Blogs from Cusco, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 190

Ohhh boy... Not a good day! It began with all of the best intentions. We were supposed to take a bus back up to the eastern slope then begin a bike decent westward towards the sacred valey. Well, I´m not sure what happend, perhaps some bad logical in my decision making, but I some how got seperated from my group and ended up in paultambo (sp?) alone. I made the assumption that the group would arrive in the same city as I, but after a two our wait I realized things had gone bad. I suspected the team took an alternate route back to cusco, thus by passing me. I spoke to some of the locals and determined that the buses going to cusco (which we were heading) only leave at 2 and 8 pm. ... read more

Very much in the a.m. tomorrow, we shall be departing for km88, the departure point for the Inca Trail. Which will mean I´ll not be blogging for a few days. Probably won´t have very much to say for myself when I get back either - it was amazing, trek quite hard but good, cold at night, definitely recommend it, that sort of thing. I´ve big-time been looking forward to this. I´ve seen the list of names of people in our group. All English-speaking (if you can say that about Americans), mostly girls I think, about a dozen of us. I´ve bought half a porter (I specifically requested the top half but they looked blankly at me) so I can just flounce around with my water bottle and instant camera (OK, I admit it, I lost my ... read more

Got my luggage this morning. Straight home after for shower and change. Felt like that Tom Hanks character in Castaway afterwards, after when he´s rescued. Or The Elephant Man when they put him in a suit, although he was still quite ugly, poor chap. But given that bump on my head from the embarrassing incident (Stop telling people, Elizabeth) it´s a fitting comparison. I should have mentioned earlier perhaps that Cusco is great. And, if you´re going to visit, June is the month to do it. It´s festival season. You can barely turn a street corner without being confronted by hordes of dancing Peruvians (some of them adorable little kids), parades with floats or music of some sort. The main square is packed every night. The architecture is lovely. I´m not sure Inca masonry will ever ... read more

Well, it has not arrived. I shall try to keep this one upbeat though I'm feeling less and less of a trooper. The hotel I stayed in last night had no telephone, no heating and they just didn''t understand the problem. I'm completely paralysed by my lack of language. After running to a shop this morning to phone the airport again (they wouldn't pick up at all yesterday and receiving the bad news that they do not have my luggage but could not tell me any more or answer my English questions, I went straight to my books. Rarely have I applied myself with such rigour and vigour to an academic pursuit in my life. I learnt words, where I could , for bad, worse, immediately, furious, complaint, disaster, scandal, Office of Fair Trading, You'll pay ... read more

Normally, I wouldnt have put "role" instead of "roll" - I put this down purely to tiredness, not my regressed spelling age. I actually don´t know how to spell acommodation, however. My Spanish phrasebook is annoying me. It doesn´t tell you how to say "I need", "there was" or even "because". "Because" must be in there somewhere, surely. Nontheless, I´m going to buy a real Spanish-English dictionary. Though perhaps this will be difficult. I failed again today to buy a notebook. They had authentic-looking, leather bound, recycled-paper appearing things, but I want something like you get in a Intermarche, Cherbourg - lined and flexible.... read more