Bolivia & Peru-Lima Again

March 10, 2006- This and That

There was a 21-year old woman sitting next to us on the flight from Cusco to Lima. She was with a group of fourteen from Lynn College in Boca Raton, Florida. They’d all climbed the Inca Trail. It took four days and some of the men actually had to be carried part way on the backs of the porters. The porters wore sandals and moved uphill quickly. They also carried all the food, oxygen in case anyone needed it, fuel, tents, etc. The hikers didn’t shower for four days and when they finally emerged in Machu Picchu they burst into tears of relief.

Yvonne is our guide in Lima. She pointed out the orphanage on our way to the hotel. They have six hundred fifty children there. Across the street is the mental hospital. That’s probably where the staff spends its down time.

Yvonne filled us in on the upcoming presidential race in Peru. The three front-runners are a woman, a leftist, and a man who was president in the 1980’s when they had 800% inflation. He says he’s learned since then. The woman was slated to win in the last race but something happened and she didn’t. We suggested that they imported vote counters from Florida.

I had the worst lunch of the trip. The food, except for the guinea pig, has been fine to excellent but today was a bust for those who ordered fish. It came undercooked. We sent it back and it was passable but my plate had a hair on it. I sent it back again and the fish still didn’t taste right. I’ll be sure to mention this on the survey OAT will send.

We’re all so over the trip and ready to go home. Several didn’t go to the gold museum in the afternoon. We did. I slept on the way there. I missed the upscale neighborhoods and the American Embassy. I did see the pre-Incan step pyramid (circa 400-1300) made of sun-dried adobe bricks. That’s where most of the artifacts in the museum were found. The precious objects were sold to an individual collector who displayed them in what was his house and is now a museum. Pre-Incan gold was an alloy of gold, copper, and silver. Everything was gorgeous with the exception of the requisite mummies. There was no Inca gold to be seen. It had all been looted.

We made a last minute stop at the market to buy handicrafts. While Judi was negotiating Nina came up to us. She said that Phil was bargaining for t-shirts. David asked her if he was good at that. She said that he thinks he is but the last time he made a deal the vendor price was $5.00. Phil got him down to $4.00 and 1 sole. That works out to $5.50.

I didn’t think we were eating dinner as a group tonight. That would have been too bad. We lived with most of these people for three weeks and our good-byes were cursory as we went to our rooms after the museum tour. There was a final banquet on the Amazon cruise since it was a part of the tour that everyone went on. This last part was an add-on so it doesn’t merit a banquet. I don’t know if we’ll be in touch with any of them in the future but they were a remarkably compatible group. We were free to have dinner in the hotel dining room on our own schedule. As it turned out we all showed up at the same time and had an unscheduled farewell dinner.

We wake at 6:30AM to fly back to Miami. We should arrive there at 4:30PM. We hope to drive a few hours before stopping. Most of you will be reading the last emails after we’re home. Thank you for being so faithful.

Toby