Dream come true

It´s kinda cheesy, I´ll admit, but I lived a dream today. For 20 plus years I have wanted to be at Machu Picchu. We all say we have a ¨dream job¨or a ¨dream date¨ and I too sometimes have those thoughts. But honestly today was a dream come true. I´m not sure that I have ever realized a dream. If I thought long and hard maybe I could come up with something. Although Thailand was a place I wanted to visit for many years, Machu Picchu was a place that I could visualize in my head. It lived up to every expectation and then some. I may have even shed a tear or two in realization that I was actually standing before MP and said, ¨Wow... Wow, I´m here.¨

I got up at 4 this morning after restless sleep. I think I was too excited, plus the beds I have been sleeping in for 10 to 30 dollars a night aren´t the best. I headed to the bus station where I met some guys from Toranto and NY. We were both kinda mystified that it wasn´t more crowed. I was the first in line, not intentionally. We chatted a bit, got on the bus, and made the 20 ride to the top. Imagine a kid almost wetting his pants with excitement and you have me. We got there and much like I was told, it was covered with clouds. Within 10 minutes dawn was upon us and the clouds began to break. It was a good hour before sunrise and I got some great photos. I met more Americans, the same guys and then this girl Erin from Connecticut. She was super nice and had a great camera so we did some fun poses. If she sends them to me, it will be my Christmas card. However, this is what I saw when I first arrived.

The amazing part is to think what it took to create such a magnificent place. I´ve been to the ¨Disney¨castle outside of Munich which was majestic, but Machu Picchu takes the cake on majesty 10 times over. The way it is settled between these huge mountains and cliffs is something you will never be able to understand until you come here yourself. Then you get into the creation of the place, BY HAND! It´s simply incredible. Words cannot express MP, only experiencing it can.



I toured around for 6 plus hours. I was supposed to have the great guide my friends Kari and AJ had last year, but he had to cancel. I didn´t set anything else up, rather, I bought a self-guided tour book and read almost every word on the 90 page tour, hense 6 hours. Along the way I was people I had met along my journey in addition to some girls from Chicago. We chatted for a bit and then it was time for me to leave. One thing I found funny was the description of rules for MP. On the sign it said something that would NOT fly in the US, ¨No food, No littering, Walking sticks can only be used by old people.¨ I laughed out loud! On the train back to Ollyantatambo I sat with 3 high school students. There are a ton of HS groups here. These kids were from Princeton, NJ. Only I would stay with them on an hour and a half train ride rather than finding a seat elsewhere.


One of the joys of solo travel-self-portraits!












I made it back to KB hotel and crashed. I could have slept all night, but I made myself get up and I´m glad I did. There was a festival in town today, which I missed. But, they are still in the streets now celebrating much like we do in Chicago. There is street food and beer. I walked around this little square, for a good hour. I saw kids playing with tops and yo-yos, ¨car race¨with empty plastic soda bottles and tag...isn´t it funny that when your friend pushes you down and you get hurt, the best cure for the tears is to hit your friend and ¨hurt¨them too? I saw people standing around talking and drinking beer from the beer tent. Yes, there is a beer tent, but they sell 40s and give you a plastic cup. It´s great to see the old generation of women on their milk crates drinking 40s in their traditional clothing. Then there is the newer generation wearing clothes like you and I would wear. Spiderman even shows up to festivals in Peru.


This little girl came up to me, ¨Hola¨. I so wish I knew Spanish better. I said, ¨Como esta?¨ She answered with ¨Bien.¨ Then I watched the kids play for longer. Finally, about 4 came over and sat next to me. We sorta had a converstion, as best we could. We definitely got each other´s names, where I was from, where I was staying, how old I am, what time I am going to bed tonight, where I am going tomorrow, how long i´m in Peru, and why I came to Peru. I thought that was pretty cool. Gisella, Julissa, Ronald, and oh what was the little ones name....Jacqueline, that´s it. I´m just one of the lucky ones who takes the opportunity to experience different people of this world. We may not know each other´s language well, but we make do, and we enjoy each other. They also enjoyed my camera!

Gisella sorta cut my head off. It´s as if Aunt Karen was taking the photo. Shout out AK!












So all in all, I would say this is one of the top days of my life. That is a bold statement, but I stand by it. Who could ask for more than to realize a dream and to experience the kids of a culture unknown to me, at certain depth, all in one day? I´m the lucky one!

I spit at you

Today was a culinary type day for me. Everywhere I travel I like to take a cooking class and I always want to try the local food. I was able to do that today along with meeting some cool people.

As I was sitting at the train station for my trip to Machu Picchu, KB, the guy who owns the hostal I´ve been staying in passes me along with Pat and Joe, the couple from Colorado I met yesterday. They were on a mission I could tell, but I had no idea for what. KB said, ¨Grab your bag and come along.¨ Come to findout we were headed to a granite bench created by the Incas. The Rio Urdubamaba river is low right now(low season) sitting a good 6 to 8 feet lower than it does in say January. Many of the rocks and boulders would never be see certain times a year, including this bench. Again, it is a work of art. It seems that this bench would have been used by a king with two women on either side of him. There were cutouts that appeared to be for feet. The cutout in the middle was a bit lower than the other two. The bench was so smooth and complete-quite amazing.

I met a couple of British girls on the train ride up to Aguas Calientes. They had been trekking in the mountains for 3 days. We had a nice conversation and then got to AC which is a very small town. If I need to go to the bathroom it is just as easy to go back to my room as find one somewhere. It´s also the site of my getting into some good culture, with food.

Ever hear of an alpaca? I ate one today? How about llamas? Ate that too. Trout? Yep, raw! My day of food began in a little restaurant with the alpaca. These are in the llama family and they make winter hats, scarves and mittens out of their wool. Apparently, they also he these guys. It was like a steak, but a really tough steak. Isn´t it funny that I won´t touch venison back in the States, but here in Peru I´ll eat alpaca?

http://thoughtdistillery.com/gallery/d/639-3/alpaca.jpg

In addition to that, I took a cooking class. It was just me and three chefs, Oscar, Manuel, Julio (me and Julio down by the school yard-everyone sing with me). They were all cool guys. Oscar and Manuel both spoke better English, so Julio just told Manuel what to say to me. The meal started with ceveche(sp?). It is a traditional Peruvian appetizer type thing. During a war with Chile, I think Oscar said in the 1400´s, the Peruvian men would come home and as a celebration the women would make ceveche. It was basically a potato cake, but like mashed potatoes mixed with pureed yellow Peruvian chilis(key ingrediant in most Peruvian cooking), formed into a patty. Then there was a mixture of raw trout(or another fish of your liking but trout is huge in this part of Peru due to the Rio Urdubamba), onion, garlic, and lots of lime juice. That is placed on top of the potato, then another potato cake is put on top. To top it off is a mayonase make of pureed black olives, oil, and garlic. It was really good. THe mayonase was somewhat overpowering but good.

The next thing we made was quinua soup. Quinoa is a rice type grain that I discovered only two years ago thanks to Oprah´s Bob Green(as if she owns him but you know what I mean....ok, she does own him). The soup was delicioso! Finally we make a llama stir fry. YUM! It wasn´t as tough as the alpaca, which I enjoyed, and again was a lot like steak. It was really neat to have these three guys and me cooking and answering my questions, etc.

Well, I´m off to bed. I have a 4 a.m. wake-up call for Machu Picchu. I´m a little leary about the trip due to the clouds that were atop the mountains as we pulled in to AC. I´m telling you what, if there are clouds tomorrow.....maybe Oprah can move them for me. Kidding, you all know I love her.

Cheers!

A little herb never hurt!

Wow-today was an amazing day. The phrase, ¨simply amazing¨ must have run through my mind a hundred times. I took an extreme mountain biking excursion through the guy who owns the hostel I´m staying at. He´s from the States but moved here 5 years ago. I met a family from Portland and a couple from Colorado. One thing I knew would happen here that didn´t in Asia is that I am running into many Americans. It´s not all bad, as I´m meeting nice people(many educators), but I loved not running into any while in Thailand. Anywho, the kids of this family were 13 and 16 and great. We stuck together for most of the tour as the parents held back a bit. However, I give their mom credit because I KNOW Sheila wouldn´t have been caught dead doing this. It reminds me of our family rafting excursion where the phrase ¨Shut up and row¨ became commonplace.

The trip began at the Moray an Inca research center of sorts. Their work is of perfection. The fact that they could create something so vast and near perfect is quite astounding. They did it by hand!

Within the first few minutes I took a headed after my tire got caught in a crevace. Besides a skinned knee, I was fine and back down the trail. These sites reminded me a bit of Glacier in Montana but the difference is that the mountains are covered with pastures and crops and little towns in the valleys. There were steep parts and easier parts. The most challenging were the steep switchbacks, and there were many. I kept my back break close to constantly on as I jerked my handlebars to the left and immediately to the right. I should mention that some of these turns were on about 4 feet of trail with mountain on one side of me and cliff on the other side. Don´t worry Mom, I made it down safely. My tourmates were kind enough to take pictures to prove I´m alive. It took us about 4 hours or more to make it down the mountain. At the end of our journey we made it to the salt mines. Families own pools, like owning a plot of land. They mine the salt for your table. If you have Peruvian Pink Salt, I saw it being mined today. One of the most interesting things I learned today is that in the valley that houses Ollyantaytambo, where I´m staying, was one of the only, if not only, places that the Inca defeated the Spanish.

Finally today, we saw many children. Excuse me while I pontificate for a moment. I always love seeing the children of the world. These kids don´t know what Nintendo Wii is or have iPods or cell phones. But what I notice is how happy they are or seem. They don´t know what they are missing. I love Guitar Hero too, don´t worry, but these kids don´t know that. I prefer to beleive that they are happy with what they have. We saw two boys running along with us. Their feet were black with dirt, jutting out of their leather sandles. One boy had a wire and a wheel. His older companion, Arnesto as we found out, kept trying to kick the wheel off the wire. I must mention that this was on the steep switchbacks. The little boy never once lost control of his wheel as the two of them laughed and giggled the entire way.

What I love about seeing the children is that it makes me not feel sorry for them. That´s not to say there are not children in this world that do have it rough and I do feel sorry for, but the children I encounter are happy. They don´t know what they don´t have and I sometimes think that is better. But I do wonder what they think as the foreign tourists come into their lives. Do they wish they had the bikes that we were on? Do we make their lives better by bringing much needed money to them? Or, are we taking away their innosence? I choose to believe the former. At least I hope so.

The herb I refer to in the title of course is coco. It is illegal to bring back to the States, but´I´m sure if I could get some back, it would do wonders. It looks much like a small bay leaf and they put it directly in hot water for tea. I´m guessing, if it is illegal in the States, we could figure out another use. : ) I´m just saying.... I have been drinking the tea three times a day as it is supposed to help with altitude sickness. At least that is what they say.

Tonight I had burritos for dinner. They were much like a fejita with everything coming in a separate bowl. The tortillas were much like a Swedish pancack. I am also loving that soups like pumpkin and squash are so huge here. I´m taking a cooking class tomorrow, so I hope to learn the tricks!

I´m about 24 hours away from Machu Picchu. I´m trying not to look at all the posters, post cards, books, etc. with the famous site on them. Although I have seen those pictures many, many times, I want the image to be fresh in my mind. I remember when my brother did a report on MP, I was in 3rd or 4th grade perhaps. Since then I have wanted to visit. I´ve been waiting over 20 years for Sunday and it is almost here!!

Please leave comments. It keeps me connected to all of you. I see it is quite hot in Chicago these days. It is really cold here in the morning, around 40 and at night around 40. During the day it is about 65 or 70 degrees. Lovely!

After 36 hours, I´m here in Peru!

First let me begin with, Peru is awesome, getting here was not! I left my condo at 3 pm on the 24th and finally made it to my first hostal at 4:40 on the 25th. The trip is long in general, but the two hour delay in Miami, the weather in Cuzco, and the LAN airline employees made it worse.

Long story short, many of us missed our connection in Lima and then American put on on later flights to Cuzco the only problem is that LAN airlines wouldn´t honor those seats and refused to let us on the plane. I learned that there is a bit of a feud with American and LAN although they are ¨One World¨partners. After the delay in Miami and the tired state I was in, a lesser man would have crumbled.....ok, I almost crumbled at the LAN counter because they were so unhelpful. Anyway, out of it all good came. I met two wonderful people.

Andi, a grandmother who recently lost her husband, and her grandson Drew were in the same situation as me. After a bit of tea and trying to figure things out, i felt better. Andi is a world traveler and although she did nothing that I wouldn´t have done, it was nice to have another person to hang with. After 3 trips between American and LAN´s counters, we were all booked on the 12:30 flight to Cuzco. I didn´t have it so bad though. Andi and Drew had been trying to get to Peru for 3 days but due to airline issues they were majorly delayed. Drew, I thought was about 11, is actually going on 13. For a kid who had little sleep in 3 days he was doing pretty good. I think his grandmother was about ready to kill him, so having me enter the situation was good. Take the most ADHD boy you have, multiply it by 10, add in lack of sleep and you have Drew. He was a great kid though, I could tell.

On my way to Cuzco I met a guy I recognized from Miami. He is a Master´s student from London doing research here in Cuzco. He too had been trying to get from the States to Peru for 3 days. so my over 24 hours was nothing. He has some friends coming to Cuzco on the 4th,the same day I arrive there so we are going to hang out. as he was writing his email down for me he said, ¨Í¨m Matt.¨ I smiled and said the same thing.

Last night i got to Pisac. This place gets pick dark at :30 and the village shuts down. I grabbed some dinner and headed to my room. I had the most wonderful shower of my life. Not because of the intense pressure or the impressive shower, but because needed it so bad. Although I take showers often, some of you boggle your eyes at me when I say I don´t like to shower. Well last night I did. I settled into bed, wrote in my journal and slept from 9pm until 9 am today.

So far today I have eaten my weight in empanadas-yum! I´ve seen live guinea pigs but have not seen a cooked one yet. I´m going to eat one though! There is a huge market here, so I´m going to spend some time there until I head to Ollaytatambo later this afternoon.

Adios!

p.s. as with emails, I reserve the right to misspell words plus with this keyboard, it is inevitable.

At it once again

Three years ago I traveled to Taiwan and Thailand for 3.5 weeks. Most people I know thought I was nuts, but the experience was fun, enlightening, and life-changing. Now I'm at it again, only this time I'm headed to Peru. Please join me on my adventure by checking my blog for updates, which I hope include photos.