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Vacation Peruvian-Style
Normally a paro (transportation strike) during vacation
would have been a good thing, except that we had planned to get out of
Cusco
for two days just to get away as a family. We left the house at 3:00 a.m.
(Tuesday), the morning of the paro, and returned home at 2:00 am this morning
(Thursday). It was a 48 hours that can only be described as an adventure -
not sure if it was really a vacation.
Our plan was to go to Santa Teresa. PeruRail
sold us train tickets on Monday and said that the paro was not yet certain and
even if there was one, we could get
out of
Cusco
early in the morning and get the 5:30 train in Ollantaytambo before any
demonstrations began. Carrie and Luz (previous teacher at Promesa) went
with us. We all packed in a station wagon, the last one at the paradero
(bus stop), and all went smoothly till we got to Chinchero. There, a group
of picketing men blocked the road at 4:00 in the morning. They proceeded
to slash three of the four tires and we were stranded there for the next four
hours. We finally got sufficient repairs to hobble along to Ollanta –
stopping at each gas station along the way to fill the tires with air. Of
course we missed the train and had to buy new tickets. That was just the
beginning!
We were able to get on the 9:40 train and arrived in Aguas Calientes at about
11:15. We waited on the train about a half an hour and then continued on
to the end of the train rail at the
hydro-electric plant. From there we
hurried off the train and managed to find
a vehicle going into Santa Teresa. The local
folks already had the routine down, and filled the combis (vans) before we could
find a space altogether. After a nearly 30 minute drive on bumpy dirt
roads, we reached town. It was nearly
2:00 by this time and we were quite hungry.
While waiting for our food, I went across the street to ask about
rooms in a hostal. They had three
rooms with just enough beds for the seven of us.
They had told us at the restaurant to take what we could get because things were
pretty much full already. The walls were quite thin and the place
was nothing fancy. We all shared a bathroom with the owners, but for 9
soles a person (about $3) you can’t expect too much.
After lunch, we put our things in our rooms, packed our swimming suits and
towels in a backpack, and jumped in a combi
to go down to the thermal baths (hot springs) along the river. Although
there is an abundance of mosquitos
(which we are not used to in
Cusco
), the more tropical climate was enjoyable. The
hot springs
are very nice, in a park-like setting, and soaking in
the bathtub temperature pools was just what the doctor ordered.
We rotated between the different pools
for about two hours, and then as it was getting dark we changed clothes and
headed back into town. After getting
supper at a place by the plaza, we went back
to the “hotel” and were very ready for a good night’s sleep. A young
crowd of tourists at a disco/club
across the street had a good time until about 2:00
in the morning, but we managed to sleep through most of it.
The next morning I went to the ticket booth to check about
train tickets for later in the day. When
I got there at 7:45, I was informed that there were two local trains that day
– one leaving at 8:30 in the morning and the other at 4:30 in the afternoon.
But if we took the afternoon train to Aguas Calientes, we would have to wait
until 9:30 at night to get the
connecting train to Ollantaytambo. We didn’t
really want to get back to
Cusco
that late at night, so we decided
to try to make the 8:30 train and then get
a connecting train in Aguas Calientes at 2:00 in the afternoon. So while I
waited for them to print out the
tickets, the rest quickly packed up our things, paid for the hotel, bought some
bananas and yogurt for breakfast along the way, and we piled in a taxi to head back
to the train station. We had about 28 minutes to get there. At about
8:25 we reached a bridge about 500
yards from the train station, a truck
was having difficulty crossing and completely blocked the
road. It quickly became apparent that we would
not make it in time if we waited for the truck to get across.
We hopped out of the taxi, paid the driver, grabbed our bags and took off
running across the bridge and down the road to the train. I got there
first and showed our tickets to the attendant, pleading
for him to wait until the rest of our group got there. Within three
minutes they all got there, we
boarded the train and were on our way. Several
of us spent the first 15 minutes coughing and trying to catch our breath,
recovering from the “fright and flight” reflex of our bodies.
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When we arrived in Aguas Calientes, we immediately got in
line to buy tickets for the second part of our trip for 2:00 in the
afternoon. Unfortunately there
were no more tickets available for that train, so we had
to purchase tickets for the 9:30 p.m. train anyway! So we resigned
ourselves to spending the
whole day in the town of
Aguas Calientes
(the small town at the base of the mountain that all tourists go through
en route to the ruins at
Machu Picchu
). We had heard that two of our nieces (Tasha and Kalah) had climbed
another peak that overlooks the ruins (Putucusi) when they came to visit a
couple years ago. We asked directions for where
to start the hike and were on the trail by 11:00. The two hour hike
up was beautiful, but a bit
strenuous. The first part was very steep and at some places you
actually had to climb steep ladders
to continue the trail. Much of the rest of the hike was in the form
of steps.
When we finally reached the top, the view was magnificent.
We rested a bit and took some pictures
and then began the descent. When we returned
to town around 2:30, we got some lunch and then went
down to climb around on the rocks in the river for about
an hour. Then Carrie recommended that we
walk along the river down to the bridge where the buses begin
to climb up to the ruins. Along the way,
Bethany
spotted Wendy, one of the teachers from our school,
who was out walking with her boyfriend. We
continued walking together and then got back to town around 7:00. We
all ate supper together, walked
around town a bit, and then went to the train depot. By about 9:10
they started boarding the train and ten minutes later we were off. |
We slept a bit on the train and got to Ollantaytambo at about 11:00 pm.
Normally there are lots of taxis,
combis and buses waiting to take people back to Cusco, but for whatever reason
that night there were only a few tourist buses picking up some tourist groups
and then a couple of taxis for all the rest of us. Taking full advantage of the
situation, they were charging 30 soles per person (normally the cost is between
5 and 10 soles at the most). Even at that price,
there was no way for all of us to fit in one vehicle. We walked all the
way to the plaza, hoping to find a
taxi or combi there, but nothing! Finally,
an empty tourist van (for 14 passengers) came
by and about 22 of the 30 people waiting managed to get in. Unfortunately,
none of our family got seats and so we had to stand the whole way back to
Cusco
– a trip that takes a good hour and a half.
Standing I can handle, but this was not like a bus where you could stand up
straight. I had to bend at the
waist or at the neck in order to fit in. There
was barely room for me to have two feet on the floor, so I kept shifting my
weight back and forth from one foot
to the other. We got back to
Cusco
at about 1:30 in the morning and flagged a taxi to take us to the house.
Would you believe it, when
Regina
got the attention of a taxi to pull over to pick us up, here it was the same
driver (of all the taxi drivers in
Cusco
) that had taken us to Ollantaytambo
the morning before when the tires were slashed! It seemed a fitting end
to quite and adventure. We got home about 2:00
a.m., and then desperately wanted a shower before getting into bed!
We slept until about mid-morning and then had a lunch meeting to finish planning
for David and Pamela's wedding.
As they were leaving, our missionary team
(which right now consists of Carrie and Bethany, as well as another short-term
volunteer), began arriving for our
weekly meeting. From there, I had a men’s
sharing/support group meeting until 7:15, following which
I hopped in a taxi to go downtown to meet the rest of the family for
Jeremiah’s guitar concert at 7:30.
Today we had our first meeting with one of several tour
groups coming through Cusco after Mennonite World Conference (which was in
Paraguay
last week). This was a Mennonite
Your Way tour led by Leon and Nancy
Stauffer. We met them at church this morning at 9:15, shared a history of
the Mennonite church here and of the
school (Promesa). Then we traveled
with them out to Lucre for lunch, visiting the church there as well as the
church at Huacarpay, passed by a place
where they make the clay adobe blocks and roof tiles (tejas), and then returned
to Cusco shortly before 4:00 so that
Regina
could be home for her cell group meeting at 4:00.
Another group comes tomorrow, Sunday, and
then Tuesday morning which will make for a busy weekend.
In a way, it has been a relief to have an early school vacation, forced on us by
the Dept. of Education because of
the Swine flu scare. We have been prohibited to have classes from July 15
through August 3, and heard just yesterday that it may be extended one
more week. God knows, so we’ll just trust
in Him!
Blessings, Ron and
Regina
and family
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