After a long journey, we arrived Sunday in Cusco and spent the day in Pisac, a beautiful nearby colonial town with ancient Incan cobblestone streets. Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of a view overlooking the snow-capped mountains. We had lunch and then the students had about two hours of free time to explore the local artisan market. We then had orientation on the roof of the hotel, where nearly everyone put their new alpaca sweaters and jackets to use. We ate dinner at Sapo’s, a local pizza place with a Peruvian twist, where we listened to Argentinian musicians play Andean music. One of our students turned 15 today (we have four birthdays on the program!), so we celebrated with cake at the pizzeria.

It’s just after 9 PM and all the students are already in bed, exhausted from the journey and all the pizza. Early tomorrow we leave for Qenqo, the small village where we will be doing our community service project. We won’t have internet or much (if any) phone service, but will share updates as soon as we can.

Hasta pronto!

— Sarah & Adam