Dessert Before Dinner?

Well, it's about time, right?! The last week or so has been a bit intense, and it's just now that I even have a place to sit and share some more pictures and experiences.

Macchu Picchu! Vacation was truly incredible, and I'm very happy that I was able to have some time with some great friends to get a feel for Peru before I went on to the town where I'm serving. This is such an IMMENSE country, and the landscapes are absolutely breathtaking.

SO! After paying to have my flight changed to make it to Cusco on time, I arrived there the next morning and met up with the group at a nice little hotel above the Plaza de Armas, a gigantic Colonial-style cobblestone square with an enormous center park and fountain, entirely surrounded by 17th century cathedrals. It's truly a nice place.

We took the opportunity of having the whole day free to take a horse tour of some surrounding country outside the city. Our guide took us through his family's property, showing us old ruins and secret caves that the Inca used to hide from the invading Spanish.

The next day we set out early on the train to Aguas Calientes, which is the town just outside of Machu Picchu. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but we were able to find a decently priced hotel and plenty of things to do. I bought a big brown hat made of alpaca leather!

Then yet another super early day brought us to the actual Machu Picchu part. The rest of the group was settled on taking the 25-minute bus up the mountain to the park entrance. I, on the other hand, felt wholly obligated to make the climb on foot. So, I set out at 4:30 to make it to the trail gate at 5, hoping to get an early start........ only to find a crowd of about 35 people when I got there. Lol.... tourists. The climb was very, very hard. We're talking about an hour of pure ascent, pure stairs. But it was TOTALLY worth it to be able to get there 10 minutes before their bus and be able to wait in line again. Hahaha. Tourists.

The ruins of Machu Picchu truly are impressive. Thankfully, we hired a very knowledgable guide that we would actually have to kind of prod a bit to move on to the next part. He taught us tons about the ancient Incan culture, religion, and life in the actual city of Machu Picchu. It was really interesting to see all the different elements of their religion that pre-date Christendom but yet still have the same elements. Most interesting of all was their system of construction, labor, and trade.

Huayna Picchu (Meaning Young Mountain in Quechwa) is the giant mountain that overlooks the ruins of the city. The Inca would use its high altitude as a place to refrigerate and preserve food, as well as a place of religious ceremonies. It was about 2 hours of more pure uphill hiking to reach the summit (to be greeted yet again by about 50 tourists scattered about the rocks), but the view is indescribable. Huayna Picchu is situated on the border of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon Basin, so you can literally look to one side and see highland,br terrain Andes mountains, then turn to your other side and see pure jungle mountains, towering cascades, and thundering rivers.

On the train back from Machu Picchu, we made a bit of an impromptu decision to just go ahead and take an extra 6-hour bus to Puno. Puno is the town on the west bank of Lake Titicaca, the largest and highest navegable lake in the world, sharing the border of Southeast Peru and Northern Bolivia. There is a native population that actually live ON the lake. Believe it! For centuries, they have built islands out of reeds, in which they build their homes and literally live their lives. They use the reeds to build everything from beds to boats. Our guide took us out to an island group, and we were schooled up on their construction methods, culture, religion, etc. It really was all very interesting, but it was quite sad to see how much tourism had infiltrated their thinking there. Everything was for sale, and they were almost indignant at us for not wanting to buy their crafts that were steeped in...well...demonism...haha. Sorry guys. PachaMama will have to forgive us, because she doesn't really exist....

The end of this vacation was truly bittersweet. Eden, Sarah, Sarah St. Onge, Luis, Courtney, and Maxine I've come to realize are some of my absolute best friends, and it was great to be able to meet Bianca and share some good tunes and good times. The sad part is that I didn't get a chance to actually say goodbye, as we got separated in the airport. But all as well, I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other soon enough. There was no better group that could have been formed for the trip. If you guys are reading, I love you very much, and I'm so happy we got to do all this.

For all you back home, I hope you enjoy the pictures and story! I'll be uploading the remainder of my pictures at this link. There's much to tell about here in Magdalena, and be very assured that Jehovah is blessing both the work as well as those who participate in it here. Soon to come!