16 Hours of Travel

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Hello All,

After 16 hours of travelling, we finally made it to Cusco, Peru at about 11:00AM on Saturday with no major glitches. Our first leg from Chicago to Miami was delayed about an hour (the joys of flying out of O´hare) and we were a little concerned (or at least I was) that we would miss our connection to Lima, but we made it with plenty of time.

We each had about two hours of sleep on the plane from Miami to Lima. I could not stop reading Into Thin Air and Nate just cannot sleep on planes. We arrived after a five hour flight in Lima´s Chavez airport, which I had heard horror stories about, but we made it through customs and onto our next gate for our flight to Cusco in under a half hour. It might have been the time of day (5 AM), but we were not complaining.

The flight from Lima to Cusco was one of the most picturesque that we have ever been on. You fly over snow capped mountains almost the entire way. A sweet Irish grandma set next too us on the plane and between the three of us we could not stop talking about how amazing it was. This was her first time in Peru as well and she is also doing the Incan Trail. I was pretty impressed.

Landing in Cusco was also quite a trip. Cusco is right in the middle of the mountains about 3400 meters above sea level. And as you go to land it looks like you are going to fly right into the side of one of the mountains. Scary but really cool.

When we arrived it was a spectular sunny day. As soon as you got off the plan though, you could feel the altitude. Breathing was a little tough. I got winded pretty easy.

Our tour operator for the Incan trail picked us up at the airport and we met several others that are going to be going with us on Monday. 2 girls from San Francisco and 3 from New Jersey. Our operator said that there would be about 13 people total with several Aussies and Brits as well.

We got checked into our Hotel, which is nice and very clean, but small and located about a block from the main square in Cusco. The very first thing that they do is serve you coca tea, which is tea made from coca leaves (same ones used to make cocaine). It is supposed to help with the altitude sickness. It taked like grass in my personal opinion and I was not a fan.

We wandered around the main square some in the afternoon and ate at a little outdoor resturant called the Pueblo Cafe. I had some fresh trout which was great going down (more on that later) and Nate had an alpaca burger. It tasted sort of like beef but with the texture of pork.

After about an hour, I was really not feeling well-- probably a combo of no sleep, still being sick from the plague that Ella and Avery brought with them the week before, medicine on a empty stomach and my smart fish food choice. I proceeded to be quite sick the rest of the afternoon.

Nate wondered the city some more and took some great pictures, which we were hoping to share, but then remembered that neither of us was smart enough to grab the cord to down load them, so you will all have to wait until we get back (or just look at the other pictures on this website --I am sure ours are comparable.)

We were hoping to find a pub with the Ohio State game, but did not have such luck. Nevertheless, we kept up with it by the internet. Pretty cool! Go Bucks. Nate tells me that he and Wheatly had a bet for naming rights of their first born on this game. Looks like Wheats will be the proud parent of Woody Wheatley. (just kidding Aimee)

Well that was our first day. We both agree that we are really happy we choose Peru. (PS everyone speaks english--so our collective bad spanish is not even necessary)

love all Jess and Nate

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Comments

[Bevo]

Git er done
No way in hell am i naming our kid Woody...unless his johnson is as big as his head. sounds like you two are having a good time. its nice to know you havent been sold into slavery yet...