megfournier-blog
abroad in quito
underprepared and overexcited
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donde está mi árbol?
saturday night, my family and i had the pleasure of celebrating michelle’s 22nd birthday alongside approximately 50 of her friends and family. it started off smooth- everyone getting ready, my host mom in the kitchen whipping out choripan, then the kids who came early (aka arrived at 8:30ish for a party that started at 7) all hung out in the family room playing katherine’s drinking game, le fo. natalie, sara, and i joined them, but i did run in every now and then to make sure that my aunt, uncle, and mom were surviving. even though they don't speak the same language, both my real mom and my host mom are so outgoing that they were finding a way to make it work. my host dad started serving micheladas, one of my favorite drinks, and soon some of michelle’s friends that i’ve met before started arriving.
i swear to you, all of the sudden i looked up and the house was absolutely packed. people were everywhere and bagged norteño was flying. when we had run out of choripans and people started stumbling, my host mom declared that it was time to dance, “otherwise people will just get too drunk.” we took apart the dining room table, moved the glass furniture outside, got music going on the giant speaker, and started up the disco ball permenantly affixed to the ceiling (naturally). a couple of my friends from usfq- jack, paul, carlos, and a couple others- made an appearance, and they danced with natalie and sara to keep them occupied. i bounced back a forth between dancing with my friends, dancing with my mom, aunt, and uncle (who my host parents had adopted and started teaching some new moves),and dancing with a very intoxicated michelle. highlights included when my aunt lynn, a pastor, slapped the bag with a sack of aguardiente.
when we brought everyone inside to sing happy birthday to michelle, shove her face in the cake, and then cut a serve it is about when i realized there were a shitload of people there. its also probably the beginning of the end. one of michelle’s family friends was so drunk that she was actually a rag doll possesed by a deamon, another drunk mans, whom we fittingly nicknamed frankenstein, was attempting to dance with every girl in the room (run away! -my host mom’s advice), and some kind soul who threw up in the bathroom that me and my entire family were using. nevertheless, we farrear-ed on. slowly but surely, my exhausted family trickled out to attempt to sleep through the noise.
at about 2:30, someone knocked over and shattered a giant potted plant in the family room. after several people throwing up in and on her house and yard and others passing out upstairs, i guess my host mom had decided it was time to call it. she cut the music, turned on the lights, and began passing out coffee to help people sober up. once the majority had left, we looked out the window only to realize that the tree with all of the cds and mirrors was literally gone. we did a lap around the yard and found it leaned up in the corner. how in the hell someone pulled that off, i still don’t know.
anyways, the night for me ended some time between 3:30-4 with all of us in my host parents’ bed: me between my katherine and michelle, my host mom next to them, and my host dad chillen on the floor.
nights like this remind me why i am so lucky to be with a family that really thinks of me as part of the family, and i was so happy that my actual family got to see just how fun, funny, and kind my ecuadorian fam truly is.
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family came to visit and get to know the beautiful country that i’ve been calling home for the last few months. my host mom and i made fruit salads of every weird thing we could find in the market- pitaya, mango, watermelon, kiwi, strawberries, morados, papaya, scrambled eggs with fresh tomato, cheese, and avocado, bread from the panaderia nearby, and bolones de verde with mushrooms, cheese, and chives. after that, we set out on a road trip. first, we drove to cotopaxi, which naturally was so cloudy that you couldn't even tell we were standing on a giant volcano. we stopped for chugchucaras, a dish local to latacunga, then headed to quilotoa. we warmed up with some canelazo before returning to cumbaya.
overall, first day was a success.
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trip to the fruit market with my ecuadorian mom, getting ready for my family’s arrival!
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day: i don’t really know what day honestly
after enjoying our first showers in way too long, noah and i met up at the hostel bar for a well-earned cusqueña roja, the local beer. he introduced me to his friends that worked at the hostel, then we played trivia. if we hadn’t been disqualified, we would have won- apparently it doesn’t count if you know all the answers because your partner is practically living at the hostel and has already played. they gave us a free drink anyway.
after so little sleep, we were both absolutely exhausted. if we didn’t make moves right that minute, we would have fallen asleep on the bar. after a bit of deliberation, we decided to go out- best make the most of my limited time in cusco! we walked around until we found an underground discoteca that, from the outside, looks completely deserted. you feel like you are walking into someone’s home, and then you go down the stairs, and in this cave out of nowhere appears a ginorous club with music blasting, neon graffiti covering the walls, and people absolutely everywhere. quite the surprise in all honesty. we stayed and danced until about three.
when we left, noah decided he wanted a sandwich. but not any sandwich- the sandwich sold by one women out of her streetside stand, but where, he couldn’t remember. we never found it, but we did wander around the lower half of the city and play odds until noah ended up swimming in the merced plaza fountain. i’m not sure what led to this decision, but we collectively agreed that the best thing to do was go home, get my sleeping bag and poncho, pile on a ton of layers, and head up to saquesawaman, another incan ruin on the mountain overlooking cusco, to watch the sunrise. the mountain was literally across the city, so we walked under the street lights and got there around 4. shockingly, it wasn’t open, but we figured we’d try to sneak in anyway. we walked about half was before we were nearly caught by security and decided to turn around.
at this point, we were so tired we both thought we would fall over. so, naturally, we picked a nicely inclined patch of grass in the median in the idle of the road, laid out my poncho, put my sleeping bag over us, and took a nap right there. we woke up just before 6 to the sound of cars driving (and occasionally stopping) by and dogs barking like crazy. the good news is that we got up in time to still see the sun rise over cusco. the bag news is that we woke up centimeters away from a pile of fresh dog shit.
we got up and, now legally, hiked up to saquesawaman. we went to a cool lookout point, then walked through a field of paper trees, then walked all throughout the ruins. there were several cool hills with ruins built into the side, so we wandered around for a few hours. highlights included finding a natural slide in the rock side and nearly breaking my butt attempting to go down.
after we left the park, we wandered around streets that just seemed cool, and made a pit stop at the plant museum. we realized we hadn’t eaten and were mildly starving, and went to a really well known vegan restaurant where we, oddly enough, ran into aaron, tom, megan, and mike. i had a peanut butter and banana smoothie, and a vegan rendition of tacu tacu, a traditional dish. the food was absolutely delish, and the surprise trek fam sighting was super exciting!
noah and i walked back down through the city, stopping to pet all of the pooches, and went to the museo de cacao, or chocolate museum. we got to see how the processof making chocolate works, and sampled several different kinds of chocolate, chocolate tea, hot chocolate, chocolate liquor, and finally a melted chocolate covered brownie.
unfortunately, it was time for me to gather my belongings, which was grown to the point where i had to bring a ratchet funda as my carry-on, and head off for the airport. i was super bummed to be leaving cusco, which is easily one of the coolest, most culturally rich places i have ever been, and to have to say goodbye to noah, who turned out to be a great travel partner and friend.
i flew to lima, and arrived with a four and a half hour layover. i decided to take a quick taxi trip to see some of the city. the taxi driver was super nice and really excited that i wanted to get to know his city even though my time was limited. he ended up taking me not only to the historic center, but also out to miraflores, a culturally-rich neighborhood by the later. super cool, super sweet, but super not good for my timeline. when i got back to the airport, my ticketing gate was closing, so i had to quite literally beg and cry in order to be allowed on the plane. not one of the best moments, but it worked. i got into quito around 1 am and took a taxi home. its crazy how excited I as to be in ‘my own bed,’ aka my bed at the pazmino’s in quito. honestly, i think i shocked even myself when i actually woke up for my 7 am the next morning.
peru, thanks for the adventures. nos vemos por supuesto
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day four: machu picchu
we woke up at 2:30 on the morning of day four, the day of machu picchu, and were on the trail in the pitch dark by 3. in order to reach machu picchu, you have to go through several checkpoints, each of which only allow a certain number of hikers through the gates at a time. since there are limited trains back to cusco, we wanted to make sure that we got there as soon as possible to have as much time as we could at the ruins. in addition, the waiting space in front of the first checkpoint only has a few benches and a small covered section, and we wanted to make sure we got a place off our feet and out of the rain. we were the second group to arrive at the checkpoint at around 3:30, and had to wait until 5:30 until it opened. as we waited, eric passed around hot tea, apples, sandwiches (mine was bread with cheese, leftover grilled veggies, and french fries-odd), and we talked and tried to close our eyes to pass the time. finally, 5:30 came and it was time to pass through the checkpoint and head on our way to the sun gate; the traditional entrance to the city of machu picchu.
we hiked quickly, without any breaks and with little conversation, as the sun began to rise. i felt super conflicted- i was absolutely pumped to see macchu picchu, and was still in disbelief that i was about to see one of the wonders of the world, a site i had started to learn about in elementary school, a place that people dream of one day being able to see. but as exciting as that was, i was conflicted. i loved being on the trail- it was beautiful, peaceful, and oddly reflective. i felt like i was in a separate world. i had grown to feel close with my trek “family,” and it made me sad to think that that afternoon would probably be the last time i would see most of them ever again.
after about an hour and a half, we had hiked past all other groups and were the first to arrive at the sun gate. unfortunately, it was too cloudy to really see macchu picchu, but this site itself was still really cool, so we hung around, explored, and took a few pics before continuing on toward machu picchu. from the sun gate to the entrance to the city, incans constructed various religious relics that sit along the path.
the cool thing about hiking the full incan trail is that as you walk, you see more and more incan ruin sites, and each one seems more impressive than the last, and it’s hard to believe that macchu picchu truly could be that much more impressive because you’re just so blown away. but when we came up over the mountain at 7:30 am, i got it. machu picchu is gigantic, and the beauty of the ruins tucked between towering mountain peaks, the knowledge and effort needed to build something so complex, the spiritual and historic significance of the city, and the overall sense of pride of arriving, it was almost overwhelming. while abandoned for thousands of years, the place feels almost alive with movement. i couldn’t help but wonder how different the world may be if the incan people had never been conquered. imagine the innovation they may have generated given the tremendous buildings they were able to construct using technology we haven’t even discovered.
before actually entering the park, we took pictures on the edge of a small lookout. it was still somewhat cloudy, but you could see the city through the clouds nonetheless. we stopped at a café just outside the park entrance for an actual breakfast and coffee, then got our tickets stamped to head into the site. eric and teddy came with us, and gave us a detailed tour of every part of the city and its probable function as we walked around. machu picchu has several sections- one used for spiritual reasons high up on the peak, an economic center slightly farther down, and the space in which people would have lived, which comprises most of the city. within that section, you can see a clear difference between the types of people that would have inhabited each space- their social and economic status and their role within the community- based on the types of rocks used and the design and layout of the space. all around, you can see incan crosses of various types, and sundials and other technology.
we reached huanapicchu, the highest peak just next to the incan site, just before 11. tickets are timestamped, so you have an hour and a half total to spend there, counting however long it takes to climb up and down. the mountain was extremely steep and primarily stairs, but noah and i were determined to get up there quickly to have lots of time at the top. eric had told us that his record climb was 22 minutes- we had it in 23, and could have made it in less if there hadn’t been so many people. needless to say, when we got to the top, we were out of breth and drenched in sweat. we staked out a rock and plopped ourselves down to admire the view.
by this point in the afternoon, the sky had cleared significantly and it was sunny and hot. from huanapicchu, we could got an aerial view of the all of macchu picchu, the mountains surrounding it, and the river way below. we hung out up there for about 45 minutes, and even then, i could have spent so much more time. at this point, we were focused on catching the bus, since we had planned a group lunch in aguas calientes, the nearest town, for that afternoon. we came down the mountain as quickly as we could and walked across the ancient city. we decided last minute to reenter the park one last time back to the lookout we had been before to take some clearer pictures now that it was nice and sunny, so we really were running to jump on the bus.
aguas calientes was super touristy but super cute. the place literally exists because of macchu picchu. we had the name of the restaurant, ad after asking around, finally found it. the door was glass, so we could see our group inside. i grabbed the handle and puled it open. welp, as it turns out, this was not a push pull door- it was supposed to slide. the door fell forward and cracked in half, and i held hthe bottom half as noah held the bottom more what felt like five embarrassing years. honestly, this was incredibly traumatizing, especially since the restaurant got pretty pissed. i’m not sure when it will be funny. in the end, i didn’t have time for anything more than a beer, but i did get the chance to salud to strangers that had become friends.
i caught the train back to ollantytampo, where i sat next to a brazilian couple who i couldn’t communicate with, but who stil took the liberty to show me about 200 pictures of their trip on our 2 hour trin ride back. from there, i was greeted by eric and teddy- a great surprise, and then hopped on the bus back to cusco, another 2 hours but a beautiful drive that i had slept through in our early-morning journey the first day.
i got to cusco starving, so after practically throwing my stuff at kokopelli reception, i went to go eat at a restaurant with a second story patio above the plaza de armas. by the time i got back and showered, noah, who happened to also be staying (living? is it considered living if you’ve been there for 10 days?) at kokopelli, had gotten back from his later train ride. and so began more shenanigans…
Incan Trail: 4 days, 3 nights, 30 miles
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