Favorite Moments from Peru

As my mom is doing a wonderful job of narrating our trip to Peru so far, I will take the easy route and relate my most memorable moments, good and bad.

Feelings of dread in Atlanta, reading about all the cancelled and severely delayed flights, wondering if we were going to make it to Lima on time, and if Saori (on a separate flight) was going to make it too.

Overwhelming relief in Lima to find Saori at baggage claim just as planned.

The long nervous wait to talk to the baggage rep about Tay's lost bag.

Saori's and my first view of Lima, which is like many other Latin American capitals; crowded, dense, grimy, with bad traffic and gray skies, ringed for miles by impoverished slums.

Drinking coffee at the bus terminal, watching Lima go by outside, our first real rest since leaving home.

Frenzied excitement of boarding the bus for Cuzco, with people checking bags, security forces videotaping us as we got on, and of course, trying to verify in Spanish that we were, in fact, on the bus to Cuzco and not, say Bogota.

I'm glad we took the bus from Lima to Cuzco. We both were looking for a little adventure beyond the pale of what mom and tay would accept as reasonable (although they were surprisingly game for other local bus adventures later), and becasuse we wanted to see more of Peru with our time there. We effectively lost a day, but as I heard later, mom and Tay spent thier time sleeping and acclimating to the altitude while they waited for us. The ride of 20 hours went surprisingly quickly. They served two hot meals, our seats reclined with leg supports, and they showed a constant stream of bad American movies from drop down screens.

As we left Lima behind, pushing through thinning favelas, we entered the arid wastelands south of the city and extending for hundreds of miles south into Chile. This area is the driest place on earth, despite being by the ocean. I've seen the Empty Quarter of the Arabian desert, which, at least had an occational stunted weed, or camel herd in the valleys between the dunes. The landscape we drove through was as barren as the moon. Rocky dunes which flattened and ran into the pounding sea. We passed occational shacks and small seemingly abandoned seafront villages, and also a heavily defended LNG operation. After a few hours of following that martian coast, we headed inland, towards the mountains, but we still had another desert to cross.

As the sun began to set, we crossed the Atacama desert, more picturesque, but equally devoid of life, I think I saw part of a Nasca line out there. After dark, we both fell asleep. When we awoke, we were in the mountains. Outside the windows was pitch black. The only way we could tell was the feeling of going steadily upwards, coupled with the regular tight turns that signify switchbacks. Reading the guidebook in the bus, they strongly recommended against night busses in the mountains because sometimes drunk bus drivers are a problem, the roads are not lighted, there are lots and lots of hairpin turns, and in the Andes, its a long way to the bottom. The only indication of how high we were was the headlights, far below of other trucks and busses taking the same switchbacks. I was not too concerned as the bus we were taking was one of the biggest bus line companies in Peru with a modern fleet tracked by GPS, and it was too dark outside to see the danger.

We crossed the ridge of the Andes at dawn, the morning rays making the clouds glow bright orange around us. My hands were tingling like they'd fallen asleep.

In Cuzco, relief at seeing Tay's head popped out of the window and our first taste of coca tea as we visited with the Ochoa family, the owners of the hostel.

Our first visit to the Plaza de Armas, the main square, and sitting down at one of the balconies overlooking the square for more coca tea.