Who's Cold?

My pictures from our weekend trip to Marcahausi are uploaded!

Pictures definitely don’t do the trip justice, but hopefully you can get a sense of how awesome the views were.  We were at about 13, 500 feet, and the altitude definitely took its toll on some of us.  I took medication for altitude sickness but still my feet started falling asleep as we ascended.  Besides some mild dehydration I felt fine for the rest of the night.  We had a grand time eating dinner around the campfire, making s’mores, playing all kinds of American and Latino music on portable speakers, and playing our special version of “Would you rather.”

The temperature was probably around freezing, so the problems came when it was time to get some sleep.  Some seasoned campers had brought their own sleeping bags, so they promptly passed out and had a wonderful night’s sleep.  The rest of us were left with rented sleeping bags, which were basically glorified windbreakers.  Even with my four layers + sleeping bag, my toes were numb and I couldn’t get anywhere close to sleep.  Around 2:30am Lucas (from a tent or two over) yelled “Alright, who’s cold?” and a resounded “ME” was heard from about 10 of us.  He then auctioned off the extra sleeping bag in his tent to whoever could guess the number he was thinking of, which unfortunately wasn’t me.  Without a sleeping pad or sufficient insulation, I got a couple snoozes but probably not more than an hour of sleep, and most of my compañeros had similar nights.  The worst was that I was having significant nausea and trouble breathing for part of the night, depending on the position I was in.  Anyway, I lived through it to see the day!

Since we were all still awake anyways we all got up between 5:30 and 6:30am, and once the sun came over the rocks it promptly became HOT.  Crazy mountains.   In the morning I learned that Sheridan, a Volunteer who finished her 2-year service in Peru and is back visiting with her husband, vomited from altitude sickness during the night and again in the morning.  As we all warmed up and got some caffeine (I had an awesome tea made from a local plant that looks a lot like a dandelion) we started to explore over the other sides of the large rocks surrounding the campsite.  We’d get super winded after climbing up a few rocks at a time (more altitude issues) but once we got to the edge of the rocks, the views were INCREDIBLE. 

Cecily and Me

It looked like we were on the edge of a lake or ocean, but actually it was the CLOUDS we were seeing, that we were above, with the mountains peaking over top! Really felt like we were on top of the world.  I’m really starting to think that Peru is the coolest country of all time.

Later our facilitadora (language teacher) and friend, Jeni, showed us around the ruins that Marcahausi is famous for.  There are remains of some pre-Inca houses and many strange animal shapes in the rocks, some of which looked natural and others which appeared to have been cut.

We descended on horseback, which is how we ascended too, except this time I got a wicked sunburn.  While waiting for our bus back to Chaclacayo, I RAN INTO Ruthie, who had just arrived to ascend!  Small world, huh?  We’re still planning on seeing each other next weekend when we go on an “excursion urbana” to Lima, but the unexpected run-in was a great surprise.

On the way out we toured a cheese “factory” which was basically a room in someone’s house, and many of us bought some awesomely good Swiss cheese- supposedly one of the first European settlers in the area taught the townspeople how to make it and they’ve been producing Swiss cheese since.  We also briefly checked out a trout farm, that was composed of a bunch of trenches with temperature-regulated water running through them.  Earlier that day we had trout from that farm for lunch, and it was DELICIOUS.  I have yet to try a food/drink in Peru that I didn’t like!  Well, except a “salad” that was made of peas, potatoes, carrots, apples, and mayonnaise.  Yeahhhh, I’ve had better.