I AM HERE!

¡Hola mis aimgos y mi familia!

I have succesfully traveled to Peru!

We got to Lima around midnight on the 14th, stayed in a hotel, and woke up at 6 to fly to Cusco the next morning. At that point I was only running on about 5 hours of sleep from Thursday night and then about 2 hours from Thursday. It was all worth it.

Lima is a city of 8,000,000 people, and from what I saw of Lima it was incredibly Americanized. There were McDonalds, Pizza Huts, KFCs, and many other fast food restaurants. Casinos also lit up the streets. It definitely seems like a lively city.

I had been warned about the altitude sickness the entire semester we had meetings for this trip. As we flew over on the plane I pictured myself stepping off the plane and literally being hit like a brick by the lack of oxygen, being knocked over, and throwing up everywhere. Dramatic I know. Luckily that didn´t happen.

The first day in Cusco we traveled to the Valle Segrado. There we hiked the Pisac Inca ruins. I wish I could post a picture, but even that wouldn´t do it justice. As we hiked I realized how hard Machu Picchu will be. At first I wasn´t worried because I mean I played frisbee, worked out a fair amount, etc, but as we hiked Pisac I noticed how much the lack of oxygen really affected my body. Just from a hike that I would consider not incredibly hard in America I was out of breath and my heart was racing. I really thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest, and everyone felt that way.

That night a couple of us walked to a store and bought some alcohol. There´s this grain alcohol called Pisco that is made from corn and the Coca leaves. The leaves are used here to calm altitude sickness and nausea, and a lot of people drink it in tea. I tried a beer called Cusqueña which was pretty good.

Everyone on the trip is incredibly nice and we all got to bond that night since it was one of the first nights we had time.

Today we went to Ollantaytambo which is basically just a taste of what Machu Picchu is going to be like. It is amazing how advanced the Incans were. The stone walls they built can´t be pierced because each stone is sealed so tightly to the other. I can´t imagine how they built those structures without the technology and tools we use today.

I know this post was incredibly long and I will try to get on more often in the next few days! I miss all of y´all and hope your summers are going well!