Cuzco!

On Sunday, the 3rd day of our trip, we all woke up at the ungodly hour of 4 am and headed to the Lima airport to catch a flight up to Cuzco, Peru. As soon as we got off the pressurized plane, the high altitide kicked in like a ton of bricks. We drove to the most awesome hotel ever- it felt like a 15th century home- and slept for a few hours, then spent the afternoon on a tour of the city and nearby ruins.



This little kid walked around saying "Picture! Picture!" You could pay him to take his picture. This seemed to be the case with most folks in Cuzco. Even if they didn't ask for money, it was kind of expected to hand some soles over. This was right outside our hotel.



At some ruins on the outskirts of Cuzco

In the middle of the tour we stopped at a little market to drink some coca tea and have some traditional corn with cheese. She happened to be walking her herd of llamas by.

15 day old baby llama

My brother brian with some cuzco ruins behind him. This place was really neat, although, as I climbed down the mountain, I fell flat on my butt in a mud patch and had to walk around with "muddy bottoms" for the rest of the afternoon- which of course is MY idea of fun.



Cuzco was pretty amazing. Good and bad. The sights were grand, the food was unbelievable, the markets were so fun to shop at and the hotel was the best. But, we were all short of breath the entire time, most of us even had to call down to the front desk for oxygen. My brother Brian also got mugged at knife point on our last night there. (Yeah, fun!) Luckily he wasn't hurt and he only had 30 soles on him which is about 10 American dollars, but it really shook him and the rest of us up. After that, we were all ready to get back to Lima for our final day.
Mara, Jonny and Cory in the Cuzco Plaza