well, here i am at home, finally putting on the blog what i wrote in my journal nearly 2 weeks ago... the final frontier of our trip. better late than never, right? it's pretty long, so i've broken it into manageable chapters :)

CHAPTER 1
The last week has been a rollercoaster of activity as Anthony arrived and we drove to iguazu falls (brazil) in a day, spent the next night in buenos aires (argentina), and the night afterward in the lima airport before arriving to our destination of cuzco, peru.
Cuzco is the launching point for our trek along the inca trail to the ancient city of Machu Picchu. Thank goodness we took two days to get used to the altitude because our prairie lungs had us wheezing at every set of stairs we encountered (quite a lot, being that cuzco is built in and around mountains).
The first night in cuzco, we met up with a fun group of cuzquenas (?people of cuzco?) with whom we drank pisco sours, a national drink, while we laughed, talked, and listened to a local artist play renditions of angry 90's female music as the background.
The next day we went to a giant market in Pisak. Just getting there involved winding our way through mountain roads and ancient ruins. Upon our arrival, we walked up into a huge, spreading market selling peruvian wares of every variety. Next to the hippie selling handmade earrings was a lady beheading a fish, and other old women sold strange mixtures of fruits, roots, and herbs. Peruvian rugs, scarves, and of course ponchos also added to the variety.
Anthony and i went on a tasting adventure and bought something that looked like a giant green bean but contained furry white fruits, a cob of choclo (giant corn), and juice made from black corn. The day before, we had eaten fried corn kernels as an appetizer to alpaca and cuy (guinea pig).
At the market, anthony spotted some animals in a little fence and commented on the cute little bunnies. Upon closer inspection, I regretfully informed him that they were not bunnies, but rather what he had eaten just the day before... yikes.
After the market, we returned to our hostel to begin packing for the goal of our Peruvian visit : Machu Picchu!