Peru - The Final Days

OK, the morning after I wrote my last email I woke up and my aunt Cindy asked me if I told everyone about hte hot springs. I said no... so while in the jungle we took a boat up to the hot springs and relaxed in the water while showered by a cool rain). Then she asked if I told everyone about dancing on the table. Again I said no... our last night in the jungle, I got up and danced on the table. So the thing is, when my grandma was in Peru she danced on the table and I couldn´t let her show me up so I too danced on a table. And after I got down, a few others climbed up for a go to. All the fun stopped when the table almost tipped over.

So now that I´ve cleared that up, I´ll continue... I had difficulty staying awake during dinner on our first night back from the jungle, but it did not stop me from hopping in a taxi the next morning with Lorrie, Louise, and Maggie for a day trip to the Sacred Valley. The first stop on the tour was Pisac. Pisac is about 35 km from Cuszo and was traditionally inhabited by the Incan commoners. Apparantely there are about 3400 tombs built into the mountains, but our guide Simon refused to scale the mountain walls with us to show us.

After climbing all over Pisac, we were famished and decided it was time to eat. So Adrian, our taxi driver, took us to a buffet lunch in Urabamba. Immediately after lunch we headed to the Semenario Ceramicas, a ceramics studio and gallery were we all decided to lighten our wallets a bit (me more than others).

The next stop on the tour was to Ollantaytambo, yet another remnant of the Incan powers. This is supposedly the most intact of all the Incan cities, but if you ask me, it looked a lot like the others. I think the draw of the ruins is wearing off on me. We were too tired to take in anymore sites, so we asked Adrian to return us to Cuzco.

June 24th is the largest celebration of the year in Cuzco. It is Inti Raymi (Sun Celebration). Although the festival lasts most of the day and works its way through the city, we decided to just take in the first scene at Koricancha. It is very fortunate for me that most Peruvians are my height or shorter, so I was even able to see a bit of the dancing and see the Inca chant to the sun. After this was over our plan was to head to the other side of Koricancha for brunch, but in order to avoid swimming upstream, we decided to walk around the back and ran right into the parade of all of the characters on their way to Plaza de Armas for Scene 2. This turned out to be very fortunate, because we got the best, unobstructed seats in the house and were able to see all of the beautiful costumes upclose and watch the Inca and his bride/sister get lifted into seats carried off by a number of handsome Peruvian men in skirts.

After the parade and brunch it was time to shop. It was our last day in Cuzco and my suitcases weren´t quite full yet so I decided to work on that. We lost a couple of people along the way, but Maggie and I took the city by storm and each had to visit the ATM multiple times. I´m sure to find a few phone messages from my bank on my phone when I get home.

This morning we woke up and after a quick breakfast of cafe con leche and pan (coffee with milk and bread) we headed to the airport for our flight to Lima. And what better way to spend a day in Lima than to go to a mall. We grabbed a bite to eat and then window shopped til our hearts content but still found we had time to kill so we went to a movie and watched Shrek the Third. In case you have not watched it yet, I recommend it with Spanish subtitiles. It keeps you occupied during the boring parts. After the movie we still had a few hours to kill so we decided to drink... and before you knew it, it was time to return to the airport. In a short time, we will be boarding the plane and you can ask me all about the juicy bits of the trip I left out.

I hope y´all enjoyed my chronicles. Untill next time...