To Peru and Back

So when I came to Argentina I knew that I was going to have to leave at least once during my stay because my visitor's visa is only good for 90 day and I had planned on being in Tucumán for 5 months. Now, my plan was to go to Bolivia for a few days and come back cause that is the closest country. Well as with anything plans change and I ended up planning a 9 day trip to Cusco, Peru instead. The woman I'm living with, who has become my adoptive mother, has friends that own a hostel in Cusco so the plan was to stay in their hostel for free for a few days, see the sights and then go home. That was the whole plan. So this is how it really happened.

I was at a friend's house for the weekend when Julie (mom) calls me to tell me that we are leaving for Peru in two days. Woot! I run home and pack that night then go to town and buy my plane ticket the next morning. It was a bit pricey but that is to be expected with international travel. We had a scheduled layover in Bolivia (another stamp in my passport) before going on to Cusco. Now keep in mind that my Spanish is still not the best at this point so I didn't catch all the details but I trusted that everything would be fine and that I didn't really need to ask questions.

Wenesday morning comes and we get on a bus and drive 4 hours to Salta where we were flying out of (First misunderstanding of the trip. I thought we were flying out of Tucumán.) Then we get on a plane and fly into Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We chill in the airport for a few hours before flying to La Paz, Bolivia where we were spending the night (Second misunderstanding, I didn't know we were going to have an over night layover.) The next morning we get up bright and early for our flight to Cusco and here is where the adventure begins. I am US citizen so I have to use a passport to travel to any other country while mom is from Argentina and can get away with using her ID card. Also, many of the governments of other countries don't like how hard the US government has made it to get into our country so they impose the same fees on us that we do on them. So when I tried to leave Bolivia I was told that I had to pay the $135 for a visa, even though I was only there overnight. Rather than missing my plane I paid the fee and left. (Good news though, I can go to Bolivia for the next 5 years.)

We land in Cusco and are picked up at the airport by mom's friends who take us straight to breakfast then to our hostel to get organized. The next day we went on a tour of the city. We got to see a lot of museums, cathedrals and a few of the Inca sights that are near the center of town. There are so many amazing things to see and there was so little time but I suppose that if I ever go again I will plan on being there longer. So another change of plans happened when we went on the city tour. I was in a Spanish speaking group because mom only speaks Spanish but about halfway through the explanation of the first amazing mural in the cathedral I realized that I was going to miss a lot of information because of how fast the guide was talking. So I requested to go with an English speaking group instead. Mom and I split up with the intention of meeting in the main square at the end of the day. After the tour I went to the place we started and waited. And waited. I didn't see mom anywhere so I asked around about the other tour groups and what time they were supposed to get done.

I figured I had time to kill so I wandered around the square and window shopped for a bit. While trying to tell someone that I wasn't going to buy their art work I ran into the son of mom's friends and we went to dinner. Afterwords we took a taxi back to the hostel where mom was waiting (she was very relieved to see that I was safe.)

The next day we had no plans so I decided to go wandering around the city by myself. Because Cusco is the city closest to Machu Picchu there are a lot of tourists so it's pretty safe to walk around during the day.  I wandered all day and saw a lot of the city. It was fun to go at my own pace and I now understand why some people enjoy traveling alone. I had an amazing dinner with a perfect glass of wine to finish the night. This day of wandering alone gave me a lot of confidence in my abilities with the language as well as my ability to look out for myself.

On Sunday we did the second half of the city tour which was mostly a tour of the Sacred Valley. It was amazing and beautiful to see what the Inca people were able to build. They created whole cities out of giant stones that were fitted together perfectly with no mortar between them.  I did the tour in Spanish that day and I understood most of what was being said which also boosted my confidence. I also met a few very nice people from different countries including Mariana from Rio de Janero, Brazil. Monday finally came and we went to Machu Picchu. Words cannot express the beauty of it or the awe I felt looking at the immensity of it. I guess that's why I took so many pictures.

That night I talked to mom about our plans for the return trip and she informed me that she was not going to be able to go to Puno to see Lake Titicaca. I'm not sure if you know that Animaniacs song about the lake but I was determined to see that lake since I first heard it. Now I'm not sure if it was my determination to see the lake, the boosted confidence over the previous few days, or just a wild hair but I decided to go to Puno to see the lake by myself. So that night they took me to the bus station and dropped me off. I can't really describe the feeling I had as I walked away from mom and the security blanket that she represented and into a dirty bus station in the heart of a foreign country. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time to realize that I was actually going to have an adventure of my own with no plan at all. I didn't know where I was going to stay in Puno, I didn't know when I was going to get home. All I knew was the names of the cities that I would go through to get back to Tucumán.

Some pictures from this adventure.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/101360724498372680593/albums/5661897235324595281?hl=en