T Travels: Day 3 and 4: Matucana

It is beautiful there!

Wow! What a crazy couple of days! We returned to Lima yesterday, but we just didn’t get around to writing up a blog, but here we go! This afternoon, thanks the persistence of Megan, Annie, and her brother (who is also named ‘Tim’, doh, identity crisis!) we are boarding a bus to Cusco, and then travelling for 20+ hours. We were supposed to get a bus last night, but apparently Holy Saturday is the busiest day of the year to travel in Peru! Who knew? Anywho, adelante!

These last few days have been long, rewarding and magical. We went to Matucana on Friday to visit a friend of ours, Laura, who was a Response Volunteer in Guyana a few months back. She is doing a next stint here in Peru and we really wanted to see her. To get to her site was a little rough. Very Peace Corps: we didn’t really know where we were going and had to take public trans-p, 4 buses total and at one point we were 2 of 50 people on a bus meant for 20. Moreover, the town itself is about 3 hours outside Lima, but when we went on Friday it took us 6 hours to get there (PC fuh life!). It was a little confusing, but being Returned PCVs for all of two days at this point, we rocked it! The largest problem was landslide in the town of Chosica on the way that put traffic almost at a standstill which made the trip longer.

Tienda in the Village

As we approached the town we had no idea where we were. It seemed like we went from desert to highlands in a matter of minutes. Laura met us at the entrance to her site, and then we went to have a gaff and some food. As darkness was about to set in, we took an hour long hike up to a waterfall behind her house and couldn’t stop smiling; it was amazing. It was the end of the rainy season at her site so the mornings are really beautiful, but come the afternoon the clouds gently drop, and brush the top of the peaks. It is both very haunting, but also moving at the same time. We returned in full night, but it was completely worth it. The pictures speak for themselves!

Beginning of first hike

Laura!

The clouds on the peaks were amazing

End of the first hike


The First Waterfall

Got a little captain in ya?

That night, we met another RPCV who was at the site, Brad, and began swapping “Peace Corps Stories” which are like “war stories” but deal with cultural sensitivity, history, and projects we completed. It was great to speak to another PCV who recently finished his service (2010) and knew what we were going through. We learned so much about each other’s sites and had a great time drinking and dancing at a little watering hole and eating delicioso street food (anticucho: cow heart kabobs and choclo con queso: corn with cheese). It was a wonderful, wonderful night.

Day 4:

Day 4: Morning

The next morning we needed to get back Lima before too late in the afternoon, but we had time for another quick hike to some Pre-Incan ruins and a waterfall at a village a little ways down the road called Surco. Brad and Laura came with us and we taught them a new game called “Click it and Stick it”.

This game was taught to us by Annie when we lived in Linden, and it was her brother who invented it. We want it to take the world by storm! Here is the object of the game: The person who wants to “click” finds an object that they can push off of on the trail (like a rock or something) they gather a little speed then use the object as a jumping point. When they are airborne they need to “Click” their heels together then “Stick” the landing. If it is a successful ‘click’ and ‘stick’, then the persons who are playing must ‘click’ off the same object. But here’s the thing, the people following can one-up their “click” by throwing in 180s, 360s, double clicks, etc. If you don’t stick the landing, that’s cool, try again. There really are no winners or losers, but it sure is a lot of fun! Here is photo of Chelsea “clicking” off a dam at the waterfall. It’s a great game as long as we’re not clicking near the precarious cliffs in the Andes!

The 'Click'

We grabbed a bus back to Chosica, and then proceeded to Lima without any difficulty this time since we kinda knew the route. It only took us 3 hours! When we returned to the Hostel, Euro Backpackers (great place by the way! Thanks Vanessa for being so amazing!! ) the girls and Tim Mills were out front playing dominoes and waiting for our bus tickets to get delivered (how cool is that? Delivery of tickets!) We wanted to leave Lima with a bang, so we went for a nice meal and some cocktails at this restaurant near some ancient Incan ruins, then went out to the discos in a neighborhood called Barranco. It was a great night.

Cusco is next! Until then!!!