Peru Summer 2018

May 27, 2018 On Sunday, my roommates and I took a road trip to Moray, Maras, Urubamba, and Chinchero. We had planned on taking a taxi since these locations are about an hour outside of the city, but apparently not many taxis would offer such a long trip on a Sunday. Instead, Sandro, our host father, offered to drive us and thank goodness he did because I don't think I would have trusted any stranger on those roads. You know, those tiny roads on the edge of cliffs that they show in movies? Yeah we traveled on some of those today. It all turned out to be good fun since we survived. First, we went to Moray, which I had already visited briefly the day before with my class. After that, we hit up Maras, the salt mines. It was an incredible place to see. Like every other place ever, pictures can't do it justice. Maras The saltiest place on Earth. Probably.  From Maras we went to the coolest city ever, Urubamba, to eat lunch. This place rea...

Sittin' on Machu Colca May 26, 2018 Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go on a bigger trip outside of Cusco today because I had two field trips, one with each of my classes. That was fine with me though because the trips were to two incredible places that I wouldn’t have thought to have gone to on my own.   For the first trip, we visited some recently-discovered ruins called Machu Colca. Basically, it was a gigantic, ancient refrigerator. The view there was incredible. I was especially amazed because it was my first time seeing snow-capped mountains. It would seem the mountains aren’t going to be snow-capped much longer, though. Only 30 years ago, all of the mountains there were completely covered in snow, but now only a few are - and only at the very top. Machu Colca Wayyy up, above the clouds.  Nayyyyy (or whatever sound a donkey makes)  On the hill in the center of the pic, there are more ruins that just haven't been uncovered yet, similar to the...

May 21-25, 2018 I don't have very many photos from this week since all I did was go to class and visit museums for the most part. I'm taking two classes while I'm in Cusco: history of the Incas and contemporary society of Peru, both in Spanish. So far, so great. The museums are pretty cool here, but no photos are allowed at any of them. My favorite exhibit was of the mummified bodies of some Incans. Of course, I didn't get a picture of that, but I did manage to get one of some skulls, if you're into that stuff (I am). These skulls are elongated. The Incans would alter the skulls of people in the higher class. Also, you can see holes in the skulls from surgeries they performed back then. On Thursday, something pretty cool (but inconvenient for my roommates and I) happened. In Cusco, there was a transportation strike. This meant no taxis, no buses, no cars. Nothing. It was neat to witness. I've never seen a strike where almost the whole city particip...

View of Cusco from Q'enqo May 20, 2018 We had some not-so-great experiences today, but it was still probably my favorite day yet. We set out for a 10 mile hike to some of the Incan ruins just outside the city. To get into the sites, you have to buy a city pass. For foreign tourists, it costs 130 soles, which is about $40, but for students with a valid card it costs 70 soles, or about $22. We rode a taxi to the top, then hiked all the way back down. Our first destination was Tambomachay, then Puka Pukara, then Sacsayhuaman, then Q'enqo (Q'enqo was my favorite). This is mainly pictures, but you can read about our 3 main sketchy experiences at the bottom (: Tambomachay View from Tambomachay Tambomachay Baby Alpaca! Baby Alpaca again! Puka Pukara Puka Pukara  View from Puka Pukara View from Puka Pukara You can see Cristo Blanco and Sacsayhuaman in the distance Sacsayhuaman AKA Sexy Woman This pic w...