Arrival, Some Dancing, and Questionably Named Ruins

Holy elevation!

So how about that trip in? 31 hours of travel from Albuquerque to Cuzco, Peru. No big deal. It all went very smoothly... until our last flight. It was 4 am and we were fighting to keep our eyes open as we boarded our plane from Lima to Cuzco. The flight was incredible. Snowcapped mountains peaked through the clouds as we flew over and a blanket of clouds that covered everything else. the only problem with this was once we arrived at Cuzco our pilot was unable to land the plane because of visibility, so he he flew around for an hour... and then took us back to Lima. We were so close! We then had to wait in lima for another two hours until we finally boarded the plane that took us to Cuzco. When we arrived the air had a chill to it and with low oxygen density it wasnt very easy to breathe, but the city was incredible (maybe even breathless). Cuzco is surrounded by mountains on all sides and as the city has grown people have built house up the mountainside on a very steep incline. This is where we found ourselves living. after walking up and down about 700 winding stairs we finally met our host family and the house we will be living in for the next 6 weeks. Its a perfect fit for Ashlee. the doorways go up to my neck and the bedroom ceilings are only about 6 foot 5 inches.

The balcony that overlooks the city

Outside of our new home

Once nighttime rolled around we could see the city light up all along the mountains and in the valley. it looked like a freeze frame of inception when the girl flips the city up on itself. The host family we are staying with has two sons. one, Luis who is 14, and another, Abran who is 7. Abran and Ashlee have already started getting close. He showed almost every single one of his toys to her. He also loves to dance (hes got some moves) which led to us all learning salsa dancing while Abran danced like michael jackson all night. It was hilarious.Turns out Luis has a nice epiphone acoustic guitar so I didnt need to bring my guitar after all. The family we are staying with is very religious and was thrilled to hear that we are Christians. Jorge, the man of the house, told us all about how his life was poisoned with alcoholism but when he found God he became a hard working man and a strong father figure.

Festival at the Sun Temple

Today is the Inti Raymi Winter Solstice which honors the god of the son, and was the most important festival of the Inca empire. It is THE BIGGEST festival in peru and thousands of people gather in the street to celebrate (I thought everyone was just stoked that ashlee and I finally made it). It is just now starting so I am about to go check it out, but apparently it starts at the son temple (right across the street from where I am now) and the parade travels up the mountain to sacsyhauman which really just sounds like sexy woman where apparently they sacrifice a llama? Im not quite sure but im going to go check it out and ill let you all know how it goes!