good talk

A year ago last spring I flew into Lima, Peru to begin my trip, getting in around midnight. I bought a ticket to Cuzco to fly out around 6 A.M. and I hoped to be more successful than 17 years before when I couldn't get out 2 mornings in a row due to bad weather, this is commonplace. I bought a couple backrubs, relaxed and bided my time. Flew to Cuzco! Destroyed by Atahualpa in 1532 in the Incas' Civil War, the Spanish began to rebuild it in 1534. There's a lot of great stuff to see in and around Cuzco. Took the train for 3 hours to the Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas." Discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911, later U.S. Senator from Vermont, it has a surrealistic quality with huge pillars hewn from rock seamlessly joined without mortar. There's a mountain next to it with artifacts at the top and climbing it is a rite of passage. They only take 300 a day and the last is by l P.M., I didn't know this, I just wandered in there, I was the 2nd to the last taken that day. If you make a false step you'd be maimed or even killed but any able-bodied person can do it, sissies won't attempt this---so what are you gonna do? It was quite an exertion, I wouldn't want to do that 2 days in a row but it was a lot of fun. I spent that night in the village below and the next day enjoyed their baths from the mineral hot springs and bought souvenirs at their very good market. I took the train back to Cuzco and had a really good dinner of alpaca steak for $9 at an upscale restaurant on the town square. Alpacas are really cute but they sure do taste good, this one didn't die in vain. The next day I took the bus to Puno on Lake Titicaca which also borders Bolivia, at 12,400 feet the highest big lake in the world. The Indians out there live about the same today as when Pizarro rocked their world. I went out on the lake on a day-tour, the Indians have small villages floating on the lake itself and I went to a couple. There's an island on the lake and they had us climb, rough at altitude, up a long trail to the village at the top where we had lunch. Quite an experience, I had always heard of Lake Titicaca. Then I took a bus to La Paz, the capitol of Bolivia, the highest capitol city in the world at 12,500, and 13,000 at their airport. They've only had a fire department over the past 40 years or so just because big cities are supposed to have one, no fire will burn very long due to the altitude. La Paz is neat, they have all kinds of nice, little museums and churches. Was in the coca museum and bought a bottle of coca liquor. The Indians in Peru and Bolivia eat coca leaves like candy, they're supposed to greatly increase your stamina but I never felt anything myself. Took the bus to Potosi, today one of the poorest cities in South America. I got a nice room for $12 at the "Koala Den," a really nice hostel there and I paid $10 to go on their "Mine Tour." Founded in 1546, for 200 years half the silver mined in the world came from Potosi's "Cerro Rico" mine, and this is where I went.