Peru

So yesterday we landed in Cuzco and got picked up around 12ish...we came to the hotel, got our rooms. Cuzco is a tourist spot; there are venders everywhere and everyone can speak good English. They have a tea here that's available in the lobby...it's lemon cocoa leaf tea. (cocaine is made from the flower-not the leaf). And there is free wifi but only in the lobby. one group left at 1:30 to sightsee and then came back and whoever wanted to set out at 4:00 then met at 6:00 for dinner. I had got this headache (altitude sickness) in La Paz and it left on the plane but I got it even worse in Cuzco. I had set off at 1:30 to sightsee but by 3:00 I came back with Cry who wanted to take a nop before registering for classses. I came back and took an hour nap. I had meant to go out with the 4:00 group but was too tired and so I kept sleeping. I slept until Jason called at 6:00 to check up and make sure I knew about the dinner plans. I didn't. I went down to the lobby and we had a meeting...one group had had a late lunch, another had already eaten dinner, Cory felt sick and went to bed and ordered room service, Mom was tired and went to bed (she had had a late lunch), and about four set out for dinner. I was so out of it that I just came back to the room and ordered room service-I got chicken soup with vegetables and noodles. It wasn't that much soup but it was super good and came with two rolls. Kailey skyped and I took a shower at 9:00 and by ten we were in our room. She ordered oxygen before she skyped-you get ten free minutes of oxygen. And she didn't feel sick, she just wanted to be able to say that she had oxygen. :) This morning we got up by 3:30 or so and had breakfast at 4:15. We left by five via bus and drove for about an hour to the train station through windy roads at dawn and were the last ones on the train at 6:30. We were two minutes late. We rode for two hours then got to a town where we got on buses and actually drove up the mountain to Machu Picchu. The history of this (it's one of the 7 Wonders of the World!) is in the second post. It was as amazing as the pictures make it look. The altitude is 8000 feet versus Cuzco's 12000 feet. They let you get really close and you can touch the rocks. It was gorgeous. We stayed up there till about 12:30 when we split up. Half of us went on a hike up another mountain right next to Machu Picchu that has an astounding view and half of us went to the village to have lunch. I had chicken and beef quesadilla. this morning a tour guide had picked us up and he stayed with us from the pick-up at the hotel to the drop-off at the plaza. So after lunch, we caught our 2:12 train ride and then got on the bus at the town and drove for another hour to the plaza, where we decided to just go to dinner directly, instead of getting dropped off at the hotel. We ate at a very nice, but expensive, restaurant. I had alpaca. There were also wild llamas at Machu Picchu today, just walking around. Daniel kissed one. After dinner, we did more walking around and went home to the Novotel (our hotel). We are going to have a debrief session tomorrow at ten and we must be packed and ready to go. A bus will pick us up at twelve to get to the airport by one for our flight that leaves at 3. This hotel is much nicer than the one in Bolivia. I am homesick for the La Luz Divina church people, though. :)