Cuenca to Cuzco

Listening to Duran Duran in the the backpacker hostel in Cusco, and thinking about how nice places like this can be, with free internet and big pots of free coffee all day. I left on vacation with my friend Lindsay yesterday and we travelled for 24 to get here. A three hour bus ride to Machala, another two hour bus ride to Huaquillas on the Ecuador Peru border, then a walk across the border in which some policeman picked us up and told us it was dangerous to cross the border on foot, and left us in front of Peru immigration where I almost transformed into a crazy gringa because we got directed into the wrong line by some sketchy guy selling currency, but the immigration guy was nice to us and took us to the front of the line.

Then we argued with some guys that tried to cheat us with a taxi ride to the airport in Tumbes (Five dollars!) while we were waiting for a colectivo, the guy offered to give me his cell phone if we could get a colectivo ride to the airport for 1 sole, the peruvian currency. And we did get it for 1.50, but I didn{t try to take his celular. And all this time I had a horrible head cold and brutal cough, so when we got to the airport in Tumbes, I fell asleep for several hours in the chair and only woke up to check my luggage and get on the plane. In Lima, we stayed in the hotel belonging to perhaps the nicest man I have ever met and I found that supermarkets in Lima make Supermaxi in Cuenca look like 7/11. I bought some cough syrup and Lindsay made me take it in the airport, while I savored my Dunkin Donuts coffee. The woman swore the the cough syrup would not make me sleepy, but did not mention it make you super loopy. So as we were getting off the plane, I felt like I was completely stoned and I proceeded to enter Cuzco, another lovely south american city beginning with a c, feeling no pain.

Off to find an ATM and organize our hike and see the sites.