Peru, Machu Picchu, and 21!

HOLA!
I hope everyone is doing well. Regardless of your political stance, I think everyone seems to be glad that the election and all the propaganda is over... Of the two classes I had today both of my professors had stayed up til 4 in the morning watching the whole election and the speeches! and then all the papers had a huge picture of Obama on them and headlines about his win and stuff. I bought a couple just because its really interesting to see the impact our elections have on the rest of the world. So if someone wants to save their paper or at least the front page to compare that would be great. hahahahaha
I am back from Peru. Finally. hahahahah Dont get me wrong, it was INCREDIBLE!!! but we had a little travel incident trying to come home and so im still dealing with that... hahahaha
We chartered a bus to pick us up from Vina del Mar and take us to Santiago at 4 iin the morning last thursday and then our flight was at 8 so we got there realllly early (esp cuz our travel agent had checked us in and gave our boarding passes to the driver etc and we were all carrying on...) but in the time waiting for the flight we got to have starbucks for the first time since we've been here- reallllly exciting to have not instant coffee! hahahahaha We flew from Santiago to Lima, had about a 2ish hour layover in Lima and went from Lima to Cusco. Cusco is the heart of the Incan territory? former territory/empire? the whole city is built on ruins and everying. AND its about 10,300 ft in elevation! hahaha We had a tour when we first got there after dropping our stuff off at the hotel, had some mate de coca (yes the leaves that make cocaine!) and toured around a little. I decided then that if I lived back in the 1400s or so, I would want to be Incan. They are sooo awesome. hahahaha really good at building stuff and carving rocks etc. really really incredible. We all felt the altitude which was no good, but it passed and we had a night tour, except it was pouring rain and it was chilly so the windows of the van were steamed up and we couldn't see anything. hahahaha oh well.
Friday we got up reallly early (left the hotel at 6:20) and took a train to Machu Picchu (4 hour train ride!) it was INCREDIBLE! I highly recommend going. and i would like to do it again, but to hike the Inca trail and get there early enough to climb the peak next to machu (only 400 people a day are allowed to go so you have to be at the gates at like 6 to go...) This only furthered my desire to be Incan... hahahaha I cant really describe it- and pictures cant do it justice. but it was AWESOME!!!!!!!
Saturday we had a tour in the Valle Segrado de Inca (incan sacred valley) which was pretty cool too. These incans are soooo good at moving HUGE HUGE HUGE rocks and making them line up perfectly and build super strong structures ON THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN!!!! and not only did they just have houses, they had storage rooms and greenhouses and everything. ways to tell the winter and summer soltice everything. Again, hard to describe- when i get my act together and put up some more pictures i can do a better job. but just trust me, it was neat! Peru is beautiful and the people are SOOOO friendly. just the little things, like anytime someone walked into a room (like breakfast at the hostel) they would say buenas dias. and there weren't people making out on the streets everywhere and they would make an attempt to move out of your way when walking (instead of crossing the sidewalk to walk right at you like they do sometimes in chile... ahhh!) and SMILES! Peruvians are def. more friendly than Chilenos (although this could also be due to the impact we have on their economy there... cusco is a HUGE town, but majority of it is for tourists i think). Anyway that night we had a goood dinner and then a few of us went out to celebrate my 21st birthday!!! woooo!!! hahahaha these bars had people out recuriting people off the street, and so we used this to our advatange. hahaha we ended up going to 2 bars, and spending a huge grand total of $6 usd between 6 of us!! (2 free drink coupons and then 4 of us had a beer....) and we made it back before midnight! hahahahaha
Sunday was where our adventure really started... hahahaha since its about 12:30am right now Im just going to summarize (even more then the previous two days)
noys ditched us and got an earlier flight, our flight got cancelled from Cusco- spent $3 per person for a hostel near the airport in Cusco, had a 6 hour layover in Lima, thought half the group wasn't getting on the plane- bus from santiago airport was non-existent because we missed it the day before so we spent the night in the santiago airport and came back home Tuesday morning at 9 am.... (should've been home about 3 am on monday....) sooo that was reallly fun. and now Im am supposed to be packing to go to La Serena... hahahahahaha
anyway when i get back from La Serena I will post some pictures and try to do this trip more justice. I will be home sooooo soon... I am coming up on the 3 month mark here on friday?! oye!
miss you!