Journey to Peru
Michelle Czekalski Bradley of Sarver and her friend, Sonia Smith of St. Louis, really got away from it all in November.
The two friends traveled to the ends of the Earth in a trip to Peru that included an excursion to Easter Island, considered the most remote inhabited island in the world.
Foreign exchange students in high school who met through their husbands 20 years ago, Bradley and Smith have taken 10 overseas vacations together.
Bradley went to Highlands High School in Natrona Heights and was a foreign exchange student to Bogota, Colombia, in 1984 in the summer between her junior and senior years.
She credited that experience with sparking her desire to learn about the people and cultures of the places she visits.
They left Pittsburgh Nov. 13 to travel to Lima by way of Atlanta and returned Nov. 30 on a vacation that took them from the fabled Incan city of Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains to “The Navel of the World” and the enigmatic stone statues of Easter Island.
“This was the most physically challenging trip I did,” said Bradley. “It was the altitude, and South America doesn't have the infrastructure we have.”
“We did a lot of walking. There was no public transportation,” she said. The water supplies in the mountain areas they visited were iffy, she said, and they had to pack bottled water.
“The altitude made you queasy. It's physically demanding, but you can't stop, ”said Bradley.
“When I came back, my immune system was worn down. I was sick over Christmas and New Year's,” she said.
“Our guide said she loves taking people around Peru because it is for travelers, not tourists,” said Bradley.Bradley and Smith arrived in Lima on a trip arranged through a travel agency and toured many historic churches.Then they flew two-and-a-half hours to Cusco at 11,000 feet above sea level in the Andes.“We stayed in a village outside of Cusco, 'Sonesta Posada del Inca Yucay,'” said Bradley. She said they went to an open air market where local women make clothing from alpaca wool.“They shear, dye and weave the clothes all by themselves,” said Bradley. “Women wear handmade hats, and each village has different hats. So one can readily see which village a woman is from by the type of hat she is wearing.”“Also in many villages, a woman's clothing tells others if she is married, widowed or single by the weave pattern,” said Bradley.Dyes are made from natural substances such as berries.On Nov. 23, Bradley and Smith took a 90-minute train trip in a glass-domed railcar through the Andes on the way to Incan mountain city of Machu Picchu.“Then we took a bus that went up this incredible switchback road,” Bradley said. “It is frightening. It is literally on the side of a cliff, and these buses are passing one another.”“There are no guardrails, no nothing, no lights on the old buses,” she said.After a 40-minute ride, Bradley and Smith hiked the last leg to Machu Picchu, which she said “is known as the most spectacular sight in South America. When you get to the top, it is the most spectacular sight you will ever see.”
She said the Incan city was estimated to have been built around 1450 for the Incan ruling class, but Machu Picchu later became a refuge for the Incans during the Spanish conquest.The Incan empire was destroyed by the conquistadors, but Machu Picchu was not discovered until 1911 by an American, Hiram Bingham, who went on to become a U.S. senator from Connecticut.Bradley said restoration of the Incan city continues today. It is less than 50 percent reconstructed, but Bradley said you can tell how the Incans channeled springs to provide water throughout the city and used farming terraces to grow food.The next day Bradley and Smith took the train back to Cusco and visited an orphanage for girls.They toured mountain villages for a week and then flew back to Lima and from there to Santiago, Chile, where they boarded a six-and-a-half-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean to Easter Island.Bradley said the 36-square-mile island, a Chilean territory, is home to only 4,000 residents, most of them living in one village, Hanga Roa.“It cost $3 for a bottle of water because everything has to be imported,” said Bradley.“The residents all call the island 'The Navel of the World,'” said Bradley.Despite the name, the island is desolate, Bradley said.Settled in the 8th century by Polynesians, Bradley said the inhabitants were all but wiped out by the 19th century from overpopulation and the deforestation of the island.“There are three volcanoes but no more trees. There's nothing you could use to build with. There are no palm trees and no bushes,” she said.Of course, Easter Island, where they spent Thanksgiving, is famous for its moai statues.
The multi-ton statues, Bradley said, were carved from rock to honor kings and priests, transported to the coasts of the island using logs, and erected.“The residents believed that once dead, the soul of the person would go into the moai. Only then were white coral eyes added to the moai,” said Bradley.“It was believed in death, they had greater power and wisdom, so the moai were always erected on the perimeter of the island facing inland to watch over their people.”Bradley said all the statues were toppled centuries ago because the inhabitants were starving and felt their gods, represented by the moai, had abandoned them.There are more than 800 statues on the island, Bradley said, and it's only been in the last century that as many as 100 have been re-erected. The statues have been propped back up, Bradley said, because the island's residents say the moai are once again “feeding and watching over their people” by bringing tourists to the island.Bradley said the island sees more than 65,000 visitors annually, only 10 percent of whom are Americans.Bradley said her husband, Chuck, and Smith's husband, Dan, became good friends 20 years agoPrevious excursions by Smith and Bradley have included Europe, Japan and Aruba.“I just think there's no greater education than travel,” Bradley said. “I just wish people could see beyond the borders of Western Pennsylvania and see the world.”They make the trips without their husbands.“Our husbands really aren't interested in travel,” said Bradley. “They want to sit on the beach and drink beer. We want to really experience the people.”“I really want to know about the culture and how the people live,” she said. “When I travel, I travel with her.”Bradley said she and Smith are already planning their next trip to Ireland.“That's why I work, to travel. I love to travel,” said Bradley.
