03/11 - finished Peru blogging

Well, it's taken me 11 days of sitting on Jim's couch to finish blogging about our Peru trip. During that time, I have finished watching Mad Men up through season 4. Season 5 is in the mail, and should be arriving any day. I have also watched many episodes of Star Trek (TOS) since they are easy to blog over. I've been drinking a lot of hot chocolate with Emmet's (which is like Bailey's), and extra dirty gin martinis.

I got a replacement phone from eBay for $15. It's identical to my old one, except it needs a new battery, and the flash timing is better. Every time I look at it, I think of the photos I lost. But I am happy to have a camera again, and it's a welcome change to have a flash that actually lets me take photos in dim light. I am not even totally sure that it can function as a phone, yet. There is no service out here, so I can't call Verizon and set it up until we go to the coast. I think we are doing that tomorrow. 

People I talk to are still asking "How was Peru? Did you take a lot of pictures?" And I have a violent urge to throw up on them, every time.

Another thing they keep asking me is, "When are you coming home?" And I don't know. I am hoping to figure some stuff out when we got to the coast tomorrow. I need to call some bike shops and see if we can pick up a bike-shipping box from one of them. I will fill it with everything I can fit, and mail it home. I hope that the rest of my stuff can all fit on a Greyhound with me. If I buy the ticket 3 weeks in advance, it's only $129, but will take 4 days of travel to get from Arcata, CA to Portland, ME. Yuck. Do bus stations have showers?

Also, Jim maybe still wants me to fly to visit Austin with him, maybe, if he even goes. It would be around that same time (3 weeksish from now), so I could Greyhound from there, instead. Either way, I need to buy that ticket soon. Every day I don't buy it means that my departure is still at least 3 weeks away.

Today, I submitted my self-appraisal for Pet Partners' annual employee evaluation process. It's automatically sent to me by email. They don't even know I haven't been at work for the past 5 months. I talked to my manager in Lewiston, and she said that I should just fill it out the same way I normally would. It's always the same questions: several pages of, "Rate your ____ skills on a scale of 1-5." When it was all tallied up at the end, I had given myself a 4.9. I think I deserve it. Sometimes I am excited to be going back to work soonish. Other times, not so much. But I guess that is normal.

03/01 - back to Los Estados Unidos

We gained three hours on the flight back to San Francisco, which was scheduled to leave Lima at 1:15am, but was delayed until nearly 3:00am. [So it turned out we didn't have to rush away from the cell-phone hunt, after all. But, if the plane had boarded as scheduled, we would have barely made it through security in time.]

Jim slept for most of the flight, but I couldn't. I cried on and off throughout, distracting myself with the first 7 episodes of Mad Men. They fed us something-- an omelette. It wasn't as good as the other airplane food I had had. We got off in California around 9am.

It took about an hour to get through all the airport stuff and out into the world. Jim still has about 70 soles, because we forgot to change them before we left Peru, and SFO wanted to charge a big fee. The truck was still where we left it, in a long-term airport parking lot, which cost Jim almost $400 for 3 weeks (ouch).

Since I can't drive stick, he drove us all the way back to Somes Bar. That's a 7-hour drive, but I think it took us about 9, since we made a few stops. I slept on-and-off for most of the car ride. I am so incredibly good at sleeping in the car. If I'm not driving, I'm usually sleeping. Jim stopped for fast food twice. I ate 2 McDonald's double cheeseburgers, then a Burger King chicken sandwich a few hours later. I was so miserable about my phone. I hated myself and just wanted to sleep forever, and I knew a belly-full of greasy food would help me do it. When we got to Arcata, we picked up some to-go sushi at Tomo, and I got a hot toddy, made with Crown Royal Maple, at a nearby bar. Jim was still mad at me.

I slept most of the way back to Somes. We ate sushi with Sam, who had been staying at Jim's place the whole time we were gone. Then we went straight to bed.

02/28 - back to Lima

We had to go back to Lima, to catch our international flight back to SFO. It was raining, for the first time since the day we arrived in Cusco. We were very lucky, weather-wise, considering that it was the rainy season there. We took a cab from our hotel to the small airport in Cusco, and took a 1-hr flight on a small jet to Lima (Star Perú flight 2I 1182, seat 5A). They fed us a sandwich and a muffin. We got to Lima in the early afternoon, and took a cab to the Miraflores district.

The Flying Dog stored our bags for us, and we had a drink there. Then we walked around. Our plane was leaving at 1:15am. We planned to catch a cab around 9:45pm, to be safe. At dinner, I had ceviche for the first time; it was delicious and extremely spicy. After eating it, I felt sort of high, the way one sometimes does after consuming large quantities of very spicy food. It was around 9pm.

Jim wanted to spend our last 45 minutes at an internet café. I wanted to go back to the market (Mercado de Pulgas) in Parque Kennedy. So, we split up, and agreed to meet back up at cab-time (9:45pm). While walking to the market, I saw a woman feeding the cats in the park. I stopped to take a photo. So I guess I still had my phone in hand when I walked into the market. A woman started massaging me with her wares [she was selling massage tools]. My hands were full, and I was distracted. I think I set my phone down on her table. I looked at her wares. She massaged my neck, back, and legs with 3 or 4 different tools. I bought some stuff, and continued wandering through the market.

It wasn't until I met up with Jim, 45 minutes later, that I realized my phone was missing. I went back to look for it, but it was gone. We stayed as long as we could. The language barrier was never so frustrating. I was in tears, and some people were very helpful, especially a girl named Franci from the Arte Objeto booth. She spoke a little English, and gave me a sweet card when I had to leave to catch the plane. The card reads:

"From the Peruvian people: All your feelings, good moments in our country 

will be preserved in our memory with happiness.    -Peru"

Photos of Parque Kennedy's cats and Mercado de Pulgas, courtesy of Google image search.

So, that's how I lost the 700-or-so photos from my Peru trip. Jim had about 200 on his camera, which softens the blow, but it is still a tragic loss. And it was completely my fault. My memory is bad, and that's why I take so many photos. I have written this blog, while the trip is still relatively fresh in my mind. I hope it will help me retain my memories of this trip.

02/27 - Cusco: Inca ruins tour

We visited the above-ground portion of Qoricancha, which was the main temple in Cusco-- the center of the Inca world. Qoricancha was built on pre-Incan ruins, and the Spaniards built a Catholic church on top of it. They built churches on many sacred sites, so there is an abundance of elaborate colonial cathedrals in Cusco. Incas considered rainbows to be a sign of connection between our world and the world of the gods. The flag of Cusco is a 7-color rainbow, our guide was quick to inform us, unlike the "gay flag," which has only 6. "Some tourists think Cusco is a city full with gays. This is not true." In the Temple of the Rainbows, we saw the smallest known stone in Incan ruins. It was a little bigger than the end of my finger.

Then we went to the temples on the hills just above Cusco-- the temples of the  Sacsayhuamán complex (sounds a LOT like "sexywoman"), which include Tambomachay, Pukapukara, Q'enqo. The sacred, natural rock slab around which the latter site was built is incredibly cold, all the time. This helped preserve bodies that were placed on it for mummification. At the main Sacsayhuamán site, we saw the largest known stone found in Inca ruins. It's more than 7 meters high. 

The original Cusco of the Incas ("Qosco") was constructed in the shape of the sacred Puma --protector of the middle kingdom of man & earth.The temples of upper Cusco were in the head of the puma, and the main temple, Qoricancha, was near the tail. The Condor protected the high kingdom of sun & sky, and the Serpent protected the lower kingdom.

It was our last night in Cusco. We had dinner at a slightly-more-expensive-than-usual restaurant; (I made Jim take his hat off, and everything). I had blue corn chica. It was warm and thick and sweet. 

02/26 - Cusquenian Museums

Small cacao tree replica in the loft at Choco Museo.

We had planned to go to a bunch of museums around Cusco on this day. That worked out pretty well for us. Since Jim was still recovering from being sick, it was good that we had such a mellow day of walking around Cusco and visiting museums. We took some photos, but they are lost. A lot of museums didn't allow photography, anyway.

These are the places we visited:

• Museo Histórico Regional
• Choco Museo
• Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo
• Museo de Arte Popular (folk art)
• Museo de Sitio de Qoricancha

My "Chanel" sunglasses fell off my head, when I was leaning backward over a balcony to get a photo at the Contemporary Art Museum. They were broken for the rest of the trip. The Qoricancha museum has mummies and lots of skulls. Incas practiced trepanning surgery, and artificial cranium deformation.

We got a room, for our last 2 nights in Cusco; this time at Yanantin Guest House, which was, by far the best place we stayed during our entire trip.

Much of the artwork we saw depicted the execution of Túpac Amaru II.
(And, yes, Tupac Amaru Shakur was named for him).

02/25 - back to Cusco

So, we took the morning train back to Ollantaytambo. Jim got very sick just before we left the train station, and he was miserable the whole ride. I paid s./0.50 to use the bathroom at Ollantaytambo, then we hired a mini-bus (s./15 each) back to Cusco.

Jim waited at our travel-lady's office, feeling very ill, while I walked around looking for a nice place. I got us a room at Hostal Pascana, on the same alley as our last hotel. It was a beautiful place, but it turned out there was no TV. Jim was too sick to need one, anyway. It was very early afternoon when we checked in, so, after Jim crawled into bed, I walked out in search of lunch. It took me a while to find a place I liked: Bar Cusco, on a small plaza, where I ate outside. The weather was gorgeous, and I had a leisurely, very filling meal: appetizer, soup, main dish, and drink for s./15. I got one to-go for Jim. He nibbled on it a little later that night, and then continued sleeping. He was feeling somewhat better in the morning, thankfully.

02/24 - Machupicchu

Rio Urubamba rushes alongside the road from Machupicchu Pueblo to the foot of Machupicchu. We walked alongside it, stopping frequently to marvel at the strength and sound of the raging river. Then we walked back into town to buy our entry tickets and bus tickets. One can, of course, hike up, but it's very steep. One also can take the Inca Trail and come through the gates at the top, but that involves camping and a guide, and a lot of expense. We really, unfortunately, did not have the time. Maybe some day. Anyway, the admission was $128 each, and the bus ticket was another $18.50 each, but we got there.... and it was Machupicchu!

We walked around all day, getting exhausted and a little sunburned. We have some photos, because Jim was using his camera. We were not able to explore every part, of course, but we got to see a lot, including wild chinchillas! It was fun to go without a guide. We stayed until nearly closing time (5pm), and then took our bus back to town.

Back in town, we went to a bar that offered 4 drinks for s./20, plus free guac & chips. We each got a Pisco Sour and a Coca Sour. Jim complained that something smelled like feces. I never smelled anything. We ate all our chips and drank all our drinks. Later, we went to dinner at a random restaurant, where we watched a portion of the Oscars-- greatly condensed, and in Spanish. Jim wasn't feeling well. He got a hamburger. Then bed.