Andale! Vamos! The extent of our Spanish in Peru...

I can now officially say that I have been to 6 of the 7 continents in the world. I had planned this trip to Peru since this past March, as permits to hike Machu Picchu sell out fast. It is a stark contrast to my usual position of globe wandering alone. This time, there are 16 of us from school, this should be interesting. The 50 degree weather in Lima was not to my liking, as it was about a 50% drop from the 100 degree average temperatures in Dubai this summer. But after all, it is winter in South America. Of the 3 of us who were the first to arrive, the extent of our Spanish was Andale and Vamos, which quickly became the phrases of the trip. It was quite humorous to see us try to piece to words in Spanish to string together sentences that didn’t make any sense. Thus we resorted to pointing and gestures to enhance our version of broken Spanglish.

We spend the first day walking around the old city; it reminds me of the plazas and streets of Madrid. We meet some Israelis and hang out with them for part of the afternoon; I wonder why I hadn’t met them just a few weeks ago when I was in Israel. The local drink of Peru, the pisco sour, I wasn’t a fan of at first, but I did enjoy the passion fruit version. Gazing out the window on the plane ride to Cusco, I see the snow covered peaks of the Andes mountains on one side and barren terra cotta mountains on another side. It reminds me of flying into Queenstown in New Zealand.

Cusco is one of the coolest towns I’ve ever been to. I could get lost in the narrow and layered streets for days. As Cusco is surrounded by mountains, there are amazing views, no matter which street you are walking on. We have to spend at least 2 days here before the Inka Trail hike in order to acclimatize to the altitude of 11,000 feet. Stupidly, the first day we decide to hike up to find a site called Saqsayhuaman --> aka Sexy Woman. We joked that the guys were on a quest for a sexy woman..though they were rather disappointed at the peak. Of course, we didn’t know that we’d have to hike up to the top of the mountain overlooking the city to find it. It is the strangest feeling, to be completely out of breath, my heart racing, yet I am not tired. This is the affect of the altitude on us as we hike up the stairs to the top of the fortress. My lungs feel like they are about to burst, yet I am not even breaking a sweat. Though I am chewing on coca leaves to help adjust to the altitude, it is not quite working yet.