Two Posts in a Day! (Pics to Come Later)

The few hours of sleep seemed multiplied, luckily, by the quality of sleep I got. It seemed to sustain me through the day today, even though I have been going since 3:00. The airport was not quiet, but it was slow, which begged the question, Why are we here so early?  Our flight was not supposed to leave for another three hours, and there was not much of a hurry (at least from what we could see).  We just trusted our trustworthy tour guides I guess.

We sat, clumped together, waiting tiredly for our vuelo to board. I rounded up everybody’s leftover pesos and bought a chocolate chip muffin from Starbucks for breakfast. Soon, our flight was ready, and we all boarded to leave beautiful Chile.

I fell asleep almost instantly when we got in our seats. I barely remember leaving the terminal and getting positioned on the runway. The next thing I know, I woke up to the acceleration of takeoff, then fell back asleep because the back of my eyelids were more interesting than the back of everybody’s heads.

I woke up again shortly before breakfast came, which was a surprise there was breakfast at all (which is where I put in a pitch for LAN Airlines- they are great; way better than American, which we used to fly out of the states). It was airplane food, but actually semi-delicious. After breakfast, sadly, I had a hard time falling back asleep, so I mindlessly closed my eyes and listened to the roar of the engines and the annoying beeps from stewardess calls.

Touchdown, Lima! It seems to be an ugly city- it has a very monotone brown hue with a cloudy mist that adds a dark tinge to everything. We passed through immigration and customs, picked up our bags, then re-checked in for our flight to Cuzco. While we were waiting in line, Cooper (and supposedly Tyler) spotted Luribel, and we were all excited to see her! It was good to feel whole as a group again.

This is a Peruvian specialty: Inca Kola! It is delightful. They had it in the airport, so I took a pic to make Rhett jealous.

The flight to Cuzco was only an hour-ish, but the whole time, we were just climbing and climbing. Cuzco is about 12,000 feet above sea-level, and Lima is about sea-level, so we steadily ascended through the air. I had a window seat next to Luribel and Brennon, and it was fun to chat with them on the plane. When we started getting into the Andes, we could see snow-capped peaks that would suddenly disappear and reappear between nubes. The occasional village popped up from below, revealing winding roads and shanty houses. Suddenly, Cusco’s red-roofed came into view, the buildings looking like a vain of ore in the earth. The houses filled the crevasses and scaled the slopes of the hills around the valley. We pulled around a tall hill, then had a safe landing (apparently, Cusco’s airport is the sketchiest in which to land).

We were warned and warned about altitude sickness. Take it slow. Walk, don’t run. Stroll and peruse; don’t be brisk. I could definitely tell the air was thinner by my shortness of breath and lightheadedness. I could feel it all day actually, although I did not take proper time to rest and get used to the altitude. I didn’t pass out, luckily, and nobody else did either. We took our bags to our carrier, who loaded them and took us to our hotel.

Our hotel is beautiful as well! I am sharing with Brennon this time around, and we are living a luxurious dream. We took off shortly after unpacking to take a look around the town, and I have fallen in love. I seriously love this city.  It is beautiful, diverse, full of character, open, safe, and busy. Almost straight down the street from our hotel is the Plaza del Armas, and the cathedral there is so majestic! It is very European, and very old. I want to stop by and check out the inside before we leave. We had broken into a small group of Liza, Erin, Susana, Dave, Nate, Natalie, Alex, and myself; we walked down some alley where the walls on both sides are pieced together with rocks; the expert masons did not use mortar, so they had to shape each stone so it would fit without cracks or holes. To this day, after who know how many years of erosion and earthquakes, they are still tightly sealed.

We ate dinner at a pizzeria, then made a quick stop at the hotel before we started our shopping. There are numerous ways to buy souvenirs. There are venders on the streets, specialized shops, small hole-in-the-wall markets with many owners, people everywhere. Natives dress up in bright “authentic” costumes and tote alpacas or llamas or baby sheep and you can pay to have you picture taken with them. You can barely walk five minutes with out being solicited by a street vender, especially when they see you have already made some purchases. Susana, Liza, Erin, and I started looking at all of the market stores, trying to find gifts we liked for us or for our amigos. Even walking though the mart, the people were very imploring: “Amigo, es un pricio especial, solo para ti.” You should never take the first price they give you. You can always barter and lower the price, sometimes significantly. I bought a lot of junk in the name of gifts for others so I hope you like it! (and if anybody wants anything, let me know!)

The of Cuzco at night from our room. There's a small plaza right outside the front door, then houses line the hills around the city.

I guess when you travel, there is a habit of getting up early in the morning; we are going to Machu Picchu tomorrow, and we are leaving at 5:20 to be able to spend the better part of the day there. I tried to stay up (only past 10) to watch Emperor’s New Groove with the others, but I fell asleep on the bed. I decided to call it quits and go to bed. We have our alarms set for 4:00, so be grateful I am sacrificing my sleep to show you a wonder of the world!