Our flight from JFK to Lima was long but smooth. I slept on and off for the 8 hours, better than I thought I would at least! We landed in Lima a little before 7am, got through customs and then had to leave the airport and reenter, wait in long lines to check our bags and then we finally got to our gate just as boarding started a little before 9. Flying into Cusco was pretty amazing, the plane had to do a 180 loop to land between the mountains!
The taxi drivers with our names on the cards were waiting to pick us up. It was about a 20 minute drive to our hostel. The driving is crazy here. Really narrow streets that are two way but are barely wide enough for one car! Never mind all the people, it's crazy. We got to our hotel in 1 piece and Andy arrived about an hour later. Andy had a two hour drive to the airport(at 3am!), a 3 hour flight to Lima and an hour flight to Cusco. So even though he started closer, he too had a long time to travel.
Once we were all together, we walked to Peru Treks to check in for our hike. They went over the details with us and we met two Americans that are also on the trek with us(we were told it is a group of 16). After figuring out the hiking stuff, we walked to our hostel, regrouped and then found some lunch. There are llamas/alpacas everywhere! You can pet them and hold them and take pictures with them. We will certainly do that before we leave Peru! The other thing that has been crazy to us is that in Cusco center surrounding Plaza de Arms there is a KFC, and a starbucks. And we saw a Dunkins and Starbucks in the Lima airport. Crazy. Everyone is really tired from traveling today and the altitude is tough. We are not able to do much.
After lunch we packed a small bag to spend the night in Pisac (9700 feet) instead of Cusco (11,000+). We are hoping this helps us acclimate.
The drive to Pisac took about an hour, packed into a small car over a large mountain with really windy switchback turns. Needless to say we were all ready to get out of the car when we got here.
We all laid down once we got here as the altitude, fumes from the vehicles and the carsickness was hitting us all at once. Andy was tired but it didn't really affect him. I had a pounding headache, probably a mix of being really tired and the altitude. After taking some ibuprofen and an hour nap I was feeling much better. Andy slept a little longer and is now off finding dinner with Tracy. Kendra and Liz are already in bed, and I just had some snacks and am heading to bed as well. I'm beat! Hopefully tomorrow we will all be feeling better adjusted to the altitude and less tired!
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| Our hotel - |
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| Plaza de Arms, Cusco |
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| Cusco |
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