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.

Night at Ayahuasca in Barranco

So. Monica cancelled classes at El Sol today. We also didn’t have to go to UNIFE today, so today was practically a free day. Awesome. Today was definitely a day to just stay in and enjoy myself. Last Friday, I went surfing. This Friday, I went for a nice stroll along Larcomar because since being here, I’ve never actually had the time to explore myself. I ended up at the park and hung around there to enjoy the ocean waves waving back at me. The waves were serenading.

I caught up with a few friends at one of our favorite burger joints in Peru – Papacho’s. After such an enticing meal, we all felt the need to walk it off and pass out so we decided a movie at Larcomar would be ideal. However, we didn’t end up seeing a movie due to some of us needing to do some errands so we spent our afternoon exploring Larcomar. We ended up at a bookstore at which I soothingly read to my friends a child’s storybook in Spanish. As I continued to flip through the pages and read idyllically, one by one they would fall asleep. I felt like papa bear and they were my cubs. They were adorable and it was cute. My cubs looked at peace and I let them lay to rest until it was time to go.

We were all tired. So tired, in fact, that we hailed over a cab just to go to my apartment to sleep in my room. OK. Let me start off by saying that my friend Lexi is a straight savage. I don’t know what’d I do without her. The cab driver initially asked for 25 soles to go literally one block over. (Freaking absurd! Not us for taking a cab one block of course.) The nerve of this guy to charge what should be less than a 5 soles ride five times that amount. That’s how much soles some people spend to drive to Pachacamac, which is almost an hour outside Lima. He should be lucky to get 5 honestly. But this isn’t where Lexi comes in. No. We actually bargained for 5 soles, and we hop in the cab and arrive at my place. Where Lexi comes in is when the cab driver repeatedly asks us for 25 soles as if we hadn’t had this talk before. Of course, I stiffen up and was like “Ew. No.” Also my Spanish is usually rendered useless when I’m in a stage of fright. So the cab driver started bickering at me for 25 soles, and Lexi swooped in like my superman and saved the day. She told that driver off, dropped 5 soles in his hands, and told us all to walk away. Crap. She’s tough as nails, but I love it. We get to my door and I’m juggling my keys in my hands out of nervousness. The driver is still there looking at us. Then Lexi went from tough as nails to soft as spaghetti, frantically yelling at me to hurry up and open the damn door. Goddamn, Lexi. I’m halfway to pissing my pants. Let me find my keys!

Phew! I found my keys and we scurry in. We get to my room and we lay out passing out until Lexi began having an allergic reaction to my cat, so the crew left earlier than expected. Well, I could use a nice nap, and that’s exactly what I did. Later that night, I would invite a few friends over for a nice social gathering – with alcohol. Of course, no social gathering is complete without a little bit of Pisco. We would spend the night chatting and laughing until it was time to go to Ayahuasca – one of the biggest bars in Barranco. It was an electrifying night with friends, and it was also a very special night because we were also celebrating the birthday of one of my good friends Kathleen.

UNIFE: Linguistics (Last Day) and El Club Help

Last day of El Sol. I love this school. One of the best in class experiences I've had in a while. The professors were great and they really taught us a lot about the language and Peruvian culture. We ended the day with lunch and everyone received congratulatory El Sol hoodies, which were awesome by the way. Oh and I also got a picture with my favorite El Sol professor, Rosa!

Que linda!

It’s our last day at UNIFE, and I have to say, I’m going to miss the lovely girls here. They were extremely welcoming and friendly - and the chisme, the chisme was good, or so I heard. It wasn’t my type of conversation to really get into but you really can’t help but to ask about it especially when you hear your name float around. Erm. It was frustrating. Anyways, off to our special class of the day: Linguistics. Ok, I’ll be honest about this one. It was definitely a super interesting class and I usually love learning about language structure and origin, but man I was dozing the hell off. I couldn’t help it. It really wasn’t my fault because I really tried to stay awake, but my body was failing me. It was as if I just downed a whole bottle of Benadryl beforehand. I found through it though. I tried to scout the classroom to see how everyone else was doing, and it seemed to me like I was in good company. I’m pretty sure one person had their whole sweatshirt wrapped around their head passed out on the desk. But this was definitely a survival of the fittest, so I pushed on and really engaged myself. I had that face, all doped up and whatnot like I had been freshly lobotomized. I may or may not have drooled a couple times. Honestly, I felt bad for the guy speaking. He was old. So, I wasn’t sure how coherent he was because he definitely did not feed off the audience. He had this uncanny type of excitement in him talking about how interesting linguistics was. There were so many times where I just wanted to say, “Just give up, man.” But you do you.

Time’s up. Everyone awakens from their drunken-like slumber, almost as if they were utterly confused as to where they had passed out. Thankfully, however, we found new energy in a more engaging activity as we moved into the small auditorium in the building next door. I honestly thought the day was over, but Monica is full of surprises. We all take a seat and listen to some testimonials about our last day and to be quite honest I teared up a bit. I’ve been regarded many times as a soft soul, but I really am. I have a slight problem with letting things go – kind of like pizza.

The closing ceremony was beginning. My friend Samuel, began teaching a couple people the Soulja Boy dance, and I thought, “Wow. I want to learn.” So I jump in and learned the steps as best I could until we had to sit down. I did not know what I had just gotten myself into. Samuel was actually rehearsing his dance steps so that a group of us could demonstrate American dance culture. First of all, Soulja Boy!? That was honestly the worst and actually the best representation of America. Secondly, there was no way in hell I was going to get up there and perform a dance I had literally just learned in two minutes in front of a bunch of people. Monica pushed me to go up. Next thing I knew I was standing with three other people up front. I don’t know how this happened. I was screwed. Queue the music. Some karaoke cover of Soulja Boy starts playing. 3…2…1…Youuu!!! Crank that Soulja Boy!!! Ok. I’m officially done. I’ve never felt more foreign. After our rendition of American culture. The Peruvian girls showed us how to really dance, and boy can they dance. Shakira was right. Hips don’t lie. Some of the girls would pull some of us up to join in on the dance. I couldn’t catch a break. So there I was twirling my hips in embarrassment. Music stops, and it ends. Thank God. After the whole ceremony had finished, Monica ended with a closing speech about our time at UNIFE, and afterwards we lined up to receive our diplomas.

We head back to the bus back home. Monica announced our schedule for tomorrow. After some diligent and persistent convincing, we were able to get Monica to cancel classes at El Sol tomorrow so that we could spend the day with our host family and packing up. Thank you, Monica.

I get home and the first thing I do is take an hour nap to get ready for a night out to El Club Help, which I found out was the same place as La Pena del Carajo. Before we headed out, I had a few friends over to enjoy bottles of Pisco together because that’s how you prepare for a night out in Peru. We finally head out, and well it was quite an interesting night for everyone. I thought the girls would have the most problems avoiding vultures at the club, but I came to find out I had to fend myself from Peruvian men as well. I just wanted to enjoy my Pisco Sour in peace. After a night of fun, I decided to call it a night and head home.

UNIFE: Gastronomy Class

At UNIFE today, I would typically partake in the conversation classes we have with the girls outside in the courtyard, but today I ran into some personal issues – mainly with my stomach. You can’t blame me for needing to go. I would come out for the next half of conversation and immerse myself with the girls at UNIFE about their social lives. It was all about boys. They thought I was Brazilian, and apparently it’s not such a bad thing here in Peru. Falo Portugues? Mmm. Sim. Um pouco. Well, that was enough to swoon some of the girls at UNIFE which was completely unintentional. What the heck did I get myself into. But no I told them I wasn’t Brazilian but for some reason that piece of information went in one ear and out the other as they would continue to ask me to say more things in Portuguese. Like that was ever going to happen.

Oh look at that! It’s time to go for some culture classes. Today’s culture class was a gastronomy class. And let me tell you. This by far was the most interesting class at UNIFE. Only because I’m a complete foodie. The professor of gastronomy, I guess you could call him that, began to explain the various make-ups of Peruvian cuisine. Apparently, Peruvian food got its roots from all types of cuisines such as Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and African. Huh. Who knew? It was really interesting stuff because at that point do you really give it its own identity and label it as Peruvian? That’s like calling hotdogs and hamburgers American. We know it’s German, but no one is going to really acknowledge that because – ‘Merica.

I spent the rest of the day sleeping up until the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors were playing. My friend Mary calls me to meet up and watch the game at the bar. We ended up at some sports bar and it was absolutely lit. They had tower beers and wings. That’s really all anyone needs. What seemed to be a nice date night turned into a conjoined friends’ night out as I began inviting a bunch of people out to watch with us. It was fun and it was a good time. But no tower beer.

UNIFE: Current Affairs

It’s the second day of the last week of El Sol and I’m already missing it. I can’t help but sit in my seat and think that these are going to be the last few days with the professors. I maybe be partial to say this, but I honestly thought we were the best class at El Sol. We had so many different characters and personalities that just meshed so well together. Typically, Romeo would have a grammar lecture ready for us but today he actually let us free bird it. Instead of having a structured class as we normally would, we began immersing ourselves in real conversations – talking about politics, economy, history, and personal favorites on things. It was good conversation because I had learned a lot about Romeo. He’s just an interesting guy. Ask him what how the Nazca Lines were formed and he’ll tell you aliens did it. Ok. Not so strange of an answer. Ask him about the history of Peru, and he won’t tell you that ancient Incans ruled most of South America or how they engineered tools for farming and water. No, he believes that giants once roamed Peru and formed civilizations all around. He also doesn’t believe that they built tools to garner water and learned to farm. Romeo told us that water was obtained through hydraulics built inside hills where trees would provide a natural source of water through photosynthesis. Although, it wasn’t the craziest of theories he definitely was pulling these out of thin air. I demanded proof. He had enough plausible reasons that went against all things people initially believed about Peru for him to publish a book. Ten out of ten, would have been a good read. Oh and he said robots helped carved the Nazca Lines. However, let’s move on.

Thanks Romeo for the doses of knowledge. We ended our day at El Sol like any other day – conversation with Rosa. After El Sol, we met up for our bus ride to UNIFE. It’s day two of week two of UNIFE, and the bus ride to UNIFE hasn’t gotten any better. It’s a painful 25-minute commute. We arrive and immediately get into conversation with the girls to talk about more gossip. We then have our culture class on current affairs, and I sit down preparing for my presentation. Class ends and we rendezvous at the library auditorium. I’m more nervous than I ever was and I didn’t know why. Yesterday, I wanted to do my presentation and get it over with but now the anxiety has caught up. I was a little shaky. It was my turn to present for my group and I absolutely nailed it. Thank goodness for that. As others would go up, I had the luxury of being pulled out of the auditorium to be interviewed by a couple UNIFE girls as they asked me about my life and why I came to Peru. It was just another Tuesday.

UNIFE: Peruvian History and Group Presentation

I’m a little bit nervous today. I’m supposed to present my part of a group project at UNIFE and guess what? I haven’t written down anything. After class at El Sol, I parkour all the way back to my apartment, grab my Lima book, and dashed the doors to make the bus ride to UNIFE. That only took me 10 minutes to do so I’m pretty damn fast. I could’ve have been a track star. I get on the bus and immediately started translating core information from the book. It was hard because as soon as I started jotting down information, Monica grabs the microphone and gets everyone to join in on a sing-a-long. A dios mio. And just when you think my motion sickness in cars were bad enough, there was horrid singing to go along. I had to fight through the pain, at least momentarily until I got this speech done. Ugh. More bowel pains. This is literally the worst ride of all time.

We finally arrive at UNIFE after 25 minutes, and I had just finished my two-page speech in time. I couldn’t be happier, but I really needed to take care of real business. So I went straight for the toilet. After dealing with my personal problems, I entered culture class for an hour to learned about the history of Peru. It’s just redundant material at this point. Now it’s the real part of my day. We enter the library and I find my group to talk about our presentation. I find out that our group would be going last and since I’m the last section in my group that I would be the very last to present. I just wanted to get this done and over with. So I sat for the next two hours awaiting my turn to find out that we didn’t have enough time to finish all the presentations today. I was a little disappointed. No. Let’s be real. I was pissed. I endured the struggle bus and painful bowel just to find out I’d be presenting tomorrow. Dammit. I really couldn’t complain though because now I at least got my part done and I’ll be ready for tomorrow.

Lunahuana

I haven’t gotten any sleep last night and here I am ready to start my day at 6 am. Today was fun day Sunday. I had just packed my stuff the night before for sneakers, swimwear, and food to bring with me on the bus ride to Lunahuana. It’s about a 3-hour bus ride to Lunahuana. Having spent the night before downloading a mix of hip-hop, country, and Latin music, I placed my headphones on and enjoyed the rest of the ride there. Yes, and this is why I hadn’t slept the night before. I spent it downloading music so I could enjoy a painful 3-hour bus ride.

We finally arrive at Lunahuana and it looks like a complete ghost town. It’s a small dilapidated looking town that all it had were restaurants up and down every street. No residential areas. Just a bunch of random restaurants. It was odd. Good thing is that it sat next to the river where we would prepare ourselves for rafting. It one of the only few attractions the place had to offer. Other than that, I wouldn’t recommend vacationing here. I don’t know how people find out about this place unless it was advertised because you wouldn’t drive by this town and think to start water rafting. We change into our bathing suits and head down to the river. We formed groups of seven and hopped into our rafts. There were five groups. Our group was the first to set sail. We started out strong, just strolling and enjoying the ride until the raft behind us started throwing water at us and started taunts. Ok, guys it’s war. They try to pass us a few times but we would push them away with our oars. They became more and more aggressive as I thought this was all for fun, but I took it personally. I started smacking their raft with my paddle and call them names. It was a petty effort but they knew I meant business. We would eventually come to some adversities in the water when we encountered a pile of rocks. I knew we were screwed as I turned around too late to see that we have just crashed. We starting sinking like the Titanic, and ended up immobilized like sitting ducks. As we cried in despair, other rafts began passing us by laughing. I glared at them with disgust as I knew they were in a whole world of pain when or if we ever got out. We managed to get our raft back up and operating and we set sail again. We had a lot of ground to cover. Thankfully, we had a former rower on our squad. Unfortunately, she was only a coxen so she was essentially useless. Although, I was wrong to think that because she started coxing from the back and was able to get our group to paddle in sync. It was helping. We were pacing ourselves forward faster and faster soon catching up to one of the rafts. We had surprised them. So because I had not forgotten the spite I had, I took my paddle and whipped water at them. They got the message. We move forward to see that one other raft had just hit a giant boulder as well. We took advantage and began creeping up to second and first place. It turned into a race on the Regatta. Gabby, our coxen, began coxing again. 1…2…3…4…5…row! We rowed faster and faster. 1…2…3…4…5…row! We’re now trailing behind the group in second and I could feel the excitement of over taking them! One more push to recapture them! Ready. 1…2…3… *bloop*. What the hell. Why did she stop counting? I yell, “Gabby we need your coxing!” I turn around and she had vanished. Our whole team turned to find Gabby but she was nowhere in sight. Then we see an arm flailing in the river. DAMN! She had fallen out of the raft and no one had noticed. Poor, Gabby. We had to stop and pull her back in and there went our chances of podium finish.

We get to the end of the river and I walk up back to the raft shack in disappointment. Also I was chafing hard. We dry off and change into new clothes to get ready to ride some ATVs. This was going to be great. Cruising on ATVs was just want I needed. We hop on our ATVs and then followed the guide in single file to where I thought we would be able to roam freely. We follow and follow and follow until we get to a dead end road. We turn around and headed back to where we first picked up the ATVs. That was it. That was our ride. I release a heavy sigh. At least we get lunch.

We get back to town to have lunch at one of the 500 restaurants in Lunahuana. How we chose this specific one is beyond me because they were all the same it seemed. We finish up lunch and then headed off to the winery. Could possibly be the best part of the day for me honestly. What better way to cope with my despair than to drown myself in wine? And that’s exactly what I did. We had a small wine tour and the lady had us sample seven different bottle of wine. Of course, having been dissatisfied throughout the day I asked for seconds and thirds of each bottle, including the three Piscos of 40% ABV. I only took 6 shots of that.

Ok wine tour is over and I feel better now. We made our way to the center of Lunahuana for a small tour and pictures. Then headed to the river to take more pictures and enjoy the view. I also bought street meat which probably wasn’t a good idea, but I was really hungry. So, I turned off my security blanket and naively bought two skewers of chicken. I’m going to see a doctor after this.

We then head back to the bus and return home after a long Sunday outing.

Tour de Palacio de Gobierno y La Catedral

I get it. Classes on the weekdays from Monday through Friday from 9 in the morning to 12:30 in the afternoon. You’d expect the weekend to be a little more lenient, but it’s not. If anything, we get up a lot earlier in the day than the rest of the week. It also doesn’t help that I’m not typically a morning person, so getting up earlier than I have to can be quite a drag.

It’s 7 in the morning and I’m making my way out the door to catch the bus at Avenida Pierre Thomas. It was going to be a relatively short day today, so I was thankful for that. We hop on the bus and take it to Plaza de Armas in the Zocalo district of Lima. Our first stop was a tour of the Palacio de Gobierno which was absolutely beautiful. Stepping into the palace made you feel like you were stepping into the Palace of Versailles. Everything was glistening in elegance and gold, marble floors and renaissance décor. The guards were motionless. They were like the guards you hear about at Buckingham Palace. They wouldn’t budge. I had the need to itch their noses for them honestly it bugged me that much. All I knew was that I could never do that in a millions years. Even if I was compensated for life with government benefits, which I can only imagine can be so much. But this was Peru. It’s been through its fair share of corruption, so I wouldn’t be too shocked if they received a lot of benefits under the table. Must be worth it to sweat in that suit.

A flattering picture of me.

We make our way out of the Palacio and back out to the Plaza de Armas. Despite the usual cloudiness of Lima, the sight was beautiful and refreshing. Our next stop was a tour of the cathedral where the remains of Francisco Pizarro laid. Now that was pretty cool stuff. The inside of this cathedral was phenomenal. It was large and open with a sort of gothic presence to it. As we got in deeper into the cathedral, we came across the lower catacombs where other important people were buried. There was also an assortment of skulls.

We exited the cathedral to take a half an hour break until the beginning ceremony of the changing of the guards outside the courtyard of Palacio de Gobierno. During my break, I decided to make a stop at Roky’s for a small club sandwich to satiate my appetite for the time being. The club sandwich ended up consisting of four large slices of bread, layered on top of each other with assortment of meats and cheeses in between. It wasn’t that I was intimidated by the sandwich but more or less that my host dad Carlos had promised to prepare ceviche for lunch later on when I return. Oh well. I completely destroy the sandwich and tossed the fries for my friends to scour over.

Time has elapsed and it’s time for the changing of the guards. We rendezvous over to a corner to watch the entire ceremony commence. A pleasant show, but I could not help but feel pity for these poor guards who were probably fighting severe swass from the uncontrollable heat that’s constantly bestowed upon them every day. Still don’t think I could do this job. As if I needed any more convincing.

The show ends and we hop onto the bus home. A few of us decide to head to La Lucha to have lunch, so I tagged along for a milkshake. I wasn’t going to get anything because 1) I had already had Roky’s and 2) because I have ceviche ready for me at home. But I wanted to socialize. I sat down at a table outside with some friends to enjoy my strawberry milkshake. I was in my happy place because I love strawberries. But my friend Lexi seemed to be having a bad day for some reason and I wanted to console her. To make matters worse, she had just ordered a sandwich in which she specifically asked for no meat because she was in a vegetarian mood. She received her sandwich to find out that they gave her a sandwich full of meat. So, I had to step in and I also wanted to make Lexi’s day a little better so I brought up the sandwich to the counter and asked nicely that my friend had requested a vegetarian sandwich. The lady was coherent with my request and apologized and placed a new order for Lexi for a vegetarian sandwich. Ah, I felt so happy that transaction went through as smoothly as it did because it could have been ugly. Lexi thanked me as I rejoined the table of friends. I finally return home to Carlos and his maid who had prepared the table with ceviche with another course of rice and chicken. Honestly, I was going to throw up because I had just eaten Roky’s but I really wanted to try the ceviche. And the ceviche was spectacular. Best ceviche in Peru.