May 7th

It's hard to believe that a week ago, I was staying up late packing and getting ready to leave super early the next morning. Weird.

I got to call home last night for a little bit and talk to my mom, which was great! It was also a little weird just cause all of a sudden home sounded so CLOSE, instead of a continent away.

Anywho, we started off this weekend's adventures with a 4 hour horseback ride through the other three ruins outside of Cuzco. We went with an company called Liz's Explorers. The whole thing was only $25.00 and it was worth every single penny! We started out at a local ranch just outside of Sacsayhuamán, and rode almost all the way up to Tambomachay (about 5 or 6 miles from Cuzco). We stopped at a field, our guide picked us up and showed us around Tambomachay and Puka Pukara, and then we got back on our horses to ride down to see Q'enqo (the Moon Temple) and get back down to the ranch. It was absolutely amazing. We were riding through gorgeous countryside, our guides were super funny and friendly, and we didn't have to walk! If any of you are planning to go to Cuzco, I highly recommend it.

After our fabulous morning, Kass and I walked back down to Cuzco (yeah. back down all those stairs that I swore never to step foot on again) and got a taxi down to the Plaza where we got some lunch. We then walked down to Maximo where they have free salsa lessons every Saturday, so we did that for a while, which was pretty fun! We're both exhausted so we probably won't do much more today, but we do have a new volunteer in the house that we'll go meet tonight. Since Jen left yesterday (which we were bummed about) it's just me, Kass, and Matt upstairs so it'll be cool to have someone else there as well. His name is Eric, but that's all we know about him so far. Anywho. We'll probably just relax tonight because tomorrow is another busy day!!