South America, Day 8: Macchu Picchu and Cusco, Peru

South America, Day 8:
Macchu Picchu and Cusco, Peru
by Oliver Butterick

We woke up a little later than expected, but Rocky was feeling a little better, so we were all go for Macchu Picchu. We grabbed some bananas as we checked out of the hostel and headed down to the bus stop. We boarded the bus and a few minutes later we start making the slow ascent to Macchu Picchu.

Sitting next to me is Kathleen from Mountain View, who was making her 3rd or 4th attempt to see Macchu Picchu. The previous attempts had failed because of altitude sickness. She has a PhD from UCI in Medical Anthropology, and our conversation transitions to my graduate studies.

You see, I'm currently on a 3 year leave of absence from getting my MA in Philosophy. I keep meaning to go back and finish, since all I have to do is write my thesis. (No big deal, right?) Helping me, Kathleen suggested that my goal for my trip be to come up with the first sentence of my thesis. I wasn't able to do that, but I did find a topic that I'd like to explore: Freedom and Security in post-9/11 America.

We arrive at Macchu Picchu and are taken in by the spectacular enormity of the ruins. From the mountain that we hiked yesterday, it looked so small... We walked around for a few hours and took hundreds of photographs. It's one of those places that fits the "you can't explain it—you just have to go there" cliche.

We take a bus back down to town after walking around the ruins for a few hours. Since we didn't hire a guide, there wasn't much for us to do except look around and take pictures. Once in a while we would eavesdrop on this tour group or that so that we could get an idea of what we were looking at. The problem, however, and the reason we didn't hire a guide in the first place, is that there are no definitive theories on what purpose Macchu Picchu served, when it was constructed, etc. So, any information given by the guides was merely a hypothesis.

We returned to town and had lunch, at which point Rocky began to feel ill again. I hope that he feels better soon—I don't want his trip to be ruined because of him being under the weather. Tesh and I kill some time at an internet cafe while Rocky finds a seat and rests in the main square. A short while later, we board the train back to Cusco.

Back in Cusco, we decided to get a taxi back to the hostel, since we were all tired. We find one driver who will take us for 4 Soles (around US$1), even though we tried to get him to lower his price to 3 Soles. As we walked over to his car, one of his competitors tried to undercut his price. We were weary from traveling, so although saving 1 Sol was tempting, we stayed with the original driver. As we drove away, our driver flipped his middle finger at his competitor, a hand signal that I interpreted to mean the same thing that it does back in the States.

Tesh and I left Rocky in the hostel to recuperate and we found a restaurant for dinner. Somehow, we were persuaded to try a Mexican restaurant. Both of us grew up and went to college in Southern California, so both of us have probably met our lifetime quota of Mexican food. Nevertheless, we had Mexican food, and wow, were we glad that we did. The fresh tortilla chips resembled the texture of taco salad shells, very light and crispy. They also served excellent garlic bread, common to most restaurants in Peru (the garlic bread part, not the excellent part). The rest of the meal was great as well. In fact, it was so good, that Tesh and I take Rocky there for lunch the following day.

After dinner, we check out a bar called "Kamikase." This evening, they had a live folk band. It was very entertaining, and it seemed like this place had as many locals as it did tourists, which was nice. We had a few beers, but quickly tired of the music, so we headed back to the main square. As a souvenir for myself, I had bought a Peru soccer jersey with the number and name of the captain, Pizzaro, on it. Thinking that I might be able to use it to attract the attention of young ladies, I wore it this evening, in celebration of Peru's victory over Chile the previous evening. What a mistake that was.

As we walked back to the Plaza de Armas, I was accosted (if not assaulted) by a horde of young people. They kept yelling "Pizzaro" at me, hoping to get my attention so that I would buy whatever it was that they were selling, or go to the bar that they had been paid to promote. I convinced Tesh to go to one more bar with me before we went back to the hostel. We decided to check out Mama Africa, a bar that shares a corner of the Plaza with Mythology. The guide book listed it as a hot spot for tourists, and we weren't disappointed by the selection of attractive women.

Unfortunately, Rocky stayed in the room, Tesh is engaged, and I have absolutely no game whatsoever, so Tesh and I mostly sat around people-watching. I did have one rather lengthy conversation with a local that I suspected was trying to pick up on me, but, unfortunately for him, I only like girls, so I had to let him down before Tesh and I called it a night.

Oliver can be reached at oliver@babblog.com.