el valle sagrado, machu picchu, y viento (jueves, 16 septiembre)

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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