cusco, perú

 Our adventure to Cusco started out like any fabulous adventure, with a trip to the airport and a Dunkin Donut (with manjar in the middle, por su puesto!).  Our flight left nice and early from Lima and once we arrived, we spent some time wandering in the central park of Cusco.  Cusco is much calmer than Lima but is full of tourists!  Every time I turned around, someone was trying out their english or stumbling over their castellano.

First Cusco adventure: white water rafting!

We all dressed up for this adventure in the all-flattering wet suits (and just had to take a picture ;)  We split into 2 groups and tackled levels 2 and 3 rapids.  It was a blast!  The hour and half went by much too fast!


You can't go to Cusco without going to the famous Machu Picchu (one of the 7 wonders of the world).  See that mountain on the far right of this picture?  Yup, we climbed it!  All the way to the top for the best views (and the best peanut-butter and jelly sandwich lunch) in the world!

After we made it back down from Waynapicchu, we explored Machu Picchu with the all-classic rain ponchos :)

We also were able to meet the missionaries and their children from Urubamba and Arrin.  One afternoon, we hiked up to a beautiful, Incan waterfall with a couple missionary kids.  The hike was well worth the view, both of the waterfall and of the towns of Arrin and Urubamba.  The towns are settled in a valley between some of the gorgeous Andes Mountains.  

For our last full day in Cusco, we saw more Incan Ruins on horseback!  We would ride for a while (in between rain downpours at which point the horses would turn around and stand completely still until the rain let up...) and then get off to walk around the ruin sites and learn about the people who built these incredible structures :)