Although Alex and I both have snowpants for this section of the journey, I arrived to sunshine and 70 degrees in Cusco, Peru this morning... wow, that was just this morning. I head out on a five-day treck tomorrow on a guided adventure through the high mountains and a dense jungle with the final destination of Machu Picchu! Such a fortunate girl I am, it is all very exciting- or is that just the coca leaf tea I am currently drinking in a room full of conversation that I can not understand. The day has been perfect- so much so that the 20+ hours of airports and planes quickly faded from my memory (usually a steel trap up there!)
Airport hopping always seems to have its frustrations: First leg, seat 32E taught me the lesson that upon checking in, always see if there is a more desirable seat available. The mothball family was unavoidable, but the so-far-back-seats-don't-recline seat may have been prevented.
Second leg was the typical ¨crying baby flight.¨ Everyone has experiemced one of those! For someone who loves children so much I have a very hard time admitting my thoughts of... taking that baby and throwing it right off that airplane!
Third leg was like a dream. I slept the entire 6 hours.
Fourth leg (that's right- lotta legs on this one) started in Lima, Peru. Lima was warm :) My wool socks and down jacket choice seemed to enhance my panic as I scanned every sign and each human for a gentle nod in the right direction. Overall, my foreign country airport experience was drama and intensity free, they don´t even make you take your shoes off when you walk through the metal detectors (that seems like reason enough to visit Peru for me.) The man who checked my boarding passes told me ¨I speaks English more or less.¨ Definately on the ¨less¨side, for that was about as extent of our conversation.
I have already learned to keep to the universal language of the smile. If you begin an interaction with ¨Holla, como estas?¨then they REPLY in that language! Whoa, I can handle a ¨bein, es tu?¨but the response thus far has been more of an explosion of beautiful sounds that I do not understand.
The flight from Lima to Cusco was a painless hour of drifting in and out of sleep. As we started to descend, spectacular mountains were framed through the little air plane windows A sunny day and brilliant landscape felt like a great omen. Everyone must have felt that way because as the plane rattles to a smooth landing the passengers all began to applaud! The woman behind me says ¨buena!¨
I have many things to say about Cusco. I have an outlandish amount of photos from my first day. But I am exhausted and it is getting late. I leave tomorrow at 5 a.m. for my hike, which is said to be a very hard hike. I have a had a long last few days so I finish this entry with a ¨be back in five!¨
sorry about the horrible spelling and grammar, had to do this quickly!
lovelovelove
http://www.pariwana-hostel.com/pariwana-hostel-cusco.php
2 comments:
How exciting and love that you are back traveling AND blogging. Thank you!!
Paulette
Why is it that mountains on the horizon provoke a smile in everyone? Am following your adventures, just summited the highest peak in SE Asia, thought I was in shape. Did you know they don't use switchbacks here? Straight up 10k feet. Anyway safe travels bub.
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