Us Embassy, Cuzco, Inca Trail

I have been really really busy and probably not contacted anyone in 2 weeks or so, sorry.

Last week we took an overnight bus to Lima to go to the U.S embassy where we met one of our teachers friends from the Peace Core and he invited us to his appartment over the ocean to make dinner and hang out.

That night at 2 am we headed to the air port to catch a plane to Cuzco. We had the day to relax but thats not really an option with midterms and finals to worry about. During our stay in Cuzco we spent time with all the parents that came to visit, had lots of classes and went out to dinner a lot. One day we visited a few archeological sites on horseback, one of which had stones as big as 140 tons!

We visited one of our teachers old host families and saw how they use natural die to die wool that they sheer from their own sheep. We also saw how they weaved it as well. They were very sweet people who were so excited to tell us about how they made their dies and kept alive the incan tradition.

Before we knew it, it was time to head out to the Inca trail, we donned our considerably lighter backpacks (seeing as we did not have to carry food) and started to travel up and down the many, many stairs that the Incas used in centuries past. Every morning when we were woken up and 4 or 5 we were brought coca tea to help with the altitude by our porters who carried all of our food. It was amazing actually coming into camp and not having to cook for ourselves because we hired people to do it for us. Of course we would usually do this ourselves but it is regulation on the Inca trail to have hired porters, and none of us girls were complaining. Despite this we still were climbng 6 or 7 hours a day with monsterous backpacks, up and down flights of stairs, it rivaled the challenge of the Santa Cruz Trek. The parents climbing with us were willing to admit it might be the most physically challenging thing they have done in their entire lives!

Along the way we stopped at varios archeological sites until one sunny morning when we had woken up at 4 a.m we arrived in Machu Picchu. It was incredible, we were lead awe stuck up and down the building made of stones that were so closely fit together that you cannot fit a peice of paper inbetween them. We spent the day being lead around with starry eyes by our guide trying to soak everything up even though we were aching and bone tired.

Then next day we returned to a full day of classes. That afternoon we visited the Inca museum, full of artifacts from Machu Picchu and then visited and ancient church build on top of an Incan ruin. During an earthquake in 1950 the spanish church was nearly destroyed while the superior architecture of the incan ruin was left in tact, it was amazing.

Yesterday I spent the day in bed, throwing up.... fun. Despite the suckiness of that I got to watch some TV and relax a little bit. Lately everyone has been on the brink of breakdowns constantly because of stress and lack of sleep. Thankfully the teachers had noticed how much we need a break and today is a study day rest day.

I´m feeling much better now, hope you are all doing well at home, next time you here from me I will be in Bolivia.

See you in 20 days