Along the way

I don´t have a lot to report today, but I am paying for an hour of time on the computer so I thought I would use it. I left Ollyantatambo yesterday and arrived in Cuzco. I think I was ready to get out of the little villages. Although they were charming and fun, I´m a city boy at heart. Cuzco, in Chicago standards, is small, but from where I´m coming from, it is large. They have many plazas and people everywhere.

I got to my hostal, checked in, and set out. I stumbled upon a panderia(bakery). Lo and behold, it´s in my guidebook as one of the best. I got a cafe con leche and a few sweet treats. As I was sitting down I heard, ¨Matt?¨ It was Holly and Drew from my mountain bike trip. They had just dropped the father, Bill, and son, Chris, off at the airport. They sat with me for a bit and we chatted about our days since mountain biking. Holly also fell and bruised some ribs, so I made out no worse for wear after my fall. I did find a mysterious bruise on my arm today however.

After the treats, I set out on the town, got lost in the streets and had a blast. The altitude doesn´t seem to be bothering me too bad. I was a little dizzy yesterday with a mild, mild headache, but today I feel fine. I found a travel agent and was able to book my trip to the jungle. I leave tomorrow. I´m sorta leery as they are picking me up at my hostal at 9:30 and that is when the boarding time is for my flight. Now Cuzco´s airport is small, only two baggage areas, but I´m still a tad frightened I´ll miss my flight. If I´ve learned one thing planning this Peru trip and being here it is, don´t count your chickens until they hatch. The trip itself is cheap, I do have to room with another person, but that´s fine. The plane tickets here are sky high. LAN Peru airlines I´m not a fan. They like to screw over foreigners with ticket prices. But, I´m guessing I won´t make it back to the Amazon again, so it´s worth it.

Later in the day I was buying post cards(don´t get excited, you probably won´t get one if you are capable of checking this blog-which you are!)for my grandparents, Mrs. Greene(my 4th grade teacher) and parents. I hear, ¨Matt?¨again. Now it is the school group I met on the train the day before. I chatted with the teacher and her daughter and they invited me to live music that they were going to see at night. After more shopping and just sort of walking around, taking pictures of doorways and windows(so many cool ones here) I headed back to my room. I´ve been without a television for a week now. I honestly didn´t mind at all, but now that I have one I had to turn it on. Will and Grace in Spanish is still funny!

I met the teachers and teens up at 9 and headed to a discoteque. The live music didn´t work out. It is so funny to watch 15 and 16 year olds dance. It totally made me think of a dance in the fall of freshman year, after a football game. I was with Mike Jones and Chris Johnson and we had just met Breah McPherson and she was with Missy Eister(most of you will not know any of those people). Anyway, I remember Breah teaching me to dance. She said, ¨Just loosen your knees and shoulders.¨ Now thinking back on it and the fact that I can cut a rug now, it is funny. But these teen boys were the same way. They girls were dragging them to the floor and making them dance.

Anyway, this is much longer than I intended. My point in this blog was to relay some of the things I´ve learned along the way. Much like learning in Thailand that you do not put the toilet paper in the toilet, it goes in the basket next to you, here are some other things I have learned while in Peru.

-Tang is still popular
-Llamas roam the street even in the city
-After one flush of the toilet it runs and runs and runs
-¨Old people¨ can use walking sticks at Machu Picchu
-People love a good town square
-Motzerella sticks are called Finger Cheese
-The Inca Nation flag is a rainbow : )
-Knowing Spanish would be a good thing here
-Most people are genuine and helpful
-Some people are not helpful at all
-Women carry babies, crops, even lambs on their back
-¨Right Now¨by Van Halen is in the Top 20 on VH1
-Peruvian toilet paper has puppies on it
-Need a reason to come to Peru? ¨Together Forever¨by Rick Astley on the radio!!