down, down, down we go...

once again here i am posting without the guidebook in hand, so i am afraid this post will be filled with interesting details like, i went to that place where they had that thing and after saw that ruin something or other. oh well. i maybe one day i will get around to putting the real names up, but till then, i better post... amy and ari have been putting me to shame and its time i got writing. so lets see. lemme go back a few days to saturday, when, according to ari, amy and i "went off on a guided tour of local towns which ended in a walk on the glacier near immense ice caves." close, but not quite. instead of towns, we got to drink from a "fountain of youth" which tasted a bit like seltzer water and then see a small pond where the water should change to seven different colors depending on the light (sadly, though, we could only see blue, black, and partly cloudy colors)... and then, like ari said, we ended up at the glacier. bravely we fought the elements (ie, thin air and snowy weather) and arrived at the glacier at about 5500 meters. walked a bit on it, but our attire kept us from walking too far up the ice (i had on sneakers and three-quarter length pants, and amy wasn·t much better off in full length trousers). but it was beautiful and well worth the cold (though perhaps amy will say otherwise). the day was made that much more memorable by the scores of school children who continually asked our names and countries and if they could take pictures with us (again and again and again) and the sight of a llama wearing sunglasses and a boa.

the next day i headed off by myself to see the ruins at chavin (full name forgotten), which date back more than two thousand years. along the way i stopped at the lovely querococha lake (memory jolt for the name supplied by a postcard in my bag, thank you very much)... the lake was lovely, but i think i the serenity was somewhat marred by people trying to get to pay for pictures with lambs and other livestock-- though i do admit they were quite cute. after a bit of a walk around the lake, the bus continued through the mountains on winding narrow roads, till a couple hours later we arrived at the town of chavin. wandered around the town for a bit and tried my limited spanish out of a few of the locals (spanish which mainly consists of "do you have rice pudding?" or "can i take a photo?"). then it was on to the ruins. the spanish tour quickly made me a victim to adhd, so i wandered off to explore the labyrinth-like tunnels beneath the temple. very neat. oh, and of course took more pictures with random school kids as i answered more of the "where are you from" questions. at one point about 15 or them cornered by against the wall. it was kinda scary actually. soon enough it was time for the three hour trip back to town where i met up with amy and ari back at the hostel. and since six hours on the bus wasn't enough for one day (perhaps you are are starting to see why amy and ari opted to stay behind), we headed to the bus station for our eight hour bus ride down the lima.

okay. lima. the lovely capital of peru. amy told us that lima is affectionately known as "the city of shit" (or something like that) and that everyone she knows who has been there has had something stolen. so i guess it is fair to say that we didn't have the highest of expectations. after a sleepless night bus ride (complete with a snoring man, a loud annoying movie, and a pushy seatmate), we arrived in lima around 6am. none of us were ready to face anything at that point, much less the city of shit, so we booked it right to a hostel for a few more hours of sleep. around 11 we were ready to go out and see what lima had in store for us. we were all pleasantly surprised. the city is filled with beautiful old colonial buildings and grand churches and plazas. i got to have both lunch *and* dinner at vegetarian restaurants so i was happy and we got to see lots of old bones at the catacombs at the cathedral, so i think ari and amy were happy too. oh! and we found some goma-dango in chinatown so then we were all happy.

and that brings me to today... after a few more last minute errands in the capital, we took the four hour bus trip down to pisco (home of pisco sours, kinda) and tomorrow we are off to see the poor mans galapagos. good times.