Lima

Lima is a great city, as far as cities go. At least the part that I am in, which is, I{m sure, the best part of town. Very clean and safe feeling. There is no part of Quito that feels this way. Or maybe I just haven{t heard the stories and so feel safer. Hard to say.

It was fun to watch Barak{s swearing in with folks from all over the world. Really interesting to watch from outside of the country. I{m glad that his platform is that everyone can work hard and turn it around, not waiting for someone else to do it for you.

I have purchased a bus ticket to Cusco, leaving tomorrow and arriving Thursday morning. I am really excited to get there and meet the folks I{ll be working with and check it all out. There are so many amazing things around that area that I didn{t even know about, I am super glad to get to spend an extended amount of time there. Macchu Pichu is of course, the close and famous attraction, but there are also lots of other ruins close by, one they are excavating right now is meant to be even bigger and grander than Macchu Pichu. Within a day{s bus trip, there is also the sacred valley, where the Incas did so much of their really heavy spiritual stuff. There is the valley of the volcanoes, where you can see down the line of the Andes for miles and miles, there are two canyons that are over twice the size of the Grand Canyon in the US, there is a train to Lake Titicaca which is the highest lake at least in South America, maybe more and has man made floating islands that people have been upkeeping since the time of the Incas. Granted, those indians now make their living from tourism and there isn{t much "authentic" experience there, but still will be fun to check out. Everyone I have talked with that has been through Cusco has loved it and can{t believe I get to spend so much time there. It is very cold with no indoor heating though, so that will be a challenge. Good thing I grew up in Oregon.

I know that there is a chance that I wont like it and decide to leave after a short amount of time, and I leave that option open to myself, but I{m going to be excited about it anyway.

Hope you all are having a great day, I{m off to explore this city.
Maryjane