In Cusco Again!

We were now off to Cusco, where I have already been, when I did the 4 day Inka Trail hike to Machu Picchu a couple years ago with some friends I met while living in Venezuela. Although I had been here before I was very excited to return, as I had loved this city of Peru!

Our bus ride to Cusco was yet, another bad bus experience for me. We had requested certain seats with more leg room, but did not recieve them, we were served only crackers for dinner, and it was more cold than ever! We arrived in Cusco at 9:00am and immediately met Flo, a British girl who happened to be heading to the same hostel as us, The Loki. This hostel is known as the party hostel in Cusco, having a full bar/restaurant, center courtyard, movie room, pool table and much more, in addition to over 100 beds! One of our friends, Nick, we had met in Colombia was currently staying here as well. Flo had informed us that the Loki offers great daily volunteer experiences and it just so happened that it worked out great with our schedule that day! We could not check into out room yet anyway so we decided to spend the day at a preschool a few minutes out of the city. I had wanted to do some sort of volunteer work while I was down here anyway, so this was perfect! This program put on a preschool during the morning and was like a big brother, big sister program in the afternoons. We took a bus to the small school house, which looked like nothing more than a brick shed, where we spent the morning helping four and five year olds make potato stamp paintings! They were so adorable and loved the attention they received from us! The craft was a success, however it quickly turned into a disasterous mess of finger and hand painting! There was paint everywhere, but somehow we laughed through it and got it all cleaned up! After a lot of hand washing and cleaning we did face paintings on the kids and then had playtime outside. The children insisted on us giving them piggyback rides around the school house and giving them wheelbarrel rides! After a few hours of hanging out with the kids, they needed to head home for lunch and so we headed back to the Loki. I had a fantastic time at the school and would definitely consider this one of favorite parts of my trip thus far!

We checked into the hostel, booked a trip to Machu Picchu, watched Spain beat Germany in the World Cup and then just hung out with other Loki travelers. We were exhausted, having had a busy day with the kids and too many sleepless nights the last couple of days, so despite being in the party hostel, we headed to the TV room where we watched a couple episodes of ´Friends´ before heading to bed! I was very much looking forward to a nice bed that night! Although we were in a dormroom with 13 other people I slept very well! (Happy Birthday Dad!)

This puts us at Thursday, July 8th, being yesterday, if I'm trying to catch up on days! We had quickly become friends with a large group of girls in our hostel, mostly rom Australia and England, and we had all decided to spend the day together. We visited the San Pedro market, where we all ordered amazing, fresh fruit juices from the hundreds of vendors, walked through the Inca market, where we all bought warm Alpaca sweaters, of which are a must-have in Peru, both in a fashion sense and for the bitter cold nights, and we ended with a tour of the Plaza de las Armas where we had a great lunch and icecream. Laura and I had an Alpaca burger for lunch, which was actually very tasty!

After lunch and icecream we all went our seperate ways, as Laura and I wanted to do some more shopping, a couple girls were going to the police station to file a theft report and the other girls wanted to nap. We got back to the Loki in time to rest a little before participating in ladies night at the bar! Drinks were free for girls and also for guys who dressed up as girls! We had two Peruvian guys staying in our room who were all about this idea, so Laura and I took the initiative to get them ready for the night, providing them with dresses, accessories and even hot pink and purple bras. They were definitely the best dressed at the party!! It was a blast!

We had a late night last night but got to sleep in a little this morning. Today, Friday July 9th, I am currently sitting in the town of Aguas Calientes, the town next to Machu Picchu. We took a bus to the town of Ollantaytambo, of which I got super car-sicked due to the extreme speed and curviness of the roads, earlier today and then took a train here to Aguas Calientes. Despite almost missing our train due to the late pick-up from our driver, the train ride was relxing and very pleasant after the crazy van ride. We got snacks and got to take in the beautiful scenery. The coolest part for me was when the train passed the start of the Inka Trail Hike! It was so familair to me, as I have done it and it brought back such feelings of accomplishment as it was was probably one of the hardest things I have done in my life! Tomorrow we will be waking up at 3 am to start a 3 hour trek up to Machu Picchu, (arriving in time for the sunrise, if all goes well). Being this is my second time doing it I convinced Laura to do a 3 hour hike to the ruins instead of 3 nights! She was okay with that as we are crunched for time and money as it is! This puts us at today and my stomach feeling very hungry, so that's all for now! I am going to get some dinner and I will let you all know how my second adventure at Machu Picchu goes after tomorrow, probably writing from Bolivia, as we are headed there tomorrow night via bus! Adios!