Life of a tourist. :) (Part 1 - Sacred Valley)

On May 11th, our group went on a scheduled team outing, destination Sacred Valley!  We visited Pisac, Ollantaytambo and the village of Chinchero. All of these places were quite astonishing, check out the workmanship on some of the ruins.  The Incas worked very hard and were extremely skilled and I would say "they didn't cut any corners", but that saying just doesn't make sense when you see how all the stone fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

Pisac:

Ollanyaytambo:

Chinchero:

Road trip anyone?

Off to a strong start in our first week, absorbing information, understanding our clients needs. It quickly became apparent that we needed to visit with the local municipalities to see the process first hand.  Shirley (our client representative) from Soluciones Practicas was our guide for the day.  We were picked up at 6am and started off on our 3 hours road trip with endless winding roads and yet another increase in altitude. On our way to our first stop (Acomayo), we pulled off the road quickly to check out the scenery.

Now, I know what you are thinking..  Cusco is all mountains.  That is definitely not the case, it is full of hard working people, eclectic little towns and animals of all kinds. 

We visited with three great Municipal workers to better understand their processes and systems.  It was a great activity and the everyone was very cooperative, understanding that we are there to do our very best to help. Such a great feeling! We also had the opportunity to get pictures with them.  :)

Not to mention, our lunch break.. We spent it eating fruit and a near by lake. Ya ya, the view was ok.. Kidding..

Officially: Day 1

Now, understand that I'm writing these blogs in sort of "catch up mode" and I haven't yet shared all the great experiences so far.  But I can say that the "official first morning" was the most exhilarating experience to date.

We were all gathered in a very nice Hotel in the heart of Cusco for a formal introduction with our clients.  As part of this introduction we watched a very touching presentation on the Inca culture, followed by a surprise visit from the Mayor of Cusco. The Mayor explained the values of his city and tied them to the roots of the Inca.

Now just to put some weight on this, we just flew in just two days prior, met up as a group, where up to this point we only knew each other as voices on the phone.  Sitting in this large room, with all of our clients, meeting them for the first time, representatives from IBM, BD and Pyxera, all listening to the Mayor speaking sincerely about Inca culture and tieing it directly to our efforts in his city.  (while the media are clicking off rapid fire pictures from the back of the room.) I'm pretty sure I can speak for everyone when I say this was a completely unbelievable, exhilarating and at the same time touching experience. .

Once the Mayor was finished, he presented us all with a lovely book about Cusco and shared a group picture with us.  (still tracking down a copy of that pic).  After that we all got up with our clients introduced ourselves and our projects.

Of course followed by more pictures! :)

Following the event, we proceeded to our new work locations, where we would be spending most of the next month.

Sunday - Orientation!!

Our day started off with some breakfast, and followed with some team exercises, logistics and tips. This was a great way to start the day.  Below is another team member, Kinshuk.. He is giving us a quick demonstration of the uses of cloud computing.  (or maybe I just have the pictures mixed up..)  : )

Afterwards, we took a walking tour of the area, and continued to the main square (Plaza Del Armas).

Finishing off the day with a great dinner back at the hotel.  Featuring one of Cusco's famous dishes, Lomo Saltaldo. 

First dinner with the team..

After all the arrivals were completed throughout the day on Saturday, we decided to all get together for dinner at "La Bodega 138"..

The below picture is after our dinner, this is most of our team, I will introduce the rest in following pictures.

Left to Right: Carlos, Arun, Ryosuke, Ines, Carmen, Jeff M, Sujoy, Wen Li, James, Juan, Eric and Kristi. 

My flying experience...

First off I should tell you that I have limited flying experience, I have never flown outside of my own country, or been off my own continent and I have definitely never been exposed to the travel bug. The logistics around connecting flights was all new to me. 

Getting on my flight in Toronto was a breeze, no problem at all. Arriving at New York, I asked for directions from an airport attendant, to my gate and was told in a panic that I had missed my flight. I had only landed just 15 minutes before and of course this wasn't the case, it was a false alarm, there was lots of time.

The flight to Lima, was my longest flight to date and was actually a quick 7 hours.  I decided to try to sleep most of it, so that I wouldn't be tired when I arrived in Cusco. This is the sunrise I woke up to as we approached Lima. 

 Now this is where the pictures get really good. Flying from Lima to Cusco.. 

And of course, the landing, final destination point.  Cusco, Peru! Btw, the plane was stopped and the seatbelt light was off when I took this. I promise! 

Safe and sound...

Ok… Time to get this blog going.. I am sorry for the delay, although it was important to start feeling settled in, collecting communal team photos, aligning my sleep and eating schedules and of course most importantly figuring out laundry. 

So let’s start at the beginning.  As you can already tell I have made it safe and sound to the lovely city of Cusco and I must say! What an amazing place!!  Follow along through the below entries and I will catch you up on my first few days, and yes of course I’ll include lots of photos.