Gasping for Air In Cuzco

In Cuzco, Peru at 3326 meters for those of you not in Europe that equals many many feet, or very high up, if you want to be exact. The reason we are here in this city is to aclimate to the altitude before we embark on a four day hike up a mountain to see the Inca runins of Machu Picchu. This first place we stayed at was a youth hostel called Loki hostel, here is Lotta sitting in the cool cafe with Cuzco in the background. It was the party place and and people from all over the world would drink untill the wee hours in the morning, I know becasue while we wanted to sleep they would play drinking games at three in the morning, which would be O.K. if I was participating in said drinking game but Lotta and I were trying to sleep. I intantly became a grummpy old man and started yelling "Durn you whipper snappers don´t you know people are trying to sleep" I even bought a cane so I could shake it at them. After a few nights we decided to hit another hotel and by then we were sort of use to the thin air so we took an overnight trip to a town close to Cuzco, called Pisac. We walked down to the local bus station which consisted of a thin sheet of tin hung over an ally with an opening cut for buses. After bouncing around in confusion the kind locals herded us to the ticket area and then onto the right bus. We sat in the wrong seat, and they diverted us to the correct seats. Much entertainment was had for the locals who must have been wondering "who are these loco gringos." In our effort to do it by ourselves we eskewed the big tour buses and took the loca bus for 60 cents. But, anytime we can bring a smile to bus load of Peruvians by being the only two bumbling gringos on board I feel we have really accomplished something.
Everyone was very nice to us and we got to Pisac, found a room and climbed a mountain to some Inca runins. Now for a fun little thing I like to call "Inca stuff I had no idea about." Now you Inca history buffs out there might laugh at me for my lack of previous knowledge about the Incas, and to you I say "bite me, there is a whole world out there and I don´t see how I can be expected to know about comicbooks, computer games, AND the Inca empire." Besides I usually just count on Lotta to know everything. Anyway, on to cool Inca thing number 1. The Incas were really only a large empire like power for a little less than a hundred years, from about 1438 to around 1532. Sure they had been around before then but just as some backwater village. In 1438 the Incas had a leader named Pachacutec who is described in a difficult to translated holy Inca text as "kicking ass". He is compared to Alexander the Great by some, becasue of his millitary expansion, not the simularity of thier hair style. In thirty years he took over an area that is roughly the size of continental Europe. Nutty Inca fact #2 The germs from the Spanish reached the Inca before the Spanish, Around 1527 a fatal epidemic killed almost half of the 25 million population. After that there was a devistating civil war (think U.S. civil war) with each side equaly matched. In 1532 the Spanish conquistadors, who lucked out by finding the Inca capital straight away, just mopped up what was left. It was not helpfull that the Conquistadors were big jerks, no really, it´s a historical fact. When the Inca´s first met the Spanish they gave them rooms full of gold and silver and all sorts of cool gifts like t-shirts that said "I went to the Inca kingdom in South America and all I got was this lousy T-shirt (and rooms full of gold and silver)". To reciprocate the Spanish gave the Incas a bible. So, lets say you give me 3 billion dollars, and I give you a book in a different language, and expect you to be really greatfull. The Incas responded correctly. O.K. that is enough history, this isn´t the history blog after all.
This is on top of the mountain we climbed, it was great and a lot of work. but the view was great. Once at the top we explored the sight among the bus loads of tourists that cheated by taking a bus to the top. After climbing an hour and half, gasping every inch of the way there is no way not to feel superior to the people who just had to sit until they got to the top, on the other hand I have been on the other side of that too and then I look at the sweating puffing fools who took the hard way while I took the smart way.
Lotta bought some sort of fuit at the market that tasted good and was refreshing to eat. You just have to peel off a bit of the outer layer and suck out the fruit. I don´t remember what it was called but the insides looked like rat guts, but I don´t think it is called rat gut fruit.
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So, we climbed back down the mountain went to a cool market, got up to speed on out hageling skills, spent the night, got on a bus and went back to Cuzco.

Once in Cuzco we went to our new hostel. I would like to take a second to put the spotlight on water conservation. It is very important for those of us in more developed nations not to drink bottled water it is silly, because for the most part the water out of our taps is perfectly fine, and by drinking bottled water we are creating more waste and using resources that developing countries, like Peru, are in desperate need of. O.K. that being said, I have wasted more water on this trip than in my whole life. Every place we stay at the shower has two controls for the water, one has a little red dot and the other has a little blue dot. You at home might be familiar with these colors as representing hot and cold. In Peru the red dot stand for water that is heated by the magma core of this very earth that we live on, the blue dot represents water that is mysticaly transported from the far dwarf planet of Pluto. Amazingly these two temperatures can not be mixes so as to produce a warm pleasent water of refreshment. Also, the temp can change for a reason that is only knowen to the angery and vengfull water gods of Peru. This has lead to a system of washing that entails standing BY a constant stream of shower water, soaping up and waiting for the opportunity to not be scalded or given frost bite by the water. All I can say to this is sorry water conservation, but really that bottled water thing is bad. Oh and even though it is near to actually freezing at night (it is winter here afterall) the hotels do not have heat. Here is a photo of us brushing our teeth.
O.K. last but not least, we were here just in time to see the Corpus Christi festival. WOW, huge parades with men holding up big, heavy floats of saits, with dancing guys in creepy skimasks, it was very cool. Then we ran acros what looked like a huge chili cook off, and this was not far from the truth. There were maybe 80 tents set up each one serving the exact same thing, but with thier own special touch I´m sure. What were they serving?
Well, some kind of corn bread, a sea weed like thing, some amazing cheese, chicken, some fish egg thing, and the main course, the food you crawled out of the jungle for, the yummy in your tummy....Roasted GUINEA PIG. It so happens the Peruvians have been eating Cuy (guinea pig) for hundreds of years, so what else can you do but belly up to the counter, plop down your 12 sol (four dollars) and eat some house hold pet. So, how does it taste? not like chicken, I can say that. I would have to say it tastes a little better than a hamster, but not as good at a gerible. Really, it has so may herbs and spice, it just tasted salty, but I can check it off the list and not eat it again thank you very much. 1%5D"> That was a long update, tommorrow we go off on a four day hike on the Inca trail. Wish us luck, and remember guinea pigs aren´t just pets anymore.