Today was a day of craziness. We have had a couple bouts with altitude sickness that make you realize that living in good ole flat Saskatchewan is pretty darn awesome. Most of the time 😜

One last outing before we left Cusco was a stroll through the meat market where many variety of raw meat were seen. Items such as fish, chickens, whole pigs, pig heads, guinea pig, and beef. Noah was disgusted by the smell of the raw meat sonkich he held hand sanitizer in his hand and smelled it instead of the stench of whole, dead carcasses. 

We flew out of Cusco around 1 and landed in Lima around 215ish. We spent the day visiting the beach, watching the sunset, and enjoying a water fountain park. 

Our flights home continue at 345 am with a small stop over in San Salvador before continuing to Toronto and hopefully landing around 3pm Friday afternoon. We are scheduled to be in Regina around 11 pm Friday night. 

The week has been pretty incredible with many different new ideas being witnessed and reenforcing the idea that travelling opens ones eyes to the world around you, but home is a wonderful thing. 

Top moments for:

Noah indulged himself by drinking himself silly with Inca Cola – the South American treat! 

Marshall thoroughly enjoyed going up Macchu Picchu holding hands with fellow travel mates 😜. We were told to stare at rock and then turn around and have our first viewing of the ruins. It was awesome!!!

Paris thought that climbing Macchu Picchu was pretty incredible as not that many people get to say that they did that!

Cara loved the water fountain in Lima as she just kept getting more and more soaked. 

Kaycee loves hiking up to the sun temple at Macchu Picchu and making a new friend in our tour director, Diego. 😘

Torri loved seeing the animals everywhere – dogs, cats, puma, condors, monkeys, llamas, alpacas, bears, and of course, the giinea pigs! 

Danna enjoyed Macchu Picchu followed by seeing the Pacific Ocean.

Felecia loved Macchu Picchu and conquering her fear of heights! 

Pam Jr loved the hike of Macchu Picchu, being at the summit and gazing at the beautiful Peruvian mountains. 

Leslie loved the Sacred Valley, Macchu Picchu and the beautiful hotel created by the Frenchmen. 

Kathleen😜 loved the Sacred Valley and the school activity. It was just so cool! Kathleen is also going to appreciate cleaning her toilet and flushing toilet paper 😷💩🚽

Leah’s top moment was a tie between Macchu Picchu and the school. MP was a mountain that was huge and one can hardly imagine what it would have been like to build the structures hundreds of years ago and still have it retain its beauty. The school was inspiring because you realize that one can make a difference in others lives with volunteering. You make a difference in others lives, but the feeling you get from the experience is almost more powerful than what you have done. 

Myself- Pam Sr. Being part of a Noah Sandwich with Pam bread😜  Not many aunts get to experience two continents with a wonderful nephew and a great sister in law who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. I also need to hurry home and meet my very first grand-niece that joined our family while I was in Peru. Family is awesome! 

The visit to the school was as awe inspiring as Macchu Picchu for me. School is obviously important to me as it provides so many opportunities for people. I have been able to travel with friends and learn along with the travellers. I also love the fact that I have been able to travel with a student turned teacher and, equally important, a friend with Leah on three tours. She is a remarkable young woman who is a true treasure. Shane and Judith have done a fine job raising her. All of us on our tour are/were so lucky to have her as our leader. 
The final countdown for our 9 day trip.
9 days of planes, trains and automobiles and godforsaken hours. 😳

8 dogs who always seemed to find us in the steeets of Peru. 

7 days of exploring Peru, meeting new friends from Barrie, Ontario and our tour director, Diego. 

6 students who made travelling fun and provided many new experiences, such as salsa dancing, in-grown toenails, and realizing that we actually learn on these trips. We don’t just laugh and do cool things. 

5 moms who joined our trip to help make the “Peru Mommas” a competitive force in all aspects, especially hoolahooping, frisbee throwing and skipping. 

4 x1000 meters above sea level

3 Three YG travellers trips are in the books: London, Paris and Barcelona in 2013 and then Rome, Florence, Verona, Innsbruck and Munich in 2015 and then Lima, Cusco, and Sacred Valley, Peru in 2017.  Where to next in 2019???

2 teachers who logged over 100000 steps each. OMG. No wonder we are tired and have buns of steel! 😜

1 more continent visited with wonderful YG people who happily represented the Saskatchewan Roughriders 13th Man on the top of Macchu Picchu, but forgot our YG Wheat King shirts. Until 2019, ciao! 

Our day started early with our 4 am wake up call to catch the train to go up to Macchu Picchu today. Once taking a bus from the train we began our march along the Inca trail. We climbed 1000 ft ascent in 55 minutes.  There was a lot of puffing and maybe a little swearing and a LOT of sweating, but we ALL made it up Macchu Picchu!!  Once we came down for lunch, we toured the ancient ruins that make it so famous. Pretty incredible day and a definitely a reason to visit Peru!  

Interesting observation. Some in our group watched a prom proposal and a wedding proposal in Macchu Picchu today. Pretty sweet. 

Over 20000 steps today, 263 flights of stairs, and almost 9 miles. Wow. Our rears are looking awesome! 

We had an awesome meal of chicken and the best mashed potatoes ever! 

The wifi is really sporadic and not strong. We are really sorry you are not experiencing our travels with pics. 

Interesting facts from our guides today:

Southern cross is the South American constellation for telling direction as they cant see the North Star. 

Oooramba river. Main river at Macchu Picchu. Flows into amazon. 

Milky river comes from milk chocolate coming off Hercules face. Inca called it crazy constellation river. 

Macchu Picchu is actually in shape of bird (condor) if you were to go top a look down. 

Our day was bright and early with our wake up call at 5 to catch our flight to Cuszo  . We have all taken our altitude sickness medication. I’m sure the Saskatchewan pharmacies must be smiling this week based on how many products our Peru mommas brought with us. We are prepared for anything with altitude sickness medication, Imodium, pepto bismol, Advil, Tylenol, gravel, Zantac, peroxide, bandaids, Benadryl and poop sprayer. 😳. These mommas are serious about being prepared. 😊
We toured Saqsaywaman, which when said in Spanish sounds almost exactly like sexy woman. Pretty funny stuff until you learn about the history of the place where Falcons were satisfied with the sacraficed llamas, alpacas, and people which was done on June 21 to celebrate their winter solstice. The Incas made an incredible structure that we were allowed to climb on. Slowly due to the altitude. 

We had interesting meal of cold pasta salad, quinoa with mushrooms and a delicious dessert made of organic (that isn’t what made it good 😜. Pam and I almost couldn’t eat it because of that dirty word) berries that smelled like Christmas that were supposed to be naturally good for high blood pressure. 
We also toured the Temple of the Sun. The kids all seemed so into it which was awesome to see. Our guide, Washington, did a fabulous job today with lighting the history bug in all of us. 

I had Paris tell me today that she wishes all our history/social classes could be trips like this as this trip and the tours that are included make it come alive. Finally. It brought tears to my eyes and made all the preparation and worry about these trips all worthwhile. 😊 Little comments like that is makes a teacher’s heart shine and melt all at the same time. 😍

Interesting tidbit:  Lima had cats roaming freely, while Cusco has dogs everywhere. We have been told to not touch any animal ever here as they could have rabies. 

On our way to the Sacred Valley, we stopped at a roadside stand to take some beautiful pictures of the incredible landscape and purchase some wonderful alpaca products and other little gadgets. Trust me Allen. I won’t bring home too many blankets. 😜

We are staying in  wonderfully quaint hotel in the valley tonight – Willka Rumi Hotel. It is very small and we had to walk in the dark to get here, but it is so cute. 

13000 steps or 5.8 miles today. 

Not the strongest wifi so unable to load pics right now. 

Breakfast was pretty basic with eggs, crostinis with mushrooms, and toast. No guinea pig. Yet. 

Visited the main square of Lima and witnessed the changing of the guard at the President’s House. Our little blonde girls are definitely noticed in a sea of dark haired people.   Noah and Marshall were interviewed by a Peruvian TV station and asked their views of many topics. 

We visited a museum this afternoon which was awesome if you really really really love history. The gardens were absolutely beautiful. Notice the interesting symbols for women and men’s bathrooms. 😊

Our travel comrades are from Barrie, Ontario with lots of girls and one lone boy. 

Tomorrow we have an early day with our flight to Cuzco. 

Interesting tidbit. Look how far away we are from lil Yellow Grass on the globe picture. We are even south of the equator. 😊. Small walking day – only 12000 steps or 5.5 miles. 

Three more days until our 515 am lift off!!