Feb 15 - Peru

Today Sam will be leaving the ship for a few days and traveling in the country of Peru. Sam wants to see Machu Picchu. It is a city that the Inca people built in the mountains hundreds of years ago. The trip will include traveling on a plane, a bus and a train. From the ship, Sam rode a bus to the airport in Lima, Peru. Lima is the capital of Peru and is on the coast. The coast of Peru is very hot this time of year there is not much rain, and land along the coast is desert. Sam will be traveling into the mountains today. In Peru, they are part of the Andes mountain range.

After a delay at the airport, Sam was finally on the plane. He didn’t see where he was going because he was in the overhead luggage compartment.

When the plane landed, Sam was in Cusco, Peru. Sam liked the parts of the city he saw, but he didn’t have his picture taken because there was a light rain. He did peek out from the side pocket of the travel bag. In the city square, there was a church that was built by the Spanish people that came to Peru in 1537. That is almost 500 years ago! The streets are really narrow, just like some of the other countries that Sam has visited. Sometimes it was hard to breathe in Cusco because it is so high up in the mountains.

Next Sam rode on a bus to see a place that was built by the Inca people, hundreds of years ago before the Spanish people came to Peru. There were lots of granite/rock walls, steps to climb, and stories from Alejandra. Allie is the guide that is leading the group Sam is with on this excursion. There is also a person from the ship’s staff, Virginia, and a person from the travel agency in Peru, Alex that are traveling with Sam. Allie tells really interesting things about the Inca people and how people live in Peru.

Then Sam was back on the bus traveling down from the Cusco area to a town called Urubamba where he will sleep the next two nights. One of the towns Sam saw along the way was Corao. Allie told the group all the people that live in Corao farm land that is up on the side of the mountain. Some of the farm land is really high up on the mountain. Every morning they walk to the farm land. They bring all of their animals with them. They may have cows, donkeys, pigs, sheep, and chickens. All the people and all the animals walk from their home to the mountain, every day. It is like a parade!!  Then before the sun goes down, the parade comes down the mountain and back to the town. Have you ever seen a chicken in a parade with a cow or a pig?

It was dark when Sam got to his hotel. He liked his room. At first he thought the lights were broken. They only one that worked was by the door when he came in. After trying all the lights he could find, with no success, Sam called the front desk. The maintenance man came to see what the problem was. He said that all Sam had to do for the lights and all the electrical outlets to work was to put his room key in the slot by the door. Sam tried it and all the lights he had tried to turn on earlier came on at the same time!!