trekking amoung peruvian protesters

for those of you who received the GC email about our adventure early, early friday morning... it was nothing like they made it out to be. that email was to reassure all the crazies that life was okay. now, life WAS okay, but it was far more huge of a deal than they made it out to be. we were told not to exaggerate any of the events that happened - the following is not an exaggeration.

i thought my next blog would be about machu picchu and how amazing that experience was. well... that experience was quite amazing, can not lie. but it seems like that happened a century ago, and the past 48 hours have been far more overwhelming, adventurous, and incredible in a different way than machu picchu.

at the moment, i'm writing from an internet cafe in cusco. i was supposed to be on a bus on my way to chimbote, but that one isn't happening until tuesday. and now i shall explain:

we got back to ollantaytambo, an extremely small village in the andes where we were staying for the machu picchu adventure, at about 8 pm thursday night. we had to walk a mile and a half from the train station to our hostel in the pouring rain, and we were all thoroughly exhausted from exploring all of machu picchu for about 6 hours earlier in the day. i would estimate i walked 5-7 miles there. at our hostel, we all sat down for dinner and then our tour guide elvis stood up to make an annoucement, which was that we apparently had to be on the bus, packed and ready to travel to cusco at 3:00 am friday morning. the reason being that cusco was going through a 2 day strike and it could potentially be difficult to get through, therefore they wanted to aim to get to the airport at 5:30 am and wait until 11:00 am when our flight would take off for lima. in my last blog i explained a bit of the situation here in peru, but i'll give a brief overview again. basically, the government is passing a law that would let developement happen near the Incan ruins here in the Andes. people are pissed with an incredibly good reason to be. but not only are they mad about the fact that developers will come in and destroy their beautiful land, but they're also upset with their living conditions, their pay, their lives. here in peru, when people are angry about one thing, it developes into about 32 other things, therefore everyone gets invovled and things can get crazy. i hope that gives you a bit more context of why the following events then happened.

so, we're all driving along in a freezing cold bus, tired and hungry, just wanting to get to the airport. we appruptly stop because apparently their is a large tree across the road. their are a few other cars ahead of us, and people pile out to remove the tree. the first tree was removed after about 10 min. and we went on our way. only 5 min. down the winding, mountain road we encountered another tree. at this moment we all understood that these trees were intentially placed on the road as a blockade into cusco. this time there were about 10 cars ahead, and as this was a much larger tree, it took about a half hour to remove in the cold rain. we continue on our way and again stop abruptly. honestly, we didn't really know what was going on. we had blinds over our windows and it was still dark out. we just knew the protestors were putting road blocks up so we couldn't drive through to cusco. our tour guide, elvis, got off the bus to talk to people we couldn't see. then all of a sudden we heard many spanish voices outside our bus, screaming different chants, yelling words like "turistos." apparently, it was a mob of drunken men who had decided to stay up all night and then go out on the roads to stop from driving during their strike. the voices grew louder and louder, and then people started pounding on our bus, throwing rocks at it. one man started ramming up against the side, which at that point people started fearing they would push it over. when they started hitting our bus, it was the first time i have ever seen our entire SST group voluntarily shut up. everyone was completely silent, staring straight ahead. the only sounds one could hear were the spanish cries of angry men, the pounds on our bus, and the hiss of the air being let our of our tires. (we were lucky, they only let air out of ours. they actually popped others). i personally didn't know what to think - i had never been in this kind of situation in my whole life. i didn't know what was going to happen, i really didn't know what WAS happening. it was just a shock.

the mob left us and went to a car behind us. at this point, kathryn started freaking out a bit, exclaiming how she didn't want to die. then i went on rant about how they weren't going to injure a bunch of gringos because that would completely screw peru over. number one, tourism industry would end, and they need the tourism. number two, the united states government would flip out and the relations between peru and the u.s. would be disastorous. and number three, possibly the most important to keep in mind, is that the people of peru are pissed off at their goverment, not the tourists. they're angry and all they want is to be heard, and this is the way they can get heard. when a goverment doesn't listen to their people, the people must take drastic measures. and if that means pissing off a tourism company by letting air out of their tires and by throwing rocks at the bus, then that's what they're going to do. they don't want to injure anyone. and that's the truth. i honestly don't think we were actually in danger at any moment.

elvis then got on the bus and explained that we were 9 miles from the entrance of cusco and we had no choice but to walk. if we walked, we would be safe because we would be complying with the strike, almost as if we were joining in. if we would drive, we would not be safe because we would not be complying with the strike (the strike was that no one was going to work for 2 days - or more - and it was happening all over the country, in some places it's still going on, and no one was supposed to drive or use any form of transportation. basically everyone's lives were supposed to stop. and then they had massive protests and burnings and bill board bashings all day). so anyway, we went through our stuff and took what we wanted in small bags, obviously left the large ones, and at 5:50 am we set off for a 9 mile hike to cusco. we had no water, no food, no sleep. it was raining and we were wearing giant ponchos. it was cold. i could see my breath. but somehow the first 4 miles went by quickly. at every village, elvis would stop and ask to buy water at a corner store, but no one would sell it to us because of the strike. we weren't the only ones walking - there were many groups of people, and many deserted cars along side the road as well. the road to cusco had many different blockade methods. we had to walk over large rocks, trees, even dumpsters in the middle of the road. finally after about 5 or 6 miles, a kombi drove up to us yelling, "cusco! cusco!" i really have no idea how he got through. there must have been some back roads? but in any case, we all jumped on and road 2 or 3 miles to the outskirts of cusco, where it was absolutely impossible to get any further by driving. here we were left off again to continue our long trek into the city. the road was a mess of blockades with broken glass everywhere and large rocks. we continued on our way, watched by many andean people who would make comments such as "blancos!" or "gringos" or "hace frio, no?" i don't really know what they thought about the massive group of whities walking through their chaotic protesting, but we just kept walking, not thinking about how tired we were or about how much our legs burned from the day before of hiking up the large mountain, wuaynapicchu, at machu picchu.

finally, after half an hour, we stopped and were told we were going into our tour guide's friends house for breakfast, which was apparently also a very small restaurant. we all piled into this tiny room and they quickly shut the doors behind us, blocking out the sights and sounds of spanish protesting. at this point it was almost 8:00 am and we were all ravenous. it took quite some time to cook eggs, rice, and tomatoes for all of us, but by 9:30 am all our bellys were satisfied and we were craving some sleep. at this point we were informed that no flights had gone out of cusco the day before, nor would they be going out friday because of the strike, and we would be staying in cusco at a hostel for an indefinite amount of time. the hostel was an hour walk from where we were, so we once again prepared ourselves and headed out. unfortunately, as we all piled out of the house/restaurant, there was a group of angry people. apparently our tour guides had done a very bad things in serving us, because it was a strike and no one was supposed to work, and they had worked. there was a bunch of yelling and finally elvis just told us to walk away and keep walking down the road.

i'm going to pause: this whole situation is very complicated. the woman who made us food obviously felt horrible as the protestors were yelling at her for cooking, yet she felt she needed to serve us. she had been along the whole time, so she understood the hunger and fatigue all were going through. everything is complicated because people want to protest. they're protesting because they need money, they need food, they need to be heard. yet people don't want to protest because that means they won't have money for those 2 days they did protest. there are so many different layers that go into this situation - so many i can't even see with my shielded eyes.

our giant gringo pack continued walking down the cusco streets. this time we ran into a huge parade of protestors with signs, sticks, rocks, and chants. it was an incredible sight to see - it gave me goosebumps and tears in my eyes. the stream of people just went on and on and they were so passionate. i've never seen people fight for their lives like these people. their faces just told all. as we continued walking, we saw people tearing down big billboards, burning tires in the middle of the road. we saw businesses, such as lan airline, which we flew on to cusco, have rocks thrown through their windows. we saw people with all sorts of emotions with one common goal - to be heard. they even had signs that said, "tourists. this has nothing to do with you. please just try to understand why we are doing this." okay, so maybe it didn't say exactly that, but something quite similar. and we just kept walking... walking... and walking. i would say we walked 3 miles, give or take, within cusco itself.

finally, about 10 am, we arrived to the hostel, quite dishelved, quite wet, no clean clothes or belongings. our goshen group all gathered together, everyone sitting their, attempting to process what had just happened to us over the past 7 hours. it felt as if it was 3 in the afternoon - we had been up since 3 am after all. duane opened the group up for discussion and we decided to sing "down by the river we pray," which was somehow sentimental and touching, we said a prayer, and they we all went to ours beds with thick llama and alpaca blankets to attempt to regain life from our trek.

i slept on and off from 11 am - 4 pm. i started a cold the second day we arrived in the andes, most likely because of the drastic temperature change (it is SO cold here - i've been quite miserable), and the lack of sleep. in any case, this cold has turned into a full fledge flemmy sickness and i woke up with a clogged up nose, raspy throad, and juicy cough. there wasn't much of a point to shower because we didn't have anything to shower with, nor did we have clean clothes... or even underwear for that matter. our group met and we were informed that they found a flight for us on sunday, therefore we would be spending two more nights in cusco. honestly, i didn't really mind this, i only cared about the whole no clean clothes thing. but we're all making the best of this adventure and situation and so far it has been quite entertaining! last night we went to the plaza in cusco (basically the downtown), and then ate at a really nice pizza restaurant for dinner. we again encountered protestors... it was pretty crazy. they were angry that businesses opened after 7 pm (that was when the strike was technically over so people started actually opening up their businesses and restaurants). in any case, the group of protestors were banging on windows, so as we were walking the stores keepers and restaurant owners were temporarily shutting up their businesses as to not get harassed. once we got inside our restaurant, they locked us all inside and boarded up the outside. the waitress told us it was normal and we shouldn't worry, which honestly none of us were because we all felt we had been through much worse.

i hadn' t eaten since our breakfast at 8:30 that morning, so i was quite ravenous. our table of 7 ended ordering 4 giant, delicious, brick oven baked pizzas. afterwords a group of us wondered next door to a pretty awesome bar called "underground cafe -bar." and we had a pretty nice evening, just hanging out and enjoying each others presence in finally, a relaxing manner. because we slept so late in the day we weren't tired. i ended up not being able to fall asleep until 5:00 am today, due to my sickness (i couldn't breath out of my nose), and probably due to my enourmous nap as well.

unfortunately i woke up at 9:00 am this morning, so at the moment i feel pretty crappy. luckily our bags from the bus arrived late last night, so i at least have my belongings. we have tourist passes for cusco, so there are tons of things to do today, but i'm thinking a nap may be necessary. tonight i'm planning on going to "centro Qosqo de arte nativo danzas folkloricas" which is basically a native dance program. i also wanted to go to the contemporary art museum, but it closes at 1 so i don't think that will happen. i plan to do a bunch of market shopping today - buy all my loved ones some gifts and such. then late tonight we're planning on heading out to a disco tecca, even though all we have our disgusting clothes that we hiked in for 3 days. cusco is the most tourist town i have been in, which has it's negatives and positives, but a positive is that it has an amazing night life. we decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to experience it for at least one night. i'm planning on being even sicker tomorrow, but hopefully i can sleep all day monday in lima and then be fresh and ready to go to chimbote with scott on tuesday. i'm scheduled for a flight tomorrow at noon, which will hopefully land me in lima about 1 in the afternoon.

i feel like this is enough information for one blog entry. i'm still attempting to process the protests, or perhaps process isn't the right word, but i'm still attempting to piece all the events together. i really want to understand the problems of peru better, and i feel like this weekend i received a first hand experience, which i am thankful for. i hope none of you are now worried for my safety, because honestly, we were fine the whole time. it's just a part of life here.

the one thing about this "vacation" that i absolutely loved was that i was able to apply everything i learned in lima. through traveling through all sorts of incan ruins and buildings here in cusco, i was able to apply my andean history and actually see where past events took place. i was able to walk on the same groups that pizzaro and the incans fought on. i was able to walk on the same trails the incan runners delivered messages on. i also was able to apply my knowledge of current politics, decentralization, poverty, and life in peru through witnessing the protests and the everyday lives of people here in more rural peru. i feel like this trip brought all the loose ends together.

i hope to talk to you about all this when i am home.
and i hope you are all safe and well.