cozy in cusco

---

I´m not exactly sure what day it is or how long I have been in Peru. Time is stretched here. And I couldn´t be more pleased!!

I think it has been a little over a week, and already and done and seen so much!!

arriving in Lima airport, and having to wait many hours due to my own cheapness about flights to Cusco, ended up paying the same price anyway, so lesson one learned very quickly!!

Cusco is high in the Andes mounain range and it takes a couple of days to acclimatize to the altitude. Coca Tea several times a day is the best remedy (thank you for the tip Sil!!) coca leaves (the ones used to make cocaine) are medicinal in leaf form and is very useful to combat the nausea, headache, and other symptoms of soroche (altitude sickness).

The city of Cusco is amazing and beautiful. Small hilly cobblestone streets, which some of the sidewalks are less than a foot wide, walking suddenly becomes new and challenging! Dodging small taxis, street vendors, llamas, and other tourists can leave you breathless. However, once you reach the Plaza de Armas (main square) you can sit on a bench by the fountain and enjoy the view of colonial architecture inside the valley of green and brown mountains carved with the word ´viva Peru gloriosa´ and it certainly is!!

Booking the train to Machu Picchu ahead of time is recommended. We tried to get trains for the next day, but couldn´t get any until a few days after. No problem though, just a shuffle of activities, that´s all!

The smiling people of Peru are nothing but friendly and a great time. Between Diana and I, our Spanish is quite good (or so people have been telling us) and we have been meeting many locals. We met lots and lots of tipos (boys) haha most of them seriously gorgeous (coffee colored smooth skin mmm) and laid back people. Their version of flirting is something like ¨I like you¨ one guy said to me ¨when will you make my dreams come true?¨ my answer ¨manana¨ and when I ran into him the next day he said ¨you are being impossible¨i laughed all the way down the street. As expected, Diana and I went out clubbing (house music combined with live drummers awesome!!) When people find out you are from Miami, you get instant street cred!!

Cusco can be used as a base for many excursions. The Sacred Valley offers many hiking opportunities and we decided after a few recommendations to head to the small town of Pisac. We hiked for a couple of hours, the rain (unusual for this time of year) cleared up for us just for our couple hours hike in the ruins. There we saw people in traditional dress playing intruments and singing and yelling HEY every few minutes, climbing up the ruins, we could see the colorful celebrations from above. We have learned since that in Peru there are 200 days out of the year when they hold some type of festival. I can get used to this very quickly!!

Finally getting our train to the horribly cheesy and overpriced town of Aguas Calientes, but is the best place to crash the night before to see MP early in the am. The buses for Machu Picchu start the 20 minute ascent at 6am. If you want to be first, you have to start lining up at 5am. We got there at 6, and got the second round. The road is windy as you inch up little by little to the top. When we got up there, it was pouring, so we sat in the cafe with a bunch of others, looking for where to buy a rain poncho, and contemplating weather to go back down and get some more sleep. We decided to hang out and after about 45 minutes, the rain stopped. Machu Picchu is so high, you are actually in the clouds. We entered and walked into the ruins and they were completely covered in cloud. We kept climbing and found some plateaus to stroll around with the local llamas (they use them to manicure the lawns) and just then, the clouds started to part, and little by little, machu picchu was being uncovered before our very eyes!

I never imagined it to be so intact and amazing, since it is so high, the Spanish never got to destroy it! We spent four hours there, walking, meditating, doing some yoga, taking thousands of photos, beauty everywhere!! The stone architecture is built in such a way, that the stones all fit into each other, no matter how irregular the shape of the stone. Some of the stones so massive and with as many as 32 sides, you can actually sit there and count them. And all accomplished without a wheel.

back in Cusco I was able to hook up with a sister of a friend from home (thanks amanda!!) and stayed with her and her family in the extra room in her house. She is also a yoga teacher and midwife, but we said our goodbyes in the night, as she was being called to a birth about an hour away by car!! After a good sleep, another early morning awaits as we head to Lake Titicaca.

---