Shayna here. I will fill you in on the last few days and on machu picchu. Wow! What an incredible place. We spent a few days in Cuzco and the sacred valley. We saw a lot of churches and a lot of Incan ruins. This is because when the Spanish conquered the Incas in the 1500's, they built cathedrals on top of all of the Incan temples. In the Sacred Valley, we went to an Alpaca farm and a huge crafts market. We fed the alpacas and learned how they make their wool into different crafts. It was really cool. Unfortunately, our tour was pretty rushed so we didn't get much time in the market. Rebecca got some scarves for her friends. Our next stop was at a giant buffet lunch. It was about an hour drive through the Andes mountains. It was beautiful. I had learned in school how high the Andes were but it is so different when you are actually there. Our lunch was in the middle of nowhere but it was still great. It was a small restaurant surrounded by beautiful gardens. We ate a lot and then waited for about half an hour. We could have been buying stuff at the market. Oh well. I had a good time taking pictures of the flowers. Our next activity was a hike up to an Incan Temple. There were a lot of steps and I was really out of breath but once we got to the top it was really pretty. Once again, he only gave us 20 minutes to walk around so we decided to just start walking down. Yes, it took us that long to get down the steps. When we got on the bus, we had an unusual passenger with us. He was a student learning to be a tour guide. He started showing us a computer program that teaches you about Machu Picchu. It took us far too long to realize that he was trying to make a sale. The second time that he walked down the bus lane, he made one sale. Wahoo! After he got off, we stopped at our beautiful hotel in the sacred valley. We stayed in our room for awhile and then had dinner in the hotel bar where they gave Rebecca a piña colada with alcohol. Whoops. She didn't drink too much though. After dinner we went for a nice walk around the town. It was surprisingly really nice. We went to this one store to pick up our laundry and let's just say we went on a major shopping spree. I got a sweatshirt because of course I didn't bring a jacket. I got gloves, Rebecca got a necklace and my mom got a sweater. We took a long walk back to the hotel and then went to bed. The next morning was Machu Picchu. We woke up really early to get on a bus so that we could get on a train. It was a beautiful hour and a half train ride. We were surrounded by the Andes Mountains on all sides with a river running down the middle. We're did that river water come from you ask. Of course from Lake Titikaka. Anyways, we got off the train and were met by someone from the tour company who brought us to yet another bus. We were there for about 10 minutes waiting for our tour guide. It was only then that our escort informed us that our guide was already on top of the mountain and that we should get on the bus. Well we could have been on a bus by then. Oh well. We waited in line and then got on the bus to head to Machu Picchu. Let's just say it was the long and winding road. Once we reached the top, we met our tour guide. He got us through the entrance and then we started the tour. It was beautiful. I had seen the picture before but I never really imagined it looking the way that it did. We went on a four hour tour of it and then went to the only restaurant there for lunch. It only has one hotel that is about 1,000 dollars a night. We decided not to stay there. Our guide told us that there was a 90 minute walk to a sun gate. We decided that we would do that short walk and then do our own touring after that. The day didn't really turn out that way. We may have taken a little bit longer on the walk then he said we would. Ok, maybe we took a lot more time to do the walk. Ok, it took us three hours to do the hike. We were just so glad that we didn't do the inca trail. Can you imagine? After our very long hike we got on the bus and went back down the mountain. We checked into our hotel and then had a free dinner there. We walked around the town for awhile and then decided to go to bed. This was because we wanted to wake up early to catch the sunrise at Machu Picchu the next morning. Let me tell you first that everyone we talked to gave us a different time that we had to wake up to see the sunrise. We went with the person at the front desk of our hotel. He said that sunrise is at 7:18. We thought that sounded right so we went to bed. The next morning, we woke up and went to breakfast at about 6:45. Someone was wrong. It was light outside. We stepped outside only to find that the sun had already risen. We were fine with that and decided to head up the mountain whenever we were ready. We got to the bus line only to see that the line went for at least 2 blocks. I guess that was the time to go to Machu Picchu. We were able to get to the viewpoint right when the sun was going over the mountain. The timing ended up being perfect. After taking some pictures and meeting a group of college aged girls from San Francisco, we decided it was time to head down the mountain. We walked around Aguascalientes and did some shopping. It was a nice town with many little souvenir shops. When it was time, we got on the train and had a four hour train ride back to Cusco. It was a very interesting train ride. We had a weird lion dancer posing for pictures and dancing to local music and a fashion show of alpaca sweaters. Definitely a cultural experience (or maybe a tourist experience but it was funny anyways.) we arrived in cusco, went to our not so beautiful hotel and checked in. We had heard of a really good Israeli restaurant in cusco so we decided to go there for dinner. We arrived at the street that it was on only to find Israel ktana. For those of you who don't know Hebrew, that means little Israel. Every store had Hebrew writing and there were Israeli flags everywhere. Who would have guessed? We had a delicious meal of hummus and falafel and then went back to the hotel to go to sleep. The next day was our free day in Cusco. It was the first time in a very long time that we could wake up whenever we wanted. We had breakfast at the last possible minute and then headed across the street to the big market. We spent a very long time in there buying gifts for ourselves and all of our friends. Next stop, chocolate museum. Of course we did some shopping on the way. Both of my parents got alpaca sweaters. In one of the stores Rebecca got a crocheting lesson from one of the locals. She told my mom in Spanish that Rebecca was too tense. She said that she was a shaman and could give her a relaxation. It was so interesting. She took special rocks and put them in a blanket. She said some things in Quechua and then rubbed the rocks all over her. When she was done she was breathing really deeply and Rebecca said that she felt lighter. I took a video if any of you are interested in watching it. The shaman told my mom that Rebecca had a lot of stress in her neck and back. She removed it apparently and then continued on with the crocheting lesson. When we were ready to leave we paid for everything and then the shaman gave us two little doll keychains for free. So nice. Our next stop was the chocolate museum. We learned about the cacao bean and tried some chocolate. While we were in the store buying gifts, we heard the Hatikvah. We followed the familiar song and discovered a chocolate making class in the next room. While the chocolate makers stirred whatever they were making, they had to sing a song. These two girls chose to sing the national anthem of their country. Wow! After the chocolate museum, we didn't do much else. We picked up our laundry and then got a little bit lost going back to the hotel. Two women in a kebab restaurant sent us in the complete opposite direction of our hotel. We eventually found it and were very happy that we did. We went to sleep because we had an early wake up this morning. My dad will blog about today because I really just can't put it into words. It was definitely a crazy travel story day. I will give you a hint that we are not going to Costa Rica until 2 days from now. Until next time, Shayna