a much delayed entry... end of Guate and Peru
SOOO I haven't written in this thing since July and have had many complaints. I don't know how to explain what's happened in the last two months... but I'll try. Sooo Guate ended with many outings with my ppl in Xela and then Kristen and I met up with Margo in Guate for one last night out. Good times and a relatively easy flight back to Houston. All I can say is that I nearly kissed US soil when I landed, but refrained because I think Customs would have thought that was weird and I didn't feel like being questioned. When I got back to the house, I immediately went and put EVERYTHING in the laundry room because I needed to wash the bed bugs/fleas I was probably carrying out of my stuff. I showered with a STEAMING HOT stream of water from two faucet heads at once for approximately 30 minutes before I felt I scoured myself enough (and used the hot water I had been missing for the last two months). Honestly, best shower of my life.
After three days home (which was AWESOME... I saw the Lion King musical which was so unbelievably good, but I did know the movie well enough to know that the musical was basically verbatim hehe which made it even better), my dad and I left for Peru. We spent one night in Lima and went to Cousco the very next morning. I tried to take that elevation meds they gave me, but I had such bad tingling in my feet, knees, and hand that I took myself off of it. We spent three nights in Cousco with the group we were with and spent each day going to museums and churchs around the city. I was the youngest person in the group by 30 years, but that's ok. The people in the group were all so nice I felt completely comfortable with them. We hiked around the city and spent a night with an indigenous Andean band, having the local food of guinea pig (so gross its cannot even describe it). While I had an awesome time, I got so extremely sick that night... it was like Lake Atitlan all over again. I puked all night long (slept on the bathroom floor... awesome) and the next morning decided to try to do the hike. I arranged to have the bus pick me up if necessary from the hike. Uhhh it was very necessary. I couldn't keep water or even Gatorade down. SO Dad and I left the hike and I stayed in the hotel all day.... the maid walked in while I was puking and an hour later the manager showed up with a huge bouquet of flowers. I thought it was cute hehe.
The next day was the second hardest hike of the trip. Thankfully I am very resilient and did the entire hike with no problems. It was an awesome hike, taking us to 14,600 ft (Cousco is at 11,000). We saw some awesome ruins and learned a lot abou the ancient Andean culture and the traditions that still exist today. Lunch looked basically nasty but I had a built in excuse not to eat it... unfortunately for my dad, the entire group found out exactly what a freaking picky eater he is because not only did he not touch that lunch, but also he never touched a single lunch. Anyway, the next few days are a blur of hiking and massive amounts of ruins which were all cool. Our hardest hike took us to 15,425ft and that hike was beyond amazing. We were with llama and alpacas just roaming the lands. I got to hold a baby lamb that had been born two hours before I held it (which promptly pooped on me... but whatever it was still cute). We saw two HUGE condors flying above us and the hike down followed a babbling brook with waterfalls. Everything was so picturesque. We ended that hike with more traditional Andean food.
We got to Machu Picchu around 2pm on Friday. Instead of fighting the crowds on the actual site, we decided to hike up to the Sun Gate (which is the entry point from the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu) and then over to the condemnded bridge. Both sites demonstrated just how isolated this site was from the rest of Peru. We started our personal tour of the ruins when everyone was clearing off and got through a good portion of the history. Our hotel that night was the actual Machu Pucchu Sanctuary Lodge at the entrance to the ruins. It was a beautiful night under a full moon... just magical.
My dad and I woke up super early on Saturday morning to catch sunrise over the ruins. That was an experience that just cannot be put into words... I took a bazillion pictures of the sunrise, one every minute basically. This way I can try to show people what it was like, but I realize that there is no comparing to actually being there for it. We spent the entire day at the ruins and hiked Little Waina Picchu (spelling?) with our group. Most people climb the actual Wainu Picchu, but it was soooo crowded and people are soo pushy that we decided against it. The great thing about Little Waina Picchu is that we were the ONLY ones at the top of the mountain! We got great pictures and were able to just chill on the top. The actual climb was pretty cool... at one point, we had to use a rope to get up the side of the mountain. After the hike, we basically just chilled at Machu Picchu... taking in the whole feeling of being there before we had to go. We headed back to Cousco, Lima, and were home, sweet, home by 6am Monday morning.
All in all, my summer was pretty freaking amazing. I got to have the most unbelievable experiences with my friends and family AND add a little medicine to it too. I feel so lucky that I got to go to all of these places and have SO MUCH FUN while doing it. I guess it was the perfect way to spend my very last free summer =)
After three days home (which was AWESOME... I saw the Lion King musical which was so unbelievably good, but I did know the movie well enough to know that the musical was basically verbatim hehe which made it even better), my dad and I left for Peru. We spent one night in Lima and went to Cousco the very next morning. I tried to take that elevation meds they gave me, but I had such bad tingling in my feet, knees, and hand that I took myself off of it. We spent three nights in Cousco with the group we were with and spent each day going to museums and churchs around the city. I was the youngest person in the group by 30 years, but that's ok. The people in the group were all so nice I felt completely comfortable with them. We hiked around the city and spent a night with an indigenous Andean band, having the local food of guinea pig (so gross its cannot even describe it). While I had an awesome time, I got so extremely sick that night... it was like Lake Atitlan all over again. I puked all night long (slept on the bathroom floor... awesome) and the next morning decided to try to do the hike. I arranged to have the bus pick me up if necessary from the hike. Uhhh it was very necessary. I couldn't keep water or even Gatorade down. SO Dad and I left the hike and I stayed in the hotel all day.... the maid walked in while I was puking and an hour later the manager showed up with a huge bouquet of flowers. I thought it was cute hehe.
The next day was the second hardest hike of the trip. Thankfully I am very resilient and did the entire hike with no problems. It was an awesome hike, taking us to 14,600 ft (Cousco is at 11,000). We saw some awesome ruins and learned a lot abou the ancient Andean culture and the traditions that still exist today. Lunch looked basically nasty but I had a built in excuse not to eat it... unfortunately for my dad, the entire group found out exactly what a freaking picky eater he is because not only did he not touch that lunch, but also he never touched a single lunch. Anyway, the next few days are a blur of hiking and massive amounts of ruins which were all cool. Our hardest hike took us to 15,425ft and that hike was beyond amazing. We were with llama and alpacas just roaming the lands. I got to hold a baby lamb that had been born two hours before I held it (which promptly pooped on me... but whatever it was still cute). We saw two HUGE condors flying above us and the hike down followed a babbling brook with waterfalls. Everything was so picturesque. We ended that hike with more traditional Andean food.
We got to Machu Picchu around 2pm on Friday. Instead of fighting the crowds on the actual site, we decided to hike up to the Sun Gate (which is the entry point from the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu) and then over to the condemnded bridge. Both sites demonstrated just how isolated this site was from the rest of Peru. We started our personal tour of the ruins when everyone was clearing off and got through a good portion of the history. Our hotel that night was the actual Machu Pucchu Sanctuary Lodge at the entrance to the ruins. It was a beautiful night under a full moon... just magical.
My dad and I woke up super early on Saturday morning to catch sunrise over the ruins. That was an experience that just cannot be put into words... I took a bazillion pictures of the sunrise, one every minute basically. This way I can try to show people what it was like, but I realize that there is no comparing to actually being there for it. We spent the entire day at the ruins and hiked Little Waina Picchu (spelling?) with our group. Most people climb the actual Wainu Picchu, but it was soooo crowded and people are soo pushy that we decided against it. The great thing about Little Waina Picchu is that we were the ONLY ones at the top of the mountain! We got great pictures and were able to just chill on the top. The actual climb was pretty cool... at one point, we had to use a rope to get up the side of the mountain. After the hike, we basically just chilled at Machu Picchu... taking in the whole feeling of being there before we had to go. We headed back to Cousco, Lima, and were home, sweet, home by 6am Monday morning.
All in all, my summer was pretty freaking amazing. I got to have the most unbelievable experiences with my friends and family AND add a little medicine to it too. I feel so lucky that I got to go to all of these places and have SO MUCH FUN while doing it. I guess it was the perfect way to spend my very last free summer =)
posted by Sarah at 8:42 PM
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