Goodbye Cuzco, Hello Vancouver

On my last two days in Cuzco I didn't do too much because I had just returned from Arequipa and most of the other volunteers were away in Machu Picchu. I spent Sunday packing up my things and then made one last visit to the Maximo offices to say goodbye to the staff. Once I returned to the house Gaby and Priscila were making dinner. At first I asked if I could watch and then when Priscila started to make dessert I asked if I could help. It seems that even in Peru I can't stay away from the kitchen! We made a Pisco Sour mousse and afterward I showed them my food blog, which can be found here, and pictures of my food on Facebook. They were both impressed and said they wished I could cook it for them.

In the evening Gaby invited me to accompany her to a crepes party at a cafe in San Blas Plaza called Pantastico. The cafe is owned by a couple with the man originating from Switzerland and the woman a local Peruvian. Gaby's boyfriend Henry works there as a baker and his specialty is oreo cheesecake. During the evening I was able to learn more about Gaby such as the fact that she's from Trujillo, a city in the north of Peru, and that she has been working as a cook at our volunteer house La Florida for five months now. Prior to getting the job she went to culinary school for two years. I also found out that she is the same age as me and has a sister who is one year younger than my brother. I had a great time at the crepes party and I think it was the perfect way to spend my last night in Cuzco, doing something I really enjoy. The crepes were made for us, though I got to flip some myself, and there were a variety of both sweet and savory fillings.

The next morning I woke up with a good feeling, ready to go home. Once I finished packing my suitcase I used Ariella's computer to upload the last of my pictures from my trip to Facebook. Unfortunately I had to use the "basic uploader" which could only handle five pictures at a time. Combined with the slow Peruvian internet it took me an hour and a half to upload fifty pictures; when I finally finished I felt a sense of relief. My last little "hoorah" in Cuzco involved going to El Molino with Merisa. It's a market that sells literally everything from DVDs, shoes, clothes, cameras, TVs...you name it, they have it. We also went souvenir shopping and I found it so much fun to bargain and haggle the prices, especially when it wasn't even for me. We ended up getting some great deals and were able to cross a lot of things off her list. When we returned to the house I ate lunch with the others, said my goodbyes, and then hailed a taxi for the airport.

At the airport I was pleased to see Melissa and Dustin on the same flight as me from Cuzco to Lima. Then in Lima I ran into Sheila whom I had met the night before at the crepes party. Apparently I must look like a very dangerous person to both the Peruvian and United States officials because I was "randomly" selected three times to have my bags thoroughly searched through. Once in Lima when I arrived, the second time prior to boarding my flight to San Francisco, and the last time while passing through US customs in San Francisco. It was annoying because each time I had to repack my bag and, being the organized person that I am, I had everything packed within bags in my luggage. Each time they ruffled through a bag I had to put everything back into it and then into my suitcase. Fortunately, I was quick about it and got used to the process after having to repeat it three times.

In the Lima airport I had a very long layover of eight hours but luckily I was able to spend it with Melissa, Dustin, and Sheila because they too had to wait until past midnight for their flights. I am so glad that I had all of them to keep me company because I don't know what I would have done for so long by myself in the airport. I was also lucky to have an empty seat next to me on the flight from Lima to San Francisco and was able to sleep most of the way.

Looking back over my trip I think that I spent the perfect amount of time in Peru. I was able to see everything that I wanted and at the same time I rarely found myself without something to do. I'm actually very proud of myself for writing in my journal each and everyday, even when I was too tired or the day hadn't been too exciting in my opinion. I think that knowing I had people back home reading about my adventures really motivated me to chronicle my trip and all of my experiences. Thank you to everyone who read my blog; I genuinely hoped it helped shed a new light on a different part of the world and inspired others to think about trying something new and outside their comfort zone.

City Tour and Arequipa

Thursday was my last day working at the clinic and at the end of my shift I said goodbye to Yovanna and Señora Alicia who told me that the doors of Cuzco are always open to me. In the afternoon Zack, Ariella, and I were supposed to go on the city tour together but Ariella came home late from the jungle and was too tired so she stayed home and rested. The tour itself was alright; we were the only English speaking people on the bus and the guide asked if he could run the tour in Spanish and answer any questions we may have had in the end. We both agreed but also noticed that when the guide started to talk for longer than five minutes we would tend to zone out because it requires active concentration on both our parts to think in Spanish. During the tour we visited Saqsayhuaman (pronounced "sexy woman"), Tambomachay, Pukapukara, and Q´enqo.

At the end of the tour I quickly said goodbye to Zack and then bolted out of the bus because I was running late for my bus to Arequipa and I still had to stop by the house to collect my things and eat dinner. During my taxi ride the driver made conversation with me by talking about the differences between Canada and Peru in population, size, and attitude toward marriage between Natives and local people. It was the most interesting taxi ride I have had to date and in the end he complimented me on my Spanish. After being in Cuzco for three weeks I have definitely noticed an improvement in my Spanish though I still have to use a lot of hand gesturing and random English words. Once I came home and finished getting ready Ariella and I left for the bus terminal for our ten hour overnight busride to Arequipa. The bus itself was pretty nice and the chairs leaned back 45° in our "economy class", in the downstairs area they leaned back even more to be almost like a full bed. I didn't mind our seats because there was no one in front or behind us so we had extra space to ourselves. In order to check-in for our busride we had to be fingerprinted and were briefly filmed by a security guard holding a camcorder. Originally I was worried about pickpocketers taking my things while I slept but I hugged my bag the whole way and I felt better knowing that Ariella was sitting next to me.

We arrived in Arequipa the next morning at 5:30 AM and by the time we were collected from the bus station and met up with the rest of the group it was 8 AM. We started our tour by driving to the small village of Chivay. On our bus we were once again the only English speaking tourists and the rest were mostly from Lima. The bus ride was quite long, about 4 hours, but we made a couple of stops along the way. Once we arrived in Chivay we were driven to our hostels and then got to relax for an hour before being taken to the hot springs. Unfortunately, Ariella wasn't feeling well so I went to the hot springs without her. The hot springs consisted of six different pools, some covered and some not, and a series of locker rooms and showers. Unlike the hot springs at Aguas Calientes, these pools had clear water and were not muddy and wierd looking. It was so cold outside that I thought for sure I would only stay in the covered part but it was actually more pleasant to be in the open air becaue the small amount of rain felt refreshing compared to the temperature of the hot springs.

Afterward I walked around the small market across from our hostel with one of the girls from our group, Eva. She told me that she is currently studing in Rome to be a mechanical engineer though she is originally from Lima. At dinner she also introdued me to her friend Yvette whose grandparents live in Arequipa and she has come to visit. Once again, I found myself glad that my Spanish has improved and I am now able to carry on conversations with people around me. It was too bad that Ariella wasn't feeling well and had to stay home because the dinner featured live music and folklore dancing. However because she wan't present I was forced to go a little outside of my comfort zone and actively socialize with the other Peruvian girls. I may not have been 100% comfortable with my Spanish but it was enough to make a memorable and enjoyable evening.

On Saturday morning we woke up early yet again to depart for Colca Canyon at 6 AM. The night before there had been some sort of parade going on when we went to bed consisting of lots of loud singing and banging on drums. It's a good thing we were so tried from the day before that we were able to fall asleep despite all the noise. Along the way to Colca Canyon we stopped by the small towns of Yanque and Maca and I was able to take a picture with a condor on my arm. Once we arrived in Colca Canyon we were able to watch the condors fly over the river and above the canyon. There were about 5-6 condors flying overhead and at one point, as I was sitting on the ledge observing them, one landed on a rock in front of me. We spent an hour and a half at the canyon before boarding the bus to return to Chivay for lunch and then back to Arequipa. During one of our "picture" stops I was able to try a cactus fruit which looked like a round kiwi but tasted very sour.

Back in Arequipa we had to wait for about four hours for our bus back to Cuzco. I was originally going to walk around with Eva but she had some sort of issues with her transport to Lima and had to go take care of it. Ariella still had a headache and wasn't feeling well enough to walk around but much to her excitement and surprise we found a Starbucks and she happily sat there with our things using the internet on her phone while I went shopping. To finish off our trip we ate dinner at a restaurant on a rooftop terrace overlooking the main square, also called Plaza d'Armas. It was so pleasant to sit over the city and watch the lights while eating out pizza. They even provided us with woolen ponchos to wear and there was live music. It was a great wasy to finish off the weekend, though I wish Ariella had felt better. I'm glad I got to meet Eva and have some interesting conversations with her. I can't believe my trip is almost over but I'm looking forward to coming home and getting back to the clean air of Vancouver, as well as some fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet and not just rice, bread, and potatoes.  

Taking in Some Ruins, Culture, and More Shopping

On Monday morning I left my house a little late and as I was walking toward the bus stop I saw my combi (the name for the public transportation around here) already there. I started to run toward the next stop and luckily there was a red light so I was able to outrun the combi and make it. At the clinic we were fairly busy because there were a lot of doctors working that day. I have come to notice by now that Yovanna, the technician I work with, and the clinic really try to stretch out every sole they spend on medical supplies. For example, rather than use cotton balls and gauze straight from the package, Yovanna showed me how to cut the existing materials and reroll/refold them to create a bigger quantity. I´m curious as to how much money this saves because it is definitely time intensive.

After placement that day, Zack and I decided to go to Tipon. He had gotten directions to the bus stop and we were both expecting to find a station similar to that of the buses for Pisac or Urubamba. In reality the stop was just like any other paradero for the combis and it took us about half and hour to find. It´s a good thing I had asked Yovanna about it prior to leaving the clinic in the morning because she explained where to look for it. Once we finally found the stop and got on the bus it took us about 45 minutes to get to Tipon. At first when we got to the ruins I looked around and thought for sure we would be done in 20 minutes, however as we started walking around we just kept going up the mountain and lost track of time. The only reason why we turned around was because we noticed that the sun was starting to set and we wanted to make sure we could find a taxi back down. It was so nice to walk around in the fresh open air and enjoy the quiet solitude of the ruins. There were few people which also gave it a different feel from the other more popular ruins such as Pisac and Ollantaytambo.

On Tuesday Zack and I created our own "Cuzco Culture Day" by visiting many of the museums that were included as part of our tourist ticket. After lunch we started off by going with Merisa to the Paccacutec statue and then we met up with my tandem partner Alexandra and hit up three different museums. I liked the historical regional museum the best because it had the most to look at and the captions were interesting to read. Both the contemporary art museum and the popular art museum didn't have much to offer but we felt compeled to go because it was included in our ticket. Once we finished with the museums Alexandra went with me to the bank so that I could take out more of the donation money I collected and buy more supplies. Since we knew it would be our last chance to see each other before I leave we said our goodbyes and she gave me a coin purse with a nice design of Machu Picchu stitched into it.

One of the staff at Maximo Nivel went shopping with me and we bought sanitary items and clothing for the children at the orphanages. I had also wanted to buy books but we ran out of time so today I went back to a bookstore with Merisa and her tandem partner Ángel. He was extremely helpful to have around because he works at Merisa's placement, Hogar San Pedro, which is an orphanage where they teach English. He knew exactly what types of books the children needed and and the different reading abilities that the books could cater to. Because I was paying in cash and buying such a large quantity, the bookstore gave me a discount in the end. Including the clothing, sanitary items, and books I spent 2500 soles which is roughly equivalent to $925 CAD.

I bought:

• 30 pairs of pants
• 30 shirts
• 12 sweaters
• 10 bottles of hand sanitizer
• 10 packages of baby wipes
• 4 boxes of kleenex
• 77 English books of various reading levels

I felt really good afterword and could tell that this particular purchase is going to make a difference because Ángel was so excited about it. As soon as we returned to the office he picked out the books he wanted most for Hogar San Pedro and the rest I left for the staff to distrubute amongst other placements. Since I will not be here once they deliver all of the clothes, books, and sanitary items, I asked for them to email me a list of where all of the things eventually end up. I am very grateful to all of the people who donated their money and trusted my judgement to spend it in the best possible way. I hope that I have made them proud and that the things I bought will be appreciated by those who recieve them.

I continued my cultural explorations of Cuzco after finishing all of my donation-related shopping by going to the Inca Museum and then watching a traditional Peruvian dance performance in the evening. The Inca Museum was interesting because it had a lot of artifacts that were discovered from various Inca regions in and around Cuzco. In the courtyard of the museum there were ladies who sat and wove traditional Inca textiles using large looms. The performance featured six couples dressed in colorful Peruvian clothing and dancing to music being played by a live band behind them. During one of the dances audience participation was encouraged and due to the fact that I was sitting in the aisle I got pulled up on stage to dance with one of the men.

After the show I met up with a bunch of people to try a local Peruvian delicacy called Cuy, which is a boiled and roasted guinea pig. The restaurant we went to, Don Carlos, was really nice and the waiter was very sweet and understanding when we took about 10 minutes for everyone to take pictures with the Cuy before he cut it up. As far as the taste goes, I didn't think it was too bad. The skin itself was very tough and chewy but the meat resembled that of dark chicken and surprisingly the meat from inside the head tasted best. I think the most off-putting part about it was the fact that we knew we were eating guinea pig and it was being served to us whole.