After a loooooong long long loooooooong journey i am finally in Cuzco. Just so you have an idea: all the locals in Nazca recommended this one bus company called Molino, so that is what i went with. 55 soles for a 16 hour trip, them saying what a great bus it was. There was no A-C on the bus. Had to keep the windows open or closed depending on weather. There were kids all over screaming and throwing up and messing up my breathing are in very very very near proximity in other ways. Fortunately the scenery was enough to compensate for it, and the bus did leave late enough that by we ended up in Cuzco around 10am, giving me about 5 hours of awesome scenery-watching. well, ok, so i didnt watch the scenery the whole time, i did fall asleep a bunch of times but as it was rather uncomfortable that usually didnt last long. How lucky am i that i can curl up in a tiny seat--at least that way i could be sort of comfy. Oh, and for most of the trip i was afraid of drinking water since it didnt look like there were facilities on the bus. Despite the assurances from the person selling me the ticket. As it turned out, the facilities were indeed there but for their conditions they might as well not have.
An interesting bit of local color here--around 3 o'clock in the morning i woke up to the stopped bus to find that this was a bathroom stop. we were stopped in the middle of nowhere and you hit mud the minute you stepped of the bus. not only that, everyone was running off into the field to squat. i just went back for my cigarettes to get the smell of the bus children air out of my nostrils. yes i know that sounds mean, but trust me, the air was pretty vile, even though i WAS by the window.
Well, Cuzco turned out to be a much bigger place than i had thought and definitely many many degrees bigger than Nazca. And it is so incredibly cute!!! Yes, yes, it is very touristy and i think there may be more tourists here than peruvians, but that is almost small enough not to detract from the place. I had been wandering around the place for a bit and there are a bizillion travel agencies willing to take you whichever way wherever you want. I am still considering how and when to do what. For the Inca trail to Machu Pichu apparently you now have to make a reservation 3-4 days in advance, and i'm going to try and catch up with my student ID card before i go, so that i can get a hefty discount. yippie. well, off to dinner with me. Oh, and for anyone wanting to lose weight--appetite dies a sudden death syndrome at altitude for some reason. just a thought. maybe hit 99th floor somewhere or something. well that's all i have for now. And hey, now i have figured out how go get comments so you can actually make fun of me right here!!! woo hoo!!!
p.s. i am contemplating swiping a golden llama statue from some company's yard, i think it will look good in my apartment!!