Day 5 - Peru begins...Lima and Cusco

Ami here,

So it's been a hectic 5 days in Peru so far.

We landed in Lima on Tuesday morning (May 11th) and arrived at Renzo's parent's place (Pravin's friend from Queens who's from Peru) quite early. We were a bit disoriented, but when we awoke the next morning, we found ourselves in an amazing condo that was a top of a mountain and over looked Los Incas Golf Course. Needless to say, neither of us were expecting to arrive into luxury. For the next few days, we awoke to a breakfast that included fresh squeezed orange juice (there was a maid) and a gorgeous view of the golf course across the street.



The city itself was busy and extremely congested. Traffic was loud and nonstop and red lights/stop signs are more of a suggestion than a rule. I tried not to look out the window too much as the proximity of other cars and crazy driving would have given me a heart attack lol. The pollution is also another story, at the end of one of our days, I smelled Pravin's hair and pretty much inhaled a load of cancer, not to mention black stuff coming out of our noses at the end of the day.

It was nice having a comfortable place to come back to where the toilets have toilet seats (don't ask I don't understand it either). We were also treated to some incredibly food (both home cooked and a lunch at the yacht club). I've fallen in love with certain Peruvian foods: cancha (roasted corn that is made from special peruvian corn), tamale (this green paste like looks like you ground up a lizard, doesn't look great but tastes amazing), yuca (yellow peruvian potato) and INCA COLA! It's this bright yellow fizzy drink that kind of tastes like cream soda...also only sold in Peru.

Those first few days were certainly anything BUT backpacking.

We've now left the comforts of Lima and are in Cusco which is the stepping stone for Machu Picchu. Cusco itself is a wonderful colonial city that sits 3400M above sea level.

The hostel we're staying at is a community project called Aldea Yanapay that helps to improve the lives of local Peruvian children. We arrived on the day of the 'festival of peace and happiness' which they had been preparing for 2 months. It was a celebration in a local park for the children. It was really nice to be there, and there were soccer tournaments etc. We helped with the cleanup a bit afterward but had to slow down because it was our first day of being at high altitude.

Speaking of altitude, Pravin hasn't been affected by it but I certainly have. I developed a massive headache yesterday (our first day here), and have been feeling nauseous on and off. Not to mention a bit of a strange giddy spell after dinner tonight where I was laughing at everything and anything, including Pravin's corny jokes (that's when he clued in that something was amiss haha). We're learning to take it slow and rest and hopefully I'll be acclimatized soon.

It's also pretty chilly here and there's no heat in our rooms. There's supposed to be a small stove to heat the room, but they're out of fuel for now...so we'll see what happens tomorrow. It's going to be another night of sleeping in our thermals and sleeping bags. Hot water in the shower is a bit of a gamble...actually last night when we got back there was no running water at all so like tooth brushing? nope.

It's a total change in pace from Lima...we just went from a luxury condo in a choked metropolis of 8m people (most of whom do not speak a word of English) to a small city in the mountains filled with backpackers and a Sunday market. It's been a great 2 days in Cusco and we're both really looking forward to the start of our volunteering tomorrow.

Ciao for now,
Ami & Pravin