Two Beers and a Pretzel

After a comfortable nights sleep, everyone from the trek decided to meet fof lunch at noon, go to the Irish Pub for a while, then negotiate a group rate for deep tissue massages.  I also stopped and got a shave at a barber shop.  Then we all met back at the Pub around 7 PM to continue the St. Patty’s Day festivities where I met a surprising number of Irish girls – considering it’s Peru.

I can’t believe I found 2 cute brunette Irish girls – Caitriona and Anna Marie

Some half Irish girls – J’nae and Alexis (who I first met in Puerto Madryn like 6 weeks ago)

Anna Marie was ditched by her friends as they’d been drinking since 11:30 AM.  Their original plan was to complete 12 hours of partying, but around 10:30 PM, she’d had enough and could barely stand up.  I walked her back to her hostel – which was an event in itself since she couldn’t remember where it was.  Considering the fact that she was a bit too drunk, I was a gentleman and left after getting a nice goodbye kiss

I got back to the Pub just in time to find Gavin, J-nae and Alexis and make our way to the most popular club in Cusco, Mama Africa.  This place is a dingy, smoke filled, hook-up joint with bad dance music – but it kind of has a captive audience, as everyone from Loki gets in free.  I opted out at 2:30 AM as the smoke was too thick and the music was really bad.

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Then on the 18th, I visited the Cathedral here in Cusco.  Unfortunately, they did not allow photography, but the complex contains the most religious treasures in South America.

This was J’nae’s last day in Cusco, so we ‘had’ to go out again to Mama Africa.  It was a bit better as the crowd was not as heavy, and Alexis was fennageling free drink tickets since she’s currently working at Loki.

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On the 19th, Gavin and I visited the Saqsaywaman (literally pronounced ‘Sexy Woman”) archeological site.  We must have drank a bit too much last night. because we had successfully negotiated the Inca Trail, but this place was killing us.  This was an Inca temple that was pillaged for stones to build the Spanish cathedrals.  Some of the remaining stones are as big as a truck.

The former fortress is atop a hill overlooking Cusco – next to the white Christo statute that is illuminated at night, giving the the affectionale nickname – “Neon Jesus”.

The view of the town is pretty good from his perspective.

I’m probably taking a bus to Nazca to see the lines, then another to Lima, so it may be a while before I can post again…

I’ve been researching flights to New Zealand, and they’re running $2500 to $3000.  However, Lima to LA is $1100, flights from LA to Fiji are about $700, and Fiji to Auckland runs $200.  Most of the expensive flights go thru LAX anyway, but without the relaxing pace that I’ll attempt.  I’ll save some cash, pick up and international driver’s license (so I can rent a car in NZ) and a few new Lonely Planet books, see my cousin in LA, then hit a beach in Fiji for a few days before flying to NZ.  We’ll see what happens…

So after the long bus to Lima, my first real night in Peru (the 9th) was aggravating… some small insect bit my lower eyelid, and the hostel was very loud.

Looking forward to what turned out to be a 20 hour bus ride back to southern Peru and up again to Cusco for $30, I opted for the 1 hour flight for $160.

Cusco is supposedly the oldest continually inhabited city in the Americas – about 3000 years.  It looks a helluva lot like Florence, Italy.  There’s Inca walls everywhere with Spanish Colonial buildings built right on top of them.  Among the cobblestone streets are a number of public squares and a surprising number of very old churches.

I arrived in Cusco just after lunch on Tuesday the 10th, and found the LOKI hostel.  This place was a decaying 500 year old building that was restored and turned into the most hopping hostel I’m been in yet.  It feels like you’re staying in an old castle.  To give you an idea how cool this place is, checkout is around 1 PM.  They also serve breakfast until 1 PM, they have a great bar, lots of activities, and totally expect you to go out after the bar closes at 1:30 AM.  Nice comfy beds and clean bathrooms.

The posted rules include “when you come home blind drunk at 7 AM, please try to be what reasonable people would consider ‘not too loud’, and try not to fall when climbing the ladder into the wrong bed.”

I’m in a 12 bed dorm with a bunch of really cool Swedes and Norwegians.

After making my way around town to Lama Path (my tour company) and paying my balance for the Inca Tral trek, I hiked around town a bit to try getting used to the 11,000 ft altitude, and made my way back to the hostel just after dark.

As an aside, on the bus trip from Mendoza, we somehow passed thru 2 time zones as we crossed the Andes.  Mendoza is 2 hours from Ohio time, Santiago is on Atlantic time, and Peru is on Eastern time, so it get’s dark around 7 PM here.

I found my way back to the Hostel bar and ran into all the Swedes drinking and playing UNO.  The hostel has a great Irish stew dinner for $3 at 8 PM, then pub quiz at 9.  Since my team (nmaed “The Ohio Farmers” by a drunk Swede) was horribly inebriated, we finished 2nd out of 10 teams by a mere 1 point behind a surprizingly sober team of Aussies and Brits.  Kind of reminds me of Pub Quiz at Fado back in Columbus where Will, Shenika and I were always in the running (if not the lead) regardless of how large and sober the other teams were…

After the quiz, the revelry lasted until about 1:30 AM.  A bunch of people went out, but I opted for bed, as heavy drinking is not recommended for your first day at altitude.

I woke up today around 11AM, took a shower, and had a WONDERFUL bacon, eggs and OJ breakfast for $3.  I went out to shop for a waterproof jacket and discovered that this whole town is full of knock-off fashion from North Face.  I think I’ll keep my current gear and just buy a spare poncho.
There was a debate in the hostel as to whether all the massage places around town were legit.  On the way back from shopping, I found out that at least the one I went to was a legit massage parlor (AKA, not a borthel).  I got a killer deep tissue massage that left me feeling like a lump of jello.  1 hour for about $8.
I’m taking it easy today (the 12th) to acclimate some more and to generally relax before trekking.  The Inca trail is supposed to be a killer on your knees and lungs…