Machu Picchu

Cusco, home of the Incas. Cusco can also be spelled Cuzco. This city was one of the most important cities of the incas. It was the capital city of the time. The king of the incas at the time was well loved and respected. He had two sons who were half brothers who were to take over when he died. The brothers lived in different areas of the Incan territory. One in cusco and one further north (Ecuador). The king decided it made more sense for the son closer to him to rule. The other one found out about this and was very upset so he decided to start a war between them. The spanish started invading the Incan territory and it became easier for the Spanish to take over the Incan colonies because there was unrest within the Incans.

Cusco now is the hub for people to go to and start their journey to Machu Picchu. This however creates a huge devide in the city between rich and poor. There is the centre of the city that is solely devoted to tourists, and then surrounding the city are mountains filled with houses that people commute from to make a living in the city.

Hilary and I signed up for a five day trek to Machu Picchu. It was not the typical route that the majority of people go, but that was the reason we chose it. It was called the Salkantay trek. The difference between this one and the inca trail is that there were smaller groups, which was such a great thing! The inca trail is mostly steps and takes a bit less time than salkantay. The better things about the inca trail is you get to see more incan ruins along the way and you get to go through the sun gate at the very end. Which apparently is a race at 5 in the morning to be through it first. Salkantay however is incredible scenery of mountains, and of the jungles. Salkantay is also known as the harder trek out of the two, but clearly I don' t know this as a fact.
The days consisted of walking for hours and hours. The second day (which they warn you about) is the hardest day! You start off in the morning woken up by your guide with hot tea and hot water to wash your face. This is needed because it was so cold. We slept in-between two mountains both covered in snow. The one on our left was the salkantay mountain which we needed to climb over in order to get to the jungle. You literally start at the bottom of the mountain and climb straight up it for 5 hours. By the last stretch I was dragging myself up and breathing very heavily because we reached 4600 m. Oh yeah and it was snowing. Once we made it to the top it was freezing so we just wanted to keep going. This meant 3 hours downhill. The snow turned into rain, so our clothes became very wet. We made It to our lunch spot by 12:30. We had another 6 hours downhill in the afternoon and into the evening. Followed by another chilly night in the tents.
We continued our trek for another two days, with great company and amazing food. Every meal we had soup and then a main and then something for dessert, with always freshly made juice. We were on the trek with two couples, a German couple in their 30's and a English couple in their 40's. Plus we had a fantastic guide named Javier. Just the kind of Spanish man leading your tour that you want.
We finally reached our destination of Machu Picchu at 5 am on September 27, 2011. I can't even put Into words how amazing it was! Honestly took my breath away. I think after walking up mountains to get there, it really put it more in perspective. I understood how incredibly hard it must have been to carry every single rock up to the top. The incans were such strong and brilliant people. Every single design in the city was so thought out and so perfectly put together. The reason it was never found by the Spanish is because the people heard of the invasions lower down and everyone left the city and moved else where and kept Machu Picchu a secret. Thank goodness.
Hilary and I were watching the motorcycle diaries the other day and on the journey they go to Machu Picchu and he says "How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?" I now know exactly what he means.

Cochabamba

Cochabamba, home of the privatization wars, and the worlds biggest statue of Christ. (yes bigger than Rio, Brazil. Which they will correct you for saying). Cochabamba was the place I was most looking forward to going. I had done a case study on Bolivia in first year and everything I read was so inspiring. The thing that stuck out for me was The Water Wars. This was a huge protest against the rising prices of water and ultimatly the government wanting to privatize water in 2000. Every month people would recieve their water bills and realize the price was going up, the people could not afford this rise in price and started protesting, blocking the streets and not going to work. They succeeded in their cause.
Hilary and I arrived in Cochabamba on Sunday, October 10, 2011 from La Paz which is the polical capital. We came in on a night bus that took nine hours. We moved into our apartment that we would live in for a month. We were living with one of the teachers at the school we studied spanish at. She spoke no english but is the greatest person! She has three children all around our age, who we got to know with our attempt at spanish. The apartment consisted of a kitchen, a double bed, and a bathroom. It was just what we needed. We started school the next day and began learning a world of information. The teachers at the school and everyone in this country really are so open and willing to talk to you about almost anything. I started asking a million questions and telling them how much I liked this country and how great it was they had such a progressive president. The president is Evo Morales and he was elected in 2007, his capaign was that he was the first indiginous president and he was going to protect the environment and do great things for the country. I was very wrong in thinking he was progressive, and I was told that right away.
The most recent thing which has the country in turmoil is the possibilty of a road which will go through a nature reserve and result in killing the whole ecosystem, which could not be replaced and most likely result in the locals of the area dying. The road is called Tipnis. The purpose of the road is to make a faster route from Cochabamba to a place in the north. The only route right now is via Santa Cruz, which is 12 hours by bus from Cochabamba, and then add more hours to get north. So everyone in the country thinks it is a good idea, they just don´t want it through the nature reserve. Understandably. The people on the opposing side are people who are in the Coca Foundation. These are people who cultivate coca for the country and for export. Coca is used here for tea, and for chewing. If chewed it helps with altitude sicknes and doesn´t make you as tired or hungry. Coca can also be made into cocain. The people want the road through this area because it will allow them to have more land afterwards for the coca platations. Evo Morales is the president of the Coca Foundation, therefor the government also wants the road through this area. There are protests going on throughout the country and there has been a travelling protest which stopped in La paz recently because the construction has been put on hold. Two weeks ago our school was planning a trip to the Chapare Jungle, but we were not able to go because the coca farmers uprised and there were blockades exactly where we were headed. Currently it is hard to know if you will be able to move on because of constant blackades.
My view of Evo Morales was totally transformed when coming here and it has been the most interesting experience. I was told by one of the teachers at the school that Evo is so bad that he has a propaganda machine which is just as bad as the third reich. Not sure if this is an extreme statement, but the people generally all seem to agree with this.
Cochabamba is a large city which is super busy and filled with interesting things. There is a large market which is called the Cancha and it sells absolutly anything you have ever needed. We spent many days wondering through, we would walk through rows of little chickens and then on the next street it would be rows of flowers, followed by electronics, then second hand clothing. The list goes on.
During our time at the school we met the nicest people, who we would spend afternoons and weekend adventures with. Three of them are going to join us when we go to the salt flats this week. Vish from England will continue on with us to Santiago, Chile.
Two comments that will reassure you that Hilary and I are getting along is Claudia from Switerland said, she had never seen two people laugh morning, day, and night so much. The second is the family we were living with asked if we were watching TV all the time because we always laughed so loudly. (Mainly Hilary, because her laugh is so loud).
So things are great as we continue our tavels.