The Perú Diaries, Numero Siete.
Day 7
20080131
2:50pm
I just returned from bumming around the Plaza de Armas (we're back in Cusco now) and rounding out the last of my souvenir-buying. The ride home from Machu Picchu was very very weird. After we unchecked our backpacks at the overpriced stand on the side of the mountain (we had to tote our overnight stuff back to Cusco from Yucay), there was a long trek and about 5 different transportation segments home (I say home! ha. i love it.) to Cusco. We came back to the same rooms at the same hotel, the Royal Inka.
It was as if we'd never left. And yet all three of us felt completely different after having been to a place as curveball-throwing as Machu Picchu. I have pretty much accomplished everything I've really wanted to here, if that makes sense. Machu Picchu was the penultimate cherry-on-top of this trip, so from this point on, I feel non-compulsive about stuffing every minute full of the kind of experiences I won't be able to have again any time soon, if ever. Do you know that feeling? I can't normally even take a nap while on vacation without wanting to punch myself for wasting the moment. So chillaxity and the afterglow of well-earned climax? Always good. ;)
Still, I know that Perú's got some good stuff in store for me yet. I look forward to seeing a little bit more of Lima in particular - I was totally down for some hardcore downtown-exploration and all I got over the weekend was foreplay. Titillating foreplay, foreplay involving sexy cathedrals and men in fatigues and assault rifles and palaces and fountains and smiling, laughing Perúanos eating ice cream (these people LOVE their helada) and selling $.60 saint bracelets and whatnot (of course, I bought one)... but it was foreplay nonetheless.
I love buying gifts and baubles at the grocery store. Heh. I got six (small) bottles of pisco, and nine bars of very pretty chocolate for about $20 US. Not bad. I need to figure out who's going to get all this shit. :D
4:20pm
Ok! Well!! I am a dumbass!
All but one of these bars of chocolate is, apparently, completely unsweetened! And very very bitter; for baking. Fuckety! I guess my shopping's not done after all. I should really learn some more Spanish... this could have been easily avoided. Le sigh.
6:45pm
Got some more (hopefully good, definitely not baking) chocolate at the same corner store, in the textile strip about a block away on Tupac Amaru Street. Live and learn, I guess. :P
Also, christ. I've had diarrhea for days. Sorry for the TMI, but ech. I feel okay otherwise, pretty much, but this sucks. Between that and having to drink only bottled water, I hope I'm not too dehydrated or anything.
Tomorrow we fly back to Lima. Blah. I expect that we will at least have time for a tour of the city, because I've mostly spent my time there in Miraflores. Now, if you (shut up, all this 'you' and 'dude,' etc, it's a literary device!) will excuse me, I have a bottle of pisco that won't fit in my luggage to finish!
20080131
2:50pm
I just returned from bumming around the Plaza de Armas (we're back in Cusco now) and rounding out the last of my souvenir-buying. The ride home from Machu Picchu was very very weird. After we unchecked our backpacks at the overpriced stand on the side of the mountain (we had to tote our overnight stuff back to Cusco from Yucay), there was a long trek and about 5 different transportation segments home (I say home! ha. i love it.) to Cusco. We came back to the same rooms at the same hotel, the Royal Inka.
It was as if we'd never left. And yet all three of us felt completely different after having been to a place as curveball-throwing as Machu Picchu. I have pretty much accomplished everything I've really wanted to here, if that makes sense. Machu Picchu was the penultimate cherry-on-top of this trip, so from this point on, I feel non-compulsive about stuffing every minute full of the kind of experiences I won't be able to have again any time soon, if ever. Do you know that feeling? I can't normally even take a nap while on vacation without wanting to punch myself for wasting the moment. So chillaxity and the afterglow of well-earned climax? Always good. ;)
Still, I know that Perú's got some good stuff in store for me yet. I look forward to seeing a little bit more of Lima in particular - I was totally down for some hardcore downtown-exploration and all I got over the weekend was foreplay. Titillating foreplay, foreplay involving sexy cathedrals and men in fatigues and assault rifles and palaces and fountains and smiling, laughing Perúanos eating ice cream (these people LOVE their helada) and selling $.60 saint bracelets and whatnot (of course, I bought one)... but it was foreplay nonetheless.
I love buying gifts and baubles at the grocery store. Heh. I got six (small) bottles of pisco, and nine bars of very pretty chocolate for about $20 US. Not bad. I need to figure out who's going to get all this shit. :D
4:20pm
Ok! Well!! I am a dumbass!
All but one of these bars of chocolate is, apparently, completely unsweetened! And very very bitter; for baking. Fuckety! I guess my shopping's not done after all. I should really learn some more Spanish... this could have been easily avoided. Le sigh.
6:45pm
Got some more (hopefully good, definitely not baking) chocolate at the same corner store, in the textile strip about a block away on Tupac Amaru Street. Live and learn, I guess. :P
Also, christ. I've had diarrhea for days. Sorry for the TMI, but ech. I feel okay otherwise, pretty much, but this sucks. Between that and having to drink only bottled water, I hope I'm not too dehydrated or anything.
Tomorrow we fly back to Lima. Blah. I expect that we will at least have time for a tour of the city, because I've mostly spent my time there in Miraflores. Now, if you (shut up, all this 'you' and 'dude,' etc, it's a literary device!) will excuse me, I have a bottle of pisco that won't fit in my luggage to finish!