parents!

Hi all! As you all know, my parents are visiting! It has been a packed and fun week and I am so glad to be able to see them after 3 months! The day they got here, I dragged them to a festival at Lucia's school for all the sports teams. It was really cool and they met my whole host family/extended family right away. After that, we went to lunch up by Sacsayhuaman. It was deliiiicciiiooousss and it was nice to be able to get to sit as one big familia. After they were dead tired, so they went to their hotel and to sleep.

The next day (Sunday) we went on a tour of the Sacred Valley. So sites like Chincero, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and one other place that I forgot. It was so cool to be able to have my parents see how incredible the ruins are and experience it all with them another time. I also felt very fit because I've been here for 3 months and they had been here a day so they got winded easily. HEH.

We had a day off, and Monday was 'La Procession' because Holy Week here is HUGE. They have a Jesus crucifix in the Cathedral of Cusco that they take out every Holy Monday of every year and parade him around the city. His name is 'El Senor de los Temblores' or the Lord of the Earthquakes. The rumor is, in 1650 there was a huge earthquake and all the people were terrified so they took this Jesus outside to the plaza and as soon as he was out there the earthquake stopped. That was prettyyy kewl. The next day, we were going to Machu Picchu and we were LEAVING at 4:30am, so we retired early.

sup, Jesus?

Machu Picchu was BEAUTIFUL this time around. The weather was perfect, I am so glad I have nice enough parents to let me go for a second time :]. We didn't hike Wayna Picchu because after I told my parents how hard it was they said they could do without it. We did go back to the Inca Bridge, though, and that was SO COOl in the daylight! Last time I was there, you couldn't see five feet in front of you due to fog so it was amazing to be able to see the river so far below instead of just hearing the roar of it.

cool pic of the clouds

haaayyyyyy  

advice: don't wear capris to the Picch. I have 69 bug bites.

Today is a very important day in Holy Week. Here in Peru, you eat TWELVE dishes for lunch. All of them were fish or seafood because they don't eat meat today, tomorrow, or Saturday. So my whole family even my host dad and host brothers came to eat lunch. My parents met Julietita finally, not to mention everyone else! It was a really fun day and I'm glad my host family got along so well with my real family. Tomorrow, I'm spending the whole day with my parents as it is their last full day here. I'm sad this week has gone by so fast, I think it's gonna be pretty tough saying goodbye to them again.