Peru Journal

By Cody Harrod

Aug 5th Lima: I got off the 6 hour flight from Atlanta at 11:42 pm on Thursday night. Customs was a nightmare! As we were exiting, or as they say in Spanish “Salida”, thousands of people were screaming, “Taxi!” We didn’t take one because we had one assigned earlier and found a man holding a sign with our name on it. We stayed at the Sheraton for about 3 hours before we had to go back for our next flight. They had a Casino, but I wasn’t allowed in. All the TV channels were in Espanol, so I watched baseball. We woke up at 5 am and went to the airport at 6 to go to Cuzco. We were at the airport for over 3 hours. I bought a silver llama with gems on the side for my girlfriend. I took a nap on the plane and saw a hilarious TV show. I saw the most beautiful scenery ever. The snow covered mountains were so gorgeous.

We got into Cuzco at 11:30 am. The hotel we stayed in was much nicer than the Sheraton. I have made some friends…Fred, George and Edward. They’re street vendors but are very nice. I got a bad headache from the altitude. I arrived at the orphanage for the Globe Aware program on Saturday. The kids are so energetic! They want to be picked up and played with all the time, but its fun. About all the children are deaf. Only a few speak Spanish. We had fried guinea pig for lunch. On Sunday I woke up about 6:45 am and was ready by 7:15. I taught some kids how to do push ups. We handed out hair bands to girls and boys! I played soccer (futbol) with some of the kids. We took a bunch of the kids to a parade which is supposed to remind the people that the Spanish took over the Incas. We also went to Mass. I was exhausted! When we got back I took a nap and ate lunch at 2pm. On Monday, Madre Consuelo said I could go to the farm with the older boys, which is great because when I grow up I would like to be a farmer.

Scratch that…I’m going to help teach the older kids how to use the computer and the internet with my Mom. I printed some stuff out for the kids about the Incas, the history, how the Spanish conquered them and how a Republic was made. It’s all in Spanish. One girl actually found her home town on the internet and pointed out where her home was. Today we’re going to Sacsayhauman…it sounds like “sexy woman”. The rocks were huge and we played leap frog with the kids. Tuesday we went shopping in Pisac and saw another ruin. Wednesday I visited the farm I was supposed to go to. It’s nice. We also saw the ruin at Tipon and another place, but I can’t remember the name.

Thursday we went to Machu Pichu. It was awesome! We took a 4 hour train ride to get there, a 30 minute bus ride to the top of the mountain and toured the ruins for about 2 or 3 hours. Machu Pichu is my favorite site. It’s where the Incas originated. The site is amazing. The stones are laid so neatly there are no spaces between them. They’re doing experiments to see if it’s sliding from all the tourist traffic. We had an awesome lunch in the town below. It took almost 5 hours to get home on the train…long day! Friday we had a big party for the kids. It was awesome! We had a BBQ beef on sticks. The food was so good! We gave the kids some toys and played games. That night we went to see a Shaman. Saturday we had to say Goodbye and we thanked everyone. I made lots of friends and it was sad to leave. I would like to go back again someday.

The End