I am sitting here on this beautiful sunny fall afternoon, anxiously waiting for the Chilean National Rodeo competition to come on TV at 5:30, and thinking about the short time I have left here in Los Alamos. It is hard to imagine that in about 1 month I will be leaving this wonderful country and these incredible people. Since day one last July, I have been impressed with the people of Chile, but it wasn’t until a devastating natural disaster hit that I gained a whole new respect for these Chileans that I have come to call my own.
Fuerza Chile Fuerza!
After 8 days the water began to return sporadically. After 12 days, I was just starting to get used to eating dinner and listening to the evening news on the radio to candle light, when the electricity finally came back. It has now been over 43 days since the earthquake hit, and there are still thousands of people that are still without water and electricity, and many still living in tents. With all of the adversity facing this devastated country, they have truly proven and shown their true character. With their faces against the wind, Chile turned head on and was ready to rebuild a stronger Chile.
In less than a day the moral and physical reconstruction was underway. It is as if the earthquake has created a more unified Chile, that I didn’t expect to see come from such an event. Chilean flags are flying everywhere, neighbors are helping neighbors, friends helping strangers, and students are filling buses and going to near by cities to help clean up. People are painting “Fuerza Chile!” and “Chile Ayuda Chile!” on their cars and trucks to show support. All are working as one to help rebuild this beautiful country. In the days following the earthquake, I made countless visits to the municipal building to offer my assistance, but more times than not, I was told; “Thank you, but we are actually overloaded with volunteers”. For every person still living in a tent, or without water or electricity, there are 3 or 4 people working to help them solve that problem.
With the cold and rainy winter creeping closer and closer, the biggest problem facing Chile is providing the thousands of people without homes, a safe and warm place to live. Between the national government, local governments, and a NGO named “Un Techo Para Chile” (A Roof for Chile), suitable temporary housing complexes called “Mediaguas” are being provided and constructed.
Although it has often been horrifying to see the destruction left by the earthquake on the news, it has been quite uplifting to see everyone’s positive attitude and “we can do this” spirit.
Back to School, Back to School…
Although Im sure the kids enjoyed having a little bit of an extended summer vacation, it is good to see how excited they have all been to get back to school and be with their friends. With my shortened time left at the high school, I have changed my schedule and will only be working with the incoming freshman students. We have now been back in school for 2 weeks, but there are many schools around the region that have not begun due to damaged school buildings and classrooms. With a little hope, and a few extra hard prayers, all the students in Chile will be back to school in some way or another by the end of April.
Since the earthquake, I have enjoyed spending time with the family around the house, cooking with Tia Iris, chopping wood for Tio Lucho, and preparing for the Minneapolis Half-Marathon in early June, which I will be running with one of my best buddies Brent Hagerty. I have also made a few excursions with the family to pick peaches and apples to make some delicious apple cider called Chicha. The perfect fall weather drink!
It is amazing to think that my time here has almost come to an end! With only 5 weeks left in Chile, I am doing everything I can to soak up every last bit!
I don’t know if my life will ever be this eventful ever again. Im not sure if I have subconsciously been following the craziness, or the craziness has been following me. Going from being trapped in the mountains of Peru by a flood and being evacuated by helicopter, to earthquake relief in southeastern Peru which happened to be the most impoverished place I have ever seen, to then surviving the 5th largest earthquake in the history of the world has been quite the adventure. It has now been nearly 2 weeks since the earthquake hit Chile, and the signs of a regular lifestyle are just now starting to come back.
Big Smiles, and Even Bigger Hearts
Pisco Sin Fronteras- Pisco, Peru
After my interesting adventure with the floods and mud slides in Machu Pichu, I was on my way to Piso Peru to do some disaster relief of my own. In August of 2007, the Peruvian coastal town by the name of Pisco, was hit by a massive earthquake that completely changed the lives of every Pisco resident within a matter of minutes. Seeing the conditions in which these people live as they struggle to rebuild their lives was as hard as anything I have seen in my life, but to hear about how their own government turned their backs on them was like a dagger to the heart.
There is a law,that says that if an earthquake measures above an 8.0 on the Richter scale, the government is required by law to provide assistance. After the earthquake hit in Pisco, the US government measured it at an 8.7 or higher. Sure enough, the Peruvian government claimed that it was only a 7.9, therefore removing themselves from the obligatory assistance. I can’t imagine being stabbed in the back by your own government. To this day, there has been little to no assistance from the government, but an organization started by a local man, and run by volunteers from all over the world, has drastically changed the lives of thousands of people in Pisco.
(Childrens play space behind home)
Pisco Sin Fronteras was an organization that was started one year after the earthquake in an effort to give the people of Pisco what they deserve. The earthquake devastated the city, destroying 80% of the homes and killing around 600 people. Pisco Sin Fronteras gives assistance to the people who most need it by helping build houses, schools, sanitation units and helping with other community-based projects.
(Normal home in Pisco)
(Nothing beats a game of Peek-a-boo)
Pisco Peru was a severely poverty stricken city before the earthquake hit, so you can imagine what it is like now. The majority of the people are living in shantytowns that popped up after the quake, where people are living with less than the necessities of life. Nearly 3 years later, there are still some people living in tents, but the majority have moved up a step (a small step) to small shacks made of four bamboo poles (one for each corner), a mesh/bamboo type wall (see photos), a tarp for a roof, and dirt or sand floors. On a daily basis as I was working, I saw families that have lived on a dirt floor their entire life, homes made out of plastic and wire, and young children that were sick but couldn’t afford medication. I saw mothers who were slaving over cooking dinner while breastfeeding a newborn baby all the while fighting off the dust that is flying into her eyes and the pot of white rice which is all she can afford to cook. It was normal to see 6-7 children all sleeping in the same bed. Nearly every household didn’t have a bathroom, but rather a 5-gallon pale in a dusty corner without any privacy whatsoever. As I walked down the streets, I would read signs indicating that families could have access to the neighborhood spicket for water only once a week. Children would be playing in the street with a piece of plastic that they had pulled out of the garbage on the side of the road because they couldn’t afford proper toys. But with that being said, I haven’t seen so many bright smiles in my entire time here in South America.
It was refreshing, and a good reminder, to see how happy these people can stay with such little material wealth. Although they have so “little”, they truly have “more” than I have ever seen before. They seemed to have a great outlook on life that I think we could all benefit from. Spending 2 weeks in Pisco Peru, was a good reminder to me of what is truly important in life.
Happiness is not measured by the “things” you have, but rather the “people” you surround yourself with.
The relationships we have with friends and family are what make life worth living, and the people of Pisco understand that. They are also waiting with open arms to befriend even the scraggliest of volunteers from Northfield Minnesota. Throughout my short time in Pisco, I enjoyed working in a neighborhood named El Molino which was probably the most impoverished neighborhood in all of Pisco. The first two days I worked there, we poured a cement floor for a family of 13 (all in the same home) who have lived on a dirt floor their entire lives. The family was incredibly grateful, and had huge smiles glued to their faces the entire time we were working. During those 2 days, the family’s 7-year-old son took a particular liking to me, after our second day of work, he was begging me not to leave. For the next 5 days, I returned to El Molino for various projects, such as building doors for peoples homes out of scrap wood, putting up plastic walls in a home, or building a family a home from scratch so they could move out of their Coleman tent for the first time in 2 and a half years. Each day I returned, I made a visit to the same family that we poured the cement floor for. I quickly got to know them, and they got to know me. The day before I was to depart Pisco to return to Chile, they invited me over for a special lunch before my bus left the next day.
The next day I returned for lunch and to say goodbye, and I could tell that they put everything they could into this lunch. When they brought me my plate, I saw a dish that I have seen thousands of times in my life; spaghetti noodles with good ole tomato sauce. But with all the love put into it, that was the best spaghetti I have ever had. Although they didn’t have much, they were willing to give everything to show a little hospitality. I was quite special.
After lending a hand in some earthquake relief, I was off to Chile where I was soon to experience a little quaking of the earth myself.
Catastrophe #2 of 2010
Earthquake Survival 101- Los Alamos, Chile
Just as I was recovering from my first natural disaster of 2010 with the floods and mud slides in Machu Pichu, I soon experienced my second in less than two months! After 57 hours and 3 nights on a bus, I had finally arrived at my home in southern Chile. It was 9:30 PM on February 26th, and I was happy to be out of my bus seat, and enjoying some fresh home made bread straight from Iris’ oven. I spent the next few hours showing photos and sharing stories from my travels in Peru, and listening to stories from the family’s summer vacation. At about 1:30 AM, we all felt that it was time for bed, and that we could continue sharing stories in the morning. At about 1:40 AM, I was snuggled up in my bed on the second floor of my host family’s home. The rest is history…
Saturday, February 27th
3:30 AM I was woken up to the sound of everything in my room shaking and my bed sliding from side to side. The trembling started soft, but quickly got stronger. Within seconds, the house was shaking uncontrollably. I immediately jumped out of bed and ran for the door. I opened my host sisters door and yelled to her; “Bajas bajas altiro!” (“Get down stairs right now!”) I then turned for the stairs. I attempted running down them, but with the stairs swaying 2-3 feet from side to side, I quickly lost my footing and fell all the way to the bottom. With the adrenaline, I don’t think I felt a thing. I was quickly back on my feet running for the front door of the house.
I had immediately remembered what they had told me while I was in Pisco Peru. “If there is another earthquake here, do not even think about the old fashion ‘stand under the door’ technique because the whole damn house is going to fall down anyways. Get outside immediately.” Little did I know, that in a place like Chile where the houses are built much stronger than those in Peru, going outside is just as much of a danger as the street lights and electrical wires could just as easily fall.
Regardless, with in what was probably 15 or 20 seconds from the time the earthquake started, I was outside the house screaming to my family who were all still inside. Standing outside, barefoot and in nothing but my boxers, all I could hear was the shaking of the houses around me, and the shattering of glass in all directions. After what felt like 10 minutes, but in reality was about 90 seconds, the shaking slowed down, and I re-entered the house.
I first went to my host brothers room where he was screaming and crying, as a television had fallen on his back. I soon helped him get the TV off of him, and as soon as I knew he was alright, I was off to my host parents room at the end of the hallway. By the time I got there, they had both gotten out of bed, and were searching for flashlights. My host father and I then quickly ran back up stairs to my host sisters room, where she was screaming at the top of her lungs and crying uncontrollably. We quickly got her out of her room and down stairs.
The electricity was cut off, and at 3:30 AM, it was still pitch black out.
(Initial damage to local grocery store- Porvenir)
3:40 AM Matias, my host brother, and I were in the family truck flying around town stopping at every family members home to make sure everyone was alright. Luckily, everyone was ok, and from what we could tell, there was not a ton of damage to the homes and buildings in town.
3:50 AM We were back at the home, where they had managed to find 3 flashlights and a few candles. We immediately walked around the house inspecting the damage. Nearly every plate in the house had fallen, and almost all had shattered. The family TV had fallen off the shelf, but luckily didn’t suffer any damage. In each of the bedrooms, the closet doors either broke off or fell down, and nearly every single item in them was emptied out by the quake. Although the house looked like a mess, the structure was still standing and hadn’t suffered any damage as far as we could tell at the time. We still hadn’t ventured upstairs as we were all scared to be trapped up there if another earthquake came.
(Broken plates in Kitchen)
4:10 AM We had managed to find everyone warm clothes, including me and my host sister who had all our things upstairs, and we were out in the street talking with the neighborhood people trying to figure out what happened and if everyone was safe. Once again, good news; no one had been hurt and no one had much damage to their homes.
4:40 AM We were all back in the house sitting in the kitchen, where, as they informed me, was the strongest part of the house. As we sat around to candle light, still in shock of what had happened, we felt fairly strong tremors about every 60 seconds. The tremors were not just light shakes, but strong enough to rumble the entire house. For the next 3 hours we sat around, reliving the earthquake every time there was tremor, and waiting for the sun to rise. We also filled up every single pot and plastic bottle we could find with water, as we knew it would be cut off shortly due to broken pipes and contaminated water.
(photo taken from CNN.com/damage nearby Concepcion)
8:00 AM The sun was just coming up, and we were finally able to get a better look at the damage. Once again, good news; one wall in the living room had a small crack in it, but other than that, there was nothing we hadn’t seen already with our flashlights.
The rest of the day was spent sitting around listening to the terrible news coming from the radio, and walking around town sharing and listening to horror stories with everyone we came into contact with. At this point, we were only getting local radio station broadcasts which was about as good as walking down the street and asking any Joe Shmo what happened. The local radio station still had very limited contact beyond our small local region, but I have to give them credit, they were doing their best and doing what they could to keep the towns people calm.
(photo taken from CNN.com)
10:15 AM We were finally starting to get more nation wide news. The earthquake was officially measured as an 8.8 on the Richter scale, and was said to be the 5th largest earthquake in the history of the world. The epicenter of the earthquake was in a small town by the name of Cobquecura, only about 150 miles from Los Alamos. We were hearing of the horrifying news of the damage in several towns around Los Alamos, especially a large city by the name of Concepcion; I had passed through Concepcion in bus only 6 hours before the earthquake hit. Bridges had collapsed, buildings had crumbled into pieces, thousands were without homes, and hundreds were claimed dead. It was like a nightmare, and I was just hoping I would wake up.
At this moment, I was more worried for my family and friends back in Minnesota, than I was for myself as I was sure they would see the news of the severe damage in the towns near Los Alamos, and would have no idea if I was ok. All telephone service was cut off, and there was absolutely no way to get a hold of them.
7:00 PM I some how had one bar of service on my cell phone. Tried my Mom; call wouldn’t go through. Tried my Dad; no luck either. “Damn it! Come on service! Stay with me!” Finally tried Bridget; I soon heard the ringer.
Bridget: “Hello?”
Me: “Hey Bridge! Im safe! We are ok here in Los Alamos!”
Bridget: “Oh my goodness. That is gr….”
Phone call was cut off.
Sunday, February 28th
1:30 AM Still sitting around the kitchen table with the family, listening to the radio to candle light. We were all putting off the moment we would go to bed. Everyone was scared to death to go back to sleep.
2:30 AM Woken up by incredibly strong tremor.
3:15 AM Woken up by another tremor. This would happen about 3 more times throughout the night.
2:00 PM I was walking down the street with my host mother and sister, and we heard news that people were looting the supermarket near our house called Porvenir which had suffered some damage as the roof fell through in numerous places. We immediately walked to the supermarket to check it out. Sure enough, there were people who had broken down the front door and were running down the street with arms full of goods from the within the supermarket. Within a few minutes, three police officers had shown up, and were getting people out of the supermarket. 10 minutes later, the towns people were throwing rocks at the police officers, and they were responding with smoke bombs and tear gas, doing what ever they could to keep the people under control. It was like watching a movie. It was something I had seen on the news after natural disasters in the past, but I never thought I would see it with my own two eyes.
(one families personal stash of goods from supermarket)
(Inside Porvenir Supermarket)
30 minutes later, the owner of the supermarket showed up, entered, and left 15 minutes later with a few things in his hands. He had a small conversation with the police officers, and he left. The police soon came over to the people and said; “Go right ahead! Take what you want!” As the police drove away, the real madness began. I have never seen people so filled with crazyness in my life. People were entering with empty plastic bags, and leaving with the bag over flowing with anything from cooking oil, toothpaste, dish soap, canned goods, and bottles of wine. They were not just taking the necessities, but anything they could get their hands on. I even saw one family even taking the dancing Santa Clause manikin that had been in front of the store around Christmas time. Within 2 hours, the entire supermarket was emptied. I mean empty!
(1 hour later, people still looting)
(People coming with wheel barrels to fill with goods from supermarket)
Monday, February 29th
4:00 AM The entire family was woken up to the sirens, signifying that there had been a fire somewhere in Los Alamos. We looked out the window, and there was a glow in the pitch black sky coming from the direction of the supermarket. We bundled up, and were all walking in the direction of the glow. Sure enough, someone had started the supermarket Porvenir on fire.
11:00 AM We heard rumors that people were looting the second of three supermarkets in town. This time it was the “Frutti Market”. As we walked up to the corner to check out what was going on, it was the same madness as the day before. Accept this time, people were tearing down the side walls to get inside, and breaking in through the roof.
Im not sure what it is, but some people seem to change when there is a catastrophe. I couldn’t tell if they were just using the earthquake as an excuse to rob the super market, or if they were worried that they wouldn’t have the necessities for a long time. Either way, it was like something I have only seen on CNN or in Time Magazine. I know that there are a lot of poor people in Los Alamos, but at one moment, I watched three grown men fighting over a single bottle of shampoo.
Later that day, around 75 to 100 military personnel were sent to Los Alamos to keep things under control. Since that point, we have had no problems with looting.
(taken from CNN.com)
Sunday, March 7th
8:00 AM After 8 days of getting water from a few local wells, and using it sparingly, the community water was back on! Still no electricity.
Wednesday, March 10th
9:30 PM After 11 days of maneuvering around the house with my head lamp, and eating dinner to candle light, the electricity returned! Ill be honest, it took a little while to get used to have lights again.
It has now been 2 weeks since the earthquake hit Chile, and things are just now starting to return to normal (or at least in Los Alamos). Stores are starting to open back up, and people are starting to go about their normal life. Although Los Alamos and its inhabitants are lucky to have little damage, there are thousands of Chileans that are not so lucky. There are countless people without homes, without work, and have friends and family members that were taken by the earthquake. Currently, the death toll is up to nearly 300, and is growing.
Classes in the high school where I work, were supposed to begin on March 3rd, but due to some damages to the school, classes have been postponed until at least April 5th. Lets just hope they get everything back together by then. With all my free time I have been offering whatever help I can at the municipality building, but at the local levels, little is organized for volunteers. Oddly, with all the destruction in the nearby towns, it has been hard to find ways to offer my help. I have also been working on a local potato farm pulling potatoes! Ill tell you more about that another time.
HOW TO HELP- If you're interested in donating to the recovery efforts in Chile, there are several online fundraisers already up and running. International charity organization Worldvision has set up a disaster response fund at www.worldvision.org. you can also donate to the American Red Cross' international response fund at www.american.redcross.org.
If your still interested, below is a video I put together from my little Machu Pichu adventure!
The past month has been quite incredible in the life of Matthew Grove with this past week turning out to be one of the craziest weeks of my entire time here in South America. Over the past month, I was fortunate to have an incredible time traveling with Bridget, see some of the worlds driest desert in northern Chile, and head to Peru where I have taken Spanish classes, visited Machu Pichu and been trapped in a small mountain village for 6 days due to flooding. Needless to say, the past month has been quite an adventure.
A Long Awaited Visit
On January 1st, I had the incredible joy of meeting my girlfriend Bridget at the airport in Santiago Chile. It had been nearly 6 months without seeing her, so it was a much needed visit. With an even shorter visit than by brother and dad had, there was surely no time to waste. Day one was spent exploring Santiago and getting Bridget caught up on sleep after her red eye flight the night before. We hit up all the hot spots such as the fresh fish market, Chile´s capital building, and Santa Lucia as well as enjoyed a few glasses of delicious Chilean wine while watching the sunset from atop a hill called San Cristobal. Although I had seen all of these things, it was so enjoyable to just walk the city streets and catch up with Bridget.
(just a little excited)
(Capital building in Santiago)
(yummy fish from the market!)
(Enjoying her first Chilean empanada)
Bright and early the next morning, we were hopping onto a bus and were off to a city by the name of Valporaiso which is known as one of the most unique cities in all of Chile and quite possibly in all of South America. We spent the day wondering the winding streets and getting lost in the maize of hills and beautifully colored houses. My favorite part of our short time in Valporaiso was a visit to an old prison that had been converted into a graffiti museum. The contrast between the hard ridged old building and the unique artwork was outstanding.
(Graffiti Museum)
(artwork on the streets of Valporaiso)
The next morning we were back on a bus (this time for 7 hours) to a beach city in northern Chile named La Serena. In this warm and sunny city, we settled down for the next 4 days which were incredibly relaxing as we essentially spent them laying around and reading on the beach, trying to catch as many rays as possible. Now that I think about it, all the time in the sun had its set backs as each night I rolled around in bed struggling to sleep due to some pretty burned skin. Regardless, it was well worth it. During one of our days in La Serena, we got a little abistious and rented bikes. We spent the day biking along the beach to a nearby city by the name of Coquimbo, where we checked out a cool fish market, saw some unbelievably enormous sea lions, and hiked up to probably the biggest cross monument I have ever seen. We once again returned to La Serena tired and sun burned. (sunset from beach in La Serena)
(That is one huge completo!)
(A monster fish!)
Penguins and dolphins here we come!!! A quick hour and a half drive from La Serena is the infamous Parque Nacional Penguino de Humboldt which is known for its Chilean penguins, large variety of bird species, and dolphins. Lets just say that it lived up to its reputation. We spent the entire day with our wonderful tour guide exploring the two islands that consist of the park by boat. It was quite the adventure as we floated around in search of the animals that inhabit the islands. My favorite part was when we found the dolphins that were soaring through the air and swimming right along next to us.
(Ready for dolphins and penguins!)
With only two days left before Bridget had to leave, we headed into the always sunny Elqui Valley whicih is known for brewing the famous pisco (typical Chilean liquir) as well as star gazing. And that we did! We spent the afternoon touring the Capel Pisco Plant, and in the evening we went to a near by observatory to check out the stars. Our tour at the observatory was quite possibly one of the most interesting and mind blowing tours I have ever been on. I have never seen stars so clear in my life. It was fun to observe constalations that we never see in the northern hemisphere like the Southern Cross. The sky was so clear that we were actually able to view two complete galaxies (Magallanas Galaxies) which appeared as clouds in the sky. I dont think that I have ever felt so small in my entire life.
(Biggest Pisco Sour of all time!)
(sunset from Elqui Valley)
The next day we were back to La Serena to spend our last day on the beach, before our 7 hour bus ride back to Santiago to get Bridget to the airport. The following day (the day Bridget flew out) came far to fast, and I once again had to go through an incredibly difficult goodbye. Although I tried to convince her to stay in South America with me for the next 4 months, it just didnt work. Im not exactly sure why not though! Regardless, our goodbye was inevidable. It will be great to see her again in 3 and a half months.
Heading North
Imediately after dropping Bridget off at the airport, I was back to the bus station and hopped on a bus for the next 23 hours. I had been reading Ernesto Che Guevara´s diary titled ¨Motorcycle Diaries¨ which is about his travels accross South America at about my age, and I couldnt help but feel a bit of a connection with him;
´It was kind of a crossroads, at least it was for me. I was looking to the future, through the narrow band of Chile and to what lay beyond…´
-Ernesto Che Guevara
(Salt flat in Northern Chile)
I was heading to driest desert in the world, known as the Atacama Desert. I spent the next 4 days based in a city named San Pedro de Atacama in which I was able to make some truly astonishing day trips. I visited the Titio Gysers at sunrise fallowed by a nice relaxing soke in some nearby hot springs, floated in Laguna Cejar which has a higher salt concentration than the Dead Sea, walked across an incredibly large salt flat which blew my mind, and mountain biked to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) which has a very fitting name. This was my first experience in a desert, let alone the driest in the world, so I was quite amazed at how oddly beautiful a desert can be.
(Salt flat in Northern Chile)
Peru Here I Come!!!
After making the short stop in San Pedro, I was off to Peru. I crossed the Peruvian boarder, got my passport stamped, as was on my way to Puno which is a city on the shores of Lake Titicacca. Puno was a great start to my Peruvian adventure, as I spent my time visiting smaller, somewhat unknown Incan and pre-Incan ruins, visiting the infamous islands of Lake Titicacca and getting used to the Peruvian spanish.(Islas Uros- floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca)
(Peruvian boy on Lake Titicaca)
Cusco and My Machu Pichu Adventure
After Puno, I was on the road heading North West for Cusco, the Incan capital of the world. The city is a bustleing city, full of tourists from all over the world. Despite all of the tourists, it is quite an incredible city that has been fun to explore. Upon arrival in Cusco, my plan was to take two weeks of intensive Spanish classes, and then be on my way to do some volunteering elsewhere in Peru. But things have not really gone as planned. The first week went pefect. Taking Spanish classes was just what I needed, and it was really great to focus on improving my Spanish and my abilities to communicate in a new language. Then came the weekend, which started out with a bang, and went straight downhill from there. On Saturday afternoon, I hopped on the train, and was off to visit the famous Incan city, Machu Pichu, for the weekend. In order to get to Machu Pichu, you have two options: hiking the Incan trail which takes 4 days, or taking the train to a city named Aguas Calientes and taking a small hike up to Machu Pichu. There is not a single road into this city. Only a hiking trail and the train tracks. Because I had classes the following Monday, I chose the train. I arrived in Aguas Calientes later on Saturday evening, and checked into a hostel to get some rest for my early morning walk up to Machu Pichu. The doors open at 6 AM and only the first 400 people get a special ticket to go to a different part of the Incan city. I was number 107. The day started out incredibly foggy and rainy, but by about 11 or 12 o´clock things cleared up, revealing the largest of the preserved Incan cities, Machu Pichu. I spent the following 12 hours walking around the ruins, taking myself back in time, and admiring how unbelievably advanced the Incan civilizations were for their time. At about 4 PM, I began my walk back to the small mountain village of Aguas Calientes to catch my train back to Cusco. But things didnt necessarily go as planned.
(Machu Pichu hiding behind clouds in the background)
It is currently the Peruvian rainy season, but they are recieving substantially more rain than they are used to. I arrived at the train station to discover that all trains leaving had been canceled, and that no one was getting out due to the rising river level (which runs along the train tracks the entire way back to Cusco). I checked back into my hostel, with hopes that the roaring river would subside and I would be able to get out the following day. I wasnt so lucky, as the following day water levels were rising and sections of the train tracks had been sucked down into the river and destroyed. Things were not looking good. It was soon realized that our only way out was going to be helicopter evacuation, but the weather was terrible the helicopters couldn´t fly. The next 4 and a half days were spent sitting around waiting for the weather to clear up, and for helicopters to begin evacuating us. At no point was I in any sort of physical danger, but I remember at one point walking down the street towards the area of town closer to the river, and all of a sudden a stampead of people came sprinting around the corner screaming and crying. Part of the river had broke, and had taken a large section of a city street and some buildings into the river. Things were starting to get serious! The towns people with the help of some volunteers were able to get things under control, but the major problem was people running out of money. All the ATMs had run out of money, and most places in this small village didnt accept credit card, so people were without cash to pay for a place to stay or for food to eat. The municipality opened up the local church and the gymnasium for people to sleep, and handed out free lunch and dinner to the people without money. I had a bit more luck than most people.
(Overlooking Machu Pichu)
I randomly ran into one of my favorite college professors from the education department at Gustavus, who had been on a month long service project with one other professor and 22 Gustavus students. It was quite the coinsidence. They kindly took me in for the following 3 days, giving me a place to stay at their hotel and more food than I could eat. It was great as I got to catch up with my professor as well as get to know the other professor who is an incredible person with great stories as well as a handful of the students. Throughout the entire experience, there was one small incident that will stick with me for a long long time. After the 4th day of being trapped, I ran into three middle aged Peruvian women, who didn´t appear to be wealthy by any standards, and were handing out free bread and coffee to the tourists. These were three women who had plenty of things to worry about themselves, as food supplies for them were running short and their town was being destroyed by the flood, and here they were handing out food and coffee to tourists who have probably never had to worry about a meal in their life. This act of kindness that may not seem to big to many people of the world, was no small act, but rather the largest showing of kindness I have seen in a long time. By 4 o´clock on Thursday afternoon I was being rushed on to a helicopter for the first time in my life, and was flown through the beautiful Peruvian Andes Mountains which left me speachless. At least I got an exciting helicopter ride out of the deal along with a story I will never forget.
Whats Next?
Although I lost a week in Machu Pichu, I am quite fortunate as I don´t have a strict schedule for the next month. I will finish out my Spanish classes here in Cusco this week while volunteering at a local orphanage in the afternoons, and the following week I will head to the coast where I will do some volunteering to help rebuild houses in a town that was demolished by an earthquake about one year ago. As always, I hope all is well with you and let me know how your doing!
(just a little excited)
(Capital building in Santiago)
(yummy fish from the market!)
(Enjoying her first Chilean empanada)
(artwork on the streets of Valporaiso)
(sunset from beach in La Serena)
(A monster fish!)
(sunset from Elqui Valley)
