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...)