An Adventure in Peru: Goons be lurkin'!

This last weekend could possibly mark one of the best weekends I have had here yet. We went to Cuzco for the weekend and it was absolutely AWESOME! On Thursday morning I got up before the birds at 5:00 a.m. to meet 3 of my friends at 5:45 a.m. We took a taxi to the airport and waited for about 2 hours to depart. While we waited we played a game with Spanish words which was pretty legit and ate an unbelievably healthy breakfast at McDonald's. I was pretty scared that I was going to get sick from the altitude (11,200 ft) because all the Peruvians had been warning us that some people get so sick they are unable to make it to Machu Picchu. To help this they suggested we stayed hydrated so by golly I did just that!...Thank goodness for closet sized bathrooms on the airplane! Once we arrived in Cuzco we took our bus to our super cute hotel and they provided us with this disgusting tea that is suppose to help you acclimate to the altitude. It tasted like a cup of liquid fish. I was going to gag it all down but then I decided that was dumb so I just drank about 5 horrifying sips. We then had about an hour to nap and relax before our tours began.
That day we went to an old Spanish convent which was built over Incan ruins. We also went to the Cuzco cathedral..it was soo pretty! After the tours we scouted out a little pizza place, ate, and afterwards a few of us stayed around the plaza de armas to look at the little shops. We knew it was dangerous and we needed to watch out for our bags but it definitely took a turn for reality. I walked across this little street to another shop and the lady there told me how dangerous it was and that we needed to be careful because she saw some man trying to pry his grimy little thief hands into one of my friends' purse. We all took her advice to be careful seriously, put our purses on under our sweatshirts, and went on our merry little way. When we were walking back to the hotel some girl with paint in her hair bumped into my friend Emily and got real mad at Emily. She was doin some serious creepin after that. Like she was walking right by Emily, at the same pace, with the same strides, and when Emily stopped so did this girl. We thought she was really freaky but we kept walking and eventually lost her. When we were almost to our hotel we stopped at a little market to get some snacks for the next day and sure enough the freaky girl with the paint in her hair showed up and was doing some more creepin. Some other students in our group showed up to the market and we told them about this girl and that is when we came up with our code. Every time someone was doing some major creepin' we would warn each other by simply saying "Goons be lurkin' yo!" This was perfect because even if someone knew English as their second language there is no way they would know what we were talking about. One of the girls in my group didn't hear the freak alert and was not taking the proper precautions for a creeper. She was paying for her snacks and had her wallet in her hand with her purse wide open. I saw paint hair girl eyeing her purse so we all started yellin "GOONS BE LURKIN, GOONS BE LURKIN!!!!" But my friend was oblivious and she leaned down to pick something up and her purse swung out from her body. This is when paint girl tried to make her move. She was swoopin in and moving her hand toward my friend's purse so I went over there and stepped between my friend and freak girl..at this time my friend stood back up which caused her purse to come back close to her body so Paint girl glared at us all and left the scene. All I have to say about this situation is GOONS BE LURKIN YO!
The next day we got up at 7 a.m. ate some breakfast and headed out for our tours. We went to some old Incan ruins and drove through many Quechua communities. We ended the day at an old Incan fortress. It was pretty tall and we climbed what seemed like 1,000 steps! I always knew I was a lazy pile, but dang I was tired climbing those things! That night, some friends and I scouted out a Bembo's (Peru's version of McDonald's) and ate some dinner then headed to bed.
The next morning my alarm went off at 3 am. Yep folks, 3 a.m. as in the middle of the night!! We got ready and headed to the bus at 4 a.m. One might think we would be bitter about having to get up at such an early time but nope...we were ecstatic because Machu Picchu was on the agenda!!!!!!!!!! One of the seven wonders of the world! It was soooo awesome! But, anyway..we took a two hour bus ride, then hopped on a train that took us close to the little town "Aguas Calientes" which is at the foot of the mountains. Once we got to Aguas Calientes we took yet another bus ride for 20 minutes which took us up the mountain to Machu Picchu. It was the prettiest bus ride I have ever taken! Once we got up there we met our guide and started the tour. We were walking and once we took the first corner, I looked up and there it was, in front of me was Machu Picchu. I thought I was going to die..it was sooooo awesome!!!!!! I can't explain how incredible it was! I have uploaded pictures but they do not even do that place justice. After our guided tour a group of us headed on a path to an old Incan bridge. It was like hiking through the rain forest! (I don't know what hiking through a rainforest is like but I imagine!) After that hike, we were all so exhausted so we took an ice cream break. Some people headed back to Aguas Calientes but I stayed with a group and we climbed a mountain to Sun Gate. Yep, you read that right...WE CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN! Now don't interpret the word climb as actually climbing...there was a path! But it took us an hour to get to the top and the view was simply amazing! Once we finished that feat, we joined the rest of the group in Aguas Calientes and hopped on the train to head back. I was sooo tired from the day so I slept on the train and bus because once we got back we were all going to head to a disco. I was really having a hard time deciding if I should go to the disco because I was exhausted and I was on the earliest flight the next day. But, my crazy side won the battle and I hopped on board to go to the discos because every Peruvian had told me the discos in Cuzco are amazing and I figured there was a huge chance that was the only time I'd be in Cuzco.
We got back from the discos at about 3 am and I had to get up at 5 am because my bus to the airport was scheduled to leave at 6 am. Do you think I woke up at 5? NOPE! I woke up at 5:53 and panic sunk in! I flung myself out of my bed and was like "EMILY!!!! WE HAVE 7 MINUTES UNTIL OUR BUS LEAVESSSSSSS!!!!" We ran around and threw everything in our bags practically jumped down the steps to the first floor of the hotel and made it to the bus on time.
I made it back to my "home" in Lima and have been studying like crazy because this is our mid-terms week. Every day I either have a paper due or a test. It is crazy tough because it is all in Spanish. In fact, I have an oral Spanish test in one hour so on that note I am going to end this blog.