Va-cay

So the other night as I was trying to fall asleep, I wrote a whole blog entry in my head that sounded great at the time, similar to a Carrie Bradshaw voice over commentary. In any event, now I completely forgot what was in this half-asleep blog entry, so I'll just move on.

I had a wonderful visit from my family a couple weeks ago, (which I'm not just saying because I know my mom is my most faithful reader.) First they all showed up in Lima, the over-grown city that has somehow grown on me. (must be the sneaky sun and warm weather) At one point they were meeting me at work to take me out to lunch, but they had been a while. I decided to peak my head out the front door of the office onto San Borja Norte, and sure enough saw three very white confused tall Americans. My family! Forgot to tell them that the street numbers don't go in order on my street.

We took an amazing trip to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, which has totally revived my love for Peru. Or maybe didn't revive, but made me love Peru. Before going there if you had said you wanted to visit me, I probably gave you a response something like, "OK, that'd be cool. You know I do work a lot." (Although obviously I would love to see all of you down here.) Which is true, I work a lot and can't easily take time off. But man, after going to Cusco, come on down! I don't care what my crew of bosses say, I'm taking time off. I want to share the beauties of Peru with you! Anyway, people really do talk shit about Lima, and it offends me. I realize that it's huge, overcast, not pretty, dangerous, blah blah, but it's my home. Recently a couple of Zehra's friends came down and were in Lima for a day. They loved it and it made me so happy. Guidebooks really make it sound awful.

When we got to Cusco, anyone who heard I worked/lived in Lima would kind of look at me sympathetically and say, "Oh, how do you like that?" At the beginning of our time in the Sacred Valley (the area that surrounds Cusco which includes Machu Picchu and many other important Inca ruins/cities,) I was all about sticking up for Lima. Saying that oh yeah, it's big, but I like it. Dude, by the end of the week, I had completely switched teams. Was totally rooting for Cusco, and not Lima. We went to this town that has water problems, and my mind immediately started churning about how I could convince my boss that I should be transferred to the town of Maras to do a water project there.

We stayed in this wonderful Inca town called Ollantaytambo right on the Urubamba river. Directly above the town are Inca ruins similar looking to Machu Picchu. One day, Dad and I took horses out through the valley to these ruins called Pumamarca. Not sure if I loved that day just because we had a cute guide, or because it was just incredibly beautiful. Passing people walking down to market day, wearing their traditional dress (and not for the tourists!) on our way up to The next day, Eric and I went on a mountain biking trip with my crush guide's best friend. We had incredible views, but it was kind of a scary ride for a beginner. I took a faceplant at one point, but made it to the bottom! We passed these crazy Inca terraces that filled this crater-like hole in the earth. We passed a town where they had to build 5 churches, placed on each huaca (temple) since the town was so hard to convert. We passed salt mines that were developed from the Incas and are still used today.

Alright, I'll stop rambling. As you can imagine, it was really hard to come back to Lima and work. But don't worry, I am already planning my trip back to the Sacred Valley. I'll post some photos soon.

Hope everyone is well!