PERU!!! Best Vacation EVER!!!

Last Wednesday night I left for our adventure in Peru!!

We all had our last meals at home and then met up at the bus station. Ashley's host mom offered to drive us, so I met them at their apartment to take off. Haha, we almost missed our bus, because her mom stopped to buy cigarettes along the way, knowing exactly what time we were supposed to be there. No worries though, we all got on the bus together. Ashley and I started off the trip right jamming out in the bus! That was a blast. An hour later we landed in Santiago, Chile. We were dropped off further than we were told we would be, so we had to grab a couple of taxis to the airport. Derek, Gillian, and I shared a taxi that had the most ghetto television we had ever seen in our entire life! It was basically duct taped into the car. However, there was a dance show on, so we were entertained. Our flight wasn't until something ridiculous like three am, so we waited in the airport playing cards in a Dunkin Donuts. We went through the trouble of putting all of our liquids into one bag to check it, only to realize that you are allowed to take liquids onto the plane. Our flight took us to Arica, a city at the very north of Chile. We went straight to find the bus station. A VERY nice lady helped us book our bus to cross the border into Peru. We had a few hours to kill, so she let us sleep in a back room. It was absolutely amazing!

We crossed the border in Peru...almost flawlessly. Three of us have student visas and three of us have tourist visas. Well it turns out if you have your student visa then you need a Chile ID card with you. We haven't picked up our student ID cards yet, so they almost didn't let us out of Chile. That was a but scary, but we were fine. Once into Peru we were fighting against the clock to get to our train to Machu Picchu on time! We rode on a bus through the night, which was supposed to arrive around 5:30 am. Sidenote: That was my first double-decker bus ever, and I loved it! Our train was scheduled to leave at 7 am. Our bus ended up arriving an hour later, and we had to take a taxi to the train station. Even though the train was still there, we missed official check in by seven minutes. The taxi drivers said that the train would stop at another station and we could race it over there. For an hour the taxis sped through the mountains, upsetting all of our stomachs quite a bit! However, we made it with ten minutes to spare and were allowed to get on the train. That was my first train ride!! It was so pretty, but it definitely went a lot slower than I imagined trains would in my head. We arrived at the city of Machu Piccu and immediately fell in love with the little tourist town. First we put all of our stuff in the hostel and then we spend the day exploring. We went to all these little shops, a gorgeous little Church, and then restaurants fought over us. One person from each place was standing outside with menus offering us free drinks or free nachos and discounts, it was awesome! We ended up getting free pisco sours and a major discount from the food. Most of us tried Alpaca for the first time, and Derek got a guinea pig, which is a delicacy in Peru. YUM Alpaca meat is absolutely delicious!! South America is obsessed with Pisco Sours, but I just don't find it tasty. Oh well. That night we went to sleep VERY early, because we had to be up VERY VERY early to hike Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is a famous natural wonder in Peru, and about two to four thousand people enter every day. On the edge of it is a mountain called Wyna picchu, and the first four hundred or two hundred people who arrive get to climb it. Everyone knows this and shows up early to get in line. We were out of our hostel by four am and heading over to the entrance. There was a line for buses or you could walk. We decided to walk, of course. What we didn't realize is that we would be hiking for an hour and a half straight up the side of a mountain. It was so bad! We have a few pictures from Machu Picchu and you can see the road that curves all the way up to the entrance, and we hiked straight up through the middle of that. We made it to the top before the sun rose, so that was really nice! We were actually within the first hundred people there, so that was really cool! The park opened at 6 am, and we were allowed to start hiking up Wayna Picchu at 7am. There was a warning saying that you needed to be in good health, and they were not kidding. We spent four hours on that mountain of doom. We ate lunch in a cave, and we sat on rocks that were literally on the very top! It was the most incredible view I have ever seen in my life. Everyone needs to go, because pictures absolutely cannot express the beauty of that place! Peru is absolutely gorgeous! There were a couple of parts that were absolutely terrifying, because they didn't have a walkway and you would have to climb a ladder. I have a picture with a rope where you had to pull yourself up the side of the mountain, I thought I was going to freeze and just fall off the side. AHH!! After the mountain most of us took naps and lazily walked around the rest of Machu Picchu. This is also when we fell in love with the cuteness of Alpacas!

After our day of sweat and glory, we took our first shower...for the first time since Wednesday night. That was on Saturday! I don't think I have ever gone so long in my life without a shower! The next morning we left bright and early with fears about what lay before us. You have to understand, we are poor college kids, and there is only one form of transportation that is allowed to bring people into the city, the bus we took. That bus is only a couple of hours, and it costs $71 for the cheapest ticket. Taking this into consideration, we decided to illegally walk the train tracks three hours to a place where we could take vans to a nearby town. Our hostel said that people did this all the time, and it was relatively safe. I was scared we would be caught and taken to a jail in Peru where someone would have to come bail us out! Not ten minutes into our hike we reached our first tunnel. THAT got everyone's blood pumping! TUNNELS?! We sprinted through in hopes that a train would not come at the same time and pummel us. We had another one of those and a super shady bridge that felt like it was falling apart. However, I am still alive and don't owe any fines to the Peruvian government! We took the van which led us to a bus that we took to Cuzco.

It was eleven pm, but we found a really great hostel for $10 a night. We put three people in each room, had a private bathroom, a television, and hot showers! ALSO, coolest thing ever, The Emperor's New Groove was on TV! We saw "Cuzco" in CUZCO! Haha that was such a highlight! Gillian, Derek, and I found an awesome restaurant, and I have the most amazing pasta with pesto sauce ever! It was absolutely delicious! We got to sleep in the next morning, and then we spent the day exploring the beautiful city! We found a huge book sale, and I bought the Count of Monte Cristo in Spanish! I am so excited to start reading it to my host mom! All day people would bring baby llamas and try to get us to pay to take pictures with them. That is when we saw a baby llama in a bonnet, and that was amazing! We ended up at a small cafe with our new friend Rachel. We had met her on the very top of Wayna Picchu, and she had been walking the train tracks the same day as us. We decided to celebrate our achievements with the most delicious ice cream ever! We had basically been living off of bread, so it was nice to have some dessert! That night we left at 10 pm and took an overnight bus into Arrequipa (Spelling??).

We arrived around six am, dreading that nothing would be open. Let's face it, South America enjoys sleeping in much more than we do! HOWEVER, we found a rockin restaurant that served the most delicious breakfast ever! We stayed there eating and talking until the tourist places opened. Our goal was to get to Colca Canyon, which we didn't realize was six hours away from the city. After much bargaining with a tour place, we got the perfect deal! We took a local bus over the city with the canyon. That was the amazing ride where a woman actually put a llama underneath the bus!! That night we stayed in a hostel that fed us dinner (with amazing alpaca) that night and breakfast the next morning. We had hot showers, and a personal guide! We got up about 5:30 the next morning and our guide took us to the side of the canyon where he told us all about the Incas and we got to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely amazing! We ate a filling breakfast and ran over to our bus. WELL, we were taking a local bus, which means fit as many people as possible! HOLY COW, I thought I learned this concept in Guatemala. This was an entirely new experience! There were health code violations left and right! We had the isles packed! However, we eventually got to a spot to watch Condors, and we met up with a real tour bus. Condors are HUGE! Their wing span is 3 meters across, so imagine that when you look at their pictures! Then we rode with other tourists, getting off at certain spots and taking pictures. One of the last stops, it had actually started snowing! SO RANDOM! It was gorgeous! Throughout all of our bus rides we went through every single climate!! We rode through desert and mountains and plains and towns, and we fell in love with Peru! When we got back to Arrequipa we took a taxi to the bus station where we had "beds" on the bus. That actually meant that the chairs were super comfortable and leaned all the way back, which was definitely enjoyable. That took us all the way back to the southern tip of Peru. It was time to find a bus to take us over the border. Goodbye Peru!

Due to the problems getting across the border the first time, we were nervous Chile wouldn't let us back in. However, everything went smoothly and we made it back to Arica with no problems. No problems except that we had an ENTIRE day, and we had no plans. Last semester a guy named Jorge studied abroad at OU and became friends with one of the Lindseys. He told her if she ever came to Arica to call him to hang out. After breakfast and hanging out in the center square and getting super sun burned, Jorge came to hang out with us. He took us to his gorgeous home, and his mom cooked lunch for all of us! The food was incredible! Plus it was the first home cooked meal we had, had in a week! Jorge had to go to work, but he said we could stay at his house and rest all day. Are you kidding me?! This guy was amazing!! He is so nice! We spent all afternoon resting and watching tv and taking naps. Then his mom came to get us to serve us dinner!! She made ham and cheese paninis! TO DIE FOR!! We all ate until we thought our stomachs would explode! At 11:30 pm Jorge came back and personally took us all to the airport! It was a great last night with the most amazing hospitality EVER!

Our 1 am flight brought us back to Santiago, and then we took a bus back to Vina Del Mar. Needless to say, we are finished riding buses for a VERY long time! I thought I was going to pass out, but I again had been three days without a shower, and I didn't want to get my bed nasty! I stayed awake cleaning, unpacking, and organizing my room. My sister was here, so we all went out for lunch. After lunch, I passed out. I woke up for about fifteen minutes last night, but I rolled over and went back to sleep until this morning. After all of the traveling and hiking, and I definitely needed a sleep coma like that! However, I feel much better now, and I am excited to be back in Vina! That was most definitely the most adventurous vacation I have ever taken in my entire life, and now I have the itch to travel all over!!

If you get the chance though, I ABSOLUTELY recommend that you make your way to Machu Picchu!!