Day 5 the Sacred Valley

So, I think it is pretty hard to follow a day of sight seeing and hiking on Machu Piccu but we actually had quite a great and jam packed day. We loaded up on the train at 8:30am to make out trek back to Cuzco. On the way we got the chance to tour another very impressive Incan site. Ollantaytambo is a sacred Incan site located in the sacred valley. The ruins are very similar to that of Machu Piccu and that meant only one thing...... more stairs! Helen has been my physical activity tracker using her Fitbit. Between the tours of days 4 and 5, we, as a group, averaged 12 miles of walking which included climbing the equivalent of 325 flights of stairs! It was tough but the kids and adults did great and the rewards of their efforts were more than worth it with breath taking views of the ruins and the Andes moutains. After ollantaytambo, we loaded up in our bus and headed to the world famous Pisac market. Here we spent some time checking out local products and haggling prices. Soccer shirts seem to be a big hit in our group of boys. Together they have purchased enough to field their own team and probably another one to boot. The market was very neat and a great experience. We loaded back up on the bus and headed out to make our way back to Cuzco. 

On the way back we got the chance to stop at an alpaca farm and check out the different breeds of alpacas. The kids took a lot of selfies and only Helen, myself, and Morgan got spit on! The sun started to set as we loaded back onto the bus and made the 40 minute trip into Cuzco city. On this last ride, the kids started a dance party in the bus and sang songs that our tour guides, Omar and Jennie, were requesting. A whole bus of high school kids singing shania twain is quite a sight and Omar and Jennie loved it!

To cap off the night we made our way to supper. Along the way we got a chance to watch a special dancing parade taking place on the Main Street of Cuzco. Tonight marked the start of a series of celebrations for the city's anniversary. The streets were jam packed and the music and dancing were amazing! This was just another lucky chance we got to see another piece of the Peruvian culture. 

So, as you can imagine, we have seen and done a lot. The students have done an awesome job and Omar has commented multiple times on how great they have been. Nights have been easy because they are tired and ready to sleep by the time we get back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we will make our way to Puno for the last leg of the trip. We will be traveling by bus and the transfer will include a few stops along the way.

In terms of health, everything has been going fine. Other than being tired, Breanna is the only one still battling a head cold and some altitude effects. She has really come around the last day and will hopefully feel better tomorrow after a good nights rest.

Day 4 Machu Piccu

Well, we are back in Cuzco and I have wifi to link up and share the last two days of the trip. So, I'll start with day 4.

We started the day getting up and taking a short bus ride to the train station to take the train to Machu Piccu. The train was very comfortable and the views were outstanding as we made our way along the tracks. It was very interesting to see the reaction of the kids as they got a chance to see some very poor communities along the way. The train ride took us up to a small mountain town called Aguas Calientes which is basically the base camp for Machu Piccu. After about a 2 1/2 hour train ride, we arrived and unloaded to make our way to the hotel to check in before getting to Machu Piccu. At this point we had a pretty interesting situation take place. The whole group expect for two made it to the hotel. At some point between the station and the hotel, two from the group got turned around and lost their way. Those two just so happened to be Mr. Blikre and Mr. McNeff. Within ten minutes of them being separated, the emergency contact info was used and we were together again. Needless to say, the kids haven't really let them off the hook for getting separated from the group! Once we were together we made our way to the train station to catch our bus up to the gates of Machu Piccu. The ride was by far the most intense bus ride I have ever been on and the switchbacks made for some great pictures and sweaty palms!

We arrived at Machu Piccu around 12:30 and started right away with our expert tour guides. Freddy and Cosomel did a fantactic job of taking us around the ruins and educating us about the site. Words really cannot describe the feeling of standing on that mountain and seeing the shear size and wonder of the location of Machu Piccu. After the tours were over the group got another 2 hours to go and explore on our own. A number of students made the trip up to the sun gate and took some amazing shots looking down on the ruins. The weather was perfect and the experience was out of this world.

We made our way back down the mountain after the park closed and went  to the hotel to eat our supper. After supper, some kids stayed back with a chaperone to rest and the others went out to check out more of the town. Aguas Calientes really is a beautiful small town and easily the most unique place we have stayed at so far on the trip. That pretty much wrapped up the day and what a day it was! 

The day 3 whirlwind

Honestly, I'm not so sure where to even start! Today was incredible and again it was nothing short of jam packed education, fun, and full cultural immersion but that is what a history teacher would say....haha. If you asked the kids they would probably have list with words such as awesome, unbelievable, amazing, mind blowing, crazy, and on and on. There were things that happened today that were just complete luck and timing and the experiences the kids took away from them are better than I could have every thought.

We started off the day by flying into Cuzco around 10am and we hit the ground running. We stepped off the plane and right onto the bus to take an expertly guided tour of the city of Cuzco. Our guide Patti was nothing short of impressive and the student really enjoyed her personality. Cuzco served as the center of the mighty Incan empire and the kids got to jump right in with a tour of the first major Incan site "qorikancha''. Here we got a chance to get a background on the building process of the Incan temples and then more historical insight on the Incan empire. So, after visiting a place like this what do we do next? We took off on the bus and went to an Incan ruin site and here is where we had our first chance to climb Incan ruins. The views from this site were breath taking and a lot of ''selfies" we're taken. I would have to say that my personal favorite memory of this stop was watching 30 students chase around a herd of alpacas to take pictures!

Cuzco sits at just over 11,000ft for elevation. Luckily for us, our group did a great job handling the high altitude. Other than some light headaches and some shortness of breath from a few kids, we have been very fortunate to have everyone doing well and handling the highlands of Peru. Lots of water and slower paces have made the acclimation process very good. A good nights sleep with hopefully clear up the small headaches from those few in the morning. 

So, from these ruins we got to go and have another unique experience. We stopped at a hand made alpaca fibre shop where artisans make original alpaca wool clothing. The kids got a hands on tutorial to understand how to tell the difference between different types of alpaca and llama fibers. They also got a chance to do a little shopping as well. 

After the stop at the artisan shop, we went and ate lunch, the place we ate had amazing views of the city and the food was great. Yes, here a number of us actually ate alpaca and it was really good! We also had a surprise when a live Andean musical group came and played live music for us.

From here, the trip took the unexpected turn for the best! We had the chance to go down to the main city square and experience an event that has very special meaning to Peruvians all the way to Incan times. The Corpus Christi parade took place and we watched as statues were paraded around the
square with bands, costumes, and thousands of people. This is something that we never planned for and had we been a day earlier or a day later, we would have never seen it. So, you would think this was enough for a day but we still had one more stop.

After the parade, we went to the Cuzco cultural center to a live show depicting traditional Peruvian dancing and music. Here the group got see the different traditional dances and then half of the group got up on stage and danced too! With close to 300 people in the audience, our group put on quite a show.

After the show we headed to supper and then back to the hotel to get a much needed good nights rest.

Health wise there has been only a few minor things. Jessica slipped and scrapped her knees so that
was cleaned up and some band aides took care of it. Alyssa, Nolan, and Kassi went to bed with small headaches from the altitude. They have drank lots of water and just need to get some sleep. Breanna had a head cold come on so she has taken some cold medicine and if just getting as much rest as possible. Mckenzie is dealing with a sore throat but has been working through it. Everyone else is doing great and are just needing to get some sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be a BIG day. We will travel by train to Machu Piccu and spend the day walking and touring the ruins. So, with that, I will once again say goodnight and look forward to telling you about tomorrow's adventure.

Day 2 comes to a close

After what seemed to be a very short night, we were off and running this morning with our first full day on the ground in Lima. After having a great breakfast on the roof top patio of the hotel, we loaded up onto our bus and met our local city guide for the day. Omar did an awesome job describing the different districts of Lima and really helping the kids learn about the city and the country of Peru with a lot of humor!

The first stop on the tour was the Monestary of San Francisco in downtown Lima. The kids were in for a big surprise as we actually got to go down into the catacombs underground where over 25,000 people were burried. Yes, bones were included and it was an awesome experience.

After that we walked down to the main square of the city. Here the group got a chance to check out the changing of the gaurd at the government palace. The whole process actually takes about 1 hour and we had a chance to stand and watch the band play through their series of songs before we took off. At the center of the square the students got a chance to meet and mingle with some of the local school aged children in Peru. The girls had a blast as many of the little Peruvian students asked to take pictures with them. We found out very quickly today that the Peruvian people are extremely nice and want to engage us to speak english as well as to let the kids practice their spanish.

After the square we made our way over to the Larco Museum to check out a major private collection of early Peruvian civilization artifacts. Once again, our guide, Omar, made it fun and interesting for the kids and they went through taking part in a scavenger hunt to find different pieces of work throughout the grounds. We got a very great chance to really understand more about the early civilizations of the Peru area and the artifacts were amazing to see. This tour ended and we were just gettting to lunch!

For lunch we got a chance to actually go and eat at a small family owned restuarant in the Miraflores disrtict. With a max capacity of 42 people, our group basically filled up the place and they treated us to a great meal. We had a chance to experience real authentic peruvian dishes and the food was awesome! Hard to believe that some of us walked away from portions to big to finish for just $4 american dollars. 

After lunch we changed our orginal plans to walk the Miraflores district and opted to take the kids to the beach. Although there is not nice snady beaches here, the kids got a chance to go jump into the ocean and feel the pacific. It was a great sight to see and the students had a blast.

We closed out the day by going and eating supper in one of the most unique places you could imagine. We actually ate at a very good Peruvian place that is located in a open air shopping mall  built into the side of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view was amazing and the food was too! This seemed to cap off a great first day and the kids were back in their rooms ready to sleep at 9pm.

Tomorrow is going to be another big experience. Starting at 5:30am, we will head to the airport to take a short flight to Cuzco. In Cuzco we are going to get a chance to experience some things that we had not known about previously and the cultural aspect of it will be a once in a lifetime event. more specifics will come tomorrow.

As for an update on the group, everyone is continuing to do great. We walked over 6 miles today so they are tired and ready to sleep. I hope to be able to link up my Ipad and post pictures soon but the wifi continues to be unstable. Thankfully the old desktop in the lobby can allow me to post the updates. As for tomorrow, I am not certain of the tech details and will do what I can to make sure that I get another update out. As for now, I will say good night and you can sleep easy knowing that our first day on the ground was a big success and that our group is safe and sleeping.

First morning

So we are up and getting ready to take off for the day. Things have gone great so far and the kids have just finished a great breakfast up on the open air balcony of the hotel. We are going to be busy today as we start off with a bus tour of the city with a local guide. We will also be visiting the major museum in Lima. Towards the afternoon we will get a chance to hang out down by the beach and then top off the day with dinner at a location up on the Miroflores cliffs overlooking the ocean. The kids are all happy and healthy and looking forward to a great day.

One thing to note is that the WIFI is very hit and miss. I will update as much as I can and hope to add pictures as we can.

Adios

We have landed

Just a quick message for parents. We made it to Lima with everyone and their luggage made it ok! We will have a lot more information to share tomorrow. As for now, we are going to get some sleep!

6 days and counting

It is hard to believe that we are only 6 days from finally taking off for the big trip. Remember that we leave at 1am on June 9th. I've had a chance to chat with our tour director in Peru and he is excited to have us as guests in his country. From the cuisine to the monuments and ruins, this is going to be an amazing trip.  Remember to check back here for updates as we go along.