Dinner at Belmond Hotel Monasterio del Cusco

Ugh. What a rough day. The morning didn’t start off any better than any other day since arriving to Cuzco. Typically, people who come to visit Cuzco experience various symptoms of high altitude sickness which could be anything from a small headache to extreme nausea – and from what I’ve seen, we seem to all be having a rough time adjusting to the altitude. Luckily for me my symptoms were on the less severe side of things and high altitude sickness wasn’t really the big issue for me. However, I couldn’t avoid the inevitable sickness that began plaguing everyone on the trip – extreme bowel movements, coupled with my strep throat. Today was going to be a mess.

After having such a disorientated morning, I wanted to clean up and feel fresh. So, I did what anyone with annoying bed hair would do – get a clean haircut. I walk down towards the lobby of our hotel to see Jake working cheerily on his blog. Such a hard worker. But just like most of us on this trip, he gave into peer pressure and convinced him to come along with me for a haircut and lunch date. So he packed up his things and we went on our way searching for just about any barbershop in Cuzco. Now the challenge here wasn’t finding a place to cut hair, but finding one that looked like they knew what they were doing because let’s be honest – I haven’t seen anyone in Peru with a great head of hair. Oh god. I began experiencing some sort of hyperventilating chest convulsions. My strep and high altitude was slowing me down and I had to suck it up and go to the first “barbería” I saw. Jake and I spotted a barber across the street from where we were walking, so we decided to just go there. The man outside the barbershop waved us to come in.

Now this exact situation has been something I’ve been longing for quite a while now. Ordering my haircut in Spanish. I’m a little bit nervous because I’m going into this with minimal Spanish and this man knows no lick of English. But here we go. I sit down and he asks me what I’d like so I point to the sides of my head and say, “Puede cortar a los lados? Si. Todo alrededor, por favor. Yo te quiero empezar desde el abajo y corta hasta el encima, pero yo lo quiero estar el pelo más largo cuando mueves arriba hasta el encima. Déjelo el mismo el encima. También, puede afeitarse desde aquí a acá.” Now I sit quietly in regret as I pondered what I have just asked for and I hoped for the best. I close my eyes, clinch my seat, and prepared for the worst. I can feel the razorblade shearing through my hair and it feels good. So far, so good. It’s been about 40 minutes and he asks where I’m from and goes on to talk about Copa America and how the United States just beat Ecuador. I respond asking him if he had seen Peru monumentally defeating Brazil. Of course he did. He’s Peruvian. Now we’re getting a little bit comfortable and I open my eyes to see a masterpiece. He had cut my hair exactly how I asked. Magnifico. He then begins to lather the side of my head with shaving cream and began landscaping the sides with a razor. It felt amazing. After the shave, he then rubs alcohol across the rawness of my freshly shaven sides. It burned momentarily until he began lathering a block of ice to sooth away the soon forgotten pain. The haircut was a total success.

After feeling reinvigorated after a miserable morning, Jake and I made our way to one of Peru’s best eats: Papacho’s we meet again. After enjoying our lunch, we went back to hotel to get ready for one of the day’s most eventful afternoon – horseback riding. Now this was interesting because I’ve never actually ridden a horse, but I sought out this opportunity to hone my inner equestrian. A group of 8 met at the lobby around 2 pm and took a taxi with one of our Peruvian guides to the outskirts of Sacsayhuaman, where a small horse ranch resides. The horse rancher assigned us all horses, and because I was clearly the heaviest of riders that I had the presumption that I would get a big mighty stallion to personify my character, but I got a donkey. A damn donkey – the smallest of the horses in comparison to the 7 other riders who received majestic purebreds. Whatever. Let’s ride.

We saddle up and make our way through a rocky upward trail, and of course me weighing in at 188 pounds, mounted on top of one of the smallest horses, my horse begins to dry-heave and fart uncontrollably like he had just finished three consecutive Kentucky Derbies. Continuing to move towards the end of the trail, we move into open space and began wandering around into the woods, consequently losing our guide. This wasn’t good. Being the most unexperienced of riders, I did what any naïve horse rider would do – kick the horse and gallop into the open field. I envisioned a beautifully tranquil ride through the open air, but because my “donkey” was short of breath, he just sat and ate grass for the past 20 minutes. I wanted my soles back honestly. After playing animal farm with my horse, I reunited with the group at the temple of the moon to take pictures of the landscape. We got back onto our horses and made our way back to the small ranch and took our taxi back home to the hotel.

Oh man I wreaked of horse excrements. We get back to the hotel and I immediately hit the showers. Rinse, lather, repeat. I’m feeling freshened up with a great shower and clean cut hair. I dress myself and took a nap to get ready for the rest of the night where we would be spending at the Belmond Hotel Monasterio del Cusco.

Nicely fitted jeans, black V-neck, leather boots, a sleek outer cardigan, and a haircut as suave as the bottom of a newborn child. I was ready. I felt amazing. I walk down towards the lobby and see a crowd of well-dressed, sharp looking group of people. Man, this was going to be a nice dinner. I love these people. We begin to stroll out. What was supposed to be a short walk to the restaurant ended up turning into a long winded expedition upwards a cobble stone road. My strep throat was catching up to me and by the time I had arrived to the restaurant, I began to feel like my donkey from earlier this morning. Completely lethargic and useless. But all of that went away as I stepped inside the courtyard of the restaurant to witness the rustic beauty of this deep-rooted monastery. Literally breath-taking. I take a seat with some of my favorite people on the trip and began wining and dining like posh aristocrats. Until my good friend and roommate John began reacting to a poorly miscommunicated dessert plate dressed in sesame to which he is deathly allergic. John was eventually rushed out of the restaurant and taken back to the hotel to receive some Benadryl. Fortunately, he had recovered. Because we cared so much about our boy John, our small close-knit family of friends decided to stay in and take care of him. And this was where we had called it a night.

Machu Picchu

It was already 12:45 am, and I’m still awake. I’m coughing, sneezing, and breathing heavier than anyone with altitude sickness. This wasn’t good and definitely wasn’t a great way to start the next morning. I’m supposed be up in about 4 hours to catch a bus to see one of the world’s most marvelous wonders this world had to offer. I tried to take the cold medicine and anti-inflammatory pills I had purchased the other day in order to prepare for the long day ahead. The next morning was going to be a long day.

If it wasn’t for John, I don’t think I would have made it out the door on my own. I was completely unconscious, and was prepared to miss the day entirely. I just didn’t have it in me physically and mentally to end my sleep short and start my day at 5 am. But I had to do it. We’re going to Machu Picchu for god’s sake. It was a big part of the reason why I was even on this trip, and so to miss this opportunity because I “wanted to sleep in” seemed uncharacteristic of me. It’s 4:55 am, 5 minutes before we’re supposed to board. Get up Ralzaly.

I willed myself out of bed - fought the congestion, the cold, the sneezing, and the nausea because I knew that if I didn’t, I would regret this for the rest of my life. I put on my shorts and hoodie, and rush myself out the door to make the bus in time. Worrying about getting others sick, I took it upon myself to take a seat alone on the bus where I was also able to begin my recuperation by sleeping the entire ride there.

Hours have passed, and the bus is just arriving at the train station. My nap was insufficient and left me dazed and mentally impaired. We get off the bus, and I immediately trek towards the platforms to board the train. Here we go.

The train arrives. As I climb into the cabin of the train, I immediately feel an unfamiliar presence of richness. The floors were sprawled from one end to the other covered with its braided rugged features. Tables were covered in satin table cloths, finely set with well-orientated handkerchiefs and posh silverware. The space inside the cabin was vast with the crisp air of the morning day. I sit down in the comfort of a smooth mahogany leather seat and I close my eyes and breathe in the open air. I felt rejuvenated, reenergized, reinvigorated with new health to expend throughout the day. I was ready.

The train finally arrives in the small tourist town of Agua Caliente, located at the base of Machu Picchu. We switch from the train to a bus that would then take us to the top of the mountain at where we would then sit at the front gate of Machu Picchu. We had made it.

Words could not describe the immense awe that had encapsulated the stiffness of my face or the frail hairs that stood up on the skin of my arms. I had goosebumps. I took in the moment and visually captured what could be my last time up here in these mountains. Machu Picchu was beautiful. Here are pictures I took for you to experience the amazing wonder that I had just saw.

We make our way back through the same series of transportation, where I would crawl into bed with a painful migraine. I fell asleep in hopes to shake it off.

El Valle Sagrado

Today started off just as beautiful as any other day in Cuzco. Another early morning to tour the ever popular Valle Sagrado, or the Sacred Valley. On our drive throughout the valley, we made several stops to see the finer things of Cuzco. One of those small stops? A llama and alpaca farm! They were pretty freaking cute. I don’t like touching animals because I have stage 2 germaphobia, but feeding them bundle of grass was fun. Of course, after that, I went straight to the bathroom to wash my hands because of my stage 2 germaphobia.

We continue to make our way through the valley to make other stops at Mirador de Curacao and Mirador de Taray. These stops were short-lived, but the view of the valley was breathtaking.

After touring much of the Sacred Valley and its spectacular beauty, we would finally arrive at the hidden archeological site atop a mountain in Pisaq. Similar to the agricultural ingenuity of the ancient Incans at Los Anillos, the site contained carved out pieces of earth that were layered like a baking stencil for a wedding cake. Each level had its own microclimates used for different agricultural purposes such as growing corn and potatoes.

My favorite part of the day took place during lunch where we ended up at Restaurante Tunupa – an all you can eat lunch buffet of signature Peruvian dishes. Oh my Lanta. I had four full plates of food and essentially tried everything there was to offer and one dessert plate. Let’s just say I slept very well later that bus ride.

After our lunch break, we made our second main stop of the day with a tour of Ollantaytambo, a temple located in the Sacred Valley. Our guide for this tour led us up several large steps to garner a greater view of the valley and its archeological sites. From atop, our guide pointed us to several different carvings and features engraved on the sides of other mountains visible from our vantage point. Here, we were able to see the river and face carvings that represented the personification of different gods. We ended our tour here and headed back home after a long day touring.

Las Salineras de Maras and Los Anillos Agricolas de Moray

Tuesday morning was a good morning. I had felt a little better than I had since arriving in Cuzco. Today we took a trip to one of my favorite places thus far in the trip – Las Salineras de Maras. It was an incredible view from above, but also a very frightening one. I had never felt this close to death in my entire life. The salt mines were situated at the bottom of the valley of the mountains, and the only way to get there was to take a one-way narrow road that wrapped itself closely to the sides of the mountains. No guard rails. Just straight cliffs. The only thing separating the bus and the bottomless abyss were the tiny pieces of dirt that tumbled along the edge. After holding on for my dear life in what could have been my last breath, we successfully made it to the bottom. We hopped off the bus with our tour guide who then escorted us along the way down into the salt mines. It was such an amazing excavation site for salt.

After spending some time at Las Salineras to purchase some trinkets and goodies, we set off to see one of the significant engineering feat of agriculture at the time at Los Anillos Agricolas de Moray. What made this ancient site so special was the shear genius of the people of that time. This site exemplified their underappreciated intelligence in farming and growing crops by creating ringed craters of different circumferences at which each ring was dug no more than two meters deep from its outer ring. By doing such, each leveled contained its own microclimates as each microclimate being suitable for growing a variety of different crops. Some say it were aliens, but I say it was pure genius.

First Day in Cusco

It’s our second day in Cuzco and the altitude sickness already started to shoot some of us down like flies. A lot of us were succumbing to the low levels of oxygen and decreased pressure from above while others were doing well. And then there were others who were clearly suffering from the sickness but chose to put on a sort of façade to mask their vulnerability, but come on guys who really cares.

We spend the day doing a small tour around the city of Cuzco, starting with a visit to El Templo del Sol, and Basilica de la Catedral del Cuzco in the main plaza of the city. After making our way out of the cathedrals, we began our journey to the incredible ruins of Sacsayhuaman, from which we were able to roam free and explore old sacred grounds and appreciate the mountainous view from above. It was a beautiful introduction to the culture of the Cuzco.

Last Day with Carlos and Lima

It’s the last morning waking up in Lima and I have to say it was bittersweet. The morning started off like every other morning. Breakfast with two eggs, slightly garnished with pinches of salt and pepper, slices of bacon, some toasts, Peruvian coffee, orange juice, and a ham and cheese sandwich. All great and delicious but they always left me visiting the inodoro very often. I had just finished packing all my things in my room and I couldn’t help but reflect on my time with Carlos. He’s been nothing but an amazing host dad and I’ll always appreciate that from him. Instead of sobbing it out, I thought it’d be better to just have one last great conversation with him before I left. You have to leave on good terms, and Carlos didn’t disappoint.

I take a seat in the living room preparing myself to say goodbye. Carlos comes over and serves me some coffee. He takes a seat and we both stare at the ground awkwardly as if we had just met for the first time. It was the first time I had seen Carlos this quiet. I could feel the tears creep up from the back of my eyes. They were starting to form on the crevice of my eyelids. Just as the first drop of tears began to leave, Carlos gasped. He took in air and finally belched out the words, “Hey don’t forget you owe $40 for laundry. That’s not 40 soles. That’s $40 American dollars.” Goddammit, Carlos. I nonchalantly swept away tears of my face. I went to my room and grabbed the $40 before I forgot. I took a seat in the same place and he began the conversation talking about how a woman recently began experiences massive headaches and didn’t know what was happening to her. He told me she went to the doctors to get her head checked out for any signs of tumors because it had been bothering for her for some time now. She was only 26 years old, so it would have sucked to have a brain tumor that early in her stage of life. After a CAT scan of her head, doctor’s had just discovered that they had found teeth and hair lodged in the deepest parts of her brain. It’s got to be some sort of freaking miracle that they were able to remove that from her brain because she’s still alive. Anyways, doctors had found out that the teeth and hair had identical DNA to her and they concluded that the remnants were that of her unborn twin sister that she ate when she was inside the womb of her then-pregnant mother. All I could think of at the time was – what a savage. I get that killing an unborn child can be justified with ethical reasoning, but this lady devoured her sister out of hunger. If abortion is murder, then this lady came out of the womb a first-degree murderer. Nothing ethical about using hunger as a means to commit crime.

The phone rings. It’s the van. It had just arrived outside the apartment to pick me up to go to the airport. I say my last goodbyes to Carlos, we hug it out, and I make my way out to the van. We finally arrived at the airport and we started boarding the plane immediately. An hour passed and we finally arrive in Cuzco.

Wow. Not only was I amazed that we were almost 12,000 feet above sea level, but that people actually live here – whole towns and cities! We get off the plane and immediately you can feel the difference in altitude. You really couldn’t tell how thick the air was until you got outside, but you could definitely feel your breath shortening. Taking one step here was equivalent to taking ten steps at sea level, so fatigue was quick. We grab our belongings and took a bus directly to the hotel. It was our first day in Cuzco. Some people need to acclimate so most of us stayed in to adjust. And that is exactly what I did for the rest of the day.

La Rosa Nautica in Lima, Peru

First of all, Kathleen is good. Now I’ll carry on. Today was a free day before leaving to Cuzco. Most of us spent the day doing exciting extracurricular activities like surfing, shopping, or paragliding. I spent most of the morning catching on sleep and grabbing lunch with a few friends at KO restaurant – a sushi joint. It’s super delicious and fairly priced. Always get the KO Maki. It’s cooked tuna, avocado, cucumber sticks drizzled in a spicy crab sauce and sesame seeds. Ok, well John can’t really have that. But it’s so damn good. We talked about our day and how a few people went on a hike with our El Sol professor, Romeo. Rumors have it, Romeo had ripped them off of soles after hiring a “personal” taxi driver for them to go. But that’s none of my business. As far as I know, any crushes on Romeo just went down the drain pipe. At least he still rocks that ponytail.

After Larcomar, I had returned home to my host family. I had spent the last few hours having small conversations with my host dad in Spanish about my day and listened to more of his outrageous stories. Listening to his stories about his golden days are always delightful and quite honestly I could sit there all day and listen. But time was short and I had to get ready for our big night out to one of Lima’s highly touted restaurants – La Rosa Nautica. It’s a beautifully scenic oceanfront restaurant that sits at the end of an elegantly designed pier. The rustic décor with large open glass windows that framed the outside view of the Pacific and dim lightings provided a completely serene and sea-calming ambience. It was beautiful. Dinner was beautiful.

The restaurant boasts itself for having many different types of celebrities visiting and so it was to no surprise that we would eventually bump into someone recognizable – at least in Peru that is. But of all the people that we would have expected, I could safely say that I never would even imagine that that person would be Alejandro Toledo, an ex-president of Peru. It was amazing, surreal, and exciting. He gave us a speech and it mesmerized all of us. I couldn’t believe it at first, but it was real. As his speech went on, it slurred on. At this point, I decided that he might have been a drunkard. And he was, but he was still a great guy. He definitely would have made a great comedian like a Peruvian Charlie Sheen.