Jacinta Whitcome:

The day was gray and the gray made the green shine somehow. Freckles of light filtered through the clouds and sparkled on the ground. Mountains and their valleys wandered as far as the eye could. Even from the plane there seemed be no other landscape in the world than this one. 

Ahh, Peru...your body was breathtaking, even more than the altitude at which you reside. While, just to see you, would have been plenty, to lay my feet and head on your ground was like coming home. 

My mother was smiling as we flew into port, everyone was.  We all seemed to float through customs, high on mountain air, high from the lack of oxygen, high, topographically. Cusco airport was small and in the lobby we found a crowd awaiting our plane's arrival, a slew of tourism kiosks and a Peruvian band plucking out Andean rhythms. They were dressed in 'tradition' Andean garb with colors streaming out making the music seem even more lively. Several languages sounded in the mix of chatter. The smell of dust and sun and sweat and spice folded around us, it was not unpleasant, it was warm and inviting and real, like Peru herself. We were met at the airport by the Peru-For-Less crew: the driver, whose name I have forgotten and the travel agent, Allison, who my mother had emailed vigorously with questions, I am sure. They had a good rapport from the get-go. The driver helped us with our luggage and we all loaded the forest-green mini-van, which said, "Peru-For-Less" in white letters on the side. 

The drive to our hotel entered us into this new world slowly and calmly. Everything was different there. The street were made with big brown cobblestones. In the main square there were 2 gigantic Spanish cathedrals.We arrived a day or two before new years eve, my mother's birthday and had 3 days to acclimate before we were to begin on the Inka Trail. As we drove into the main square we saw a flood of colorful clothing, some Christmas decorations, including lighted, wire statues of alpacas as well as reindeer. The Andeans really have a thing for alpacas. Their enthusiasm for th  alpacas made me enthusiastic about animals too. There were even people from the mountains in Cusco with alpacas and lamas trailing behind them.

When we arrived at the hotel we were tired and jet-lagged and the altitude was beginning to give our bellies and lungs problems. The travel agency had tours planned on that first day. We began a tour of one of the cathedrals, which was filled with paintings from the Renaissance and had a huge, beautiful pipe organ that I wish I could have heard. The pipe organ is as far as we made it before my mother and I called it quits. There were storms swelling in ou stomachs and every step was weighted. We excused ourselves from the group and walked through the fresh, thin Cusco air back to our room and fell fast asleep in our beds. 

This is the first post of a series I will be writing about my trip to the Andes. More letters and photos in a couple of days. Thanks for reading.