Fresh Air in the Andes

Happier! That is good descriptive word for us at the moment. Away from dreary Lima and up at 10K feet in Cusco, we feel rejuvinated. More English, more sunshine, and of course more gringos. In the middle of the city is the Plaza de Armas which was built by the Spanish after they overthrew the Incan empire. The church itself is actually built on perfectly symmetrical stones that remained from the Inca structures that were not completely destroyed by the tyrant Spaniard invaders. In other words, the arcitecture here is amazing and there is a constant buzz of activity that never ends.

Cusco itself is a much bigger place than we had imagined, so yesterday we escaped on a local bus to a small town called Pisac about an hour north. The Sunday market goes on for blocks, and they sell everything from jewelry and alpaca (llama) clothing, to fruits, vegtables and mysterious meats. After an hour in the market we hiked a steeeeep hillside to a series of Inca ruins (only to find out later that we could have taken a taxi up the backside and gone from the top down). It´s hard to describe the feeling one gets in a place like this (the words mind-blowing might describe it). The ruins, agricultural fields and irrigation systems were built with amazing precision and perched high on the mountain ridge lines. Wow!

The bus ride back to Cusco was a good indication of how public transportation works here in Peru. The bus sat maybe 50 people, but they don´t stop when the seats are full. Instead, they load the center of the bus with as many more people as they can pack in. Luckily we got on in time to get a place to sit, but something about the belly or butt of a nice Andean woman in my face for an hour was less than appealing.

Lastly for this edition, we met our group this morning who will be on our trek to Macchu Pichu starting tomorrow. It includes two British chaps, an Irish couple, an older woman who was by herself (not sure where from), and....another solo traveler from SLC, Utah. Small world, eh?

Today we´re running around getting final preparations for the trek, which ends on Saturday evening--snacks, sexy long-johns for Shanon, etc. I´m sure we´ll have great photos and a few good stories when we get to a computer again. Pray to the Sun Gods that it doesn´t snow on us at 14,000 feet. ¡Salud!