We spent a LOT of time in the airport. I left Atlanta at 5:30pm and arrived in Lima at 12:00 (6 hour flight with a one-hour time change). I met up with Allison, Nicole, Leslie, Mia, and Mitch, and the 6 of us sat at a café for about 4 hours before checking in for our connecting flight. I left Lima at 6:00am and arrived in Cusco around 8:00am. Allison and Nicole arrived about the same time as me, and together we left the airport to meet up with our families. The airport lost my suitcase… the one that had ALL of my stuff in it. Mala suerte?
I was very excited to meet my host mom and the rest of my family. Señora Sonia picked me up and took me to their house, only to find that she had lost her keys. So we went across the street to a juguería (juice shop… with literally about 50 varieties of juice) where she ordered me papaya juice and a chicken sandwich while she went to find someone to open the door. Long story short, I ended up waiting there for over an hour feeling sick to my stomach and extreeeemely tired.
We finally got in the house after basically breaking in through a glass window above the door frame. I immediately went to sleep and woke up 3 hours later around 1:30. Señora Sonia made me lunch (fried chicken, rice, and french fries) during which I met her two daughters (Chabeli, 15 and Lissa, 14) and husband (Juan) after they arrived home from school and work. I reallyyy like my Peruvian family. I already feel comfortable with them. After lunch we went back to the airport to retrieve my lost luggage, but the airline counter was closed when we got there. We went back the next morning at 6:00am and, thankfully, it was there! By the way, it's veryyy cold here...
When we returned I again fell asleep for a few hours. Traveling from Atlanta to Cusco is quite a process and very exhausting, so it took me a day or so to get back on schedule. I woke up and tried to find an internet connection with no luck. Apparently all internet in the entire city was down, which worried me because I couldn’t comunicate with anyone in the group or e-mail my mom to let her know I got here okay. I ended up going to a pay phone to call my parents, which was such a relief. It felt like it had been days since I’d seen or heard from them. I’m crossing my fingers that I can get skype to work here. If not, this could be a longgg 6 weeks.
June is apparently one of the most celebrated months in Perú, with various holidays and festivities throughout the month. Great time to arrive, right?! We had a delicious dinner and then went to La Plaza de Armas to see fireworks and a small concert. There were soo many people there! Thursday is the celebration of Corpus Cristi and Friday is a Peruvian holiday called Inti Raymi. Both involve various parades and parties that last throughout the whole night. I'll probably go to watch for a bit, but I definitely won't be losing any sleep, jaja.
Everything is going pretty well and I like it here so far. From what I can tell it’s very different from Mexico City, but the change is nice. It’s very colonial here and the mountaneous view from my window is spectacular. Pictures coming soon. Yesterday was our first day of class at El Centro Tinku with Juan Carlos, which went pretty well. Afterward we went walking around the center of the city taking pictures of the festivities going on. I took some videos which I'll TRY to post later. I’m excited for my roommate Casey to get here and experience all this with me! :)
Everything is going pretty well and I like it here so far. From what I can tell it’s very different from Mexico City, but the change is nice. It’s very colonial here and the mountaneous view from my window is spectacular. Pictures coming soon. Yesterday was our first day of class at El Centro Tinku with Juan Carlos, which went pretty well. Afterward we went walking around the center of the city taking pictures of the festivities going on. I took some videos which I'll TRY to post later. I’m excited for my roommate Casey to get here and experience all this with me! :)
Today we're going to visit some Incan ruins. Should be quite an adventure!
"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans." - Proverbs 16:3
