Adventures of a Traveling Teacher

Our last stop in Peru was perhaps the most magical and awe-inspiring of our two weeks in the country.  We first visited the city of Cuzco, which is an obvious contradiction between Incan civilization and Spanish colonialism.  In fact, we saw the walls of an Incan temple inside a Spanish Catholic church – the Spanish conquered the area and ruled it as a Catholic colony.

There is a noticeable difference between the engineering of the two groups.  The Incas used water and other tools to cut stones so that they fit together perfectly, without the need for any mortar or fillers.  The Spanish walls have rounded stones, which are pieced together using mortar.

The elevation of Cuzco is extremely high, and as in the Colca Canyon region, we experienced altitude sickness.  As a remedy, Peruvians recommend taking Soroche pills or chewing/drinking coca leaves or tea.  Read more about altitude sickness here.

After resting for our first day in Cuzco, we prepared to visit Machu Picchu.  We spent the night in Ollantaytambo to shorten our trip in the morning.  We boarded the train very early, between 5 and 6 a.m., and arrived at Machu Picchu at about 8 a.m.

The views from the top were incredible!  It was breathtaking to see the city of the Incas, one that the Spanish did not discover and conquer.  We spent the day exploring the various buildings and sites.  Although it was cloudy and a bit rainy in the morning, it became hotter and sunny in the afternoon.  Sunscreen is a must, as I got burned even while using it.  We hiked along the various paths, sat in different locations to take in the stunning views, and imagined what it must have been like as a city filled with people.

Please visit the National Geographic page on Machu Picchu to learn more and see my gallery below because my words cannot possibly do justice to this spiritual, amazingly beautiful place.

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world and is split between Peru and Bolivia.  We visited the lake on the Peruvian side from the town of Puno.  We were a little nervous traveling in this area due to a large bus strike, but we made a few changes to our itinerary and did not face any major problems.

We took a boat tour of the lake and visited one of the Islas Flotantes (floating islands) of the Uros people.  The islands are made of reeds from the lake, as are the houses and boats used by the people on the islands.  We took a quick trip in one of the reed boats and even ate a piece of a reed, which is also used in some of the food.

The lake was beautiful, and we could see the mountains of Bolivia from the floating island.  It was a wonderful day!

Our next stop in Peru was to visit the beautiful, whitewashed city of Arequipa and its famous Santa Catalina Convent.  Arequipa is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and you can read more about the history of the city here.

We had beautiful weather for touring the city.  It was sunny and relatively warm.  There were geraniums growing everywhere, and the overall feel of the city was very different from the rural, mountainous area in the Colca Valley.  Here are some pictures from Arequipa and the convent.

Later on our journey, we stopped for a visit in Colca Canyon and the town of Chivay.  The trip was not easy, considering the extremely high elevation.  I experienced altitude sickness and had a headache and nausea.  It was also difficult to stay warm at night without central heating in our room.  I went to sleep wrapped in everything warm I could find.    The town was quiet and very small.  Once we were awakened by the call of a rooster, we boarded a bus to travel through the stunning Colca Valley.  In this area, there are pre-Incan agricultural terraces all around.  The terraces help people to farm in mountainous regions.  We drove along some very curvy, steep roads, past alpacas and vicuñas, to see the flight of the condors, which happens in the morning between 7 and 9 a.m.  The wingspan of the condor is enormous, and seeing them fly is majestic.

    Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world, almost twice the depth of the Grand Canyon, and the views from the Cruz del Condor were amazing!

For more travel information related to Colca Canyon, visit the BBC Travel page.

After Pisco and Paracas, we traveled to the Nazca Desert in southern Peru to see one of the world’s great mysteries.  The ancient lines, believed to have been created by the Nazca people approximately 2,000 years ago, form recognizable shapes that only be viewed from above.  After touring some of the aqueducts nearby, we boarded a small (I mean really, really small) plane to fly over the lines.  Here are some pictures of the desert, aqueducts, and Nazca lines.  They are fascinating!  I still find it amazing that they have not been destroyed over time, especially with the harsh weather conditions of the desert.

Click here to view a documentary on the Nazca people and their society and accomplishments.

IN THE NEWS!  Recently, the Nazca lines were in the news when a pilot flying over the desert discovered new lines.  Read about the discovery in this Huffington Post article.

From Lima, my sister and I traveled to the town of Pisco.  We had made a hotel reservation by e-mail from Lima, and had chosen to visit the area based on a recommendation from a friend.  What we hadn’t known; however, was that this town had been hit by a massive earthquake in 2007.  When we arrived in Pisco, we had to take a small taxi attached to a motorcycle to our hotel.  It was a bumpy ride over dirt roads that had been destroyed by the earthquake.  All around us were homes and businesses that had also crumbled.  I remember feeling pretty ignorant for choosing a tourist site that had faced such a hardship.  How could we have not known?  It was truly an uncomfortable feeling checking into our beautiful little hotel, while across the street, families were struggling to rebuild what they had lost.  No news article, video, or book could have explained the impact of the earthquake better than seeing it with our own eyes, and I am almost grateful that we had not known in advance.  Perhaps we would have skipped the town had we been more aware, and we would have missed a valuable learning experience.

We also would have missed some fun and beautiful experiences in the region near Pisco, such as

driving the mototaxi,

seeing the sea lions, penguins, and giant candelabra geolyph of the Islas Ballestas,

or touring the dunes, cliffs, and beaches of the Paracas National Reserve.

Read more about the reserve and the region here.

I have been teaching Spanish in Pennsylvania for 10 years.  Every year my students ask me where I’m from and scratch their heads when they find out that I am from Connecticut and of Austrian, Polish, and Italian descent.  They then ask me why, of all possible subjects, I chose Spanish.  There are many reasons, but most of all, I love language because it connects me with people from around the world.  By studying Spanish and the cultures of those who speak it, I have engaged in some of the most interesting and fulfilling experiences of my life.  My idea for this blog is to share some of those experiences with students so that they may learn something new, and so that they can begin to understand why I am so passionate about what I teach. We sometimes joke in the classroom that I became a teacher to seek revenge for all the years of homework I was forced to endure.  The reality is that I never stopped learning, and I would like to use my travel experiences to convey this message.

For my own purposes, this blog will be a useful tool to record my memories and keep track of what I have seen and done in my travels.

It is also my intention to have my students publish travel blogs of their own as a way to practice Spanish and share research on various Spanish-speaking countries.  Creating my first blog will help me to familiarize myself with this tool and to form a sample to share when I do assign the project.

Let the world change you, and you can change the world. – Ernesto “Che” Guevara