Day 1

Hello,

First and foremost we are safe and sound. We had a great crossing from Memphis to Cusco. I have to say that the from the moment we left Memphis the excitement had already begun to take us over. Even though we had a 10 hour layover in Miami, we came to life as we were flying over Lima. We could not see much but once we landed we knew our journey had just begun. We took one more flight and landed in Cusco which is 11,000 feet above sea level. You have to adjust to the thin air and thankfully all of us adjusted quickly. We were met by Adele, Christopher, and Jorge who are our guides from the World Leadership School. We were taken on a bus ride through the mountain side which had to be some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We arrived Ollantaytambo after an hour and a half bus ride. We drove through the Incan entrance to the rode of a thousand windows which was the actual Incan route to Machu Picchu. We arrived at our hotel and immediately were whisked away to a local restaurant to eat lunch and watch the World Cup. Congratulations Spain! Afterward, the World Leadership School planned a scavenger hunt around the local community for the students which one group accomplished and for their reward they will be eating the greatest junk food in Peru as I have been told, a national chocolate, Sublime.

We have now settled down for awhile in our rooms and we will have a brief meeting tonight to discuss Safety & Expectations for the trip. We will use this time to adjust, discuss our goals, and to relieve any fears that we may have. We will end the day with a great dinner and then tomorrow go rafting, meet our host families, and get introduced to our service project with Blair.

Be on the look out for our next entry. More pictures and blogging later.

Luther Mercer