Combis

This is a compilation of photos I've taken of the destinations that are written on the sides of "combis" (little buses).  I've taken these combis almost every day that I've been in Peru and although I can't stand (pun intended) how small they are, the colors and the fonts of the writing were always entertaining for me.

Sitting at a coffee shop. Listening to music. Studying Spanish linguistics. Drinking mint tea.

Our whole trip was "ruined"

I apologize to those who religiously check this page and find that it's not updated. But even though my blog has been idle for weeks, I haven't been.  This past weekend I traveled to Cusco, Peru. It was an experience I will never forget.  For those of you who don't know, Cusco was once the capital of the Inca Empire and just outside the city (and by "just outside" I mean "a four or five hour trip by car and train) is the most visited ruin site: Machu Picchu. Ever heard of it?

I'd be lying if I said getting to Machu Picchu was simple. To actually get to Machu Picchu from Cusco you can choose from three options. One being walking - you can hike the Inca Trail from a town called Ollantaytombo (Oh-yan-tay-tome-bo). However, if you can't afford this option or simply don't want to spend 5 days hiking and camping, you can either take a train the entire way there from Cusco, or take the least expensive route and take a hand full of taxis, vans, a train and a bus to finally arrive at the famous site.

So, being college students with a limited amount of "plata" we chose the latter. I'll spare you the minute logistics but here's the gist of what we did. Plane to Cusco --> Van to Ollantaytombo (1.5 hrs away) --> Morning train to Aguas Calientes (town below Machu Picchu 2 hrs away) --> Bus up to Machu Pucchu (30 min). Now that you've got that memorized I can go on.

This picture was taken from Ollantaytombo on the side of a mountain we weren't supposed to climb. Oops. It overlooked the town and hey, it was free, unlike the ruins that you can see in the background of this picture.  The town streets were completely cobblestone and it was really fun exploring the different alleyways. After spending a day hiking and climbing we felt prepared for the next day at M.P.

We got up early to catch our train that goes through the beautiful Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes.  There we took a bus up to Machu Picchu and we arrived by about 9 am. So from 9 to 5 we were exploring the old citadel. (We literally were the last ones out of the site when it closed).

We hiked up Machu Picchu Mountain (where this picture was taken). It was a difficult hike and took about an hour and fifteen minutes. All in all - totally worth the blood, sweat, and tears.  At the top I could not get over how beautiful it was.  Seeing the ruins down below was amazing, but I was more impressed with the natural beauty.  Don't get me wrong, the ruins were great and I understand that the Incas were ahead of there time (not compared to European standards at the time) but I have a greater appreciation for the things that weren't made with human hands.  After having a little quiet time up there with the Good Book we hiked down and spent the rest of the time exploring the ruins.

One of the THE coolest experiences of my life happened as I was meandering through Machu Picchu. I was minding my own business when all the sudden another tourist says, "Hey come look at this!".  I walk over to him and I see he's looking at a tarantula about 2 feet away taking on a wasp the size of my finger. Now, I don't know if you've ever seen my fingers, but they're about 2 times longer than normal size fingers.

This wasp was HUGE!

So as the tarantula was struggling with this wasp, out of nowhere a lizard comes out and bites the tarantula.  So I'm here watching a lizard biting a tarantula who's biting a wasp. If that's not nature at it's finest I don't know what is.

The next day we went to Pisac.  This is a town outside of Cusco that has a big market for tourists and some more pre-Columbian ruins.  We were pretty sore from the day before but that didn't stop us from hiking for an hour and a half down from the ruins back to the town.  We got lost a couple of times on the way back but we were able to blaze our own trail and eventually made it back alive.

This picture of the Plaza Regocijo was taken from the balcony of the Chocolate Museum in Cusco where I was drinking the best hot chocolate I've ever had.  Don't let the picture fool you. It may look nice and hot, but the temperature at night got down to 36 degrees Fahrenheit!

I have more stories about the trip and I will have plenty more when I go again with my family, but this is all I can blog for now. Chau!

Poetry Shmoetry

Well I am finally doing what I came here to do. To study. I know, it took until midterms to finally kick in, but let's just say this month's revenue at Starbuck's, my new official study spot, is up 50% from last month thanks to my caramel macchiato addiction.  But midterms left me mentally and physically drained, no matter how much coffee I had in me.  My most draining midterm was probably my Literatura Actual class. A.K.A. Read and Analyze Poetry Until You Pass Out class.  We have a huge packet filled with poems from Vicente Huidobro, Olivero Girondo, Jorge Luis Borges...you know, authors that are known by everybody...and we need to read them, then write a three paragraph analysis on what the poem is saying.  Yeah, I was freaking out.  For example, when given a poem like the one below written by Borges, I stare at it like this for about 20 minutes.  Not only is the vocabulary an intimidation factor, but also the fact that I have absolutely NO clue what the poem is talking about because for some reason, poets never write exactly what they mean.  They disguise their message so people actually need to think about what they're reading.

A un gato

No son más silenciosos los espejos
Ni más furtiva el alba aventurera;
Eres, bajo la luna, esa pantera
Que nos es dado divisar de lejos.
Por obra indescifrable de un decreto
Divino, te buscamos vanamente;
Más remoto que el Ganges y el poniente,
Tuya es la soledad, tuyo el secreto.
Tu lomo condesciende a la morosa
Caricia de mi mano.
Has admitido,
Desde esa eternidad que ya es olvido,
El amor de la mano recelosa.
En otro tiempo estás.
Eres el dueño
de un ámbito cerrado como un sueño.


Now, depending on how you view poetry, the arbitrariness of a poem can make it beautiful, or it can make it the most annoying form of art in the world.  My view is the latter.  But who knows, by the end of the semester my attitude might change.  Until then I'll just BS my way through.  Get this, in my midterm I wrote, "El humor de esta poema refleja lo absurdo de la realidad."  In English, "The humor in this poem reflects the absurdity of reality". Who actually writes that?? Ha! I guess I do. The professor is going to eat that up. 


But midterms are done and I can finally relax a little. I also have a trip to Machu Picchu in a few weeks to look forward to. Rough life, I know.


Que te vayas bien. Over and out.


-Mike

¡Vamos a la selva!

This past weekend I had the chance to experience one of God's incredible art masterpieces: the Amazon. Talk about green!  Before going I knew a couple facts, like more than 20% of the Earths oxygen is produced in the Amazon, and that 50% of all the plants and animals on Earth are found there.  But what I didn't know was that it is absolutely breathtaking! From the moment we arrived in Iquitos, to the moment we left, I was awestruck by the natural beauty. 



Okay, enough with how beautiful it was. Time to share our itinerary.  At about 10:00 am our plane landed in Iquitos.  From there we took a  

taxi right to the river. Yep, the Amazon River. 

There we boarded our tiny little roofed canoe and met our tour guide, Homero, that would be with us for the next four days.  Then for the next three hours we putt-putt-putted with our tiny boat motor down the Amazon and through different tributaries while Homero taught us little tidbits of information about the river.  Like did you know that the width of the river varies from 1 to 6 miles?  And it expands when the river is flooded, which it was (by about 20 feet), to a width of 30 miles.  We couldn't get over the fact that we were actually in the Amazon River Basin.  On the ride to our lodge, I swear I took a hundred pictures of the same thing - river and trees.

So finally we arrived at our lodge, which was a large wooden house on stilts with various rooms.  We found our rooms, settled in a little, and ate lunch.  Hunger was never a problem on the trip.  They fed us like kings.  They had a million chickens running around so we always had fresh chicken and eggs. And fish, of course.  My mouth is watering as I write this just thinking about how delicious everything was!

Next on the agenda was a night cruise.  When the sun was setting, we set off once again in a boat (we were in boats a lot) and drove for about 30 minutes.  Then once it was dark, the driver shut off the motor and paddled along with Homero for about and hour and a half back to the lodge.  That hour and a half was filled, once again, with awe and amazement at the beauty of the Amazon.  This time it was in the sky.  If you need to prove to someone that there is a God, send them to the Amazon and tell them to look up.  So. Many. Stars!  We all fell silent in the boat, got comfortable, and just looked up.


Speechless. Amazed. And most of all, Humbled.  I didn't want to talk, I just wanted to sit quietly and admire my Creator.  In that moment, no worry of mine seemed important - "Will I graduate on time?" "Will I EVER get a part-time job in Madison?"  "Will I get sick on this trip?"  Only one question kept coming to mind that was worth thinking about - "Who do I think I am?"  Who do I think I am thinking that my worries are too big for God to handle?  Of course, I understand that they are issues to be concerned with, however, compared to God, they are insignificant.  No teachable moment from Homero during the trip was greater than the reminder that we have an unfathomably big God.

So after the night cruise we all got ready for bed.  Being the first night in the Amazon, I was a little scared that a creepy crawly would somehow get into my bed netting.  The fear was encouraged by the fact that a brown recluse spider was found and killed (luckily) in the room next to mine.  The girls claimed it was "as big as their bed!".  Despite being a bit of an overstatement, it was the largest spider I've ever seen.  I have no idea how I managed to fall asleep that night.

The next day we awoke at 5:00 am to go bird watching.  We did see many birds, but I was more interested in the little black monkeys that Homero had spotted.  In an attempt to get closer to them, 

we were bombarded by little black bees that had a nest right above where our boat was.  They kept dropping on us and clinging to our clothes and hair.   Our driver immediately turned on the motor and drove off.  Luckily no one was badly stung.

Later that day we visited a tribe.  There's no doubt that it was a tribe, but it was a little awkward because it seemed like they just put on a show for the tourists that come through.  Regardless, I got to shoot a blow gun!

The third day we went on a jungle tour.  I never realized how thick the jungle was. So thick that I was given a machete!  Did I use it?  Not once.  But I looked cool.  After walking for two hours into the jungle, most of us were getting tired and hot (it didn't help that we were wearing long pants and long shirts).  Hoping that we were walking in a giant circle I asked Homero if we were almost back to the lodge...he said, "no, but we're almost to our turn-around point".  When we finally got back to the lodge the fear of piranhas didn't stop us from jumping into the river and cooling off.


On the fourth and final day we went to Monkey Island, a well-known site where you can play with a bunch of monkeys.  However, we didn't step foot on the island because it wasn't there. Flooding, remember?  So, what happened was we stayed on our little boat, and the monkeys came to us.  They came crawling down the trees and hopped in the boat.  Some guys in another canoe came and grabbed a sloth out of a tree and we all took turns holding it.  They did the same thing with an anaconda. It was such a cool experience! I will never forget it.  After that we rode to Iquitos to catch our flight back to Lima.
Many laughs. Many delicious meals. Many trees. Many stars. Many memories.

¡Un viaje inolvidable! An unforgettable trip!

Que te vayas bien. Over and out!

-Mike

Iquitos

I apologize for not blogging this past week. I could say I've been really busy but who am I kidding? - we all know that that's not true.  In the next couple of weeks I will, however, be more occupied with school.  But that's not stopping me from taking a trip to the AMAZON! Yep, that's right, I'm going to Iquitos, Peru on Friday and I can't wait. Coming soon: A blog of my Amazon adventures. 

Pray I don't get any diseases! (Specifically Yellow Fever and Typhoid, because I didn't get those vaccinations)

Happy Easter!

    Yesterday was Treat Yo-self Day, and like the name describes, we treated ourselves to a day filled with awesomeness.  Or at least we tried, it was actually a pretty normal day when I think about it.  First we went to Chef's Café, where we sat in the back corner, sipped cappuccinos, and discussed deep topics that each of us had to come up with. The following topics were on the list: Bears (that one was a joke), personality tests - are they accurate?, the economic status of Greece (that conversation didn't last long, we had no idea what we were talking about), our future careers, and finally, my topic - God.  So, after discussing every topic, there was still one left that they kept

avoiding - mine.  You'd think that a coffee shop would be a great place to have a conversation about your beliefs. I guess it wasn't.  So we left there and went to La Lucha for dinner. Mmmm. But I still had my last topic on my mind.  I wanted to discuss God. Why? I dunno, CUZ HE'S GOD! duh.

So after La Lucha we walked to a Brazilian Restaurant/Bar called La Media Naranja and after one fish bowl...the conversation surfaced.  It was awesome to hear their views about God!  The majority are either atheist or agnostic, and for them God (or the lack of God) isn't a huge part of their lives, but boy they had some great questions.  When it came my turn to share my beliefs the questions came flooding in - for three hours.  Three hours! It was great.  Why is Christ the only way to heaven? What about homosexuality? Why is the Bible valid? The questions were endless.  Some I could answer, some I couldn't, and I let them know that I don't have all the answers.  But despite getting side-tracked with some complex theological questions, the main point I kept trying to stress was that we are all sinful and we all need a Savior. I hope they at least went away knowing that.  "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." - 1 Corinthians 1:18. Yeah my roommates think I'm wrong and they probably don't like my beliefs, but I know they still respect me.  And when it comes down to it, I'd rather be respected than liked.

To top off the night - a nice stroll through Parque Kennedy and listening to a mariachi band. I love Lima!

Happy Easter! Feliz Pascua!

Que te vayas bien. Over and out.