I hate it when Yoel's right...

Wow! So much has happened. The plane ride to Cusco was great because we flew over the Andes Mountains (although I didn't enjoy Yoel's comment about if we crashed, he'd eat my fatty parts first). The view was beautiful. It didn't take long after we landed to feel the effects of the altitutde. Just walking up the ramp from the Tarmac to the terminal made our hearts pound extra fast. Outside the airport, we found Judy, the manager of the tour company, who picked us up and took us to our hotel, Hotel Monasterio. Beautiful! It literally was a monastery centuries ago, and they did a good job preserving the look and feel (the Gregorian chant they pipe into the background doesn't hurt either). When we checked in, they also gave us complementary coca tea, a traditional treatment for altitude sickness.

Once settled, we again met with Judy and Jose, our tour guide for most of the trip. Jose and a driver then took us on a city tour which consisted of six or seven stoops to different churches and ruin sites, all of which were very interesting. Instead of telling you about each one, let me give you a summary of what we learned.

1). The Incas didn't really have religion; they instead had an intense appreciation for the things that they believed gave them life: mother earth, water, mountains and especially the sun and moon.
2). The Spanish and the Catholics devastated Inca culture when they arrived in Peru, changing things they didn't like and stealing the rest.
3). The Peruvian people and land are beautiful. They people work extremely hard to work the land and use what the earth has given them.

Oops, our ride is here. More soon...

Ok, back again.

After our tour yesterday, we made our way to dinner. It's an understatement to say we were exhausted and hungry. I don't remember portions of the meal because I was so out of it! The meal was just ok. We (and by we I mean mostly Yoel) tried guinea pig for the first time. It's a delicacy here. When we finally made it back to the hotel, we basically crashed - hard - until this next morning.

Now, you might be wondering why I titled this, "I hate it when Yoel's right." All throughout the day we learned things that indicated that Yoel was right in having us practice for our hike in Macchu Pichu by climbing Stone Mountain, in encouraging me to buy a camelback backpack, in saying that we should probably lay off all alcohol and caffeine in the week prior to the trip to help us stay hydrated once we got her, and several other things. I just hate it when he's right. It makes it so much harder to convince him he's wrong when he actually is!