Shelley Lambert

Early morning off the dock at Jean and George’s cabin…  a very beautiful morning.

An early morning, a race to Macchu Picchu, a trip to the icky, filthy hot springs…

At the end of the hike, Camilla asked me if I had any ’solace’, and I thought for a long pause about this, so I could give her a proper answer… then I realized she asked me if I had any ’solas’ that she could borrow to pay for the hot springs. The answer to both questions was yes.

To see the full set of pictures, check out Peru photos.

A short day of hiking followed by many beers…

The longest day up Dead Woman’s Pass…

Though we are all excited to start the hike in this picture, I was fairly sick (having eaten something the day before that “really did not agree” and feverish, midway through the hike, I begin to wonder if I have made a huge mistake…

A day before the Inca trail hike begins, we do a little light hiking, visit a llama petting zoo and then tour the Sacred Valley. Lots of llamas and terraced farming…

Spent the day touring around the city of Cuzco… fighting off the street vendors and finger puppet children. Here are several interactions that I had heard tell about…

Interaction 1 - a conversation between me and a street kid:
kid: Finger puppets? One solas.
me: No, gracias.
kid: Maybe later.
me: No.
kid: Maybe tomorrow.
me: No.
kid: Maybe next week.
me: No.
kid: Maybe next year.

Interaction 2 - a conversation between Camilla and a street kid:
kid: Finger puppets? One solas.
camilla: I don’t have fingers.
kid: But you have toes.

Interaction 3 - a conversation between Hung and a street kid:
kid: Finger puppets? One solas.
hung: If I buy one will you leave me alone?
kid: Sure sure.
hung: Here is one solas.
kid: You gave me a fake sol.
hung: Well a fake one is better than nothing.
kid: Cheeky monkey.

In Cuzco, I really enjoyed touring the church that was build ontop of the Incan walls. It was very cool to see examples of the stone work, like a hyper-charged game of tetris. It took me 2 days to acclimatize to the altitude, suffering with a thick headache, drinking coca leaf tea to cope.

Lima is a shockingly noisy, dirty, chaotic city. Crossing the street is its own challenge.

I did a lot of walking in Lima, and by the end of the day, there was a black soot in my nose from the clouds of black smoke coming out of the cars, many of which do not seem road-worthy. The noise comes from taxis that honk to ask you if you want their services, so they honk at every pedestrian on the street. The buses (which are vans) that have a doorman that shouts out the names of the places they will stop. If they see a pedestrian, they shout at them. Honking, shouting, black smoke spouting.

Another thing that is very different is how overtly friendly the men are… and by that I mean that they seem to like to whistle and shout out at you, and if you don’t acknowledge the attention, they persistently continue until you show that you know they are talking to you. They will come up to you in the street and engage you in conversation and ask if they can join you in your walk, and of course within the first 5 minutes of a conversation, everyone in Peru asks you if you are married or single. It is a funny, funny place.