Up, Down, and Around Cusco

So the other day a couple of girls I met at the hostel that are also volunteers asked me if I wanted to walk to the "Cristo Blanco" (White Christ) with them.  I had no idea what it was, but I said "Sure, I have my walking shoes on."  Little did I know, we would be actually climbing a mountain to get up there.

Now, the other girls had been up to the white Christ before and they said it wasn't a very hard walk since we would take roads and paved paths the whole way (so we thought...).  After about ten minutes we climbed a huge staircase, probably like two hundred steeeeep steps:

This was just about halfway up the stairs... it was tough, but the view from the top was amazing!

Yeah, you can see how steep the stairs were.  So, Elana and I got to the top after Ellen and Nicola, and I immediately ask, "So is this all the further we are going?"  They laughed. "Nope," they said, "We're going up there."

See the TINY white Christ on top of the mountain?  And I had to zoom in quite a bit to see that on my camera.  (Sorry it's a horrible picture, the sun was directly above us.)

So, we continued walking.  It was gorgeous day, but the sun was very bright and I was glad I had put on plenty of sunscreen.  We passed a nice looking church and suddenly I said "Llama!!  Oh my gosh a llama!!"  Again the girls laughed and reminded me that we were in Peru.  But I hadn't seen one yet just hanging out and I was really excited. It was so cute!

  

So after about ten more minutes we made it to the tourist entry point where we left the road for a paved path that led in one direction to Sacsayhuaman (it sounds like "sexy woman" if you say it right), a collection of Inca ruins that you must pay to visit and the other direction up to the Cristo Blanco, which was free to visit.  However, we were detained at the gate by three guards who told us it was "not possible" to get the Blanco Cristo by way of that road.  All the other girls said, "Yes it is possible, we've been this way just two days ago."  But no manner of talking or negotiating with them would get us through.  They told us that the only way to get there was to go down this other side road, cross a small bridge and take the path up the "hill" to the Blanco Cristo.  They said it was easier and faster.  Yeah.  Right.

So here we are now, at the bottom of the mountain, whereas before we had been more than halfway up, crossing a rickety wooden bridge and encountering a dusty trail that led through tall plants, bushes and trees.  No way, we said, was this the "official path" up to the Cristo Blanco as they had told us.  But we ventured forth, expectantly, and ended up finding that the "path" was not clearly marked, but rather branched in several directions every twenty yards or so.  Ellen, who was leading the way, ending up choosing the paths that most directly pointed towards the Blanco Cristo, which was directly above us.  Needless to say, we were climbing the mountain, sometimes on hands and knees.  

 

Here's an example of Elana trying to scale a particularly difficult portion of the trail and suddenly finding herself in a tree.  It was like that every other five minutes or so.

Finally, Ellen shouted from ahead of us, "I see it!!" and we all rejoiced.  We literally saw the Blanco Cristo just above us from amongst the trees and foliage.  It was pretty neat, I have to admit, though I was exhausted.

We made it to the top, finally, and pretty much popped up from the side of the mountain in front of a group of tourists that had taken a bus for crying out loud to get up there.  It costs sixty cents, maybe twenty-five cents US.  And I had paid in sweat and blood to scale that mountain! (I only scraped my arm once, not too bad, but still!!)  I was slightly annoyed at those happy tourists all neatly dressed and wearing flip flops and probably smelling of floral while I had stripped down indecently to my tank top and was beet red in the face, I'm sure, sweating profusely and breathing as though I'd just run a marathon.  After I caught my breath though, and looked around me, I realized I had truly lived through my trek up that mountain and deserved the view that was given to me.  I'm sure that the path we took was far more ancient than any bus that made it up, despite their appearances, and I knew I felt much more connected to the land and the culture than any other person standing up there.

And what a view it was!  It was gorgeous.  We could see, a little less than halfway down, the tourist post where we had been turned away.  I wanted to laugh at them and yell at them at the same time, but I didn't have the energy for either.  We stayed up there just a short time, enough to admire the view and watch the local children fly kites before we had to head back down to make it back in time for lunch.

On our way down we took the "regulated" path.  There was no way were were going back down that mountain, the real path was steep enough.  We also got to walk within viewing distance of Sacsayhuaman, which you can see in the picture below just above the girls.

And here we all are, posing with "sexy woman":

It was such a bright day, with the sun directly over us that it was really hard to get decent pictures, but I took a bunch anyway :)  On the left is Elana (from Australia), then Ellen (Sweden), me, and Nicola (Scotland). What an adventure!  It turned out to be a great day.  Even more exciting, on the way back I had a real encounter with an escaped llama!  It almost spit at me, but it was super cute.  Ellen managed to get these pictures before it sauntered on past us, escaping from whichever "tourist trap" Cusquenan woman had it posing for pictures for less an a dollar.  I don't blame the poor thing one bit. :)

Well, that was my big adventure of the week.  Now it's the weekend and I can relax and prepare for the upcoming week when I will have class full of crazy seven-year old boys all to myself.  I also get to teach art instead of helping with homework, which will be great!  I'm already collecting recycled items to use for projects. It should be great!  I'll have to spend some time tomorrow in preparation though.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life back in the States!

Love, love, love,

Maia Jo