Pedro, ‘12

When I graduated from high school I had almost 5 months of vacations until I had to start college, but they went by really fast cus I had a lot of stuff to get ready for the new experience. I also had a lot of fun with my friends and took advantage of the break to sleep until really really late. I thought my Summer break after the first year at UR would go just as fast, but most of my friends stayed in Lima, and their schools don’t have vacations until the second week of July. We couldn’t hang out as often as the previous year, and I started getting really bored. I felt like a high school kid looking at the clock every two seconds, waiting for the bell to ring and lunch to begin. Everyone knows doing that just makes time go by even slower…

So, I decided to get a job that would distract me. Time would go by faster AND I would be making some money too, so it seemed like a win-win situation.  I asked at different places and ended up working for my aunt, helping her with the administration and logistics of her jewelry business called Thaya 925. I started working the last week of May and last week was my last one, cus I decided I would work for one month and see how things went.

The job was a little boring at times, and I hated having to wake up early (8:30-9:00am, haha) but it was a job that would definitely help me in college and that would give me good money, considering I was only going to work part-time. Since I was working with my aunt, I started living at her place. This meant that, aside from paying me, she was also feeding me and taking me to and from the office.  I could also take my laptop and was free to listen to music and chat with my friends, as long as I got all the work done.

Seems like I was taking advantage of my aunt, huh? I got a pretty good job, haha. Working with her definitely made time go by faster, so much that it’s almost July already and I have a little more than a month before I have to go back to Richmond. One of the reasons why I was thinking bout quitting was the fact that I really HATED waking up early in the morning, but I haven’t been working for almost a week now and the days are getting longer already (even if I do wake up and it’s the afternoon already).

I’m guessing I have to wait until all my friends are done with classes so that I can start hanging out more with them, but I’m seriously considering working again.

If I do, it’ll probably be for my aunt again, haha. Maybe I’ll even ask for a raise =)

Yeah, Machu Picchu was amazing, but don’t think that Machu Picchu is the only thing that Cusco has to offer. We were there from Thursday through Sunday, and we still didn’t have enough time to see everything we could’ve seen. On Saturday we woke up to get on a bus that would take us through the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Even though Machu Picchu has the best ruins, Ollantaytambo and Pisac (two of the cities found in the valley) have really cool ruins as well. I’m gonna let the pictures do the talking.

Ollantaymbo was exhausting cus we had to go up multiple stairs. Those that you see in the background…

The view was amazing, though. I have to admit that.

So, Saturday was spent going to all the cool places in the Sacred Valley. We had time for lunch and got back to Cusco city at about 7 and went to get some dinner. The food was really good and we had originally planned to party that night, but my girlfriend was feeling too lazy (ok, ok..I was lazy too). We went back to the hotel and just watched tv until we finally fell asleep.

Just to wake up early once again the next morning. It was our last day there, and I had a surprise for her. We went to the last place with ruins that I wanted to show her, called Sacsayhuaman. Instead of walking around, we got to ride horses

Thanks to the horsies, we were able to get to the ruins fairly quickly and we didn’t end up as dead by the end of the tour.

I thought it wouldn’t be fair to say I went to Cusco and just talk about Machu Picchu. Hopefully the pictures will help you understand why. We had a great time all 4 days we were there, and I really feel it was the best choice I’ve made in a while in terms of vacation trips. If you take your time and stay for a week or so, you won’t be as exhausted as we were. You will also have the possibility of going to many other places, added to the ones I’ve talked about here. Many places that are worth seeing are even only 5 mins away from the main hotels in Cusco, and you might get to party like you’ve never partied before on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night.

I promise you’ll have fun =)