Machu Picchu

Early morning number 10,000! Thai morning we woke up and hopped in our shuttle with Felix for a short ride to the train station in Ollantaytambo to catch our PeruRail train to Aguas Calientes, the small village at the base of the mountain upon which Machu Picchu sits. The only way to access Macchi Picchu is by train or on foot via the Inca Trail. Once in Aguas Calientes, we hopped on a bus up the windy road to Machu Picchu. We spent the next few hours listening to Felix retell the story of the discovery of the city by Hiram Bingham in 1912 while tromping all over the site. After a less than satisfying buffet lunch at the Sanctuary Lodge, we headed to the Inka Terra where we would spend the evening in the jungle. Trey and I relaxed our muscles in the hot springs at the hotel while my mom and dad tried to recover from the hiking and biking of the past few days with a nap.

Mountain-biking to Moray

Thanks to Mom's efforts not to go on a "sissy tour" of Peru, we ditched the tour van today for a mountain bike. The day's sight-seeing began with a fairly strenuous 13 km bike ride across the Peruvian countryside. We rode through small towns and saw the authentic way of Andean life in the Sacred Valley. My mom decided to entertain herself (or distract herself from the pain in her thighs) by counting the different types of animal poop she rode over in her bike. By the end of the morning, she had reached 6 (& a half)! Pig, bull, goat, sheep, dog, llama, and what very well might have been human. We made our way to the Inca archeological site of Moray. There are four impressive terraced circular "greenhouses" remaining at Moray. We enjoyed a picnic lunch of salad and yogurt before hopping in the van to drive 20 minutes to Maras. Once in Maras, we hopped back on the bikes for a 6 km technical (and a bit scary) ride to the salt mines outside of Maras. The mines have been in operation since Incan times and are still fully functional today. After 19 km of riding, we were ready to call it a day and head back to Sol y Luna just before it started to rain. On the ride back, we were treated with a gorgeous double rainbow that you could see from end to end. Amazing!

We took advantage of the hotel's nightly show offering upon our return to Urabamba where we saw a strange Cirque du Soleil-esque rendition of Incan religion played out on stage. A condor representative of the heavens battled with a snake who represents the underworld. The battled ensued to convince a man portraying a puma, the Incan god of the present life, to join their side. As in any culture, the condor ultimately lured the puma away from the serpent to the forces of good.

Sacred Valley

Early mornings seem to be a theme on this trip, and the beginning of our visit to the Sacred Valley was no different. Felix, our guide for the next few days, arrived bright and early to embark on our journey into the Sacred Valley. We began the day with a stop at what I would call a llama petting zoo where we were introduced up-close and personal to llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas. We also were shown the Andean style of textile weaving by some local women.

Our trip continued on to Pisac, an ancient Inca town where we saw some of the typical agricultural terraces used to grow corn and potatoes in Inca times, as well as some ruins of storage houses, living quarters, a temple and a cemetery in the side of the mountain.

After visiting Pisac, we headed to Urabamba for lunch at a fabulous little place called El Huacatay. Felix then led us to Ollantaytambo, a formidable stone structure where massive terraces climb to the peak of a mountain. This town was the valley's main defense from neighboring enemies. Unfortunately, due to news of the arrival of the Spanish, construction was never completed. Nonetheless, the climb up the 500-something stairs to the top was well worth it (or at least I thought so, however my mom might have her own opinion).

We returned to Urabamba for the night to our private little villas at Sol y Luna. The hotel is a treasure in the middle of nowhere complete with a ranch and botanical gardens on the property. With natural beauty, of course, comes natural things - which Trey and I discovered when encountering a rather large scorpion in the bathroom!

Lima, Peru

As some of you know, this week is the Beckham family trip to South America. I flew to Lima on Monday night to meet up with my brother (Trey), and my mom and dad. We spend the next day dining at La Rosa Nautical for lunch followed by a tour of the Larco Museum and Iglesia Santo Domingo in the old city center near the plaza where the main Peruvian government buildings are found. As it was May 1, or Dia del Trabajador as they call it in Peru, many of the other sightseeing spots were closed for the day. Fortunately, we had enough to do in order to fill our day before meeting my friends Jackie and Eduardo for drinks at the hotel. It was nice for my family to get a chance to meet some of the people I have become friends with in Santiago.

After enjoying a couple of pisco sours , we went to dinner at Astrid y Gaston (see my Valentines Day entry for the love story behind the real Astrid and Gaston). The restaurateur is famous all over South America, and especially Peru, as he is Peruvian. We were offered complementary champagne with dinner in celebration of the restaurant's nomination as one of the best 35 restaurants in the world. Our food was excellent. They have my vote!

Cusco, Peru

We woke up bright and early for our flight to Cusco to start the trek to Machu Picchu. It is recommended that you take it easy for a day when arriving to Cusco because of the altitude. That wasn't hard for us, since we woke up at 5:30 to catch our flight. We all went to our rooms at the lovely Aranwa Boutique Hotel and took a nap. After napping, we dined on a fabulous lunch of causas, ají de gallina and alpaca tenderloin. Who knew that they eat alpaca anywhere in the world?

Trey wasn't feeling well, so we thought it was best to get him some drugs before his trip was ruined by a nasty cough. What an experience that was! We ended up wandering out of the touristy area of Cusco to find a clinic so that he could get on an antibiotic. I got to serve as his translator with the doctor. All was going well until the doctor asked me "¿Él ha recibido una inyección de antibióticos antes?" or in English, "Has he ever gotten a shot of antibiotics before?" Trey assumed if he said yes that he would get out of this form of treatment for some reason. Next thing we knew we were on our way downstairs to a pharmacy to collect a syringe and two little vials of medicine. Trey certainly got his taste I Peruvian medicine in Cusco!

We had a fabulous dinner at Cioccilini and turned in early for another short night before heading to the Sacred Valley the next day.

Rapa Nui

What better way could there be to spend Easter weekend than a trip to Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as the locals call it. Three friends and I took the opportunity to turn a 3 day weekend into a 5 day weekend and headed west. Thursday morning was a bit of a nightmare as a result of a mechanical problem on our flight. A 9:15 departure turned into a 6:30 PM departure ruining our first afternoon on the island. Four days on the island turned out to be enough time, however to see everything on the island.

We started off by venturing to the volcano at Orongo on Friday morning. At the top of the volcano, you can actually look down and see inside. The volcano has been dormant for a long time, so now there is just a calm lake in the crater. It was really pretty! There were also all these old boat-shaped houses where the native Rapa Nui people used to stay during their annual Birdman contest. Legend has it that they would collect all of the island's virgins at the top of the volcano and bring in a gynecologist to examine them to ensure that they were actually virgins. Once they passed the "test" they were taken to a cave for 8 months to lighten their skin so that they were fit to marry the winner of the Birdman contest.

We spent the afternoon touring the island looking at the giant heads. The heads were constructed between 800 and 1500 AD by the native Rapa Nui people, who most likely are of Polynesian decent. They were so obsessed with the construction of the statues that they exhausted all of the resources on the island to the point of near extinction. After a tiring day of hiking and sight-seeing, we bought some wine and perched atop a cliff to watch the sunset.

Saturday morning, we woke early to head out for scuba diving. The water in Easter Island, according to my Fodor's guide, is arguably the clearest water in the world. The dive shop we went through for the dive had positioned a fake Moia underwater for divers to take photographs with. It was run by some funny French men, which turned out to be in our favor, since Sole and Roxane (two of my travel-mates) speak fluent French. I don't know that they would have had a slot for us otherwise, since we didn't book until the day before!

The afternoon and following day were filled with more statue-viewing and touring around the island. We visited the quarry where the Rapa Nui people carved the statues. In the quarry, there are still 397 statues in various stages of carving. Only 288 of the 887 total statues ever actually made it to their platforms, or "ahus" to be erected. Another 92 statues have been found between the quarry and their final destination, left behind after the Rapa Nui ran out of the resources required to get them where they were meant to be. What a pity! We also visited the island's small museum to brush up on some history (including the facts detailed in this paragraph). We watched the sunset on Anakena beach on Sunday evening while enjoying more Chilean wine.

Day of the Young Combatant

I arrived at work this morning and received an email with the subject line "Flexible departure today." I began to read the email, curious about what exciting event could mean that we would get to go home early, which led me on an internet hunt about a few different things.

First, what does the word desmanes mean in english? Thanks to wordreference.com, I was able to come up with the following:

desmán sustantivo masculino

1. (exceso, abuso) outrage, excess;
   los desmanes cometidos durante la guerra the excesses o outrages committed during the war;
   los desmanes de los hinchas the disorderly (o violent etc) behavior of the fans

Hmm...this doesn't sound good. To give you an idea of the whole content of the email the whole Santiago office received from the Director of Human Resources, I have taken the liberty of translating it below for you.

Dear colleagues,

Estimados colegas:

Due to the fact that there is a possibility that riots may occur in certain sectors of the city, as in years past on this day, those who believe that they may face personal risks and need to arrive home earlier may leave at 5:00 PM.

Debido a que existe la posibilidad de que ocurran desmanesen ciertos sectores de la ciudad, como en otros años en esta fecha, quienespiensen que pueden afrontar riesgos personales y necesiten llegar más tempranoa sus domicilios, pueden retirarse desde las 17:00 en adelante.

We are confident that those who make this decision do so responsibly and with the prior authorization of their supervisors.

Confiamos en que quienes tomen esta decisión lo haránresponsablemente y con la debida autorización previa de sus jefaturas.

Greetings and be careful,

Saludos y cuídense,

Roberto Gejman

Socio| Director deDesarrollo de Personas

After reading that and discovering the meaing of desmanes, my next question was what sectors were these outrages going to happen in?? Fortunately, I was able to find an article in one of the Santiago online newspapers that described the parts of the city where police are going to be stationed, as those areas are predicted to be "problematic." My neighborhood is nowhere near any of them. Phew.

My final question was what the heck people were going to be rioting about? What is so special about March 29 in Chile? Thanks to my friend Wikipedia, I had my answer to that too! According to wikipedia, today is Día del Joven Combatiente, or in other words, "Day of the Young Combatant."

Day of the Young Combatant (Spanish: Día del joven combatiente) is a non-official commemoration day, celebrated each March 29th in Chile. It commemorates the assassination of the brothers Rafael and Eduardo Vergara Toledo, which occurred on March 29th, 1985 during the military regime era in Chile. The commemoration has evolved into a day of protest manifested in some urban areas of the country. The center of the protests is in the Villa Francia neighborhood, in Estación Central Commune of western Santiago.

So, I am now going to continue playing detective to figure out who the Vergara brother are, because I am pretty sure there is no relation to Sophia Vergara. Personally, I think protesting 27 years later about an assassination is a strange way to show your disdain for violence in the past, but like I have said before, I rarely understand the reason many things happen in Chile. What I do know, is that I will be skipping the Happy Hour I had planned on going to tonight and staying indoors.