i must begin this post by first and foremost poking fun at myself and lack of calender knowledge. it was not october 10th when i lazily shared that video link. today is october 10th. my sincere apologies. i am not so in tune with the days of the week, let alone the numbers. i have always loved numbers, but them and i seem to never fully understand one another.
now that i have gotten that outta the way, we have some catching up to do!
i think i might start with today because i loved it so much and see how far back i want to take you.
we went to two incredible places today. the salinas salt flats and the terraces at moray. this morning, after enjoying one and half avacado and fired egg sandwiches, emily and i decided it was time to go day trippin. we had heard these salt flats were preeetty sweet and hopped in an overcrowded cambi and were on our way. once in the mini bus, two pretty argentinian gals asked us if we were walking to the flats. we said that we had not planned on it, but they seemed like they kinda knew their stuff and we shrugged our shoulders and decided to hike with our new friends, as oppose to drive. it was such a wonderful hot and breezy mid-morning. the mountains that line the sacred valley just tower over you so dramatically that is hard not to feel completely epic even just walking. we talked with julia and dolores in both broken english and spanish and found that they lived just outside of buenos aires and were 27 and had been friends for 20 years. they were quite the pair, and seriously hillarious. julia was short with nobby knees and wild hair wrapped in a rainbow scarf with strings hanging down into her face. dolores was the quiter of the two. seriously afraid of heights and getting to close to the edge of any path we took throughout the day.
around and over the first little mountain, just above a small villiage, we found the flats. as it turns out, we appraoched from the opposite side that many usually do, and did not have to pay the entry fee, initially. we also got to see all the salt miners at work, walking the narrow, white paths with huge bags of salt they had just extracted from the side of the mountain. the flats are basically like squares carved in the hills and mountains seperated by streams. people have been mining salt at this site for hundreds of years. i think i even read that the Incan peoples were the first to discover this wonder. maybe do not quote me on that. but maybe do. anyway, the salt is amazing and expansive and so white. that sounds silly, but it feels like you are in that ice queen narnia ladie's liar. it is bright and it looks so precise. each flat is tiered and square and sparkly. i don't feel like i am doing this place justice. we gotta get some pictures up! my aimless rambling is just trying to get at the brilliance of this place. the water that cuts through and down the hills are this dramatic rust color. this combination is almost to much for the eyes. so beyond beautiful.
after ooing and awing our way through and out of the hills, we found the main entrance. here we tried to get a cheap taxi to moray. this did not exist and the four of us strong and able women decided walking was just the way to go. why not? i am so glad we made this choice. the sun was still hot, and the mountains still towering and lining the horizon, and we walked. uphill and with lots of wind wipping our hair, and throwing my adventure hat to the dusty trail. there was even a ominous storm a brewin' in the direction of moray. you could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance. the walk was amazing, to say the least.
we got to the terraces of moray, a little sweaty, a lotta salty and pretty tired. the rings at this place were kind of like an Incan agricultural experiment to test to see which micro climates would suit certain crops. you can take steps all the way down to the bottom and gaze up and around at the different slopes. it is such an interesting area. so different from any agricultural settings i have seen before. we wandered here for at bit, and of course i had to remind emily that really the aliens built the rings. she has dutifully reminded me that i should probably give the Incans some credit. she is very right, but it is so hard to comprehend the amount of work and thought and labor that these people put into everything. i think i get a bit overwhelmed by it and opt to make a little e.t. joke to cope. a little pathetic, but i'm still growing up here.
speaking of growing up, i am trying my best to do a bit of that in between all this fun and adventure. emily was actually the first person to ever bring up the quarter crisis. for those who are unware, it is much like the mid life crisis that we are well aware of, but for us young little ducklings who have far too many options and the tendency to wander. i realize this trip allows me to think more than i ever thought i would, and with all this thought i think i might be more confused than ever. i am little bit (actually a lot) freaking out about what i will do when i get back. living in a new city. i have no job yet, and the thought of what i actaully want to do is still muddled up with things i have already done. being here, i am always a little uncomfortable. it is wonderful. but also scary that it will end. i am afraid to get back and get settled. but it is funny, because moving around as much as we do is a little scary too. i guess i am still just trying to figure myself out, and it is proving an impossible task. i am going to end this rambling thought paragraph now. i just don't have to know. that is the bottom line.
i think we are going to try to put some pictures up, and maybe emily can be better than me and catch you up on what has happened in the past week or so. i cannot believe our time in peru is coming to an end. i hate sometimes that time is just always moving forward. how can i ever keep up?
-leslie
No comments:
Post a Comment