South America

Today is Saturday, September 25, 1999 and it is the first day that 2 Go Global has really gone global. Our flight left out of Atlanta last night at 10:15 pm. We arrived in Lima, Peru at approximately 4:30 a.m. We took a flight on to Cusco which got us here at around 10:00a.m. Getting a plane ticket in Lima was quite an experience:

WHAT NOT 2 DO WHEN YOU ARRIVE INTO A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Rich and I have done a great deal of traveling, and we have read our share of travel handbooks. We should have known better than to do what we did this morning as we arrived into Lima, Peru on the first day of our World Tour. After we got our luggage, we walked into the main part of the airport. Well, we must have looked like naïve Americans, because this woman just walked right up to us. She looked legitimate because she had a little badge hanging around her neck. She said that she was an official guide. We told her that we needed to get a plane ticket for Cusco. She took us to this little room on the second floor which consisted of nothing but a little counter. It just looked strange. This man behind the counter wrote us up tickets. The price seemed reasonable because we had looked into prices while we were back in the States. He would not take anything but Peruvian cash. This was our chance to get out. We said that we would go downstairs to a money machine. The strange woman took us downstairs to the large crowds. She took us to a line for the plane tickets, but would not allow us to go up to the counter. I asked her why we did not have to wait in the line with everyone else. She said that they did not have a guide with them. The scary thing is that we actually allowed this stranger to hold onto our passports for a few minutes. Once we got our passports back, Rich and I said thanks, but no thanks. We gave her five bucks and purchased our own ticket in a different line. Chances are that this woman was legitimate and just doing her job. However, we should know better than to just trust some woman who picks us out from a crowd. A funny side note to this story is that we ended up getting ripped off anyways by the whole ticket purchasing fiasco. The change given to us by the travel tax man included a fake twenty soles bill. We discovered this later when our taxi driver would not accept it. He taught us how to tell if the sol is authentic…you look for a line watermark. Now we have to find some poor, unsuspecting soul to pass the counterfeit bill onto.....just kidding.

Nonetheless, we felt good about coming into Cusco because a friend had told us about her Spanish instructor and good friend Jesus. She told us to contact him, and we did…..yesterday by e-mail. He responded very promptly and said that he would be happy to meet with us and be our Spanish instructor if we so desired. He recommended a hotel for us: Hostal Choquechaca. It is also recommended by the Footprint Peru handbook. Our room consists of three little beds, two tiny tables and a chair, not to mention the four walls and a window. The bathroom is shared, but the water is hot. There are many little kids running around, singing and making fun of my Spanish. There is also a dog, cat and rooster from what I can hear. Rich and I took a two hour nap as soon as we arrived. We needed it as Cusco stands at 3,310 meters (approximately 11,000 feet), and the altitude gets to you kind of quickly. During the afternoon we took a stroll into the Plaza de Armas. It is a beautiful square with a large fountain in the middle and benches and grass surrounding the fountain. The Plaza is surrounded by buildings which include four beautiful baroque style churches. All around the city of Cusco are picturesque mountains.

The city itself is made up of very narrow streets and alleys with doorways that lead into hotels, stores, homes, etc. Many of the buildings are made up of old Incan stonework which is an architectural phenomenon. The stones fit together so neatly that they did not even need mortar. We had a delicious lunch right in the Plaza at the Café Bagdad. It was a charming little restaurant with a tiny balcony, which is where we ate our lunch. Needless to say this day has been an amazing experience.

For now, we are just relaxing in our cold, yet cozy little room. We will be meeting Jesus in about an hour. Adios.

A week has passed and we are now part of the City of Cusco. Rich and I have a routine. We wake up and have breakfast at a new hostal that we are staying in. Jesus comes over at 8:00 a.m. sharp. We study Espanol for three hours. Rich and I then tour, eat a great lunch and do our homework for four hours. We then go back to meet Jesus at 3:00 for two more hours of Espanol. After Espanol, we usually go back for a little while and then go out and have a great dinner for about $6 or sometimes much less. (Note, I had said $10 earlier, but I was doing my conversion wrong). I really love this routine. I love Cusco. As I mentioned, we are staying at a Hostal that is run by a family. My friend, Aide, who is the Grandmother in the family, has taught me "Heart and Soul" on the piano. She also has been very helpful in correcting my Espanol. I really appreciate it when she does. I really do. I have developed a cold, and I hope that it passes. The air is not great here because all of the diesel gas so that does not help matters. Tonight we met Jesus and some of his friends and went out to a pub. We were going to go out to a disco and dance to some Salsa music, but it got kind of late. We will save that for another time. Well that is all from Cusco at this time. Thank you for reading about our adventures.

Here is Aide, my friend, at our cozy little home in Cusco with her grandchildren.

This week Spanish classes are being held on the road. We are traveling through the Sacred Valley with our teacher, Jesus. The Sacred Valley runs along the Urubamba River and was a key area of Inca settlement. While traveling through the Sacred Valley, one may see beautiful and amazing Inca ruins, as well as beautiful mountains, rivers, valleys and quaint little villages that seem untouched by modern civilization, with the exception of an occasional t.v. you will find in a restaurant, the occasional hot water you will find in a moderately priced hostal, and of course the cars, trucks and buses that come through the towns carrying grain, livestock, workers or tourists. We begin our journey through the "Valle Segrado" in Pisac. We arrived here in Pisac last night as the Sunday Market was closing down. There were townspeople everywhere taking down stands and packing up their goods. Children were running around having a great time. This is a routine that the people of Pisac repeat every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. In fact, hundreds of people every week come from miles around to visit the market in Pisac. La Plaza de Armas (which I thought was specific to Cusco, but I have come to find out that it is the name of every central square in Peru) is very picturesque. In the middle of the Plaza sits a pisonay tree, which is huge with moss covered branches that cover much of the square. There are also some palm trees. Adjacent to the Plaza is la iglesia (the church) which is beautiful, but it looks abandoned with its broken windows and missing outside walls. However, the townspeople attend this church every Sunday. In fact the little girl that we will visit tomorrow was baptized in this church a year ago and our friends John and Ullie were asked to be the God Parents. The town of Pisac looks like something that you would find in the old west. There are little restaurants and roads made of stones with sewers that run through the middle of the roads. They do not look like sewers, just long narrow grooves. The village is surrounded by huge mountains, one is shaped like the body of a condor. When I arrived in Cusco, I believed it to be different than any place that I had ever seen. However, Cusco now seems like a big city and Pisac is the small South American Pueblo that I had always imagined to find in Peru.

This morning we had Spanish lessons for three hours. We then went to explore the Inca Ruins of Pisac. The Ruins of Pisac are high up in the mountains above Pisac. When we arrived, we saw the magnificent terracing systems which were used for the cultivation of maize. These terraces were used by the Incas because maize requires a long time to grow, and the Incas had to shorten this growing season. We took an hour and a half walk up and around the Pisac Ruins, along the Inca trail. We saw more Inca stone work which included the Temple of the Moon and the Temple of the Sun.

After our explorations of the ruins, we arrived back down into Pisac and had another 2 hours of Spanish lessons. Tonight, we ate a typical Peruvian meal which consisted of eggs, rice, trout, coca tea and, of course, Inca Kola. After dinner, we walked through town and into the mountain area, where you could see nothing but stars (more than any I have ever seen). We could also see the band of the Milky Way, which is not surprising since the Sacred Valley runs along the Milky Way. This week we will travel along the Sacred Valley into Urubamba and Ollantaytambo as well as many smaller villages along the way.

Now, just a little side note about the Bejo Hostal where we are staying. It is cute, very old west-ish with the creaky wood floors and the stucco walls. But, man the water only runs a few hour a day. Since it has not run since early this morning, it smells like a porta-potty as you cannot flush the toilet, and people have been using it all day. That is pretty tough to handle. However, I take it in stride, since I know that we will be visiting many countries that will not have running water at any hour of the day. Well, it is late, and I must go to sleep so that I can get into the bathroom before the water runs dry once again. Guess what.. it is still dry.

Yesterday, Jesus took Rich and I to a very small village named Cuyo Grande to visit a young girl named Marisol. Jesus first met Marisol over one year ago when he visited the small village with a journalist friend that wanted to see a Shaman (a man who reads tea leaves). While there, they saw Marisol’s father walking down the road and carrying her. Jesus asked the man what the problem was. The man told Jesus and his friend that his daughter was dehydrated because she was very sick. Jesus and his friend gave the man some medicine for the girl. The friend of Jesus needed this medicine, but they could tell that Marisol needed it more. She soon became better. Her father was very grateful. Jesus goes back and visits the family every three to six months. He took our friends John and Ullie there a year ago and introduced them to Marisol’s family. They asked for them to be Marisol’s godparents. John and Ullie happily agreed. The next Sunday, Ullie bought Marisol a little white dress in the market and Marisol was baptized in the church on La Plaza de Armas in Pisac.

We took a van to the village. This van was stuffed full of 28 people (mostly children coming home from school). Almost everyone was let off the bus along the way. Cuyo Grande is way up in the mountains, and definitely off any path, let alone a beaten one. When we arrived into Cuyo Grande, we immediately drew a small crowd (5-6 people..which is a crowd for Cuyo Grande). There were only some older women and children present, as the men and younger women were out in the fields working. Actually, we did see two men. The first one was in the one store that is in Cuyo Grande. He was very drunk. The second one was the Shaman, the man who predicts your future by reading coca leaves.

Jesus asked if the man who read coca leaves was around. One of the boys took us to the Shaman. The Shaman was an old drunk Quechuan man wearing a baseball hat that said "Never Look Back". But still, he was the Shaman. We were lead into a small adobe home made of mud brick walls. It was dark and dank, but there was one light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a kitchen in the rear. This main part of the house was no larger than twelve feet by twelve feet. We brought the coca coca leaves to him. Jesus went before the Shaman first. Jesus blew on his coca leaves and the Shaman then threw the leaves on his blanket as if they were dice. The Shaman told him that he was going to be alone forever. He also told Jesus that his first child was going to be a little girl and that she was going to die. However, he would also have a son that would live forever. I do not think that Jesus liked the reading of his coca leaves very much. I went before the Shaman next. I blew on my leaves and the Shaman gently threw them onto the carpet. When the Shaman spoke, he would laugh at one moment and be serious the next. (This could be because he was drunk). An old woman sitting next to him translated his Quechua to Spanish. He told me that Rich and I had one heart between the two of us and that we would be together forever. He told me that as long as we prayed every morning, we would be wealthy, or as he put it, have a lot of plata. He also said that we would have a little girl, but that she would die; however, we would also have a little boy who would be big and would live forever. The Shaman told Rich that he would always be healthy and that his parents were fine. It was a very unique experience that I will never forget.

After seeing the Shaman, we went searching for Marisol. She was not at her house at first. Her house was a cute little adobe home partially covered with white wash. There were chickens, a dog and some cats, but no people. When we went back to the house, some cows had arrived and Marisol’s brother was there. He spoke a little Spanish, but mostly Quechuan. We went away but soon came back to finally see her. Marisol was a beautiful little five-year-old girl with dark skin and long dark braided hair. She was very shy, but very special. We took Marisol for a walk and gave her a necklace and some chocolates that we told her were from her godparents. Her parents never arrived back at the home, but we did get to meet Marisol’s two brothers and one sister. They were very polite. The whole village treated us very special. It was not very often (almost never) that they saw blond women with pigtails in their hair (me). They were very nice and interested. It was like no other place that I had ever been. This made Pisac look like a big city and Cusco like New York and Los Angeles combined.

The children of Cuyo Grande smile at the odd looking visitors. Go to 2 Go Photos: Cuyo Grande to see more spectacular shots of this special place.

We spent the early part of today in Urbamba and went onto Ollantaytambo, which is where we are now. This is a small community that still contains much of the Incan architecture from centuries ago. It also is surrounded by mountains, which contain many Inca ruins. We will visit these ruins over the next few days, after our Spanish lessons of course.

Well, today we ended our tour of the Sacred Valley. The small town of Ollantaytambo was beautiful. It is the only Inca settlement that is inhabited that has maintained almost the same plan as when the Incas created it. In fact, many of the narrow stone streets contain the same Inca stone buildings. In addition, the Inca canal system through the town is also still operational. Keep in mind these structures were built over 500 years ago. The town is surrounded by mountains which contain fascinating Inca ruins which can be seen from the town. They are also just a short walk away. Ollantaytambo is said to have been created by Inca Pachacuteq. The name of the town and the surrounding temples and monuments is said to have come from the name of a chief warrior named Ollantay. Ollantay fell in love with Pachacuteq's daughter; however this love was forbidden by the Inca. Ollantay rebelled unsuccessfully. All of this is according to legend, of course.

We stayed at the Hospedaja Nusta. It was fabulous. Our room overlooked the mountains and the ruins. The three of us shared a large room with three beds. It was very clean and sported the look of a cute little South American inn with the big windows, stucco walls and the colorful woven blankets. The man who ran the place all day (not the owner) was named Manuel. He was great! He kept the shared bathrooms spotless, he brought us anything we wanted and he was always smiling. Our last night we hung out with him and played some cards....Loco Ochos to be specific (Crazy Eights). All of this for the low low price of.........$30 for all three nights!

Well, it was nice to return home from Machu Picchu and come back to El Condado de San Agustin hospedeja. My friend, Aide let us stay in the really big room and she gave us dessert. We were very excited. During the next two days we rested and uploaded the web site. We hung out with our new friends, Mike and Linda from the Inca Trail. They are also traveling around the World. To learn all about them, see Meet Mike y Linda. On Monday, October 18, Rich and I had to decide what to do. We were either going to travel up to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador or go down to Puno in Southern Peru with Mike and Linda. We finally decided on going to Puno since there are erupting volcanoes in Ecuador at this moment. We really hope that it calms down there because we really want to go to the Galapagos Islands! It was very difficult to say goodbye to Aide. She has been very good to us. I will always keep in touch with her. After saying goodbye, we hopped onto an 8:00pm bus to Puno to visit Lake Titicaca.

South America Actual Itinerary:

PERU