This is not my dog

Tons to talk about

I saw Machu Picchu yesterday. For those of you who don´t know what it is, Machu Picchu is an Inca city which the Spanish conquistadors never found – the ruins of which still survive today. Peru has a very large percentage of its indigineous peoples represented in the population. I believe moreso than any other country in the world. The point being, Machu picchu is pretty sweet, and a pretty big deal to the nation of Peru. It was recently named one of the new wonders of the world.

Based smack dab in the middle of a mountain range, Machu Picchu is a city constructed nearly entirely of stone and dirt. Andy and I saw it from afar on a climb the previous day called Putucusi, which was probably at some point an Incan trail. Andy managed to slip on a ladder on the way back down, giving us both quite a scare as we envisioned what could have happened if his feet had not found the small patch of land jutting out from the side of a cliff. But, no worries, he was fine, just a little dirty and scraped up.

I saw some fantastic things the next day in Machu Picchu, but due to a faulty memory card in my digital camera I have absolutely no pictures of my experience there. It´s a bummer, but I can still borrow some pictures from Andy and we´ll go from there.

In other news, the Venezuelan constitutional reforms got voted down. Yay!

Andy and I are heading back to Cuzco today, after being stuck for nearly three whole days in a town with nothing better to do than fleece money from the wallets of tourists. We won´t have a lot of time in Cuzco, but I´m hoping to run into some friends I made during our two day stay there. After that, it´s off to Lima again for almost an entire day. We´re planning on hitting up the Pacific beach while we´re there before hopping on a flight back to Mérida the next day.

I´ll update again when I´m back in Mérida. Thanks for reading up on me.

A long night.

I´ve returned from an extended stay in the Amazonian Jungles of Northern Peru, and am anxiously awaiting the next part of my journey. My travelling companion Andy and I are pulling an overnighter in the Lima airport to catch our early morning flight tomorrow. Hence, I found myself with a little bit of time to update my blog and line up some ducks – in a row, of course.

The flight out of Iquitos was delayed, so even though we got back from our lodge late, we still had enough time to make some important phone calls and have a little something to eat. Andy got the alligator. I tried some. The texture was exactly like I thought it would be. Alligator-y. The meat was white like chicken though, which sorta surprised me.

I would love to show you guys some of the trillion photos I took while I was in the jungle, but as I lack the cable to upload the pictures, it´s not really a possibility. I´ll see what I can do once I get back to the `States. Here are some of the highlights:

-Rides in unusual forms of transportation

-lily pads the size of hoola-hoops

-more holding reptiles (see catatumbo post)

-sweaty jungle hikes

-All kinds of creepy crawlies

Did I aready mention the boat rides? We spent the majority of our last two days there getting in and out of boats going up and down the same stretch of river, each time for a different purpose. Then it´s “get out, eat a meal, get back in the boat and go up and down the same stretch of river.” Then, when that was done, we got back into the boat and rode a cramped and uncomfortable two and a half hours back to the port city. Woof. At least there were some things to see along the way.

Other than that, I hope that all of the usual Thanksgiving festivities went well despite my absence. I thought about you guys while I was eating my mock Thanksgiving food on Wednesday night in Venusa with my host parents. Andy decided that he should bring Bloody Marys to the Thanksgiving night feast, so he spent most of the time making drinks for everyone there while I tried to entertain my host parents (as we got there late and couldn´t sit with the rest of the host parents).

Aside from everything, I finally got the final word from Marinela that “every little thing/is gonna be alright” (Hey Lacek) with my flight home to the states. I may have told some of you that we had it, but thanks to good ol´Venezuelan bureaucracy (spell that five times fast) it was up in the air again (man, I´m on a roll tonight) right around the time that we needed to catch our bus to Caracas. Anyway, no worries – it`s all taken care of. Anyway, I should get going to find a cozy piece of floor here. Best wishes to all.