Wow, it has been a while! The last few days have been full of travel, travel, travel. But if I remember correctly, I left off in Mancora, on the beach…
The morning horseride was super fun (Jenny is always telling my dad she wants a white pòny, so you can imagine our amusement when she was given the white pony to ride). We rode along the beach, right in the surf – boy were we glad we chose to do it in the morning, because it got pretty hot later on.
It had rained for the past two nights, so no vehicles could make it up to the mud baths, but we weren´t too upset – we had some relaxing to do, and lunch right on the beach. Some of the bigger waves literally came right up to our table!
After our four nights of what we referred to as our ´Vacation within the Vacation´, we hopped on an 18 hour bus ride to Lima, stayed in Lima for one night, did a little shopping, I got super sick, and then hopped on a 22 hour bus ride to Cuzco (I´m much better now, but it was pretty much hell.)
We are now in Cuzco, have seen llama, eaten llama, and Jenny has bought two llama scarves. They´re pretty useful animals – you can ride them too!
I´m not suer if I´ve mentioned enough times how awesome the food is here. We eat avocado daily (avocado is our favourite food). Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here, and most restaurants have a lunch ´menu´(as opposed to carta, which is the spanish word for menu…kinda confusing) which is a set menu of about 3-5 courses with options, all for the price of one alcoholic beverage at home….and it includes an alcoholic beverage!!! Awesome.
Another thing to watch out for here in Cuzco is altitude sickness. We both witnessed how high up we are as our bus ascended the Andes yesterday…we passed through the clouds! So far we have both been totally fine, but have been taking it pretty easy to get accustomed to it. We also sipped a cup of coca tea this morning, which is supposed to help (it is made from the same leaves as cocaine, but is perfectly legal…although I think Jenny is on her thirteenth cup now….hmmm) =)
Our bed and breakfast here is in an old colonial house with a covered courtyard where we have breakfast, and it is awesome. Jenny calls it a castle, and it really does feel like one! Cuzco itself is really neat – it feels more European than any other city here so far, excèpt for the many remaining Inca walls on lots of the foundations. Very cool. We´ve booked river rafting for tomorrow, and the next day are heading to Aguas Calientes… Machu Pîcchu!
It´s actually pretty cold here, we are in jeans – so it feels like home. But a little warmer. I can´t believe it´s almost March already!
Hasta luego,
-R
