A Market Adventure, An Ancient City, and a Fashion Show

The last 3 days have been filled with adventures, confusion, wonders of the world and interesting characters. It all started with a Spanish training exercise which divided the group of 25 into 5 teams and sent us off into the wild to search, scavenge and buy food at local markets. Luckily I ended up with a girl with all the vocal attributes of an Argentinian and the attitude of a Peruvian hustler. Along with 3 other SIT students we were sent off to El Mercado de Calca, a town that was said to be only 5 minutes away by public transportation. Without any aid we were instructed to go to Calca buy as many strange/local fruits as we could find and return in an hour. The hour time-frame was completely inaccurate, in the first hour my group managed only to find the bus stop in Urumbamba leaving a bus ride and a shopping trip to be completed in less than 60 seconds. Even if we had turned around then and not competed the exercise I would have learned a valuable lesson, Peruvians work on their own time schedules and aim to be 10 soles richer rather than punctual. Minutes ticked by and we still had no bus driver for our trip to Calca. After 30 minutes the driver finally showed up, realizing he had filled his bus as much as possible, and we began our "5 minute" drive. Of course, having at that point learned about Peruvians punctuality, 5 minutes ultimately became 25 on a cramped smelly bus with various men staring at my female partner's chest. The market was easy enough to find once we got Calca so we hustled to buy fruit and get back to the bus stop. Buying 20 /soles of fruit only took about 10 minutes so we made it back to the bus stop just as  our return bus arrived. 25 minutes later we were back in Urumbamba jammed into a motorcycle carriage with some cold Inca Colas in our hands bumping and bouncing over dirt roads to our eco-hotel. So ended the Market Adventure just about 3 hours late. I returned with a sore butt, a sunburn, bags of fruit I couldn't pronounce and a valuable understanding of Peruvian time frames. 

The nest adventure of my new life was not only for comfortable but also proved to be one of the greatest experiences in my 20 years. At 4 in the morning the day after the Calca Mercado all 25 of us rose to the sound of a bell/gong calling us to the main hotel building to depart for the majestic Machu Pichu. A 30 minutes van-ride through the dark early morning sky brought us to a train station where we boarded for a 2 hour trip to the little town of Machu Pichu. As night became dawn the train curved between the Andes, past cows, lots of dogs and the occasional coca-chewing worker. While on the train I took pleasure in reading my guide book with some other students and mocking the language used, all of which I remember seeing and not understanding while taking the SATs. By the time we reached Machu Pichu, which is the name of the town, national park and mountain but not the actual ruins, everyone in the group was chomping at the bit to reach Incan city. Weaving our way through the tourist loaded town we caught a bus up switchback turns to the base of the ruins, from there it was like nothing I have ever seen. We began with a tour led by a friendly Peruvian and as we made our way through the city, which is enormous, much larger than any photo, it was nearly impossible not to take a picture of every perfectly situated stone and man-made waterway. Although I would love to explain all of the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of the city I will not, it is impossible to do it justice with words and therefore I highly recommend that everyone reading this begin to pack their bags immediately, quit your job if you have to and hop a plain to Peru. At the end of the tour we were given 90 minutes to explore on our own and with the company of two of my fellow students, females of course, who else, I walked up and down the entire area, played with llamas and took a couple of pictures from the famous picture-taking site. The train ride back from Machu Pichu featured a dancing tribal-dressed man and a sweater fashion show put on by the stewardesses. With my creative explanation abilities running out of steam I would like to end simply by saying that these first 5 days have been more than I could have ever expected, I do not think I have ever woken up in a place more beautiful, met more wonderful people and had my jaw drop so many times. With that said I continue to look forward to all that is going to happen in my near future and hope that soon you will all personally know how hard it is to express feelings of absolute wonder as I have in these past adventures.

alpaCasey