May 6th

Since this weekend is going to be pretty crazy, I´m going to have to post now so I have less to write later. Such is my laziness. HOWEVER. My laziness only extends that far here in Peru, for this morning we got up and walked a couple miles to the top of a hill just outside of Cusco to go see Sacsayhuamán. Which, let me tell you, (and Kassie can attest to this), was no easy task. We walked up to Maximo to use an ATM, took a taxi to the Plaza de Armas, and then walked the rest of the way. We had to climb 6 extremely long and steep flights of stone stairs to get up the hill. That combined with the altitude...yeah. Craziness. It took us about 40 minutes, so not too long, but definitely won´t be climbing those nasty stairs again anytime soon. When we got to the top however, it was all worth it. We could see the entire city of Cuzco, the weather was gorgeous, and we were standing in ancient Incan ruins!

Just outside of Cuzco there are four ruins, all pretty close together. Sacsayhuamán is the lowest of the four. It was the capital of the ancient Incan empire, and it´s HUGE. It´s a great big fortress with super tall walls, and then there are terraces and doorways all throughout it. Right in the middle there´s a great big field, which is believed to have been a courtyard type thing. And of course, it´s all built with stones that somehow fit perfectly together, no mortar or anything. Yet you couldn´t even fit a piece of paper in between two of them, that´s how well it´s built. The precision is incredible. It took about 77 years to make, and the largest stone weighs about 70 tons!! Those Incans must´ve been BEASTS to have lifted all those stones and put that all together. Jeesh.

The walk back down was MUCH easier, since it was all downhill, and I got souvenirs for my brothers on the way. (Don´t worry, Manda, Meagan, and parents, I´m getting stuff for you too!) Since it was so great out, we stopped at this little ice cream window shop a few doors down from Maximo and had our first taste of Peruvian ice cream. We asked the dude who was serving it which was his favorite and he pointed to the chocolate chip kind...I´m not a fan of chocolate chip ice cream but I figured I might as well, so we both got it...oh my. SO GOOD. It doesn´t taste like regular ice cream. And the best part?? It´s under a dollar. Oh yes. Lovin how cheap everything is here.