November 2011 Lima and Cusco, Peru

A map of the luxury bus company
Cruz del Sur. We took it from Trujillo
to Lima and probably will use it again.
Very comfy "cama" (bed) chairs
as well as a stewardess

I am so glad that I am writing this blog as it is helping us to keep track of our lives during this incredible trip and we know that you are enjoying it also.   We have received many emails from our family and friends but these words from  Barbara Rodbell in Chapel Hill seem important to remember and help sum up our thoughts at this time.


" I love everything I get from you, story and pictures and I think I have it all and can look at it any time I want to. I think it is great that you have started to talk about staying for a longer period in one place: a kind of resting, thinking and getting back to yourselves without looking and gathering new experiences to work on every day. Memory will drop certain things in the long run and what you will have left will be the things which truly meant the most to each of you and might not be the same! I find that it is mostly a feeling of a period of time, a warmth and a color and-----a quiet gratitude to have had such wonderful adventures and having absorbed them well in the rest of life. Thank you for letting me share them! Love, Barbara R"

Lima, in Miraflores.
The city is right on the ocean

So, we left Trujillo for Lima on the luxury night bus arriving in Lima at about 7 am. We have decided that 9 hours by bus is great, especially in this style but more might not be. South America has a great bus system for travel and many travel this way as the airlines are quite expensive. We did fly from Lima to Cusco as that would have been a 21 hour bus ride! We will probably continue with a combination of this travel. We found a hostal which was fine for us - many are places for backpackers as well as travelers like us. Great places to meet other travelers and they are always so helpful.  

Causa - a special Peruvian potato dish made of
many different types of potato and other
ingredients  - this one was avocado.

Lima is a very big city and since we had been here 6 years ago we decided to stay in a different section of town - Miraflores. It was great as the hostal was centrally located and we could walk to so many places. As usual, we found great vegetarian restaurants and walked along the coast both days.

The sculpture at the coast in Lima

I loved the shape of the waves on the shore

Nature is incredible!

A followup to our last blog....we did have a chance to go to the Ecuadorean Embassy and talk about our "blackmail".  They were very embarrassed with the situation though they could not do anything about it except to speak to the lawyers for immigration. The fact of the matter was that we did indeed overstay our 90 days in Ecuador (because they counted the Feb/Mar trip and this past trip together - unlike Mexico and other countries that allow you to start your days over each time you leave and return.) Ecuador only allows 90 days/year so because of that we cannot return to Ecuador at Christmas unless we get visas which together with airfare back to Ecuador would be prohibitive. So, in keeping with Barbara's words above, we are going to stay put in Cusco for one month and then travel to a few places in Peru and Bolivia and hopefully change our return ticket to fly from Lima instead of Quito. (We know all our friends in Cuenca will be unhappy to hear this news as we are also.)

We have moved from the coast in Lima to Cusco -  the Sacred Valley and land of the Incas. We were here in Sept., 2005 to hike the 4 day Inca trail to Machu Piccu and promised ourselves to come back as it is was beautiful with so much to see. We are remembering things as we are here that we had forgotten and just looked at all our pictures and read my "haiku"s that I had written for that trip. We're not sure if we will go back to Machu Piccu this time or just keep our memories from the moment we entered the sun gate 6 years ago - an unforgettable memory. We are off to a one day hike tomorrow on our own to see several of the Inca ruins right above the city. By the way, it is over 11.000 feet here and for the first few days we did feel the altitude - more tired and a little dizzy with light headache here and there. Now as it is 4 days since we arrived we do not notice it. 

Narcissa and her husband in Cusco - our friends from the
Spanish school in Cuenca....what a small world. We took
the city tour together.

Cristo Blanco - copy of the Christ in Rio de Janiero
He watches over the city of Cusco

Special bread for Nov 1
Dia de los Difuntos

We are settling down and have rented an apartment in an old colonial building that serves as a hotel or apartments by the month or longer. Here are a few pictures of the inside and outside. We have one large room and a kitchen and bathroom with plenty of space. Having wi fi allows us to stay in touch with all of you and we are back on skype. Send us your telephone number and a good time to call and we will. You can only call us if you have skype but we can call you on skype or your home or cell phones.

Outside our room - second floor on balcony

Richard in the downstairs courtyard

Our room and little sitting area

Looking into the little kitchen with bathroom
 off to the right

Plaza de las Armas - the main square.

Tile roofs 

An example of Inca stones. They are very large and hard to
imagine how they were moved and put together with
no mortar between them. They still remain as the foundation
for many of the buildings and churches still standing today.

An example of a chess set - with Incans vs. Spainards!

Interesting angles

That's it for this week. There will be many more pictures of this beautiful town as we explore more and more each day. It is much larger than SMA - about 300,000 people. Many many tourists from all over the world and indeed many young people - adventuring for the various hikes and adventure sports in the Sacred Valley. We are going to Spanish school again - for 2 hours/day and have also found a yoga class. There are others that we will explore in the coming weeks.  Once again....thanks for traveling with us.