The Four in Lima : Lots happening around here.

I never though that I would eat lunch in the same room as a dead man, but we can get to that later. First off My family came down to visit this past week, and we had a grand ol time. They flew in at the wonderful hour of 4:30 in the am on Monday, and I met them in the airport at 6:30 am(still too early) to fly to Cuzco. We got to Cuzco and found our hotel, which was a beautiful little place built in the mid 1600s. The next day we took a tour of the amazing sacred valley in the cuzco province, and visited some pre incan ruins that were scattered about it. Pictures dont do justice to how large and stunning the mountains are in this area. Ill try to pick come good pictures, but it just doesn't compare to the real thing. On wednesday we woke up at 3:30 in the morning (my family is a little intense) to catch the fist train to the incan trail. The train dropped us off in the middle of the jungle with two other people we met on the train and our guide. Together we went off into the wilderness and hiked for hours and hours through amazing scenery and huge ancient ruins. After all this we made it to the entrance of Machu Picchu, called the Sun Gate. It was really cool to get to hike on a religious trail made by the Incan people a very long time ago. That night we stayed in a hostal in Aguas Calientes (Hot Waters). and as to be expected we were off again sometime in the early morning. we hiked around Machu Picchu some, then me and my brother conquered the infamous Huinua Picchu wich turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. The next day we went back to lima for some R&R. I got to take my brother surfing on saturday morning and after I gave him a quick lesson on land, we went out and he caught his first wave on his first try, and rode it all the way out. It was pretty incredible.

On the Incan trail

Machu Picchu, and behind me is Huainu Picchu.

My fam and a waterfall.

Just Thinking (about how bad it would be to fall)

   All in all we had an amazing vacation, but I got back to Lima to the news that Wes, Justin, and I were making a trip to the jungle the next day. Which leads me to my next story.

   One of my peruvian friends who I have connected very well with is named Luis. Luis's Grandfather had been sick for a while with cancer. Now Luis works as a security guard outside of Justin's house, and his grandfather lives in the jungle, pretty far away from us. When we heard his grandfather didnt have much time left we got pretty upset that he could see him, so we all decided to take him and his brother on a bus with us to Oxapampa, which is a jungle town started by german immigrants in the 1890s. We got to the bus station at 7 pm on sunday night, and drove from sea level to almost 14000ft in about 6 hours. I hardly slept at all on the 10 hour bus ride. When we got there, we took Luis to the hospital, and he got to visit with his grandfather as we all met his family. The rest of the day was a pretty fun adventure, as we borrowed Luis's Cousin's motorcycle taxi, and explored Oxapampa. We also ate at his cousins, and his grandmas house. Which was an adventure in itself. We had coffee that was grown dried and brewed at their house, that tasted pretty great.
   The next day, we awoke to the news that his grandfather had just passed. we went to his grandmas house where they were preparing the body. We weren't sure what to do so we just sat around as everyone went about their business. About one hour later were told to pass into the room were the body was, so that we may view it. we went in, and were able to comfort Luis during this sad moment. Not long after that they all left the room, asking us to wait there. The brought us sweet milk with coffee, and some bread to eat while we waited. Im not sure why we had to wait there, but we sat there for a couple of hours in the presence of a dead man not knowing what to do. I have to admit it was pretty awkward at times. I think somewhere in my subconscious I decided to make it more awkard, as I accidently knocked my sweet milk all over the floor. I tried to handle it quietly, but the towel they gave me to clean it up was made out of leather, and didn't do one thing to help the situation but to spread it around. It became quite an ordeal, and the daughter wound up coming in to re clean the entire floor. I leaned over to Wes at this point and asked him, "How is anyone in the states ever going to understand what this is like". He said," We dont have the words to describe the awkwardness of sitting in a room before the funeral of a man we did not know, and being asked to say a few words to everyone. They will simply never know". I wish there was a way to describe the strangeness of such a situation.
   Later that night we caught a bus back to Lima, another 10 hour trip, but this time we were on the top front row of the double decker bus as it passed other busses on the mountain roads with huge cliffs the whole way. You can imagine how well I slept.