Laughing in the Rain by Alyssa Maunders

Since my last entry, Leigh and i have made our way through some beautiful sacred valley terrain, climbed Machu Picchu and jumped into the highest lake in the world (Lake Titicaca 12,507 feet).

After our time spent on the Peruvian coast, we travelled East, climbing in elevation and winding through the Andes mountains. I have to say, the 16 hour bus ride from Nasca, Peru to Cusco was less than enjoyable for me. No, I was not ill and running for the less than functional bathroom in the bus, nor did the bus break down at any point. It was, however, a ride more akin to boat travel than to bus. Most of the busses here in this region of South America have two stories and if you are on the second story, which we were, it feels as though you are twenty feet up and that the bus could fall to one side at any moment. I’ve realized that I’m not one for transportaion in which I am not the one behind the wheel. It was hard for me to lay back and take a leisurely nap as the bus swayed side to side hugging the Andes cliffs. Mi amiga Leigh slept the whole way.

After a few days and quite a few dollars in beautiful Cusco, we decided to spend some time in the valley outside of the city to celebrate Leigh’s 24th birthday. Leigh found a place on airbnb in a small village called Yucay, just outside of Urubamba and about an hour and a half out of Cusco. Airbnb is a great resource for travelling on the cheap and staying in some very unique and creative types of accommodations, usually extra rooms or guest houses that people have remodeled and made comfortable.

Walking in the Evening

The place we stayed was called “Casa de Tres Osos” and its run by a young ex-pat couple from L.A. Their house was beautiful and we had a great time there, we even returned after Machu Piccu for one more night before heading back to Cusco.

From the beginning, Leigh and I have never had a highly structured plan for this trip. We have only ever had a rough outline and we make plans only a few days or one week in advance, when we need to. Something I have learned about travelling is that the best adventures and the best usage of time happens when you are flexible. Because of this attitude, we have been able to learn about the best places to visit from people along the way. For example, the alternate route up to Machu Picchu.

Before I left the states I knew this was a destination that I would make a must for the trip. It is one of the most highly visited ruins on the planet and its popularity is only increasing. Many people book treks up the Inca trail months in advance and I am sure those are great experiences. However, from the info Leigh and I collected while making our way to Cusco, we found that most people said the Inca trail was often very busy and underwhelming. It can be very crowded and expensive and you often see many of the same things as other, less expensive treks. In high season, july -september, the trail is often so busy that the maintenance crews can’t keep it clean and the smell from the out houses lingers like the sound of Pan Flutes echoing through the valley.

The other way people approach this ancient Incan site is via the train that runs from a near town called Santa Theresa to Aguas Calientes, the base town for Machu Picchu. The train is very expensive, and since Leigh and I have grown accustom to a certain kind of beer drinking and constant eating lifestyle, we have to save money on some things. Therefore, we decided to do some research and discovered that you can get to Aguas by walking along the train tracks for a few hours through some very beautiful scenery. Its about 3 and half hours walking but it is quite flat terrain and has become so popular with travellers that it is near impossible to get lost. Once we got to Aguas, we found that you need to buy a ticket for the bus up the cliffside of the ruins. To save some money we took the bus up, but walked down.

On the Existence of Llamas

We arrived to Maccu Puichu early, before the crowds descended (thank god!) and were able to explore in the foggy morn til about 930. It is truly breathtaking and is even more amazing in person than I hoped it would be. I thought the llamas in all the photos i had seen were photo shopped and placed strategically next to the ruins. They aren´t fake. There really are llamas prancing around up there at 7,970 feet.

On the Existence of Lamas

After this amazing experience, we headed back to some hot springs we heard about from a Chilean couple we met on a taxi ride. Really cheap entrance, snacks and beer, these hot springs just outside of Santa Theresa were a worthy reward for the many legs of the journey we had accomplished and they are a great way to split up the journey back to Cusco.

After Cusco, we headed for the Bolivian border and shelled out the $140 for a 5 year visa. A small price to pay for the beauty I have already seen. Also, the dollar goes almost twice as far here in Bolivia than it did in Peru so…yeah! Our first stop was the town of Copacabana situated on the shore of Lake Titicaca.

At the Copacabana

This lake is thought to be a holy site for the Incas and is home to the birthplace of the Sun, Isla del Sol. The island is easily reachable by any of the many boats that leave the shore twice a day. The journey is 2 hours and the destination is pristine. We had planned on visiting the south side of the island, but after talking to some locals we decided to go to the north side which is said to be less populated and touristy. We even got a recommendation for a place to stay from a character we met on the mainland named Mickey. Mickey said it was the best place on the island and when we arrived it very well felt like it. Turns out Mickey was an inmate at the infamous San Pedro prison in La paz an impressive 3 times in the early 2000´s. Although one of those times was for homocide, Mickey is a really nice guy. He told us if we mention his name to the owner of the cabanas on the north side of the island that we would get a discount, which we did of course.

The island was beautiful and as we approached the north side we could make out small houses spread along the beach. Many of the residents on the island have built addition to their homes in order to rent them out to travelers. Most of the women dress in the tradition Bolivian clothing with the small bowler hats and many layered skirts. There are little pigs that roam the island and children play all afternoon in the roads. The sun shines warm during the day without a cloud in the sky and like clockwork, at 6 pm, the storms roll in and shower the island all night.

Soulful Swimming

On one stormy evening Leigh and I bought a bottle of vino and were drinking it on the porch when two girls who lived on the property came down to our casita to investigate. They couldn’t have been more than 12 years old and proceeded to ask us in a giggly tone what country we were from. We shouted back through the rain, “Estados Unidos”. Then I thought i would try to start a conversation, at which point i asked them, in Spanish, if they were sisters. I thought I would relate to them by saying that I too had a younger sister and that she was really funny…but I didn’t get that far, not even close. Instead, after repeating my question at least three times through the wine and rain, each time getting louder, the girls started to laugh even harder. I thought they were laughing at my accent but I could tell from the look on Leigh´s face that I was missing something. Leigh looked at me and started laughing. “what did I do?”, I asked my friend as the girls ran away, clearly bored by this conversation. “Alyssa”, she said to me, ” what were you just trying to say?”, her face cracking into a huge smile. “I was asking them if they were sisters…wasn´t I?”, I repeated the phrase to Leigh, “Estamos hermosas? Si?” “No, Alyssa! It should have been, Estas Hermanas. You just told them that ´’We are pretty´, three times”. Haha, needless to say, since then I have put a little more thought into my Spanish questions.