Quinta Patawasi Bed & Breakfast Urubamba

... Fantastic to see, especially as we´d gone through so much to get to that point - a real sense of achievement and a real honor to see it.
That night we powered through and despite getting up at 3.30am managed to get out and on it in Cucso by 7.30pm. I wasn´t hungry at the time and was keen to feel the effects quickly, so unusually decided not to eat before hitting the beers. 1am came around quickly and we were kicked out of the boozer and into the pouring rain. At this ...

... was also some entertainment by the train staff wearing traditional Peruvian garb which by the end of the night turned into Rachel modeling their clothes and using the train aisle as a fashion runway. Rachel always did want to model internationally she just didn't know it would be on a train in the Andean mountains and I would be her uber-stylist, makeup artist, and talented photographer.

Next day another hour long $10 massage and then we were off to Brazil.

... made up by the locals.

We finally decided to book our trip to Macchu Picchu after looking around for a cheap deal for hours and went for the absolute cheapest we could find...driving instaed of train. If anyone is thinging about going there any time soon then definatley get the train! The drive there was 7hours winding round mountain roads with no barriers and a driver who insisted on driving on the edge, even when it was on the wrong ...

... had signal on my phone and as much as I don't like to admit it, I was missing this little piece of technology and the link it gave me to my loved ones. The trip over to the village would be a good distraction and I wanted to see as much as possible of the local culture.

On the walk to the village we walked along a steep cliff path dropping down to a raging river below, the village was on the other side of the river and it soon became apparent that we needed to cross ...

... passports were stamped ! Everyone started walking at a steady pace chatting to their new neighbours. The path was relatively flat all the way along the Urubamba river. We stopped for lunch and had a banquet - the porters had run on ahead of us, set up a tent and cooked lunch ready for our arrival. Not your usual camping scenario, we had table and stools under canvas !! It was at this point that Paul was not feeling ...

... local musical instruments, little toys and some other items. It was also festival day in Peru (I think it is the Santa Rosa de Lima festival?) so they had a huge fiesta going on in the main square. Probably 150 people dressed up in costumes dancing and singing with hundreds of locals watching. Very cool to see! We bought a wall hanging and Amy got a scarf - I may add pictures tomorrow since I haven't taken any of the purchases yet.
OK - here is the next little ...

... going on inside of me too. I’m enjoying my time here, alone, and everything seems right. But, in this experience is I learned early that I will need to protect myself. The currency here is called the Sol. For the first few days, I was worried about getting robbed, or losing some of my limited cash. After awhile, I learned that it is not the Sol, that I need to worry about, but my Soul. Most of the people here are after something, this great land attracts ...

... now become a reality, it was for real, it was me, I was the one standing in front of MACHU PICCHU! My wonderful dream coming true! As I savored my precious moment in time, memorizing in my mind every little details of this exact moment, the sky was a beautiful blue colour with big white puffy clouds. Forever in my mind!

Just around the corner, Ali and Mi were looking at ...

... offended by this. (Actually, we had already experienced this issue in Lima when a vendor rejected a stained bill. We slipped the unclean money into our next purchase and made a clean get away.) Next we loaded the bikes into a taxi - two in the trunk, one on the roof. Opi would appreciate the layering of foam and the tying and re-tying that went into this procedure. On the taxi ride up to Maras, the trail head for our ride, we got to know Mike: other than ...

... big fan of basketball and the globetrotters. They got out a tape measure to find out how many cm´s I was and then measured themselves as well. We headed back to the hostel and found that the water was turned off. We were the only ones there so we left a couple soles for storing our bags and found another hostel. This one had running water (sweet) and it was hot (double sweet). Posted on 11/19/07 1:34 PM EST [ Comments (0) ] [ Post a comment ]