And So It Starts...

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Greetings Everyone!

I know this entry is rather late, but I've been through the ringer lately so it hasn't been much of a priority...since most of you are living vicariously through me though, I'll try my best to keep the info coming =)...kidding...not about the info though.

I was considering writing one giant post to fill people in on the last few weeks, but I've decided instead to break things up into countries and-or experiences. This post will pertain to the kick off to the trip and mostly Peru. If this doesn´t tickle your fancy then get the heck out of here...ass.

The wheels of my trip got moving in Rochester (technically Portland, OR, but that's the roadtrip portion and nobody wants to read about that...if you do-did, tough cookies mister). Anyway, I flew out of ROC on the night of the 22nd and arrived in Cusco, Peru on the morning of the 24th (spending the night in JFK, moving to San Salvador, spending another night in Lima, Peru then finally landing in Cusco).

My experience in Cusco was somewhat lackluster and overall I was rather disappointed with things. It was great to walk around the city and try and familiarize my ears with Spanish, but I wasn´t able to really meet many people (and those that I did were just trying to sell me junk and-or trips to see giants piles of llama crap). It was nice finding little mom and pop restaurants and shops in the thousands of side streets though and for once I felt like a fatty as the altitude is just a bit higher than where I was living in the states.

Random Factoid - The number of cats I saw in the city was equal to the number of times I got bit by a dog (presumably sans shots): 1

After the above nonsense, I was excited to start the Inca Trail on the 27th. I was instructed to be ready at my hostel (which was full of giggling Japanese girls) by 4:50am. I did as I was told and ended up waiting outside (in the rain because the door locked) until around 5:40 and then finally someone showed up to direct me to the shuttle. We had about a 2-3 hour bus ride to the starting point which was Km 82 of the highway. It was a pretty quiet ride until we stopped in a small town and 14 porters jumped on the bus smelling the opposite of Chanel (sp) number 5...fantastic. I don't want to write a novel so I'm not going to be super specific about all of the details.

The Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu was by far the highlight of Peru. The hike itself the amazing...from the llamas, alpacas and donkeys moseying around the trail...to the unbelievable views...UN-EFFING-BELIEVABLE VIEWS...to the blanket of stars that filled the sky most of each night...to the food, specifically being greeted in the morning by a nice steaming cup of tea...and finally to the fellow hikers. The group consisted of 2 French girls, 1 French-Canadian, 2 regular Canadians, 5 Brits, 4 Danish and lil ol'me (I'm usually happy when I'm the lone American). Usually groups tend to have one bag egg that occasionally I want to kick in the groin, but no groin kicks were necessary as everyone really clicked. Of course I was the butt of many jokes as the sole person from the US, but I embraced my place at the bottom and had a better time because of it. Seriously though, I was really quite sad at the end of the trip as we slowly dropped people off at their hostels and hotels as I knew I would be on my own again for a bit of time. We only had 4 days together, but I feel we formed a nice little family in the end.

I would continue on with a few more stories within Peru, but I´m feeling some passive aggressive pressure from someone who seems to want to use the computer so this will have to do for now. I hope everyone having a jolly good time in life and hopefully I can make a few more posts sooooooon.

Another random and shallow note...the women in Peru were a lot more attractive than I expected...a lot!

Kisses,

MP

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