New Heights (Week 18)

We climbed into the bus for the return journey from Ecuador to Lima. A second 22 hours. A gentleman sat beside me. He smiled and introduced himself. His name was Ricardo. He quickly realized that Spanish was not my first language, but recognized that I knew enough to have a decently intelligent conversation.

As the bus pulled out of the lot, city buildings and town parks transformed into rice farms and the Pacific Ocean reaching far out into the sky. Ricardo pointed out these ice farms to me, as he carefully explained how the rice was harvested and dried. He explained the name of each small town and pointed to the long stretches of shrimp farms.

After 22 long hours, with legs that felt like fudge. We climbed off the bus and I said goodbye to Ricardo. I was thankful to have had my own personal tour guide point out the views I wouldn’t have understood.

View of Cusco from the Templo Del Sol.

This past week has involved a lot of hopping, traveling, and making sense of several diverse places. I’ve stuffed my pockets full with memories, like I promised, but several dwell in lands of their own context. Because of this, I’m going to write a few snapshots, individual of each other.

On New Year’s Day Isaac’s uncle took us adventuring near Lima. We tagged along with him, his girlfriend, and her daughter, Mayra. We rode four wheelers along the Pacific Ocean to a light house. We went white water rafting in the clear waters of the Lunahuaná River. We traveled through the air in zip lines in the dry mountains surrounding Lima. As the sun set I sat with Mayra eating maracuya ice cream on the curb in a mountain village. We spoke in Spanish about cultures, food, and beauty. “Brooke you will always have a friend in Lima.”

The Pacific Ocean near Lima.

Cusco is as cold as Pucallpa is hot. I’ve LOVED it, although our hotel has no heat except for small space heaters in our rooms. I have been a living ice sculpture on more than one occasion.

We are high, high up in the Andes mountains. We’re taking medication for altitude sickness, but I’m still out of breathe more than normal. Yet, that may or may not have more to do with a bad cough I have. ;)

In Cusco we toured the Templo Del Sol. It was originally built by the Incas with exquisite architecture and overlayed with a thick layer of gold. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Cusco they captured the king of the Incas and demanded a ransom. The temple was stripped of its gold for payment and the king was killed anyway. That gold was sent to the Vatican, and later the temple was rebuilt for the Catholics. It’s now considered the Incan equivalent of the Vatican.

We have spent most of our time so far exploring the city squares and artisanal Incan markets. The Cusceńo children are great salesmen and incredibly difficult to turn down. One boy, in particular, grabbed our hearts. He walked up and said, “A llama keychain? One for one sole or three for five soles.” :D We kindly said no, saying that we had already purchased some. He left, but returned moments later. His eyes reached into our hearts. “My name is Kevin and my prices have not changed.” We giggled and gave in. The next day we saw him again. After asking to take a picture, we bought a few more “llamitas” from him.

Kevin

Many women dressed in authentic outfits carry baby llamas around in their colorful blanket bundles. We quickly discovered that we’re expected to pay a steep price for holding and talking pictures with these fuzzy beauties. Now we decline, but are quickly met with exclamations of, “You don’t want to hold the baby llama. But, it’s a BABY llama.” You’d think we have no souls. How can you NOT want to hold a baby llama? We have souls, I promise. Just not that many soles.

The lamb I held before realizing how expensive holding Cusceño babies is.

We’ve eaten corn on the cob in the markets, french fries in the mountains, yam and chocolate churros in the streets, and strawberry/Nutella crepes with strawberry juice in the restaurants.

Don’t be fooled. This trip has had its fair share of downsides, but for now, I’m rejoicing in the beauty of culture, adventure, and opportunity.

Thanks for tagging along.

~TBS~