Ready for the Adventures to Begin

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A long bus ride later and we have reached Cusco, former capital of the Incan Empire and current capital of gringos in South America. We leave tomorrow at 5 am to go to Manu National Park, a pristine remnant of the Amazon. Since we will be absent from any internet access for the next 9 days, I figured I might as well update the last 24 hours, as uneventful as they may have been.

After our internet, we went to the planetarium in Nazca, hoping for a 6 pm show that would enable us to see the whole planetarium show and still catch our bus. No luck, so we had lunch, Jill called and Sara attempted to call their respective parents, and we headed to the bus station to watch whatever the bus company employees deemed gringo worth. Since there were not many choice, we watched or tried to ignore the ever present Spanish language soap opera, on at all hours of the day. The bus arrived within the expected time frame, and was nicer than the last few we have taken on first impression. After we left the city, however, things changed as the bus had no heat, I had on shorts, and we hurtled higher and higher, until I was freezing cold. Only 14 hours to go! I suffered through, with some help from Sara´s blanket, and we arrived in Cusco around noon.

Lot´s to do, so little time. Burn DVDs/CDs so we have pictures for Manu, pay for our trip to Manu and to Machu Picchu, check into our hostel, and get some food. Not in that order at all. The hostel was easy enough to find, sort of, as it was not on a street that cars traverse, but there were plenty of people around to help our lost cabbie. If only someone could have helped our hostel owners, as they seem quite confused about what rooms to give us. We eventually settled in, and then found our way to the Pantiacolla office, our Manu guides. Very professional and very helpful, we soon were fully prepared for trip. After a quick lunch, we searched for a our company to hike Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, there is both a Calle and a Avenida for street name Garcilaso, so we wasted alot time on the wrong street. We finally found it, but it was closed for lunch so we tried to decipher signs. Many claimed to have DVDs burning capability, but few were actually capable and those that were did not have DVDs or were closing. We gave up, went and paid for Machu Picchu, and were hit with what, for me, was the worst news of the trip: the famous viewpoint, the Going to the Sun, was closed due to a landslide. This meant that we have to hike down to the railroad, catch a trail, then take a bus up to the ruins just like every one else, arriving to a packed ruins with hundreds or even thousands of tourists beating us there. Yuk. How bad can the slide be? Hopefully, two weeks from now, this situation will be rectified, but the tour operator did not sound hopeful. Anyway, we are headed to dinner now and then our meeting for Manu. Wish us luck (no more landslides, two is enough)!

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