What a week it has been! Jeremy and I started off the week visiting various villages in the Sacred Valley near Cusco, then finished off the week with a 3 day - 2 night whitewater rafting trip on the Apurimac River. There are lots of pictures in this update and it is a very long one, so grab a snack and something to drink as you read this!
Last Sunday, Jeremy and I headed for the Sacred Valley. We took a bus from Cusco to Chinchero where we saw their Sunday market, visited their colonial church with ornate frescos, and strolled the streets. Chinchero is known as the "birthplace of the rainbow" by the Incas. Here are some pictures from Chinchero...
After Chinchero, we took the bus to Urubamba. The views during our ride were spectacular with beautiful snowcapped mountains jetting out of the sky with hilly farmland in the foreground. Our guidebook said very little about this town except that it was of little historical interest, was surrounded by farmland and was a good resting spot in the Sacred Valley. We were, therefore, unprepared for the amazing mountains surrounding this valley town. It was gorgeous. In Urubamba, we stayed the night to prepare for our second full day exploring the Sacred Valley. Some photos from Urubamba...
After breakfast in Urubamba, we headed for the historical site of Moray. The trick was, that in order to get to Moray, you needed to do a couple hours hikíng. So we took a bus to the road that led to Maras, walked up to Maras, and then from Maras hiked to Moray. Again, this hike was surrounded by breathtaking views from every direction. It was raining a bit, but that ended up being refreshing because it was an intense hike. We were some of the only people on this hour and a half hike from Maras to Moray, and the only tourists. We learned the way from an indigenous woman in Maras who was kind enough to point us in the right direction as her cattle got away from her. She told us that we would see "fletchas" or signs that would tell us the way. It took us long time to find one of these "fletchas" so we were pretty excited when we found one.
After about 2 hours of hiking, we arrived at our destination, Moray. Moray has deep amphitheatre-like terracing. Different levels of concentric terraces are carved into a huge bowl, each layer of which apparently has its own microclimate, according to how deep into the bowl it is. For this reason, the Incas are thought to have used them as a kind of crop-laboratory to determine the optimal conditions of each species.
From Moray, Jeremy and I intended to go to another village called Salinas. Salinas is famous for its salt pans. Thousands of salt pans have been used for salt extraction since Inca times. A hot spring at the top of the valley discharges a small stream of heavily salt-laden water, which is diverted into salt pans and evaporated to produce a salt used for cattle licks. Our guidebook said that Salinas could be reached from Moray, but the locals assured us that we needed to return to Maras in order to go to Salinas. At that point, we ran out of time to go, even though we made it back to Maras in only 50 minutes time.
The night before, we had arranged to visit an orphanage in Huallabamba. We really wanted to visit the orphanage, and there just was not enough time to do both. Maybe another time. Jeremy originally had the idea to visit the orphanage because he had heard there was an orphanage in Urubamba from another volunteer at the orphanage in Lucre. So, the night that we stayed in Urubamba, we asked about the orphanage at a restaurant. It just so happened that not only did the man at the restaurant know about the orphanage called Girasol, but he had the phone number of the administrator in his cell phone. So we called the administrator and decided to visit the next day. As we were leaving Maras, we met up with some high school teachers in Maras. One of them had a sister who worked at the orphanage and could direct us there. Then, once we were on the bus to Huallabamba, this same woman pointed out a 14 year old Peruvian girl who lived at the orphanage. She could direct us the rest of the way. The girl was not an orphan herself, but the daughter of the on site managers of the orphanage who are taking this project on as part of a Mormon mission. It felt like such as small world that we were finding all these people connected to the orphanage. We asked the girl where we could buy some food to bring as a gift. She directed us where we could buy some eggs, bananas, oranges, and suckers, then led us to the orphanage called Girasol, which means sunflower in Spanish.
Girasol is a very nice, well kept place, that currently has 17 children between the ages of 5 and 15. However, the place in under construction and is looking to house up to 100 children in the future. The orphanage is surrounded by lush and beautiful mountain, valley, and farmland scenery. It has an organic greenhouse, baby lambs, and the cutest kids you have ever seen. The kids hugged us, and took my hand to lead us into the area where we ended up talking with the on site managers, Juan and Delia.
While talking with them, we told them that we were teachers looking for volunteer positions to teach English. Juan and Delia said that while their daughter had some opportunities to learn English at her school, they hadn`t had many opportunities and the children living at the orphanage had not had any exposure to English. With that, Jeremy and I started investigating whether we might volunteer there.
It turns out that the administrator of the orphanage is the same administrator of the Lucre orphanage and of Colibri, the center for street children in Cusco that Jeremy substitute taught at about a month ago. We met with him a couple days later and are hoping to start volunteering there this coming week, but we are still waiting for confirmation of that. Here is the view of the valley from the orphanage. No pictures of the kids yet because they were studying hard for upcoming exams when we were taking pictures.
The other exciting thing that happened this week is that we went on a 3 day and 2 night whitewater rafting trip on the Apurimac River. What an incredible experience! We drove about 4.5 hours outside of Cusco to reach the put in through even more spectacular scenery. It seemed we went through at least 10 different ecosystems in that one drive based on the plant life.
On day 1, we received our wetsuits and other equipment, did safety drills, and had about 2.5 hours on the river before arriving at our camp. Jeremy and I were in the frontmost seats of the raft which required a great deal of coordination between the two of us. We did really well together.
Day 2 included 7.5 hours of rafting that included Jeremy and I falling out of the boat at the same time while "surfing". Supposedly, we fell out of the boat in the safest place to do so, and it was really kind of fun. After a long day of rafting, we retired to our camp. That night was a bizarre one because there was a forest fire that was very visible from our camp. It seemed very close, but our guides that were familiar with the area assured us that the fire was on another mountain further in the distance. Nevertheless, it was a bit difficult to get a good night´s sleep that night. Not to mention that our tent broke in the middle of the night. Jeremy and I ended up sleeping outside on the beach. In the morning, we could see that our tent had not really broken, but we had already slept outside.
Day 3 included 3 hours of rafting, plus a Class 5 rapids that our outstanding team went through without incident. Overall, the trip was great. Our guide Daniel knew the river like the back of his hand, the food was outstanding and plentiful, and the 23 other rafters (from Israel, Australia, England, and Austria) were interesting to talk to. We also got free photos, a video, and t shirts! Some of the photos are here:
Since we returned yesterday, we`ve done virtually nothing except rest (translation = stayed in bed). The combination of the physical exertion of the rafting trip, the recent altitude shift again, the cold water of the Apurimac River, and the sand fly bites that keep us scratching have left us exhausted and not feeling so well. In fact, we've just checked ourselves into a bit of a luxury hotel. Today, we'll have heat, cable tv, a telephone, and other amenities!
In addition, we`re still looking for confirmation from the administrator of the orphanage to find out if we will be going there this week before heading to Machu Picchu via Salkantay on November 2nd.
If you´ve managed to read this far, congratulations! You have reached the end of this entry!
