Machu Picchu and Puno (Lake Titicaca)

My dream has finally been realized. I can now officially say that I've been to Machu Picchu.  I can also say that it lived up to my expectations.  We left our hotel at 5 am to get on a train for 2 hours to Aguas Calientes, where we hopped on a bus that took us up to Machu Picchu.  That was quite the ride.  We climbed for a little bit, out of breath, then we were able to see that famous view.  Unbelievable!  It's just like the pictures, and I almost felt like I wasn't there.  It's so unreal.  We toured around forever and climbed a lot.  My glutes and hams got a great workout.  We went to see this old bridge, and the route there was a little scary.  The path was very narrow, and there were drop-offs of about 1,000 ft. (or at least it seemed).  The bridge wasn't that special.  We then toured around the old city, and our guide was very knowledgeable, but it was just too much information.  I could have enjoyed some simple explanations, but they were just too long and I closed my ears about 30 mins. into it. I was very ready to leave when we actually did leave.  It was still an overall great experience.

Yesterday we were on a bus all day starting at 8 am.  The stops were planned very nicely though, so it made it seem not so long.  We arrived in Puno, which is right on Lake Titicaca, around 7 pm. This lake is the highest in the world at around 14,000 feet.  It's freezing cold here, and our bathroom window won't shut, so it's constantly letting in cold air.  There's a space heater, but it doesn't work well.  Unfortunately I'm developing a sore throat now because of all the weather changes.  It's so extreme.

Today has been awesome.  We went on a boat ride on the Lake to arrive to Las Islas Uros.  There are about 70 of these small islands and the people are called Uros.  They speak the language Aymara.  These islands are floating islands made of these reed-like plants called totoras.  They anchor the islands down with stones so it doesn't float away, and they have to keep adding totoras to the ground.  The people there were amazing.  It's so interesting how these islands were made and how their houses were made. They make everything using totoras...their boats and homes included.  They proudly showed us their tiny huts, and we could take as many pictures as we wanted without being charged.  They make their own crafts, and I bought a tejido with the story of their islands.  We then went on one of their handmade boats for a ride.  They called it their "Mercedes" boat because it was fancy.  Pictures are up on Facebook if you want to see all of this stuff.  The women sang us a few songs in different languages.  Gosh, life is so different there.  I really do appreciate my life so much more when I go on these trips.  Really....I have everything I need plus way more.  It's crazy.

Ok, una queja.  I know that I've complained about this in Guatemala and Spain, but I'm gonna do it again.  Why doesn't anybody in Peru have change?  Why do the ATMs only give out 100s and 50s?  I mean, last night I bought something for 3 soles with a 20 at the hotel, and they had to go searching for change for me...for a 20!  Today I walked into a bank asking if I could get smaller bills for my 100s, and she told me only for 1 100 bill.  Even the banks don't like breaking down bills.  So come on, if your banks can't even give you change, why the heck do you even have bills of 100?  The ATMs should only be allowed to give out 20s.    Ok, I'm done complaining.  I do love this country, it's just the large bill thing that gets me.

Well, tomorrow it's another long day on the bus.  We'll finally be in Arequipa on Thursday.  I can't wait to be in one location!

Cuzco

Yesterday we spent the whole day in Cuzco to watch the festival of Inti Raymi, the celebration of the winter solstice. We started early, standing in the street to try and see the beginning of the dancing and music, but we couldn't really see. The party moves throughout the city, so we went to the main plaza and waited for the dancers and musicians to arrive. We waited for almost an hour in the blazing hot sun. One girl kind of passed out (a couple of times). Pretty much 2 minutes after the musicians and dancers came out, we had to leave to go to the next location, Sacsayhuaman, where the main event was occurring. We sat in our bleacher-like seats, and luckily it wasn't that hot there. We waited for almost 2 hours. The show then started and it was a reenactment of the ceremony that the Incas did for the Sun god. It was all in quechua, the language of the Incas. But there were so many people involved. The dancing and music were great. But then our guide wanted us to all leave early before it ended so we could beat the rush out of there. Well, instead of leaving through the exit immediately to our right, she decided to take us all the way to the other side to exit, which meant we had to walk in front of a few thousand people. It was soooooooooooo embarrassing...35 of us leaving like that. People were booing us saying “It's not done yet” “You're horrible”, and some people even threw stuff at us. I felt awful. Anyway, after that, our day was done. Some people were sunburned really badly, but I've been ok so far. My spf 15 has done its job.

Today we got up and left to head to Urubamba and we made several stops on the way in the Sacred Valley. One stop was at a salt mine. That place was pretty cool, but getting there was not. It was a narrow, curvy gravel road with literally 80 degree drops the whole way hundreds of feet down. Of course our driver drove fast. He took the curves pretty fast, and what do you know? We meet a couple of vehicles. We barely scraped past going 3 miles per hour. It was a terrifying experience.

Once in Urubamba, we saw the Templo del sol, an amazing Incan temple. We climbed a lot and my legs are pretty wobbly. Now, I'm in our hotel which is much nicer than the ones we've been in. Tomorrow is an extremely long day. We'll spend like 7 hours at Machu Picchu (which I don't know why we need that long), then return back to Cuzco. Machu Picchu is where the famous Incan ruins are that I'm sure everybody's seen pictures of. It's going to be my dream come true.

Please pray for me as I'm having some extremely bothersome problems in the stomach area. It's not fun being sick on a bus for 8 hours, so I don't want to have to deal with that.

Also, I decided that I'd really like a donkey, sheep, and a llama or alpaca as pets. They are sooooooo cute. I can hardly stand it!   

Lima & Cuzco

So, I made it here. My six hour layover wasn't so bad because it actually turned into 5 hours. Instead of landing in Costa Rica, we landed in Managua, Nicaragua because the Costa Rican airport was closed due to an “incident”. We waited for an hour and then took off again. Once in Lima, I ended up waiting for a couple of hours for some other students to arrive so we could take a taxi together.

The next day at breakfast we were all reunited...and it felt so good. It was so great to see everybody! We took a tour throughout the city, and it lasted for quite a while. I was in and out of sleep on the bus. I still have not been able to catch up on my sleep, and I've been falling asleep on our bus tours a lot.

The next morning (Thursday) I was up by 5:00 AM, and we left the hotel at 6:30 for the airport to head to Cuzco (where many Incan ruins are). Flight was good, but within 10 minutes of getting off of the plane I felt pretty dizzy. We're at about 11,000 feet right now. First thing everybody had when we got to the hotel was mate de coca, which is a tea made from coca leaves. Cocaine is made from those leaves, but let me clarify that we were not drinking “cocaine”. These leaves are supposed to help with altitude sickness. I've read some stories online where people had this tea then had to get a drug test for employment, and it showed up as positive for cocaine, so let's hope I don't have to take a drug test.

In Cuzco, we toured around a lot. It's been nonstop. We saw many sacred places of the Incas, and it's so interesting how they built things with huge stones that fit perfectly together. They were the most advanced in the world with this. It's more precise than the pyramids in Egypt, and they haven't budged in the major earthquakes they've had.

The only thing I've felt from the altitude is dizziness and shortness of breath, but that's to be expected. It's really hard to get a full breath. With all of the climbing we were doing today, we were huffing and puffing like crazy. I don't care how in shape you are, you will get tired. It's also quite cold here. Our hotel room is freezing. I will be wearing leggings, sweatpants, a t-shirt, zip-up hoodie, hat, scarf, and gloves to bed tonight. Seriously.

The alpacas here are so funny looking. But I haven't gotten a picture of one yet because every time I've seen one there's a woman in traditional dress sitting next to it, and you have to pay her to get a picture. It's not like it's expensive. I just don't want to spend money on that right now. People were taking pictures of two women today with the alpacas and one yelled out “Propina, nina! Propina!” (“Tip!”). She was mad, and I don't think she received her tip. I don't quite get it. They just go sit next to whatever animal is grazing nearby, and even if you want to get a picture of just the animal, they still ask you for a tip. Ok, maybe that's not how it works. They probably own the animal.

Anyway, we're going out to dinner tonight, and tomorrow we're going to this huge festival all day so that should be interesting.   

Vaccinations

Oh my gosh, it's almost here!  I have butterflies in my stomach!  I also had other problems with my stomach a few days ago.  I was not well at all, and I went and talked to my pharmacist and found out that I've been doing so many things wrong since I got my vaccinations.  I went to a "travel clinic" a few weeks ago to get my vaccines, and I got a pill form of the typhoid vaccine as well as pills for malaria.  Well, I was told to take the last typhoid pill on the day that I leave for Peru (there are 4 pills to take every other day).  Apparently, as I found out later, it's supposed to be finished a week before you leave.  Also, you're supposed to take the pills with lukewarm water because cold water can affect it somehow.  I was never told this (until talking to the pharmacist), so I've been taking them with ice cold water.  I was told to start taking my malaria pills one week before leaving, meaning I took my first malaria pill on the same day as my first typhoid pill.  Well, the pharmacist told me that you're not supposed to take a malaria pill within 10 days of taking the typhoid because it could make the typhoid vaccine inactive.  Awesome.  She told me to make sure not to take Pepto Bismol or anything like that for my stomach ache because that could also reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine.  Guess what had I done the night before?  Took Pepto...and Maalox.  When I told her that I had taken both, she about passed out.  Oh, and if I get diarrhea while on these pills, it makes birth control less effective.  I thought that was kind of weird, but that's not something I'll have the worry about....the getting pregnant part I mean...the diarrhea is a different story (she pretty much told me that I will get traveler's diarrhea...yay).

I really should have gotten the vaccines through the pharmacy.  Apparently the typhoid vaccine is easier to deal with than the pills, plus everything would have been cheaper.  As for the travel clinic....I will never go back there again.  All they did was print out information about Peru, saying which vaccines are recommended.  They didn't even check to see if there would be any reactions between the drugs that they gave me.

The pharmacist wasn't just making all of this up.  She was showing me all of this info from a big book about vaccines.  When I went home to look more online, all of the websites supported what she said.  I won't be able to take my malaria pill until next week, so let's hope I don't contract the disease between now and then.  

I do feel much better as of right now, and I'm looking forward to this trip, but I have to admit that I'm terrified to eat anything there.  I really don't want to be sick during our tour...especially on the bus rides.  That was torture last year!

It's That Time of Year Again

Yes, one year has already passed. I cannot believe it. This summer I will be going to Peru with Sacramento State University. This is my last summer in the program (unless I fail a class), and it's a little bittersweet. These experiences that I've had have been incredible. I've met amazing people and been to some amazing places. But I will be glad to be done so that I don't have to spend any more long weeks away from Jordan. Also, I will feel more free with a Master's degree under my belt...no pressure to study.

I'm leaving on June 21st at around 2:30 AM. I'll fly to Costa Rica where I have a six hour layover, then I'll head over to Lima. We'll be traveling all over the place, including Cuzco. I'm so excited to see Machu Picchu!

Anyway, I have this week to finish some things up. I'm done with work as of last Friday, but I won't really have time to relax. I still have stuff to do for the classes this summer. I do feel much more prepared this year. I'm taking 3 upper-level classes, 2 of them being literature classes. Normally we're only allowed 2 upper-level classes, but the lower-level one that I was signed up for fell through. I have pretty much all of the readings done, it's just the presentations that I have to work on. After two years of purposely avoiding classes with presentations, I am stuck with presentations in all 3 classes this summer. I'm very nervous about them. I get embarrassed speaking in my awkward Spanish in front of people that obviously speak it better. Two of the presentations have to be 15-20 minutes long, and that's actually not possible for me, so I'm just going to try and do my best to pass. Those are going to be the boring literature presentations too....no visuals...just me standing up there talking. The other presentation is supposed to be no longer than 5 mins. but I have about 15 mins. worth of info on a cute little PowerPoint. It's the interesting one, and I actually don't know if I can keep it under 5 mins.

Please keep me and the other students in your prayers for safety and for great learning experiences. I have no idea how often I'll update, but if you want, you can sign up to receive an email every time I update so you don't have to keep checking here. The sign-up is in the upper left-hand corner.

Hasta luego!

Oh beautiful for spacious skies...

I’m on the airplane as I’m writing my last entry. I can’t wait to get to America!

The night that we took a motor boat to Livingston, we had a great dinner, and there were dancers and music with African influence. The culture is different over there, but they’re just as Guatemalan as anybody else. Besides, there’s really no ONE Guatemalan culture. Anyway, as they were dancing, one cute little boy who was probably about 4 came up to me and tried to bring me out on the dance floor to dance in front of everybody with him. Ummmm…..no. There was no way that I was gong to go and try to dance African style. The poor kid…I broke his little heart, but I pointed out other people that I knew would dance. Oh, and later that night, I went out on our balcony to see the awesome view we had, and the first thing I saw was a big old scorpion climbing the wall. I’m so glad it was outside.

The next morning, we took the boat back, but we made a stop on the way to someone’s home/store. The first thing I saw was this little creature that this man was holding. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a mix between a raccoon and a rat, but it was really cute. They also had a baby monkey there that was seriously depressed. They had taken him away from his mom, and he was just sitting there, laying on the ground all curled up with the saddest eyes ever. It was so sad. I wanted to take him home. The rest of the boat ride was pretty entertaining. One of the people in our program was standing at the front of the boat with her arms out like in Titanic. The ENTIRE ride. It was pretty dangerous, and she almost fell out of the boat a few times. But this woman is a little off her rocker…very strange.

After that, we headed off to Tikal, way north in Guatemala. Tikal was a Mayan city from a few thousand years ago, and it’s pretty incredible. We stayed in the only hotel that’s inside the national park. Many people weren’t so lucky with having scorpions outside of their rooms, rather, in the bathroom sink and in the shower. The crazy boat lady even got stung by one I believe. We only had some kind of lizard in our bathroom, but he was cute, so we let him be. The next day in Tikal was the day to visit the ruins. It was soooooooo hot and humid. I couldn’t even believe it. I didn’t feel so bad about how much I was sweating because every single person that I saw was pretty much completely soaked in sweat. Since I knew that would happen, I wore a shirt that you can’t see sweat through. It just stinks that in all my pictures from Tikal, we all look so gross. The Mayans really fascinate me though. It’s so hard to wrap my head around the fact that they built all of that. I would love to go back in time to see how it all looked in all it’s glory.

After visiting the ruins in the blazing hot sun, we couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel and jump in the pool. Of course, the second that we got to the pool, the sun went away and it started pouring rain. From this whole trip, I only got a little bit tan on my arms and chest, but my tan lines are ridiculous. So disappointing! We still swam, and it felt so good. We decided to go in and eat a little lunch, and guess what? The sun came out again for about 1 hour while we were eating. So once again we put on our bathing suits, and when we got to the pool, it went away and starting raining again. And when it rains there, it pours. One of the most fun parts of staying there was watching the monkeys. There were monkeys all over the place swinging like crazy in the trees. I have a cute video of them that I’ll try to upload on facebook. We probably watched them for about an hour. They were so entertaining!

During this whole final trip after our classes, the head professor kept saying that there were going to me multiple surprises along the way, so as I wrote before, we were hoping to fly back to Guatemala city. On Tuesday, we got on the bus, and we were told that a normal bus ride back to the city without stopping would last 9 hours, but obviously we were stopping. Well, we definitely didn’t take a plane. And we only made one stop to eat lunch for an hour and another stop to use bathrooms for 20 minutes. Guess how long it took us to get back? 14 and ½ hours! This is no joke. It was the most miserable trip ever. Soooo many people were sick. A couple were throwing up in the bathroom when we stopped for lunch, and poor Esther was still throwing up after arriving to the hotel in the city. I wasn’t feeling the greatest either. We were zigzagging through mountains almost the whole way back. At the end, everybody was extremely grumpy, sick, and hungry….not a good way to end the program. From a certain point, we had cops escorting us from behind. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I felt safer I guess, but nervous at the same time because that must have meant that the route was unsafe for tourists.

De todos modos, I’m alive, and I am now back home in Michigan finishing this entry. It’s great to be home. I will always have fond memories of Guatemala, and maybe one day regresaré, because I would love to know Livingston and Flores more!

Wrapping up

Soooooo close to being done! I've already taken my literature final (yesterday), and I'm not quite sure how it went. It was hard. I got a B+ on the midterm in that class, so I'm hoping this one is just as good. I'm about to take my linguistics final, and I'm a little more nervous about this one than I was for the midterm. I actually had to study this time. On the midterm I got 199/200, but I have a feeling this one won't be as good. Oh well. As long as I pass! Tonight at 5, I have my presentation for my culture class, which I'm not looking forward to. Our group presentation is surely to be the most boring. All of the other groups have Power Points, and we don't. That's only because we asked him if he wanted us to do a Power Point, and he said no. There wouldn't be enough time for each group to do one. But now I feel stupid because we're just going to be standing up in the front, talking for 20 minutes. At least we're going first!

I forgot to mention that on Sunday, Esther (my roommate) got her wallet stolen. She was with her boyfriend (he came down to visit on a last-minute decision) in the Central Plaza when it happened. She had just paid for something, and then walked about 1 minute to another place, and when she went to get her wallet out of her purse again to pay for what she was buying, she realized it was gone. The thief had cut a huge slit in her purse, and she didn't even feel it! Luckily that was the only thing that fell out because there was nothing in there but her ID and a few Quetzales (the currency here). She thinks it was a little kid because she noticed one watching her carefully while she was paying at the first place. They're pretty good at what they do.

Tonight we have a little gathering to say goodbye to our professors who won't be going with us on the last part of our culture tour. I'll be so tired that I don't know if I can even stay an hour! We leave tomorrow morning at 7:30 to head over to Livingston on the Caribbean. From there, we head to Tikal so see some amazing Mayan ruins. It's soooooo far away, and I'm really not looking forward to the bus ride. On Tuesday we're going straight from Tikal to Guatemala city, which is probably a 12 hour drive. But the head professor told us there was a surprise along the way. Last year, he said the same thing, and the surprise was that we were taking a high-speed train to arrive at our destination 5 hours quicker than by bus. We're thinking that we may be taking a plane somewhere....maybe from Tikal to Guat. City. That would be a good thing, since the trip on a bus would suck, but it would also be bad because I hate flying, and I'm sure it would be a tiny plane. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Side-note: Lindsay and I saw a man urinating in the street yesterday, and then 30 seconds later, a dog stopped in front of us and urinated. Why do we always have to witness these things? I mean, the dog is normal, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen people using the street as their toilet. We're thinking about making a documentary on the lack of bathrooms here.

Anyway....today was our last day at the gym here. I loved that gym, and I was pretty sad to leave. The classes were so much fun, and I just loved the atmosphere. I would get up almost every morning at 5:45 to head over there. That's how much I loved it. I went 12 days in a row! That's definitely a record for me.

Leaving is always bittersweet. I really do love Guatemala. It's beautiful, and most of the people are awesome, but I really am ready to go home. I've been ready for a long time. So I'm sad and happy to be leaving. But I need to be with my husband and children and I can't wait! I also can't wait to throw toilet paper down the toilet where it belongs and not in the trash can that's sitting next to the toilet.