Lima, Cuzco

After a nice long morning of flying, crossing two time zones and with one layover, I finally made it to Lima, Peru. Since I did not have a reservation in a hostel, I had just picked one and put the address on my bag. Luckily that hostel did have space and one of the 50 taxi drivers shouting in the baggage claim took me there.

There was not really anyone in the hostel when I got there so I went and grabbed a bite to eat and then took a stroll down to the beach. Lima was pretty overcast and the beach I saw was not all that nice. There were however a decent amount of people out surfing and the waves looked kind of fun. When I got back to the hostel I went into the living room and somepeople were watching a movie. There were a lot of english speaking travelers there so I got to asking them about what they had done so far in Peru. Talking to everyone really eased my mind about not having any set plans, because a lot of them were that way too. We all ended up going out together with some of the guys that work at the hostel to a little house party. One of the girls I met was Kate who was from Maryland and the other girl was Jess from England. We made plans to go with two of the local Peruvian guys they knew on an excursion the next day.

Juan and Paul finally showed up at 12ish even though we were supposed to leave at 11. Jess was sick so it was just Kate and me along for the ride. We drove about an hour out of town to a city called Chosica. Apparently lots of people from Lima go to Chosica on the weekends because its really relaxing (minus the traffic on the way up) There was a huge outdoor restaurant with a live band that we pulled up to. The whole theme for this restaurant and apparently many others in Peru, was ¨Pachamanca.¨ Pachamanca is a Quechua word, pacha meaning earth and manca meaning pot or food. So what its food that is cooking the the earth. They dig a big hole and heat up rocks over a fire then throw in sweet and regular potatoes, chicken, corn, lamb, pork, steak, cover all that up with bags and cloths and let it cook for 20 min and you have pachamanca. It was really delicious and I especially enjoyed this food called humita, which is mashed corn with a little sugar cooked in the cornhusks, it tasted a lot like cornbread.

Later that day we drove back and stopped at Limas ...your going to have to forgive the punctuation from here on out the keyboard wont let me add certain things anymore.... Limas main square the Plaza de Armas. It was absolutely beautiful, we were there at night and all the old buildings were lit up. In old Lima the colonial buildings have these ornate balconies all made of wood from the days when the extremely rich lived in the city center. After walking around a bit longer Juan, thought that I should try some anticuchos, these just happened to be slices of cow heart accompanied with other intestinal parts. Believe it or not it was actually pretty good once you got over the psychological factor. I also sampled some unique fruits but can not remember what they are called.

This morning I had another 6am flight which meant that once again I had to wake up at 3am. It was a quick 1 hour flight from Lima to Cuzco, with some beautiful scenery. I was however wondering as we approached Cuzco where exactly it was we were going to land, because I had not seen a single bit of flat earth since we left. The plane had to do a spiraling downward descent because there was no possible way to shoot straigt in. Cuzco just so happens to be 11,500 feet above sea level and the thin air is quite a shock. Any amount of walking takes some labored breathing at least for right now and I have had a headache all day, but It must not be bother me that much, I am going mountain biking through the Sacred Valley of the Incas tomorrow.

I took a nice long nap this morning and after a delicous lunch of Alpaca steak and quinoua risotta, I walked down the the train station to get my tickets to Machu Picchu. Unfortunatley I did not get quite the itinerary I was looking for, which is my fault for not planning it sooner. I have to take a bus to the halfway point of the train journey on the way there and on the way back. But I worked it out so I will have a full day at Machu Picchu which means I can get there before the crowds and also means that I will be able to hike Huinay Huayna a near by mountain that only 400 people per day are allowed to go up.

I walked to some other nearby ruins this evening, which were very cool, as was the weather at the top. Now I am thinking about grabbing a bite to eat and calling it a day. Sacred Valled tomorrow Machu Picchu on thursday.