sunday, february 13, 2005 - lima - 9:42am ?st

as it turns out, lima is the same time zone as boston. but given that i am just a few miles from the pacific ocean at the moment, i have a hard time calling it "eastern" standard time.

we're sitting in a bus terminal posing as an air terminal in lima, peru. just minutes from boarding our lanperu flight to cuzco…or cusco (haven't quite figured out which one is right.) currently listening to two lanperu agents fight over the single speaker system. i like this country already. this afternoon will consist of a frantic (and probably drenching) dash around a city we've never been to find a place to stay tonight. then a brief rest and a look around town and securing a trip to machu picchu for tomorrow morning.

good lord, it's sunday. overnight flights are brutal. although last night was not horrible. we'll see how i feel in a couple of hours.

+++++

sunday, february 13, 2005 - cusco - 4:25pm

one of the most amazing approaches i have ever experienced in an airplane found us tearing in, low through the most unique and green mountains i have ever seen. i was in love with peru instantly.

despite the ominous, giant billboard at the airport reading "coca-cola welcomes you to cusco" that made me almost revoke my lent decision then and there, we are, without incident, at the colonial palace hotel. and the great news is that we met a guy named rolando who hooked us up for almost the entire trip. machu picchu. puno. copacabana. the whole deal. either that or we just gave a whole lot of money to a guy that will eat well tonight laughing at three gullible americans.

plaza de armas, cusco

cusco is a wildly colorful city. full of obvious tradition and warm people...if you buy something from them.

this picture cost me 5 soles

the, and i won't stoop to "bad" just yet, but…not-so-good news is that today is the last day of carnival. so our initial site-seeing walk of cusco slowly and steadily turned into a walk of fear. not the "danger" kind of fear, but rather one that stems from hundreds of peruvian youth running the streets, armed with one or more of the following:

-shaving cream
-water balloons
-buckets of water

suffice it to say, that a gringo sighting is just the kind of catalyst that makes one not want to leave the hotel room ever again. one time is humorous. twice gets to be annoying. the third time comes close to warranting a UN intervention because a "crazy white man" is killing children over on santa clara street. it probably didn't help when art flipped off the kids, prompting an all out water onslaught.

carnival aftermath. before it turned ugly

other than that. cusco is lovely.

prolouge - 1 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - epilogue