Cusco and Machu Pichu

Cusco is a city right in the middle of the Andes mountains at an altitude of 11,000ft above sea level.  The place where we first stayed basically sucked.  We each had our own bed, however there wasn't much of a common area and the people who owned the place had dogs and cats.  Their dog named Chester was the cutest little golden retriever puppy that I have ever seen, however if you got him excited, he would tear up anything in his way including pillows and your pants.  There was pet fur all over and every morning for breakfast we were served a drink called Coca Tea, that I did not care for at all, but it was supposed to help with altitude.  The people who owned the place were as nice as could be, however the place itself wasn't all that sanitary.  When our neighbor from MN arrived we finally decided we'd had enough and we moved to a really nice hotel.

Cusco is a fascinating city because much of the architecture is original Incan stone.  Also there are tons of cultural markets where they sell Alpaca clothing.  Alpaca is a huge industry in Cusco and alpaca fiber makes very nice clothing.  It is warmer than wool although you don't sweat.  Alpaca's are similar to llamas.  You can also bargain for cheaper prices, which I think is very enjoyable.  Cusco also has delicious food.  They sell guinea pig, which is considered a delicacy to eat, although I didn't have a chance to try it.  One day we did some touristy stuff and went to see an Incan agricultural area and some salt mines.

Finally the night before we went to Machu Picchu we met our guide Saul (pronounced S-a-oo-l) and he gave us a briefing of what we were going to be doing.  The next morning we got up at 5am and headed out in a bus to Machu Picchu.  When we got there we learned that we were going to have to hike an extra 4k because the regular road was closed for construction.  The first day was relatively easy and we didn't have much difficulty.  Lunch was an awesome 3 course meal complete with table and all.  Afterwards they let us have a half our nap before continuing.  It really was glamping (glamorous camping).  When we reached our campsite for the night we passed out.  We got to sleep on a pad, air matress, and sleeping bag, so it wasn't uncomfortable at all.  The second day was definitly the hardest and we hiked over 13,500ft.  We skipped lunch so that we could keep going but it was really difficult.  Almost all of it was uphill, and the summit was amazing as it was above the clouds and almost half way done with our journey.  It was also the highest I've ever been and it was enjoyable to have a half hour break and eat beef jerky.  By the end of the day my legs were practically dead.  Day three was easy and awesome until dinner.  We hiked through a cloud forest and had the coolest campsite ever.

Sadly that night we all got very sick, a combination of food poisoning and altitude sickness.  I threw up 15 times in three hours and by morning I still wasn't better.  The fourth day we all had to stumble down a slippery mountain slope for three hours with practically no strength left before we made it to Machu Picchu.  My first glimpse as I passed through the Sungate was amazing as we were actually higher than Machu Picchu and we had to hike down to get to it.

Instead of staying to explore, we took the bus to the bottom where we then walked to the hostel that we were staying in.  We took a hot shower, had some awesome pizza and then went to bed.  The next morning we took a bus back up to Machu Picchu where we had our formal tour.  No one actually knows how or why Machu Picchu was built, and what we see today is actually thirty percent restored after the original strutcture collapsed in places.  I learned that Yale University has many artifacts from Hiram Bingham's expedition, despite a deal that they made with the Peruvian government, and they won't give any of them back.

Frankly the pictures just don't do it justice.  Machu Picchu is INCREDIBLE!  It is gigantic and all of the stone walls are amazing.  After Machu Picchu we took an awesome panoramic train back down to the bottom of the mountain, where we then took a bus back to Cusco.  We stayed one more night in Cusco before heading back to LA for three days!!!

Iquitios

Iquitos is a big city in the middle of the Amazon.  It's claim to fame is that it is the largest city that you can't drive too.  Literally there are no roads going to it.  You have to fly or boat there.  Here we met up with a missionary couple, whose names are Osmar and Nicole.  They run a a kid's club called "Sunshine Kids Club," they are also partnered with River Valley Church (our church at home).  We were here for a week and we served for five days and took two days off to do touristy things.

When we first arrived we met up with Osmar, went out to eat and then went to our guest house that we were staying at.  When we first rang the doorbell at the guest house, no one came, so we just went back to Osmar's house.  We later figured out that they didn't know we were coming, so we thought that we were going to have to find a different place to stay until they told us that they had room.  Our lodgings were okay; however, Iquitos was so hot and our rooms didn't have AC, which made it feel like a sauna inside of our rooms.  Serving at Osmar's kids club was really awesome.  In the really poor town that the kids club was located in, it floods for 6 months every year.  This means that they have to redo/rebuild their house every three years.  All of the houses are made out of wood because the people in the town cannot afford more expensive materials that would last longer.  We spent the majority of our time helping Osmar rebuild his kid's club. This was really fun because we were ripping up boards and putting new ones in.  One day we even brought our speaker and played Toby Mac while we worked.  Along with our family, there were two women from Guatemala who came to help out as well.  One of them was a dentist and she let me be her assistant for one day.  I got to prepare needles and pliers and stuff like that.

For our first touristy day we went to the local market and saw a lot of local food items including crocodile, cow heart, piranhas, etc.

a piranha

crocodile

For our other touristy day we took a boat out to a few islands and got to hold monkeys, parrots, sloths, kinkajous, and anacondas.

One day they were having youth group at the kid's club and so we went and sung songs in Spanish and then there was a short talk afterwards.  It was a lot like Castaway Club YL.  Overall our time in Iquitos was really fun and it was super cool to see Osmar's faith in action.  He had no source of income and yet still ran this kid's club while having a family.  It was cool to see how he had to rely on God 100% of the time.

Los Angeles

LA was just plain awesome!  We stayed at an Airbnb place 2 blocks from the beach with our Grandparents.  We got to have some good American food including Chick-Fil-A!!! We were even able to flush the toilet paper, drink the water, and have a hot shower.  We were able to ride bikes again and go surfing.  I couldn't believe the amount of sports cars in LA!  We saw Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Lotuses, and we stopped pointing out Tesla's because we saw so many.  We even saw a velvet Bentley!  After coming from South America, where there are no sports cars, it was slightly overwhelming.  We even got to go to Hillsong, which was awesome because it was similar to our church at home.