I was finally leaving, on my way from Utah to Florida where I would spend a couple days before finally leaving for the trip of the year. A lot was going through my mind, but mostly just impatience for the plane to get off the ground. I had been anticipating this trip since before I knew I was going. My parents had been planning to go back to Peru for some time and finally bought the tickets - I was devastated when they told me I couldn't go with them. But then I was ecstatic, joyful to the point of tears when I received two little pieces of paper for Christmas - a small map of Peru and the flag. I immediately knew what they meant - I was going to go back.
Three years ago I went to Peru for 5 weeks as part of a volunteer group. I lived in Piura for that time period and came to love the people and culture so much more than I ever could have anticipated. And though I was only there for a short time, that experience changed me in ways I didn't know were possible.
And I was going back.
The days in Florida sped by at a sluggish pace, time reacting to the anticipation I felt. The day of our departure especially felt slow. We left late, our plane was delayed, but eventually, finally, we were on our way. I remember looking out the window an hour into the flight and seeing a mass of land and realizing we were flying over Cuba, as indicated by the flight map. I think that is when it finally became a reality for me.
We arrived at the Lima airport after dark. But the smells, the crowd of taxi drivers vying for our attention, even the luggage carousel was bringing back familiar memories. We took a taxi to a hostel - no A/C, with windows facing a busy, dusty street, a dog rifling through the garbage thrown on the side of the road...All of this was Peru. And it was beautiful.
Less than 6 hours later, we returned to the airport for our flight to Trujillo. This first weekend of our trip would be the only chance we got to visit some of the sites of my dad's church mission he hadn't been back to in about 27 years. Those were some of the most formative years of my dad's life, and being able to go back there meant a lot to him, and therefore to me and the rest of my family.
April 8, 2017-
Being in the city of Trujillo felt more like being back in Piura, and unfortunately was as close as I was going to get. But the experiences we had in Trujillo were incredible and close to being my favorite part of the entire trip. The flight there was uneventful, the airport tiny, and the taxi was cramped. I felt bad for the taxi driver because we weighed down his little car, and going over those bumpy streets was painful to hear, as we scraped more than once. But we made it in one piece to our hotel on the Plaza de Armas. The Hotel Libertador is supposedly the best place to get real Peruvian ceviche, which comes from Trujillo itself. Soon after we got there, and settled into our hotel, we set out onto the streets to explore, taking with us some items from the US for flood relief. We took these to a local LDS bishop and he gave us a tour of the church. It was quite expansive and had an institute building and a small soccer field, along with the chapel. The church has definitely changed since my dad was there. After giving us the tour, the bishop took us to a restaurant in town that he said would give us an opportunity to try the best local cuisine.
It's amazing how much the senses are associated with memories, so that when you smell something or taste something, that memory comes back to you in vivid detail. That is what happened here. I ordered tallarines, which is basically spaghetti, but with a specific kind of sauce, and a piece of chicken slapped on top. The flavors of this particular dish brought me right back to my time in Piura with an incredible emotional intensity. It was here that I also got my family to try papas de huancaina, chicha morada, and lomo saltado, some other typical Peruvian dishes - it was a sensory overload.
After a brief siesta in the hotel, we ventured out into the heat again for a bus tour of the city. With the one day we had to see Trujillo, this was the best way to see as much of the city as we could. We sped past dusty structures of grey with peeling paint, modern apartment buildings, brightly painted homes with gardens in full flower, and Spanish style churches and plazas, and everywhere there was evidence of the effect of the flooding, even with the water gone: piles of dirt, dust in the air and in our lungs.
One thing that is extremely vivid in the memories of this place was the heat. It was incredibly hot and dusty, walking around the town was a sacrifice to comfort. It was only later that we realized we were out of the norm when the town came alive as the sun went down. When we got back to the Plaza de Armas, there was a huge group of people circled around a group of dancers performing Marinera, a dance typical to the north of Peru. I even got to join in a little, albeit clumsily. It was a dream, I was on a high - dancing on the plaza under the stars in Peru after a full day of adventures.
April 9, 2017-
It was Sunday, so we headed north to a little town called Paijan where my dad started his mission many years ago. It was fast and testimony meeting so my dad, in typical fashion, decides to go up and bear his testimony in Spanish. As he is standing up at the pulpit talking about his experiences as a missionary, he looks out and we all could see on his face a shock of recognition. There were people still there that he served with and that made his adjustment to Peruvian life so much easier when he was a young 19 year old. It was very special to be able to meet such influential people in my father’s life. We were invited over for dinner at a ramshackle little home, and fed a feast, even though these people did not have very much to share.
After a delicious lunch, we headed to the Moche ruins of El Brujo, where an Incan mummy was found and some ruins. The Saldañas then welcomed us into their home in Trujillo where wee visited and my dad was able to reminisce about his time in Peru with their family. It was special for us to meet people that impacted my father’s life so strongly.
April 10, 2017 -
This was the day we let back to Lima after so much time spent in Trujillo. We spent the day touring the city by bus. We were only going to be in the city itself for 24 hours! But we saw A LOT. We walked along the Parque del Amor overlooking the cliffs and the Pacific Ocean
We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean and dinner with my friend Oscar from my time in Piura a few years before.
April 11, 2017 -
We started our day with an early flight to Cusco, and then directly after we got a taxi ride to the Sacred Valley where we would be staying for the rest of our trip. We made a few stops along the way - first at an overlook as we came into the valley. There is a reason it is called Sacred, not just because of its significance to the Incas, but also because it is one of the most beautiful place on earth.
Paintings from Pisaq
We decided to use this day to tour around the Sacred Valley. We started with a visit to Moray, which is a terraced agricultural site from the time of the Incas. They think it may have been a way for those ancient peoples to experiment with different crops and methods of farming on cliffs. We took a little hike around the ruins and saw a donkey.
Our next stop was the Salineras salt deposit pools, used originally by the Incas, but still in use today. To get to the site, we took a taxi through dining mountain roads, past tiny villages, balanced on the heights.
Instead of taking the bus, we decided to hike back to our cottage, as we weren’t too far away. It was a beautiful hike through backroads and past people’s little colorful homes. I was blue to stop and paint for a bit - my family was kind enough to wait for me.
We finished the day with a ride into town (Urubamba) and getting dinner at a pizza place and walking around the village square.
April 13, 2017 -
Today was the day! We were headed to Machu Picchu! I was excited to be going back to that beautiful site and to share it with my family. We were going to start with a hike up Wayna Picchu so we had to get going early. We were settled on the train that left from Ollantaytambo, and making good time, where all of sudden our train stopped, and was stopped for a while. It was stopped for so long we missed our entrance time to hike the mountain! We were so worried about it. It turned out that a boulder had fallen onto the tracks and so prevented the train from making it to Aguascalientes on time. But it ended up being a good thing for us. They got the track cleared out, and then ultimately they let us hike the mountain anyways, despite missing our time. It was pretty cloudy and quite wet and rainy, but the clouds cleared away right after we got to the top of the mountain overlooking the site. It was a majestic scene, and one we might not have seen if we had been up there at our scheduled time, because of the mass of clouds.
After a very wet hike back down the mountain, we toured the famous ruins, made friends with some llamas, and got even more wet. But it was a beautiful day and the rain and mist just added to the ruins’ mystique. It was amazing to imagine how the ancient people of the area built that majestic city on the top of a mountain. Their feats of engineering are incredible to imagine.
We made our wet, tired way back to the shuttle and back into the town, where we had a well deserved meal, then made our way back to the train that took us back to Ollantaytambo. We were tired, wet, and exhausted, but had seen and done incredible things.
April 14, 2017 -
After some good rest, we spent the day touring more of the sacred Valley. We started with a horseback tour around Urubamba. We stopped for lunch, and got some pictures, and got to see some of the beautiful homes and gardens in the valley, and learn more about horse traditions in Peru. We learned that Peruvian horses walk with a different gait than ones we were used to- called a lateral gait, where both legs on one side of their bodies steps at the same time, as opposed to opposing back and front legs stepping at the same time. It resulted in a very seesawing type of motion that was interesting to get used to.
We headed back to Ollantaytambo where we toured the ruins on the mountainside and hiked around the valley. We learned more about how the Incas may have lived and how they may have built their famous structures. We learned more about what they may have believed and some of their rites and traditions. We met some guinea pigs and kittens and a sweet dog and her puppies at a home set up to resemble a traditional Incan home. It had an open courtyard with all the furry friends coming and going as they liked, and a room set aside specifically for the guinea pigs! A delicacy in the Peruvian Andes. We ended the day with some more delicious food at a restaurant in Ollantaytambo, some ice cream from my favorite ice cream stop, and then headed back for a bonfire at the cottage. It was our last day in the Sacred Valley, and our time there was for sure full and incredible.
April 15, 2017 -
We said goodbye to the beautiful cottage in Urubamba, and to our lovely hosts and their beautiful home, then headed back towards Cusco by Taxi. I left a painting for them of their beautiful home, since they were such good hosts to make us feel so welcome.
As we headed back to Cusco, we naturally had to make some pit stops. One of those was at Tambomachay, a ritual site of Incan purification, and where David and I took a little hike, and we got some alpaca sweaters and other souvenirs. Our next stop was at the Sacsayhuaman fortress, where the Incan civilization made its last stand against the conquistador invaders. It’s a huge structure made of giant, perfectly cut stones, and it was incredible to see and imagine how it was built.
We arrived in Cusco and checked into our hotel, then took a walk around the markets and went to a history of Cusco museum. We were all fascinated by the delicacies and dead animals for sale at the meat market for sure!
Our final day in Cusco began with church , then a tour of the city with my friend Rolando, who I met the last time I was in the city. Our time in the High city was brief but it was cool to see the influence of Incan traditions and European culture on such a rich geographic location.
We flew back to Lima where we were picked up from the airport by none other than my dad’s old mission companion Jose. He brought us to his house to meet his family and we visited and had a wonderful time getting to know them, and making special connections. It really is the people that made this trip something so memorable.
April 17, 2017 -
Our last morning in Peru was spent at the airport, waiting for our flight back to Miami. This trip was an incredible experience. Peru is a country that will always remain close to my heart, and one I hope to visit again and again over the years. The culture is rich and layered, and the people are beautiful and have deep connections to the land and to each other. I have shared throughout some of the artwork I have created from photos since being home. I hope to be able to continue to share the rich beauty of the Peruvian land and people through my artwork.
