Machu Picchu at Last

Reunited at last

It's been a while since I've posted, but do to my brother's insistence on keeping up to date with my blog for retrospective purposes in the future and my excitement to share my journeys with the world wide web of creepers, I'm back.

It was an unforgettable week here in Peru for many reasons, including my first crack at chocolate making and ziplining (unrelated, but both gnarly), but above all, it was great to share my life and my work down here with my Mom and my sister, Meaghan.

Before the elder Kach women arrived (and by elder i just mean the older two of three; i think that whole "i'm 34" game still seems to be working out for you), I didn't have the slightest idea how we would fill our time outside of our planned three-day hike and trek to Machu Picchu.  Luckily, however, the Incans made enough groovy ruins for us to fill a hectic, yet unbelievable six days.

On Wednesday, I met my Mom and sister in Cusco and enjoyed a hot cup of Coca tea with them in order to help them adjust better to the altitude.  After they were all settled in and we met up with some Duke kids for coffee, my mom, sister, and I decided to tour the ruins in Cusco.  First, we went to Saqsaywaman, a massive outdoor sun temple considered to be the second most impressive Incan ruin to Machu Picchu.  We went through some caves, much to the dismay of my frantic mother, but my snarky sister pushed her through to the daylight on the other side.  Below are some pictures from our afternoon adventure!

Karen and I at Puka Pukara!

Megsie and I killin' it on top of the Saqsaywaman ruins.

Sliding down the natural rock slides at Saqsaywaman. On the left, we can see the younger sister struggling like it's her job.

On Wednesday night, we took a van packed with men, women, and children of the Sacred Valley back to Urubamba.  Karen and Meaghan were loving the clarity of the night sky, comparing it to the sparkling brilliance of the hallway bathroom mirror after my mom enslaves  Mr. Kach to clean on Saturday mornings. 

Amaru Valle Hotel in the morning sun- The humble abode of the Kach ladies for a couple nights.

I walked them back to their hotel in Urubamba, and withing five minutes, Meaghan resembled a grizzly during winter, face down and snoring like a yetti.  My mom, however, was a big time trooper and came back to my home stay house with me to meet my family and give gifts of gratitude to Dulia and Allison. It was great to see my host mom meet my real mom (so i think? Jim still tells me I'm adopted), and the night ended with arts and crafts time with Allison and her new toys.

On Thursday morning, I brought Mom and Meg to my school to meet all of my students. They were jumping up and down yelling at them with smiles in Spanish, naturally leading to my mom's classic uncomfortable response of "bueno?!"

We then walked over to the organic farm I work out, and Ameriko brought them on a tour of all the greenhouses and animals. After a solid lunch at Dulia's place, we went to Moray and the Salineras with Dulia and Allison. My mom made great friends with my 7 year-old host sister, and they booked it all around the ruins while the rest of us watched in amusement. Below's a group shot.

From left to right: the Karenator, yours truly, Allison, and Dulia. Scholars contend Meg was off bowing down to some Incan sun god, drumming on a puma skull.

I stayed the night with Mom and Meg in the hostal on Thursday, woke up to a breakfast of eggs and fruit, then ventured off to the Pisac ruins and market.  My mom stocked up on decorative plates and bowls with my acquired Spanish accent to barter like a champ. Fear not Kachadoorian party-goers, the onion dip will still be there, only in a hipster bowl that requires listening to a verbose story from the mamabear.

The Kach ladies at Pisac.

We got into Cusco on Friday night and enjoyed an awesome dinner on the Plaza de Armas. We crashed early and got ready for our trip to Machu Picchu!

On Saturday morning, our guide, Wilian, picked us up at our hotel at 615am and brought us over to the adventure agency's office to get us all set for our trip.  After getting sized up for mountain bikes and picking out some t-shirts, we hopped in the car and began the three hour trip past Ollantaytambo to Abra Malaga, a 4530meter peak. From there, we got on our bikes and began the fast-paced decent along a winding path for a few hours to Santa Maria. Check the road below.

Felt like Lance zooming through the Andean hills.

After we got to Santa Maria on our bikes, we high-tailed it in a van from Santa Maria to Santa Teresa, winding high above the Locomayo (translated to Crazy River from Quechua). We got to our hostal for the night to be pleasantly surprised by the simple elegance that was the EcoQuechua retreat.

Our eco-focused hostal in the woods of Santa Teresa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning was lahhhhhhgit. Our guide, Wilian, brought us to Cola de Mono, a zip lining agency tucked into the woods in Santa Teresa around 8am.  I wasn't nervous for some reason, probably because I didn't realize how high or how far I'd be zooming above a ravine in the upcoming hour.  After a pretty slapdick "safety" session, we hiked up to the launch point of the first of six cables.  I edged toward the back of the group to avoid going first after looking down on what seemed like a pretty quick death. Luckily, some fox from Argentina with metaphoric "huevos" bigger than mine hopped on the cable and took off at over 80 kmh over the river, giving me the confidence to step up and go second. To all you who say second is the first to lose, kindly silence yourself.  Below are some pictures of the exhilarating zip line experience.

Locking in my harness. Not pictured for good reasons: Epic harness wedgie.

Anddddd I'm off!

Megsie did great on the zip line as well, and at one point, we actually passed each other over a couple hundred meters off the ground zipping along on different cables. Karen assumed the role of camera lady for the morning, and for good reason: she was "a little out of her comfort zone" after climbing a narrow stair case later in the afternoon.


We got trekking around 11am for Aguas Calientes, inching closer and closer to Machu Picchu with every step.

Sibling shot journeying on down the road.

At our lunch spot, a bunch of hammocks set up to comfort lazy fools like me.

Andddddd I'm spent. Meg probably taking pleasure in giving me a wet willy while I sleep on the side of the trail just shy of Aguas Calientes.

 We got to Aguas Calientes, the small town at the foot of Machu Picchu at about 4pm on Sunday afternoon, just in time for a hot shower, relaxing dinner, and a father's day shoutout on the hostal computer to the only, the only Mr. Kach.

While my mom and sister took the amateur route early Monday morning by taking the 25 minute bus up to Machu Picchu, I hopped out of bed at 430am and strapped on the hiking boots to begin my final push on foot up to the park entrance. 1900 steps later, adorned in my fleece, gloves, and headlamp, and arrived at the entrance to one of the 7 wonders of the world. From my calculations, since I've already hit Quarry Head and Cranberry Park, I've only got four more wonders!

The first 400 people at the park entrance in the morning get a stamp on their ticket to climb Huayna Picchu, the picture-esque peak in the background of every cliche photo of the Incan ruin.  I was probably in the first 100 people up there and chose to get my entrance stamp to Huayna Picchu at 10am.

After milling around in line for a while, I saw my mom and sister get off the bus with a rollicking group of tourists from all over the world including some shoeless hippies from Brazil and eldery German women with trekking poles to climb the four stairs to the snack bar.


We began our two-hour tour of the ruin with a group of about 20. Here are some shots from the early morning.

Said best by Miss Gifford herself- goin' rogue.

Sorry for taking a personal break from the tour, Mom.

Instead of taking my stamp to climb Huayna Pichu at 10am, we chose to climb as Machu Picchu Mountain as a family.  The latter is a newly opened peak and the highest point in Machu Picchu Park.  It's a road less traveled due to its comparative difficulty to Huayna Picchu and recent opening.

We left the ruins park around 930am to begin our hike up to Machu Picchu Mtn., but first, Megs signed the guest book at the foot of the peak full of names of tourists from all over the world.

The hike took a little over an hour, and the view kept getting better and better as we climbed higher and higher over the ruins.  Here are some cool shots with Ma. Pi. in the background!

Gotta photoshop the other three hooligans into this family gem.

Machu Picchu with the backdrop of Huayna Picchu.

Psyched to be here. Karen hadn't seen enthusiasm like this since I crushed first grade tee-ball.

It was truly an amazing day at Machu Picchu, and although I'm not as well traveled (or pretentious) as Meaghan or my mom, I think I can die happy after seeing this place.  We headed back down to Aguas Calientes for a quick meal then hopped on the 3 and a half hour train to Cusco for the night.

Mom and Meg headed out yesterday, but before they shipped outta South America, we went to the chocolate museum of Cusco. Gladys, our Peruvian chocolate workshop leader, led us through the entire production process from picking the cacao bean to munching on homemade truffles in a couple hours.  Here are some pictures of the squad!

Your nothing without an apron according to Gladys.

Pouring our dark chocolate into molds.

Unfortunately, my mom and sister headed back to the states, respectively back to Camp Woodstock and Mercer, but I'm so happy to have shared my experiences down here with them.

We got a couple more weeks down here, and the next few days should be wild in Cusco with the Corpus Cristi and Inti Raymi festivals on Thursday and Friday night.

To anyone who actually read this entire post, god bless you, because I'm too lazy to go back and edit it at this point.

I'll probably have an update in a few days after the street festivals.

Cheers,
Chris

A Great Day to be Alive

As I sit here listening to country music drinking coffee on the porch of the non-profit office before going to teach today, I thought I'd ramble for no apparent reason.  Last night, I realized just how much I've learned here, and I can't wait to share that with my mom and sister, touching down in Cusco tomorrow morning. A few moments have stood out when I think back on how much I've grown from an uninformed American to a member of the community around here.

-My host family is extremely involved in the Festival de Sr. de Torrechayoc, a religious celebration and dance festival in Urubamba.  That being said, Dave and I put in a big effort and roasted in the sun for a few hours this weekend in order to watch our relatives tear up some serious rug as they marched through the street in their traditional garb.  The culminating celebration for the 30 or so person dance group was at our house on Sunday night.  The party fired up around 730pm as neighbors and relatives strode through the door with crates and crates of bottles of Cusquena and boxes of unbelievable food. We feasted on roast chicken, noodles spiced up with some questionable goodness, and sweet potatoes.  Around 10, Dave and I had grooved our asses into chairs, throwing back some cold ones conversing with relatives excited to hear about who we were and where we'd come from.  The good vibes continued, and Dulia (our host mom) had a rock band come over and play for the party.  We thought it'd be a grand old night of relaxation until our uncle, Andres, pulled us onto the dance floor after a few too many cocktails and taught us how to salsa with the support of a large circle of clapping relatives.  I couldn't help but laughing at the situation at the time, but looking back on it now, it's pretty cool how accepting the family has been, and I for that, I owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude.

-Also along that note of familiarity, I've recently been striking up some good convos with the elderly woman who slings "papa rellenas," the greatest gift from God since disc golf.  These soft baked potatoes stuffed with vegetables will run you 50 cents in soles, the equivalent of about 19 US cents, and they'll plaster a smile on your face all day.  I'm happy to say that I've conquered street food in Uru without contracting anymore of the familiar gringo buzzkills, known as salmonella or giardia.

To end on a less weird note, I'm taking Wednesday-Friday off from work to go hang with my mom and sis. Should be an amazing week, and I hope they realize that they'll be seeing some of the coolest ancient ruins in the world, except for the remnants of Karen's favorite patio chair in our woods that oddly disappeared after our parents were out of town for the weekend and a multitude of thejim's friend may or may not have come over.

Anyways! Tomorrow afternoon, I'm gonna take them on a food tour of Cusco with the other Dukies, then we'll head back to Urubamba at night.  If my vivacious mamabear is down for a night on the town, I'll take her and my sister out to see the bizarre nightlife of Urubamba.  On Thursday, we're white water rafting in a nearby town, Ollantaytambo.  Friday will be full of preparations for our trip to Machu Picchu, then we'll take off on our bike/hike trek to the famous Incan civilization from Cusco on Saturday morning. Assuming we don't end up falling off a cliff or contracting an incurable disease from a rogue llama, we'll be in MP on Monday.

That's all in the flat land of spiders, but just to make my mom feel better about my littlest sister's shenanigans during her absence at home, my brother has assured me that she most definitely won't be aiming at the neighbor's cats with a BB gun.

Live it up today,
Chris

Trout farm and Festival de Torrechayoc

 After a few days off from the blog scene, I'm back and coming in hot.  The end of the work week went well, as our environmental education group finalized plans for a field trip for our students to show them around the farm and greenhouse where we work. On Friday,  rather than working in the greenhouse with Ameriko, we hopped in the trailer on his moto and rode up the bumpy paths through the mountains to check out the Pumawanca trout farm.

Pumawanca Trout Farm. The tanks, each holding hundreds of trout, are in the bottom right.

Close up of a tank of medium-sized trout.

 The guys who run the trout farm sell their fish to local restaurants day in and day out, and the average trout is about 18 inches long and costs 15 soles per kilo (6 USD).  These guys must roll in the dough, and based on watching them clean and gut the fish in a matter of seconds, they've been doing it for a while.

After checking out all of the tanks and the different sized fish swarming around in the cold, fresh water, we snagged a handful of grown trout out of a tank and prepared them to cook over an outdoor fire.

Studly turkey hanging out on the farm.

We had these guys cooking in no time after pulling them out of the water.

Boiling up some potatoes to eat with our trout.

Frying up the trout over the fire.

We hung out by the stone aquaculture tanks and ate our fish around the fire. It was a great morning and a delicious break from the usual manual labor on the farm.

Friday night, we hung out in the Plaza de Armas with my wild uncle, Andres, and a few of his friends.  One of them happened to be a Peruvian police man, adorned in his full uniform with high-top boots and a shiny gun.  I'm usually pretty reserved whenever I pass a soldier or policeman in the streets based on my preconceived notions of Peruvian jail. I imagine it'd look somewhat like the Vickers first floor after the eye-opening culture experience that was the "Thug Life" party. Be that as it may, these macho guys toting around unnecessarily large rifles usually don't strike me as potential friends.  Turns out I was far from right.

Jorge, the police man, and I hung out in the plaza with the other Dukies and few of our Peruvian friends, passing back and forth bottles of Pilsen (stupidly cheap liters of beer) until he was hugging me for bringing him "the most beautiful American women to look at." Creepiness aside, this guy ruled, and we seemed to hit it off. 

As our group gradually got louder and the supply of Pilsen dwindled, he invited us down to the "station" to hang out with the police force.  I don't know if it was new-found friendship with Jorge or a lack of something better to do that allowed me to block out how bizarre this invited was at the time, but our pack of rowdy gringos rolled squad deep into the police station.  We walked in on about thirty other cops with the same thirst as Jorge.  The night ended with Jorge telling me that "I could have anything I wanted in Urubamba" because I was his friend.  I'll have to take him up on that get out of jail free card someday.

This morning was a the long-awaited festivial de Sr. Torrechayoc.  Sr. Torrechayoc is the patron saint of Urubamba, and the morning is an amazing assembly of dance groups and marching bands through the streets.  My uncle, Andres, is a coordinator of a dance group, and my little host sister participated, so Dave and I planted ourselves in the plaza and took some great pictures.

Marching band keeping the crowd rockin'.

A bunch of the dance groups wore masks like this one.

A crowd of people on Torrechayoc street, where the parades started.

Traditional drumming group.

And lastly, my favorite of all. This guy sported the sweetest threads, hands down.

The parade filed into the soccer stadium on the other side of town, where a priest led a mass of Urubambinos through mass.  The whole event seemed to me very similar to Mardi Gras, minus the Daq Shack frozen drinks and the Zulu Indians chucking decorated coconuts at the crowd.

The festival continues tomorrow morning in a similar manner, but I wanted to wrap up with a few shoutouts before closing up shop for the night.


David Chou, my partner in the environmental group and an excellent photographer, has taken all of the pictures in my blog, and although he's realistically not going to press copyright infringement charges, he deserves a bravo for all of the amazing shots he's captured.

Caroline, my one and only 11 year old sister with the sarcastic humor of a 30 year old, brought home the girls' 5th grade conny lax championship trophy today. Nice work, wee one!

Lastly, to Coach Wiseman and Pearsall and the WHS lacrosse team, congrats on winning a 21st state title this afternoon. Wish I could have been there, but duty called here in Uru.

Enjoy the weekend,
Chris

Halfway Rogue, Halfway Home

We're officially halfway through our 2-month stay in Peru, and I thought I'd take a minute before work today to reflect on my trip highlights so far and my goals for the next four weeks in the sacred valley.

Because the only saving grace that makes me the second-favorite son in my household and not the least favorite son (mind you, there are only two boys) are my organizational skills, I'll try to follow a format of a memory and a few quick notes.

1.  Teaching, at first, was extremely difficult for me because of the language barrier and general lack of authority in the classroom.
-I'm excited to say that due to my ever-optimistic partner in crime, Hannah, I've remained hopeful about our work in the classroom, and it's paid off.  We've developed a sense of trust with the students, and they genuinely love to see us in the mornings.  Nothing's better than seeing one of my students in the streets after work and hearing a pipsqueak yell, "Profe! Profe!"

2. Conversing with locals in the market was an arduous task at first, and I feel like I got hustled by too many little old ladies.
-Thankfully, I've gotten a lot better at piling kilos of tomatoes into bags, quickly weighing them, and asking for the appropriate amount of soles without too many raised eyebrows or cross faces from the crowd.  This gringo has cracked his way into the fastest growing economy in Latin America.

3. I'm psyched about the relationships I've made with Duke kids, ProPeru staff members, and community members in Urubamba.
-Our group has grown incredibly close due to a lot of time together working on our projects, weekend hikes, and senseless boondoggles around the Sacred Valley.  My host family and I have forged a great relationship, and I couldn't be happier with my roommate, Dave Balthazar. Although he'll whoop my ass at cards after dinner, we've both made a conscious effort to help out as much around the house as possible.

4. Ollanta Humala is the new Peruvian president.
-After a full month of anticipation, we finally heard the announcement of the new president of Peru.  I was on a run with Miriam and Dave when we heard a radio voice booming for a house yell, "Ollanta, Ollanta!"  The vote was incredibly close: 52.6% of Peru voting for Ollanta, and 47.4% for Keiko.  It's hard to have any strong political views in a foreign country other than those of your host family's, so I'm excited to see how they'll respond after seeing their lesser favorite candidate take the victory.  Keiko advocates are worried that Ollanta will try to dismantle a lot of the foreign investment in the tourism industry in favor of redirecting all of the income back to Peruvians, and my host uncle (a tourism guide in Cusco working with foreign agencies) has expressed some worries.  Regardless, it was amazing to see the public celebrations for Ollanta in the street Sunday night.  Men and women waved flags and engaged in patriotic song and dance.  Although Humala doesn't take office until we leave, I'm excited to follow the Peruvian political scene from afar.

5. Family, it's been a while.
The whole Kachadoorian clan hasn't been together since Christmas, and we've all been up to some pretty exciting stuff, whether it's Caroline breaking out into the 5th grade travel lacrosse program, my mom chasing fitness goals that still amaze me, Meaghan accomplishing more than I ever could in high school while still getting made of by my Euro-stylish brother, or my dad's never ending devotion to his career to make all of the aforementioned possible.

I'm beyond excited to share my experiences with Karen and Meaghan in Peru in a week, but I'm even more pumped to be with the whole family at home this summer.


Here's to another amazing month,

Chris

Keeping it Jungle Casual in Urubamba

One of the hundreds of stray dogs straight chillin on the street.

Below are a bunch of pictures from the last few days in Urubamba.  You'll see a bunch of photos from the everyday hustle and bustle on the street, some political proaganda, and some up close and personal shots of animals at the circus!

Emily selling organic yogurt in the market, made fresh daily from the milk of the cows on our farm.

Typical set up of a market stand with fresh produce and bread.

Wednesday's and Friday's are the busiest days in the market.  Women flock to the center of Urubamba early in the morning from neighboring villages with bags and bags of fresh fruits and vegetables.

A shot of the indoor market from above.

The market street at its finest. We usually work under the blue tent in the bottom left of the picture.

Poltical advertisement on the wall of a building.  Tomorrow's election day, and a bunch of Peruvian military forces have entered Uru in the last couple days to police the streets and limit the chance of mayhem.  Talk about a buzzkill. I've always wanted to be that guy chucking Molotov cocktails in assless chaps. Call me crazy.

On Friday at work in the greenhouse, we ventured off to the to the park behind our fields where the Peruvian circus was in town! Only two things in this world scare me: Nuclear War and circus folk- small hands and smell like cabbage. Anyways, we crept under the main tent and got some cool pictures of the animals.

Lila, the baby cow on our farm, is only about 20 days old.

Mufasa big chillin in his cage before the show

Striking resemblance to my brother's "v8 splash" photoshoot in Milan. This monkey was loving the attention, and we were loving his sass.

So that's the photo-recap of the last few days here.  I got to sleep in past 730am for the first time since my lazydays back at Duke, and it's been an awesome Saturday morning roaming the streets and drinking my coffee.  This afternoon, we're biking to Ollantaytambo, an awesome Incan ruin about 12 miles away, and then coming back to watch a movie together at night.  Sidenote: got a month membership at the local gym this week for 40 soles (about 13 USD), and the Katy Perry, Bieber, and throwback Eminem tunes blasting in Luis' Gym have over-exceeded my expectations.

That's it, that's all. Can't wait to see my mom and sister in 10 days.  To the rest of the family, I'm sure you can't wait for them to be off on your boondoggle so you can revert to Chinese food dinners and laid-back weekends.  It's a win-win for everyone.

Enjoy your weekends,
Chris

Peruvian Power Moves

This just in: Mrs. Kach and Meg Kach are coming in hot on Urubamba in a couple weeks.  I'm pumped to share my experiences with the one's who have made it possible in the first place. Also, shout-out to my obnoxious brother for arriving back state-side.  Don't pretend he's matured at all from his European adventures, just note the increased hair gel and marginal dress style. That'll be all on that note.

It's been a pretty routine week since we got back from the glacier hike, but a few moments definitely stand out for a variety of reasons.

1) This week and next week are "sports week" at the 711 school.  Not completely dissimilar to the golden days of Cider Mill field day, sports week involves inter-class volleyball and soccer games, refereed by the teachers.  There are some definite glimpses of Misty May and Landon Donavon out here, but the real action for me was playing marbles with one of my fifth grade students on the blacktop.  He taught me how to play, proceeded to kick my ass, and graciously gifted me his most colorful marble.  Safe to say this little interaction made my day.

2) Say goodbye to bed bugs! After getting gnawed at for a couple weeks thinking my host mom couldn't do anything about it, I was pleasantly surprised when I walked home to some new bedding and my host mom hoisting a can of some heavy-duty solution. I salute you, Mrs. Coming Through in the Clutch Exterminator Mom.

3) Hannah, David, Emily, and I are supervised on the farm by a 24 year-old guy from Urubamba named Ameriko.  He's the absolute man, and we've recently begun to learn a little something extra in the field.  Before lunch on Wednesday, he brought out a pen and paper and began to teach us numbers and basic phrases in Quechua, a traditional Peruvian language typically spoken in the field.  I'm killin' it with the new dialect when it comes to flirting with sixty year-old women in the market who speak Quechua, rather than Spanish.  "pisca tomatitos noka munami" really got them warming up ("I want five tomatoes," or so i hope!).

4) Comida Chifa is truly epic.  It's essentially Peruvian Chinese food, but it encompasses all that is right in the world.  Last night, we went to Dinno's Comida Chifa as a group of volunteers.  I got a chicken dish that almost lived up to the one and only Sandwedge.  Best part, a full entree and a beer rounded out to about 15 soles, or 6 USD. Right on.

5) It's crunch time in Peruvian politics.  On Sunday June 5, Peru will hold its presidential election.  The race is currently between Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori, but politics aside, what I find most interesting is the Peruvian exercise of voting itself.  First of all, it's mandatory to vote, and all citizens must throw a finger print down on their ballot.  Secondly, political propaganda is everywhere: from flags on the roofs of mototaxis to spray painted murals on the sides of houses, name and platform recognition in Peruvian politics are huge, especially in the Sacred Valley where many voters vote based on familiarity or comfort with a certain name rather than on complete comprehension of the politician's goals.  Lastly, Peru is offically "seco" from Friday morning-Sunday night, meaning the sale of alcohol is prohibited, presumably to limit intoxicated voting and subsequent celebrations or riots.  Pretty interesting to note the differences in the Peruvian and American political arenas, but one thing's for sure, there's certainly work to be done here for the needy.


Tomorrow, I'll be on the farm again, then probably headed off to Cusco to enjoy the city for the night.  A few of us are planning a bike trip around the Sacred Valley on Saturday, and I'm psyched to finally have a weekend down here without so much structure. 


Over and out,
Chris