¡Peru No Es Chile!

¡Hola everyone!
Perhaps ya´ll are shocked that I´m writing you already.  Don´t worry, I didn´t intend to but it just so happens that it´s pouring rain right now in Cusco so I thought I would take this opportunity to sit here in the hostel, drinking tea with cocoa leaves and write you all about our adventure thus far.  And believe me, it has been an adventure.
Caroline (my travel buddy) and I were up at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning in order to board our flight to Arica, Chile, which is the northern most part of the country.  After taking three planes (more or less) to get there, we arrived safe and sound... and a little tired, needless to say.  Once in Arica, we had to take a taxi, yes a taxi, across the border into Peru.  We got to the bus station in Arica and serveral taxi drivers were eager to take us.  So we went with our gut and chose one.  In the beginning we were a little sketched out because he asked for our passports.  And rule #1 of safe travel is never give your passport to a strange man, or anyone at all.  However, we were warned by our friends that this is how is went so we said a little prayer, held our breath, and trusted the guy.  It ended up being just fine, in fact, taking a taxi made the border crossing super simple.  An hour later, we were in Peru!!
And Peru it was.  We were in Tacna, the small town right across the border.  Believe it or not, I think we were the only gringas in town, which made us a little uneasy.  In fact, the town of Tacna on the whole made us quite frightened.  Our first realization that Peru is definitely NOT Chile.  However, we bought a bus ticket through a company that ended up being in our Lonely Planet Travel Guide.  Gracias a Dios.  It was supposedly a straight-shot to Cusco on an overnight bus.  Haha.  Definitely not.  After having a little snack at a pizza joint that also ended up being in our Travel Guide, we ventured to the bus station, where we were surrounded by traditional Peruvians.  What do I mean by traditional Peruvians?  Well, I am mainly referring to the women, who were wearing twin braids all the way down their backs, colorful skirts and sweaters, with blanket packs on their backs that looked as if they weight fifty pounds.  Oh, and to top it all off, they had those flat-brimmed hats that are super stereotypical.  By this point we weren´t surprised that we were the only gringas  on the bus that didn´t end up being a straight shot at all.  In fact, it was about fifteen-sixteen hours.  First shock, this bus did not have a bathroom, which led us to ask ourselves, what type of overnight bus doesn´t have bathrooms... uh oh... we were in for an adventure.  The bathroom breaks we took every hour to two hours were less than sanitary.  I won´t go into details, really, you´ll thank me later.  Let´s just say my thighs got a work out for squatting while holding my breath to lessen the stench of urine.  Haha.  Yes, we were not in Chile anymore.  (Of course, no toilet seats, that´s a given.)  On the bus, well, that´s another story.  Cramped.  Loud Peruvian music playing throughout the entire night, which made me thankful for my neon orange ear plugs.  As we went higher and higher into the mountains, I felt it becoming more difficult to breath.  With altitude sickness, it is essential to stay hydrated, which was near impossible seeing as the bus didn´t have a restroom and the pit stops were less than glorious.  So hungry, tired, dehydrated, and freezing cold, we swallowed our pride and stuck it out.
I cannot even begin to describe the joy deep down in my heart when we arrived into Cusco.  We were there.  Finally.  We had arrived.  AND none of our stuff got stolen!!!  Day 1-2 have to be rated a complete success.  An adventure it was.  Once in Cusco, we taxied to our hostel, which is in a great location, close to Plaza de Armas and in an old colonial home, making the atmosphere well worth our while.  Plus, our friends, Emily and Emily, from our study abroad program are staying here as well!  What a relief it was to see familiar faces.  After long, long hot showers, Caroline and I headed to a coffee shop near Plaza de Armas where we were able to fulfill our caffeine craving while looking out at the Plaza from a second story balcony.  Perfect scenery.  Then, we walked around a bit, found a Cocoa shop that sells everything cocoa.  I bought chocolates with cocoa in them, not sure if I can bring those back to the States... They might think I´m trying to traffic drugs.  This place even had cocoa brownies, which made me think of my mom.  (Sorry, Mom, I had to mention you here. Haha.  Kidding... Kinda)  Anyways, I also paid to pet a three day old llama and take a picture of the llama with three traditional Peruvian women.  Well worth the 10 soles I paid.  Oh!  We also stopped and saw the Inca stone wall with the twelve-sided stone.  Famous and super old, of course.
Then it started to thunderstorm so we headed back to the hostel, where I sit now blogging while waiting for the Emilys to wake up from their nap so we can go for dinner together.
All in all, the beginning of our Peruvian adventure started out a little rocky, however now we are completely confident we are going to LOVE Peru.  Tomorrow we will be touring around Cusco with the Emilys.  Sunday we are going to tour the Sacred Valley and head to Agua Caliente where we will spend the night on Sunday night in order to get up before the sun to head up the mountain to Machu Picchu.  Machu Picchu will take up our entire day on Monday.  We have plans to climb Huayna Picchu if it´s not raining.  Wow.  It all seems so surreal.  I´ll keep ya´ll updated as much as possible.  Of course, pictures will be coming at the end of the trip once we make it back to Santiago safe and sound.  Please continue to pray for our safety, good weather, and not to get sick from the altitude or food/water.
Hope you are all doing well in the States, getting ready for Christmas and all.
Besitos,
Sarah