Hot Water!!!!!!!

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Hi everyone,

Travel blog is working again! It was acting strange, not letting us publish anything for you to see, so we apologize if anyone was worried!

We are in the tourist capital of Peru now, Cusco. It is the center of the Inca empire, and very near the famous ruins of Macchu Picchu. We arrived here last night by bus from Juliaca, Peru, and before that traveled by taxi from La Paz to the Peruvian border, and then by taxi from there to Juliaca. So, it was a long day of travel yesterday. Tomorrow we plan to fly to Puerto Maldonado, Peru, which is in the Amazon! We opted for a plane that takes around an hour because the bus ride was going to be on a dirt road the whole way, and take more than a day. Here´s a little on Puerto Maldonado .

The altitude hit us in and around La Paz again, but not as bad. We took a different route back from there to Peru this time, and our taxi driver informed us that we were driving as high as 4600 m (about 15,100 ft) at times, at not much less for the remainder of the time. This was all around Lake Titicaca, and we were reminded of the acclimation it takes to live in a place like that every time we stepped out of the car. It was strange to be nearly out of breath from sitting in a car, and see a native cyclist riding by comfortably.

In Cusco this week it is the Inti Raymi festival, which is a festival of the sun. On top of that, yesterday marked the beginning of the Aymara (indigenous group) new year, so we saw many indigenous flags, dancers, and people gathered in various places. When we crossed into Peru, we had to wait for a procession of dancers and musicians to move off of the bridge. They were in costumes and played pan pipes and drums -- very neat.

Here in Cusco we located a hotel that has truly hot water, and we are thrilled. We used the shower this morning until the pressure went out! The orphanage had spotty hot water that usually only worked for 2 minutes, then went icy, and all of our other hotels outside of Lima have had just electric showers, which means about 10 minutes of semi-warm water and then it´s out into your unheated room when it is near freezing outside! So, as you can tell, the hot water was very nice. We are learning all of the luxuries we all take for granted in the US every day -- hot, drinkable water, gas ovens and stoves, 70 degree homes in 20 degree weather.

Well, we are off to explore Cusco and find some plane tickets. We´ll put pictures up sometime soon!

Love, Mariel and Ben

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