10

…Took the train back to Ollantaytambo and the bus back to Cuzco. The stars were so bright in the sky, I got to see all the constellations that I couldn’t as a kid. The southern cross, Orion was on his side, Draco, etc. That was a highlight. Sleeping in at the tent camp meant I missed all those constellations. We got back to Cuzco late and I showered all the pee off me. It felt good. We had dinner of trout and rice, and went to bed, and it was up again early. I am not used to getting up so early all the time. It was getting increasingly harder to get all my stuff in my small bag.
Shanna I brought that green suitcase you leant me when I came home from your house last year. Plus my backpack, so I had not very much room. By this time my hiking shoes were stinky because of stepping in the mud on the hike through the jungle, so I wore my flip flops. Which means I could finally show off my pedicure, but also that I was freezing cold.
The flight back to Lima was quick, and they showed this gag reel of practical jokes which was pretty funny. Kind of like Peruvian Punk’d. When we got to Lima, we checked into the Best Western and went for a nice walk around the city. We found a mall and shopped a little bit at some souvenir stores. I bought a few things, and took some pics of the city. It was nice to have some free time. We met for lunch at a chicken place where we toasted with the national drink again, Pisco Sour. Every meal they gave one free, and I was one of three people who liked them, so I got to drink 3 with every meal from the people who didn’t want theirs.
After lunch we shopped some more and Leif met a little girl named Monica who was cute, but she couldn’t come out with us because her dad was strict and she had to get home. She gets up every morning, and travels one hour to work, works from 8am to 9:30pm, travels another hour home. She does this six days a week for $100 a month. She was so cute and nervous around Leif. He was nervous around her too.
Dinner was soup and fish.
I didn’t want to eat the fish because when we were in the bus going to our hotel we drove by the ocean, and we asked why it was so brown. It turns out that they have no water treatment facility so basically the 8 million or so people in Lima flush their collective toilets straight into the ocean. In addition, they have their garbage dump right on the beach. It was really sad and gross. It’s not really a problem that can be corrected either, because they would have to revamp everyone’s plumbing, and they can’t afford the treatment facility. So of course I’m thinking this fish is a poop fish, and it’s not too appetizing. But the soup was good.
One of the girls on the trip was adopted from Peru and her brother still lives there. She and her mom stayed behind when we flew home so they could go and visit him. Here’s the clincher: She hadn’t talked to him in 5 years, and he’s so poor he has no phone, and can’t afford to write. He makes $2 per day as a street vendor and has 3 kids. So she was hoping to find him and spend the week visiting him. I have no idea if she found him or not. I hope she did.
The next day we had another free day, so we got up and took a cab to downtown Lima…