Leaving Cuczo

We are in Nasca, Peru now and headed to Lima today. We will spend our last few days of the trip there before flying back home for Christmas.

A lot has happened since my last post. We headed to Arequipa after leaving Cuzco. Our last day in Cuzco, we spent visiting the last ruins and museums in the city we didn't get to before visiting Machu Picchu. We visited the ruins right in Cuzco called Sacsaywaman. They were immense and pretty incredible. The boulders they used for building were twice as tall as me and perfectly fit together. I am continually amazed by what the Inca accomplished with what we would consider primitive building tools and materials.

We visited the convent of Saint Dominic which turned out to be fantastic. It is built on Inca ruins and they have built the new building around the ruins. They also had some amazing contemporary art displayed from Peruvian artists. It was a great treasure to stumble upon this museum.

We also stopped at a museum that was created to display the artwork of Andean children. We went on a whim and it was by far my favorite stop in Cuzco. A woman started a non profit in the early 90s to reach out to young children in the high mountains bringing them art lessons and for many their first experiences with art or even holding a paint brush. The museum displayed their artwork and also explained the art lessons conducted with the kids. In the high Andes most of the children only speak Quechua. So the instructors have to be fluent in the language and also be able to teach art. The artwork displayed was really quite incredible. We weren't allowed to take photos or buy any of the pieces otherwise I would have walked away with a ton of it. To gain access to the villages they promise the families not to sell or profit from the artwork in anyway. I will be sure to look up the name of the museum and include it in a later post. I thought my friend Sara and cousin Eva would enjoy it most.

We finished the day at the church of Saint Dominic which opened in the evening. I was mostly drawn there by the paintings of Andean children as angels. They were awesome. I would have taken photos but it wasn't allowed.

We walked to our bus station and headed out on our first overnight bus trip. I am normally fine in moving vehicles but something about this bus made me incredibly nauseous. By about thirty minutes in I was feeling terrible and trying to determine all the possible options were I actually to get sick. It was so bad that when Bridget got her Inca Kola to drink I told her to keep the top on. The smell of it was making me feel worse. For those of you who aren't familiar, Inca Kola is a soft drink here in Peru and it kind of tastes like bubble gum. It actually outsells Coca Cola and Pepsi here. I actually like it when I am not feeling terrible. I eventually felt better and made it through the night.

We arrived in Arequipa and spent a few days there but that is a story for another time. More to come soon especially because I just figured out how to blog from my iTouch.