Day 9 More ruins and a flight back to SEA LEVEL!!!

Recorded by Charlie and Ben 

Day 9: “If you live in the past or the future, you're half dead in the present” --Edgar

Crazy quote huh? We'll get to that...

We started off the day later than usual, with a wake up call at 7:45 (Craaazy right?) in the super amazing Taypikala hotel. Breakfast was the EXACT same as Day 6, but man it was delicioso. At 9 we were all on the bus getting ready to go visit the Sillusitani Pre-Incan Burial Site, a religious and spiritual center famed for its hidden gold. It was around an hour drive and many of us played cards along the way. A pack of cows blocked the road for a while.

The bus dropped us off at the bottom of the hill, since authorities closed off the rest of the road leading upwards, forcing us to hike. Along the way, we encountered many stands selling little souvenirs and alpaca themed merchandise. 

Edgar stopped occasionally (thank god this altitude is CRAZY!) to give us historical overviews and geography lessons, pointing out fragments of Pre-Incan pottery and bones.

 The site had been ravaged by Spanish explorers and time, leaving behind 20% of the original site. Legend tells of a hidden collection of gold, which had been intended to be used for the ransom of the last Incan captured by the Spanish. Spanish explorers and local farmers systematically sent searchers in pursuit of the gold, which was supposedly hidden in the burial ground. 
 

They dug up tombs with golden treasures and used dynamite to excavate the area. Eventually, a stockpile of 500 gold pieces was discovered, shedding some validity on the legend. The gold was transferred to Lima for storage, and was only recently returned, although 300 of the original stockpile had gone missing.

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We climbed past ruins of a huge wall, which used to give the site a fortress-like appearance. At the top, we encountered the remains of large towers which housed the bodies. The towers had been made with volcanic rock. Its porous structure allowed water and ice to break apart the rock, causing the towers to fall apart. One of the larger, more intact towers gave us insight to a metaphorical meaning of the towers. The towers were shaped like penises, with a round base, representing the uterus. 

The combination depicted the joining of the Father Sky and Mother Earth. Leaders were put in fetal position to represent their new birth. They were slowly lowered from the top of the tower, since the door was only small enough that those helping the burial could crawl in and out of the tower.  

We then moved on to a scenic view of a lake and a large island in the center. As we walked around the tower Edgar asked us to be careful where we walked - as weathering of the mountain was causing human remains to become visible along the path we were walking....  Libby is kneeling next to part of a skull that is now visible and you can see it better in the picture below Libby in the lower right corner.

Edgar explained the mindset of the indigenous people. They believed that the present was the most important and based their lives on that belief. We were given time to appreciate the view and reflect on the trip. 

Afterwards, some people headed back down to the bus, purchasing goods along the way. Mr. Papagayo bought a large, fluffy alpaca doll and Sophia happened to buy the exact same sweater that Spencer and Dylan had bought earlier (Who wore it best coming up? Maybe)

Once everyone was on the bus we had a short drive to lunch, which was at the house of a local family. Chef Julio and his family had converted a building into a mini-cafeteria. The older members of the family cooked and served food while the children ran around, playing with us. One of the kids ran up to us and grabbed our thighs. Outside his house were llamas. Mr. Papagayo got a photo with his fake alpaca next to a real one and Ms. Pluchino blessed us with her expression of pure happiness as she ran towards a llama with dreadlocks. For lunch we started with cheese wontons. If you could imagine joy milked from rainbows and then marinated in happiness and sunshine, you have experienced their cheese wontons. Then we had a main course of chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, and broccoli. We ended the meal with peach and cream and some mint tea.

After lunch we had a bus ride to the shady town of Juliaca, which is where we were supposed to fly to Lima after first stopping in Arequipa. We said an emotional goodbye to Edgar at the airport and then made our way onto the plane. After one of the most fearful takeoffs of our lives, we reached Arequipa and shuffled our seats around for the last leg of our flight. After this longer leg, we boarded a bus that took us to baggage claim. Once we all claimed our luggage, we headed up one floor to where all the restaurants were. Every four people were given 100 soles to spend on dinner. We went to different places to eat, such as McDonald's and Papa Johns. It was a nice break in cuisine after having days of the same soup. A little McPollo and cheese pizza brought back memories of the homeland.We had an hour to eat and after we had finished, we boarded the bus and drove to our hotel, the whole time singing old hits.