A Trip of a Lifetime With My Family in Ecuador and Peru

I’m back to Guayaquil after almost a month of traveling with my family throughout Ecuador and Peru. This will be a trip to remember for a lifetime!

We started out our trip in Quito and Cayambe where we visited my host family from training and my parents got to see the little country house where I lived for three months in the northern sierra. My host family is always so happy when I visit so it was great that my real family and my host family could meet each other.

Dad, Martín and my host Grandpa

Julian, Me and Martín

Mariah and Julian

Then we took a flight to the Galapagos from Quito and spent 4 days 5 nights on the Galapagos Legend Cruise. Each day we had morning and afternoon excursions as we traveled around the archipelago. We really enjoyed our daily hikes with our guide, Valerio, who is a licensed nature guide with the Galapagos National Park. We saw many animals in the wild…seals, giant tortoises, lava crabs, manta rays, sting rays, sharks, many different kinds of fish, blue footed boobies and halks. My favorite part of the trip was swimming for an hour+ with 5 seals. I was snorkeling and all of a sudden saw three seals skimming for food along the ocean floor. After 20 mins of swimming above them, the seals started to approach me and swam circles around me. For the next 40 mins I was face to face with 5 seals who were playing in the shallows of the coral reef.

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We then took a flight to Guayaquil, my home away from home. Mariah got the opportunity to spend a morning with me at one of Hogar de Cristo’s clinics where I do HIV AIDS testing on Tuesdays. Mariah shadowed me as I gave pre and post HIV testing counseling. For the first time in my 4+ months doing pre-consejeria at Hogar de Cristo, two tests of a young Ecuadorian couple came back reactive for HIV antibodies. I have been trained to give back reactive results and to support patient who test reactive for HIV by giving them one-on-one access to the psychologists who work at Fundación VIHDA (an organization in Guayaquil which supports people living with HIV/AIDS). A reactive test result does not mean that the patient is positive for HIV but means that their blood contains antibodies, which might be the result of the presence of HIV or AIDS. After a reactive test, the patients take another test called a confirmatory test in order to see if they are positive or negative for HIV. Before giving the Ecuadorian couple their results, I gave a call to Fundacion VIHDA and made an appointment for them to get a confirmatory test at the Infectious Disease Hospital. A month later I learned that both patients tested positive for HIV and that the husband had passed the virus to his wife.

My parents and Mariah also got the opportunity to visit my office at the Municpio de Guayaquil and to meet all the doctors in my office including my counterpart Dr. Farhat. We also visited the Guayaquil Peace Corps Office and met with my Peace Corps Program Manager, Rebecca. It is still surreal that my family was here in Guayaquil visiting my site. I’m really happy that they got to see where I live and to meet the people who are a part of my life in Guayaquil.

After two days in Guayaquil we traveled by car to the cities of Cuenca and Vilcabamba in the southern sierra of Ecuador. My favorite part about this part of the trip was visiting Incapirca, the last ruins of the Inca Empire in Ecuador. We had a walking tour of the ruins and learned more about the history of how the Incans conquered the Cañari peoples who originally inhabited the site of Incapirca. Seeing the ruins was especially interesting for my parents who both were reading books on the history of the Incas and explorers of the New World.

The Ruins of Incapirca

We then took a flight out of Guayaquil to Lima, Peru and then the next day flew into Cuzco, Peru which was our jumping off point for traveling to the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Cuzco sits at 11,200 feet and is the site of the historic capital of the Inca Empire. Most buildings in the Hisotric District of Cuzco are built on the foundation of Incan houses, temples and holy temples.

We spent three days in the Sacred Valley, also called the Urubamba Valley of the Andes, and took walking tours of ruins such as Ollantaytambo and Písac. Ollantaytambo was the royal home of Emperor Pachacuti who conquered other indigenous groups and claimed the land for the Inca Empire. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru it served a military post for Manco Inca Yupanqui, also know was the leader of the Inca resistance. Today, Ollantaytambo is know as one of the starting points for the three-day, four-night hike known as the Inca Trail. I plan on returning to Peru to do the Inca Trail before I finish my service in the Peace Corps (July 2012)….any family or friends are welcome to join me!! Uncle Dell?? : ) We also took a tour of the highlands above Písac, to the towns of Chincheros, Maras, and the ruins of Moray.

The Ruins of Ollantaytambo where a great battle took place between the Incas and the Spanish Conquistadors

The view from above of the ruins at Moray

On the Peruline train we traveled 1.5 hrs to Aguas Calientes which is the town at the base of Machu Picchu. The train ride was gorgeous, lined with white caped mountains, the Urabamba River and jungle orchids. The first day at Machu Picchu we took a guided tour of the ruins and then went on a long hike called the Sun Gate which is the last 2 hrs of the Inca Trail before reaching Machu Picchu. On the second day, Mariah and I woke up at 2am to take climb the iconic mountain called Huayna Picchu that your see on post cards of Machu Picchu.

Huayna Picchu with the ruins of Machu Picchu below

At 2:40am we arrived at the bus to take us to Machu Picchu and we were #1 in line. We waited in the cold crisp mountain air until 5:30am when the first bus took us up to Machu Picchu. The national park only allows 400 people to hike Huayna Picchu each day so we had to get a stamp for either a 7am or 10am entrance. Since we got there bright and early, we were able to get into the 7am group and were one of the first to start the hike at 7am. Huayna Picchu means “young peak” in Quechua and according to historians, the top of the mountain was the home of the high priest and the Incan virgins of the sun. Each morning the high priest and virgins would climb to the top of the mountain to greet the sun. The hike is a series of steep steps with sheer cliffs and breath taking views of the ruins below. Ascending the mountain is challenging since your body is working harder due to the high altitude. At the very top Mariah and I sat on a rock and looked out onto the valley and ruins below. On the way down there was a whole other set of challenges. The steps are very narrow, so on the way down we had to side step down the stairs and hold onto ropes and cables. It was an amazing feeling to complete the hike and say we climbed Huayna Picchu! The last day in Aguas Calientes we recovered from the hike and caught up on our sleep after waking up at 2am the previous morning.

View of the ruins of Machu Picchu from the top of our hike at Huayna Picchu

The next day we took the train back to Ollantaytambo and then by car traveled to Cuzco. For the next three days we took a walking tour of Cuzco, visited museums and watched parades which were celebrating Corpus Cristi and the sun festival called Inti Raymi. The highlight of Cuzco was seeing the ruins of Sacsayhuamán created by the Killke culture for ceremonial purposes. These people built structures using large 200 ton stones which were in this site for hundreds of years before the Inca, between 900 and 1200 AD.

Sacsayhuamán

After a flight to Lima, the capital of Peru, we took a half day tour of the Centro Historico of Lima. The highlight of Lima for me was walking through the catacombs of Convento de San Francisco, also known was St. Francis Monastery and talking a walk on the boardwalk of Lima.

The next morning my parents and Mariah took me to the airport. It was really tough saying goodbye…even harder than it was for me when I left for Ecuador last year. But I am excited to start my new HIV testing project from the funds that I raised through the Peace Corps Partnership Program.

It was truly an amazing experience traveling with my sister and my parents throughout Ecuador and Peru. I wish Tessa could have been with us but I know she is having adventures of her own in Thailand.

6 months until I get home to San Francisco for Christmas and Mariah’s 21st Birthday!! See you soon family!!