Greetings from Peru - ActiveSteve

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Howdy all!

Just thought I´d write a quick email while I have the chance.
We arrived in Lima bright and early yesterday morning (7am). After a quick 2 hour nap, got organized and went to do some exploring on our own (we had a free day). We took a cab and visited several areas of Lima, including Miraflores and Barranco, which are the sea-side neighbourhoods. Lima is pretty much overcast and foggy all the time, but it was impressive nonetheless, especially the cliffs by the sea. Saw a few brave surfers, but not many.

We did our best to truly experience local living by basically walking everywhere through side streets and such. Mmmm, the odour of gas fumes and urine is sublime! After a while, you don´t even notice. The good news for a guy like me is that if I´ve really gotta go, I can just do like the locals, and go! Hee hee. We also went to the museum of anthropology and archeology for a couple hours and wow! Can the old cultures do amazing things with clay and metal! Took lots of pics to hopefully put up on flickr when we get back. I held off on taking a picture of the clay inca with the really big ´package´, which I now regret. Troy, you would´ve loved this stuff. Simply amazing.

Today, we´re off on a guided tour of the rest of Lima, visiting catacombs and such. Great early breakfast, where I started my pre-altitude preparations. Man, Coca tea is AWESOME! I think I´m totally wired now. It´s all the benefits of cocaine without all the negatives 😉 This is supposed to prep me for the high altitudes tomorrow in Puno (over 13,000 feet). Unfortunately, I think I´m addicted now! Luckily, my little phrase book can tell me how to say ´´Does your country have a methodone program? How may I register?´´ God bless Lonely Planet phrase books, eh?

Okay, enough for now. Lots to see and do. Lovin it so far. Oh yeah, and Inka Cola is the bomb! Smells like bubble gum, tastes like cream soda, looks like Mountain Dew. Next stop, roasted guinea pig (cuy cuchito) and skewered beef hearts (anticucho corazones)! I´ll try to write again, but I never know when I´ll have access again. Feel free to drop me a line anyway.

Ciao, amigos!
Steve (and virtual Jody, from wherever she is while I write this, I was too hyper for her this morning!)

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Published September 7, 2005

High Altitude Fun

Hey Gang!

With the brief internet breaks I´m using, it´s easier to just send a message to everyone rather than respond personally. Don´t take offence, and please keep writing back, great to hear from home.

Anywho, here we are in Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire. I´m sure those Incas would be rolling their collective eyes at the amount of panhandling / harrassing going on here! It´s nuts. I mean, I don´t mind getting a restaurant suggestion, but getting swarmed by 5 different people at once yelling about their menus to me just gets to be too much! But, given that over 60% of this city´s population of >300,000 has only tourism as their income, I guess I don´t blame them.

So we´ve spent several days now at high altitudes (right now, i´m sitting at 3462m above sea level!). We went direct from Lima to Puno, which is on Lake Titicaca (and over 4000m up!). That caused me a bit of a problem on the first night, which resulted in my going to bed around 8:30. Luckily, the one good night sleep fixed me up. Well, that and the coca and mint tea that I was sucking back!

We spent 2 days in this region, with one of the nights being spent on and island called Amantani, living like the locals. Whew, what a unique (read intense) experience. Our family of 9 lived in 2 little shacks (about 7ft x 14ft), the third shack was for us. We were treated like family, which meant zero privacy, with fairly frequent ´visits´ by some of the children. On this island, we also hike up to the top, which sits at about 4180m. That´s almost as high as our Inka trail will take us (4198m). We also got a chance to dress in the traditional clothes of the island inhabitants, and attend a fiesta, with local live music (wouldn´t buy the CD), and lots of bailar (dancing).

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