Mahalo Chicos,  The thing about ‘group’ tours or rather ‘group rates’ is that everyone has to wake up at the same time and leave at the same time together. And sometimes waking up at four in the morning is not such a wonderful thing.   This leg of our journey, a flight to Cuzso, Peru-which is a small town about four hours train ride to Machu Pichu-. The bus ride to the airport opted us the chance to view the coast, which was beautiful and dangerous at the same time. There were a few surfers and judging from the breaks it was a great day to surf. Though I did not schedule time for surfing we still enjoyed watching the surfers catch waves.  Cobble stones are cute and vintage, but riding in a tour bus, let alone driving ‘Miss Daisy’ is a bad combination. Luckily for me and the rest of the group, I was drugged to the max of motion sickness pills. Funny, I felt the jostles and bumps, but I was so lost in euphoria that I did not care.  

When we arrived at the airport it was crazy. So many tourists of all languages running around with their heads cut off. No organization what so ever. The lines to check in baggage were choppy and the automatic check in, well, it was confusing just all around. One area you check in and then another area you check your bags. But none of the airport personnel would bother to inform people that. You’d have to figure it out for yourself.  Two hours from Lime to Cuzco. The flight was rather smooth and this time I sat sandwiched between a Peruvian man and my other half. So it was rather, a half sandwich. 

As soon as we touched down Cuzco we collected our checked in luggage. It took a while maybe twenty minutes and more hustle and bustle, but we got threw it okay.  As I was waiting for my other half to find our luggage, I noticed the airport offered ‘free oxygen’. Which I thought was rather weird. I mean I understand that Machu Pichu is at a high altitude and that people traveling there could very well get altitude sickness, but the ‘free oxygen’ sign was a bit much. Oh, and the line of people waiting to get their ‘hit’ of ‘free oxygen’ was way too much.    Once we got out of the hustle both my other half and I were on the look out for our tour guide. I was quick to see board with my other half’s name written on it and was so relieved to get out of the airport.  Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba