Cusco-A Brand New Adventure

Saturday we woke up bright and early to hop on a flight to Cusco. I slept for most of the flight, but woke up in time to see the plane descending into a beautiful mountainous landscape and I got super excited. The first day we were told to rest, relax and not eat or drunk too much. We tried to take naps when we got there, but I know I was really excited and only slept for 10ish minutes. We went to lunch as a group, and then I went to watch the England-Italy game with a few friends. My friend asked for a suggestion as to where to watch the game. He told us a bar called the Secret Garden. We found it, it looked like just a silver door, but when we walked in, we were completely blown away. It was a garden-oasis type thing with a huge screen projecting the game and rows of chairs set up for spectators. After the game, we went back to the hotel, discovered the roof (which had a spectacular view) and watched a movie. It was definitely good to have had the day to relax because the change in altitude definitely wears on you.

Sunday morning we went to a national park slash Incan site called Saqsaywaman. It’s Quechan and when pronounced, it sounds like sexy woman. The views here were spectacular. It’s an Incan society that expanded over 300 hectares. The structure of the buildings is so cool too because they didn’t use cement or anything to keep the rocks together, but it worked. The stones were fit perfectly that some people don’t believe it was really done by the Incans. We saw the llama and animal sacrificing area, a fort where the soldiers stood guard and washed our faces in the fountain of youth. The water was a little chilly, but it was worth it for that young forever kind of look.

We had lunch and then went to a fortress to look at more rocks. What’s cool about Cusco is that a lot of the modern buildings are built into old Incan ruins. There’s a strip with a bunch of stores but the walls are assembled the way the Incans did it. The stores are in a temple that was called “House of the Sun Virgins” back in the day.

The fortress was followed by a trek up to our new hotel (we switched), a nap and some dinner. We have a lot to do in these next few days, so mom and dad just warning you I’m going to be exhausted when y’all come pick me up at the airport.