Cusco- Machu Picchu

This week has been a ¨mini vacation¨ as my group liked to call it. We traveled by 2 planes, 2 train, and 3 busses all within 4 days! it has been a amazing week, but now i´m starting to feel the affects from lack of sleep. This week I got to travel to Cusco and tour some of the ruins from the incan time. It was exciting to see a place in real life that i had just seen a movie about in Spanish class last semester. it was Saqsayhuman! thats just say the people how built this were pretty brillent at the time...
The high light of the entire trip and being in Peru thus far was MACHU PUCCHI!!!
i woke up at 4:45 so that our group could walk to the train station, ride it for an hour, and hop on a bus all to make it to up to Machu Picchu by 8 or 9 am. But let me tell you it was sooooo worth it! We had a brief background about the place and then began hiking up sun gate mountain to get a view from above the ruins. It was a hard hike and 3 breaks later a group of us made it to the top! What a veiw from the top of a mountain. From there we hiked down and got to explore the city ourselves. it was AMAZING to see and actually be there. i have seen signs and billboards all over but the picture itself can not replace the memories and sights i saw that day! it was incredible and i am so happy i had the chance to go with my SST group.
Today, we woke up and said goodbye to 5 memebers of our group who are staying in Cusco for service. It was sad boarding the plane with them but i know only 6 weeks and we will all be back together again!
side note: the hostels we stayed in had hot water for showers!!! that just made my day! i looked forward to taking a shower these past 4 days since being on SST. it was great!!
Sunday i leave for service in Caraz, Ancash. Next to the 2nd largest mountain in South America. Looks like i will get to go hiking some more while on service if i get time on the weekends. i´m excitied and nervous since i have gotten to know the large city of Lima pretty well these past 6 weeks and now a new change is coming.
until then, i hope everyone is haivng a great summer!