We made it to Bolivia!!

We left the hot, humid and wonderful jungle for another night of motorcycle riding and a great meal in Puerto Maldanado. Now we were officially done with tours and I was ready to begin more independent travelling. Tours are easy and relaxing, for sure. But lacking in something....The next afternoon we caught our flight to Cusco and planned to get a night bus to Puno. Night busses are often no recommended but we weren´t sure we´d make a day one, given the time. We arrived in Cusco and as I got the bags, Aimey got us a taxi driver. We already new it should only cost 10 soles for a ride to the bus station so (and we´re getting good at this), when the driver insisted on 15, we said thank you (gracis, amigo) no! "Okay, Okay. Ten soles" and we left with him but first had to get through the trongs of other drivers promising cheaper and better lifts to the same place. We arrive at the bus station and the driver (still trying to scam money) said, "Oh, I´ll drive you to the terminal but there is a 1 soles tax, so you´ll pay me 11 soles". NO AMIGO!! We´ll walk. "No, there is a tax" he insisted. "No, amigo. There isn´t!" He was friendly enough but we just wanted to catch a bus.

We enter the station and, unlike Greyhound, there are a bazillion different operators. Each telling you that the others are terrible. Although for a while I thought all busses were only going to Arequipa because that seemed to be what everyone was yelling! It was 1:45 and we managed to get on a 2:30 day bus to Puno. It was 8 hours so we´d still arrive in the dark but it was better than nothing. We opted for a cheaper ($6 each) bus and then hurried to an internet cafe to try (unsuccessfully) to book a hotel in Puno. Either way, we get on the bus. All locals. We´re the only "gringos" (affectionate term used for white tourists in South America). We settled in for the journey. Aimey´s not feeling hot, I´m worried about altitude sickness and there´s no bathroom on board!!! Oh well....here we go!

The bus ride itself was interesting. Hawkers selling everything from all natural puffed wheat bars to Encyclopedias on CD-Rom. At some point a man who Aimey named "Stinky George" got on the bus. He didn´t have a seat and thought the best idea was to stand next to me. There were a number of questions I had for him. "Stinky George, would you mind removing your bum from my shoulder?" "Stinky George, could you please stop picking food out of your teeth?" "Stinky George, please take your greasy hands away from me?" "Stinky George, when was it you last showered?" Of course, these questions remained unanswered. He got off shortly afterward. We passed one bus accident, which looked pretty bad. I didn´t realize how bad it was until I saw the next day´s papers. 17 people were killed when the bus rolled over. Peru is notorious for bus accidents. I was just happy to not be part of it. When it got dark the kids and some adults on the bus started shouting for a movie! (This I understood when the little boy sitting across the aisle from me ran back to his seat and said "We´ll see a movie now") The word they used sounded like¨"dao" but I´m not sure what it was. They yelled, they stomped their feet and they rapped on the driver´s window. All attempts for the movie were igored. They even started shouting using different voices (as if this would convince the driver!). Eventually, he did start to play a movie. I didn´t realize that The Gods Must Be Crazy is just as funny in Spanish as it is in English!!! So, we continued to lumber down the road rather peacefully. I dozed off until I was awoken but a noticeable change in the rhythm of the bus. It felt like to jumped the paved road in favour of a dirt field! When I looked out the window, that is, indeed what happened. There had been a detour of sorts and so we were merrily bumping along someone´s field, in the middle of the night. Instead of watching where we were going, I closed the curtain again and went back to sleep. I would rather not see what was happening!!

Finally, 1 hour and half late, we arrived in Puno. We found a lovely taxi driver, Olegario, who took us to a decent hotel. Aimey wasn´t feeling well but he left us alone eventually, where (freezing, since we were now about 3500 meters about sea level and not in beautiful Pto. Maldanado) we climbed under two layers of llama woolen blankets and dozed, blissfully off to sleep.

Morning came and Aimey stayed in bed, trying to pull herself together. I got us breakfast but not before catching a glimpse of lake Titicaca. The hightest, largest, navigatable lake in the world, and the sacred lake of the Incas. We met Olegario at 9am and he got us our 2:30 tickets to Copacabana, Bolivia. So we had the day to explore! At 11:30, we boarded a boat and headed to the reed islands. The Uros people. This was a two hour trip. Perfect! We´d be back at the hotel for 1:45, ready to catch our ride to the bus terminal. Little did I know, that the Inca God´s are sun gods, not time-sensitive Gods and that arriving on time would not be in the plans.

We arrived at the island listened to how these floating islands are made entirely from totora reeds and anchored down so that the island doesn´t float away to Bolivia. It´s pretty impressive actually. The islands are build on 1 metre of root and then 2 meters of reeds. The reeds are added every 15 days during dry season because the ones on the bottom begin to deteriorate. The reeds are used for everything from the ground, to beds, to fuel, to salad. All of this we learned thanks to a guy we met from Brazil who also speaks Spanish and English. He translated for us. We continued for a while until we realized that our boat would not make it back for 1:30. Uh oh. What to do? We jumped on a boat that was leaving earlier. Phew. Close call! Oh wait. It is stopping at another island. Okay, seriously folks, if you´ve seen one totora reed island on Lake Titicaca, you´ve seen them all. Lét´s move it!!! Our boat finally leaves and we pull into the dock no ealier than 1:58pm. We need to be at our hotel to meet our transer at 2:10 and it was a 25 minute walk! This is when our practice for the Amazing Race came in very handy. The boat hadn´t stopped but we jumped from ship to shore and began to ran. We were going to run like we were on the Race and gunning for first place (no free trip would be awared however). We needed to avoid elimination. We ran and we ran and we began to cough and wheeze and double over with shortness of breath! What was happening? We´re in shape. We go to the gym! We swim!! Oh, yeah but not at 3800 meters above sea level. This altitude thing can really be a bitch! We´re never going to make it. We´ll be stuck in Puno forever!! No, wait! What´s that I see? A mototaxi. Praise the Inca Gods. We make a dash for it and in true Amazing Race style say "Rapido, señor, rapido!" (I have ALWAYS wanted to say that!!) We ran red lights, avoided moto vs. moto accidents and pulled up to the hotel at 2:08pm. Phew!

Board bus to Copacabana and relax!! This was more like it. ANd there was an el baño on board! Yeah!! We get to the border and go to immigration. We get our cards stamped and turn to watch our bus slowly drive away. No panic, it will meet us in Bolivia. We cash some US dollars in Peru to avoid getting fake ones in Bolivia. (not that Peru is golden, either, mind you. I´d already been given a fake 5 soles piece) We walk across the borded into Bolivia and head to immigration. He stamps Aimey´s passport and then changes his mind! What! We were worried he was going to to to us what he did to the American ahead of us. He told her she needed a visa, which is inaccurate. I started to get frustrated until a great Norweigen guy explains that we just need to visit another office on the Peru side to actually get our exit passes in our passports. We wander across, get them stamped and head back to Bolivia - take two. This time, no problem, amigas! Back on the bus and within 10 minutes we´re in Copacabana!

We wander around and find a hotel, head for dinner and then to an early sleep. We woke up this morning and had a great breakfast. Then tried the shower. Agua caliente it is NOT!! We were told hot water was available but I´d say more like luke warm, if that. There´s not shower curtain to keep the steam in either so, I´m freezing and spraying water all over the freaking bathroom until I accidently hit a plastic spout and all of sudden water is POURING everywhere, behind the toilet, onto the floor and I can´t find the stupid piece because my glasses are off. AND I¨M FREEZING!!! Meanwhile, Aimey can hear me making noises and sounds only heart attack victims probably make, because I´m so cold and she´s yelling "Is it warm? It doesn´t sound warm? Honeslty, is it warm?" I say (through the shivers) "Ye..ye...yes....it...it...it´s...okay!" I was later called a big liar when she was in the shower but I had to. For both our sakes. We hadn´t showered in a few days, and we needed it!!

We strolled the markets in the morning and got some great gifts for people back home. We made it up to the cathedral to watch cars being blessed by the priests. Its festival time here this week and so many people come to get their cars blessed. It involves holy water, plastic and real flowers, fire crackers and pouring champagne over the car! I think my brothers ´89 Volvo could use this, just to get it to next summer. Had lunch, contimplated buying a llama fetus and now here I sit. I love this blog thing. No journal for me to lug around and I´m a much faster typer than writer. Plus, this thing (despite what you read) has spell check!!

We´re heading on a hike this afternoon, Isla de Sols on the lake tomorrow and La Paz on the 4th for a few days. We´ll be there for their independence day and really looking forward to it. Hope all is well back home, or wherever you are.

Welcome to the Jungle, Baby!

We are back from the jungle and it was great! In Peurto Maldanado, we drove to the market on a motorcycle taxi. Three per bike would seem dangerous in Canada but we´ve seen entire families (including little babies no older than a few months) on bikes with drivers. We spent the morning of July 28 at the Plaza de Armas and since it was Independence Day, got to watch a military procession and flag raising. It was pretty neat. Our shuttle picked us up at 11am and we finally boarded our boat on the Rio Madres de Dias, and took a 1.5 hour trip down the the river to the lodge. It was hot, humid and sunny! We arrived and had a yummy lunch of Peruvian food, including lots of fruit. After unloading our bags into our hut (we had our own!), we boarded another boat and went to Monkey Island where we got to play with the monkeys. We have some great pictures (to follow as soon as I can). When the sun when down we took another boat trip, this time along the river to look for Caiman. We found some trying to hide.... Then a late dinner and to bed.

Our wake up call was 6 am (does anyone sleep in in this country?) and we took a hike through the Amazon to a Lost Lake. Along the way we found trees that set off compasses because they are magnetic, a tree that lookes like a penis, and a tree that smells like garlic. Aimey also ate beetle larva (I am not kidding!!) and we poked at a....wait for it....tarantula until it came out of hiding to play. AND I DIDN´T CRY! I´m ready for Rwanda folks!!!! We made it to the island just into time to board a little canoe and paddle around with the giant black Caiman. Yikes..... Then we headed back to the lodge where we swung in hammocks until lunch!

After lunch we took sticks and food and swimsuits and went across to Monkey Island to fish and swim. (For catfish, not monkeys!) We swam in water where Caiman live!! We swam to keep the flies off mostly, but it cooled us off before heading back. We showered (there is only cold water in in the jungle - for good reason...it´s bloody hot) and then relaxed in our private hammocks in the screened in porch to our hut. I read, Aimey dozed. That is the life!! Dinner was served in banana leaves and we played ping pong for a while before getting too warm.

This morning we had a great breakfast before coming back to Pto. Maldanado where we are spening time booking some hotels in Bolivia.....We head to Puno tomorrow and if my altitude sickness can subside, we´ll continue into Bolivia. If not, we think we might scratch it and head up the coast toward Ecuador. I´m dreading being sick again in Cusco but I´m being diligent with the altitude pills so I hope to be better. Either way, we´ll let you know!!

Stay tuned for pictures....I hope to do them later today when I come back to check my email and see if we actually have a place to stay on Lack Titicaca!

Quick re-cap

I am sitting in Peurto Maldanado right now which is the gate way to the southern Amazon. It´s hot and humid and I´m just thankful to be only 250 meters above sea level. My altitude sickness did not subside and though I was fine during the Inca Trail (I think Coca Tea and Gatorade kept me alive), upon my return to Cusco, could not eat or drink anything. And it was SO COLD!!! I know it´s winter here but come on! Five layers.....toques for dinner. Honestly! Regardless, it was a great experience. The Inca Trek experience is in a separate and detailed post. They day after the trek we all went white water rafting down the Urabamba River. It was so cold that the safety kayakers hands were too cold to take pictures!! However, here´s what I´ve learned about Peru so far:

- My Spanish is improving but I have a tendancy to want to respond in French. Go figure
- It seems that near our hotel just above every store sold matteresses and people bought a lot of them
-There are stray dogs everywhere and all Aimey wants to do is go around giving them dog treats. It breaks her heart but I reminded her that a) she hasn´t had her rabies shot and b) as soon as she feeds them, she´ll have a following!
-Altitude sickness is the worst thing I have ever experienced!
-Our trekking groups was so fantastic. They included:
- six Irish folks who met doing charity walks for the Irish heart foundation and have since begun trekking all over the world
-a Welsh couple, one of whom is a teacher!
-a newly engaged couple from Denmark
-white water rafting is great fun but not when it{s Peruvian winter!

Memorable quotes so far:
1) Welsh Gemma on night 2 of the trek "the toilets here are proper toilets!"
Me: "So you mean, you can sit on them instead of squating?"
Welsh Gemma: " well, I still wouldn´t sit on them"

2) Danish Andres audio Spanish tapes "Relax. Listen to the music. Enjoy the words."

3) Aimey "Look, there´s blue sky!"
Irish Ann "Yes, but it´s not over Peru. It´s somewhere feckin´ else!"

The Inca Trail

We started the Inca Trek a day late because of a Peruvian bus strike but began the actual hike on schedule.



Day 1

Bus to Ollayantotambo at 7pm and stay and a cute uber Peruvian hotel. Enjoy a good meal and go to bed early to be ready for the hike tomorrow.



Day 2

Wake up call at 6:30 and meet with a local to buy walking sticks and Coca leaves. The Coca plant helps with altitudie sickness. You roll five or so leaves and chew on them ( not unlike tobacco) to help alleviate the sympotms. We share them with portors along the way. Board the bus and head to kilometre 82, where the trek begins. Our portars way our duffle bags and they can´t exceed 6kg. Aimey has to take out a Gatorade but then we´re ready to go. We go through the check point, get a fancy stamp in our passports and we´re off! The altitude is high but lower than Cusco. Even so, the sun is intense. I apply and re-apply SPF 30 throughout the day. We take a lot of breaks and our guides, Manual and Roddy, ensure that we´re all okay. We arrive at our lunch spot to a round of applause from the portors and wash basins for our hands. We eat an incredible meal of pasta, chicken, potatoe salad and tea. We hike more that day and after about 6 hours we arrive at our campsite. The scenery is beautiful and there are warm wash basins outside our tents to wash our dirty feet, hands and faces. We relax for a few hours before dressing in our winter best and head lamps and wander out of our tents to look at the stars. I see the southern cross! Dinner is, once again, fantastic. Early bed after using the squat-then-flush toilets. Thankfully one of the Irish ladies has peppermint oil to put under your nose!!!



Day 3


Wake at 6am with Roddy knocking on our tent with Coca tea and then head ot the tent for breakfast at 6:30. It´s oatmeal, omlete and bread. Today is going to be the toughest day. We hike to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass at an elevation of over 4000 meters. It´s short but gruelling. We head off in the cool weather, thankful that the sun is not pounding down on us. We start to climb. We climb and climb and climb and I think that if I see another stair, I will cry!!! It begins to rain. And then hail. Then wind and sleet. And we are still climbing stairs for 4 hours!!!We see a Llama, which is a good photo op, as well as a good time for a rest. Andres (Denmark) and Aimey head ahead, while Signe ( Denmark) and I work slowly and steadily. EVerything I have is wet, I´m cold and my breathing becomes increasingly laboured because of altitude but I see the sumit and Roddy is there with a big hug!! Now, we have to descend. We´re wondering how long this will take. We´re hungry and tired of eating Snickers. It´s raining and cold and so we start to sing. Every song we can think of with "sun" inthe title. They include:

- You are my Sunshine
- Tomorrow (from the hit broadway musical and John XXIII production of Annie!)
- Let the Sun Shine in

And it stops raining.....for 10 minutes

The steps down for the next 2 hours are actually harder for me because of my bad knees. I slow down. I´m getting tired. Aimey is setting a good pace and I´m trying to keep up. Finally we make it to camp for lunch. At 5pm our cook, Boris, presents us with a cake and we sit in the tent until dinner at 7. We are camping at about 3800meters and so it´s very cold and very damp. And the rain sets in --- not before giving us a stunning view of the Andes .
(I should say, at this point, that all this talk of rain might sound like complaining. It{s not. It really was bad. Our guide has done this trek over 100 times and he said his has rained but he{s never before had to use his poncho!!)



Day 4


This was to be our long day. Our long descent down the trail. We begin in the cold and wet with a 5:30 wake up call. It´s all downhill today, which is hard on the knees. There is no sun and the rain won´t let up. My clothes weren´t dry from the night before. But in the few breaks we do get we see the scenery around us and when there isn´t fog, we realize what a beautiful place this is. Lunch was fantastic and after Peruvian potatoe pancakes, we were treated to Irish Colm singing "And the Band Played the Waltzing Matilda". It had us all close to or in tears. For those of you not familiar with the song, it is about Australian soildiers during WWI who were wounded in Gallipolli. Before he headed back on the trail in the rain, Welsh Gemma and I had to visit the ladies room and it was neither a sitting toilet, nor a flushing one. Shall we say hole in the ground? And a guy was in there while we were waiting and when he came out he said to us "Sorry" - as if it was his fault the place stunk like a combination of a dead animal and human feces. But then we realized why he was apologizing!! Apparently he was not able to keep things in either and missed the hole altogether! We were mortified but felt that any toilet we saw from that point one would be considered a golden throne. (Side note: it is amazing how much you talk about barfing and pooping with complete strangers while travelling. But it does seem to be a hot topic of conversation - even around the dinner table!) We contineu on to camp and arrive at our final spot (still in the rain) to a place with a pub and showers. Now, I don{t want you to think this was luxury. The "pub" was more like a ski lodge that had been left abandoned years ago but with a few bottles of beer hanging around. It was cold, though, and that is what mattered! Aimey and I opted out of the showers (why get washed and into clean clothes which are just going to get wet again!) and instead, induldged in a half beer before supper. Supper was at 6pm and we had a chance to formally thank our portors. Colm gave us another song - this time it was You{ve Got a Friend by James Taylor. We all knew the chorus so we joined in. It then became a bit of a sing-song. Danish Signe had us up and singing and jumping to a Danish kids song about the days of the week and Irish Anne gave a beautiful Celtic love song. Then it was to bed in the wet tent to be ready for our early rise the next day!

Day 5

Wake up call was 4am. Yes, folks. 4 bloody in the morning! The point was to get to the Sun Gate for sunrise to see the sun coming up over Machu Picchu. Unfortuneately I slept well only until about 2:30 when I was awoken by someone snoring. It sounded like a cross between a very loud zipper and a chain saw. Aimey and plotted how we would best kill said sleeping monster until we were somewhat laughing at the insanity and somewhat wishing we could get to sleep. Let me remind you, once again, that it was still raining at this point! 4 am wake up call and we get dressed and packed and down for breakfast. I beg for a plastic bag for my back pack and we all meet in the "ski lodge / pub". Manual, our guide, suggests we wait a bit for the other groups to get their first. Otherwise, we{re all at the gate at the same time, waiting and getting more wet. When we eventually got our energy enough to get going, we grabbed our walking sticks, turned on our head lamps (it{s dark at 5 am in the Andes) and marched single file toward our destination. We were a quiet bunch. I think we were all secretly disappointed with the weather and hoping, against all odds, it would clear before we arrived. I felt like a minor, heading into the depths of the earth looking for coal. In my head, I heard an old Cape Breton Song:

"We get up in the black, down the coal town road
And we hike along the track, where the coal trains load
And you make the ponies pull, till they nearly break their backs
And they´ll never see again, down the coal town road."

As we walked, we realized we were getting closer and - by God!! - I think there{s blue sky!! Okay, not really, but we were hoping. We reached the sun gate and Welsh Gemman and Matt are shouting "There it is! There it is!" And Aimey is helping me get my camera out because it has stopped raining and you can see Machu Picchu between the fog. And the minute I get my camera out of the plastic bag, out of the case, get the lense cap off and focus --- the bloody Inca city disappears behind the fog and stays there for a good 20 minutes. We decide to head down to get another view and the rain is holding off!!! It{s still holding off when we round the bend and get another view. And, what{s this? The fog is lifting too? THANK YOU, INCA SUN GODS!!!!! This was our reward. We deserved it!! It was beautiful. We kept wandering down. Our pace was slower because every time we caught a glimpse of the city we had to snap as many pictures as we could, just incase this fog jumped between us and our reward.

We spend the morning around Macchu Picchu and realize what a great achievement it was to build. So impressive. Our guide drags our sorry and tired legs around with the enthusasim of a teacher trying to get his grade 9 students to care about Canadian politics..... A few of decide to make our way to Agua Calientes down below where we are going to get our swimsuites and sit in the hot baths. We are nearly involved in a head on collision on our way down but when we make it and lower our bodies into the pools (they were pretty grosse but we didn{t care!), we sighed and thought "Wow....we did it!!"

We boarded a train for Cusco at 5pm and we were quiet. Very quiet. It rattled along the Andes toward the town most of us were either asleep or taking some time to reflect on the journey. We did it and it was worth it!

Peru in Pictures

This post will be forthcoming. We have a tonne of pictures because we´ve seen such amazing things. Eventually I will find an internet connection that is faster than molasses and you will all be able to share in the experience with us. Until then, here´s proof that we actually made it!!!

Protestors in Peru

We didn´t get to go to the Sacred Valley today because protestors are blocking the way out of Cusco and apparently this can get quite dangerous. So, instead we saw some Inca ruins in town and visted a Sun temple. We enjoyed the sunshine and I have to say that it was nice to be standing up rather than being horizontal in my bed sipping rehydration salts. We do leave for Ollantaytambo tonight which is our last bed and shower before we start the Inca Trail tomorrow. The protestors likely won´t have the road blocked then, so we should be fine. All in all, I finally feel like the trip has started...or will start when we leave tonight. Hope all is well in Canada or wherever you may be!

Do you ever feel like you´are in one of those Imodium ads?

Four days in Peru and they have been eventful - somewhat. First let me say that my grammer and punctuation is all off because the keyboard is different. I´m sitting here drinking Coco tea in CUsco to get rid of my altitude issues...apparently this stuff keeps you healthy while you´re here. We are currently at about 3300 metres about sea level or something crazy....

Our first few days in Lima were nothing to write home about - so I didn´t! We spent the first day wandering the dirty smoggy streets of what seemed like any other big city. Aimey saw and ad on TV for a Peru vs. Cuba volleyball game so in the dark we hopped on a taxi and he took us to the stadium. Are there rules on the road? Not really. Hold on! As we approached, an aggressive scalper was trying to sell us tickets. He held onto my window and didn´t let go until the crazy driver turned the corner. He kept harassing us and we fought our way to front to ask security where to get tickets. Surely we should buy from a scalper infront of security -- but that´s what we have to do! We paid $4 each and got to watch the game. It was a lot of fun but we were concerned about getting a taxi back so we left a set early. Cuba was up 2 sets to 1.

Day 3 we wandering around again and then met with our GAP group. We all went for dinner at a great Peruvian restaurant and I, against, my better judgement, order a soupa de la mar. (Seafood soup). It was terrible and ended up right back in the toilet of the said restaurant. It didn´t look any better coming up as it did going down! This, my friends, was the start of my problems.

Day 4 we boarded a flight for Cusco with our group. Flying over the Andes was beautiful. Bright skys, white clouds, little villages. As we landed I started to feel ill. Then I started to sweat. I was sitting next to the window and all the passengers were in the aisles to leave. We were near the back. How was I going to get out of here? THankfully, there was a door in the back - near the toilet. Barf bag in hand, I locked myself in there and got rid of everythign I thought was in my stomach. The lovely stewardess knocking on the door and me replying "un momento, por favor". When I got out she was standing there with a glass of coca tea saying " you drink all of it. ALL OF IT". Aimey was waiting on the tarmac in the sunshine and I wandered to get my bags.

We got to the hotel for another meeting (during which I visited yet ANOTHER bathroom) where we got all of our info for the trek. At this point I was thinking "what if I can´t go. What if I need to stay back?" I spent the rest of the day sleeping in the hotel. I didn´t see any of Cusco. Thank God for Aimey. We had one day, and one day only to book our trip to the Amazon, extra nights in Cusco and nights in Peurto Maldonado. I was dilirious. She left on her adventure and when she returned this was here recount:
- She waited in one bank wiht number 500 (#300 was on the screen) for the bank to finally tell her they don´t accept mastercard! Running around the streets trying to find a bank that did - thank God there are Scotiabanks everywhere. She had to pay for the lodge in cash
-leaving in a t-shirt and freezing when she got back after dark. The tempurature here dips about15 - 20 degrees each day.
-having a man try to steal her camera
-No one speaks English
-needing my passport number to book our flights but not having it so phoning me at the hotel but I didn´t answer because I was out of it and so calling the desk and lying to them and telling them she was me and she needed the number. They gave it to her!!
-Taking a taxi back here so she didn´t miss our meeting and getting ripped off but knowing this, she refused to pay the amount the driver was going to give her.
-Total Amazing Race style

So then we have another meeting which the entire group now knows that I can keep nothing down or in and that not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet but put it in the basket next to the toilet is awful when you´re sick!! They were sympathetic. The guide did applaud our decision to take rehydration salts which I sipped throughout the meeting. After all this we find we might not even be leaving today! There is a bus strike (apparently) and so we might not get ot see the Sacred Valley and instead will just be driven to our starting point tonight. I will be disappointed because we were going to visit weavers and markets but secretly a little happy to be able to see Cusco - and not just the toilets in it!!!