Altitude sickness struck us hard in Cuzco on the first day. Along with food poisoning from the night before, our weak stomachs and nasty headaches left us with a day inside. We left the hostel for some exploration of the city, but quickly returned. Nothing twelve hours of sleep cant fix.
This morning we woke up with level stomachs, and restless minds. We hiked up to one of five or six Incan ruins to be found in Cuzco, surrounded by lush forests and green hills, something we have seen little of in Peru so far. There we met up with the only English speaking tour guide available, who ended up being perfect.
(Lizzie here!) Mario, our village shaman-philosopher-tour guide may not have given us an historically accurate or scientifically thorough tour of Cusco's ruins but he gave us a window into the many beliefs of the mysterious cultures that lived here in the Andes. He personifies the culmination of his ancestor's and today's beliefs. He explained duality or ying and yang in some of the stones, he had us meditate on sacred ground, recommended a local hallucinogenic drug, and told us that believing in Jesus above was the key to all spiritual struggles. As the shaman he uses his hands to heal diseases of the mind body and soul, especially healing the many lost people of today. Every stone wall hid symbols and philosophies and there was no limit to his insight. He pointed out the number of corners on a specific rock and the meaning of that number(he had an insight to almost all numbers), I couldn't even digest all the symbols and philosophies he shared but his breadth of knowledge was unforgettable.
And Spencer will finish this one off by mentioning that I rode a horse for the first time today! Beautiful scenery behind us, we rode a couple of small horses with gas problems from site to site, costing us only 20 USD together. Peru has been so fun!
Thanks for reading!
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