Cuzco

After one of the best meals of my life - a deluxe seafood spread so large that I barely finished it($20) - I hung out with a bunch of my new friends, but had to leave early to catch a few hours of sleep before my taxi came at 3am to take me to the airport. The cab driver didn´t speak a word of English, but when Money For Nothing by the Dire Straits came on the radio he belted out that song word for word. He had no idea what the lyrics meant, but I have never seen someone so excited by a song before.

To greet me at the Cuzco airport was Adam, a good friend from Olympia. He and his wife will be in the Cuzco area for the entire time I am here, which will be a really good thing since he is fluent in Spanish. He´s like my personal translator. Him and Allison are also a load of fun and I am stoked that we get to travel around here together.

I noticed the altitude immediately. Walking up two steps I was panting and light-headed and the sun felt so intense. I went up the to the rooftop of the hostal for a cup of Mate de Coca (Coca leaf tea) which has been used by locals for thousands of years to help with the altitude and to give energy for the harsher climate. Time will tell if it works...

In the afternoon, I met with the contact for Apus Peru Travel, the company that I am the Environmental Advisor for. My job is to go on various treks with the company, observe, assess and analyze their environmental impact, come up with recommendations and create a training guide for the employees to follow to decrease the impact their tours have on the environment. Other companies will benefit from this and hopefully will integrate this into their practices in order to prevent the government from shutting down the trails to Macchu Pichu to prevent irreversible degradation to the trails, communities and the ruins. After our talk, I am really excited to work for this company and feel that I will be making a tangible difference here.

It was to bed early as Adam and I were off to Pisac early in the morning. Cuzco is very different from Lima, but I like Cuzco thus far and am really excited to explore this city and the rest of the Sacred Valley.