Cuzcoca!

Hello from Cuzco, the former capital of the Incan empire. Also its high. How high, well if Denver is the mile high city than this is the 2 mile high city at 11,200 ft. (Enjoy your oxygen coastal people's!) Breathing so far hasn't been terrible. It's not hard to breath like asthma but rather you get out of breath often. So I've embraced the local dietary solution of Coca!
Coca tea, coca leaves, coca candy and I even visited the Museo de Coca! Coca is mystical and gives you extraordinary powers. It is ancient and basically built the amazing Incan temples and settlements by giving you energy and reducing appetite.

Also, Cuzco is the preferred starting point for all things Incan. Sunday I took a tour of the sacred valley including a number of sites. The mountains and scenery and scale are unlike anything I've seen before. It takes me a while to comprehend "that peak is over 6000 meters high." Aka 20,000 feet.

Well if you are wondering why I haven't mentioned the big kahuna yet, it's because I'm going tomorrow! An all day trip to Maccu Piccu, I get picked up at my hostel at 3am and won't return to Cuzco till 10pm! Good thing this elevation somehow helps me sleep!
Photos! One of the Pisac terraces and the others are Cuzco.

Viva Peru y Bolivia!

As I was prepping for my spontaneous three week voyage I thought of the cheesy and/or nostalgic junk mail pamphlets that I get from my undergrad. Usually I take a look and then place it in the recycling but I recently began to appreciate HWS's latest perspective hook "Worlds of experience, Lives of consequence." Hoping to emphasize the concept of 'global citizenship.' And as you know I have a huge itch to see parts of the globe.
So here we go! Off in a whirl of gazuppee as my mother would exclaim if she wasn't so nervous! A new continent to explore. Viva Peru y Bolivia!