GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. My Journal.

I’m here and it’s the second day of our journey here in the Galapagos. My parents are probably pretty worried since I haven’t been able to call and won’t until mext weekend when we are again on dry land. My biggest worry thus far is running out of money since about double the amount I allowed for has been swallowed by unexpected expenses. I’m trying not to allow myself to dwell on it since I will hopefully be able to get some money in Buenos Aires. I was shocked by the differences here from other cities. I had tried to prepare myself for “3rd worldness’ but everything looking like East LA to me made me very uneasy.

The group of 16 has been split into English and Germans with the language barrier separating us. There is also a Frenchman so hopefully I’ll be able to speak to him at some point.

Yesterday we went to our first island and saw pelicans, iguanas, and red crabs all along the rocks. This is my kind of place, all the crabls are land and stay out of the water. There were also pink flamingos in the water. I saw sea eninamies (however you spell it) and some fairly run of the mill fish.

Today it was off to a sea lion haven. At about 8 am we went on a walk and saw lots more lava flows and some Black land crabls (very exciting). There were also some gekko type lizards. The fun part was being in the water. The fish were enormous. I was swimming and nearly had a heart attack when a penguin (about the size of the Australian fairy penguins) swam right under me. There were two swimming aroudnd looking for food. There was a baby sea lion there too. He was hanging out with his mom and dad.

Sambraro Chino.

Two obeservations at night. Flying over Quito it looks like someone left piles of diamonds lying in a valley. For some reaon the city had almost a perple shimmer to it. It was absolutely beautiful.

There were also these birds with 2 long legs that escort the boats everywhere [Friggit birds]. Then the pelicans that are also everywhere. They hang out with the boats trying to steal the penguin's food and seem basically just pretty happy to be here.

This afternoon are more penguins to be seen and a view of something (the famous Galapagos view I guess). Ta for now though. It is time for a quick siesta before then.

Later ...
Well, we went for our snorkel at Bartholemew and I went too far with Gayle. Getting back against the current without flippers was very tiring. The snorkeling here isn’t great except for seeing penguins and sea lions swim by. There was one really confused penguin that seemed to be in a trance on a rock we were there for 2 hours and it didn’t even move a little. I’m exhousted after the swim back to the beach that was faster and harder than I’ve had to swim in a long while.

When we got back from this afternoon’s adventures we all decided to jump off the boat from the second story. It was the highest I’d ever jumped from. I went twice, it was great fun.

MAY 25

Still here in the Galapagos, I think this was the best morning yet. We got to see big colonies of Sea Aguanas bathing in the sun. They are fabulous to photograph because they sit perfectly still. Hopefully my two pictures of the sea turtle coming up for air in a little water hole will turn out as well. This morning we stopped at St James, a black sand beach much like those found in western New Zealand. The snorkeling there was fabulous.

Anchored right near us was the owner of the Orlando Magic. He ahd his $26 million dollar yaht and another charted to house the crew.

I’m subsisting on vertually no food especially given the amount of exercize during the day. If this trip doesn’t allow me to drop a few pounds then nothing ever will.

All the people here (in my English speaking group) are really nice. My roommate is Sarah from Northern England her Dad is from Scotland and looks a lot like Sean Connery. Gayle and another Sarah room together. Gayle has been living in Minneapolis and Sarah goes to school at the other U of M. Matthew is a friend of Sarah and a dental student at UM. He’s kinda cute but very obviously not interested. I must say this trip has placed my fears very much into the background. It's kinda nice to let someone else do the worrying and leading about and just sit and follow directions.

Oh well Siesta time again, so I’m going to sleep.

MAY 26

This morning I finally got some money!! $174 which should last me a bit longer (covers my plane ticket at least). I probably should have gotten a bit more but it felt so strange to put in 1.6 million of any currency that I kinda wimped out. Still haven’t managed to phone my parents, hopefully I can do that when we are back in Quito for the day.

This afternoon was fairly dull we went to the Darwin Institute and saw some fairly dull looking tortoises. Poor English Sarah fainted from dehydration so we pumped her full of water and salts.

I still have a cold and its making me tired and listless as well as taking away my thirst because of a sore throat. And dinner tonight was wonderful fried rice and some pudding pie.

This is quite a fun group of people to be with I enjoy all of their company imensly. Maybe I’ll even get out to MN some time to visit Saray and Matt.

Yesterday might I was miserable with sea sickness I just lay there all night wanting to be on land and hopeful my stomach would stop turning. I ended up sleeping in my clothes. Tomorrow we go to look at hammerhead sharks which I’m not looking forward to. I hate sharks and do not want to be in the water with 12 hungery ones.

They asked me to come into town with them but I declined. It doesn’t sound like much fun and I need no extra urges to spend my few dollars. Not to mention the cold I’m trying to fight off.

I’m very hopeful that all the exercise I’ve done here is going to help me make the Inca trail without dying.

Today some newcomers joined our group. There is an Australian couple and an American father who look like Willie Nelson and daughter.

MAY 29

Well today has been fairly uneventful. We went to see and feed tortoises and buy postcards at Floreanna. I saw the tortoises there and met a dog named Whiskey. This afternoon we dropped of the postcards and then went to see the ’invisible’ hammerhead sharks of the ‘devils crown’ crator. It was pretty neat swimming.

I feel a bit badly. I said I’d jump off the top deck and when I saw the height from there I wimped out. I hurt my ankle diving from just the second tier so as stupid as it probably is another reaon is the fact I can’t get hurt yet – not even a minor injury because I have too much to do.

Dread is setting in about the Inca trail. I’m not sure where my desire to do it came from, now I just hope I’m not struggling the entire way.

Gino (the tour guide) always comes over to chat me up. All I can do is sit there I’m a bit like Rebecca I am so worried aobut sending out signals my butt won’t cash that I come off as a bitch.

It’s a bit odd to think about what people are doing back in Ann Arbor. Its hard to believe haw far away I am. I find it continually amazing that while I’m on a trip I’m always counting the days til the end. I guess its because even though I’m only 22 I’m road weary. Its hard to get excited over stuff that more and more has become standard fair (I didn’t even get out of bed for dolphins this morning).

I thought of a book title form my travel stories I want to write up. “the Long Way” or “Disapearing Ferries, Closing Airports and Tropical Disease”.

MAY 28

This morning we were up at 5:30am with the boat moving all night I barely got a wink of sleep. Thus this will be quick. We went to Espanola, home of the blue footed boobies, masked boobies, and the albatross. There was also a blow hole which was pretty cool but trying to keep my eyes open through it all was a battle.

This afternoon was uneventful except for the sea lion that took some time out of his day to swim with me, which was pretty neat.

I still haven’t phoned my parents. I figured I’ll allow a bit of extra time at the airport on Monday to do it.

I lost big at memory tonight – my brain is in permently shut off mode. Dinner was really bad and now I’m starving!

Oprah says you should keep a thankful list.
1. Having the ability to pay for this
2. Great people on board.
3. That people think I’m interesting

Not looking forward to Inca trail and the countdown begins!!

MAY 30

Its been a couple days and I’m on my way back to Quito. My ticket of course got screwed up. But Gino, our guide managed to sort it out in the end.

We’ve seen the blue footed boobied mating dances they stop their feet and spread their wings. And swistel like a badly played flute. Then they also quack like ducks.

I also saw the yellow version of my fish “Lisa Ribido Amillo” the yellow mullet fish. They sit right near the surface and look like seaweed.

My plane probably won’t leave until late tomorrow so I’ll have to find a way to kill the day without spending money (that ought be interesting). My money situation is pretty bad. I didn’t realize all the tipping that would be involved with the guides and trips.

Today we went to an island full of friggits in the midst of mating season. They blow up this red balloon on their neck and show it off to the women. Then the happy couple sits in the tree and the male even appears to have a wing around the shoulder of his new girlfriend.

Also saw some eagle tipped rays. They seemed to be all oer the place yesterday when we went snorkeling off the boat at Santa Fe. I’m told there was a shark right in front of me there as well but I couldn’t see it.

My brand new camera also seems to have hit a hitch and doesn’t want to take photos anymore. I’m hopeful the manual I brought will shed some light on the issue.

Oh well we’re hitting some turbulance so I’ll write a bit more later.

PS Don’t forget to use purified water when you brush your teeth.

Later ...

Well, Galapagos is officially over. I said goodbye to my friends yesterday. I also managed to get in touch with my parents (although we were disconnected after aobut a minute). I figure that at least they know I’m alive and I’ll call them from the airport this afternoon.

I managed to get on the right plane back to Quito after all and we all went on a tour of old town here and went to the equator as well. Old Town was incredible we drove through the market is was filled with people carrying their whole store fronts on their backs. Most of the merchandise was black market forgeries of US names, Levis etc. People were burning things in the streets. It was just controlled chaos. Then we went through San Fransisco cathedral which was absolutly amazing! Built in the 16th century the insides were all gold in that ultra gawdy style, but the effect was incredible. Inside there was a mass going on which made the others really nervous, but I just hought that made it even neater to see that people were still using it regularly and it wasn’t just a tourist trap.

After that it was off to dinner. We were all starved because the last meal had been around 10am in the plane. We were walking down the main street (Avenue de Amazons) and were practically accousted by the waiters there hoping we would sit down and eat. We did, and I got a full meal for about a $1.50. The six of us ate for $24.

Oh on the town the guide also mentioned the fact that unemployment was 37% (the Great Depression’s high was 25%).

I also net a very peculiar Franch woman on the plane who was thrilled I could speak French (she was from Leon) although she kept saying she was Belge. She was talking incessently about her husband who she had been separated from as they got onto the plane open seating here). I had to negotiate with a bitchy flight attendant about letting her up to try and find him (I’m not surprised he hid). Then we got off and she found him (he looked closer to a sons age) and he didn’t say a word just lookced at me and kept walking. VERY STRANGE PEOPLE!!

I’m finally at the airport on my way to Lima. Looks like its going to be a long night and I won’t get into Lima until almost midnight. I’m not sure why all the flights are so late at night it doesn’t really make any sense.

I’m beginning to realize as Bob says “Why S. America is not a super power.” You know how its frustrating as all hell when a person seems to be moveing at half speed. Picture an entire nation moving at quarter speed. You just want to shout but you don’t know any good Spanish obsenitites.

The taxi ride on the way here was fabulous. We went around the entire city it seemed. The hills (or mountains is better) surround the city and limit it to an area of about 8 km wide.

My stomach is rebelling today I just wish it didn’t have to do this so after its like torture to walk around and try to function like a human being.

I got ripped off by the (Cambio de Exchange) which REALLY pissed me off. The woman gave me back about 20 10,000 sucre bills, but woundn’t lower the size of my $100 bill. BITCHY!

JUNE 2

Here in Peru is very different. I got ripped off in Lima $30 from the airport and I tipped him! WHY OH WHY!!

We went to the meat market and saw llama fetuses, guinea pigs, cow heads … you get the idea. There are some beautiful churches in the plaza.

Julie and I took a cat up to Sacsayhuaman 5 soles what a deal! (3 soles to the dollar).

JUNE 4

Well, today was the big day. Yesterday was hard enough but at 7 am we headed off on 1000 meter climb nearly straight up. I thought I was going to die. It took me 4 and a half hours. I was dead last. Everyone and their grandmother passed me. Jo (this nice Australian lady took pity on me and waited a half an hour so that we could go up together). That was over the first mountain to Dead Womans Pass. I decided to prove to myself that I wasn’t a total looser and made it up the next mtn first by nearly a half an hour. Jo was pretty quick too. I was proud of us.

I’m falling apart and grumpy. My nail fell off and there seems to be blisters growing under some of the others. That makes it more painful to go downhill for tomorrow. Tomorrow hot showers at the campsite!!! Woo Hoo!!! I can’t quite distinguish between the dirt line and the tan line. In Africa I’ll definetly have to start wearing sandels because I have sock lines from hiking.

Jo and Ian are such nice people. They're my parents age and the are always looking out for me and trying to pep up my spirits.

I can’t wait to check my email when I get back to Cuzco. I sent out a really long message to everyone I knew and I’m hoping to get a reply back. Its unfortunate that Africa probably won’t have the same access.

It’s going to be a really cold night. We’re on top of a mountain near Runkuragay it's about 3800 meters up and completely exposed to the wind.

I can’t believe that the GAP brochure lists this as ‘reasonably fit’ every corner you turned there seemed to be another wall of stairs to conquer.

JUNE 5

The words never, never, never again jump to mind when describing the last few days. Yesterday was over 1000 meters straight down a mtn in a seemingly endless dirt track with twists and turns. I thought I would die before seeing the end.

Then 4 o’clock in this morning to walk to the sun gate to watch the sun rise. After yet another sleepless night this one with Seb up all night puking and crapping I barely got a wink of sleep. By the time they woke me I couldn’t give a crap about the sun gate (pouring rain and no sun rise by the way) or even Manchu Pichu for that matter so I trudged up the mountain dreading every rotten step of it. I had no energy because dinner was late and I skipped it because I was totally exhausted then breakfast I was too scared to eat anything because I was worried aobut this flu bug.

I must admit however Manchu Pichu was quite impressive it housed over a thousand people and was abandonned for no apparent reason. The temple of the Condore and the Temple of the Sun were the best parts because of the amazing stone work. The two stones were stacked on top of one another with a little water, bronze, clay and sand and pushed back and forth until the fit was perfect. [I always thought all the stone work was like that, but the Incas weren’t crazy. Only the temples had the good stuff, the houses were all just primitive stone and mud].

The toilets before Manchu Pichu [the place where the hot showers were supposed to be] were completely atrotious. Some were turkish styple with no doors or covering at all. Covered in mold and smelly … the smell was almost indescribable. There was one womans toilet for the whole camp and by 7 pm it was plugged up and disgusting as well.

Tonight was the best of all. True to Lisa form, the car (mini-van) that picked us up at Ollyumbtytombo and was supposed to bring us back to Cuzco overheated and they seized the engine. So we spent about 15 minutes pouring in any bottled water we had and made it another 5 minutes up the road. About another 30 minutes later a cattle truck was just a bit bigger than a pick up and was amost completely open to the elements.

We were all huddled under the sleeping bags we had between us and went on the 40-50km we had left.

The locals looked at us like we were crazy. 10 pm and a cattle truck full of Gringos pulls through the tiny cobblestone streets of Cuzco!

The stars out there were incredible during the ride. And under my nice warm sleeping bag I even fell asleep until Carole fell asleep on top of me and caught my shoulder.

Whoever thoght I’d be riding through Peru in a cattle truck in the middle of the night sitting on an old sugar bag full of m belongings for the Inca Trail.

The Infamous Porters

They would run up and down the paths with all of our crap in shoes made out of old tires carrying 30 – 40 kilos for $6 a trip plus tips. One marathoner made the 50 km trip in three and a half hours.

Tomorrow is more ruins …

Oh yeah. The train ride. It was full of people. We paid $5 to get reserved seats so no pushing and shoving. There’s almost a carnival atmosphere about it. As people walk around tring to sell you candies or a plastic bad full of tea. You need a window seat to enjoy it .. or you end up with your head in someones armpit the whole trip along with bags hitting you in the head the entire trip. The train shudders so hard sometimes it seems like it will come right off the tracks. There was a band playing beatles melodies in the aisles for a few soles.

And before that there was the ride down from Manchu Pichu to Aguas Calientes. We took a bus and a little boy ran down the side of the mtn and kept up with the bus for a few soles.

When we got to Aguas Calientes it was really strange little town built almost on top of the realroad tracks with no real road of its own. The mkt was outrageously expensive so hopefully at Cusco I can find my rug/wall hanging thingy.

JUNE 7

This morning I’ve been farily good about getting things done I went and did some email although it took forever to get through. The laundry cost me $5, for it ironed, folded and finished it in one day. Not a bad deal I say!

Today we are going off to see more ruins, but on horse back which should be pretty fun. At least here’s no walking involved my legs felt almost crippled this morning when I woke up.

I’ve decided to get my carpet thing now I just have to find it an do a bit of bargaining to get the price down to a suitalbe level (Yasing says I should be able to find one for 60 soles or $20)

I thought of something I’d forgotten … Nope it’s gone again …

Oh the constellations are upside down here. Like the big dipper and you can see both hemisphere’s constellations. I ate nearly an entire pizza yesterday, it tasted wonderful. I’m finally getting my appetite back.

Seb said that in Africa everything that can go wrong does, twice. Broken axles, tires, stuck in mud. Well, it sounds like an adventure alright. I can’t wait.

My Dad says he hasn’t heard anything about my car yet. Hopefully [Bubba] will be there when I get home. I guess Sally is very sick my Dad couldn’t save her transmission. I don’t think it was anything I did in particular, but she’s very old.

JUNE 8

Yesterday was horseback riding. Well, we went and had a ‘typical’ Peruvian meal. It was in a courtyard/ barn area with dogs, lundry, scraming little boy with diareahea butt. I ordered a Sprite because I wasn’t going to risk vomiting the night away (since I got my own room yesterday night). The horses were scary for me, mine almost threw me. Twice. The temples were interesting although there was a lot of same ole same ole. The temple of the moon was interesting. Its like in a cave and full moon lights it up. The guide told us that a few years ago a little boy was sacrificed there.

We also saw a sun temple which was where virgins were sacrificed. The bled to death and the blood was poured down channels that ran into the caves. YUCK.

It seems my emails were a hit. People are even forwarding them to other people.

JUNE 10

We are sitting on a boat on our way to Tequille island from Puno. We stopped at 2 islands that had been built during Incan times so that they could hide out. The last of this race died in 1965, but people are still building their own islands completely out of reeds that grow in the shallows.

You can feel the ground moving because it take a couple of years for it to ‘land’ when the reeds sick enough to hit the ground.

One group had recently decided to break off from the others so that they could have solar power. So they just cut their half of the island and pushed themselves away.

I must say I’m tiring of this part of the journey and I can’t wait to get to Africa and go do some new things.

Tonight we stay with a family apparently there’s no electricity and little running water. I don’t think any of us are really looking forward to it. Especially since we’ll be put into 3’s so one of us singles are going to get stuck with HP and Carole. I guess I’ve been elected to state that none of us will spend the night with them.

Seb tells me Buenos Aires is pretty westernized with hopefully means finding good food and books in English. Mabe even a post office.

PERU. An Interesting Meal.

Today we went on a trip out to Pisac to visit the market that is very famous there. I had so much fun bargaining. You just get the shopkeepers to tell you a price and then halve it, by the look on their face you can tell how insulted they are (since these are usually handicrafts). It's only through this method that I can figure out the true prices of the goods. It's my own stubbornness that doesn't allow me to pay more then the local price for a good.

In the end I got a little chess board where the Incas and their llamas are battling the Spaniards (it was about 5 dollars). The rugs are absolutely beautiful and wonderful to look at but were just too much for my meager budget to handle, both in weight and money, even with some tough bargaining. My other purchase for the day was a little bronze llama, I think that's it for Peruvian keepsakes. With another 3 months to go space is at a premium even in my endless crusade to find more great "Crap from Around the World" (you should hear the echo effects of that in my mind for the full effect). Tomorrow we leave for Puno, I have no idea what's there, or even if its in Peru or Bolivia (go figure).

On our way back from Puno market we had originally planned to take the public bus but a taxi driver came up and offered to take us back for $1.50 each. However, since the public bus was only 50 cents we walked away. Now mind you this is an hour long drive over a mountain and the bus we would have had to take would have been packed into with close to a 100 locals and their market purchases. And no offence to the locals, but Ban Deoderant definitly has not made any great strides in convincing the market of their need for their product.

Finally, we got him to agree to 80 cents each for the ride -- not bad. It really seems ridiculous when you could afford to pay so much more, and certainly would in the US, but it becomes the principle of the thing --- not to pay more than the locals. He didn't spend all that much on gas however, on the down side of the mountain the engine was cut and we rolled into our final destination in neutral.

The four single people on this trip are all fun and we all get along really well so its been a lot of socializing and great to have other people to have a meal with for once. Eating alone is just depressing, and it's only magnified a thousand times in a beautiful foreign country where unmarried 20 year-olds are considered hopeless spinsters. However, while eating alone is definitly depressing, yesterday's meal would be memorable regardless of the company.

It was definitly a learning experience. We went horseback riding to various ruins the names and signifance of which are now all completely muddled in my mind. Well, it was someone's idea to stop and get some food before we started the tour. We were lead into what looked like a barn or courtyard area (it was owned by the people who were going to rent us the horses). There were dogs running around, hay in the corner, you could smell the horses and their were bottles of beer lying all over the place. We were told that "The Menu" cost 1 dollar (soup, drink, main dish, and dessert). Personally, I took one look around and ordered a sprite, but the others decided to risk their stomachs and ordered lunch.

While we sat there and waited for the food. Seb noticed the little boy of about 18 months running around screaming at the top of his lungs. Then he leaned over to play with something. Well, there was a little plumbers crack, but that's really cute, right? Not when your waiting to eat and their is green poo hanging out of it, BUT WAIT, it gets better.

The soup comes out, very good they all say. Ate it up, no problem. Then the woman of the house walks out of the kitchen with a bunch of meat in her hands. She walks over to a big rock in this courtyard-barn area and tenderizess the meat with another rock that's sitting on the ground next to the big flat rock. Okay, well that's a little gross we all think but its still okay (I'm just glad at this point I passed on the food). Remember the dogs? Well, of course they wander over and start licking the remains of the meat juice that was on the big rock. At this point the Prissy Englishman with us starts freaking out and even our guide whose fairly used to this decides to pass on the food. They decided that they could deal with dirt but not food that had been indirectly licked by the dogs.

The horses from there were a treat as well. Two of them hated each other and H.P. (aka "the prissy Englishman") had no idea how to ride so his horse would gallop up to the one it hated and try to bite it. Once almost throwing him off a steep cliff although I can't say we would have minded a small injury keeping him from the rest of the trip. The owners were there as well and would bring the horses galloping up behind and those in front would take off. The horses also had absolutely no concept of a two-legged rider and mine pinned me many times, not to mention often leaving my leg stranded at the back end of another persons horse (luckily for me none of them went to the bathroom).

It was a bit scary because these had to be the stupidest horses on earth and they kept bolting, especially when any one of the nine spotted a patch of water.

I guess I missed out on some of the fun because at summer solstice all sorts of cool things happen at the Inca sights. They were made to use the sun and the moon, especially in the temples. So during summer solstice at a lot of the sights the sun will hit the rocks just right and create the image of a puma or shine into some caves at just the right angle to light them up.

Im not sure if I will find email, in many other places and it will probably cost more than a dollar an hour so this might be the last in this series of stories but I will do my best to keep you all up to date on my adventures!

Lots of love,
Lisa

PERU. The Inca Trail.

Again, greetings from Peru. Given the fairly positive response I received from the last addition of "a day in the life ... " I'll send out another generic response.

Well, obviously I lived through the Inca trail. Although, it was close at times. We walked more than 30 miles over three mountains in 3 days. The first day as I huffed along behind even Jo the Australian (who is 55, by the way). I spent most of my time thinking, "What the HELL am I doing here!" Then that "1/2 mile" straight up the second day turned out to be a 4 and a half hour climb up a virtual stairway (and closer to a mile).

I was behind everyone by an hour, Jo waited for me so that I wouldn't look like a loser. THEN after lunch we walked down the same bloody mountain and up another (I was first up this time) where we camped for the evening (on the edge of a cliff in 10 degree weather with wind gusts up to 40 mph).

Those poor souls that were still drinking that coca tea got water poisoning (you have to boil it longer at 15 000 feet) and were puking and crapping the entire night.

Meanwhile I managed to infect almost the entire group with my cold just as I'm getting over it (I'm really popular now). There was hope in the supposedly "easy" third day. Lets define 'easy', shall we? To me it is not a 3 hour hike up yet another mountain followed by 4 1/2 hours climbing almost straight down over 3,000 feet. You could see the valley below the whole time your ankles and knees are screaming that you couldn't possibly walk another step.

I was near tears by the end and found myself passed by some crazy German who was doing this two months after breaking her ankle. At the end of all this we were supposed to find hot showers, but instead paid 5 soles to be dribbled on by luke warm water. Given that we hadn't seen running water in 3 days it was still wonderful at the time.

There was one toilet there for about 60 campers, unless you call the cement structure with a hole and completely open to the world, covered in a green fungus of some sort, smelled to high heaven because people were afraid to get too far in, a toilet. (Seb told me there was crap of every color and consistency, puke and urine covering them as well).

unfortunately, we were also camped on a cliff ledge and there was nowhere to pee. After no sleep for the 3rd night in a row, and a couple more of our group get water poisoning, they wake us up at 4 am for a 3 hour climb in the pouring rain to see the sun rise (obviously there was some confusion about sunrises and cloud cover). We walk to the "sun gate" which is totally obscured by clouds. I was so tired and pissed off I barely stopped and just headed down to Manchu Pichu. To get to the end we again had to face a never ending climb down the side of a mountain. Our guide told us to wait in the restaurant at the bottom of the hill.

Did I mention that Manchu Pichu is at the top of said hill? I was wondering what the hell that was all about, because I certainly was not going to climb down just to climb back up again ... but that's what we did. All of us were pissed off, completely exhausted, dehydrated and needing a real bed. My only thought was NEVER AGAIN, NEVER, NEVER , NEVER. AGAIN.

Anyway, we saw Manchu Pichu which is really quite impressive (I should note here that you can take a train there, not to mention the fact that the Incas themselves took a short cut through the valley). We finally got on a train back to Cusco.

We had to pay 3 dollars extra to get reserved seats. It was quite an experience. The vendors follow you on board and walk up and down the aisles with sweets and plastic bags full of warm tea. A band was also in the aisle playing Beatles tunes on traditional instruments. The B.O. was horrible for those stuck in aisle seats because most of the locals had to stand and being in the aisle meant sitting just at armpit level. Then there was the fact that the train shook so badly I thought it was going to derail! We got off a stop early because taking a bus back to Cusco was actually shorter (usually ... IÂ’ll explain why not in this case).

We get on a bus for the 2 hour ride back to Cusco. The minivan/bus overheats. We all jump out and offer our water, the driver knows nothing about cars and Ian is screaming at him inEnglishh not to put the cold water in there without the motor running. Well, they finally get it cooled down and we go back on our way ... for about 5 minutes. Then the engine seizes and we pull off the road in front of another dead bus that has beenabandonedd. Well, we all jump out and people were taking pictures and looking up at the stars (which are beyond incredible).

Thirty minutes later when no one had come to get us we started to get cold andwhinyy it was now after 9 and we had been up since 4 am. Then a cattle truck slows down and drives by and we all think well at least we weren't expected to get in that. SURPRISE! It turns around and comes back and stops in front of our bus. I think someone said, "you've got to be kidding" but they weren't.

Thirty miles away Cusco sits and they are loading our luggage and us into the back of a cattle truck that didn't even have a roof!! It was a 40 minute ride and freezing cold, but highly entertaining. We put all of our clothes on and spread the sleeping blankets that we had out for everyone. Then we drove through a police check point looking like refugees and finally into Cusco where people looked very surprised to see a bunch of gringos standing up in the back of a cattle truck!! The hotel personnel was a bit surprised as well.

Well, needless to say it was nice to be back in the warmth of a hotel, with cable even! I also dropped off my laundry and will get it back to day, 50 cents a pound -- they wash, dry and iron your clothes for you and get them back in a couple of hours ... you've gotta love the prices!

I'm too quickly out of time, and I was hoping to send some personal messages, but this was the latest!!