4:30 am: depart for the hike up to Maccu Piccu. There was some sense of urgency in Justin's pace. Pete, Justin Sheila and I made great time heading over to the trial head in order to beat the other parties for tickets to Wyna Piccu. They give out 400 a day to head up and look down on Maccu Piccu. If you walk up the mountain, you can not only beat the first bus that leaves at 5:30, but you can save the $7 each way. Each tour group that does the jungle tour back door to Piccu does the exact same thing. Same restaurants, circa same lodging, same schedule, everything. So, we had good company at the middle of the night. We made it up in blitz pass, and then realized that we were about ... read more

6am comes so early when you are tired. Somehow, I pulled off the unthinkable: sleeping poorly after going to bed at 8:30pm. Luckily, I didn't fair so poorly as one of my 3 roommates. The Aussie must have had to run to the john 20 times throughout the night. He was more regular than Big Ben. Still, group travel is group travel, and we all got ourselves up and about in order to make it to the pharmacie to load up on substances before our 22 km trek up parts of the old Inca trail. I had come down with severe allergies, and was hacking away from agitated bronchial passages. For 66 cents American, I was able to remedy the whole problem. And up the Inca trail we went. Fairly early on, we stopped at a ... read more

After arriving by bus at around midnight, Justin and I were pretty ready to head out to the closest lodging and plant ourselves into bed. Before hand, I was game for walking from the bus terminal to the guesthouse, but he wanted to take a taxi. Justin won, mainly because a taxi was only $3. We ended up at Loki in Cusco. I think this was because we didn't have the address for the place we would rather have stayed at. Oh well. We ended up in a decently quiet room at loki, till 5am. Loki Cusco is a renowned party hostel. The reason it was quiet when we settled in was that the hostel bar closed at 1am. The party people then go out bar hopping till 5. We woke up to the yelling and ... read more

Justin and I arrived by around noon. First thing we saw was a donkey running up the street dragging a rope behind it. First impression: a whole lot more touristy than La Paz. But because La Paz is the 'big city', Cocacabana is a whole lot cheaper as well, for lodging. Meal prices were more expensive, but the food was better. Walking around, the 'touristy broken record sound' was very present. Repetitive touts for "Tickets La Paz, Puno, Isle del sole" become part of the the background before you knew it. I just assumed my Asia trip 'I don't hear you, don't acknowledge you' pose and found that the touts gave up on me rather quickly. We checked into the more scenic and more expensive Hostel Leyenda for the first night. For the 2nd, we went ... read more

When I first arrived in Brasov, I was on my way to Moldova and it was early in the morning and snowy. I was in search of Autogara 2 (Bus station 2). Given the amount of tourist traffic that this city gets, I would not have expected that it was that difficult to get directions to this bus station. Granted, I don't speak Romanian, but really, "Autogara Doi?" shouldn't elicit a 'deer in the headlights' response from a couple dozen locals at the main station. I asked the information clerk at the train station about a bus to Chisinau, and she gave me that classic Eastern bloc 'I don't get paid enough to fulfill my existing responsibilities look' before barking that "no bus, just train here. Take bus 23". And she pointed west. Heck, the first ... read more