Sitting in the Dallas airport awaiting our flight to Peru, I felt different from the other passengers. Theirs was probably a 2, maybe 3, week trip. Some might be lucky enough to be going for a month. But I was going to be a traveler for 3 months! I have to admit that I felt a little smug.

By the time we arrived in Cusco, Peru, Kelly and I had been traveling for about 20 hours. I was sick with a terrible cold and cough, so went straight to our hotel and to sleep for the entire day. Not an exciting start, but we made it.

The first several days were spent exploring Cusco, a city of about 400,000 people at 11,000 feet. This was once the center of the Incan Empire. The Spanish conquered the Incas in the 1500s and converted them to Catholocism. So there is an interesting mixture of Inca ruins and beautiful old Catholic cathedrals. We toured the churches and viewed many many statues of Jesus, all depicted with a crown of thorns, blood running down the face, and gaping bloody wounds on the hands and feet. They were all particularly graphic, I assume in order to scare the Quechuea (Inca) people into realizing that the Spaniards had a more powerful God.

Cusco is the jumping off point to many adventure travel destinations and therefore the city is teeming with a melange of international travelers. Our experience is that they are mostly European. Not many Americans, which is nice.

By Thursday I was feeling a bit better and we decided to go rafting in the Urumbamba River. It was a blast. We shared a raft with 4 Belgian girls who had been traveling all over Peru on a shoestring budget. They were a lot of fun and the scenery was beautiful.

Nothing makes a good travel story like a brush with danger. Unfortunately for you evreything has very smoothly so far. We did have one mishap though. My cough was driving both Kelly and I crazy. We couldn“t sleep because of it - I was keeping us both up all night. So Thursday night we decided to have a few drinks to make sure that I slept through the night. After a couple of beers at dinner we decided on a nightcap at the hotel bar. We drank the local favorite - Pisco Sours. Pisco is a local liquor. The drink has Pīsco, fresh lime, egg whites and sugar. They were delicious, so we had a couple. It worked, I slept the entire night, only to find out that Kelly had spent part of the night sick in the bathroom. I took my turns in the bathroom in the morning. Oh well, one day lost and a lesson learned.

On Saturday we set off to accomplish one of our major goals of the trip- to hike to the Inca city of Machu Picchu. It was a 4 day trek, covering about 20 miles of very tought terrain. We signed on with an outfitter who provided a guide and three porters for our group of 6. Kelly and I were grouped with 4 Brits. 3 of them were teenage guys who kept us laughing most of the time. The trek was absolutely spectacular as we climbed high into the Andes to follow the "road" built by the Incas. Our porters carried all the food, camping equipment and tents. We carried our own clothing, sleeping bag/pad, etc. The porters are amazing. They have makeshift backpacks made of blankets. One of them carried an entire cannister of propane - the size that you attach to your BBQ grill! They didn“t use a backpacking stove. It was a huge metal grill. Most of them wore sandals to hike. And they kicked our asses on the hike.

The trail climbs to over 4,000 meters. Day 2 was a real ass buster. We climbed uphill for 4 hours, then descended stais built with rocks for 2 hours. We finshed the hike three days ago and my knees still hurt.

On Day 4 we reached Machu Picchu. It was spectacular and worth all the pain! Our guide gave us a tour of the city explaining how they lived. An American archeologist discovered the city in 1911 and this obviously pisses the locals off as they continually point out mistakes the American made in his theories about the discovery. Regardless, it is an amazing city set on the top of a very steep mountain. The entire city was built of granite which they carved into blocks which fit perfectly together. They even had running water, which still works today. It was an amazing experience.

Today we went to a local market in a neighboring city. We took the locals' bus to get there. They pack the buses to the gills of course. One guy got on board with a giant wooden box. Once we got going he opened it up and asked if anyone wanted a tamale. They were delicious!

We leave for the rain forest tomorrow. More next week.