I got up on Tuesday and reflected a little on the night before.  After the long crazy day I had a fun evening.  I ate Alpaca, bumped into people I saw up the mountain and was feeling very good about how Tuesday would go.

I felt so good I decided to bring the Stereo Realist and see if I could get some 3D pictures at Machu Picchu.  Tim and I slept in, ate a nice big breakfast, loaded ourselves with supplies and headed out around 9:15.

Tim and I took it slow around MP.  The place is an entire city and the weather was fabulous, sunny, and clear.  We ended up splitting off after about an hour and I just photographed and enjoyed nice and slow.  I love the fact that Llamas just walk around the place.

At about 1:25 I found myself in this little room that seemed perfect to try and capture for Pocket Virtual Worlds.  I had shlepped my gear but still didn’t know if I could do it ‘in the field’.  The little room was nice as it has a room off of it (like a closet or a cave) where I could stash my bag.  I unpacked and started to try to grid out the room.  I figured it would take about 18 panoramas to get it right.  The sun wasn’t helping but I ended up working up a rhythm and did the entire room in about an hour.  I would have probably try to shoot it again but my private hour was all I was going to get and people started to move through.  I learned a lot and even if it doesn’t come out right I know what we do next.

I kept wandering and climbing (very slowly with the bound knee and my cane instead of a walking stick) and I bumped into Tim who had gone the other way.  After 3pm the place starts to empty and you can really get some great shots.  Tim and I met up again about 4:40 and walked to the exit together.

At the exit I met a girl who had a dog sleeping at her feet.  She told me it wasn’t hers it just walked up to her and plopped down and went to sleep.  She told us that there was a public bus that went from Ollantaytambo to Cusco after the train fro only 5 sol or that people took cabs.  This sounded good to us so we headed back to the hotel for dinner and the guys at the hotel made us a reservation back at our old hotel in Cusco and told us not to spend more than 50 sol if we got a cab.

The guys at the hotel were great and we showed the my Africa book and Tim played harmonica.  I took pictures with them and then Tim and I grabbed a burger to go and they took our bags to the train station.

This time even though we were on a backpacker train it was more luxurious.  And we left at 9:30 and go to Olly around 11pm.

There were two cab drivers hustling for our business and Tim got one down to 50 and we were off.  The best part of the whole trip was that the night was clear.  I mean really clear and you could see stars but not just a few I mean lots of em the entire galaxy was there and it was heart stopping to see the stars with the mountains all around you.

Very fun.

We got to Cusco at around 12:30 and yup it was locked up!  They did let us in but they put us in this tiny tiny room on the third floor!
We left our bags downstairs and just went to sleep.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

OK sorry about the few days break its hard to get internet here sometimes.  So where was I, that´s right I was hiking up to the summit of Waynapichu the steep 70 degree sloping mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu.  I climbed slowly, drank often, got passed a lot and took 9 rolls of film on the way up.  About 2/3 up I came across some Incan ruins (The Temple of the Moon) and kept going, to get to the very summit you have to crawl through this cave that is so small you have to get your pack off.  But I kept going until I came to a pile of boulders that made the summit.  You go under the boulders and reach a small ladder.  It was at the base of this ladder I twisted my knee, it hurt but since I was there this guy with a walkie-talkie helped me up the ladder and voila I was at the summit of the mountain and it was 1pm.  I rested there for about 20 minutes.  Several of us joked around, the guy with the walkie-talkie took my picture on the rock (with Machu Pichu in the background) and I even tried to get a spherical panorama (since I had lugged the rig all the way up on my backpack).  Oh yeah in addition to my vest and my freshly sown pants I purchased a Peruvian backpack to bring my camera gear.

Well since it took me almost 3 hours to get up I figured I better head down at at 1:20 started to head down when I realized just how bad I messed up my knee!  Pain with every step.  I started slowly down.  Always one step at a time,sometimes on my butt, sometimes on my hands and knees.  Now I’m starting to get muddy and I see I’m covered in bug bites that are actually bleeding. You can imagine the mess I look.  People start to come down and pass me one at a time asking if they can help and if I am ok.  I tell them not to worry I made it up and will make it down.

After about 20 minutes I figure out what´s wrong with me knee.  It hurts when I bend it – not when I put pressure on it.  So I start down sideways one step at a time.  Then to my shock at about 1:45 I run out of water – that right I drank the entire 2 liters!

I haven´t eaten anything yet all day cause I thought I would meet up with Tim for lunch so I grab a hard candy and keep slowly going down when the man with with walkie-talkie asks if I need help.  Then I realize.  He works here and I’m the last one on the mountain.  He offers to get a stretcher and have them carry me off the mountain but I refuse.  I can do it I tell him just slowly.  He takes off my pack, and my empty water, and my vest, puts them in the pack and hands me a walking stick and we go down together.  He keeps insisting I go slow, and continues to offer the stretcher (which I think would be worse!).

Finally at 2:55 I arrive at the base and sign out where I signed in (this is a security thing so they get everyone off the mountain).  Several of the people who passed me where waiting to see how I was and gave me water and power bars.  I tried to give the guy who carried my bag down some money and he only took it when I explained it was because he saved me not because he carried my bag.

I realized I would never find Tim so I headed for the exit.  It took me till 4:30 to find me way out and I bussed back to the hotel.  On the way I get a bandage to put pressure on the knee and some Gatorade (which they sell a lot of).  At the hotel I left Tim a note and got some food and drink.

Tim showed up about 7pm.  He waited for me at the last bus and then came back and ate himself.  It turns out he didn’t see Mach Pichu either and went the other direction towards the Incan train and hike up to the entrance gate that way.  I went and had a massage (they did a great job on my knee) and we agree to go back to Machu Picchu on Tuesday to see it and photograph it nice and slow.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

So I wake up at 6am because I´m so excited to go to Machu Picchu and its pouring, I mean rain rain, the whole city is in a fog.  So I grab my stuff and head out anyways.  I buy a rain poncho and head to the bus station and find out you have to buy a ticket to Machu Picchu somewhere else.  I figure I should look into getting out of town and go to the train station and purchase tickets to Olyantatambo on the only train I can Tuesday at 9:15 PM (backpackers again). I also buy the tickets to Machu Picchu cause I don´t want Tim to get up and find that they are sold out (only a certain number of people per day).

I come back to the hotel about 8am wake up Tim, hand him his tickets and brief him on the situation and head out.  The situation is: no food, no drink, no bottles, no walking sticks unless elderly.  I emptied most of my bag but did take but 2 liter water backpack.  Tim was going to bring food in his bag later for the two of us.

The moment I get to the bus it stops raining (I’m told it rains every morning) and I head off.  Its way up through the mist and mountains and I´m very excited.  I get off and head into Machu Picchu and follow throngs of tourists (its already busy!) and I walked to the complete other end and I find that the big mountain over Machu Picchu is open still (they only allow 400 people a day) and I figure what they hell and at 10:15 signed in the log book and started my ascent.   It was a crazy trek up and up and up and I didn’t reach the summit till 1pm!

But they are closing this Internet cafe so you all have to wait to hear what happened tomorrow!

Boo hoo

Jared

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

So there I am packing up for an early morning when I hear the hotel buzzer buzz.  Its about 12:30 and its Tim coming back.  Problem is they all fell asleep, so he buzzes and bangs and calls up to me but I can´t let him in cause we are locked into the hotel.  He just buzzes for 20 minutes till they finally let him in.

And of course we have a 9:30 taxi.

I get up around 8:30 to run some errands, I wanted to get some food and take some last minute pictures of the Incan ruined walls that make up most of the city when I open the door and its Mario, the guy who arranged our driver and our hotel (who we accidentally stood up the other night).  I tell him that we have a taxi and we are going to get train tickets when we get to Olantaltyambo, he says this won´t work and while Tim is getting dressed Mario, the driver and me go to the train station and I get the backpacker train that night from Olantalytambo to Aquas Calienti.

Mario is a licensed travel agent and would be happy to arrange everything until we leave but we like a little more flexibility.  We did have him get us a hotel for two night in Aquas Calient for a good price.

So we finally leave the hotel with train tickets and all our baggage and will drive about 80 miles to the train station.  Our first stop )10:15) is the Incan Temple of the Sun which turns out to be the same as the Church we saw last night (but in daylight) I also was able to stop into a store and get needle and thread for my split pants.

We spent about 15 minutes there and then headed off to Chinchero where we passed a parade of children coming through the town.  Since it was Sunday Chinchero was having a big Sunday market.  Beyond the trinkets I really enjoyed seeing people selling alpaca yarn by the kilo and powdered pigments.  The ruin in the town was right in front of a small church, the ruin itself was outstanding and just want on and on.

Around 1pm we hit the small town of Moras and I got to see donkeys up close I mean so close the flies came in the car!  We then headed down this dirt road to Moray which has these Incan circular terraces.  Very nice but a long hike down to the bottom and it started to rain.  Tim and I just hung out for a few and walked partway down and headed out.

Our next stop was the pre-Incan salt mines.  It was a very scary dirt road into a valley where a saltwater stream was diverted into a bunch of pools that dried to become salt.  Very nice to see.

We got to Olantatambo at 4:15 which was just in time to get in, it was massive, Tim and I hiked up and down it till 5:30 when they through us out.  It really was this entire Incan city.

When Tim realized it was 6pm and our train was at 8:30 he was a little distraught so we went into the train station and had a nice SLOW dinner, salad, soup, cheese, burger, really good food.

We met a nice couple she was Irish he was Peruvian and they met and live in India!  They had a 4.5 month old with them.

Tim and I were nervous about the 2 hour train ride since technically we were not on a train that allowed luggage but nobody cared and they stored it where we could see it from our seat.  (they even carried it for us).

When we got if is Aquas Caliente it was amazing.  There are no roads so there are no cars!  Just huge steep walkways.  They had people from the local hotels with signs –  It was funny my name is ´Joset Bendit´.  The hotel was straight up and they helped drag our very heavy bags to the hotel.  The hotel is only two months old and gorgeous (but no internet) and really the entire town is about Machu Pichu and the local hot springs.

Sunday night I packed for Machu Pichu since you can only take one small bag with you.  Tim and I agreed that I could go whenever he could go whenever and we would meet up and just come back together.  I set my alarm for 7am and went to bed.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

First I have to tell you as I went to use the computer in the hotel I needed to log on.  The administrator password is 123456.  Nice…

When we got up today we had breakfast and the first person we see is Mario the agent who got us this hotel trying to manage the rest of our trip.  Before we left the room Tim and I made a list of exactly where we wanted to go and showed it to a taxi – he made us an offer but didn’t speak any English. Mario called a driver for us for the same price who spoke English.  He was a fabulous driver and we had him from 11am till after 6pm.

To start we wanted to hit the furthest ruin first in Pisac about 20 miles away but up and down mountains.  He first took us in town to the church of St. Christopher which was build on the ruins of the palace of the first Inca king Manco Cappa.

Then he drove us past the ruins we saw the night before and got some nice long daylight shots.

The trip through the mountains and valleys weer wonderful – the Andes are so green and brown and some snow capped.  We passed Puca Pucara  from the road and took some photos but we went back to it later in the afternoon.

We saw so much of the countryside and finally some animals, cows, sheep, bulls, donkeys, horses.  We also saw large ceramic and cooking ovens.  We passed a textile school and an open air market but we had to manage our time wisely.

Pisac is enormous.  It takes hours and hours to walk up and down the various sites and the Incan terraces.  We drove to the top and walked around and then drove to the bottom and walked around.  We were there over an hour and got some fun souvenirs and pictures.

Our next stop was at Tambomachay to see the Incan aqueducts, I only found out later it was the water of eternal youth but since I didn’t know I avoided it like all other non bottled sources. The market there was horrible and the prices were outrageous!

Next we went to Puca Pucarra which we saw earlier and was pretty small but nice and easy to photograph.  By this time I was getting nervous because it was getting near 4 and the sun sets at 5:30 and is useless after 5.

The next place Salapunco was this large rocky outcrop with an Incan wall but was filled with natural caves.  Tim and I climbed up to the top and then started climbing down and up and through the caves.  It was wild and not at all easy.  He would go and then I would with him showing me where to grab and where to put my feet.  I made him take some video since no one would believe what we were doing.  Alas I think it was here I split my pants and my black jeans are being retired until I find needle and thread.

The last stop (yes there is more) was to Qenko which is a giant sundial to predict the rainy season and an alter and caves to sacrifice lamas (with grooves to drain off the blood).  They have also unearthed some mummies there.

With the sun going down we arranged for our driver to come back for use tomorrow morning for another grand adventure.

Since our tourist ticket had a lot of activities we were going to see the native dancing but Tim saw that the church was open for mass (meaning we didn’t have to pay) but more importantly that he could go to mass.  We went and the place was packed because it was a wedding!  We stayed but we left before they came running back down the being pelted with rice.

We then walked down past the Church of Santo Domingo which is very important and I may have successfully shot at night using the digital camera. Then off to the Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo to see the 1.5 hour native dance show which was fabulous.  At one point they asked us to all clap along but nobody could find the rhythm and a guy had to stand up and show it to us.  During the intermission they gave out coca tea which I didn’t have but I went and got some great corn cake and saw this perfect museum (which Tim missed).

After the show the reopened the museum just for me and Tim and then we watched some of the dance students rehearsing.  Next door we went shopping at a souvenir market.  I finally found myself a sweater that fit! A baby alpaca sweater for $22 isn’t bad right?

Last we had to do he essentials.  I needed Chapstick, Q-tips, water (I have been drinking my 2 liters per day and then some) and snacks. I bought a finger puppet from a little girl on the way back to the hotel.  Everyone is selling them. Some teenager was pestering me why I didn’t want hers and I said I didn’t need any and she said it was to warm my fingertips!

So Tim and I have an 8:30 am wake-up call and the next adventure begins. It looks a little like this:

At 9:30 our driver comes to pick us up with our luggage.
He takes us to the ruins of the temple of the sun (in town).
Then we head out of town to Chinchero, then to Moray, then to the salt mines, then to Ollantaytambo (which has a huge ruin).  In Ollantaytambo we will catch a train to Aqua Caliente and then spend the night there so that on Monday and Tuesday we can do Machu Piccu.

Tim keeps saying that two days there is too long but I´ve been firm about my intentions and insist on two full days.  He gets these sudden bursts of energy in fact its 11:45 and he came downstairs telling me he heard live music and we should go find it (he of course has his harmonicas) – he also locked the key in the room.  I told him to have fun so I can finish up here and get ready for the am.

Having fun!

Jared

38 rolls of film.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

Woo boy, catching up is fun.

So while sleeping the bus to Cusco you find yourself slowly ascending through the mountains.  Its only 600km but it takes 14 hours!  Anyways at 2am I woke up feeling sick and realized it had been 6 hours since my Dramamine and it was wearing off – I took another 2 and went to bed.

When we finally arrived at Cusco around 11am we were now at an altitude of 10,500 feet. FYI the other movies on the bus was Toy Story and We Are Marshall (both in Spanish).  I’m assuming you could never see We Are Marshall on a plane and someone on this bus line likes Mathew McConnehey.

While I got the luggage Tim negotiated a ride to a hotel 5 blocks from the main square for $30/night and they brought us Coca tea to help with any elevation sickness.  We didn’t drink the tea.

We went to the Plaza de Arnas and saw some wonderful architecture – La Cathedral and Compania de Jesus and I can understand why Tim get upset when they want admission to visit a church he is always inquiring about going to mass but he hasn’t made one yet. The room is nice but alas no pool like in Nazca.

We went to the Museo de Inca which was a former palace of the Spanish Governor and it was really well done some very advanced ways of showing pots and lighting etc.  I think we are getting museum-ed out though by now we know what we are looking at.

There were weavers in the courtyard and I am reminded of a weaver I met a few days earlier who showed me his wares.  I didn’t like what he had but I asked if he had anything like he was working on and he told me to come back tomorrow.  Some lady with a Alpaca sweater that almost fit said if I saw her tomorrow she would have one bigger.  The sweaters are like $15-$20 each.

Everyone is walking up and down the street trying to sell you crap.  The finger puppets are my favorite.  People in traditional grab want to pose for you for money.  I tried giving for little girls .20 soles each but they held out for 1 soles coins (about 30 cents).  I also took a photo of two ladies and an alpaca.

We wanted to find a decent lunch and some barker was moving us from place to place until she showed us some little hole in the wall that had soup, meal, and soda for 15 soles (it is 2.75 soles per dollar).
I can corn soup and steak and it came with fried and rice and bread.  We were stuffed.

We heard that there was a tourist ticket that you could buy and Tim found the place it was 70 soles, it was half for students but she checked my passport and said I was too old!  The ticket is good at some museums and a lot of archeological sites.

Our next stop was the small but nice Museo de Arte Popular and we walked around the square some more.  You couldn’t tell that yesterday the place was fully decorated for Corpus Christi (we missed it).

All of the sudden Tim gets the energy to visit another ruin even though its near sunset. He hails a taxi who wants 10 but the next guy says he will take 3 (until we got there and then insisted on 10 even called the police – I gave him another 3 and he shut up and left).

The ruin of Sacsayhauman is an amazing Incan fortress of perfectly aligned stones.  We walked around it until the sun was down and it was completely dark – a valley surrounded by the stars and the city lights.  I told Tim we have to get to these places earlier so I can shoot – he likes the night ambiance which is fine but we need another 30 min or so.

We went back to the square and I left Tim at the church to drop off my stuff at the hotel but got lost.  When I finally got back Tim headed back to the hotel.  There is a massotherapy place across from the hotel and I just had a very nice 1 hour massage for $20.

So the place for tomorrow is to get up and visit Pisac which is a huge ruin about 20 miles away and then hit the Tambomachay trail which is 4 other ruins. (these are all on our tourist ticket)

Depending on when we get back we may see some other museums.  We will spend the night here and then head to Olloysomething or another which has another ruin in town and one we want to see out of it.

From there we must train to Aqua Caliete – the nearest town to Machu Pichu where we should spend another 2 days.  Tim made it clear that if I wanted to see sunrise of the valley then I would be on my own that morning 🙂

All is well missing everyone

PS The University is probably shutting down this blog server as they are having a power outage next weekend –  I will try and host elsewhere and post in the entry.

PS I’m up to 26 rolls of film.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

So we head to the airport because we don’t want to get scammed by all these middle men and buy our tickets to flyover the Nazca lines.  The taxi driver tries to hustle us but eventually drops us off at the airport.  Tim and I find a airline, look at the plane, and negotiate a price of $85 each to fly over all 12 Nazca Lines and all 10 Palpa lines in a 3 passenger plane.  This is the deluxe package.

We took our Dramamine and then they took us to the gates where we found out it was another plan (and later found out another airline) and away we went, me and Tim and this guy from Turkey.  It was amazing! Such a wonderful flight and a clear day.

But after seeing all of the 12 Nazca and 2 of the Palpa lines he said that was the end of the tour and took us back.  When we went to complain we were shuffled all the way back to the other counter.  After an hour of being jerked around by the owner of the airline who claimed we only purchased the 40 minute tour and that the guy who sold it to us was a middle man Tim got really frustrated and said he was going back to complain at the terminal.

But instead of taking a Taxi he just walked out onto the tarmac! That got everyone’s attention and they send a van for us.  After talking to everyone on the planet it turns out that the kid who sold us the tickets was a subcontractor for the airline. The airline didn’t have any planes going up and handed us off to another airline and they took us on a lovely but wrong flight.

After having lunch at the airport I went back to the hotel to pack up while Tim handled the rest.  In the end he met with local police, airport police, the airport commissioner, and every airline involved and the forced some guy from the ground crew to fork over $30 for each of us and free tickers the next time we come to Nazca (ironically though for the 40minute not the 1 hour tour).

I picked Tim up luggage in hand and talked the Taxi driver into taking us to the adobe ruin I mentioned yesterday – Cahuachi. I told him I wanted to be there before the sunset and he said it would be hard since it was all gravel, dirt, and sand in the desert.  He drove those 20 miles like a bat out of hell it was like driving in the open desert we could barely see a road.  Then this caretaker came out and showed us around and we stayed till the sunset and it was dark dark.

Then a little slower he drove us to the bus station for our bus to Cusco.  The ride through the desert reminded me of something that happened on a previous ride through the desert on the day before at the cemetery as we drove two wild dogs chased the car.  Wild dogs are everywhere and just kinda wander around.

At the bus station Tim and I balanced the first 4 days of the trip and I watched as Tim talked a moth land on his tongue. It was gross!

We had the front two seats on the bus.  I took my Dramamine and faded out to a subtitled Deja Vu – unlike the last trip the movie was in Spanish with English subtitles.

We left Nazca at 8:30 at an elevation of 1800 feet.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

Wow 5:15 sucks.

We got up and go out of the hotel, our cab was waiting and so was Gino from the other day so we shook hands and said goodbye.  The bus station was nice and they checked our bags with more care and security than they do at the airport! When we left Lima we were at 413 feet.  Instantly both Tim and I got bus-sick.  The second floor sways really bad and I ended up taking my anti altitude pills which worked like Dramamine and I was fine (but a little loopy).

The showed to films on the plane – a Kim Bassinger, Tom Corbitt vehicle called “Elvis… has left the building” that probably defines what a B-movie really is.  The cast is all star in the worst way.  Then they showed “Failure to Launch” which Tim and I had already seen but is still quite funny.

Hour into the trip we stopped t a resort hotel to let some people off and Tim decided to sneak off and use the bathroom.  He took longer than expected and we left without him – we noticed right as we were pulling out and I finally got to see Tim running after a bus going “wait wait”.

About 5 minutes later we stopped at the bus-stop that wasn’t the resort hotel and they told us we would have only 5 minutes to get out and stretch our legs, I decided to stay on the bus.  They then said it would be 10 minutes and I should get off the bus.  At which point I see 10 guys standing around the back of the bus with tools and belts and it took over an hour before we left again.  Since the bus was almost empty Tim and I moved downstairs to first class with the huge sleeping bed chairs (Tim even asked first!) and the rest of the trip was just a dream as we drove across the desert and mountains.

Nazca is about 1968 feet so not too high yet.

The moment we got off he bus they wouldn’t give me my bags until I verified my baggage claim tags and then we left the station.

At the station 2 guys offered us a ride to a luxury hotel – they had pictures of this wonderful place with a swimming pool etc an it was $30US.  I have to stay if you are every in Nazca the Don Agucho Hotel is fabulous!  They really took care of us and the bags and its very secure here.

They then arranged a driver for us to take us to the Cementario Prehispanico de Chauchilla which is a huge excavated grave-site (with mummies) out in the desert.  It was amazing walking around the desert with the mountains all around.  There was a cool wind like when we were in Hawaii.  Tim met an Italian couple who just got married a week ago and they were really pleased that he took their picture for them.  Tim said that we knew how nice it was to be married because we were both married – to which I interjected “not to each other!”  they thought it was very funny and later he went up to me later and said: your “husband” is very slow in walking (he even used the finger quotes).

On the way out from the desert site we stopped and watched the sunset over the desert (well through our cameras at least) and he said he wanted to take us to two more places a gold craftsman and a ceramic workshop.

The ceramic workshop guy did a nice 5 minute demo and then tried to sell us very very expensive reproductions (that he didn’t make).  The gold guy next store was just some crazy old miner who showed us some jewelry and had a rock collection out.  Tim picked up a light blue stone and asked what it was and the man told him sulfur.  Later when he was turned to Tim and handed him a blue stone and asks “do you know what this is?” Tim said “sulfur” and he was very impressed.

He then played us New York New York with his own lyrics on and out of tune guitar and started calling us back that we should give him a tip as we walked away.

Both of the add-on excursions were within a block of the hotel, it was funny.

We walked into town to find the restaurant “El Porton” that was good.  I had some steak with cheese and ham and some leaves on it.  Tim had a seafood combo of some sort (he has this dream of finding the perfect seafood platter here). The sprite tasted funny, and then the coke did, and then the pineapple soda did so I think its the sweetener or the water in the local bottling plants.  I will stick to my bottled water till we head out.

At dinner we heard some live music and went upstairs to see some drummers and a boy and a girl dancing for tips.  It was nice and this and the markets we visited afterward were very much like our trip to Africa.

In the market I purchased some real Dramamine (well generic actually) and it was nice to see what and how people shopped, olives, chickens, fruits and vegetables.

Today we fly over Nazca, Tim wants to take the bigger economy plane because it is more stable while I figure Dramamine is Dramamine we should go for the private 4 seater and get the better views and longer ride.  It will be between 25 and 45 minutes.  Afterwards we re going back to the hotel in case we have to shower and then we will try and see the Cahuachi ruins which has a large adobe (formerly Macromedia) pyramid.  Hit a museum or two and then bus out at 8pm for Cusco.

So was there WiFi on the bus? yes – in the station!

Oh and I woke up this morning and the temple broke off my glasses.  Its at a point that I could wedge and tape so I am ok but the panic and the first aid surgery on them was nerve wracking.

Wow and its only Thursday morning (and yes I found out who won American Idol)

Jared

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

I’m up to 11 rolls of film….

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]

This probably won´t be too long as I´m on a funky keyboard, its late, and we have to be up at 5am to catch a bus.

First some updates. I forgot to mention yesterday that when we stopped for water I didn’t check and bought WITH bubbles and had to go back and purchase ‘sin gas´.  Ooops

Second, in my delight in telling you about the big mall area where we had dinner Tim reminded me I forgot to mention how lost we got in getting there.  We walked to where they told us and the entire place looked empty and as we were about to give up we noticed an entrance to this vast underground cliff-side complex and realized we were idiots.

Today we booked our bus to Nazca (though we have to sit on the second floor in the regular instead of the luxury first floor seats) and headed into central Lima.

We started off by going to the San Fransisco cathedral.  It was very nice though Tim didn’t take off his hat (he said he did it on purpose) and the monks chased him down to take it off.  Later they chased me out cause they were closing and ended up locking Tim in (I waited at least 10 minutes for him to come out of the other exit after everyone was gone).  They had great pigeons in the square there and I’ve gotten some great pigeons shots all over.

We then went to the catacombs and got student discounts… the first guide only spoke Spanish so we ditched them and joined an English group but it was private so we ditched them and just walked around until we got busted cause I was taking photos and they heard me.  Eventually they got us with an English guide and we stayed with them for a while but ditched two more groups before we left.  It was funny but we had a good time and didn’t get kicked out.

We then went shopping and didn’t buy anything. The t-shirts are the clinging cotton though they do have 2xl and the alpaca stuff is very cheap which I find funny cause we have the same stuff at home (but not cheap).  We then went to the mayoral square and I photo´d the presidential palace, the fountain, and another cathedral.

We went in but they wanted money for the full tour and we were short on time.  Tim went to look at the postcards rack and we kept peeking into the cathedral.  I went to take a picture (which was allowed) and the person next to me used a flash and everyone started to yell at me – but it wasn’t me!

We took a taxi (these guys are crazy!) to the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru. It was amazing (and free today) it was outside and inside with big courtyards and wonderful art.  Tim went though so slowly he only got to see the precolonial stuff (which is what he cares about).  Now I have seen two last suppers where they are eating Guinea Pigs!

We stayed at the museum till they kicked us out. Tim and I both got some books and I got a refrigerator magnet.

We headed back to Mirflores to have dinner at this restaurant that Tim saw yesterday.  It was a nightmare. While I enjoyed my Beef stroganoff which was beef with mushroom soup and 1 slice of bread, his fish dinner was still frozen and he sent it back while I finished mine.

This led us on the quest to get Tim fed to a level of satisfaction that took us to a cafe and a Chinese place. The Chinese place was funny cause they sold gelato and they gave me a little spoon sample of a flavor and when I asked about a different flavor he prompted me to return the spoon from my mouth so that he could scoop the second flavor.  Think about it.

We ended up in the town square where we first found a wonderful art gallery with an exhibition on merging modern and ancient art forms and then went outside and saw a fabulous photo exhibition www.yannarthusbertrand.org that just really made us think.

On the way back we stopped in city hall to use the restroom – I just found it funny that at 11pm they were open just for that.  And then got some munchies before heading back to the hotel.

We have a 5:15 wake up call and I have to pack.

Having fun… heading to Nazca

Jared

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]