If you wash, I'll load.: Day 2- Peru- Leaving Lima for Llamas

We were told to leave our condo 3 hours early so we would be able to catch our flight to Cuzco. Although we were in packed city traffic for an hour, we arrived with more than enough time. Funny story- I was ordering only orange juice from McDonald's. I decided I was going to use my best spanish. So I said to the girl, "Buenos Dias. Por favor dos fuego." She looked confused. So I said it again-while pointing to the juice, "dos fuego, por favor." More confusion. She then asked, "jugo?!" Yep- I realized that I had just asked her for two fires. I couldn't stop laughing while she just kinda stared at the crazy American.

It was so nice to leave Lima and its cloudy gray skies behind. We were all overdressed (too many layers) when we landed in sunny Cuzco. It was blue and warm surrounded by beautiful mountains. We were met by our tour guide Betho when we landed and we left Cuzco as soon as we arrived. Our first stop was a "tourist trap", but we all loved it. We went to a small village called Chinchero. The women dressed in traditional clothing did a demonstration of how the make alpaca and lama fur into thread. And then they showed us all the natural plants they use to dye the fabric. It was so cool- like magic. And of course we had to buy some of their woven wares. And take cheesy tourist pictures. And touch a llama.

Our van took us to on to the Sacred Valley where we stopped for lunch in Urubamba and to pull out more Soles from the ATM. With a 3 to 1 ratio for the dollar the soles go fast. We finally reached Ollantaytambo just in time to get on our Inca Rail train for the 90 minute ride to Aguas Callientes. The ride was SO jiggly and bumpy, but worth the jolt inducing headache just to see the scenery go past our windows. It was hard to believe the landscape would change from arid to jungle during 1 train ride, but it did.