PERU! WOHO!

This last week Lauren and  I took off for 5 days in Peru! What an Adventure! We spent our first night in Peru sleeping in the lima airport from 10pm to 3am. It was very misrable because we could not check into our gate and spent the night sleeping in the food court and in front of the check in with our bags propped up between us. We flew into Cusco and arrived at about 7:30 am, my good friend Katie from Duluth picked us up from the airport and took us to a hostel. Then we went out to Breakfast, in Argentina they dont eat breakfast so pancakes and bacon were a special treat! We ended up napping into the afternoon  and Katie took us shopping and around town seeing the sites until dinner.
Cusco is very different then Buenos Aires, it is very touristy, much like Disney World. Also the venders of Cusco will come right up to you and ask you to buy there wears, very obnoxious and hard to carry a converstaion while walking down the street! it got very tiresome quickly.  We headed back to the hostel and was in bed by 9:30pm. Traveling at night sure does wear one out!
We woke up the next morning ready to tour the Sacred Valley and catch a train to Agua Calientes to see Machu Picchu! We  showed up at the tour guide company but it was closed and when it opened we asked the lady about our tour and she had no idea. At the last minute a lady came up and told us to follow her, we did and she put us on a bus for the tour we had no idea what was going on but we were laughing the whole time. that day we took a tour of two Different ruins Pisac and Ollantaytambo. These were Incan ruins from when they ruled the Sacred Valley before the Spainards came and destroyed them.  Stupid Spaniards.....
That evening we caught a train to Agua Calientes and stayed at really nice hostel, hot water and everything!

The next morning we got up at 4am to catch the first bus to Machu Picchu, it was raining and foggy but we were much to excited to care. We had our tour at 7:40, we learned that the city was not a normal city and the important inkan people resided there; astrologers, philisophers, all the ologers lived there, priests and priestesses.  After the tour we hiked Waynapicchu the large mountian behind the city. It was not safe at all, i was very surpised that they let anyone who wants to hike it! The view was breath taking and worth the million vertical steps!

It took us about 4 hours to get up and down, then we left the park for lunch and a little break. That afternoon we hiked to the Sun gate which was another 40 min up and 40 min back! Wow I needed some convincing to do that hike! The view was worth it! By the time we got back down the park was closing and we caught a bus back down to Agua Calientes. I ate the Ceviche for dinner but did not know you are not supposed to eat it after 3 or inland of the coast. Needless to say I was very ill.  We caught the train back to Ollantaytambo  and a bus to Cusco where katie was waiting for us at the bus stop and took us to a hostel and tucked us into bed :)  What an exhastingly satifying unbelivable day!
Our last day spent in Peru we checked out 3 museums in Cusco and Katie show us the sights! What a beautiful city!  That evening Lauren and Katie went out salsa dancing but I was still feeling ill from the Ceviche so I went to bed early. We woke the next morning, feeling a bit better, katie met us for our last breakfast and sent us on our way to the airport. flew to lima, an 8 hour layover, then safely back to Buenos Aires.

What a bueatiful, breathtaking trip!
Thanks for being our tour guide kaite, I love you!

A Weekend in Mendoza

The view from our deck at the Cabana

Last weekend we took a group trip to San Rafael in Mendoza. Mendoza is a province in western Argentina known for their excellent vineyards and beautiful senery. I wonder whose idea it was to take 50 students, half of them under 21, to wine country. sheesh...

Anywho, we stayed in a beautiful place right on the Atuel River, south of San Rafael. It took a 12 hour bus ride to get there.  We arrived and went for a hike in the mountians. The hotel fed us breakfast, lunch and dinner all weekend, which was very good! We got a snack every afternoon as well. I ate too much! The Next day we went rapelling and ziplining, lots of fun!  I was suprised to see that the break device on the zipline was a man that probably wieghed less then me! haha! That afternoon we toured two vineyards. The first one we looked at was huge! The second one was family owned. It was interesting to see how they were run differently. The next day we went river rafting and packed up to go home! Another 15 hours and we were successfully back in Buenos Aires.  A short little trip but absolutely beautiful senery!

besitos!

Hiking through the foothills of the Andes 

View from the repelling point