Finally here.

Peru, where have you been all my life? I am fully and totally in love with this country. After quite the adventure of traveling and way too many hours in the Lima airport, I finally made it to Cusco! In Cusco we met up as our entire group and met our academic directors and assistants as well. We took a bus for about an hour until we arrived in Urubamba, the place we're staying at for our orientation. To get to the unbelievable hotel we're currently at we took motos, a little motorcycle which tows along a seating spot for two. It was quite the ride and an awesome way to get to our location.

We're staying at El Huerto Paraiso and it is unreal. It's right in the valley of Urubamba and looks out onto some of the most beautiful mountains I've seen in my life. I obviously still have a soft spot in my heart for the Colorado mountains, but these Andean mountains are currently taking my breath away. This place is indescribable--I'll make sure and get pictures up sometime soon so others can potentially begin to understand the sheer beauty of this place.

We've just had basic orientation so far--my Spanish is decent, but still needs a lot of work. I'm feeling really confident in understanding what people are saying to me, but I struggle with communicating back. I think that's going to be my biggest struggle for a while. But, being around Spanish all the time is already helping a ton--I think I'll be just fine after time with my host family (which we meet up with on Thursday!).

We got to explore parts of Urubamba this morning and yesterday afternoon. I am in love with South American cities. The colors, the noises, it's all so exciting and amazing. I can't wait to explore Cusco. We're here in Urubamba until Thursday, but we luckily get to visit Machu Picchu on Wednesday! As touristy as I think Machu Picchu is supposed to be, I am fully embracing my tourist tendencies and am totally stoked to check out one of the most amazing places in the world.

I guess that's all for now... I'll have much more to report in a few days once I'm with my host family and living in Cusco!