I think we all have a running list of places we would like to visit. For me Peru was always passively on that list, but I am not sure it would have ever made the top three. Fortunately for me and Peru, my job offered me a chance to go there during end of November. Always up for an adventure, I was going to help with a service project at a school/ orphanage just outside of Cusco, Peru. The larger group that I was a part of was a type of rewards trip given to people that sell products for 4Life. All together there were about 200 people, and about half of those were participating in the service project day that I was spear heading. I flew out the day of the presidential elections, which was a bit of a bummer since I am a a news junkie and was looking forward to watching the poll results as they came in. Fortunately I was able to get my vote just before I left through an absentee ballot. When most of the votes were being counted I was flying from Atlanta to Lima, Peru, but once we landed the pilot had an announcement. Barack Obama had been reelected. This caused about 1/3 of the plane to cheer, another 1/3 of the plane to grumble, and the last 1/3, I am guessing native Peruvians, did not seem to care one way or another. After spending the night in Lima, I flew to Cusco the next day. Cusco was an amazing little city. The surrounding area consisted of mostly poorly constructed houses dotting the hillside. Apparently no roof means no taxes for them. The center of the city was definitely a scene set for tourists with shops and restaurants everywhere. With mostly stone construction and narrow road ways inside the city, Cusco felt like a city set back in time, complete with locals wearing traditional garb walking along with leashed alpacas (this was mostly for tourist photos). The day after I arrived in Cusco, my wife Melanie arrived. I took a local taxi to pick her up, which was an experience that made me fear for my life, the local driving rules in Peru are whoever is bigger has the right away. Right after picking Melanie up, we got settled in the hotel and drank some of the coca tea, which is supposed to help you acclimate to the higher altitude. Cusco is about 11,000 feet above sea level. After that we made our way to scout out the service project location. There were two separate locations we would be helping at. Both the facilities are ran by a catholic organization called Children of the Poor. Basically they take in the poorest children of the surrounding areas and help house, feed and educate them. Beyond a conventional classroom setting these schools also help teach trades including baking, sewing, agriculture, wood carving, and even produce their own milk, cheese and yogurt. At the girl’s school we were met by Nicole, she is actually from New York and has been volunteering full time, along with her family, for the last 6 years. She showed us around, and we got to see in the different workshops they have for the girls that attend the shcool. Nicole’s husband Will met us at the boy’s school, and showed us around their facility. We even got to try an extra huge piece of that days batch of cheese, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. The next day was the big excursion to Machu Pichu. Originally I said Peru was never on the top of my list of places to visit, but after seeing Machu Pichu in person I would definitely suggest others put this place higher on their own lists. From Cusco it was about a three and a half hour train ride, and then another 30 minutes on a bus just to get to the top of Machu Puchu. The long travel time was all worth it thought because once you are there it is breath taking. Our tour guide said that the Incans built Machu Pichu on top of a mountain to be close to the Sun, which they worshiped as one of their God’s. They must have been onto something, because being up that high surrounded by impressive mountains and so much beauty, it was hard not to appreciate something that is much larger than yourself. The thing that surprised me the most was how expansive the mountain top was. We spent only 3 hours up there and it was much to short. You can easily spend the entire day exploring the pathways, stairs, and endless structures. There were two things that especially stood out to me at Machu Pichu. The first was in the area which was used for ceremony and worship. There was a rock structure that had indentations where water could be puddled. According to our tour guide, these small water puddles were used as mirrors to safely look into the sun and other solar events. The second thing that stood out to me was the small canals flowing through out, which helped supply water to the entire city structure, and made things such as farming and even primitive plumbing systems possible. Bonus video of local kids at the bottom of Machu Pichu skateboarding. The next day was the most stressful of the trip. I woke up early to make sure everything was in order, and drove out to the boys facility to make sure everything was ready for our volunteers. Once a few small bumps were hammered out, the volunteers arrived and we helped plant trees, clean the bakery and prepare lunch for the kids. I was taking photos bouncing between groups and even took a moment to help dig some of the tree holes. All in all I think it was a success, and there is definitely something about service, big or small, that makes you and those around you happy. Even when you are just cleaning or digging holes. Anyone really wanting to learn more about the service day, you can visit my works website, foundation4life.org The one sad part of the day for me was after the service project. I had stayed behind with our video guy to interview some of the families the schools help. The first house we went to was not pretty. Small, dirty and worse than anything you would see in America. Tucked into the corner of this house was a small worn down stove with several pans on top. As I thought to myself about these poor conditions, our guide from the school commented something that stuck with me. He said, "Believe it or not that stove means this family is pretty well off for this area, and most people here cant afford one." After hearing that its a little harder to take my kitchen back at home for granted. Saturday was the last night of the trip, and we spent it as a restaurant called Tayta. The highlight of the dinner was a small musical group dressed in traditional Peruvian clothes. While they played we got to see several people we had gotten to know on the trip bust out their dance moves. The last day we were there, Sunday, we did not fly out to Lima until the end of the day. This gave us some time to go shop and explore the city one last time. Cusco has a town square called "Plaza de las Armas." Here there was a beautiful fountain, and a giant cathedral building. Inside the square and lining the streets were hundreds if not thousands of people. There were marching bands, kids in school uniforms and street vendors everywhere. Melanie kept saying that there must be a special event happening to bring in all of the people. I said, no I think this just happens every Sunday. After talking to a few locals it turns out I was right. We did most of our shopping that day about 15 minutes from the hotel at a swap meet type place. Best things I bought for myself were, an awesome alpaca sweater, and some sweet high top sneakers. For our last meal in Cusco we went to the Incanto restaurant. Melanie had a delicious lamb shank and I got a traditional Peruvian dish called aji de gallina. Great way to end the trip and say goodby to Peru. That wraps up all my adventures in Peru, and probably my longest blog post to date. If your still reading I am surprised, but to reward you here is a picture of a funny cat carving i saw in Peru.
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