really pretty views. I wanted to walk around more, but the person I was travelling with was having altitude-related problems so we turned around and went back to Yanque. Since the bus wasn´t coming for a while, we took a combi (bus) back to Chivay. The combi was more like a van, but with twenty something people stuffed into it. At first I thought this was amusing, but the ride was bumpy and dusty, and some of the people in the van smelled awful.

Then we took the bus to Cabanaconde. It was about a three-hour bus ride, and at first there weren´t enough seats so I had to stand up in the aisle. I didn´t really mind that much since half the time I have to stand on the micros in Iquique to get to or from school. I was able to read for a while. When I finally did get a seat, I talked to a Peruvian guy and a girl in the Peace Corps in Spanish. It made me think of how I´ve always wanted to join the Peace Corps and how someday I probably will.

It was night when I arrived in Cabanaconde, and it seemed like a really quiet town. Again, I felt a little confined in such a small town. Although it was beautiful, there wasn´t a whole lot to do there. The hostel seemed okay, and I found a restaurant called Pachamama (mother earth), which was advertising a vegetarian menu. I ordered a plate of chips and guacamole, which was awesome. The chips were more like pita chips than taco chips, which was kind of strange but not bad. We talked to a French guy, Mateo, at another pub in Cabanaconde. Apparently there are lots of French travellers in Perú. Mateo said that lots of people are leaving France either permanently or for extended travel, and that South America appeals to them because it´s so much cheaper.

However, tomorrow I have to wake up insanely early to catch the bus at 6am to go to Cruz del Condor for some birdwatching. Early mornings are never any fun, but I hope it´ll be worth it.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 12, 2010 from Chivay, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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After lunch we headed back to the bus station, where I met a couple from Argentina and this guy from Scotland. I felt pretty useful because I was able to help translate for the Scotsman. The bus ride took longer than expected, but it wasn´t awful because at least I was able to read on the bus.

Finally we arrived in Arequipa around 8pm. I took a cab to the Plaza de Armas, and after walking just a little bit found a pretty nice hostel called Le Foyer. The rooms are arranged over a second-story courtyard type of place with plants. For dinner I ate at this place overlooking the Plaza de Armas, but after that felt pretty tired so I went to bed.

Today I woke up, showered, got dressed, and went to a cafe where I drank maté de coca. Then I walked to el Museo Santuario which focuses on Incan rituals regarding human sacrifice and death. Juanita, the Incan ice princess, was on display there. It was interesting learning about how the Incans believed it was an honor to be the ´chosen one´to be sacrificed to communicate with the gods. I learned about their rituals and traditions, and enjoyed the visit.

Then we walked around the markets. I saw a sign advertising for ´jugo de rana´and blurted out, `I wonder what that is,´thinking that it couldn´t possibly be what it translated to...frog juice. Unfortunately, the co-worker I´d been traveling with decided to order some. I was so upset when I saw the lady behind the counter pull a live frog out of a container, whack it to death on the counter, and drop it into the blender. At that point I had to walk away because I felt completely angry and sickened by the treatment of that poor frog. My co-worker didn´t seem to think it was a big deal, but all I could remember was that frog´s beady little eyes and how I wished I could have rescued him before such a brutal death. It made me miss Louie and all the other amphibians I´ve had as pets. It also made me miss Kyle because I know he´d never order frog juice in front of me.

After the markets I ate lunch at a place called Fez near the Plaza de Armas where I ordered falafel and a coca sour. It was amazing, but it made me remember the awesome falafel I bought from a street vendor in Prague (which to this day is still the best falafel I´ve ever had). We got on the bus to Chivay. The bus ride itself wasn´t bad, and the altitude didn´t really bother me. I read for a while but mostly watched the scenery of the Colca Valley. When we got off the bus I was annoyed because people were knocking into me and not even apologizing. Sometimes I get claustrophobic in small spaces with lots of people and noise. As soon as we stepped off the bus we were bothered by pesky vendors trying to make us buy different things and tell us about their hostel. The place we ended up finding was called Hospedaje Rumi Wasi and they had a pet alpaca living in the courtyard. I walked around the streets for a while and bought some potato kebabs from a street vendor, which were really good, especially since they came with ají salsa. We played pool at this place, which was fun because I hadn´t played pool in a while. It definitely made me miss all the times Mike and I used to play pool, but hopefully there will be more of those times at some point. We ended up eating dinner at this Irish pub where I ordered vegan pizza.

The plan is to head to Cabanaconde tomorrow to see the condors. I´m anxious to get to Cusco though. I can´t wait for my Sacred Valley / Machu Picchu trip! Chivay is nice, but a bit too small for my taste. I appreciate the beauty of this place, but I´m definitely a big city person at heart.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 11, 2010 from Arequipa, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Today I had a meeting with other English teachers at 8:30. Wednesdays are supposed to be my ´late´day. My first class isn´t until 10:15 on Wednesdays, so I wasn´t too thrilled about getting up early. When I arrived at school, the meeting was kind of pointless and just a repetition of things people had already told me. After school I walked down to La Cioccolata to visit my host mom. I ordered maracuyá Alegre (maracuya juice with orange juice) and sat inside where I drew for a while. Then I walked back to school for their Cultural Night, where students were putting on a performance of traditional Chilean music and dancing. It was pretty interesting but dragged on after a while. I went home and started packing for my trip to Perú.

I need to get going now and continue working on my Spanish homework...

written by  Sara Florecita on September 8, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Fortunately, Mariangeli sympathized with my whole situation, and agreed to have me work with different host teachers. She said it wasn´t worth it arguing with Lilia because Lilia was being stubborn and inflexible anyway. At one point they asked if I wanted to change schools. A huge part of me did (I liked the idea of going to a school where I could wear jeans everyday and not have to take out my piercings or have people judge me based on my appearance), but in the end I decided to stay here because I really liked working with the choir and jazz band, and I felt I´d miss it too much if I left. It´s funny how the choir and jazz band are the only things I really like about my school. I really liked my high school seniors, but I hated working with Lilia. I´m not too sure how I feel about teaching fifth and sixth grade. I´ve never really liked little kids, and sometimes my seventh graders drove me nuts. I hope that once I work with a different teacher, things will get better, and I´m hoping that I´ll like my new students and that they´ll behave.

School got out early today because it´s National Unity Day, the start of Fiestas Patrias. By the time I got home, I had time to go on a short run and take a hurried shower before taking a colectivo to Eduardo Llanos (a public school in Iquique) for our monthly English teachers´meeting. While there I realized that I wish I´d been placed in a public school instead of a subconvencionado (semi-private) school. The meeting was pretty interesting, and I met some other English teachers from the area.

After that I saw Inception (here it´s called Origen) in English with Spanish subtitles. It was really good, and made me think a lot about dreams, reality, and so forth. I hardly ever watch movies, but this one was good, and it was a nice change of pace. However, it really made me miss the times Kyle and I would go to the movies at the theater in Davenport.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 6, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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After the presentation was over, we got back on the bus to head straight back to Iquique. The bus ride wasn´t bad, but it seemed really long since I´d already finished both of the books I´d brought with. I slept a lot on the bus and read a little bit of Neruda´s poetry.

This afternoon we finally got back to Iquique, and by then I was badly in need of running since I hadn´t had the chance to run at all the past week, and I had all this excess energy I needed to get rid of. As soon as Patricia dropped me off at my House, I changed clothes and took off on a long run. Runner´s high settled in almost immediately and I enjoyed the run. After running I had to type up my Spanish homework and email it to my tutor. I met up with a co-worker to plan out parts of the trip to Perú, where we´re going next week during vacations. Then I ate vegan sushi and wandered around the beach for a while before going home for the night. It´s definitely good to be back in Iquique. The choir trip was fun and I´ll never forget the experiences I had this past week.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 4, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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