Four hours of driving, three hours of sleep, two lattes down and we are lifting off from the Spokane airport on the way to our first adventure in Peru! As the plane's wheels come off the ground, I feel a slight sense of the butterflies in my stomach. I always remember flying for the first time when I was younger and the overwhelming feeling of …

Thursday - Finally made in to Lima this evening after a horrible layover in Orlando. Spent the night there after 2 planes failed on us with an emergency landing. Ready for some sleep at this time. We arrive into the airport half asleep and irritated at the unhelpful flight crew. But we're here in Peru so the irritation slips away at we step …

Friday - After only 2 hours of sleep with we stagger out of our hotel room in a rush at 2:45am to catch our 4:00am flight to Juliaca. Our alarm didn't wake us at 1:30am as planned. We race across the connecting walkway from the hotel to the airport, thankful that we don't have to run across the street. We made it - with plenty of time to …

The next day we say goodbye to our host family :( and motor on to the Taquile Island. We walk around the island with our guide and group then have lunch on the top looking out over the Lake Titicaca. Gorgeous! We keep thinking we're in the Mediterranean with all of the beautiful blues and greens of the clear lake waters.

Afterwards, we head …

Last night when we checked into the hotel - the local tour office brought us our tickets for the bus ride to Cusco. They also had us fill out an evaluation of the Titicaca experience which I thought was great since its fresh in your mind at that time.

I'm feeling tired and sick to my stomach from the altitude but surprisingly the bus ride is not …

Today was wonderful! We met up with the rest of our tour group, a young man and woman, in the hotel lobby. Along the way to the Sacred Valley we stopped to look at how they make the famous Peruvian tapestries and clothing from alpaca wool. It was interesting to hear Ayul's explanation about the different kinds of vicunas, alpacas, and llamas. …

We rose early again this morning and Ayul gave us a tour of the Ollantaytambo ruins before anyone else was around. I loved that he took us to the ruins during these times because later I saw groups that couldn't even hear their guides because of all the noise and people moving around. We learned about how the Incas created their own …

This morning Matt and the other gentleman in our group got up at 4am to hike Wayna Picchu with Ayul. There was only 200 passes allowed to get into the second stop inside Machu Picchu so they had to be there early in order to make it. My stomach was not feeling settled so I stayed in bed for a bit then walked around Aguas Calientes and saw some of …

This morning Ayul took us to the local market where we saw all the traditional foods and goods that Peruvians barter and buy. My favorite find was a tincture "para hacer el exito" to make the success! Drink this and you will be good :) While we were walking through the market, Ayul nodded to a security guard who ended up following us …