First half of Peru

I got to Peru on the night of Jan. 11th, which was 6 full days ago. Boy were they full. That night I met up with the two friends who were to travel with me throughout Peru, and we proceeded to work our way through Lima at a rapid pace. Lima is gigantic, kindof scarily so. It has something like 12 million people living in it and it sprawls for forever. Needless to say, we didn´t get to finish, but I think we were all ready to leave 36 hours later. I think it was a little TOO big for us, we got overwhelmed and freaked out. We did like the artsy district, which has a number of fun bars mainly for tourists it seems.
So we quickly left Lima for Cuzco, probably the second most-famous city in Peru. It is a hot-bed of Inca history and culture, situated right above the Sacred Valley for the Incas. Plus, Machu Picchu is only 3 hours away. As soon as we arrived at our hostel, a travel agent pitched us a schedule that would get us through all of the important sites in the five days we were staying in the area. Normally, I´m not a fan of these types of tours, but it was just so easy and not really that expensive, we couldn´t resist. So, we toured around Cuzco, around the Sacred Valley, and of course, Machu Picchu. The Sacred Valley is pretty cool, there are a lot of really neat ruins on hill tops and cute towns with markets. Plus, the area itself is absolutely gorgeous. It is a giant valley (hence the name) with a white-water river going through the middle, surrounded completely by really extreme mountains. It´s not hugely developed, so you can fully appreciate the natural beauty.
The next day we went to Aguas Calientes, which is most know as the town right below Machu Picchu. It´s totally full of backpackers and tourists, but it still managed to maintain a wholesome mountain-town feel. We all really like the town, even though the famed hotsprings were stinky and not-so-hot.
We woke up to go to Machu Picchu at 5:00 the following morning, but we were so excited it didn´t matter. We had actually planned to hike the Inca Trail (the 2 day version), but we tried to reserve way too late so were stuck taking the bus up. Actually, this turned out to be a really good disappointment because we talked to an avid hiker who said it was ¨really tough¨ and didn´t say a word in favor. I think this is a good hike to do in the dry season, but you can´t even see any views at this time of year. Anyway, we road up to Machu Picchu and had a 3 hour guided tour around the area. I´m still not entirely sure why this place is SO famous and important, but I think it´s because it is the most complete Inca city ever found. It is also the second to last city occupied by the Incas (probably). They built the city, then found out the Spaniards were coming, and so abandoned it in the early 1500s for the ¨Last City¨ a little further away. Of course, once there, it is obvious why the place is so captivating. All the terraces, the walls, the houses, temples...everything is amazingly complete. I mean, you can totally visualize the city without much imagination. It´s also situated on the peak of a pretty incredible mountains, so the views are amazing (when the clouds temporarily shift). These mountains were different than anything I´ve ever seen before, because they stick straight up out of the ground. The Appalacians, for instance, are interconnected without space in between individual mountains. But not here. Plus, the degree of the slope is almost 90 it seems. It´s a little hard to explain in writing, but soon I´ll add some pictures. Anyway, it was an amazing experience and one I recommend to anyone who can.
After that, we took a tour of Cuzco that was mostly of the ruins close-by to the city. It was interesting, but after Machu Picchu, it was hard to really appreciate these. The best part of this tour was a visit to temple that was made out of a giant rock formation. It was like interactive sculpture.
The only other really interesting thing that has happened is I just ran into two friends of mine from Oberlin (Dan L. and Vanna) on the street in Cuzco. They are going to come out to drinks with us tonight. Crazy.