The group woke up at 5 in Lobitos and took a bus to Piura to catch our flight to Cuzco. At the aiport, the group had a little trouble with security. The guards at the bag check individually searched our bags for drugs, good thing we had time to spare.
After a smooth flight, the group arrived at our hostel in Cuzco at 4 and Paxton, who is “cribs” for the week, assigned all of us to our rooms. After settling in and unpacking all our bags, we went to dinner at around 6:30. Willy, Molly, Jack, and Sam went to a spot for lomo saltado sandwiches; Sam said it was the best sandwich of his life. After everyone got back to the hostel, it didn’t take long for us to crash.
We started off the next morning with Sam and Jack presenting Noticias and Nat Geo, where we were brought up to date on news back home and learned more about the history of Lobitos. Shortly after, we started our scavenger hunt. Similar to the Instagram account “Humans of New York” we walked around the city interviewing the “Humans of Cuzco.” Each of the three groups got to know some interesting people. Paxton, Hollyn, Emi, and Will met baby alpacas named “Leeroy” and “Jenkins” who, while taking a picture, simultaneously pooped on Paxton and Hollyn. Harvey, Willy, Kaydee, and Sam met Libya, a mother of four, working to support her family. She had invested in a 500 sol alpaca and was walking the streets of Cuzco in a traditional dress, selling pictures of her family with the alpaca. Mike, Molly, Maddie, and Jack met a guy from Plymouth, England named “Bam Bam” who for seven months out of each year, would travel the world. He was in Cuzco to hike Machu Picchu and when asked what company he was hiring to help him, he said “Nah, F paying people.”
After a couple more days and a few great meals in Cuzco, we all hopped on a bus for Ollantaytambo. After two hours, we arrived and had our first Spanish lessons of the week. Hollyn, who wasn’t feeling well, skipped out on the first day to catch up on rest. For the lessons, there was one teacher for every two students who toured us around the town, showing us some of the ruins and the market.
Afterwards, we all got to meet our host families and were introduced to our homes for the week. The afternoon was pretty relaxed which gave us all time to recover from our travel day and rest up for the week to come.
Today, we had Spanish classes from 9-12 in which we studied in the classrooms for half the time and then hiked ruins for the second half. This afternoon, the group will be discussing our plans for student directed travel next week and we will give updates in the next blog as to what we’ll be doing. Hasta luego.