A Crazy Couple of Weeks..

Wow I haven't written in a few weeks! A lot has happened in the past month. I am getting more settled here in town with work, life and friends and was able to travel a bit the past few weeks. I ended up taking off for the jungle for the weekend and went to some hot springs in Santa Teresa at night and stayed at this cool treehouse like Eco Lodge  place in town. The next day went ziplining through the mountains. There were 6 different lines- I've never been before and I can't imagine a more perfect place to go for the first time. It was incredible. We hiked a ways up to the top of a mountain and then worked our way down the lines. After ziplining, took a cab about half an hour away maybe and had lunch at this little backpackers spot before starting a simple 5 mile trek along the train tracks into Aguas Calientes (the town at the base of Machu Picchu). It was the most beautiful walk through the mountains and following a river. Definitely the best way to get to MP in my opinion. It was so incredible to be able to slowly walk up to the impressive mountains that host the famous ruins. As we got into AG, we found a butterfly house and ended up stopping in for a quick but excellent tour. (I have a slight obsession with butterflies) The guide spoke only Spanish but was very informative and so patient with us. You could tell he loved what he did. As we got ready to leave he told us to wait and gave me a Tupperware with a live butterfly in it and told me I could set it free. This may have been one of my favorite moments. I know it's silly but I love the idea of setting things free and to be able to do it at the base of Machu Picchu was pretty awesome :) We finally got back on the road and got to explore AG for the evening. Had dinner at this great quirky pirate themed place called Indio Feliz. The food was the best I've had in Peru! This turned out to be quite disappointing when I woke up at 3 am and saw it all over again. I haven't had the flu in literally like 4 years so naturally I would get sick the night before going to MP. Typical me. Needless to say I wasn't up for going the next day and ended up sleeping the whole day instead. A pretty great guy decided to stay and go with me a second time the next day. I was still pretty exhausted but got to see all the ruins and most everything I wanted to apart from a few hikes that just weren't going to happen for me having zero energy. It was so incredible! It's like you are in the clouds. The weather changes pretty rapidly so we got both fog, intense sun and a little rain right as we were leaving. I still can't believe that I've been to one of the 7 wonders of the modern world! It's obviously fairly touristy now as it's getting to be high season but it was still so mind boggling to see the immensity of the structures. The terraces, roads and ruins are insane! There's so much detail everywhere.. and Llamas.. walking wherever they like throughout the ruins :) For not feeling 100% I had the most incredible day. We explored Aguas Calientes a bit more that night and took the 8:30 am train back to Ollanta the next morning. I worked a bit Wednesday and Thursday and then left for Cusco for the weekend. Cusco is a pretty cool city. It's on a hill like most places here. There are so many little streets and cool old doors, churches and plazas all over town. We asked our cab driver if he knew of a good place to stay and he immediately whipped out his phone and called a friend and we ended up staying at this super awesome incredibly hippy hotel/hostel place. It was wonderful haha! So colorful and welcoming- I felt very at home :) We spent the weekend wandering around the streets getting somewhat lost and exploring all the little shops. We made it with a little effort to the San Pedro Market. It's like the markets in Urubamba and other towns only on steroids. It's absolutely massive! There are tons of people selling fruits and vegetables and bread and cheese. There are also food and juice stations in the front of the market. Then beyond the safe food section as I call it is the meat section. This is not for the faint of heart. There were pig and llama heads that still looked like animals and just tons of meat and animal parts hanging all over the place. We looked a little bit but I'm not one for raw meat so we didn't linger long. Then there's a huge section of knick knacks for sale and other tourist crap that you find in every city. The amount of stores selling the same things was incredible. We did find a few nicely made alpaca things. There are just so many stores and restaurants catering to tourists in Cusco. It's a bit overwhelming. It made me appreciate my somewhat sleepy little cobblestone fortress of a town. I came back to Ollanta on Easter Sunday and had a shift in the store and spent the afternoon in a cafe with my cool British friend Sarah.

I've been busy with work and Spanish classes this week which is good since I was basically gone for most of last week. I have lots of projects I'm helping with at the moment to help boost store sales. So I should have a lot to keep me occupied this week! Hopefully I'll be a little better about attempting to blog haha

Eco Lodge

Aguas Calientes

Cusco

Looks appetizing!!