Peru at Last

Plane took off from Miami without a hitch - except for the little 4 year old Peruvian boy traveling alone sitting right beside me. He kept talking and pointing to my seat monitor like I was going to play a game with him. Ah, wrong, I am presently really sleep deprived and am going to catch some shut eye - or as much as you can sitting straight up. He finally went off to sleep. We landed in Lima about 5:30 a.m., had to get our checked bag (which surprising to the tour director, everyones's made it), got out of the airport and around the corner into the domestic flight area - dropped off our bag and headed to gate 9 for a two hour layover. We landed in Cusco about 10:00 and I could feel the difference in breathing but seemed to be fine. Our group got on a bus to take us to the Sacred Valley (about 3,000 feet lower in altitude. Apparently you have to go up in altitude before you can go down. Odd how that works in peru, but anyway we stopped in Chincherno for brunch and a weaving demonstration.

We had native Peruvian food which was pretty tasty. They fry something that resembles cornbread. I'll post pictures when I can go to the lobby.

The internet strength isn't super strong in the room. I was starting to get a really bad headache (proably a combination of no sleep, low food intake and being at 12,000 feet. One of the ladies in the group took 10 minutes of oxygen and seemed to be fine. I bought some water, took two Tylenol and have been fine. Oh and I'm sure the coca tea helped too. Our hotel is a renovated old monestary. Extremely picturesque and down in the Urumbamba Valley.

 Sure hope I spelled that right. Purchased a couple pair of earrings and an alpaca scarf. Tomorrow we go to Pisac (a huge shopping market) and some ruins. Dinner is in 20 minutes and then this girl is crashing.