Last day with the pharmacy group

Hola amigos! Jenny and I are currently at a hostel called Mama Semaña in Cusco. I stayed here the night before the group got here, which paid off because it is cheaper and nicer than the hotel we stayed at while the group was here. Props to Zoe for directing me here. We said our goodbyes this morning to the group as the left for the airport and ultimately the United States. They showered us with gifts ranging from shampoo, extra water, and even a pair of portable speakers- Thanks Frank! Jenny and I took advantage of the last free breakfast from the hotel and then found our way to the hostel. We have been looking into a 4 day hike which goes to Incan ruins that are bigger and more remote than Machu Picchu. After looking into the details we decided to take the plunge! We set out tomorrow on a 4 day 3 night trek to the Choquequirao ruins WOOOOO!! Don´t worry Mom, we have a guide and are going through a service (we even get a horse to carry most of our stuff- major bonus). It is a holiday here in Cusco, so many of the shops are closed and there are some celebrations going on. We heard fireworks at 7:00 this morning, which had us REALLY confused until we found out about the holiday. After we signed up for the trip we walked around a bit, had some afternoon coffee, and now we are simply relaxing until dinner tonight- rough life. Unfortunately, there won´t be any blog posts for the next four days (forgot to ask if there is wifi on the trail- haha kidding), so hopefully some of these pics will suffice for the time being! Hasta luego amigos!
The pics are from the last few days- The one is of the salt farm we went to, the other is of me, Jenny, Luke, and Rachel (whose name is pronounced Ragel in Peruvian) at the Incan farm experiments in Moray, and last is of the group walking up a long road in Cusco. Enjoy!

Ururtoytombo and Pisac

Hello hello! I have not been able to update the blog very well because we have been so busy. The girls are currently out shopping and I am simply about shopped out. I can´t keep up with them. Yesterday, 12 of us rented a driver and a huge van who took us to Pisac and Ururtoytombo (that´s how it sounds, no clue how to spell it). It cost each of us 10 dollars to hire this guy for the ENTIRE day- I still can´t believe how cheap this place is. We went to a market in Pisac for a little while then headed to Ururtoytombo to hike up a hill just outside town. There are Inkan ruins on several sides of the town. We hiked up to the free ones, which looked over the whole town and the other ruins (the ones you had to pay for, ha!). We hung out up in the ruins for awhile, taking in the scenery and the vastness of the mountains surrounding the towns. I would guess that most of the mountains surrounding the town topped out at 14000ft, which is just about as tall as the highest mountain in the lower 48. There were several peaks in the area that top out at 19-20 thousand feet, which happens to about a mile higher than the tallest peak in the lower 48. So awesome. Mountaineers come from around the world to climb some of these peaks- we are probably going to have to wait till the next visit to Peru to do that. After the hike we headed back and had another 5 star meal for about 20 bucks, hit a local bar then called it a night. Another successful day in Cusco. The one pic is of me in front of the ruins we hiked up to with Ururtoytombo in the background, the other is just of the town and the last pic is of one of those 19,000 foot mountains. Stay tuned for more!

Mayas and Salt Mines

Hello hello! I am sorry I didn't update yesterday- we were busy busy busy from sun up to the end of the night. We went to a few different places with a big group from the pharmacy school and a few others. We checked out this salt "farm", where the salt isn't mined it is basically grown. There was a small natural stream which has a very high salt content that they let trickle down into 4000 different pools. The pools collect water and then they let it evaporate and viola, salt! It was more interesting than I thought it was going to be. The next place we went to was Mayas, which has more Inka ruins. The pics will show that it was a bunch of level circles that each went into the ground. Think of an upside down tiered cake. They are not positive what they were used for, but many scientists believe that the Inkas conducted experiments on growing different plants on the different tiers. Each tier has a different temperature, so they could perform many tests in many different microclimates. The Inkas were geniuses- it's sad that that are not around anymore. Well, I am sorry to say that I don't have anymore time to blog here. The bus leaves to Pisac in 30 minutes and I haven't eaten breakfast yet! Hopefully I will have more time later to put some pics up and share a little more. Adios amigos!

Another day in Cusco

Hello faithful readers! We spent another day in Cusco yesterday. It was rather nice just getting up at our leisure and resting after a long day at machu picchu. We (me, Jenny, Rachel, and Luke- Jenny´s sister and boyfriend) took a tour of one of the huge churches that is on the Plaza de Armas. The church is HUGE- complete with outrageously detailed wood carvings, sculptures, and more gold and silver than you can imagine. It´s crazy. I think they said it took 100 years to build and another 7 years to paint. The tour went over how the Spanish converted native people to Christianity. It was funny because the tour only briefly went over how the Spanish "conquered" (killed thousands) of the native population to take control and share their religion. The tour at Machu Picchu went over that much more in depth from the point of view of the native population. Bad job, Spain. Anyways, after the tour we had lunch and a beer on the Plaza de Armas and then proceeded to walk around and shop. I can tell you that Jenny and Rachel know how to shop. haha. After a bit of that we did a little hike up to a big hill overlooking Cusco and then went to dinner at this insanely fancy place. The restaurant, Fallen Angel, was absolutely 5 star and ended up costing me 15 american dollars. Unreal. We all went out for a few drinks after dinner and that ended our day.

Macchu Picchu!

Hello! I believe that last time I updated this, I was in Cusco without my bags and by myself. Much has happened in the since the last blog! I am currently in Cusco, but with Jenny and my bag! Victory! After the last update, I spent the night in that hostel and met up with Jenny´s sister´s boyfriend in the morning and we spent the day drinking some beers and sitting at the airport for a long ass time until the girls and their school group landed. It was a whirlwind of activity from the get go when they landed- we were rushed to a hotel, dropped our bags and then shuttled off to a train station an hour and a half away to a train station for another hour and a half ride to the jungle town of Aguas Calientes. That town is just outside Macchu Picchu ruins and is in the heart of a ridiculously rugged sheer cliff canyon. The canyon walls shoot straight up for a few thousand feet- unreal. The next day we got up early and hit Macchu Picchu hard (6am-3pm). We took a million pics, hiked up to Wanyu (spelling?) Picchu which is the tallest part of the ruins (and a very sacred part), and had an awesome tour guide tell us about the Incas that used to live there. I can even begin to imagine how people lived in this rugged place, much less have a civilization. The pics do not do justice at all to the ruins, or the environment, but that goes without being said. The first pic is of my on top of Wanyu Picchu with Macchu Picchu in the background. The second is of me and Jenny in the morning there in the clouds, and the last picture is of the ruins that we walked through. On a lighter, I heard there was an earthquake in the northern part of Peru- no worries we didn´t feel a thing. My computer time is up and I need to start the day- exploring Cusco some more! Hasta luego!

Day Two

Hello! I am still here and still without my bag! Curse airline inefficiency! It hasn´t been too bad though- however I would REALLY like some wool socks and shoes, and maybe another pair of boxers. I am somewhat hopeful of getting my bag tonight, but we are going to have to wait to see how that pans out. Anywho, I spent the morning walking around the CRAZY streets and markets of Cusco. Skinned chickens with feet and talons attached, gutted pigs with ladies with machetes chopping at them, crates of what to appear to be bird eggs, and every sort of veggie and fruit you can imagine. The streets were jam packed and it was definitely a lot to take in- still waiting to put pics up- they are coming I promise! After walking around awhile I stopped in the ¨plaza de armas¨, which is basically the center of town that has a big fountain and lots of benches and whatnot. I sat down for a little bit and was reading when a pervian (Juan) came up and attempted to strike a conversation. He spoke basically no english and I no spanish. We ended up talking for about 2 hours. I helped him with his english homework and he had me read some spanish magazine and attempted to translate. Despite the language barrier we (or at least I) had a good time. I am now preposterously sunburned because I was not expecting to be sitting in the sun for a few hours. Highlight of the day for sure. I am currently at mama simona hostel and I am about to head out for beers and dinner. With a little bit of luck I will be checking back in to the blog with my bag and with jenny! Hasta luego!

First day in Cusco

After many trials and tribulations during the travel process I have finally made it to Cusco. Much to my dismay, the airlines decided to not put my checked bag on the flight to Lima from Miami. Thankfully, I carried on a jacket because it is COLD here. I had no idea that Cusco was at 10000feet! Dios mios. After the airline canceled my flight, me narrowly missing my connecting flight (bc of the airline), and then trying to find my baggage amid the uproar in the airport (one of the airlines declared bankruptcy today), I was taken into the care of Zoe from Tower Lakes- a family friend who lives in Peru. She was the flicker of hope for my situation. She helped me out with the airline (I found out rapidly how little spanish I know) and put me in a cab and directed me to a hotel run by her friends. Whether it was the lack of sleep, trials of the last 24 hours, or the fact I just landed in a country in a different hemisphere, I decided to forget the name of the hotel AND lose Zoe´s number, realizing this all at once when I got out of the cab. Awesome. Well, after a brief adventure and a little bit of luck I found my way to the hotel and caught some much needed sleep. After that, I got up and walked around town for a few hours and got some food and all was much better (aside from my bag being in the Northern Hemisphere). After a few hours bouncing around town Zoe again came to the rescue and showed me around town with her kids and even took me out to dinner! So nice. I am just about to retire for the evening- still catching up on some needed sleep. If I had a cord to connect to this computer I would love to share some pics, but alas the airline would not have it so. I am planning on staying at a hostel tomorrow and see what happens. I still have two more nights till Jenny comes to Cusco- it will be so great to have her here (I hope she knows more spanish than I do). Stay tuned for some pics!

Leaving for Peru

Hello! This is the first post of my Peru trip. Jenny has been down in Peru for a few weeks now so she is my Professional Peru Guide. Sadly, even though I am leaving for Peru today I have to wait to see Jenny until the 23rd when her pharmacy group shows up in Cusco. Looking at the positive side of things, I get to bum around Peru for a few days! (I am really hoping those 4 years of spanish in high school comes flooding back to me- I will keep you updated on that.) Ok, now I am late and I have a bunch of stuff to do before my ride picks me up for the airport! Adios!