Day 7: Vivaaaa Las Vegas

After lazying around on Friday morning, we decided that we would take the day easy and make a two hour drive out to Ollyantaytambo, which are a set of ruins that I didn't see the first time I was out in Cusco a few years back. I didn't have a chance to study my Inca history source (Conquest of the Incas, a great book!), but I was pretty sure that they were a set of ruins from a fortress and that there had been a battle with the Spanish there, though after seeing them I wasn't so sure.

After a morning smack-down from Kira about why it's so terrible being American, it went even further on the drive as she opened up her opinion box and laid into Rov and I for a good half hour about our country. Even though I am not one of those ultra-proud, conservative, patriotic Americans I felt very personally attacked by her tirade and I know that Rov was also a bit miffed by the whole one-way "conversation". At one point, I finally opened my mouth (I kept it shut for most of the trip) and told her that I thought it was funny that she was telling two people who have traveled the world much more extensively than her that we were close-minded people that don't care about anyone else and think that everything that we do is right while everyone else is wrong. This naturally led to a stalemate in the conversation that made for an awkward few minutes. I don't have a problem with people criticizing America and the people, but the personal nature and the passion of her argument just went too far and I wasn't very happy about that. To make matters worse, we were traveling through some absolutely stunning open, picturesque country while she was going off on us. It's kind of hard to truly appreciate something like that when you're in such a negative frame of mind at the moment. Kind of sad, really. To change subjects, we started talking about the most exciting thing that you had ever done in your life and we had events on our list from being at Soldier Field for the Bears game when they won and went to the Super Bowl to....a boat ride between two rocks ;o) .

Ollyantaytambo was a small, pretty town along the train route to Macchu Pichu that was towered over by huge Andes mountains. One of the things that the ruins are best known for are the massive rocks that were put on top of the mountain by the Incas. The fact that the Incas (or, most likely, the slaves ;o) moved them from one mountain to the top of another without the use of the wheel. The rocks were smoothed out and put together with incredible accuracy and each rock had a number of parts that jut out which I can only imagine were for holding while carrying them.

Vanessa and I hiked up the mountain terraces to check out the view, snap some pictures, and check out the famous rocks and the view up there of the town, valley, and mountains was quite impressive and definitely worth the effort. Once we came down the mountain, we met up with Rov and Kira at a cafe and drank tea while the sun dipped into the mountains. One the long drive back to Cusco, we stopped at a spot on the road that had a red flag hung on a branch, which was the sign that chicha had been brewed fresh and was available. So, for about ten cents, we went into a room that had a dirt floor and guinea pigs in the corner and the vendors poured two Super Big-Gulp sized glasses of chica that was from a big cast-iron cauldron on the floor. Chicha is essentially fermented corn that is drunk by the local campesinos. The campesinos that work on the family corn farm drink it all day, every day because they say it makes them work better. Yea, beer makes me work better, too! But my gringo taste buds clearly tell me that beer tastes a hell of a lot better than this stuff! Chicha was very sour tasting and they even add a few tablespoons of sugar on request. I had a few sips of the stuff and that was more than enough. The thought of how clean the cups were crossed my mind as well :o/ !

After our drive through the countryside and back, we decided to head out to dinner before my last night out on the town. I had been bugging them to take me to the disco Las Vegas all week and before my trip and they finally had relented and agreed to take me there for one hour at the most. Las Vegas was a disco that some of my friends had told me about because it was a totally local place that played almost exclusively Latin American music. My friends that had gone to the place a few years back said that they were the only gringos in the place, which is exactly what I was looking for. But, because it was mostly "lower class" folk, the girls had absolutely no desire to go there, claiming that it was dangerous and that not even their maid would go there. How awesome did that sound?

But we had some drama to get through first. One way or another, we had reminisced about the girls' trip to New York and the subject of Kira's NYPD boyfriend while she was here came up. There were some comical moments during their time here that she remembered, and in order for Rov to understand, she had to tell the story about Lee, her NYPD friend. After she divulged their story and her infatuation with Lee while she was here, Rov was pretty upset because she had kissed a "greasy Italian cop" but wouldn't give her a kiss even though he flew down for her birthday, spent the night at the airport in Lima, surprised her, found her favorite flowers, bought her an iPod, etc. etc. To tell the truth, you had to feel for the guy. I eventually left to go change, but apparently they got into some sort of argument which lead to an extremely awkward dinner of Kira not talking and Rov pretending like she didn't exist.

We had dinner at a place called Fallen Angels which was well known for having great food, having tables that were glass and had fishbowls underneath them, and for having gay waiters. Who would think that you would find places like this in Cusco?? As we navigated through our dinner and the subject and stipulations of how long we'd stay at Las Vegas later in the night, Kira and Rov wouldn't even talk to each other and Kira wouldn't really talk at all through her frowning face. That's not a great way to spend the last night in Cusco and I wished that I could cheer her up so that she could have fun, but it just wasn't going to happen. And then, to cap it off, Vanessa told me that they were mad at ME for the whole incident, which was just ludicrous because I was the one that warned Kira about this in the first place! Single ladies out there, this is what happens when you lead us poor guys on! I was just amazed that they were blaming me and I wasn't very happy about that.

After being absolutely stuffed at dinner, we headed over to Las Vegas. I was imaging a big warehouse kind of in the ghetto with dim lights, a few plastic chairs and wooden tables, and a plywood floor. I don't know why that's what I was expecting, but whatever. Turns out that the club was actually pretty nice! It had a big sound system, a packed dance floor in the center, tables on the outside and upstairs, and even dancing Latinas overlooking the dance floor. I was totally stoked on the place so we ordered a beer and Vanessa told me to be careful because you could get hepatitis from the glasses they brought to the table. I laughed out loud about that: I've seen how rustically bartenders clean glasses and just because the patrons were not from the upper class didn't mean that they washed the glasses any more or less than any other bar. Not to mention the fact that we had drinken chicha brewed in a windowless roomo with dirt floors from the side of the road earlier and she didn't have any problems with that.

I wanted to head out to the dance floor but was apprehensive about going out there alone because it's never fun to breach the crowd by yourself. At least, for me it is. And neither the girls nor Rov would head out there with me. So I headed out to the edge of the dance floor and kind of loitered and watched the crowd. I was getting weird looks from everyone (since I was the only gringo in the place and was taller than most people). A guy came up to me and asked me (in Spanish) if I spoke Spanish and I told him a little. He asked if I wanted to dance with a Peruvian girl and I said "sure". After hearing about how bad this place was from everyone related to the Sumars (except the maid's daughter), obviously I was thinking that this guy was a pimp or something like that. But before I could even come up with a contingency plan, he reached into the crowd and told a girl that I needed a dance partner. She'd been dancing with her friends and I figured that they must have just been in a big group together.

I was having a great time dancing with the girl (Jessica) and the girls came up and told me that they were leaving and going to Mama Africa since they didn't like the place. I told her to go ahead and I'd meet them there in about an hour, and told them NOT to leave without me! Anyway, Jessica and I were having a grand old time and she was showing me a whole bunch of new dances like the Lambada and some that I'd never even heard of, like "Wino"(??). I found the people there to be very friendly and everyone was smiling (or laughing ;o) at me while I was dancing. We eventually took a break (it was HOT in there) and talked a little bit (as far as my Spanish would go) before I convinced her and her friend to go to Mama Africa with me to meet up with the others. One thing that was interesting was that at the tourist bars, the girls almost always ask you to buy them something, but at Las Vegas, people seemed much more down to earth and didn't ask for anything. Naturally, I bought water for Jessica, but it was nice that I at least got to offer it and didn't have someone demanding anything.

Mama Africa, being a major tourist hangout, is so different than Las Vegas. They had huge bouncers at the front door that recognized me as a gringo and so they let me right in without a problem and stopped my new friends. I felt totally like a VIP when I turned around and told them they were with me and then it was no problem for them to come in :o/. We walked around inside and finally found the girls, who were hanging out and getting hit on like always. At least by this time Rov and Kira had reconciled, so the night would end up friendly again.

A few hours later, Jessica and her friend decided to head home so I walked them out and paid 3 Soles/ $1 for their cab to take them home (they were going to walk). We took off not long afterwards and got home at around 4:00am. My flight was at noon the next day, so we decided to stay up and trade pictures before going to bed for a few hours. I was going to Lima the next day and was looking forward to linking up with my other friends there, but I knew that I wasn't going to get much sleep between now and then!

Yusteen, I got a good four hours of restless sleep that night!