CUSCO - DAY 2: Friday , August 13th: We woke up around 5am, not being able to sleep any longer. We were planning on a nice long hot shower, but lo and behold, no hot water! I convinced the cafeteria staff to let me take two hot coffees to our room. Ahhh... After the necessities, we went to the cafeteria and had a decent breakfast of juice, coffee, rolls with jam or butter, eggs, and yogurt with fruit. Speaking of the cafeteria, strangely enough, although it is literally next doofr to our room, we had to go to the center of the hostal, down stairs, back to the front of the hostal, then up stairs! By this time, it was well after 8am, so we decided to find the All Trek Cusco office near the Plaza ... read more

Tuesday, August 10th: Puno Day 2 - Uros, Amantani Islands: Between the high altitude and having dozed frequently before getting to Puno, we both had a very bad night's sleep. We tried to sleep at 8pm or so, but after tossing and turning and having strange mini-nightmares, I got up at midnight and went for a walk. I had to bother the hotel security guy since the door was locked. I walked down the hill to the Plaza de Armas looking for a soda and/or water. When I asked a group of police patrolling, they pointed to the corner where a vendor was asleep in a doorway. Before I could tell them not to bother him, they'd roused him from a deep sleep. Since he was already awake, albeit sleep-eyed, I bought a Coke and a ... read more

Sunday, August 8th: ***Somehow or other I forgot to post this, so I'm adding it after returning, over two weeks later! We woke up later than normal (7 or 8am!) since for once there was no rushed schedule. After a decent breakfast in the hostal, we headed out to stroll around Lima, and try to find a laundry mat. We had a week's worth of clothes from El Salvador we'd washed in our room that never dried and we were running out of clean dry clothes. The hostal clerk directed us to a couple of nearby laundry mats and away we went. Being Sunday, we weren't sure how much was open. When we easily located one of the places indicated by the clerk, it was closed, with no sign showing their hours of operations. We asked ... read more

Friday, 6 August; Today was our fun day with Mr. Moody. We left the hotel and headed for Ahuachapan and beyond to visit a really cool waterfall called Las Cascadas de Don Juan. The falls are sort of southwest of Santa Ana. The drive was pleasant and not all that long, with interesting folks along the way at the beginning and interesting natural scenery afterwards. The waterfalls were bought by a local guy all the way to the top and he runs a mini tourist attraction. Besides the waterfall, which only costs a dollar or two (including parking), they have a very nice store/restaurant with good clean restrooms to boot. The folks there were very helpful and willing to explain the flowers and other natural stuff they had on display. I got to see what a ... read more

Wednesday, August 4th First of all, I should clarify my use of titles. At first I was saying Santa Ana Refugee Camp, and now I've been using the more appropriate title of Los Angeles Commnity. There are probably a number of other "commnities" around Santa Ana where the families that are either made homeless by flooding, earthquake, or mudslide are given small parcels of land to use as their homes. In both the original Los Angeles community suported mostly by Kenton Moody Ministries and the newer and smaller Los Angeles 2 community, the average family lives in a 20 foot by 30 foot (my estimation) plot with tree limbs, boards and wire for fencing and a combination discarded tin signs, hunks of wood and whatever else they can scrounge up for houses. Generally speaking, they only ... read more