from Brad

[Guest guest]

Hello and thanks to for posting this.

 

All is well in South America in Peru. and I wrapped up our time in the

Amazon Region nicely. There were a lot of mosquittos down there and we were

bitten up pretty badly. But despite that there were many wonderful things. I

saw some beautiful fireflies my last night there. I had a great time swimming

with some of our companions in the river and even some of the local kids. They

loved my idea of a mudslide into the river during a downpour the first day

there. I juggled oranges one time for a bunch of villagers, I´m not sure they´d

ever seen that before. The villagers make pets of these tiny little monkeys that

can sit on your head, they are incredibly cute. The sunset on the boat ride home

was sweet as the light from the setting sun hit the water perfectly infront of

us. And on one boat ride looking for the dolphins we saw an amazing rainbow.

 

We had a long boat ride back to the city, then a long gruelling 20hr bus ride

the next day to Lima, followed by a short flight to Cusco.

 

The Andes were beautiful on our bus ride, some places even had snow! One spot

had waterfalls on both sides of the road. Some awesome views. I can share some

photos and even a little video later when I get back to America. I have lots of

photos of everything, too many in fact! I might be able to put them up on a web

hard drive or something like that later.

 

Tonight we had a walk around our town. So many Incan stones still in the base of

many buildings here and in many walls as well. When you place your hands on the

old old stones you can feel some energy. Some stone walls even have designs on

them (puma, snake for example). We may visit some ruins close by tomorrow. Some

of the final battles when the Incans were defeated by the Spanish took place

here.

 

Tonight we treated a young 9yr old girl to dinner. She was selling hats and

mittens to people on the street. She was very sweet and we helped her a bit with

her English. She saved half her sandwich to take to her mom! She was very kind

and quick, and pretty street smart. A lot of young people walk around with Lamas

and pose for pictures in traditional garb. They charge about 33 cents for a

photo.

 

The climate is cooler here. It´s still raining a lot. We might not be able to

get into Machu Pichu, the latest we heard is that it might open again on April

1st. We may be able to hike to spot across a small river from it and see it from

a distance, or just go to the city gates, though we may not be able to enter.

There are many other ruins to see though and some other wonderful spiritual

places we hope to find.

 

Many of the hotels here boast of having Incan walls in the hotels, some even in

the rooms! Although ours didn´t really, despite what it said in the guide book,

there are some nice hardwood floors. I don´t think they are Incan though!

 

I better head to bed now. Still getting used to the altitude change. If you walk

even at a brisk pace up a slightly inclined street here, you get pretty huffy

and puffy. And there are a lot of steeply inclined streets and stone stairways

here in the city!

 

be well all,

 

bradly