Monday, June 20, 2011

The 24hr Trip Ends

Hola everyone from Cusco, Peru!

My travels were long, but everything was on time and I didn`t run into too many problems. The biggest one is the language barrier, I thought I would be decently prepared but I was wrong. I can read all the signs and understand what they mean, but when people talk to me I kind of give them a deer in the headlight look. Most of the Peruvians even through my very broken Spanish can understand what I am saying and we can communicate, so besides feeling like a total outsider, it is fine and I plan on working on it. While waiting to go through immigration and customs I have never felt so out of place.Everyone kept giving me the up down, never saying a word, just staring at me, then they eventually would go back to whatever they were doing. Now that I am with the other girls, I don`t notice the stares as much, maybe it`s just because I am not thinking about it.

Lima's airport was a lot smaller than I expected. I figured with it being the capitol of Peru it would be large, but itwasn`t much bigger than CVG. Marianne, Chelsea and myself met up, grabbed something to eat and then tried to catch some z's. We slept on the tile floor outside of an internet cafe, I only 'slept'about an hour before we woke up to meet Meg and Maria (their flight landed at 4am) and get checked in for our flight to Cusco.

The flight into Cusco was BEAUTFIUL! We flew over mountains and it was just amazing to see the patches of trees, then a long winding road up one side to a snowy mountain top. I took some pictures but with the internet being so slow, I will have to try to upload them later.

Our taxi to the hostel was, interesting to say the least. There are no rules on the road here, just honking and swerving. Even people just run/walk across the street not even looking, I can`t believe we didn`t have an accident or hit someone! We drove by our funeral procession, six men were carrying a white casket that had tons of white and red flower petals on the top. Behind them was a procession of at least 75 people throwing more flower petals onto the casket. They eventually went into a church but it was interesting to see how elaborate the funeral was and our taxi driver says that for the most part every funeral is like that. We also drove through a very narrow street that contained many markets/storefronts with fresh fruits, veggies and meat. Yes, I saw numerous pigs, ducks, chickens, fish and goats just sitting in store front windows. This isn`t like the meat we buy packaged at the store, this is the real deal people, the chicken still had feet and claws, the only thing missing was the head and feathers! Most of the people standing on the side of the road were in traditional Inca garb. It was very beautiful and I wish my camera wasn't in the trunk so I could have shown you all. Maybe I will try to take some pictures later when we go look around.

Our hostel is very nice and friendly, many other international students are here and everything is catered to us. I look forward to staying here and I will take lots of pictures to show everyone it's uniqueness and character.

Well we are going to eat a REAL meal finally, no more airplane and airport food! Then we will prolly go around and sight see since we leave early tomorrow morning for the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu trek!

Love and miss you all, thanks for the thoughts and prayers. It means a lot!

P.S Nikki, Llamas are everywhere here, mostly stuffed and pictures of, but I am sure once we walk around I will see more ;)

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