Estamos en Urubamba

I have to take back the negative things I said about Taca. My luggage arrived only a day after I did thanks to my friend Francis in Taca who took good care of it for me. My mom is still waiting for her luggage from American Airlines. It is now 5 days and counting, but we're hopeful that today is the day. It has arrived in Lima, but we flew yesterday from Lima to Cuzco, then took a car from Cuzco to Urubamba (about an hour away). So mom's suitcase has to catch up with us here. Flying over the Andes then driving through them was spectacular. Urubamba is a small village nestled in a valley with a river running through it. Our hotel has a train station where we can take the train to Machu Picchu (the only way to arrive there). Yesterday we tried the comida típica of the area. Mom ordered the house special, and I was about to order something else when the waiter stopped us and said it's enough for two. For the price, we wondered how that was possible, but when the food came, it was a dish piled high with plátanos, potatoes, spaghetti, stuffed pepper, meat and cheese. We couldn't finish it all. I also tried chicha, the local corn brew, and later that evening a pisco sour. Pisco is a grape brandy distilled from grapes grown in Peru's desert near Ica. I enjoyed the pisco more than the chicha. I have yet to try the maté de coca, a tea made from coca leaves. It's good for altitude sickness and stomach problems, so they say. Tomorrow we will hopefully meet up with my friend Karime from Colombia who's also traveling in Perú por casualidad.