That´s what everyone here keeps calling Cuzco. The word -- umbligo -- does mean bellybutton, but in the sense the Peruvians mean it, it´s kind of the Inca ancestral land.
Saw some amazing ruins up above the city today. Gigantic stone homes that nobody knows how they were made...the Incas didn´t use a wheel, didn´t have rope, metal etc. No one really knows, but the four-foot high rocks have straight lines and are stacked up seven, eight feet high...
That hike was fun until I got altitude sickness, big time. I´ll spare you the details, but ask me if you ever need a good recommendation on vomit, nausea, chills-stopping medicine. And I don´t mean Pepto. The only (now) funny thing about today is that all this came after I was literally locked into the bathroom at our hotel...Picture me pounding on the door and yelling help in Spanish for about 20 minutes....This, of course, beats the night before, in which I went to unlock my hotel room to go to bed and the entire knob and hardware fell off in my hand. Had a nice chat with an old guy from Lima who came to fix it....
So will keep this short, have to get to bed so I can take the train at 5 a.m. to Aguas Calientes, the last stop before Machu Picchu. There are supposed to be amazing hot springs, hence the name. I'm really looking forward to the train, through the clouds of the Andes...
The hotel here, Hotel de Ninos, takes part of the profits and uses them on an orhpanage here inside the hotel. And it´s still only like 15 bucks a night. Ran into some of the kids in the street, who literally all jumped onto my lap and begged to have their photos taken. Neat kids. will send photos...
Hope this finds everyone well. Next few cities, Ollantaytambo and Urubama, appear to have little and expensive internet service, so not sure about my next update. Will have info on Machu Picchu, though...
Paz,
Kate
