At once again, I am home again, but a different home this time, Austin. It is nice to come back to my room and have a place for everything and DO LAUNDRY which hasn’t been done since BEFORE the Amazon. SMEEELLIEE.

After Dianne and I recouped a little bit from the Amazon, we took a 5 hour bus ride down to Ica (yes the site of the huge 8.0 August earthquake) to go sandboarding. There are so many different climate types in Peru. We’ve been in the high mountains of the Andes where they build their houses out of stone, to the cold and breezie Lake Titicaca where their houses are made from reeds and float on the river, to the desert canyons of Arequipa where their houses are made of mud, and finally to the hot and humid jungle of the Amazon where their houses are made of arid wood and grass roofs. Here in Ica however, just outside of town, there is nothing but sand and dunes. I have never in my life seens so much sand. Mojave doesn’t even compare!

We took a ride on a dune buggy and I even got to drive and we kept going up and around and over them and with each dune we crossed, we saw a dozen more all around us and there was nothing else. No towns, no houses, no people, no trees, no animals, I did see one dead scarab on the ground, other then that, just sand. It was amazing. We only had time for 5 runs each but the dunes were pretty huge and it was a lot of fun. We even tried it on our feet twice which was really hard and much slower. The stomach was more fun, super fast.

Like everything in Peru though, it was really shady the way we got our buggy. We had reserved with this one company and… well it’s kind of hard to explain, but basically this other guy said he was part of the company and screwed the company we’d reserved with cause we ended up going with him. We still got the same deal, but they were arguing when we returned. We had fun though, our driver was cool.

We got done early, so we got back to Lima around 10:30p instead of 2am which we were expecting, and got something to eat; Dianne’s last meal in Peru. At about 3:30am, I said goodbye to her as she got in the taxi, bound for the airport, then went back to bed. I got up later then I should’ve and packed up all of my stuff and brought it down to store in the utility closet of the hotel.

Then, wearing only swimshorts and a shirt, I walked down to the coast, about 20min, to go surfing. The waves down there are fantastic, sooo much better then LA. They have a far break and long run and you can ride em all the way to the shore if you want. I only got a couple of the far out ones just cause it’s been a few months since I’ve surfed and my arms were beat. But the closer ones I got over and over again, good times. Only bad part about it was it was a pebble rock beach, so getting in the water was painful and awkward, really hard to look cool while tripping over rocks and cursing.

Getting out of the water was even more difficult as the waves keep trying to push you over and as I found out, there are also sea urchins out there, nice. Luckily, I’m a light stepper and just pricked my feet.

I went back to the hotel and the man behind the desk was nicce enough to let me shower in one of the rooms, I changed, walked around the Miraflores Park looking at paintings, shopping for gifts and souvenirs. I ate dinner and soon enough it was time for me to depart as well.

Peru, what have I learned from you? Well number one, next year’s trip might be a surf safari down the wester coasts of north and South America.

2.) Going to a place with a whole other language is quite different then a place that speaks your language, especially when the majority do not know english. The culture becomes very different. Those Spanish classes definately helped and now I’m going to try to talk to as many spanish speakers in these parts as I can.

3.) I do okay at high altitude, I was at 16,078 feet (more then 4,000 ft above where I jumped out of a plane), and walked up a dirt trail to see bones and mummies in the Colca Region. I don’t know if it was the Mate, or the eating less, or the naps, or a combo of all (probably), but I didn’t have any bad affects other then loss of breath. This opens up a new realm of possibility. I think with each new trip, I’m going to try and achieve a new altitude and maybe, just maybe, one day (when I have enough money), Everest. Who knows?

4.) It’s fun to travel with friends, as long as it’s the right friends. Some people just aren’t good travelers, as I have learned, but Dianne was great and the trip was definately multiplied in funness because of her.

5.) Lastly, I think I’m getting old. Perhaps it’s because of all the traveling I’ve been doing over the last 4 years, but I’ve begun to appreciate the cooshier things in life. I’m no where near staying in 5 star hotels or beach resorts, but I’m getting to the point where I appreciate the little conveniencies of a hotel over hostel and in the Amazon, Dianne and I were both dying from the heat and a nice cool bug-free room would’ve been nice to come back to. There was a German couple there who were telling us about the Lodge in Manu, the southeastern Jungle along the Madre de Dios River. it had a ping pong table, hammocks, enclosed rooms and nice showers. We were jealous. I’m not willing to give up hostels just yet, but damn near.

In conclusion and looking to the future, some of you may know I’m considering (in fact pretty sure), I will quite my job in February and get some sort of local desk job here in Austin. That’ll be tough for me cause I won’t get to go to LA nearly at all and it could jeopardize my yearly month long trips. It’s a tough choice, but I think for now, I’ve got to give it a shot. I’m not going anywhere with this job, and I need a change of pace. But that’s enough from me. Who wants to go on a snowboarding trip this season?

Our flight finally left around 10pm last night, after
it was supposed to leave at 5:20p. OUr guide from the
Amazon, Luis, was nice enough to connect us with a
friend of his in Lima to pick us up when we arrived
and take us to our hotel, La Casa De Los Sanchez,
which turned out to be very nice; hot water, nice room
and beds, free internet and breakfast and above all
quiet. We didn´t get to sleep until around 3am and
laid around most of the day today. We wanted to just
take an easy day. I did call and book us for Dune
buggying and sand boarding in Ica tomorrow, so that
should be fun.

We decided not to do the Nazca lines
cause we´d have to rush and all you get to do is fly
over them, you can´t go to them, so I figure I can see
pics on the net.

Dianne has to leave early Sunday morning, but I don´t
fly out until the evening, so I´m gonna spend the day
packing and surfing, already found a place to rent a
board. The water´s coldish, but the waves break so
far out there and stay to the shore, so I´m pumped to
ride em. We´re staying in the Casa de los Sanchez for
the next two nights. All of my clothes are nasty from
the jungle but I don´t think I´ll absolutely need to
do laundry till I get home. I can wait two days.

The trip isn´t over yet, but it´s already dying down.
It was a good one though, VERY different then any
other trip, much harder in fact, more mentally taxing
due to the language difference and there´s definately
a difference in social interaction then anywhere else
I´ve been. The customer service is not really there,
but none of the locals seem to mind. It´s different
from say France or Spain though; there you know
they´re purposely ignoring you, here it´s more like a
complete lack of ackowledgement of your presence
unless you make yourself known. And that almost
stretches into person to person interactions but
everyone still says “Hola” or “Buenas Dias” when
passing in the streets. DOn´t get the wrong idea
though, it´s realñly nice in Peru, just different and
takes some getting used to.

Today, we walked around Miraflores and down to the
pebbled beaches. It was a really nice day and I hope
it keeps over the weekend.

after 5 days in the hot, muggy, bug infested jungle,
we re sweaty, smelly and gross. We are sooo ready for
a nice hot shower in our hotel in Miraflores, Lima,
but our flight keeps getting pushed back and was
originally 5:20p and now it´s 9:30p. Luckily, our
jungle agency called before we took the taxi to the
airport, so we´re not waiting in the airport, we´re
just chilling, wait scratch that, we´re melting in
Iquitos.

We were actually supposed to go directly
from the jungle to the airport, but we, Dianne
especially, really wanted to get some icecream in
Iquitos cause they have some really good fruit flavors
here that you can only get in the Amazon like garuana,
camu camu, ajuito, gramamba (or something). All
really good though.

The jungle trip started off rocky as all things have
here in Peru, but by the end, I held a tarantula, a
snake (a small one), saw a sloth and some monkies,
fish for pirhanas and ate them, went camping in the
jungle, held a cayman in my hands, and got bitten by
many MANY mosqiutos. Oh and went swimming in the
Amazon with the pink dolphins. We had fun but are so
ready to get out of the jungle and back to showers,
clean clothes, and normal temperatures.

Taxi leaves in ten minutes, wish us luck.

So the second day of the Inca trail, I got sick.
After a whole bottle of zicam which I brought with me,
I feel much better.

On the bus from Cusco to Puno, my
camera was stolen along with the brand new memory card
I had just purchased. Fortunately though, I only had
4 pictures on it. Now we´re safegaurding Dianne´s
camera like it´s a large diamond.

Arequipa was a very nice city, pity we didn´t get to
spend more time there. We met some nice people on the
tour through the Colca Canyon region. Plus we saw
giant condors and the deepest, actually second deepest
canyon in the world. The first deepest is another 5
hours through the desert where no one lives or goes.

After the bus ride back to Arequipa, we only had a
bout an hour to chill with our new friend Sofia at her
hostel called Bothy Hostel, very nice, before we got
on a 15 HOUR bus ride (!!!) to Lima. It wasn´t so bad
though, I slept for about 8 hours or more and they
showed movies which they played on the overhead
speakers so that you HAD to listen to them. We met a
nice guy named Ricardo who´s a tour guide and shared a
taxi with him. He also gave us the names of some fun
tours to do in Nazca and Ica if we have time.

Now, we´re back in the Lima airport waiting to go to
Iquitos. We checked our bag and were having lunch as
I was checking the status of all of my souvenirs. I
pulled some of them out of the bag and Dianne said,
“will they let you bring that on?” Then I realized
I´d forgotten to check my large dagger I had
purchased. It was then we both realized we each had
other knives in our day packs we hadn´t checked
either, so we had to go check my daypack with the
knives in it. We almost were going to Peruvian jail,
phew.

Now off to the jungle, will report back when I can.
Prolly not for another week.

Not long to talk, just got done eating dinner after a
lovely dip in the natural hot springs here in the
Colca Canyon region north of Arequipa. Tomorrow, we
see the deepest canyon on earth, the Colca Canyon.
Yesterday, we were in Lake Titicaca, the highest
navigable lake in the world. It was really cold. We
got to wonder around on some floating islands made of
only reeds where hundreds of people still live today.
It was really cool. We stayed with a family on the
island, but I can{t go all into that now. Just
letting you know we´re still alive.

Man, I am tired, even though I slept for 10 hours last
night. On Wed night, we went out to this reggae place
called Seven Angels and had a little going away party
with Sam, Jenny, Hannah, Carmen, and others. Jenny
and Carmen left the next day to go bak to Germany and
DIanne and I left to go on the Inca Trail. The last
four days was tough but beautiful. I have soooo many
pictures of landscapes it´s not even funny. I expect
you all to sit for 3 hours while I show a slide show
when I return. ;P

We got off to a rocky start on Thursday morning. The
bus was supposed to meet us in San Blas at 6:15am, we
waited until 6:25 and then walked down to the second
meeting place, Plaza De Armas. Luckily, the hostel
owner lady let us leave a bunch of our stuff at the
hostel so we wouldn´t have to carry it around during
the actual trail. No on showed up till around 6:50a.
In fact this entire trip was a good example of
¨Peruvian time¨ which is kinda of like New Zealand
time where nothing really matters and you don´t REALLY
need to be exactly on time. This drives my punctual
being crazy.

Finally, we get on the bus and we meet
the rest of our group which is only two other people,
Marc, a russian who lives in France, and Ken Chang, a
Korean engineer who lives in Panama. Both were in
their 50s. Our guide, Clayvar, spoke okay english
when he did speak. I´ll just let it out right now
that I wasn´t very satisfied with our guide. He
hardly told us anything about different sites unless
we asked, plus we had no idea what was going to happen
each day and for the most part, he hung way back
behind us so we´d have to wait for him if we wanted to
know about something. When I pay for a guide and a
certain experience, I expect to know what´s in store
for me each day.

Besides that though, the food was
good, the tents were good, and the Inca trail itself
was beautiful. You´d be walking along in the jungle
and turn a corner and see in the distance ruins for no
reason. And they were huge, forboding ruins. Soo
cool.

Unfortunately, I can´t give you clear names of
each ruin cause my mind will not remember names like
Belliquibamba or whatever, plus I forgot to bring the
map to the internet cafe. oops. The first day was
easy. After we got to the start of the trail at km 82
(the whole trail was 42 km, 26 miles), it was
disconcerting how big other groups were and ours was
only 4 but later we found other groups of 6 and 2, so
that was okay.

At the trail head, we waited for like
30 minutes at the controller station before we could
cross the bridge. We found out later that Clayvar had
gotten us sort of thrown onto him. We were supposed
to have a brazilian lady instead of Marc, but Ken had
called in earlier asking how he was supposed to share
a tent with a woman, so they at the last minute
switched her with Marc, who had a different set of
papers then us. But it worked out to our benefit
cause, he was camping at a closer point to Machu
Picchu the last night then we were, so Clayvar was
able to talk the controllers into letting us all stay
at the closer site. It seemed to be constantly
fluctuating though and every night at dinner, we´d
argue about what exactly was going to happen the next
day and where we were going to sleep.

Well, I say we,
but it was mostly Marc. He had a habit of asking a
lot of questions, repeating himself, and making fun of
others, which would´ve been okay if not for his sort
of creepy unsure way he had. And you couldn´t hit him
with a come back; he could dish it out, but he
couldn´t take it.

Anyway, enough of complaints, the first night, we
stayed in a tiny vilalge, built upon terraces, whether
they were incan or modern terraces, I don´t know, but
it was still pretty cool. our three tents were set up
by the porters who traveled with us. These guys are
amazing, their calves are huge and veiny! They carry
loads bigger then they are on these grueling trails
and stairs and almost run across them like they were
nothing.

That night, we ate in a grass covered open
hut and Dianne and I went down to the river to take
some pictures. Our route traveled first through the
Sacred Valley, then we cut across into another valley
and followed the Urubamba river for the next couple of
days. Marc actually got up in the night to use the
bathroom and ended up falling off the terrace and
hurting his knee. It wasn´t bad, but still sucked for
him; inside however, I must admit, I was kinda
laughing, just the visual of him stepping outside his
tent and falling off the terrace made me laugh. I´m
sadistic I know.

The second day was the most grueling day and had us
traveling up really steep steps up to 4215m which is
13,830 feet above sea level. That´s almost 2000 feet
higher then where I jumped out of a plane! I carried
my bag for the 1st, 3rd, and 4th day, but I just had
no idea how that elevation was goign to affect me, so
I hired a porter for US$20 to carry it for the day,
and I´m glad I did, those steps were soo steep and it
was hard to breath, I got a little headache and had to
stop for a minute. Dianne did really well and carried
her bag on the 1st and 4th days. When we got up to
that first pass, it was beautiful to look down and see
how far we´d come and look ahead at the wind blown
mountains and jungle we had yet to cross. We
descended into another valley and arrived at around
1p, they set up camp and we just hung out the rest of
the day playing cards and eating lunch and dinner. I
have to admit I complained a bit that I wanted to
continue on since many people were climbing up to the
next pass to camp on the other side for the night. I
didn´t figure out until that night that our camp
grounds were regulated by the controllers, something i
would´ve liked to know before hand. But luckily
Dianne was there to slap me back into shape and we had
a good time hangin out. Besides, at around 3p, it
started to pour down raining and kept going more on
then off through the night. The camp grounds are kind
of funny cause they´re just clear patches in the
middle of jungle set up along terraces with stone
steps to each level. There are even bathrooms you can
use, although they have no seats, why I don´t know. I
just can´t seem to perfect the hovering method.

The third day was long and I had my pack. The first
bit up was just as hard as day two, but not as long.
There was a bit of up and down after that, but nothing
too bad till the very end where there was really steep
steps down; scary steep steps might I add. We got up
and started walking around 7am and didn´t get to camp
until 6p, that´s 11 hours of hiking, but that´s
including stops for lunch and ruins. There were ALOT
of ruins to see the third day. One of the most
impressive was Payucharata or something or other,
which was huge and stuck up out of the jungle on the
side of the mountain. The Incans never seemed to
build anything in the valley, always on the side or
the tops of mountains. We ran around there for a good
hour.

Apparently, all these ruins were stopping point
for runners between the different Incan cities. But
this one had to be more then just that. Their
irrigation systems were amazing as well. There were
channels starting at the top and moving down through
the stone walls and coming out at fountains and baths
going down the ruins. Before we arrived at camp,
there was a place we could veer off and see some
additionaly ruins, so we did , adding an extra hour on
our trip. They were worth it though. SImply more
agricultural terraces, but so amazing in their
immencity and amount. Plus, you could still see the
houses where the farmers might´ve lived, storage
houses, and other structures. Plus the endless stairs
that continued to ascend and dissappear into the
jungle.

Descending down into camp, we found ourselves
more or less back into civilization. There were power
lines going across the valleys and to our camp site
which contained in it a bar and discoteque in one.
There were lots of people drinking beers and smoking
and we had dinner in the building. It was weird to
see it there and Dianne and I agreed that it kind of
took away from the jungle experience, but the food was
plentiful and good, so we weren´t too upset. Plus it
rained off and on the third day, so a little shelter
was nice.

Oh and as of the end of the second day, I
began to develop a cold which I still have, so I wan´t
feeling the greatest for the rest of the trip but I
still had fun. Besides I was prepared and I had
brought Zicam with me from the states.

We agreed at dinner, that we´d get up early, like
3:30a and head out so that we could get to the Sun
Gate (Inipata), which was about 6 km away, intime to
see the sunrise over Machu Picchu. There was also a
great controversy over ho wmuch we´re supposed to tip
the porters and guide, which I wasn´t aware of. After
much discussion, we finally decided on an amount and
split it evenly among the porters, cooks, and guide.

Anyway, morning came after 5 to 6 hours of sleep, we
got up , got all of our stuff together and were on the
trail by 4:30a, only to stop 10 minutes later at the
controller station which doesn´t open until 5:30a.
Now by getting up early, we were able to get a good
spot in line to go early, but it would´ve been nice
for Clayvar to tell us that there is a controller
station we would be required to wait at.
Communication people! I was talking to some other
groups, asking if they knew about it and they said
yes. Some girls I had been talking to earlier in the
trip, “Oh, sounds like you´re still in the same spot
you were on day 2.” This is also where I learned you
can get your passport stamped with your camp location
from each controller station. Would´ve been nice to
know, but I got it stamped at this one and at Machu
Picchu so that was cool.

We went as fast as we could and the walk was just
small ups and downs but mostly flat and easy.
Finally, we arived at the ruins of the sun gate to
find a valley full of fog. So we didn´t get to see
the sunrise over Machi Picchu, but to be honest with
you, I think that´s a myth anyway, cause even though I
couldn´t tell since the fog was so thick, I think the
sun was already out before we even left the controller
station. if the station doesn´t open till 5:30a,
there´s no way you can make it 6k before the sun
rises. Regardless, it was still pretty cool. And
after many people had continued to walk on, the fog
finally cleared for a bout 30 minutes to offer some
breathtaking views of Machu Picchu.

Oh, something I forgot to mention. We were all pretty
disatisfied with the explanations of Clayvar and as we
walked, decided that we´d try to tack onto another
group. I had noticed some other groups whose guides
were pretty good and we happened upon one of them. I
was talking with a girl in the group who said her
guide prolly wouldn´t mind. His name was Carlos and
after speaking with him, he had no problem with us
listening in. He told me where he´d be and at what
time he´d begin his tour, he also gave me a lot of
other additional information like bus times and train
times. I told him he´d just given me more information
in 5 minutes then our guide had in all 4 days.

Oap, I need to wrap this up pretty quick, much to do
tonight before we leave for Puno. So we made it to
Machu Picchu and ditched our guide for Carlos during
the tour of Machu Picchu. He was really good and gave
us sooo much info on the history of the Incas and why
Machu Picchu even exists. We wondered around the
grounds for 3 hours and then Dianne and I along with
an Australian named Brad from the group we´d judt
joined, climbed up WaynuPichu (Young Mountain), which
offered anbother vantage point to view Machu Picchu
and some really staggering ruins at the top. It was a
hell of a climb, like a ladder in some spots. At the
top gave some great picture opportunities including
standing on stepping stones not even 6 inches thick
that were hanging above nothing. That really freaked
me out.

We took the bus down from Machu Picchu to Agua
Calientes, the town below it and had lunch together.
Then Dianne and I took the 4 hour train ride back to
Cuzco, took hot showers (whoo hoo!!), changed and
arrived at Indigo just in time to meet Sam and other
friends to hang out. Then we slept a much needed
sleep.

No I must go, fare the well!

Okay, so a lot has happened this weekend and I don´t
have a lot of time to go through it all in detail, but
i´ll try.

Oh, nevermind, i though i hadn´t written since Friday,
but I wrote on Sunday. Anyway, Dianne finally made it
out of Lima and into Cuzco on Monday morning.

On Sunday, Sam and I were supposed to go to a soccer
match but we got the times mixed up and missed it. We
ended up eating and shooting pool at Norton Rat´s.
Later on, we joined some anthropology students for a
soccer game. We met up with them just barely in time
and were ready for a good game. However, as soon as
we stepped onto the field, it started to sprinkle.

Within 15 minutes it was pouring rain, thundering and
lightning. We, in our headstrong need to play soccer
kept playing for 45 minutes and hoped we wouldn´t
sleep on the wet concrete and break something, also
hoping we wouldn´t be sick the next day which neither
Sam nor I was.

I took a cab home, ran through the pouring rain, this
was literally the worst I´ve ever seen it there. all
the stairs turned into cascading waterfalls in the
streets. I ran home, dried off as best I could and
went to bed listening to the rain outside.

On Monday, I met Dianne at 8am in the Plaza De Armas
and we rejoiced at the reunion and talked of her
adventures in Lima. We were going to go see the ruins
of Sacsahuaman near Cuzco, but upon taking the taxi up
there, we found that both Sam and I forgot our
tickets. On top of that, Dianne wasn´t feeling very
good, altitude and all, so we walked back down to the
hostel and she slept the rest of the day. I went out
to a tour company to figure out the rest of our
travels. We had met Jenny and Carmen for breakfast
and I tld them I´d see them at Mythology at 9p.

That
night, Dianne and I had dinner at the Pizzaria and ran
into Hannah, we talked for a while until it was almost
9. Dianne went home to rest and I went to Mythology
to find no one there, so I went to Indigo and hung out
with the peeps there (there´s always someone there).
Sam showed up a bit later and finally around 10:30,
Jenny and Carmen showed up to collect Sam and I. I
was already feeling tired, so I decided just to finish
my drink and go home.

Tuesday was busy, Dianne was feeling better, so we
took a cab up to Tambo Machay, some ruins en las
campas cerca de Cuzco y caminamos abajo por cuatro
ruinas ending in Sacsahuaman. It was really cool and
a lot of fun. We took waaay too many pictures. The
stone near Sacsahuaman is really slick and there´s
actually a place you can slide down for about 20 feet
into a rock puddle, it was great. We came back and
met Carlos at the travel agency to make our initial
payment. We paid the rest and got the rest of our
vouchers tickets and itineraries for the rest of our
trip today.

Last night, we went out to Uptown for the
salsa class, but there wasn´t anyone there so we went
out to Mythology and danced, meeting Jenny, Carmen,
and Sam there. Carmen and Sam left shortly after, but
the rest of us stayed to dance until the music sucked,
then we went out to Indigo for some drinks and played
some cards with Christine, Chris, and Chris, some
other travelers we met.

At around 2, we went back out
to Mama Africa´s and rocked out till about 3 in the
morning.

TOday, we´re running errands and getting things ready
for us leaving tomorrow on the Inca Trail. Won´t be
back till Monday. Have a good week all!

Okay,soi figured it out folks! It was the food at the
movie place that did it to me cause last night was one
of the worst digestive days of my life filled with
details I am notgoing to share unless you reallyREALLY
want toknow. Oh and I apologize for this keyboard´s
spacebar, itno work no good.

SoThursday slept in. Friday,went to my last day of
classes,said ciao to mis professoras, and received a
littlecertificate at the end of the night.

after
that, Sam and Jenny planned to take it easy that
night,I wish I could´ve but it was Oscar´s bday party
thatnight at the house. I was instructed to be home
by eight which is when guests would startarriving. I
expected food at this timehaving seen the wholepig
carcas Sarah and Marda brought home from the market
the day before. oh don´t worry I got pics.

however,
guests did not start arriving until around 9:30 and
drinks were served immediately. Apparently the goalis
to get your party as sloshed as possible BEFORE
eatingso they´re sure to hjave a good time cause food
didn´t get served until 12:30!! Raquel,Magdelan, and
I were soooo hungry. We stayed in their room talking
and laughing until around 9:30 when I joined the
spanish speakers in the other room. I did pretty well
i think and found out i can entertain in any language,
nomatter how little of it i might know,in fact that
sometimes makes it better. For instance, I told a
story of one day in class when I was trying to say, “I
broke my bone” “Rompi mi hueso” but I accidentally
said “rompi mi huevos” which literally mean broke my
eggs, but in slang translates to “I broke my balls.”
Everyone thought that was quite funny. ASfter about 4
whiskey cokes, i think anything is really funny.

Finally, Marda brought the pig out and we ate and ate
and shortly after, around 2:30. I went to bed. The
party kept raging until aroun 5 or 6 I was told. I
gotup at 8 and packed my stuff up,said goodbye to my
host family and got in a cab.

Oh, and apparently, you´re supposed to give your host
family a gift, so since i had taught themhow to play
poker (they also taught me this game called Nervioso),
i wanted to get them some poker chips. I searched
lejos y anchos for pokjer chips and there were none
tobe found,after four plazas, who knows how many
markets and one “mall” called Molinos, I gave up and
bought an old Monopolio set and used the money out of
there. I gave em my own deck of cards which have been
to many countries with me and slipped the rules of
poker inside. I thought that was a pretty good gift
and they were very happy to receive it.

I gotta say, i did enjoy my time there, but it´s nice
to be outofthe house. I no longer have to go homefor
meals or have anyoneelse to report to. I think it´s
proof that i could never move back in with my parents,
I´m too independent at this point.

Oh and this morning,i took my first WARM shower in two
weeks!! Oh it felt soo good. I wouldn´t mind if it
werejust a bit hotter though,trhat would eb so nice.
Anyway, yesterday,went shopping with Carmen,Jenny,and
Sam. Then Sam and I went to the IncaMuseum which was
simple and all in spanish buit I thinkI trasnlated
mostof it pretty werll, just didn´t know the science
terms.

Afterwards, we grabbed some cafe (water for
me) at Cappacinos and talk of psycology, real estate,
travel, and the like for quite some time before we
walked over to Myuthology to reserve the big screen to
see a movie with the girls later on. We saw Thank You
for Smoking which i highly recommended and it went
over well as always,such a good movie. I had the same
thing as before, tequenos and chicken and I think it
was the chicken that did it to me. Rergardless, I´m
never eating there again.

After the movie,we hung out at Indigo for a bit then
went to Uptown for about an hour but the music turned
to suck and Marleen, Iniz and I left for Mythology and
danced for many hours before others we knew began to
show. Oh btw,this was when i started
havingsomeproblems. As soon as we got to Uptown,I
used the bano, then later on in Mythology where in the
toilet has no seat,nice. At that point,i was
feelingpretty awful, so I returned to the hostel and
had to go again, but of course there was no toilet
paper.

Well, iot´s a long story but suffice it to say
that I woke up the landlady who gave me tp and went
again. Lovley story iknow.

Anyway, this morning I was supposed to meet Dianne at
the fountain,but she missed her flight fromLima so I´m
just checking emailto see if she can get another one.
I´m glad i didn´t dfecide to meet her at the
airport,that would´ve sucked. Veamos.

Well it finally happened folks. My free foodin,
dancing lifestyle caught up with me and I got sick on
Thursday. My appetite here has been small the entire
time but it was starting to return. I think I over
did it though and just ate too much food at home AND
at the restaurants. Somewhere in there, I got
something, my stomach couldn´t identify and it wanted
to push out. You know how the mexican restaurants in
the states give you such huge portions, well here
they´re even bigger! Literally, you cannot finish all
of it ever or you´ll be sick.

So on wed, I went to school as usual and Jenny and I
split a snadwich from the sandwich shop (i think that
was the culprit right there, cause Jenny also got
sick). I went home for dinner after class cause I
promised Catrin, the host family´s daughter that I
would help her with her homework. For her anatomy
class, she was supposed to draw different parts of the
body in motion. some of them, she had already done,
and i just did the shading, others i just did for her
and her teacher really liked them so that was cool.
Afterwards, she wanted me to draw something in her
notebook that she has all of her friends sign, kind of
like a year book. She loves anime, so I drew an anime
girl with a dragon circling it. maybe i´m bragging
but i thought it turned out quite well and i wrote a
little something.

Anyway, that night, Sam and I went to get pizza at a
pizzaria and it was delicious. We had plans to go
dancing again afterwards, but I was already feeling
ill. We went to Indigo to meet Jenny but she was not
there. We were about to leave for Uptown when another
girl told us that Jenny told her to tell us that she
went home. Little did I know that she was sick. We
stayed in Indigo for a bit, drinking and talking, and
then I decided to stop over to Uptown anyway to see if
anyone was there. So I took my beer, you can drink in
public whoo hoo, and walked over there to find Dorte,
a french girl. We talked for a while until I went
home.

At this point, I was feeling very off. By the
morning, it was hershey time (sorry to be so vivid,
just trying to connect you with my experience ,)

It was actually Oscar, my host father´s birthday on
thursday, so we sang Feliz Cumpleanos to him and had
cake for breakfast which was really good but not so
good for my stomach. I put in money for his present
which turned out to be pants. I guess he really
needed some pants. I decided to skip my first class
cause i wasn´t feeling well, to celebrate with Oscar,
and because I don´t really like mi primer professora.
Yo fui a la escuela para mi segundo clase para
solemente un hora por que siento muy mal. Despues de
going to the bathroom a couple of times, I took an
immodium, which was maybe a bad idea cause it caused
whatever was in my system to stay longer and I still
don´t feel one hundred percent. I slept for the rest
of the day, skipping my afternoon class as well. I
found out later that Sam also skipped classes this day
as did Jenny, since we were all three sick, too much
partying, it´s a topugh life. On thursday night, jugé
aljedraz con Oscar por mi aljedraz set compré en
Pisaq.

Uh oh, time to go see a movie. Update you on the rest
later.

Por fin, apprendimos champa pasada. Ahorra, puedo
habla casos en el pasado. Well I´m happy to say that
while I was away, SixFingerFist was able to get
another movie up, even without me! Amazing. Go check
out the new film at www.sixfingerfist.com
<–shameless plug.

Pues las ruinas de Pisaq were really cool looking. As
was all of the Sacred Valley. It{s called the sacred
valley because it is positioned between two other
valleys and stays warm all year around. It´s also a
perfect stronghold, having look out points on either
valley.

We got up early to make the bus at 9am and
then we were off. it was Sam, Marlena, me and this
Argentinian woman we didn´t know but who turned out to
be very nice and knowledgable in Quezchuan culture.
the Quezchuans are the Inca people. Actually Inca is
an incorrect name for the Incans. Only one man could
be Inca and that was the king of the people and of the
empire.

There were many dirrent types of people,
named mostly for where they lived like the Quezchuan
and the Nazca and so on. The actual Incan empire is
thought to have reigned for a mere hundred years from
1450s to when the spanish came and conquered them in
1550s. Not all of the ruins we see today were built
in that time, some are much older and others were
never finished because of the invasion.

The guide was peruvian but took a vote and english was
the chosen language he spoke on the bus. He was
pretty knowledgable and had a sly sarcastic humor
which made the long bus rides more fun. I say long,
but they were really only 45 minutes max at one time.

OUr first stop was the Pisaq market which is the
biggest local market in the area, with tons of shops
attended by locals with souvenirs, alpaca clothes and
the like. We noticed the further back you go into the
market, the cheaper things get. I bought a row or
different grains in corns. They are in small plasti
bags, attatched to each other and running down into a
long strip They have over 800 different kinds of corn
here and hundreds of types of potatoes as well. The
teired algricultural plots of the Quezchuans created
microtemperatures at each level changing the size,
color, and flavor of all of the vegetables.

Since
I´ve been here, I´ve eaten huge cholo maize which is
bright yellow with kernals bigger then your thumbnail,
and tiny purle corn and even drank maize murido which
is a purple corn drink. If you have it with pine
)pineapple) it´s really good!

After the market, we
went up to the ruins which lie above the valley of
Pisaq. The ruins are difficult to explain because
it{s something you really have to see. The teired
fields go up the side of the mountain, with blocked
steps sticking out of the side so that the farmers
could move from one level to the next. at the top of
the mountain is the fortification and what they
believe are living quarters. Pretty much all
knowledge about the Inca culture is theory since they
had no written record and most statues and frieses
were destroyed by the catholics while they tried to
convert the people.

Being over 500 years old, the
ruins are in remarkable shape. The Incans had a knack
for carving stone and made sure the stones fit
perfectly by cutting knotches like puzzle peices on
the insides of them. On the outside, they fit
together nearly seemlessly and you can rub your hand
along a wall and never feel any bumps. It´s quite
amazing.

At the ruins of Ollantaytambo, which we saw
later in the day, there is a spot where you can see
just how polished the stones might have been in Inca
times. They theorize the stones were as smooth as
glass in the temple areas. Like the Nazca, the
Quezchuans also observed animals as being sacred and
holy and seeing them in the night sky, recreated their
likenesses on the ground. The ruins of Ollantaytambo
are in a noticable Llama shape, the ruins of Cuzco and
Sacsayhuaman are in the shape of a Puma. They are
also remarkably strong and there are smaller stones
between much larger stones in some areas to prevent
(hey think) destruction by earthquake. During a huge
earthquake in Cuzco sometime last century, the
entirety of the modern cathedral fell along with many
homes, but the Inca walls were unmoved.

In Cuzco
there is a famous stone that has 12 sides to it, a
testament of how anal they were about blocs being a
perfect fit.

We had lunch in Urubamba in a nice restaurant which
served us our very own buffet. I{m usually wary of
buffets in general, especially any in Peru, but they
said it was supposed to be safe and they were in
large, deep, pots rather then the metal pans you see
in the states. And they were kept warm by actualy
stove fires underneath. I ate like four courses and
gorged myself. It was actually nice to have the long
walks in Ollantaytambo ruins afterwards to digest
quicker.

Many, in fact all of these ruins are thought
to have calendar puroses to them, but if you ask me,
that{s just the archeologists go-to theory, “Oh, it´s
obviously some kind of simple yet complex calendar
system.” They say this because there is a certain
window which shines light on certain parts of a wall
at certain times of the year.

Well, in my bedroom,
every June 21st at the summer soltice, the light
shines perfectly on my door knob. That´s the way I
planned it. I think some of the theories might be
true, but some of them are very far fetched.

OUr last was Chincherro, a small village where some
incan ruins still stand but most rocks were taken away
to use for colonial construction. There is a large
church there with amazing murals depicting the
struggle of the Inca against spanish invasion. Of
course it’s told the other way around with the
spaniards as the heros.

OUtside of the church, there
is a large market which was extremely cheap and I
picked me up a nice dagger with a face embossed in the
hilt. It has hair and even actual Alpaca teeth. WHen
you open the blade, the mouth opens as well, it´s
pretty cool.

We got back to Cuzco around 9 and even though we´d
gorged ourselves at lunch, we got dinner at Jacks Cafe
and had a few drinks. MOnday morning, I went to
school and had a totally new class. Unfortunately,
they{re not as much fun as last week, but I guess I
can deal. Ooh, I keep forgetting to tell you about
the awesome food here. Everything is fresh and
probably picked the day before if not the same day you
eat it. It´s sooo much better then American food. My
host family has cooked things like avocados stuffed
with vegetables, chicken and some strange curry like
sauce that´s fantasctic. Muchas papas y huevos y
jelatin, muchos typos de maize y sopas y platanos con
miel, sooo good.

During the day, I went over to the
travel agency to talk about booking our amazon trip.
Then went home, ate, and took my typical afternoon nap
before returing to school. After class, Sam and I
went to Mythology to see a movie. They don{t have
proper cinemas here, but during the day, the clubs are
turned into movie theaters with large tvs and
projector screens showing any kind of pirated movie
you could hope for. It´s pretty cool, you feel like a
celebrity. You walk in and they say what movie you
want to see, just pick any one, you pick it, go into
your own private screening room, which oddly enough
was the same room we were dancing hip hop in on
friday. For 20 soles (roughly 7 bucks), you get your
private movie and theater, two course dinner with
drinks including vodka which is what I got. It was
good food too! We watched Ocean´s 13 which is a
pretty enjoyable movie and I´d reccomend to anyone.

Afterwards, we went off to Uptown where we met up with
Jenny and learned some more salsa. I might just go
there almost everyday this week. I just hope i can
remember all the nrew moves I´m learning. Alright,
time to go home para almuerzo.
Ciao.