One of the rival churches in the plaza

Greeting the Sun god, Inti

The Queen's arrival, she knew how to travel in style. I decided that from this point forward I'm not going to walk anywhere, I'll just have 40 men carry me.

Beyoncé of 1458...

So many performers! They're bowing for the arrival of The Inca

The Inca himself

The Queen...

Dancers from the West that reminded me of Gujarati dancers

Inti Raymi

Hi everybody,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! No, I'm not going crazy, and yes I know what day it is. Today marks the New Year for the Inca and Quechua people, and they celebrate it with multiple parades and ceremonies honoring the Sun god "Inti." I woke up early in the morning to spend the next few hours waiting in the Plaza de Armas for the morning parade to begin, I should have known better, these people run on mountain time...which means they're only a hair better than Bengali time. Being in a Plaza filled with thousands of people all squished together was pretty crazy, I was in the front but the constant pushing, arguments over spots, and general chaos makes me think that the festival life might not be for me...at one point they had police with those clear barricades and special forces come in just to enforce crowd control when two people started arguing and literally the whole block of people (probably at least 300 people) decided to get involved!! Besides that hiccup the parade ran smoothly, we saw old dances from the region, men came to sweep the streets with huge eucalyptus branches while the women followed throwing flower petals before the Inca (Pachacuti) arrived standing on a dais carried by at least 50 men. The Inca gave a speech to the people of Cusco (all in Quechua, the local indigenous language, of course), and the first ceremony ended. I would also like to point out the irony of hosting a parade for the Sun god in the Plaza de Armas. Why? Because the Plaza was built by the Spaniards when they conquered the area, and with the Spaniards came Catholicism. Now, over time the different sects of the religion built their own churches and cathedrals all within the plaza and each one trying to outdo the other with bigger and better things. So, now you have three churches all within a block of each other, and two of those buildings are towering to assert the dominance of Catholicism, and yet all of Cusco (and I literally mean all) was gathered in the Plaza for a pagan festival. Those Spaniards are probably rolling in their graves right now hahaha. 

Anyways moving on, there was a break between the two ceremonies so we went to get "paltas," which essentially is avocado toast and guess what? It only costs A DOLLAR. In LA people pay $15 for the exact same thing...having cheap access to avocado toast anytime I want just might sway me to live in these mountains forever. 

The second ceremony was the offering ceremony to the Sun god. There whole production had more than 500 people! It was held inside actual Incan Ruins which definitely helped to set the stage and make you feel as though you really were in the 1400's. There were dances from the West, North, South, and Jungle regions of Peru which was very interesting to compare. The West dances reminded me a lot of the Gujarati folk dances, from the basic structure of the costumes to the way they used the scarves and twirled. The Inca offered, chicha morada, fire, and a llama to Inti. Oh yeah, you heard me right, I think the llama was my karma for joking about offering myself as a sacrifice. They had all these life llamas off to the side to choose from for the sacrifice. Shout out to my Uncle Dolan for traumatizing me with that goat he told me choose at the farm, only to have it served for dinner rather than brought home as a pet. Well Uncle Ron definitely capitalized on this story and between him and Danilo I was convinced they really were going to kill a llama in front of all these people! Now, they say that it was all fake and they had a fake dead llama hiding behind the live ones but I had my ears and eyes closed for a good 20 minutes so I can't really vouch one way or another....let's just say we can add llama to the list of meats I refuse to touch. Especially because when I did look up to see if the coast was clear they held this bloody heart (which Danilo later said was just a prop but I don't believe anything he says anymore) up to throw into the fire for the oracle guy to read the flames and smoke to interpret the message from Inti about the coming year. Yup...this part of the ceremony is going to be compartmentalized in one of those let's never think about it again corners of my brain...hope you had a good laugh Uncle Ron! Remember, I know where you sleep...

I'm happy to report that the rest of the ceremony was much more lively and the finale was spectacular. It was a football field sized stage and the dancers did an incredible job of filling the space and moving about the field, they made it feel as if a football field was too small a stage! That's no small feat for a dancer. Overall the festival was a total cultural immersion and I almost loved every second of it. I noticed some foreigners in the morning parade, and apparently they do allow tourists who come early and practice with everyone to participate, so who knows, maybe I'll come back and actually be in the production next time! How cool would that be?!

Okay, off to bed for the sacred valley tomorrow! I also will fill you in on the night parade (that is still going on as I write this at 11:30pm) tomorrow. 

Love you lots,

Aisha 

Cusco from the airplane!! Watch out I may just go granola on you all after living in the middle of these for a week lol

Real dark chocolate hot cocoa, shaved right off this huge block of chocolate. Mate de Coca in the back.

Parade!

Santo Santiago

San Pedro Apóstol de Andahuaylillas  doesn't look like much but this is a real life example of not being able to judge a book by its cover...

The cathedrals town where they are surrounded by these ginormous trees at least 300 years old.

The Pre-Incan Wall

The Incan Wall...also a very good example that lighting and angles are everything since the two pics were literally taken 5 seconds from each other lol

Here's another view of the wall with the channels! I also may or may not have climbed the structure using the pre-Incan steps up to where the green small bushes begin on the upper right side of the photo hehehe

See? I was careful climbing to the top and now you have a super cool photo of the top of the walls that held the channels. That person kinda lurking in the left is Juan Pablo who ran after me to when I started the climb! What? It wasn't my fault, he said that you could climb them, he just didn't think I'd make it over the first wall which was definitely my height, thanks aerial silks for all those conditioning climbs 😂

Pre-Incan Military Base Ruins

Here's another look at those pre-Inca Ruins

Definitely not the stairways to heaven!! More like Incan infinite stair master and this is only 1/20 of what we actually climbed

Don't worry I was being careful scaling walls...ninja status here I come...and yes it was just as scary as it looks but I made it all the way to the next level! Not pictured: poor Juan Pablo running after this girl...he's gonna learn sooner or later that if he tells me I'm allowed to do something crazy there's a 99.99% I'm going to do it

Inca Ruins...I'm on a new level 💁🏽

Fountain of Youth Water

Huge Inti Raymi statue

Parade costumes!

The Cusco Traditional Dress and Dance

Cusco!!

Disclaimer for Gramps: please sit down before reading the following post because it contains a wake up call you wouldn't believe would have been possible for me, don't want you to pass out standing up heheh

That's right folks, after a measly two hours of sleep I received a wake up call for our flight to Cusco at FOUR AM. As you all know, I'm no where near a morning person....but thanks to this trip, I've found that I'm basically nonfunctional that early in the morning. Which is exactly why I walked into the MENS bathroom at the airport at 5 am and was self righteously affronted by these men who dared to enter the women's bathroom. That is...until one guy kindly pointed out that I had walked into the men's washroom and mine was next door. as if that wasn't bad enough I came face to face with the very same guy not even 20 minutes later when he checked my tickets in security. Oh yeah, he totally remembered and busted out laughing. Why me?! Moral of the story? Don't wake me up before at least eight hours of beauty sleep! Never am I ever getting up that early for a flight again...that is until I have to leave Cusco on Wednesday.

We flew in and immediately noticed that the Inti Raymi festival had begun, everyone was dressed up in fancy costumes, there were parades down the streets, fantastical mischievous characters that ran among the crowd scaring people (yes I even saw the dude coming my way and he still managed to catch me unaware! Need to up my ninja skills), and this HUGE statue of Santo Santiago. Which was so funny because the last time I was in a Spanish speaking country,  the Camino De Santiago was going on and that's a whole rite of passage honoring him! What a coincidence right? Most of the morning was spent wandering the streets of Cusco and checking out all the different types of decorations, including towering paper mache figures and banners everywhere!

Then we drove out about an hours way and it was so weird because it was like we were traveling back in time. We started with a visit to the San Pedro Apóstol de Andahuaylillas which is a Catholic Church built on top of Incan temple ruins. Unfortunately no photos are allowed at all, so you guys will have to google it. But it was amazing because the entire cathedral was painted, literally from floor to ceiling (including the actual ceiling) then there were huge wall to wall paintings hanging over the murals, and the on top of that at least half the church had pure gold structures for decoration hosting a million different statues inside. I could have spent all day in there and still have missed something. What really got me the most was that it was done so long ago that the paints were made only from natural plants and such, without the more advanced paints or preservatives, and yet the images were all there almost perfectly in tact!

Then we went to Inca Ruins (dates around the 1400s) and omg they were soo cool! The Incas were known for creating an advanced hydraulic system that took water from springs and used channels to split them off over acres of land. The ruin we went to had what was left of a temple to their water goddess, multiple ritual baths, and even a house for some important governor or something like that. Legend says that the water is sacred there and like a fountain of youth, so if you drink it, it'll be like you're ten years younger! Other people were drinking it but I was like, mmmm no thank you, 10 years ago I was 13, and no one wants to go through that again!

Then we went to this wall that used to be the old pre-Incan channels and defense. When the Incas discovered the land they noticed the prebuilt walls and decided that they had to leave something to tell future generations that the Incas were here too. So basically they one upped the pre-Incas by building next to their wall with bigger stones and better structuring (which means they made pegs and holes in the rocks so they fit together and were harder to wear or even break down). It was super crazy to see what 300 years of evolution looked like right next to each other! 

We then went to pre-Inca ruins which were probably a military base. Do you see what I mean about my day kind of traveling backwards through time? Anyways by this point my appreciate for rocks has reached its peak. But don't worry I still climbed the million and one steps it took to walk among what was left of the houses from that time! (Dated around the 1100s). Let me tell you something, Led Zepplin got it all wrong when he sang stairway to heaven, because there better be an elevator there or I'm not going! After taking 38282539592726382 stairs all day to walk around, these Incas were either really fit or loved torturing their people because my legs are burning!! If you think I'm exaggerating I'm definitely not, you see we pay $30 dollars per class to go to places like crossfit to do EXACTLY what these Incas we're doing for free 900 years ago. They were the original crossfit people: box jumps, stair master, and weight lifting included when you moved into their territory!

Afterwards, our driver Juan Pablo, who also is an expert in the area after having moved here for secondary school, invited us to his home where I drank "mate de coca" for the first time. It's supposed to help curb altitude sickness so everyone drinks it here, but let me tell you it was not a pleasant experience. Think of bitter kale and plucking random leaves and making a tea out of it. No thank you! (and before you start with me drinking my white sage water, at least that leaf tastes good!) We met his family and obviously I became besties with his two kids who are five and four. Thanks to them I now know a bunch of new phrases like "cheater, cheater" and "I win, you lose"....looks like some things are universal no matter where in the world you are. 

Tomorrow is the big Inti Raymi ceremony that includes three historical reenactments of how the Incas used to celebrate, worship, and give offerings to the sun god. I sent in my application to be one of the sacrifices but apparently had already chosen them this year, however if one of them gets cold feet I volunteer as tribute!! I mean who wouldn't want to jump down a volcano? Juuusssttt kidding...

Love you all!!

Carolyn

Inca Kola: aka pee colored soda that tastes just like bubble gum!! ¿Qué raro, si?

My cappuccino. And yes I was that person who physically moved to a different empty table to take this picture with my drink, Kelly would be so proud #fortheinsta #powerinfluencer

Chicha Morada: a drink made from purple corn!

The delicious ceviche and seafood plate I couldn't eat but sure enjoyed looking at!! Apparently Peru is known for their ceviche (it's the one on the right with the yellow looking things). I'll have to take everyone's word on how good it is :)

The stray cats in the park....mom can I take one home please?

Day 2 in Perú!

You know that famous saying "not all those who wander are lost," well that was definitely not the case for me this morning!!! I decided to check out the local area, found a good cafe online, googled where to go, memorized the directions and everything. My big mistake? Forgetting that streets in Peru are not linear because they have roundabouts and basically run diagonally and cross each other. Which is exactly how I found myself among random pawn shops in some jewelry district at 9 am in the morning. :P Whoopsies. Thank god for google maps!! At least my effort wasn't in vain because now I know my way around the south part of town haha. By the time I made it back to the apartment it was around 11 and we were going out to lunch so I had to forgo my idealized notions of sitting in a cafe sipping on my latte for a more realistic croissant on the go. 

We went to the beach which is actually ten minutes from our apartment...but they're those reverse beaches with rocks in the water and sand near the parking lot so I don't think I'll be walking along the shore anytime soon. However we did go to a restaurant which was themed after old Hollywood stars for lunch to meet our tour guide, Danilo, and it had this gorgeous view of the water! I got my cappuccino there and even tried "chicha morada" which is a drink made from purple corn! Weird right?! It tasted like an exotic fruit rather than corn and was really sweet. Good news, I should have wifi in Cusco!

After lunch Uncle Ron and I walked around the park together and I should've known, it's always an adventure with Uncle Ron. This Peruvian old man randomly stopped us and started asking where we were from...one thing led to another and now we are besties with Javier. He is from Peru and lived in Montreal for 70 years and just moved back. He speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French. But that's not the best part, Javier randomly spotted three other tourists from Montreal and before I knew it we were standing around in a huge group talking about random Peruvian herbs Uncle Ron is looking for. I just had to laugh at the absurdity of it all, as Javier successfully navigated multiple conversations in Spanish, French, and English. Can I have those skills please? 

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet, since we have an 8 am flight tomorrow and have to be up by 5:30 am. Someone shoot me now...it's gonna be a rough morning hahaha. 

Can't wait for the adventure that lies at 11,000 feet!!

Besos,

Carolina

The Park!

A La Parilla

Post 20 hours of traveling. Thanks Uncle Ron for this gem of a picture! 

¡Bienvenidos a Perú!

After a very long flight that included a 10 hour layover in El Salvador, I finally made it to Lima! And before you ask, yes the layover was every bit as awful as you would imagine, especially when you can walk the entire airport in ten minutes...boredom at its finest. On the bright side, sitting in a common room for that long period forced me to be social and I made a new friend from Ecuador! She runs a nonprofit school for low income/ rural kids and invited me to come visit the school, her town, and the Galapagos! I see another trip in my future...sorry, not sorry mom and dad 😉 

On my first night here I had a typical Peruvian dish called "a la parilla" which is a bunch of grilled meat piled on a hot plate passed around the table. On this plate were normal things like, chicken breast, ribeye, sausage....and less normal things, like intestine, liver, stomach, heart, and morcilla (blood sausage). If this looks like the odds are not in my favor, it's because it totally wasn't and that's how I accidentally ate "anticucho"...in other words...cow heart😱. It was actually really good...so thank you Spanish skills for being so rusty I thought I was eating veil instead of cow heart 😂. 

I am traveling with Uncle Ron and his friend Steve (and his family). Steve's wife Luisa is from Peru and her brother is a general in the military. If you're wondering why I'm telling you all this, it's because the family has been super hospitable and with their connection to him we have been rolling high in Lima! How high? I'm talking hotel room with a jacuzzi tub, free waters/soda/candy, bubbles for the jacuzzi left in a wine glass, and breakfast delivered to my room status. I felt like a princess! 👸🏽 Don't worry, my head hasn't gotten too big since we moved into one of his apartments this morning where it's all self service. 😂

The apartment is right in the best part of town called Mira Flores and there's this huge park nearby filled with stray semi domestic cats!! You name it and they'll be there in every size, shape, and color. I'll see if I can snag some good photos tomorrow because if you sit on a bench they'll legitimately jump right on it with you! I explored the gardens, which also included one named John F. Kennedy...why? No clue, and the locals don't really know why he has a park dedicated to him either. I still found it highly amusing. 

In true Uncle Ron fashion the rest of our afternoon was spent at the markets hunting down different herbs local to Peru...unfortunately none were to be found, but we did get cool exotic fruit that we can't wait to try! Including lucuma, cherimoya, and aguaymanto. 

Finally our day ended with a visit to Luisa's family's home to meet her father (Big General), her brother (the General), sister, and two kids, Natasha and Stephen (who are older than any 5-7 years). If trying to get my Spanish back wasn't hard enough this first day, keeping up with multiple conversations in multiple languages (English and Spanish)  with that many people just about used up all my brain power. Nonetheless I powered through until 1 am! (Niurka would be so proud lol) I even think the Big General liked me because even though he didn't talk very much, half way through the night he brought me one of his collectible magazines all about Cusco to use on my trip. I'm scared to even take it out of its protective sheet but I have a snaking suspicion I might be quizzed when I get back, so looks like I have some reading to do on the plane ride over! Lol. 

Anyways this chick is pretty tired and off to bed. I'll keep you updated, haven't figured out if I have wifi or even data in Cusco yet but hopefully I'll find out tomorrow as our plane leave 8 am Friday. Eeeppp!!

Love ya lots,

Carolina