Finally the rest of my best photos from Peru.
I had expected Cusco to look more like Lima, but both Jen and I were surprised at how poor the area looked. We did come to discover that the facade of the buildings were deceiving, because as we wandered around town we often got to peer inside of open doors to find that the inside of the homes and businesses were much nicer than what we saw from the street.
The guidebooks and our friends who had traveled to Peru all warned us about the altitude sickness we would feel in Cusco. They weren't kidding. I started to feel the difference in air quality as soon as we stepped out of the plane. We did take it easy our first day in Cusco and the next pictures are from our casual strolling around the Plaza de Armas that first day.
The following day we toured the Sacred Valley and I was blown away at the gorgeous scenery.
The people who live in the Sacred Valley live a far more traditional Andean lifestyle.
The highlight of the trip was Machu Picchu. My pictures do not do it justice at all. It was breathtaking place to visit.
Even with speaking almost no Spanish, I found Peru to be a delightful and relatively easy place to visit. The only surprising part of the trip was the amount of stares I received. I have been to many countries, but never have I felt like such a foreigner. These weren't friendly stares--even when I would catch their eye and smiled at them, I never got a return smile. I think my height must have freaked them out a bit.