Cuzco

Flying into Cuzco was pretty dang exciting. We soared right down in amongst the mountains. I kept thinking of the movie Alive, where a team of soccer players crashed in the Andes mountains. Long story short, they ended up eating each other and had to walk out of the mountains for help. I was a little sad I didn't pick a huskier friend to travel with.

Flying into Cuzco.

Right after I took this photo my camera lens broke in half. Seriously, right in half. Cue swearing. We spent our first few hours trying to find someone to fix it. When all was said and done, they weren't able to fix my auto focus button so all my photos had to be manually focused, which would have been great if I didn't have crap eyes and no glasses. So all the close up photos I took, and everything else is courtesy of Kim.

Here is my broken camera *&%$%^&^%$.

We look pretty happy in this photo, but inside we were dying. It was SO hard to breathe in Cuzco. It is one of the highest cities in the world. I was shocked at how hard it was to function in the high altitude. I was a little afraid we wouldn't be able to hack the hike.

This was the view from breakfast.

I love getting my photo taken with baby goats. I didn't notice until afterwards that it was covered in tiny open sores. Yikes. I hope we won't be eating it later.

Love the old Cuzco bridges.

Phenomenal views.

We spent most of our time in the Cuzco plaza.

Some fun plaza ladies asked us if we would like massages. They were super cheap -- one hour for about $5. We were all over it. It was only until I was on the table, covered head-to-toe in baby powder, that I regretted this decision. At one point the lady was on the table with me doing her thing. There was also an awkward straddling moment where she was sitting on my neck massaging my back. Um... let's just say there wasn't a lot of relaxing going on.

A view from our window.

Another view of Cuzco

We met up with our group at night to discuss our trip itinerary and find out what we should pack. They only allow the porters to carry 6 kilos of our stuff; everything else we have to carry ourselves. My sleeping bag was two kilos so I was basically shaving weight anywhere I could. It was crazy hard to meet that weight. I had to get rid of quiet a few clothes, medical supplies and extra food. What are the chances I won't get cold or sick on the mountain?