First Few Days in Peru



On September 4th my cousin Erin and I set out for Peru. After three long flights and almost 24 hours of travelling, we finally made it to Lima. Exhausted, we quickly made our way to our hostel so that we could catch a few hours sleep before heading to Cusco in the morning.

The flight into Cusco was unlike anything I had ever experienced. The mountains were incredibly high. Some even crept up past the clouds! These massive mountains form part of the Andes, which spreads across Peru. Cusco is situated in amongst these mountains at 3 399m above sea level and is home to over 400 000 people. It's definitely not hard to feel the increase in elevation once you arrive!




Erin and I spent the afternoon in Cusco wandering through the cobbled stone streets, exploring our new surroundings. Afterwards, we stopped to eat at a local restaurant and began planning out the finer details of our trip.


Sacred Valley was first on our list of places to visit. Here we learned about how the local women use natural materials to make beautiful clothing and tapestries, fed some llamas and  travelled to see some of the terraces made by the Inca. The amount of intelligence and resourcefulness displayed by this group of people is truly incredible.



The following day we went to Urubamba to visit a natural salt mine. While we were there, we got to see locals collecting the salt in order for it to be distributed to markets. Over 300 families cultivate salt from this mine, however some of the pods still remain unused. The different colours of the pods signify a different stage of salt production. After visiting the mine, we went to a market where we tried some salted chocolate as well as other locally made seasonings.





Once back in Cusco, we stumbled upon a parade. I am still unsure of what the occasion was, however we were told that this type of thing happens quite frequently in Cusco. Nevertheless, it was really interesting to see different areas of the region represented. The parade itself lasted for quite awhile and included dancing as well as a variety of music/bands.


That evening we began preparing for our trek to Machu Picchu which was set to begin the following morning. Stay tuned for my next post to see how it went!

~Ms. C





Comments

  1. Unknown19 September 2019 at 05:03

    Thanks for sharing your journey with us! So exciting!
    \

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous19 September 2019 at 06:06

    So exciting Ms C!!! Safe travels. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cherri25 September 2019 at 17:20

    Wow. Salted chocolate. Love to have that experience being a chocoholic.😋👍

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cherri25 September 2019 at 17:40

    P.s. your pictures are absolutely breathtaking.👏

    ReplyDelete

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