Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003 - 9:20 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 27th
Left Puno at 1pm and took a bus to Cusco. Yesterday the guys saw on TV that Arequipa had had an earthquake! I got a paper today and translated it. The epicenter (6.0) was about 75 miles southeast of Arequipa. No one died, but there were a few injuries, some homes collapsed and there was some disruption to traffic and communication systems.
The next day (Thursday, Aug. 28th) we were in Cusco. We had arrived to our hostal the night before, after getting off the bus we were approached by someone from a travel agency who could sign us up for the Inca Trail. We listened to her spiel, told her we'd think about it (but it was more than we wanted to spend). The next day, at breakfast (included in the hostal price) we met some other travelers staying at our hostal, three Australians; Trent, Corey and Callie and an English guy traveling with them, Paul. The three ozzies had recently arrived in South America after working at a resort at Lake Louise in Alberta Canada for 8 months.
We decided to shop around for a tour of the Inca Trail (that includes Machu Picchu) for the 7 of us, see if we could get a discount. Soon, after negotiations, we got a $200 tour (standard price) down to $170 (and then I got a student discount after that, thanks to CEDEI and ISIC). We hung out with the other travelers and got some lunch.
That afternoon I did a bunch of shopping for stuff I'd need on the trail. I got some clothes, including some travel pants because the zippers on the used pair I had broke in Arequipa.
That evening all of us went out for drinks and dinner. The ozzies are a lot of fun to hang out with, they have a good sense of humor and (as the English would say) like to "take the piss out of you" (meaning they tease you in a friendly way). After several hours, it was about 11pm, we decided to go to a dance club. We left the bar we were at, just off the Plaza de Armas, the main square.
Immediately we were bombarded by just about every street vender there is (and Cusco is full of them). Children selling finger puppets and postcards, street beggars begging, adults pushing coupons in our face, free drinks at other clubs or artists displaying portfolios of watercolor paintings or charchoal sketches. Our group had become 8 at this point and every one of us had about 3 or 4 people surrounding them, everyone was talking at the same time. It was utter chaos. We couldn't make a group decision on where to go because there were so many people around us. We all kept walking slowly as a conglomerate group, directionless and overwhelmed. It took about 15 minutes to cross the plaza to where there were more bars and dance clubs. One little street vender girl somehow got a hold of Corey's hat and ran away wih it. Corey was pissed off and somehow got another kid to retrieve it. We eventually all went inside one of the clubs to escape the chaos outside only to encounter the crazy chaos inside, the crowded, sweaty dancing mass of people and techno music and flashing lights.
Later we went to another dance club. As we were walking up the stairs a few local girls were leaving, walking past us. James said "Hola" to one of them and her boyfriend, who was right behind her, shoved James, making him fall down the stairs and slam his right shoulder against the wall. It was still very sore for another week, including when we hiked the Inca Trail.
