In the beginning of 2010 - I listed 3 places that I wanted to conquer, Mt. Baldy, Mt. Whitney, and Machu Picchu.  It is now close to the end of 2010.  I crossed 2 of those things off my list.  Mt. Baldy (thanks to the documentary that I am directing- Baldy for the Blind) and surprisingly enough, Machu Picchu. 

It has been a life long dream to travel the long road to the magical, mystical ruins of Machu Picchu.    I have heard about this place from fellow dreamers and travelers.  I have seen the ruins in many travel shows, seen the many, many pictures of it, and even read the travel blogs of strangers talking about their adventure on this incredible expedition.

On August 28, 2010 - Jimmy, my husband and I hopped on a plane to South America in search of the infamous ruins.  A couple months before, I spoke to a friend who had completed the trip and after talking to him, the seed was planted to actually achieve that dream this year.  We thought it would be an impossibility, but we took the leap of faith and chose adventure over stability.  Life is too short!!  and we are too young to NOT use up all our resources to follow a dream! 

Walking into the airport, everything seemed normal.  People traveling, luggages, suitcases, crying, laughing, taxis, children running catching up to their parents, all the sounds that we were used to.  As we approached our gate, we began noticing a new sound, everyone at our security check in point was either speaking Chinese (probably Mandarin, not sure - a flight to China was 2 gates down from us) or Spanish.  That was when it really started to hit me.  We were leaving America and approaching a new county.  We were truly stepping onto the soil of a new continent.  A year ago, we would of never dreamed of this moment happening, but it was here. 

There we were sitting on a LAN airplane on our way to a new chapter in our traveling experiences.   We flew over Mexico and saw Baja's beautiful crystal blue waters, a desert with sand dunes so big that it could be seen 30,000 feet in the air, and then night came.  The world turned into stars.  We played games, slept, ate, looked outside to the darkness, and slept again.  Soon we arrived in LIMA, PERU.

We spent little time in LIMA.  We arrived near midnight, so there was nothing to see or do.  After getting our bags, our cab driver and girl from the hotel met us and took us to our hotel.  We walked out of the airport and was greeted by the dozens of taxi drivers asking us if we needed transportation.  I looked up to a spanish speaking world - billboards all in spanish (of course).  We get into our cab.  I look over at Jimmy and there is just pure excitement in his eyes.  We were both trying to soak in the crazy experience.  Both our driver and the girl from the hotel spoke very little English - but somehow we communicated to the best of our ability.

We hopped out in the world and immediately walked into the our hostel.  Not the most interesting side of town, but we weren't going to stay there for more than 8 hours till our next taxi ride back to the airport.   The girl escorted us in.  The brightly colored hostel was very welcoming and we were immediately greeted by a nice man who spoke very fluent English.  Right away, he set up a cab for us for our flight out to Cusco.  He asked us where we were from - we told him Los Angeles.  He laughed and said... California ( in a Spanish accent, "Cale por nia").  About 60% of the people that come here, are from the US and about 80% of them are from "Cale por nia."  Interesting. 

Someone helped us to our room on the 3rd floor.  We passed a brightly colored room with colorful lights and a pool table on our right.  On our left, was a room with 2 hammocks you can lay down on and look up to the sky.  We were basically on the roof!  We entered our room down the hall.  The room wasn't fancy, just simple and convenient.  We had our own room with it's own bathroom.  The door closed behind us, Jimmy and I looked at each other, smiling.  Out eyes were glowing with excitement!  We headed down the spiral staircase to grab some food.    It was 1AM, but we were starving!  The guy at the front immediately said that the staff would make us pancakes!

Their staff immediately walked into the kitchen and whipped us up some Peruvian Style Pancakes and some Papaya juice. We walked into the lounge where there was a TV, video games, books, DVD's,  and 2 computers for the internet.  Not to mention- this place had wireless internet which was very convenient.  Within seconds, we were calling the US and immediately posted on FB (of course) that we had arrived safely!  We got in touch with our friend, Craig, who "facetimed" or video chatted with us through our iphones.  We were ecstatic and we knew that the adventure was just beginning.  After 20 minutes or so, our food was brought out to us at a the little diner tables in the dining room.  The pancakes were delicious!!!  The fruit was so fresh!  We were satisfied!!  After eating, we were spent, so we walked upstairs and headed for bed.

This was only the beginning...

Till next time!

Also, check out this video of our trip:  [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXi7Gzbdvc 100x100]

Going to post the rest of our blog up!