Tuesday, March 30, 2010

फोल्लोविंग थे विन्डिंग road

After Cochabamba we left for an overnight bus ride to Sucre. We ended up in a quaint little town with beautiful white washed buildings and a track record of safety. We stayed in a beautiful hostal complete with hot water and German orphanage volunteers. It was one of the cleanest hostals I have stayed in so far which made me nostalgic for all things American. Say what you want about our country but we certainly are one of the world leaders on hygienic conditions. Places may be dubbed ´gross´by our standards in the states but you can rest assured that you will have toilet paper, seat covers and a place to toss it all. Here in Bolivia it is a way of life to live in squalid conditions. Trash is thrown onto street corners to be picked up vagrants in the middle of the night. We have yet to find trash facilities or dumpsters readily available. In fact, at the beginning of our Bolivian adventure Noel tried to throw a piece of plastic into a vendor´s trash can where the vendor was absent. He was in for a rude awakening when the vendor came running from the street (not his store) to tell him to put that piece of plastic back in his pocket! All the same, whereever you put trash it is almost entirely in the hands of the person to discard of it. We have seen numerous trash fires spread out throughout the land and it really is a pity to see such waste. We sometimes forget, though, that the trash man, the recycle man and the yard waste man do not just magically show up every Monday here in Bolivia. Trash is your problem, not the communities. It definitely makes it hard to judge because people do not have the luxuries that we have at home.

Also, after having a hot shower this morning I am compelled to muse over other basic luxuries we take for granted. Every time we get a hot shower I am entirely impressed by the ability to produce hot water. It is a different process here. If you want hot water it is heated directly by your shower head instead of a water heater. That can mean that you have anywhere from one second to five minutes of luke warm to hot water. You have to choose your shower carefully as one shower may be frigidly cold and the other bearable. Life can still be good without hot showers. Life just is heaven when you finally do get nice warm water.

It is funny that I decide to write this as I am in one of the cleaner towns...Potosi...set in the central highlands of BO. Sucre was also clean and welcoming which lead me to recall that I´ve seen quite a lot of filth around. There is no such thing as clean tap water here in Bolivia so we have been relying heavily on our purifying water bottles and store bottled water. At home in the states I am a model of health drinking 8 -10 glass-of-water-a-day but here I fear I have let myself slip a bit due the absence of fresh water. We make up for our water intake by getting lots of fresh juice when we can... The batidos and jugos made in the mercados are a force to be reckoned with. Two types to try out of the endless varieties would be frutilla (strawberry), naranja (orange) y mango mezclado (mixed). One of my personal favorites is sandia (watermelon) y tuna (cactus fruit). Impresionante!

Life here in Bolivia is cheap and good. I am beyond thankful that my travel buddies talked me into this particular route. I would have missed out on so much culture, naturleza (nature) and architectura (architecture). I am excited about the next part of our journey. Tomorrow we leave for Salar de Uyuni which is the ¨thing to see in Bolivia¨. We will go on a 3-4 day trek through the salt flats, stopping at volcanoes and hanging out with flamingoes. When we arrive in Uyuni (a small pueblo) we will have no running water at our disposal. We will make sure to come prepared for cold nights and unbelievable days. I´m still not even sure what to expect. After our trek on bikes, horses, jeeps? we will either cross the border through Chile or Argentina and continue down to Buenos Aires. We have so many amazing things to see through Argentina but we have given ourselves a deadline of April 10th to get to Buenos Aires. As soon as we get there we´ll work on finding short-term work and apartments in the South American equivilant of Paris. We have met many Argentinos on the road south and they have been by far the most friendly and open people we have met so far. I can´t wait to meet the city face-to-face and see what´s in store next for this fearsome traveling foursome! Make sure to keep following the llama on its trek through new countries. You´ll be happy that you did!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

ओरूरो तो Cochabamba

So here we are in the incredibly friendly market town of Cochabamba. It is a far cry from La Paz in that it is clean and doesn´t have dead baby llama fetuses on the street. The dead baby llamas are sacrificed to bury under the Bolivianos homes to bring luck and good fortune to their homes. I just thought it smelled but I guess I can see where they´re coming from....Hmmm....Anyways, enough about gross stuff. Let´s talk about beautiful stuff!

After successfully completing the death road we have travelled down to Oruro, a lake-town in central Bolivia, and made a short day of rock-climbing and checking out their markets. They supposedly have agua termales (mineral waters) in this area but there was one clean one (Obrajes) and one dirty one (Capachos). We noticed there were tons of buses to Capachos but not one single bus to Obrajes. We waited around for about half and hour and then decided just to get on with it to Cochabamba. We had heard that this was the most beautiful city in all of Bolivia and they were not kidding! It is fantastic, clean and the people are very kind and gracious. We´ve learned a bit about Bolivia´s political situation through friendly cab drivers and various other vendors. It seems that about half the people support the new presidente Evo and the other half do not seem to care for him. We have been prying into what exactly he has changed and have only definitively found out that he has passed a drunk-driving ban. (This wasn´t illegal before???) We will continue to pry until we get the real Bolivian story. It appears that will happen sooner than later. We met a great bunch of kids last night on our first night and they offered to show us around so we can learn what the real Bolivia is all about. We´re talking about when people stop being nice and start getting real! Thank you ¨The Real World Cochabamba¨. :o)

Our friends have offered to take us around the markets (the best in Bolivia) and help us get the local prices on things like beanies (gorros), scarves (bufandas), mittens (guantes), jewelry (joyeria) y sweatshirts (chompas). Since Cusco, we three Americanos have been discussing a small business plan. We are going to ship home a bunch of South American garb and sell it at home in the United States. You at home are our first potential customers so if you have anything that you may want back home please email me as soon as possible. Our market days will be tomorrow and the next day. We are taking requests so if you have anything you potentially want or need please email me asap at cnightin@uci.edu. We are starting small at first so not to worry because the merchandise they have here is amazing and highly marketable in the states! Be sure to reserve yours today!

So enough of me hocking my wears. It has been a life changing experience to see how simply people can live and still be perfectly happy. I´m immensely thankful for my conscientious and adventurous side kicks Natasha, Noel and Anna. I couldn´t ask for better travel buddies! Keep following the llama and keeping me posted on your whereabouts! Be sure to register as a follower of the llama on this blog! Look forward to hearing from you! Ciao y hasta pronto mis amigos!

Friday, March 19, 2010

हुर्त्लिंग डाउन थे देअथ रोड!

So we spent Saint Patrick´s Day in La Paz shopping, and checking out the city. We shouted out Happy birthday to Damon across the world. I hope he heard. We just took the day easy--no green beer for us. At night we met some people from Argentina in our hostal. A girl named Florencia, who played a mix of the accordion and the flute, started off playing the theme to Amelie. It was beautiful! From there her boyfriend played the accordion and she strummed away on the guitar and sang some of the most beautiful live music I have ever hear. Noel was able to capture it and make it into an MP3 for her and of course for us. It was an unforgettable and tranquil Saint Patrick´s Day. Of course I made sure to buy a green scarf for about 50 cents (US) for anti-pinching purposes.

All I can say about yesterday is wow. Yesterday was our second day in La Paz, Bolivia, a city of about 880,000 people (not that large for a capital) and sits at its highest at 4,100 meters (13,450 ft) which makes La Paz the capital with the highest altitude in the world. The first day we spent shopping and acclimating. We had a great pizza made to order in less than 10 minutes-- a far cry from Peru´s dinner service which takes an hour for a bowl of soup. We made a decision to go mountain biking down the ¨Death Road¨ www.thedeathroad.com which ended up being one of the best decisions we´ve made so far. Before anyone gets scared (mom) everyone is alive and well with all their limbs in tact. We first started off at 4,230 meters surrounded by snow and a chilly breeze. The first leg of our trip was paved and easy. It wasn´t too cold which was nice for us. Our first unpaved leg of the trip ended up being around a tunnel and was very bumpy and rocky. Our friend Ana popped her tire that first leg and had to switch bikes. Our guides were wonderful. They provided us with snacks and water every step of the way. We felt very well taken care of. We got through all the check-points and finally it was time to bike down THE DEATH ROAD dun, dun, dun. We geared up in our full padding and helmets and started down the road on the left side. It is an English road, I think so cyclists can see around the corner if a car is coming. It is nice because all traffic beeps (clapson!) as it comes around the corner and goes rather slowly. There were definitely a few sharp turns and huge drops as we rounded each corner. We hurtled down the road passing underneath waterfalls and getting into more jungle-like terrain as we descended into the valley. The first 2 hours we were in a temperate climate and as we heading into the last 2 hours it started to get humid and hot and the flora and fauna more tropical. As we zipped down the road our final challenge was to ride straight through a 3- foot river crossing without falling. Even with all the people falling into the river ahead of me I made it through victorious and dry! We ended the trip in the semi tropical village known as Yolosa at 1,180 meters. We dropped more than 3,000 meters yesterday! Wow!

As we arrived in Yolosa we were greeted with warm showers and a swimming pool. We hung out in the hammocks and then were presented with a delicious buffet lunch. I almost wasn´t hungry after our two other snacks we had along our 4-hour adventure to valley. We hung out in the shade lathered in bug spray until it was time for our 3-hour return bus ride. I have to say the bus ride back was a little more disconcerting than the ride down. I was concentrating so much on my own ride down the mountain I couldn´t the hundreds of shear cliffs I was passing by each time. Our guides stopped at a couple of water falls (cataratas) and filled up their canteens with fresh water and we finally made it back into town. What an adventure.

Today we may be going to the little tropical pueblo of Sorata as we make our way down to the Salt Flats of Uyuni. We should be in Buenos Aires at the beginning of April to start teaching and get our apartment. Until then, hasta pronto y cuidate!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

लाके तितिकाचा एंड थे फ्लोअतिंग इस्लान्ड्स ऑफ़ उरोस

I am a weary traveller right now after more than 9 hours of travelling via boat and hiking today. We are in the small town of Puno next to Lake Titicaca and just arrived back from a two day journey around the lake. We started off bright and early for a boat trip to the floating islands of Uros. We arrived to find that we had to jump up and down when we got onto these floating islands. When we arrived the ground was soft and cushy and we sank a bit in places. We found out that the island were floating on the floating mud that the reeds grew out of. They took reeds and piled them on criss-crossing more and more of them on top of one another every 17 days to keep the island afloat. It appears that everything on the island is made of these reeds. On the island we got to see some exotic birds sqwuak at us and kites made out of garbage bags. The people are very resourceful. They use solar power hooked up to car batteries for power! Who would have thought?

After we left the mystical isle of Los Uros we took a 3 hour tour (and made it unlike the loveable Gilligan) all the way to the isle of Amantani. When we arrived, tired from our sea legs (lake legs?), our host Maribelle was there in traditional garb to greet us. We walked up innumerable stairs to find a quaint two story hacienda with breathtaking views of the lake. Maribelle is the sweet 18-year-old daughter of the family and Valentin and Margarita are her gracious parents. We made our way upstairs for some rest and relaxtion before our epic hike to the Templo de Pachatata. We played cards for a while and finally got to eat lunch after our 2-hour card game. Everything was from the land and very delicious. For lunch we had a delectable Peruvian soup made with papas (potatoes), zanahorias (carrots) and quinoa (a Peruvian grain). We learned that there are more than 400 types of potatoes native to Peru but Holland is the master in technology for potatoes. A random fact!

After our lunch we made our way up to El Templo at the top of the island. Our tour guide Alan gave us some menta (mint leaves) to smell and help with the altitudea nd told us to walk slowly. Once we had the mint leave we thought we were invincible so of course (the athletes we are ;o)) we were 500 yards in front of our group in no time. When we got close to the top Natasha challenged us to a race to the top. Of course Noel obliged while I laughed and after 100 feet they were both about to fall over. I looked at one of the ladies peddling her hats and gloves and just had to roll my eyes and say ¨LOCOS¨. But of course, not to be outdone I started jogging up too! Phewwwwww! I´m winded just thinking about it.

When we arrived at the top, we had to walk around the closed temple three times and make a wish after we were finished. I think it might be a ploy to get us to buy from the all the vendors because the first time you pass by you think that´s a cool beanie, the second time you think that really is a great beanie, and the third time you just have to buy the beanie! Pretty clever marketing especially if your wish was to get a new beanie (which I didn´t btw). I did, however, buy a little anklet from a little girl named Estefanie when we got to the top. I figured I needed one, she was the best sales child I have come across, and I needed an award for making up this grueling mountain.

After we made it down we had a hearty tipico cena (typical dinner) with fresh vegetables and grain. They barely eat any meat there because they eat what the land provides them. If they eat their pet chicken (named Idie..awww) they no longer have a pet chicken. After dinner, Maribelle dressed us in her traditional dress and took us to a fiesta in the local rec center. Tash was a bit under the weather so stayed in to sleep so Noel and I went dressed in to the nines to our fiesta. Maribelle lead us to a deserted lot with no light to be found. She was confused so she said she´d be back in 5 minutes AND LEFT US IN THE DARK! We just hung out like typical Peruvians until another family came by and mistook us for locals! Nice!

Finally we made it to the rec room and found that there were no musicians because they had all gone back to the mainland of Puno. We waited around in our traditional garb sitting against the walls just like a junior high dance. We got a bit bored so we started having camera wars across the room. Finally they fashioned together a band with two local boys: one banging on the drum and the other on the Peruvian flute. As soon as the music began the room transformed into a variatable managerie of dance. We all held hand and made bridges for people to ¨gracefully dance under¨. We were having a blast. Finally, the real band showed up and the place went wild-- running around the room with hands clasped, going forward, being yanked back and then the circle started going the other way. What a hoot! After all was said and done we made our way back to the house. It had been lightning-ing all night but as soon as we closed the door to our room the sky opened up and it started pouring with all its might. I could see the tarp above us moving but no rain ever came through. Amazing! The Peruvians are amazing at drainage to say the least! We were slowly lulled to sleep by the amazing storm only to be woken up bright and early for desayuno (breakfast) and bon voyage.

We were off to the next island of Tequile where we went on another amazing and grueling hike around the entire island. We made it to the Plaza Mayor (every pueblo has one) and got to hang out for a bit and look around. We learned some interesting facts about the Peruvian traditional garb such as the ejercito (police) wear rainbow hats! I´m not sure if I can take a guy in a rainbow hat seriously! Also,married women are only allowed to wear red on top and black skirts while their single counterparts can wear whatever colors they want. Talk about a slave to marriage! Also, the married men have blue on the end of their caps (which look like night-night caps) and unmarried men don´t. After all this we hiked a bit more only to find our lunch was overlooking the most spectacular crystal blue view of Lake Titicaca. We sat across from some fellow travellers from España and got to speak with the Andalucian lisp all through lunch and the boat ride. It made me miss Spain but also made me happy about where I was because after all any where you go, that´s where you are. We are on our way to have dinner with some friends from Germany (also from the tour) and we´re running late. So, I must say Ciao for now mis amigos! Que vayan bien. Me voy a escribir mas muy muy pronto! Hasta luego!

Monday, March 8, 2010

तेअचिंग एंड रेअचिंग फॉर थे स्टार्स

Teaching in the rain!

This is my second update from Cusco, Peru, the place that people think of as the most authentic Peruvian town. Nestled in the mountains and standing next to the Sacred Valley (Valle Sagrado) Cusco is a magical pueblo. It is one of the first civilizations on earth! Wow... Llamas, women and children wander the streets in traditional garb. Street vendors hock everything from machetes to sandia (watermelon) and every type of person trying to sell you a tour, a bite to eat and picture of them next to their llama named Sam infiltrate the streets. This past weekend seemed to be a lot more tranquilo. Today, on this busy Monday morning the street is alive and hopping.

Acclimate!

We have finally acclimated to the altitude and the water which took a while. If you ever come down this way ask for the equivilant of the Zpac and you won´t be sorry. After two days of antibiotics we were feeling on top of our game again. Not that we were ever sick, mom! Hehe.

What the heck are you doing in Peru, guys?

We have moved hostels and have a panoramic view of the city complete with vista of ¨VIVA PERU¨ and an Incan face etched into the dirt two respective mountains. We´ve also seen all sorts of advertisements and dichos (sayings) written with flowers on mountains. When we took a tour of the Valle Sagrado each pueblo we passed had its name etched into the mountain. Peruanos are proud of their culture and their mountains!

We went on a 4 hour horseride around ruins like Saqsaywaman (pronounced sexy woman- I know right lol) and Quencho (Kenko). My horse was named Mapache (racoon) because he was black and white and mischevious. Our horses lead us through breathtaking landscape, dropped us off at unbelievable ruins and pretty much took charge the rest of the time.

Here´s some fun with Horseback Riding Catch Phrases!
Claire=¨Mapache, it´s not time to eat again!¨

Tash=¨Horsey, stop taking me in a circle and thwarting the group!¨ (Tash had the best horse. It was her first time on horse and she rocked it while trotting it!)

Noel=¨Tu trabajo es nunca terminado pero eres feliz¨ Translation- Your work is never done Horsey but you are happy¨ (Noel´s first full sentence in Spanish!)

Yesterday we went to ruins in the Sacred Valley. This is what we learned from our tour guide Ruben.

Top Ten FACTS!
1,) There is a fabrica (factory) right outside of town that manufactures TNT.
2.) The different Inkan ruins and towns were all fashioned after important Inkan symbols. The town at the base of Machu Picchu looks like corn. Cusco is fashioned after a Puma.
3.) Cusco is the center of energy of the mountains of Peru. Each mountain has either positive or negative energy. Cusco has the positive. It has us!
4.) Mudslides are a way of life here in Peru. Just walk on the other side of the road to avoid falling rock and debree.
5.) There are more than 80 climate zones in Peru. We´ve felt quite a few so far. What to wear? Should we do our hair?
6.) Children bathe in the rivers next to the road and wave as tour buses pass.
7.) The rocks used to build the walls of some of these ruins come from different mountains very far away. No explanations were given as to how these 8 foot and larger rocks were transported from another mountain.
8.) The bank in Ollantaytambo held their most precious resource to the Inkans—not money but food! So, if the llama leads you to food it´s actually taking you straight to the bank! Thanks Damon! Getting paid, getting paid!
9.) The ruins of Saqsaywaman were taken over by the Spanish conquistadores 500 years ago and used as a fortress. In other words, the Spanish took over an Inkan –built structure and used it to take over. The Inkan were mostly peaceful about this takeover because the Inkan leader at the time had had a sign from God telling him to be peaceful to strangers from a different land.
10.) In Chincero we learned that bugs (bichos) that live in cactus (nopales) make the perfect color red when you sacrifice them. Their blood is used to make dye for fabric and can also be used as a beautiful 12-hour lipstick. Cactus bug blood is the Maybelliene ladies!

We´re here for a few more days…More updates to come! So don´t forget to follow the llama!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

मगेस्टिक विल्लगे ऑफ़ ऑफ़ Cusco

We´ve arrived in the beautiful pueblo of Cusco 11,000 feet high in the mountains. Yesterday was a day of acclimation. The plane ride from Lima was only 50 minutes long but the topography changed so dramatically in that time I couldn´t stop taking photos. Magestic green mountains peeked out of cumulus cloud banks and tiny towns could be seen scattered thoughout the mountainous landscape. We arrived in Cusco without a hitch bartering down the taxi drivers to take us to town. We were so happy to have chosen Jorge´s cab because he had his own tourist agency and knew of more than a few people that needed help learning English. In fact, this morning he sent one of his friend´s Maria to our hostal while she was on her break from the Touring agency. She offered us a place to stay in her home in exchange for English lessons and told us we could also exchange for horseback riding and guided tours!

A beautiful thing happened last night. We stopped in for dinner at this little pizza shop when a little girl came in selling chicle. I said I didn´t want any gum but wanted to know if she was hungry which of course she was. I gave her my garlic bread and invited her to sit down. She was very shy but I could see a smile starting to form. She sat down and started putting some green salsa on her bread, making the perfect bite. After talking to her for a bit, I found out her name is Luthiana, she´s 9 years old and she goes to school but she doesn´t know what her favorite subject is. I just kept trying to act silly to make her comfortable and eventually a big smile spread across her little face. The pizza came and I saw her eyes light up so we cut her a little slice. At first she tried to eat it with her fingers but then she decided she wanted to cut it with her fork and knife. It was obvious she had never used a knife before so we guided her along and helped put some of the green salsa on the pizza for her. She needed the perfect bite after all. She continued to finish and then tentatively get up. She still had her chicle of course. Before she could leave the building Noel got up, bought one candy from her and gave her an American dollar. He said as she walked away he could see her whole body smiling. Noel felt like the richest man in the world because he could make Luthiana´s day with a single dollar. We also met two little boy street vendors calling themselves Marco Polo and Pablo Picasso. They were selling their finger puppets for a meager one million dollars¨:) but I bartered him down to a thousand. Finally after they kept following us around town Noel bought Marco Polo a Coca Cola in exchange for his handpainted post card. A fair trade and a story to boot!
We´ve also met some very kind vendors like Lisbeth who is looking to learn English in exchange for her Peruvian handicrafts.

The people are very courteous and we´ve felt very welcomed in this small town so far. I´m very excited to start teaching English! Natasha and I have been teaching Noel Spanish by playing games like slug-bug (called Zapitos here). The first one to 100 gets 2 beers bought for them. The catch is that we have to call out the colors and what number we are on in Spanish. Noél´s catching on quickly and I´m confident he´ll be speaking in full sentences by next week. I´ve decided to teach my Spanish speaking students with the same foundation of fun, games and general conversation applicable to their lives. For instance, Maria works at a Tourist agency so we´re thinking of all the possible conversations she may need to have with potential clients. We can practice around the dinner table, walking around town and sitting down with her at work.

The energy of this pueblo is much more tranquilo than the constant hustle and bustle of Lima-- a welcome change. It is very quaint, almost no tourists right now, and perfect cool temperatures with rain showers scattered throughout the day. We have already seen the old world Incans mixed with the modern world Incans. We are truly blessed to be here mixing with the locals and absorbing their culture. More to come as we wind along our journey!

I ALMOST FORGET! We saw our first llamas and alpacas yesterday! We started following them but they were going up a hill and at this altitude on the first day we were just too out of breath! Today we are going to find a llama that we can follow to food...tomorrow maybe he´ll take us to Machu Picchu! Hehe. Ciao amigos! Que vaya bien!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Internet Connection- wah?

Just had to check in from the airport to Cusco! We've got internet connection almost everywhere we've been so far...Plus we can make phone calls through MagicJack...Amazing what technology can do these days....I'm impressed. On to the next town!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Lima, Lima, Ven a Lima

We have been in Lima officially two days. Our hostel has a rock climbing wall so we definitely made use of that . So far we have taken the complete wrong way to the beach, walked 3 hours around the city looking for the mythical "marine layer". "Just follow the marine layer" I kept telling Noel and Natasha. Well, 3 hours and 5 directionals out of our way we finally decided to break down and take a 30 minute taxi to the real beach. It was worth it! Miraflores was beautiful, complete with cow statues and paraglider, definitely worth the wait... Walking towards the bus stop (paradero) I was practicing my Spanish repeating the Spanish word for honk (clapson). We were just goofing around not thinking anyone was listening when the caballero in front of me got out of our way with a big sonrisa (smile). BEEP BEEP! Ooops. "Lo siento senor!" Anyways, we got on the bus and who should greet us but none other than Sean Penn's Peruvian doppleganger!!!! We couldn't help but giggle as he hustled people on and off the bus. The last spectacle we came across was a a break dancing hula hooper spinning on his head in the middle of the road. He could spin in front of traffic for about 5 minutes straight without missing a beat. What a first day!

Today was chill. We got up, had a delicious breakfast for all of 8 soles (about $2.50) complete with fresh squeezed OJ, coffee, toast, fresh jam and scrambled eggs--what an oferta (deal)! We proceeded to take and hour long busride to the ruins Pachacamac only to find that they were alas, closed on Mondays! We were in the middle of nowhere so we decided to go to la playa. We stumbled upon this small town and decided to grab a cerveza before getting on the bus to Playa Hermosa. We walked along a little desert road looking at the little tiendas but finally settled on "the place with the music". I thought it said bar Reyes? We walk in and find we are actually crashing a Peruvian birthday party! Jessica is 25 today! Feliz cumpleanos Yessica! They were very much accomodating, jovial and a bit mystified by our gringo presence. The head of the household, Luis, proceeded to grab a couple cervezas from across the way at actual tienda as we proceeded to serenade Yessica with our American version of Happy Birthday! We hung out for a bit then we were on our way down to Playa Hermosa! A beautiful spot- lost my $1 sunglasses in the ocean...My bad! We had an amazing dinner as the sunset over the ocean of ceviche de pescado mixto. Que rico! After our venture home we relaxed with a bit of yoga and Pilates in our hostel's backyard.

Tomorrow we're catching a plane to Cusco...no Machu Picchu (it's closed till April 1st because of the mudslides) but we'll check out some other ruins at 11,000 ft. Tomorrow is a day of rest and acclimation to the altitude....More to come as our journey unfolds....And remember kids...

Don't forget to follow the llama!