The Arrival - my side!
Finally I get a chance to write a decent entry. Jon informed me that my last entry was riddled with errors so I apologize to anyone who tried to read it, thankfully he has since corrected it. Thankfully Jon has been able to give you a picture of what it been like. Flying into Cusco was incredible, the Andes mountain range is nothing like I have ever seen, they seem to go on forever; which, would make sense since they are the world's longest continental mountain range. On our flight from Lima to Cusco our captain would point out the different sights along the way. Suddenly we took a sharp turn and he announced that we were going to land in Cusco. The descent was incredibly rapid and you felt like you were falling from the sky. As soon as we touched ground there was clapping and cheering, while the young Peruvian mother, sitting across from us, made the sign of the cross across her chest.
We collected our luggage and lined up to push the BUTTON...
It is the red light, green light system for customs. You push the button and if you get a green you are free to go and if it is red then your bags get searched. When I was in Costa Rica, I got a red light and they took away my beans saying they will return them when I exit the country, that never happened; so I was a little hesitant to push the button, hoping it would be green!
It turned red.
Thankfully there was no searching because it takes forever, but we did have to put all our stuff in a high powered xray machine that probably blasted our bodies with enough radiation for a lifetime. If you are pregnant or hope to ever be they have a sign that says not to stand close to the machine.
Our first breath of Peruvian air was filled with sounds of 'Taxi!' 'Taxi!' ' Lady, you wan Taxi!'
The taxi drivers followed us around as we searched for our ride. No one was there. We waited and waited but never wondered if they were coming. I finally phoned our contact, Jaime, who said Alcides would be at the airport in 30 minutes. I was happy to see a friendly face when Alcides called out my name, as I had had a tour guide/taxi driver guy follow me around everywhere and said he would take me where ever I wanted to go. I told him, "No" but he kept standing too close to me and watched everything I did. He even followed me when I made the phone call to Jaime!
Our ride to the orphanage was the typical Latin american experience, weaving in and our of traffic, incredibly fast, and full of horns honking at everyone. It was a ton of fun!
Now, we have been here almost a week at Azul Wasi and we have already had some highs and lows.
The Lows: Getting sick - our trip down was a whirlwind of preparations that included last minute dentist appointments and shopping trips and of course NO SLEEP...so it was no wonder that when we arrived the first thing for me to do was to get sick. Really sick. It was probably a combination of altitude sickness but I think mainly an upper respiratory infection. I am still coughing yellow. Thankfully I came prepared so all it well on that front.
Also living here has put my Spanish to the ultimate test! It has been very difficult for me because I have forgotten so much and they talk so fast.
But now for The Highs: Even though my Spanish is poor the boys are still very accepting. The youngest ones love to hug and the littlest one gives me kisses on the cheek. Even though the older boys are teenagers they are not too cool to play with Jon and I. We play volleyball and basketball between chores and homework.
Everything is soo different from Canada but that is an entire post in itself. I will leave that for another entry...
Hasta Mañana
We collected our luggage and lined up to push the BUTTON...
It is the red light, green light system for customs. You push the button and if you get a green you are free to go and if it is red then your bags get searched. When I was in Costa Rica, I got a red light and they took away my beans saying they will return them when I exit the country, that never happened; so I was a little hesitant to push the button, hoping it would be green!
It turned red.
Thankfully there was no searching because it takes forever, but we did have to put all our stuff in a high powered xray machine that probably blasted our bodies with enough radiation for a lifetime. If you are pregnant or hope to ever be they have a sign that says not to stand close to the machine.
Our first breath of Peruvian air was filled with sounds of 'Taxi!' 'Taxi!' ' Lady, you wan Taxi!'
The taxi drivers followed us around as we searched for our ride. No one was there. We waited and waited but never wondered if they were coming. I finally phoned our contact, Jaime, who said Alcides would be at the airport in 30 minutes. I was happy to see a friendly face when Alcides called out my name, as I had had a tour guide/taxi driver guy follow me around everywhere and said he would take me where ever I wanted to go. I told him, "No" but he kept standing too close to me and watched everything I did. He even followed me when I made the phone call to Jaime!
Our ride to the orphanage was the typical Latin american experience, weaving in and our of traffic, incredibly fast, and full of horns honking at everyone. It was a ton of fun!
Now, we have been here almost a week at Azul Wasi and we have already had some highs and lows.
The Lows: Getting sick - our trip down was a whirlwind of preparations that included last minute dentist appointments and shopping trips and of course NO SLEEP...so it was no wonder that when we arrived the first thing for me to do was to get sick. Really sick. It was probably a combination of altitude sickness but I think mainly an upper respiratory infection. I am still coughing yellow. Thankfully I came prepared so all it well on that front.
Also living here has put my Spanish to the ultimate test! It has been very difficult for me because I have forgotten so much and they talk so fast.
But now for The Highs: Even though my Spanish is poor the boys are still very accepting. The youngest ones love to hug and the littlest one gives me kisses on the cheek. Even though the older boys are teenagers they are not too cool to play with Jon and I. We play volleyball and basketball between chores and homework.
Everything is soo different from Canada but that is an entire post in itself. I will leave that for another entry...
Hasta Mañana
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