A little thing called LIFE.: Cusco

Guys, Im totally cranking out these blog posts and Im super proud of myself. We have a lot going on during the day and by the time I can relax, all I want to do is sleep so it never gets done. I do have a new goal though. Im going to post at least every Sunday because I relax that day anyway. That means I will have at least 5 more posts.

Although I didn't have any expectations of Cusco, it was not anything like I expected! I guess the cheesiest, most cliche way to put it is that it was unlike anything I could have imagined. I loved Cusco. When we arrived, it literally felt magical, almost like Disneyland. I know I sound ridiculous right now, but thats how it felt. We spent some time waiting at the airport for our guide to show up. Once he finally got there, we piled into a van and drove to our hostel, Pariwana. On the way there, we saw what we thought were gay pride flags everywhere. You can imagine how confused we were. Almost every other house had one. Turns out it's the Inca flag, and I'm glad we figured that out sooner than later. Cusco has extremely high altitude so we were advised to take it easy the first day to avoid getting altitude sickness. We arrived at our awesome hostel (and Im not kidding when I say that) and took a nap and relaxed. Our hostel was the ultimate backpacker joint. If you ever go to Cusco, STAY THERE. It was super cheap and amazing service. They always had something going on and it was a really fun atmosphere with ping pong tables, games, bean bag chairs everywhere and a ton more. They also had a retaurant/bar where they served breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. The free breakfast was bread and cereal. We would always stash bread in our purses to eat throughout the day because it was good and cheap. That evening we went to dinner for Schylers 21st birthday and surprised her with alfajores (a peruvian cookie) because she doesn't like cake. After, we went to the Plaza de Armas because there was a festival going on. We stuck around for a while and listened to the music. All of a sudden we were in the middle of a giant mob. Not gonna lie, it was a little freaky. We couldn't move at all and it was so hard to get out. The worst part...I was wearing sandals. I had my nice camera around my neck at I was nervous someone would rip it off or somehow get in my bag and steal my lens. I only had two hands to protect my stuff! We shimmied our way over to a closed off grassy area where we were able to walk freely until this old lady wacked me with her bamboo stick! I was totally taught off guard. She was a tiny old granny trying to tell me to get off the grass and she hit me with her stick. It was actually hilarious.

The rest of the time in Cusco consisted of things like Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley/Ollantaytambo, a llama factory where we learned how to tell the difference between real and fake alpaca clothing, rock climbing and the Inti Raymi festival. This is more of a picture most. I guess we'll let the photos talk ;) They're completely out of order by the way.