April 1: Cusco - Aqua Calientes

Amberley: We got up at 4:30 this morning and had breakfast then got in a taxi that picked us up and took us to a bus station where we boarded in a bus that drove through the city of Cusco in to the outlying suburban areas into the country. It was a nice two hours drive and some of us slept. We got to a small town, Ollantaytambo where we got on the Peru Rail. We sat in the back of our rail car following our seat numbers on the tickets. The railroad has windows everywhere including the ceiling. The train ride to Agua Calientes was stunning. We were always adjacent to the Urubamba River. It took about two hours to get to Agua Calientes. The town is in the middle of a deep valley with majestic peaks towering above the city. There are no cars, just the train! We checked in our hotel and walked around the city. It is a very small city that we can walk from one end to the other end in 10 to 15 minutes with some stores and places to get food. We got to shop around for more souvenirs. We had dinner together and it was a nice dinner. I want to tell you about a prank that Joi and Gary pulled on me today. They decided to hide NMSD’s camera as it was my turn to take pictures. I brought it with me to my room and I had a nap. After my nap I looked around for the camera and couldn't find it. I asked around and searched around but did not have any luck. I completely forgot about April Fool’s Day. I started to cry a little and get mad and that was when Joi and Gary said “Happy April Fool’s!” I wanted to strangle them. I am laughing about it now. I am so excited to see Machu Picchu tomorrow!

Group Picture in front of Peru Rail.

Urubamba River

Picture of the peaks through the ceiling windows inside the train.

Cadonia and Rosenda writing post cards to family members.Agua Calientes adjacent to the river. Aqua Calientes' main road, the railroad track. There are no cars in this town.

March 31, 2012: Cusco

ROSINA: We woke up, got up and had breakfast at our hostel. They served real jam which is homemade and the food was delicious, better than what we have in America, fyi. Anyway, we headed to the [Peru's sign for center] plaza where we met three deaf people from Peru. Their names are Alex, Clara and Richard who took us up the mountain to Sacsayhuaman (which is an UNESCO world heritage site since 1983). We saw ruins built by the Incas 1,000 year ago and served as a fortress. We saw a lot of history everywhere. We got to see a small statue of Christ and we were disappointed at the size as we were hoping it would be like the one in Brazil. It was still nice though.

After that we went to a small cafe and had a strong drink the Incas used to drink and the current local people still drink. I am not sure what was in it. Then we had lunch at a local restaurant. The food was good. I had chicken and rice. Some others had soup. We ate our fill then we went to the temple of the sun or known as Qorikancha and it was beautiful. This is where the Incas lived and then the Spanish Jesuits built a cathedral on top of their home. Unfortunately the church was severely damaged by an earthquake in the 1800s but the Inca walls remained intact.

We hurried our way to the Inca museum and had to rush through to get a glimpse of many Inca artifacts and we saw real mummies and we were fascinated.

We split up and went shopping and ate dinner. We are about to hit the hay for our journey by train to Agua Calientes to see Machu Picchu. We are so excited!

Having some fun on our trip! (Rosina and Amberley)

Saqsaywaman/Sacsayhuamán: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n

Our Hostel (Or Hostal in Spanish)

Us and our new friends!

Koricancha Temple: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/peru/cusco-koricancha.htm

March 30, 2012: Cusco

March 30, 2012

Hello! Greetings from Cusco, Peru. What happened to us, well… we just left early in the morning from school then flew all day and all night. At noon, we finally arrived in Peru and had some time to look around. It was interesting and pretty cool. In my opinion, the drivers here are crazy! People switch lanes all the time and it is different than us. We found our hostel, it is pretty nice and has a beautiful view. We can see the mountains. We even met a Deaf group. We learned new signs and will meet them again tomorrow morning. All of us are exhausted because no one slept for a day and a half. We are tired but we will be ready tomorrow to see our new friends.

We are in Arequipas. It's called the white city because of the snow on the mountain you see in the background. We are in the middle of the Andes.

This is tea that we had when we arrived Cusco to adjust to the high altitude. We are at 11,000 feet high.

The woman in the middle between Amberley and Rosina is Deaf. Her name is Luz Marina and she works as a housekeeper. We will meet her later when she gets off from work and she will bring other Deaf people to the plaza.

This is a video of the narrow road here in Cusco from airport to hotel.