Lesson of the day: the first casualty in every battle is the plan. (yes, McDermotts can have a ball with that)
4 flights, 3 layovers. Round 1 of the crazy layovers was in Buenos Aires. I had less than two hours to get through immigration, customs, check-in, back through security, and to the gate. All without Jessica, because apparently she already had a boarding pass and couldnt come with me. Round 2 of crazy layovers was in Lima: ignorant travelers like us.. we didnt know we had to pick up our suitcases and re check them in onto the next flight. So this time, 40 times before departure, Jess and I were running like madmen through the airport, once again got split up (notice the pattern here), and I somehow made it onto the plan with 10 minutes to spare. Each person that boarded the plane I hoped would be wearing a pink sweatshirt.. in my mind, I was prayng please god let her make it because I honestly had no idea what I would have done if I arrived in Cuzco.. and she was not with me. Right after I had given up hope because they announced that they were closing the gate, Jess miracously comes rushing in, both of us just looked at each other and sighed a huge breath of relief.
Flying over Cuzco was absolutely amazing.. the mountains are gogeous and it was a clear blue day. We got off not into a terminal, but onto the actual landing strip.. made it feel even more real. WE MADE IT! Immediately, we got bombarded by agencies trying to sell us tickets to Macchu Picchu, but we just kindly at first, then forcefuly push our way aside and bargained a taxi driver into taking us to the San Francisco church and convent. Here came the semi heart attack when we asked around the church, and no one had head of the orphanage San Francisco de Asis aound the area.. great. We were lugging suitcases in the middle of nowhere when thankfully a priest saved the day and made some calls to get us to where we needed to be. The taxi we rode looked like a sheet of metal that was just welded together quickly and the trunk flew away as we were driving. We all got a good laugh out of that. Sister Maria greeted us and offered us beds to sleep in for the next two weeks so there goes paying for hostels! And even better still, they have internet woohoo! Even just one day here has already improved my spánish a ton, especially since speaking under pressure is particularly difficult. But you just swallow your pride and accept that youre going to make mistakes. Another sort of shocking thing was how poor the city of Cuzco is. We flew into a place of half built buildings and not very paved roads. Oh and no hot showers. Cant wait.
Anywhoo, time for bed soon. Ill work on putting pictures up but its gonna be a process. From my memory card to a flash drive to the computer so gimme a break.
Here goes nothing!
For more postings check out Lye-Yeng's South American blog at: http://www.lyeyengstravels.webs.com/ 
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