Well, I know more about airports and take off/landings than ever before! 3 flights in one day yesterday. Calgary- San Francisco- Lima Peru - Cuzco. LAN Airlines serves great food! I would fly with them anytime! We had ravioli in a cheese/marinera sauce, salad with nuts and tomatoes, cheesecake and crackers with Brie. Also a small glass of wine came free with the meal. Cool. And the stewardesses stand guard while we were supposed to be sleeping- making sure no one was wandering for the purpose of stealing others belongings. Interesting! We arrived in Lima at midnight, tired and a bit lost. Everywhere we went the hallways were blocked for cleaning- with horribly loud, squealing machines. We couldn't go through customs till 2 am, so we just hung out at a "food court" which is open all night. We ate some of the snacks we were rather over zealous about packing. The food court was packed with people doing the same thing. At 2 we went through customs and slept in the departures room. Wonderful just to lay down and rest. Our plane didn't leave till 5:45, so we figured we had lots of time to relax. Wrong. At 3:30 a party entered the room. Loud talking, music, dancing, piles of people. I slept through some of it, but eventually gave up. A group of about 100 high school students were on our plane to Cuzco. They were going to Macchu Pichu. Laughing, joking, pushing eachother, teachers doing role call, just like home, but in Spanish!! Our whole plane was full of high school kids. As the plane took off, some were raising their arms like they were on a roller coaster, others were screaming, everyone shouted when we got up in the air- too funny!! Today we got to the hostel at 7 am., but couldn't check in till 1pm. We put our luggage in a locked room, and crashed on a sofa in a lounge off the kitchen. we were so exhausted! After snoozing for about an hour and a half, we both woke up freezing. The stone walls make the rooms radiate cold. It's warm in the sun- probably close to 20 today, but we need our fleece if we are indoors for a considerable time. We walked around Cusco- lots of character, and purchased bus tickets for the day after we go to Machhu Pichu. We ate lunch at a local haunt down the street - chicken soup for 3 soles. That is $1.12. The soup was good, and just what the doctor ordered after still being half frozen after sleeping in the icebox!! There are fancier places that charge more like 15 soles for a meal, but that's still under $5. No signs of altitude sickness- no breathlessness at all. I'm developing a very slight headache as the afternoon progresses, which could be due to altitude, or from sleeping in weird places... Haha!! Headache went away later, and we had alpaca for supper. It was pretty good! Reminded me of venison. I love you all!!
If you want to leave comments on this site, I see them when I log on again. Take care!! Off to Machu Pichu tomorrow!