La vida cusqueña

Greetings from Peru! Where to start?! The adventure started even before I left the country because I found out only about an hour and a half before I needed to leave for the airport that my flight from Miami to Lima was delayed by eight hours, so I spent about two hours on the phone with various airline representatives to change my flights and avoid having to stay overnight in Miami one night and Lima the next. In the end I left one day later than I was supposed to and arrived at orientation 24 hours late but it all worked out because three other students from my program were all on the same flight so we all arrived late together.

Orientation took place at an eco-lodge in Chichabamba, right outside Urubamba, about an hour or so north of Cusco. It's called El Huerto Paraíso, or Orchard Paradise, because they have an apple orchard right in the front yard and grow a lot of the other fruit that they serve. Orientation was a mix of activities like going over the SIT student code of conduct, talking about the excursions and the academic part of the semester, walking around town to ask people if they knew the answers to questions about Peruvian culture and history, and taking a mototaxi (a motorcycle with a covered top and a bench seat on top of two wheels in the back) to a small town nearby to purchase different kinds of potatoes, fruit, beans, grains, or peppers. And of course we had plenty of time to get to know each other an eat tons of delicious food.

Another part of orientation was our visit to Machu Picchu yesterday!! To answer your question, YES, this place really is as cool as everyone says! There is a reason why it is the seventh wonder of the world. The place is absolutely breathtaking and mysterious all at once and when you are there it takes a while for everything to sink in. It's pretty crazy that this year is the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham's "discovery" of the ruins. I had assumed that Peruvians wouldn't be huge fans of Bingham, who stole a bunch of artifacts from the ruins that still have not been returned by Yale University, so I was kind of surprised that our guide, who has been leading tours since 1981, doesn't mind that Bingham is given credit for discovering Machu Picchu because he believes that Bingham is the one who made the ruins known to the rest of the world. Though I learned a ton on the tour and really enjoyed our visit, I think it almost might have been better to go to Machu Picchu later in the semester when we have learned more about Peru and can better appreciate what we learn by visiting. Anyway, I'll put pictures up in the next few days once I figure out this memory card reader stuff.

My favorite part of the day was going to see a sacred rock with five other students and the assistant academic director, Donaldo, after the official tour was over. Though it was pretty strenuous to get up there, it was totally worth it because Donaldo explained how people tuck coca leaves into the cracks of the rock or build little rock towers (called pechutes? can't remember) to leave their worries behind and leave the place renewed. So we each built a rock pile and then Donaldo led us in meditation and a little bit of yoga. Definitely left the rock feeling very calm and peaceful and grateful for having had the opportunity to visit Machu Picchu. The only bad part of the day was the fact that I got pretty badly sunburned on my nose and chin even though I had put on a ton of sunscreen. Luckily I wore a long-sleeved shirt and pants the entire day even though it was really really hot so I didn't get sunburned anywhere else.

After Machu Picchu yesterday, we ate lunch in Aguas Calientes (the town at the bottom of the mountain) took the train back to Ollantaytambo, and took taxi vans back to Urubamba. It was a really long day because we had to wake up at 4:15am and didn't get back to the hotel until after 6pm, but I had an amazing time. The day ended with a dinner of beef, mashed potatoes, and rice and a game of charades around the campfire.

Today we ate breakfast, had a discussion about what it means to be indigenous, packed up our luggage, and took the bus back to Cusco. After being in a more rural area since I arrived in Peru, Cusco definitely feels much more urban. We were running super late for meeting up with the host families because traffic was really bad but I didn't mind because I got to see what Cusco looks like. I was super excited that we drove past Qoricancha, the Incan temple upon which the Spanish built a church. The foundation is amazing Incan stonework without mortar and the top is like a normal colonial style Catholic church. I didn't get a picture so you should google it!

We met up with our host families in this community center in the neighborhood where most of the families live. I walked in and saw a mom who was saying "Maggie? Maggie?" so I went up to her and asked if she had Maggie Hutchison, since there are three Maggies in my group. And no other name repeats. Go figure. Anyway she said yes, so we started talking and walking over to the side of the room but then this other host mom comes up to me saying, "Maggie!" and it turns out that the first host mom "took her daughter" haha. My host mom's name is Teresa and she is super sweet and very talkative. We walked to my family's house together and I met her two sons before unpacking my stuff and figuring out how to use the internet. Then I had lunch and talked with Teresa for a while until my host dad Pepe got home from work. I also met their two daughters and their grandson. All my host brothers and sisters are between about 22 and 30 years old I think.

This post has gotten way too long so the only other thing I'm going to say right now is that I was reminded today that this is a very small world. Apparently my host brother David was a missionary for two years (the family is Mormon) in Wenatchee, WA, right near Holden Village, the place where I worked in the summer of 2009! That is so random! Most people in the US don't even know where that is. It was crazy sitting in the living room of an apartment in Cusco, Peru, chatting with my host parents about the apple and cherry industries in a small town in Washington state. No big deal.

Hope everyone is surviving the crazy winter weather in the northern hemisphere! In the meantime, I will keep trying to avoid getting sunburned.

Ciao,
Maggie