Christmas in Lima

This Christmas I had the opportunity to see how Peruvians or actually Limeaños celebrate Christmas. This was also my first time in Lima so I was looking forward finally to see the capital city full of contradictions. Planning my trip to Lima from Cusco surprised me again how big Peru is as the bus trip between these two cities lasts for 22 hours! In the end the trip wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, as most of the trip was during the night and the seats were comfortable and the movies shown along the way were entertaining enough.

I had heard many bad things about Lima so I wasn’t expecting a great city but actually I was positively surprised! Yes the traffic is really bad and it’s not the safest city to live but there are also many good things about Lima. First of all there is a beach what I had missed while living in the mountains. Also there are great shopping places, cinemas, good restaurants, fast internet etc. All those things that I don’t have while living in the countryside.

(The Plaza de Armas)

(Cebiche)

During my week I filled my days lying on the beach, shopping clothes, visiting sights, meeting new people and eating good food. I enjoyed the city life!

The actual Christmas we started to celebrate on the Christmas Eve and we prepared a big meal consisting of a turkey as a main dish, various salads and my traditional Finnish dishes. However, as a Peruvian habit, we had to wait to eat the dinner almost until the midnight and the whole dinner was done under half an hour! I was still finishing my plate as everyone else was ready to welcome the Christmas Day when the clock turned to midnight. The Christmas Day was welcomed with a toast of sparkling wine and the sky filled of fireworks. I’ve never seen that many fireworks in any other country than Peru! For me it felt like New Year’s Eve more than Christmas. However, it looked beautiful. After admiring the firework show it was time to change the gifts. Actually it was only children who got gifts and them also only one gift each. This was definitely something different to the Western countries where children often are spoiled with several gifts.

The overall experience in Lima was definitely positive and seeing the local way of spending Christmas was interesting too. After the busy week in Lima it was time for me to see how the Chileans spend their New Year's Eve…

Machu Picchu on a low budget

I had already spent half a year in Peru and I still hadn't visited the most famous ruins in the world even that they are located so close where I live. Therefore, I and another teacher Sabrina decided finally to make a visit there.

One reason why I hadn't visited Machu Picchu before was the ridiculously high prices for all the foreigners. That’s why I and Sabrina wanted to do the trip as cheap as possible. We started by taking a local bus to another town and of course this bus was full of people and we had to stand in the crowd for couple of hours. After that we had to find a lift yet to another town and again for budget reasons we ended up travelling in the back of a car boot! Oh that was a bumpy ride!

Luckily after half an hour we were at the point where our hike to the actual Machu Picchu town, Aguas Calientes, could start. The road was next to the train tracks and for our luck it started to rain but we were still excited about the whole trip so it didn't matter. Just before the sunset we finally got to the town and we found a cheap hostel and could relax for the night.

That evening we got an invitation from a local chef to eat in his restaurant and that meal was definitely the best meal I had had for months! Three course meal and drinks on top for free was a perfect reward from the whole day! After the meal we ended up to a local bar with our new friends and that was a fun night!

However, the next morning we had to wake up already at five to be early at Machu Picchu and climbing up hundreds of stairs with a hangover wasn't the easiest thing to do… But being so excited about seeing the ruins it didn't matter! Machu Picchu was amazing and everything what I was expecting it to be! We spent the whole day there wondering around ruins and discovering sights. It was a perfect day until we decided to go back to the town…

As soon as we got back to the town it started to rain really heavily. The electricity went off and we couldn't get any cash out from the cash machines. We didn't have enough cash to travel back home that night and we were stuck in the town! After couple of hours the rain stopped and the electricity came back but it was too late to hike and take the bus back so we had to pay the expensive touristic train back home. But that point we were just so tired from the whole trip so one and a half hour train trip on a luxury train was perfect choice to get back home. What an adventure! 

Hike to Chicon

In our school we decided to do a fundraising event together with 4 other teachers. The money was decided to be raised to a local school here in Urubamba and especially for art and theatre classes as those kind of subjects are not taught in a local college at all.

We started our trip at six in the morning and the first day we were hiking good seven hours only uphill. We all had our sleeping bags and other stuff to carry so it wasn’t easy at all to go up the mountain. Also the altitude was pretty noticeable and the higher we went the more severe was the headache.

Our stop that day was in a small cottage where were only hays on the floor and plastic on the windows to protect from the cold wind. And yes it was cold that night! As soon as the sun went down the temperature dropped down to zero and we only had a little fire place outside to give us light and prepare our dinner. However, being so tired from the hike, I slept like a baby in spite of the conditions.

Next morning we could leave most of our stuff to the cottage while we were climbing two more hours to the top. Our guide kept telling us that the glacier is just behind the next climb but no it wasn’t just behind the corner…Finally we made it to our goal and the views were absolutely breathtaking! However, the journey wasn’t over yet: we still had the whole way to go back down…

And going down wasn’t any easier than going up… My legs were killing me and the backbag was getting heavier and heavier… Also our guide decided to take a short cut and of course we got lost in the forest! The last couple of hours was definitely an adventure crossing a river many times and going under trees of many spikes. The sun was going down already and we thought that we will be stuck in the forest for another night but luckily we just made it on time back to the starting point just when it was getting dark.

That trip was definitely the hardest thing I ever have done but I’m glad I did it and at least I can say that I’ve climbed up to a mountain now!

Teaching continues in Peru...

My 4 months English teacher training went actually really fast and after the training I decided to stay here in Urubamba a bit longer and continue working as a paid teacher. Teaching in Peru has been really rewarding but definitely different than teaching back in Finland! Not only the language barrier is sometimes an obstacle but also the lack of basic writing and reading skills that unfortunately surprisingly many people have here..

What has been rewarding about teaching is definitely the motivated students! Because the locals in our school pay to learn English they are also really keen to study. In half a year I also feel that I have gained more skills in Spanish to also teach and explain things better to the students. Also the freedom in our school to plan my own lessons gives motivation to teach things that I am also interested in and that makes the lessons also more interesting for the students.

During this past six months I've settled down well to Peru and Urubamba and the town feels like a second home now. I also moved to another house a bit further from the town and now I live together with peruvian guys. The house is big and nice and we have a beautiful garden. 

(Our puppies Penke and Titan)

So I’ve promised to teach here at least until the end of February so until that Urubamba will be my home but after that new adventures might call again….

Living in Urubamba

After intense travelling through five different countries in 2 months it was time for me to stop for a while and find something useful to do. I found out about an English teacher training course in a small town called Urubamba and as I always wanted to become an English teacher I decided to give it a go. I’ve been living in Urubamba over a month now and I’m glad that I decided to stay here longer!

Urubamba is a small town in the Sacred Valley about one hour away from the touristic city Cusco. There is only one reason why people travel to Sacred Valley or to Cusco and that’s of course the great Machu Picchu. Even though this famous City of the Incas is just couple towns away where I live, I still haven’t had a chance to visit it. Urubamba again doesn’t really offer anything interesting for tourists but as a place to live it’s great. 

(The main plaza and a local transport)

At first I was quite suspicious about this little town and I was thinking how the hell can I live here and actually enjoy it. During my first days I was talking to expats who live here and they all seemed to love this place so I was thinking that there has to be something about this place. And actually the longer I’ve lived here, the more I’ve started to like this place! 

The town is so small that you can walk from one end to another in about half an hour and whenever you walk on the streets you can’t avoid bumping into someone you know. There are no big supermarkets in the whole town so all the grocery shopping happens in the markets. The main market day is Wednesday when the streets are full of hustle and bustle and you can buy almost everything you need ridiculously cheap. 

(My room)

I live together with another teacher trainee from England and we live in a big local house near the main plaza. The house belongs to our school’s landlord and it’s a bit old and dusty but it’s fully furnished and spacious so we are happy to live there. We also have a big kitchen so we cook food every day with the fresh ingredients from the market. The only down side of this house is that the landlord’s brother visits the house sometimes with his wife but this old couple has been lovely to us preparing us porridge in the mornings and making us feel like we have our grandparents visiting us. The landlord has been friendly to us too and one day he took as on a day trip with his car to see some nearby attractions.  Otherwise we spend our freetime dancing salsa, hiking on the mountains or having couple of drinks with our local friends. The life here is very tranquil. :) 

(Me and my roomie Jenny)

(Our landlord and his lovely old car)

Working in the Milhouse-hostel in Cusco

After travelling for two months we both had a feeling that it would be nice to stop for a while. As there are many hostels in Cusco we decided to ask around if they need any workers anywhere. There would have been work in many hostels but we ended up working in a hostel called Milhouse which is a new hostel in Cusco but belongs to a same hostel chain were we stayed in Buenos Aires.

(The main plaza in Cusco)

The work was pretty simple and easy to learn. We worked in the bar of the hostel mostly during the mornings or days taking orders and making sure everything was clean. As most of the hostel work also this one was volunteer work for exchange free accommodation but we also got good discounts on food, drinks and tours especially to Machu Picchu. The people in the hostel were all really nice and every day we got to know new travellers who were staying in the hostel.

Almost every night there was something going on in the hostel such as live bands, drinking games, theme parties etc and many times we ended up going out after drinking at the bar. The nightlife in Cusco is pretty good and the clubs are open until the sunrise. So many funny nights we had!

Cusco as a city is also very nice. It's located in the altitude of 3000 meters so the sun is really strong during the days but in the evenings it is freezing cold. The town itself has cobblestone streets, old buildings, big plazas and mountains around. There are many shops, restaurants, museums and markets. Peru also has an amazing food culture and from the markets you can find anything from pig heads to horse meet. We also tried the local Peruvian delicacy guineapig which was served as a whole figure with the head and everything! The taste was actually not that bad but just looking at the poor little animal made us feel sick.

In the end we ended up staying in the hostel for about two weeks. Magda wanted to travel more and make her way up to Columbia but I will stay in Peru for a while and work here. It has been an amazing two months travelling together but there are new adventures waiting for both of us now. :)

Puno and the floating islands in Peru

The border crossing between Bolivia and Peru was the most organized one we ever had had. The bus trip from the Bolivian side of the Titicaca Lake to the town of Puno on the Peruvian side took only three hours and the bus was waiting all the people getting stamps on their passports. We even had an English speaking guide in our bus who was really helpful to find us a cheap place to stay in Puno. 

In Puno we did another day trip to the lake but this time to the unique floating islands. These islands are inhabited by people called Uros and there are around 50 islands which are all build using layers of reeds. These indigenous people have been living on these islands already centuries while first escaping from the Incas and nowadays there are about 100 people living on the islands and making living mostly from the tourism.

Even that the trip was a bit touristic the locals we met were really welcoming and invited us to visit their houses and even let us to dress up in their traditional clothes! These people were really friendly and curious also to know about us. Of course they were trying to sell souvenirs as well but in the end supporting their community is only a good thing. 

Puno as a town itself wasn’t anything special but we wanted to stay there another night and rather take a day bus to Cusco as we had heard that the night busses in Peru are not the safest ones. And a good night sleep in a comfy hotel bed was something that we still craved after all the activities we had done the past days. 

Copacabana - Lake Titicaca

After La Paz it was time to visit one more place in Bolivia before heading to Peru. We wanted to visit a small town called Copacabana on the world’s highest Lake Titicaca but the road there had been closed for weeks because of some strikes of local farmers. We were lucky enough that the road just opened when we wanted to visit the place and as we arrived to the town it was still totally empty and had hardly any tourists there. 

The bus trip from La Paz was only three hours but we actually hadn’t sleep at all the night the before so even this trip felt pretty overwhelming… So as we got our room in Copacabana we couldn’t be happier to sleep couple of hours before exploring the town.

In Copacabana we did a tour to the legendary island of Isla Del Sol which is said to be the birthplace of the whole Inca mythology. The boat there was the slowest we ever have had and it took almost three hours to even get to this island! On the northern part of the island we had a guided tour to the ruins where the Inca creation legend began but before even getting there we had to hike an hour in the hottest time of the day. Hiking uphill in those altitudes is never easy and even with the help of local herbs the hike felt pretty exhausting… 

 

After the ruins we took the boat to the southern part of the island and there again climbed up the famous Inca stairs which includes hundreds of stairs. So in the end of the whole day trip we were pretty tired from all the hiking and climbing. But there was no time to rest as we wanted to continue our trip to Peru already the same evening!