EPIC. (Playing Catch-Up, part 2)

The final installment of the past 3 weeks' catch-up blogging.
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Tuesday, September 29 - Monday, October 5

Since choosing Argentina for my study abroad locale, my dreams of traversing a brand new continent have been endless. This summer, Brittany and I decided that Machu Picchu would be a good place to initiate a memorable (epic) semester of South American travel. On Tuesday afternoon, we flew from EZE (Buenos Aires' Int'l Airport) to Lima, Peru, where we met up with Brittany's boyfriend (a senior at Pepperdine), Michael Brinley. Since our flights didn't get into Lima until around 9 on Tuesday night and we flew out again early Wednesday morning, we'd planned to spend Tuesday night in the Lima airport. Once Milo caught wind of this idea, however, his super-parenting skills kicked in and he immediately booked us a room at the Sheraton Hotel, 15 minutes from the Lima airport. I was grateful for his intervention from the get-go, but after arriving in Lima, I realized that sleeping in the airport would have been borderline disastrous. Lima is a sketchy city by night (it made us very grateful to be living in Buenos Aires), and there's a prominent ring of passport thieves that dominates much of the airport happenings. Needless to say, the Sheraton was a great move on Dad's part, and we were all quite excited to find a bit of American hospitality right in the middle of Peru.

We arrived in Cusco about 11:30 Wednesday morning and were met at the airport by Juan Carlos, a member of the church Michael's aunt and uncle started during their mission to Peru several years ago. Juan Carlos took us to his apartment (into which, we soon learned, he'd moved only the day before!), where we met his precious wife Denise and their 4-month-old daughter Milka. Since Cusco sits at an 11,000ft altitude, we spent most of our first day acclimating (i.e. resting, devouring traditional 3-course Peruvian "menu" for lunch, drinking oodles of coca tea, etc.). In the early evening, Juan Carlos insisted we go see the city's main plaza. Though the locals definitely cater to tourists there, much of the area's original charm has been preserved. Giant cathedrals decked out in gold and silver pay tribute to the conquistadors' crusades, and local vendors sell authentic Peruvian alpaca in more forms than we could've imagined. In the end, we enjoyed the main square so much that we spent all of Thursday there as well, touring more of the cathedrals and soaking up as much of its cusqueño charm as we could!

On Friday the 2nd we woke up at 5am, caught the 6:30 train from Poroy (20 minutes outside Cusco) to Aguas Calientes, and headed out to Machu Picchu. The scenery of the 3-hour train ride was some of the most beautiful (epic) I've ever seen; the entire trip took us through the breathtaking Andes and followed the Urubamba River past Incan ruins, glacial passes, and into the Andean jungle. Once we arrived in Aguas Calientes and checked into our hostel, we set out on a 3-hour hike up a nearby mountain called Putucusi. We were told the hike was beginner/intermediate level and had "a few ladders" to climb; we quickly learned, however, that said evaluation of the hike was highly inaccurate. The hike consisted of treacherous stone steps, and the aforementioned ladders stretched upwards of 100 feet, totally vertical. We doubted our abilities at first, but thanks to Michael's pep-talk skills, Britt and I toughed it out and hiked the entire mountain. Upon reaching Putucusi's summit, we were all in agreement that whatever fears we faced during the trek were well worth the hike's final result: a complete bird's-eye view of Machu Picchu. We spent a while atop the mountain, speechless at the incredible beauty that surrounded us. Witnessing the Andes' majesty and magnitude first-hand was truly overwhelming. Our God is so big, even such breathtaking creation is only a glimpse of His majesty!

"And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"
- Job 26:14

We went to bed early that night, partly due to exhaustion from our intense (epic) hike, and partly due to anticipation for the early morning ahead of us.

Our 4am wake-up call on Saturday morning was a brutal one, but it did little to deter our excitement for the incredible (epic) adventure that awaited us. We caught the 2nd bus up the neighboring mountain and arrived at Machu Picchu by 6am. Watching the sun rise above the Andes was the most beautiful thing I've ever witnessed (debatably, even more impressive than seeing Machu Picchu itself). While the sheer magnitude of the mountains was incredible, knowledge of the history they possessed furthered their grandeur. Though we perpetually attempted to immortalize the site and its setting via camera lens, we knew no picture could capture the essence of our surroundings. We discussed the following passage from Romans 1 and wondered how the Incans could live in such an amazing place yet find it possible to deny the existence of such an evident God. All in all, it was an incredible paradox, seeing such an incredible manifestation of the glory of God, yet experiencing it from a historical site of pagan worship.

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men [...] since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
- Romans 1:18-20

We spent the whole morning touring the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu and enjoying the glorious nature around us. By 9am, Britt and I were feeling sick (probably due to something sketchy we'd eaten in the past 48 hours), so we napped on one of Machu Picchu's terraced (epic) lawns while he hiked the neighboring mountain of Wayna Picchu. He returned a few hours later and, in true, encouraging Michael fashion, told us that though his hike had been neat (epic), our hike up Putucusi the day before had been more difficult/impressive, which temporarily lessened our food-poisoned frustration.

We returned to Aguas Calientes by lunch time and headed back to Cusco that evening, spent one more night with Juan Carlos and Denise, and flew out to Lima the Sunday morning. Though our 8-hour layover on Sunday and 4:30am arrival in BA on Monday (just in time for 9am class!) were less than ideal, they hardly put a damper on our time in Peru.

I've heard Machu Picchu described as a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience, but I sincerely hope I can someday return to the Andes, to be so powerfully reminded of the magnitude of the God we serve and the beauty of His divine (epic) plan for all of creation.


Saturday, October 10

To celebrate my one-month anniversary of life in Buenos Aires, I attended my first Latin American soccer game today. And, in continuation with last week's events, it was (you guessed it) epic. I don't even like soccer, but the atmosphere/my excitement regarding this 2009 World Cup qualifier was up there with that of Kyle Field on Thanksgiving day. I, along with Brittany, her mom and aunt (who are visiting for the week), and 15 other Pepperdine students, had no idea what I was in for when I bought a ticket to the game this weekend. The whole Argentine crowd obviously knew we weren't "from around here," but they were nonetheless so excited for us to be cheering their team on to victory. Upon Argentina's first goal, the crowd exploded with cheers, hugging and high-fiving everyone in sight. By the time the second period was in play, though, the mood had changed and ominous clouds had rolled in above River Plate stadium, and with about 20 minutes left in the game, a torrential downpour began. We stuck it out for a long while, but I'll choose the policy of honesty here and confess that I pulled a 2%er and left early (however, I blame it fully on the fact that there's neither a scoreboard nor game clock in the whole stadium). So though there were less than 4 minutes left in the game when the rain became too much to take, our ignorance got the best of us and we decided to head out. Unexpectedly, Peru (the worst team in the bracket) scored shortly after we exited the stadium. The game, however, was far from over.

What followed can be best summed up through the following video:
Palermo scores OT goal, leads Argentine to win 2-1 over Peru

I still can't believe I missed it, and no, I don't want to talk about it.

All I can say is look for us in the World Cup finals, and don't say I didn't warn you.
¡Vamos, vamos, Argentina!
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Alas, the catching up is over. Thanks for bearing with me!

(epic) Abrazos from abroad,
Margaret