Travel Teaches Us

My last trip and the amazing Peruvian culture I got the opportunity to learn about.

Coca Leaves- taken by Taylor B.

As the first blog post for this website, I thought I would talk about my most recent out-of-country trip. In May of 2018, I went on a month-long trip touring from Lima to Cusco with many memorable stops in between.

We landed in Lima and stayed there for two days; the person I travelled with and I are more into hiking and outback activities rather than walking around cities. However, I learnt so much about the religion and history of Peru in their capital city. Despite the many eye-opening lessons that I received on the journey throughout Peru, I would have to say the place I learnt the most would be Cusco.

Granted, Cusco may be in the top three of the most touristy places in Peru. However, the amount of true culture that you get to experience depends on how comfortable you are taking the route less travelled.

For example, my friend and I walked a few kilometres out of the square where a tour guide told us there was genuine Peruvian cuisine. We took our little stroll over to these restaurants and it was obvious we were out of the tourist section. Not only were we the only people in shorts and tank tops (it was winter for them), people stared at us and we were the only people who spoke English. We both know key words in Spanish; enough words to understand the main courses but not enough to know exactly what we were eating with the main courses. Nevertheless, we picked something to order and for only 8 sol (roughly 4 Canadian dollars), we got heaping plates of food and it was all amazing. The service was sweet, and they got a kick out of our cluelessness.

We also got to witness the first day of a festival before we left, and we got to share a big plate of food with some friends we made on a trek we took a few days previous. On that plate was guinea pig, cow artery, something that was green, cheese, bread and another type of meat. I know some of that may sound gross, but it certainly was an experience and the food was all pretty good! Guinea pig tastes like very salty chicken if you were wondering.

Cusco definitely gave us a lesson on food, but our Salkantay trek taught me the most about Peru culture. Every time we had a break, our lovely tour guide (who we called Ro-Ro; he's pictured above) would tell us about the places we were, or some history about Peru. We learnt a lot about the Pachu Mama (Mother Earth) and Inti (the Sun God) and what part these Gods played in Peruvian beliefs. Whenever we reached a new peak or reached a landmark, we would take a shot of some Peruvian liquor and pour a little bit on the ground for Pachu Mama.

Exploring the world gives an entirely new understanding of cultures and different ways of life. I was always told how important it is to seize travel opportunities because they don't always happen, but they give great life lessons.

I would love to hear other's travel stories. What cultures have taught you the most, has there been a country that has changed any of your perspectives? If you want a story heard, I'll post it here. Head to the home page for my contact information. I love interacting with fellow adventure enthusiasts!

Thank you for reading, I'll be posting every Sunday with different travel related features.