Our day began at 3am this morning after about 2 hours of sleep on the hard cement church floor. We said goodbye to some of the die-hard friends from the church that stayed awake to see us off. Then we climbed on the bus to the airport for our flight to Cusco. Our hour long flight took us over jagged brown mountains then into mountains dotted with patches of green farmland and pine trees. We are staying in a hostel that has beds, warm showers, and flushing toilets. My first thought when I walked into my room was, “Why are we only putting 3 people in this room, we could have fit 5 or 6 and saved a lot of money.” Ginger, Emily, and I are sharing our room. The best part about it is that my bed is in its own little room. I cannot believe that I not only have a bed but my own room. What an amazing blessing.
It is really hard for me to take time off on the World Race. During our small amount of free time I always want to work on blogs or pictures, see the sights, or use the Internet. Today we had the morning and afternoon off, so I made myself sleep. I slept for about 4 hours, so I really must have needed it. This afternoon I walked around with Clinton, Ginger, and Emily. Cusco is a beautiful city of ancient architecture nestled in the Andes Mountains.
The streets are cobblestone while most of the buildings are also made of stone with tiled roofs. The grandeur of the mountains is matched with the scale of the cathedrals and churches.
The city is surprisingly big and filled with contrasting images of women in traditional dress walking by stores selling big screen TV’s and washing machines.
Unfortunately Cusco is very touristy. Many of the people in traditional dress are selling souvenirs or asking you to take a picture with them for a few Soles. We sat down in the main plaza and a girl approached hoping to sell us gourds with etchings on them. I told the girl I was not interested, but she persisted. I asked what her name was and found out she is 19 years old. Her three year old son was sleeping in the sling on her back. After our brief conversation she tried to get me to buy again. I must have told her a dozen times I did not want to make the purchase. I want to get to know the people of Cusco, but I do not want to lead them into thinking that I want to buy their souvenirs.
This evening all of the World Racer’s met to share stories from the past month and to worship. I cannot believe that the month went so quickly. It was humbling to look back on the month and all that the Lord has accomplished.
