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Our days here in Peru are coming to an end, and today we have checked out of our hotel in Cusco to go back to Lima.
We´ve been real tourists here, as it is completely inpossible to get an overview of all the sites on your own. Some of the places we´ve visited are Saqsayhuaman (pronounced more or less as "sexy woman"), Pisaq, Chinchero, Ollantaytambo, Urubamba, Valle Sagrado (Holy valley of the Incas) and of course Machu Picchu. The latter was of course the high point of our stay.
I can´t remember that something has physically taken my breath away before, but Machu Picchu sure did. The fact that we knew what it was going to look like before we got there, and that we still lost our breath in admiration, talks for itself. It was everything we could have imagined beforehand and more. A sight like that really made us feel so small, and so full of respect for nature and the Quechuas (Incas), that for most of history has been considered uncivilized. We finally got in to a Spanish guided tour (latinoenglish is really difficult to understand sometimes), and the guide was great!
Exept for this, I´m surprised how little the altitude here has affected us. Cusco is about 3400m over sea level, Machu Picchu on a surprisingly "low" 2800m. We´ve both gotten quite a cold here, but we´ve been climbing archeological sites like mountain goates. In addition, I have to admit my predefinition on Americans has been challenged once again. I always seem to get surprised when we meet nice, smart and humble Americans that are looking forward to a change in government so they can go on vacation to Cuba. I have to stop letting the stereotypes getting to me..
Sadly, we found lots of cheap markets in Cusco too. Thanks to my God given gift of packing backpacks (yes, I´m actually starting to believe it´s God given), however, so far I´ve not been forced to leave something behind or to send something back to Norway. If my backpack was full after Costa Rica, imagine how it is now, after shopping alpakka wool-products for almost a week!
Tomorrow we have a new country with lots of new adventures at our feet. We´re moving on to the city of la casa rosada, the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires here we come!
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