Cusco, Peru & Rainbow Mountain

Views from our hike to Rainbow Mountain, Peru

              Apologies for the silence on this page in the last month or so – between our trip to Peru, finals, and some end of the semester travels, I’ve been too busy experiencing new things to catch up on writing about them. So, the good and bad news: bad – yesterday I officially departed from Chile after nearly 5 months in such a wonderful country and I will miss it very very much (more to come in a separate post); good – I have had all sorts of travel and airport time to catch up on my writing *and* I am coming home to family and friends – can’t wait to see so many of you and catch up!

              This will be the first of two posts about our recent trip to Peru (the next one will include our hike to Machu Picchu) but here I just want to talk about the incredible city of Cusco and our “warm-up” hike day. For a little background: back in mid-August, 5 other friends and I thought it would be a good idea to schedule a week-long trip to Peru 5 days after our San Pedro trip and right in the middle of our final projects and exams at school. Needless to say, academically it wasn’t our smartest idea however educationally (notice the difference here) going to Peru was one of the best decisions we have made all semester.

              Before taking off on our Machu Picchu trek, the company we organized the trip through required that we arrive to Cusco two days before the start of the hike to acclimate to Peru’s altitude. Cusco, Peru is located at 11,150 ft. and is literally situated in the middle of the mountains. We were dropped off in the main downtown plaza where, according to research we’d done before, people passed out on average every hour due to the altitude. Thankfully none of us fainted, however we were all lightheaded and breathing a little heavier than we should have been after walking up the little hill to our hostel.  

We stayed in the historic district of the city, complete with beautiful white and blue adobe buildings and brown brick and wooden structures giving the city plenty of charm. First of all, much like our time in Argentina, Peruvian Spanish is pristine in comparison to Chilean Spanish so we enjoyed being able to easily understand everyone during our stay. The downtown district is pretty touristy, however the city itself is huge. During our first afternoon in the city we walked around to get a feel for the town and local culture, taking it pretty easy as we could feel our bodies having to adjust to the altitude.

Cusco from above

Cusco's main plaza

Typical historic district architecture

Cusco, Peru

Our second day in Peru, my friend Michael and I decided to trek to a place called Rainbow Mountain about three and a half hours outside of Cusco. Unfortunately for them, we couldn’t convince anyone else to come with us, mostly due to the fact that we had to leave at 3:30 AM (but had a 3 hour bus ride to sleep more) and it basically turned our 4-day hiking trip into 5, but they missed out because the views from the hike were unreal.

Views from the start of our hike

The hike started at about 14,200 ft. and neither of us could say that we had really adjusted to the altitude yet, so that was certainly our biggest challenge throughout the day. Luckily, the views were incredible and there were plenty of alpacas to keep us company, so we managed. Here is a sample of our views on the way up:

            The last part of the hike was certainly the most challenging as the peak that we climbed to was at 16, 520 ft. and neither of us had hiked at that altitude before. For about the last 200 feet climbing up, we would literally count out 30 steps walking, stop to breathe for a minute or two, and then do another 30 because our bodies just didn’t have enough oxygen to go further all at once. My head was spinning and I was certainly feeling the nauseous effects of altitude sickness (Michael had taken 3 altitude sickness pills at this point in time), but nonetheless we made it to the top and immediately forgot how oxygen-deprived and sick we felt because we were looking out on these views:

First glacier I'd ever seen!

            Needless to say, the day was a challenge but well worth the slight oxygen deprivation that accompanied it. We were also both much more prepared altitude-wise for our Machu Picchu trek than the rest of our group, so I would call it a success. This hike also happened to be on the same day as Thanksgiving in the U.S., so we met up with the rest of our friends for dinner and found a local Peruvian restaurant in Cusco and did Thanksgiving expat style – complete with llama and alpaca (sorry, but they were really good).

Alpaca for dinner

Machu Picchu post to follow! J

San Pedro de Atacama

For the last of our school-sponsored trips, we traveled to San Pedro de Atacama. Here is the description my guidebook provides: "Devil dusters zoom wantonly through sun-scorched Norte Grande with its undulating curves of rock and stone, Andean lagoons, snow-capped volcanoes, salt flats and sensuously perforated coastline." I figured I'd throw that in because if that doesn't paint a picture in your head I'm not sure what will. Located in the northern desert region of Chile, San Pedro is home to the most arid desert in the world, and contains the most diverse landscape I have ever seen. It's almost like some crazy combination of New Mexico desert, White Sands National Park, Yellowstone National Park, salt flats, and the Andes mountain range with 15,000 ft. high peaks/ volcanoes and massive lagoons. We had the most incredible week.

San Pedro de Atacama is a rural town that almost resembles Santa Fe but is smaller, just as touristy, and covered with adobe and turquoise. We were able to enjoy some of the town's nicer restaurants as part of our program, but we also enjoyed a local 1 kilo empanada (don't worry, it was shared - see below).

Church in the San Pedro Plaza

San Pedro's Main Street

This was very real

One of the first things we were able to do upon our arrival to San Pedro was ride horses, something I hadn't done in at least 10 years. A group of 7 of us went out with two local guides and wandered around the remote desert on horseback for a couple of hours. It was nothing short of pure beauty and raw fun combined with the experience of riding a horse through a landscape that that can only be described as breathtaking.

My horse, Caramelo, was easily the sweetest and most enjoyable horse to ride (my friends would probably disagree but that's just because they didn't get to ride him). We first rode out past the limits of the small town:

Stables

then rode through an open desert space where we were able to see for miles

then rode up over a large sand dune

and wandered a little more before finally heading back.

To begin our first full day, we to ventured a small rural town outside of San Pedro called Toconao. It was fairly quiet because we arrived first thing in the morning, but we were still able to wander around and see the rustic village. The adobe structures and use of turquoise in both Toconao and San Pedro made me feel like I was at home in the desert.

"Last tree in the desert"

Next we ventured up 15,000 feet into the Andes for incredible views of a couple of the region's largest volcanoes and the beautiful lagoons that rest at their base. Along the way, we also got to see some wild vicuñas, which is basically the Chilean version of alpacas (unfortunately they were too sneaky for us to grab pictures).

During our time in San Pedro we also ventured to the "Parque Nacional los Flamencos" where we were fortunate enough to see lots of wild flamingos and beautiful salt flats.

Flamingos in the distance

Desert colors

Salt flats

During our other full day we visited another region of salt flats where the ground looks like it's covered in a layer of snow. The water here was incredible as well - vibrant blue that seemed too perfect to be real.

Later in the morning, we went to a nearby lake that has a salt content resembling that of the dead sea. We spent a nice hour floating around on our backs - a really unique feeling unlike anything else. You really couldn't try to keep yourself upright in the lake, the water was too buoyant and our feet floated up out of our control.

Floating in Chile's Dead Sea

Our last big site to visit was to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), a place I can really only describe as what I assume Mars must look like. This place was not real. The rock formations were something out of a sci-fi movie and covered with salt in many parts, giving the idea of another light snow dusting. We were also able to watch the sunset here, and I could not be more honest when I say it felt like an out of this world experience.

Overall, I think San Pedro de Atacama is my favorite place I have seen so far in Chile. Though the general landscape is desert, the diversity of the region is unbelievable and I was continually enchanted by each location we visited. There is no doubt in my mind that I will travel back there someday.

Pichilemu - Travelling with Chileans

Beach trip with soccer team and extended friends

As we seem to have no shortage of long weekends here in Chile (though I promise I do go to school sometimes), this past weekend I was able to travel to a small beach town in central Chile called Pichilemu. My friend Darcy and I were invited by a few of the girls from our Chilean soccer team who take this trip every year around Halloween with a really big group of friends. Because they apparently find us gringos so entertaining (I think we mostly serve just to amuse them, and they do refer to us directly as "los gringos"), they had us bring a couple of other friends from our AU program to make a decent sized travel group. Unfortunately, I really didn't take that many pictures, but the opportunity to travel with Chilean friends as opposed to only people from our program was certainly an experience to remember.

Pichilemu is most well known as an international surf destination; this past weekend while we were there, the small beach town was packed because they were hosting the women's world championship surf competition. You can access the majority of the town on foot, and our hostel was only a 10 minute walk from the beach.

Since almost everyone on the trip had been to Pichilemu before, this was more of a relaxing trip as opposed to a sightseeing/ activities intensive vacation. We got to play a little bit of soccer, some people in the group took surf lessons, and we mostly enjoyed some relaxing time on the beach. In the evenings, the hostel turned into a big social gathering, and in true Chilean style, most people weren't in bed until around 6 am.

Halloween in Pichilemu

We were also able to enjoy some local seafood, known as "ceviche." It's served in almost all of the food trucks close to the ocean, and comes in this little fruit-cup sized container with half a lemon. We also found this incredible waffle truck, and enjoyed warm waffles on a pretty cold morning complete with manjar (a Chilean caramel type spread) and bananas.

The main tourist destination in Pichilemu is a spot called "Punta de lobos" where the waves are enormous - I cannot imagine a more perfect spot for surfing - and are continually crashing against the coast. When we were there it was windy and pretty cold, but packed with people for the competition and those who were simply vacationing for the long weekend.

Overall, it was a relaxing but unique trip. Normally, we get to practice our Spanish all the time outside of school, but this was different because we were literally surrounded by Spanish 24/7. It was easier to talk to my AU friends in Spanish most of the time because it left me with less of a headache than I normally have when trying to switch back and forth between English and Spanish (this happens to all of us - maybe it means we are slowly but surely becoming bilingual??). It was also nice because our Chilean friends made all of the plans we basically just followed along, though this is what usually happens when we hang out with the soccer team anyway. Darcy and I have decided that our motto for this semester is "¿Dónde estamos y qué estamos haciendo?" (Where are we and what are we doing?). This applies to many things here, but really we love it just because it always means a new experience. It's scary to think that I only have about a month and a half left here (where did the time go?), but I have a few more trips and activities planned so stay tuned!