This past weekend the STRIVE interns split into two groups: one destined for Lima and another set to stay in Pisaq. The girls and Scott decided to stay, while the guy squad flew out to Lima. Friday was our last night together before everyone split up. Friday was an average day with the interns running in the morning, volunteering in the school, breaking for lunch, working at the STRIVE Center in the afternoon, and finishing up the day with running club. After running club, the guys packed up for Lima.

The Pisaq crew woke up Saturday morning, went for their run, and decided to go for a hike. During this adventure, the crew found multiple astonishing things. In the first quarter of the adventure, while riding a bus, they found a monkey crawling all over his owner. No one was expecting it. Hours later, they arrived to the turning point in their adventure where they found the next astonishing view, which turned out to be a “HUGE” waterfall. Finally, they returned to the hostel.

After the hike, the ravenous group cooked dinner with their group leader, Mariana. The menu for the evening: “Arroz a la Bandera,” or rice with homemade tomato sauce, fried bananas, and fried eggs. Yum!

Now that we know what the Pisaq crew did on Saturday, it’s time to see what the guy crew did on Saturday. We began the day by running a couple of miles and doing our ethio stretching routine afterwards. We then grabbed breakfast, stepped into the taxi at 9:00 a.m. and Tyler began documenting the trip! We arrived to Cusco where we passed through airport security and safely got to our gates. Tyler had a different airline than the rest of the guys since he would be staying in Lima to await the high schoolers who arrive later in the week. Before we parted ways in Cusco, we decided to meet at Starbucks when we landed, so we raced Tyler there. We got to Starbucks first with about 10 minutes to spare. Since there is Uber in Lima, we first tried ordering an Uber for 50 soles but canceled when we realized we could get a better deal from a taxi driver for 45 soles. Off to the city we went!

We arrived at the apartment and first noticed how tall the building was. We then walked in and the owner of the apartment showed us to our room. She opened the gates to heaven, or at least that’s how it felt, when we saw the inside of the rooms. It was an amazing apartment and the first room we walked into had a huge comfortable couch and a TV with Netflix. Next we saw the bedrooms and bathrooms. Then, we saw the kitchen, which had multiple pots and pans and appliances that we didn’t have in Pisaq. Everything was so high tech and modern and it was COMFORTABLE.

We then went for our next run, but instead of running in the high altitude of Pisaq we were at the sea level attitude of Lima. We were breathing so easily and running so fast—it was a great change. This also was super comfortable.  Once we finished our run, we showered. Showering in Lima was a blessing because it was a hot shower with pressure, so for the first time this summer, we could get fully clean. Once we finished our showers, we made pasta and ended the night with watching movies on Netflix and choosing our race outfits. At 9pm, we finally passed out.