Chao to my nine month long summer

Oh dear, I´ve fallen very behind, with no time in the foreseeable future to catch up. Some highlights of the past week:

- Lake Titicaca!! Featuring floating islands, non-floating island, and tour guides with hilariously bad English translations. I dance the matrimonial dance with a charming three-year old.

-A boy mistakes me for a Peruvian pre-teen and sprays me with shaving cream as part of some fiesta. Peruvian witnesses are appalled.

-Seen from the bus: a tiny altiplano store advertising its four most important wares: "Twix, Mars Bars, Snickers, Coca."

-Allison gets her wallet stolen in Arequipa. Hot chocolate and frozen Inca sacrifices make everything better. (Also, the fact that nothing irreplaceable was stolen...)

-We decide to screw the world´s largest geoglyphs and the world´s deepest canyon, and instead visit the world´s driest desert.

-Chile! Complete with avocados, unintelligible Spanish, and more expensive everything!

-Allison and I visit San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis nestled comfortably between the Valley of Death, the Valley of the Moon, several active volcanos, a huge salt flat, and the world´s 3rd largest geothermal field.

-We narrowly miss attending a "secret underground party."

-I rediscover my love for terrible romance novels.

Tomorrow, we´re "hopping" on the bus that will, 24 hours later, bring us to Santiago. Fortunately, we sprung for bus-cama seats (Barker Loungers, basically), so we may actually get some sleep. As soon as we step off the bus, orientation begins--4 days of language proficiency testing, cell phone shopping, and embassy visiting. Joy. I´m a bit in denial about the whole "going to class" part of the equation, let alone the face that it will all be in Spanish. I realized today that I haven´t been to school in 9 months, and I´ve been enjoying the extended break. We´ll see.

(I´ve come to terms with the fact that I´m not going to get any more pictures online until I have my computer back in hand, so you´ll have to wait a bit for photographic evidence)

Cusco, Machu Picchu, and a whole lot of llamas

After three days of stuffing myself with ceviche, I´d had enough of Lima and the sun, so I hopped on a 22-hour bus ride across the Andes to Cuzco. The highlight of bus ride was unquestionably the movie about the 19-year old American girl who gets kidnapped in Paris and sold into the sex trade. (Fortunately, her dad is Liam Neeson, and he´s ex-CIA, and he gets her back, killing lots of evil Frenchmen along the way). And I´m sitting there thinking, "I´m a 20-year old American traveling alone in Peru and my dad works for an environmental non-profit!" (No offense, Dad, but you have to admit environmental law is pretty useless when it comes to hunting down sex-traffickers.) Fortunately, other than that, the bus ride was perfectly uneventful.

I spent my first two days in Cuzco acclimatizing and discovering the pros and cons of an Immodium-rich diet. Cuzco is an amazing city, with lots of Spanish colonial buildings constructed right on top of Inca palaces. As one might expect given its beauty and its proximity to the Sacred Valley, it´s become overrun by the tourist trade. (A number of Quechua women make a living bringing their llamas into central Cuzco and charging gringos for photo opps). But even with all the gringos and overly enthusiastic street vendors, it´s possible to have a wonderful time getting lost in the tiny, impossibly steep streets.

I met up with Allison on the 9th, marking the end of my solo-in-South-America adventure. But even with the scary movies, I managed to do the impossible. I traveled alone in South America for two weeks without being robbed or mugged or drugged or kidnapped. Hell, I even still have my camera.

After another day in Cuzco seeing the sites, we woke up at the crack of dawn to catch a taxi to catch a bus to catch a train to Aguas Calientes, the ugly little tourist town at the base of Machu Picchu. The next morning (day before yesterday), we took another bus up to Machu Picchu, where we spent an entire day exploring the ruins, taking pictures of llamas, and soaking in the atmosphere. If ever a place looked like its postcards, it´s Machu Picchu. The Incas built it in an unbelievably scenic location, and I spent almost as much time admiring the cloud forest mountains as the ruins themselves.

But Peru´s a big country, and we don´t have much time left until our orientation, so yesterday morning we took a bus to Puno, the main port city for Lake Titicaca. If all goes as planned, we´ll spend tomorrow exploring some of the islands.

(Pics to come. I´ve spent ages in this internet cafe as it is...)

And then I jumped off a cliff

Lima is lovely.

(More pics on facebook)

Peru vs. Ecuador

It´s funny how much of a difference a border can make.

First impression: Peru has a lot of goats. Seriously, millions of them. I haven´t seen any on the menu yet, but I´m keeping my eyes open.

Second impression: Peru has a lot of police. My bus was stopped at police checkpoints three times in my first two hours in the country. My first breakfast in Peru was interrupted by a full-blown military parade -- apparently, these are weekly occurrences in Piura.

Third impression: Peru is hot. Very very hot. Which is why I´m heading south to Lima tonight, where hopefully it will be cooler and/or more air conditioned.

Also: Pisco sours=yum. I´m reserving judgment on Inka Kola.

They still say chévere here, thank God. Otherwise I´d feel totally lost.

Super-Chevere

This is officially my last posting from Ecuador -- I just bought my bus ticket to Piura, Peru ($8 for a 6 hour bus ride...I still haven´t gotten over how crazy cheap everything is).

After riding the train at Nariz del Diablo, I headed to Cuenca, which was wonderful. Not exactly the life of the party, but it's a great place to spend a few days relaxing and wandering the streets. I found an English-language bookstore and talked dragon books with the American owner for awhile. My favorite Cuenca moment: when I turned the corner and found a man explaining the male reproductive system and selling live snails to a crowd of captivated Ecuadorians.

From Cuenca, I traveled south to Loja, where I spent the night before going on to Vilcabamba. Vilcabamba is a tiny town nestled in the "Valley of Eternal Youth," an area with a very high number of centenarians (sp?). I didn´t get a chance to interview any residents about their ages, but regardless, Vilcabamba was one of my favorite spots so far. My hosteria had a pool, hammocks galore, and very tasty included breakfast all for $9 a night. (Also, other Seattleites!) Yesterday I went horseback riding into Podocarpus National Park. It was hard to tear myself away, but Peru beckons.

Saludos de Cuenca!

Today is my second day in Cuenca. Since leaving Quito, I've spent 2 night in Baños (white-water rafting! tasty pancakes!) and 1 night in Riobamba before taking the train through Nariz del Diablo.

More later...the internet cafe is about to close...but check out the pics on facebook

Tomorrow, I´m tearing myself away from Quito. As much as I love this city (and Pablo and Carolina and Laura and Dani and Javier), I looked at a calendar yesterday and realized that I need to start making some southerly progress.

Caleigh´s in town (!), and we´re busing south to Saquisilí first thing to catch the Thursday morning market, which is supposed to be incredible. From there, Caleigh will return to Quito while I keep heading south to Baños. (Then to Riobamba, Cuenca, Loja, and finally, Peru).


Pics on Facebook! Here and here.