Final Day of our Trip

25 September 2017

After blessedly getting a decent night’s sleep, we all rose the next morning for a hotel breakfast. I showered before heading upstairs for a very picked over breakfast. The poor hotel was not prepared for the might of so many hungry exchange students, and they were very behind on getting food out to all of us. After waiting a decent time and getting my hands on a small breakfast, I headed back down to my hotel room to wash my face, etc. However, upon my return to the hotel room, I realized that we know longer had water in our hotel room. This posed a problem, so I ended up returning to the 5th floor so that I could grab a cup of hot water. I then returned to my room, let the water cool down a bit, and then washed my face/brushed my teeth from a tea cup of water. Needless to say, I was very thankful that I had already taken a shower. After headed down to the lobby, I discovered that not only had I not had water, many students no longer had water in their rooms. 

Thankful we were all checking out, we put our luggage into storage before heading out to explore Cusco for a few hours. We all first headed to a museum that was originally built by the incas before it was taken and modified by the Spaniards. Inside was beautiful, with many incredible paintings. Sadly, we were unable to take pictures of many parts of the museum (eg. The paintings). After our tour, we were then all able to go out on our own. I ended up walking around with Nadja (Switzerland), Salome (Switzerland), and Malin (Wisconsin).

We first went to the Plaza de Armas so that we could not only take pictures, but so we could exchange money. We then walked around before we decided to ask someone where the closest grocery store or supermarket was. After we got directed in the wrong direction a few times, we finally walked several blocks until we reached a market, not a supermarket. The two are very different. Markets are much more packed and disorganized, but are fairly cheaper. Supermarkets are cleaner and more pricy. We ended up going to both, as we purchased all of our dry goods (dried sweet potatoes and dried corn) in the market, but went to a nearby grocery for pre-packaged things (Oreos, etc.). After going back and forth between the market and grocery store a few times, we finally got everything we needed and were able to head back. Along the way, we stopped to buy some patches and some bracelets to remember Cusco by. We made it back to the hotel just in time. After our arrival we said our goodbyes and boarded the bus to go to a bus station that would get us back to Lima.