Goodbyes (and hello-s)

Lots of changes and happenings the last few days that have made my head spin. I spent a truly great weekend in Arequipa with my friends from Cusco who came to visit me: Roy, Juan Carlos (Juanca) and la Osa (this means ‘the bear’, which does not mean that she is big nor hairy – her real name is Ana but no one calls her that). I have just known them for about three weeks, but is special to notice how close I feel to them. We had so much fun together, even though we didn’t really do great things (large part of the time was spent on looking for a place to live for la Osa because she studies in Arequipa) – these three are the worst to accompany a tourist, in Cusco I missed quite some tourist attractions as well. I was very happy to spend to last days with them – we ate about a month worth of KFC, then watched an awful movie (do not ever spend money on a movie called ‘Muerte en la Montaña! In English I think it’s ‘Frozen’. It is stupid and not nice to watch after having eaten. It involves seeing bones sticking out of legs and wolves devouring people). The guys had their rum – without that it can’t be complete. We looked for more houses. I met my first Dutch people in the wild! Real boeren from Eindhoven.

Sunday night my friends went back to Cusco and I went the opposite way – to Tacna (south end of Peru). It was not fun to say bye, this time for real. As I said, I got quite close to them and it doesn’t matter how many times you have had to say bye to people, it stays shitty.

The bus to Tacna scared me – when we just started driving this guy came buy and filmed all of the passengers. And then they told us about all of their safety measures etc. That, combined with horror stories of buses crashing and people dying in that area didn’t really give me a comforting feeling. Mondaymorning, 4 am, I arrived in Tacna, feeling tired, lost, alone and unhappy. It is not all great and happiness always, though it might sound that way… My original plan was to stay in Tacna for the day and then in the afternoon cross the border to Arica, Chile – but at that moment I heard 3 others speaking about going to Arica right away so I decided to join them. A young Chilean couple and a Brazilian guy (Hugo) – with the four of us (and a Peruvian man) we took a combi taxi to cross the border. The driver helps you through all the formalities of leaving Peru and entering Chile, which luckily went without any problems. Around 9.30 in the morning we arrived in Arica and I went with Hugo to a hostel, where the amazing welcome made me happier instantly – the hostel is like a home and there were a bunch of people sitting around a big breakfast table with everything you could wish for, fruit, cereals, nice bread, yogurt, cheese… Arica is a very nice city, right at the beach, finally some real heat and no rain, etc. The last two days I have walked around a lot, with Hugo, with two Canadian girls who sadly enough all have already left. My plan is two stay here for two more nights and then go on to La Serena, a 22 hour long bus ride south, and then Santiago.

Start of part two - travelling south towards Santiago

Yesterday morning, early early, I arrived to Arequipa (south of Cusco). It’s always sad to leave a place where you have made new friends, so leaving on Wednesday evening wasn't a happy event... Nightbus to Arequipa, where I met up with Jantien (for the people who don't know - ex UC unitmate friend) and her friend Georgia, who are travelling around here too. So the last two days I have spent with them, which has been very nice - Arequipa is beautiful, nice atmosphere and clearly a bigger city than Cusco. And it is very nice to meet up with people I know. It is fun being with Jantien and Georgia, we make a sport out of finding the cheapest deals for food. Today we had a huge lunch menu in a marketplace for 3,50 soles (less than €1) surrounded by Peruvians watching us (see photo). My happiness is complete, cause three good friends from Cusco are arriving tomorrow morning to spend the weekend together. 

Watery times

I have been passing watery times lately, which might sound a bit off, but let me explain. Last weekend I finally went to Machu Picchu, the world famous Inca excavation site in the mountains surrounding Cusco. The company was: Roy and Juan Carlos (friends who I met through Andrea, my host family sister) and Mario, Roy’s brother. After going out on Friday night, none of us had very high energy levels and instead of our original plan of leaving Cusco at 11.00, we left a few hours later. On our way to Ollantaytambo (the village from where the train to Aguas Calientes- the village of Machu Picchu - leaves). On our way we stopped to see a friend and by night we arrived to Ollantaytambo, where we first saw the heavy rain that would faithfully stay with us for the rest of the weekend. That night we agreed to be out of the hostel before 6 the next morning to go to Machu Picchu. That turned out to be harder than expected since the guys had decided to buy a bottle of rum and finish that between the three of them (I was smart enough to pass). In the end we were out by seven and for some reason decided to not take the bus up to Machu Picchu but to go walking. Already after only 15 minutes of climbing the steep stairs in the rain we all fiercely regretted that decision. One and a half exhausting hours of rain and feeling-bad-ness later we arrived at the entrance. Kind of disappointing because the rain and clouds, mist, made that we could barely see anything of the surroundings – that what you always see on the photos. And it kept on raining. The good company however made up for it and we still had fun but still, my advice for everyone: if you want to go to Machu Picchu, do it outside of the rainy season! Oh and advice number two is to bring enough cash cause we didn’t and then the two ATMs in the town turned out not to work. Creatively and intelligently we solved that problem till the next one came up: the train back. I already had my ticket for 15.30 but the guys couldn’t buy it for that time cause it was already full. Also solved that and changed my time to the next one: 22.30 which meant that we had lots of time to kill in a village with rain, cold and wet, and no place to stay. Again, genius as we are, solved that and slept in a hostel room that afternoon.

That was watery adventure number one. Number two happened this morning when I was woken up by Lucho knocking on my door – after which I opened my eyes and the floor seemed kind of shiny, but I wasn’t wearing my contacts so I couldn’t see why. That was figured out fast enough though when I stepped out of my bed and into bout 2/3 centimeters of water. Turned out that I, but honestly I think a friend that I had over the evening before, had left open a tab and since they cut off the water at night, probably forgot to close it again. So it had been open for half the night. After about an hour of cleaning and taking out all the soaked stuff that I had left on the floor (almost electrocuting myself by touching the plug), Lucho and Rossana went up to prepare some breakfast and I entered the bathroom to get ready. After which the door wouldn’t open. Great, just what I needed after the whole swimming pool situation. Luckily Lucho came to free me not too long after and even though my intuition told me to stay in bed to not attract more bad luck, I left to my work in Inca Educa and hopefully will survive the rest of the day.

NP photos will follow, if the internet is willing to work with me!

"Crea en nosotros, Señor, un corazón nuevo"

In the category of new experiences:
Last Sunday I attended my very first mass, ever. One to remember I must say. 

("God loves you the way you are.")

We went with the family to Lares, a tiny mountain village where there is nothing to see or do - except for the baños termales, natural hot springs. So after an adventurous 2-hour trip in a full micro (minibus) on a sandy path through the mountains (pretty scary at times, deep abysses) we arrived by night. The family knows the priest of the local church. The priest set up a place for the kids of the communities in the mountains to stay during the week, so they can go to school and eat healthy and learn basic things. That is where we stayed and we got to know some of these kids a little bit. It's special to notice how most of them are quite shy and clearly not so used to visitors (of course, especially I was extra strange) - compared to the kids I see everyday in the orphanage who come up running to give me hugs, even when it's the first time I see them.

 Campesinos boys setting the table for everyone to eat (all the kids, the priest, us)

 

These boys were shy, speaking amongst each other in Quechua (the native language) and 

looking at us (ok, me) with curiosity.

Anyway, that night we already went to the hot springs, risked our lives on an unlit muddy path, but made it to the deliciously hot baths. It was already dark, amidst mountains and with not so many people.

 Baños termales

So, since we were the guests of the 'Padre', we were expected to attend the Sunday morning mass. It was raining heavily and very cold so I spend the mass shivering, sitting on the wooden bench in between Andrea and Luis trying to keep ourselves warm. The church was not nearly filled, the people who were there were mostly 'campesinos', people from the village and the mountains. Due to my lack of religious background I was a bit lost, even more since everything obviously was in Spanish, but I tried to fit in, standing up and sitting down when the others did. Sometimes it feels strange being in such a religious country without having the same background or beliefs - in almost every house, shop, public place, there's religious images and texts. Makes me think about these religious, or cultural, customs that we don't have at all back home.

On an ending note: this weekend awaits excitement! Finally going to see Machu Picchu.