After an extremely long 25 hours of multi connections flying and sleeping on airport floors, we finished our journey with a beautiful sunrise flight to Cusco. At this point, I was so tired I kept hitting my face on the plane window but managed some decent pictures. It was absolutely stunning to see the snow capped Andes right under us as we flew at 15,000 feet. While it was still dark, I could see little clusters of lights from very remote little villages/towns and it's amazing to think that they are able to survive so far from hugely populated civilization. Must be quite a tranquil place though. Oh yes, it was also awesome to see the Panama Canal from the air during sunset for our first layover. For some reason, since learning about it in 2nd grade or something, I have always aspired to see it. 15 years later, seeing that wide stretch of murky water still filled me with excitement and joy. Call me weird. Or maybe I was just tired.
Our journey was filled with a random assortment of side effects no thanks to the medicine we were taking to prevent altitude sickness. At one point or another, either my arm, leg, or feet were tingling similar to when your leg falls asleep and someone pokes it. But not as painful, thank goodness. For about 45 min, the right half of my top gums went painfully numb. Super wierd. Anyone ever experienced that?
We taxied to our hospedaje and they were super accommodating and allowed us to check into our room early and served us coca tea to further inhibit any ill feelings due to the altitude. We slept the day away and got up in time to do a little exploring before dinner. I am immediately confronted by my biggest pet peeve as a traveler as swarms of people approach with their goods. I always feel so rude brushing them off or just plain ignoring them but then I wouldn't be able to get anywhere. First impressions of Cusco:
- beautiful architecture and nice street music
- there's quite a lot of pizzerias here
- pedestrians do not have the right of way ever
- similar to China, drivers arent afraid to get onto the sidewalk. But, given that most sidewalks are literally a foot wide, you better hope and pray they don't decide to do that right behind you
Had a quick dinner of chicharron sandwiches and it's not even 7 pm here but back to bed I go. I'm excited to finally utilize all that Spanish have learned. Buenos noches todos.
