Wait, Why is Caffeine Legal?

First of all, I would just like to announce that caffeine is absolutely a drug. I rarely drink it, but on mornings like today (preceded by a late evening on the phone with South America), you just need a little kick to get the brain engine started. But I feel like my brain has been turned into big-block 460 engine with a blower on it. I have to walk around the building a few times just
to release the energy. Yikes...

Did You Know (and why would you, since I haven't posted it) that (almost) all of the pictures from my trip can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/jhaines/Peru2007?

J. Riley, check them out

Trip Finished

For those of you that don't use Google Reader or any other RSS reader, I finally finished days eight, nine, and ten of my trip to Peru.

J. Riley, just a few more hours of reading for those ;o)

Anti-Valentine's Day, Carneval, and Chinese New Year

The people I hang out with here in NYC can be grouped into the following:
a.) Single and not dating
b.) Married but living 3000 miles away from our spouse
c.) Married but not romantic

This collection of characters makes Valentine's Day interesting and quite anti-climactic. Being Valentine-less, we decided that this year we would all get together to celebrate Anti-Valentine's Day. So most of us got together and met up at Uva for an evening of unromatic fun and some wine to boot. Originally there were going to be three of us, then the group slowly, slowly grew until there were eight of us meeting up. The wine started flowing like water in a river and before I knew it, everyone was in a celebratory sort of mood and I knew that debauchery was on the menu for the evening.

After a few macho master-strokes by some of the well-heeled members of our group that made my night cheaper than expected, Sean (or, rather, the wine he drank) decided that he would buy the first three rounds of drinks at Baraonda, a classy restaurant-turned-club-after-midnight a block down from Uva. Everyone was on board for that so we headed down the street in the freezing weather and bellied up just as the place was turning into the swanky Euro-trash place that we all love. Sean (who earlier in the week had told me that he was out of credit card debt for the first time in 20 years) was ordering drinks (or bottles, rather) out of control and our group was dropping like flies once the champagne bottles started making their rounds.

It was an absolute train-wreck by the end of the night and Sean crashed on my futon and couldn't move the next morning. It sounds like everyone else that was with us was in similar condition, which meant it was a great night :o) . Not bad for a Wednesday evening!!

On Saturday, after my volunteer event learning Capoeira with the kids (I really gotta start taking lessons), I met up with Paul and Cathy and their friends for Ethiopian food at Awash in the East Village. Paul went back to college in California and this was his long weekend trip of the month to visit Cathy and see everyone that he abandoned ;o). I hadn't had Ethiopian in a long time and I forgot how good it was!!

We finished up in time for me to head over to SOB's, which was having a celebration for the kick-off of Brazil's carneval. SOB's is always fun anyway, but for Carneval it was crazy! I got there around midnight and there was a nice 1/2 hour line outside to get inside. Once I finally got in, I found Sean and his friend, but all of the other people that were supposed to show up never ended up coming. A few hours later, I ran into one of the Dominican girls that I had met a few months back and who I had planned on meeting up with that night. My friend Priya and a guy named Ray from work also showed up so we had a nice little crew to dance to the samba music from the live band. We also had a few caiparinhas and mojitos to celebrate with. Being a three day weekend (President's Day), I stayed out later than normal and eventually got to bed at around 5:00am, late enough.

The next day I was up at 10:00 to meet up with Alan, Andrea, Paul, Cathy, etc. for Chinese New Year. I guess we weren't the only ones who decided that a Dim Sum lunch in Chinatown would be a good idea because it was jam packed with people down there. Who's great idea was it to plan Carneval the day before Chinese New Year? Crowds everywhere! After a stressful, freezing walk around Chinatown fighting crowds and finding hour-long waits for Dim Sum, Alan finally steered us to Yeah Shanghai, where a "15 minute" wait turned into almost an hour wait.

The stress finally went away when Alan, utilizing his new Chinese skills, ordered up mounds and mounds of good food for everyone to share family style. The food was absolutely awesome and it felt good to be warm and have a full belly again. The best part? We paid about $10 each for the meal :oD !!

J. Riley, that was an unusual, crazy week believe it or not!

Handsome Devil

I used to be quite the cute kid, whatever happened?






Justy Bobo, thanks for the pics dad

No More Braces!!

The braces are off!!!

Sammy's Halal

You've probably heard about the area where I work: metal recycle shops, abandoned warehouses, truck yards, and auto repair centers. And my building. And no lunch options except a questionable pizza shop, questionable Chinese food, questionable diner food, and solid Thai food. That's about it though. But Jackson Heights (remember Little Columbia?), about 10 minutes away by subway, is abundant in good eats with plenty of Indian, Latin, etc. restaurants.

And Sammy's Halal. I've been ranting and raving about trying this place out ever since last year's Vendy Awards, which rates the best street cart vendors in the city. And Sammy's was #1 for all of New York! Considering how many Halal street carts there are, that's really saying something.

By the time I got to work this morning, I was desperately craving a buffalo chicken sandwich from anywhere. Don't ask me why, but that salty, spicy combination was making me drool at 9:00am. During a coffee break, some coworkers and I inspected the cafeteria to see if there was any sign of buffalo chicken being an option at lunch today (real busy day at work:o/ ) and it was definitely not an option so one of my coworkers suggested that we finally make the trip out to Jackson Heights to see if Sammy's was really all it's been made out to be.

We made it to the street vendor Mecca by lunch time and bowed down to Sammy's plastic trophy as we ordered a $5 chicken and gyro on rice combo with white sauce and spicy sauce and then made the road trip back to the cafeteria to consume our delictable meals. My poor Indian coworker doesn't eat meat, so he was stuck with his standard salad bar meal at work, but Sammy's Halal rocked! Spicy (and salty :-D) , but not overwhelmingly so, with fluffy rice, well-spiced meat, and even a little lettuce. I'll be back, Sammy, don't you worry...

I was sitting in the chiropractor's office today when it dawned on me that I had no idea how many times I've been to Europe since my first trip in 1995. I've been to South America three times, but I have no idea about Europe. And I realize that I'm pretty lucky to be able to just go to American Airline's website and book a ticket to Europe without even thinking twice. The rest of the world has to go and get a visa, but not us. Many people go through their life without seeing other parts of the world, so I am definitely fortunate for this.

J. Riley, I'm not done with my South America trip diary, which will appear below on the dates that they occurred. Lot's more important stuff to write about!!

Day 10: La Playa y El Aeropuerto

Monday was my last day in Peru, but that's not a good reason to not oversleep since our tour guide was working in her hospital clinic all morning. Ryan and I finally got moving at around 10:30 and after packing up my goods for the red-eye flight later that night, we got picked up by Lili and Alfredo around noon. We hadn't eaten yet that day and I was basically famished, but we were going to experience Lima's ceviche at the beach that day so I had to be patient.

According to our tour guides, the best beaches were down in southern Lima so off we headed down the highways. Erika couldn't come with us because she had to work and was honest enough not to ask for a "doctor's note" to go to the beach with us. She is very sweet and I missed her a lot on Monday. She kept asking me on Sunday if I would remember her when I went back to the United States and I of course said I couldn't forget her that easy. I was very comfortable with her and vice versa and I thought it was sad when she asked me if I had a girlfriend back in the United States because I think these girls are treated really bad by typical gringo tourists, not to mention the stereotypical Latin attitude towards women that they are subjected to. It's no wonder they appreciate it when someone is a gentleman and treats them well...

Anyway, a couple hours later we got the beach, which is basically a parking lot lined with restaurants facing the beach and people begging us and running with our car trying to get us to come to their portion of the beach and eat their food. Thankfully our tour guide knew the one she trusted and parked in front of it.

Life is good on the beach. You basically go where you want and the restaurant workers bring you chairs, umbrellas, and a menu if you want it. You order plate fulls of food and drinks and they bring it out on trays for you. That's what I'm talking about! Alfredo and Lili ordered us "Conchitas" (mussels in the shell filled with lime juice, vinegar, diced red onions and peppers - out of this world!), ceviche (raw fish in lime juice, which 'cooks' the fish because of the acidity), and a plate of mixed fried seafood like squid, octopus, and sweet potatoes and washed it all down with Inca Kola. I was famished and I dug into the food and was amazed at how fast you can fill up on that kind of stuff.

After lunch we all kind of laid around, took micro naps in the hot sun, and even ventured out into the water. According to the local "reports", today's water quality was good but the brownish tint and the yellow foam on top made me wonder if maybe the water quality index was relative and not absolute for us gringos :o) . At least the temperature was perfect!

In the late afternoon, the restauarants were shutting up shop for the day and we decided to head back to the hotel to pick up my gear and then head out to a nice dinner. Lili decided that we should go to Jose Antonio's, where we were treated like first-class citizens with a bottle of wine, huge portions of delicious food, and too much customer service for a $20 meal. I prepared for the red-eye with white Peruvian wine to wash down my Argentine tenderloin steak with grilled onions and tomatoes and a patty of rice & beans cooked together.

Dessert finally arrived in the shape of a stressed out Latina finishing up last minute work on her mobile phone. I thought Americans were bad when it came to work, but Erika is right up there with working late every night and six or seven days a week as a marketing events planner. I couldn't understand why she like me so much because she hardly knew me and her and Lili were not "bricheras", girls that are looking for green cards, like many of the girls I met. They are both happy to live in Peru and pursue their successful careers without needing a foreignor to come and "rescue" them from Peru. No, some girls just need someone who makes them feel special. And some guys, too....

Yusteen, I got dropped off at the airport, said my goodbyes, was at work the next day suffering the consequences of ceviche that might not have been fresh enough, and missing South America.

Day 9: The Double-Date

On Sunday morning, we got woken up by Lili and Erika who were downstairs and told the receptionist to call us and wake our lazy butts up because they had a day full of activities planned for us. I was still sluggish from my lack of sleep the day before and Ryan was recovering from his 8 hour flight from LA, so naturally we were a little behind schedule.

Our high-class, $30 per night hotel had a free breakfast buffet downstairs that was...less than appetizing and we just barely made it in time to indulge in some greasy American continental-style sausage, fake eggs, and stale, dry toast. I think the yogurt was the most appetizing thing available, so I had a few of those. I guess I can't complain when the food is free!

Our first stop was the ruins at Puruchuco. The coast of Peru is basically all a hot, extremely dry desert, but interestingly there were dozens of native populations living in the area, thousands of years before the Incas ever emerged. I'm not sure how they survived in that weather or climate, but they did, and they did well. How they were able to survive when there were millions of poor people in the city now was interesting to think about. I'm not sure how that happens, maybe there were different work ethics back in the day or something like that.

The weather was blistering hot outside, which I was loving since it was below zero (c) in NYC at the time, and we took a tour of the small museum before checking out the ruins that were rebuilt near the Universitario soccer stadium. I didn't get to catch a game there, but maybe next time...if I don't mind being savagely beaten by the Ultra fans that routinely over-run the field!

I was feeling a little awkward around Erika that day because I don't usually kiss girls at night and then spend the whole next day with them (yea, I'm that much of a player :o/ ) and I knew that Lili was keeping her eye on me. After we saw the ruins, I invited her to sit next to me in the car and she appreciated that. I could tell that she was a very sensual girl and since I'm a pretty sensual guy, it worked out pretty well!

After the ruins, we took a nice drive through the barren mountains of Lima, destination unknown. I thought San Diego was barren, but there was literally nothing, not even shrubbery, on these mountains. We drove past quite a few shack communities and also some gated communities where the rich lived out in the middle of nowhere. We finally came down into a valley and there was signs of life along a bustling river that was roaring down from the mountains, straight from the Andes, no doubt!

We pulled into the parking lot of a nice outdoor dining location next to the river with a bunch of horses for rent and kids running around by the river. We hiked down to the river and Erika and I enjoyed some relaxing, private time together with our feet in the river, watching people wash their clothes on the other side, people going down the crazy rapids with their clothes on, and little naked kids grappling onto their teenage brother's shoulders while trying to walk across the fast currents. During this day, I thought back to my conversation with the guy living in Lima from Nebraska, when he said that if you connect up with a girl at a club or something, you are pretty much boyfriend and girlfriend the next day, no dating required. It certainly felt like that with Erika.

After we cooled off, we headed over to the outdoor dining area that seemed to be set up exclusively for bus tour groups that were stopping by the area, except that they weren't gringos visiting but other Peruvians or Spanish-speaking folk. They had giant stone tables, live music from the Andes flute players (similar to those I see in the subway everyday, strange enough), occasional regional dances, and great food! They apparently cooked the food in underground holes, which is how the ancient cultures used to cook as well. We each shared a clay cooking pot full of pork, chicken, and beef cutlets along with a variety of vegetables like sweet potatoes (yum!) and corn as well as Peruvian tamales, which are very different than Mexican because they are sweet inside. We of course washed it down with a pitcher of sangria and another grape-based juice that had a cinammon flavor and was delish.

Fat and happy, Erika and I passed out in the back seat on the way home, waking up at the hotel. The four of us kinda chilled out in our room, Ryan bringing gifts for Lili along with things that she had left at his house when she lived in Long Beach for four months last year while I tried to explain "Only Child Syndrome" in English to Erika, who has no brothers or sisters :o/. I'm not sure she got most of the explanation, but the English practice was good for her.

The girls finally left to go home and get ready for the evening while Ry and I napped for a bit and then finally got ready for the evening. When I fell asleep on the bed, I had crazy, psychodelic (sp.) dreams that were quite odd. I told Ryan about this once we both had woken up and he said that he had these kinds of dreams too. Maybe our hotel was haunted, but I think it had something to do with the shape or incline of the beds, or the fact that i had my pillow folded in half and it was cutting off circulation to my brain. I have no idea!

Once we were all ready, the girls came to pick us up again and brought along Lili's friend Alfredo and we headed down to a shopping center to go bowling in Mira Flores. Alfredo was an interesting guy, he started his own business selling illegal DVDs, which sounded like a very competitive industry in the pirate-happy country, but he focused on a niche of mixed-martial art fighting DVDs (Pride and Ultime Fighting Championships), which I hadn't heard of before. He learned Jiu Jitsu when he was younger and knew lots of people that wanted to watch these fights, so he started selling DVDs to them with the latest fights. Like Lili, he is also a recent graduate from medical school. What's interesting is that as a new doctor they make maybe $150 a month but his DVD business was making him about 4x as much money as being a doctor!

The bowling rink that we went to was great, everything was pretty much brand new and this was the nicest, cleanest bowling alley that I've ever been to. We played for an hour and my master curveball technique that I pulled out of the bag after a few gutterballs had mixed results. The first time I threw it I got a strike, so I thought I'd be on fire. But when I didn't knock all the pins down, I couldn't get a spare cuz I couldn't aim anywhere but in the middle. Oh well, maybe I need to work on that a bit more!

After bowling, we walked around the nice shopping center, which was situated on the previously-mentioned cliff that was actively deteriorating down into the ocean. I was thinking about the support structures that were holding this shopping center up since it was such a high-class place. The poles must go hundreds of feet into the ground, crazy. Hope it's still there the next time I go to Lima :o)!

After bowling, we decided to go eat in another part of Lima that was very dark but looked like a pretty fancy area. Apparently the place we were going to eat at specialized in beef hearts, of all thing. I was a little sketched out about eating organs of questionable cows, but Ryan assured me that it was good. After all, the heart is essentially just a muscle and it was very lean because there's no fat in the heart. That sounded logical enough and it was damn tasty stuff along with the bed of potatoes on the plate.

After our leisure dinner, it was getting really late and some people were unlucky because they had to work the next day. Luckily Ry and I weren't included in this group so we could get lots of sleep. We dropped Erika off so she could catch a taxi and we said our goodbyes and I hoped that I would see her the next day before I went home....



Yusteen, we were exhausted by the end of such a long, busy, but exciting day

Day 8: She Makes A Man Want To Speak Spanish...

It was a late night, and an early morning. I woke up at around 7:30, paranoid that my human alarm clock would miss her alarm and not come pound on my door at 9:00am. I really need a watch, because waking up and having to use the camera as your only source for time is kind of annoying. I decided to trust her and try to get some more shut eye rather than start packing early.

She came and pounded on my door and said it was 10:30 (my flight was at 12:30, half hour drive from the airport) but I checked my handy camera and saw that it was 9:00, as she promised. I had just enough time to shower and clean up, pack my bags and head out to the jeep, sans breakfast and sans enough sleep :o/ . I said my goodbyes to a barely awake Kira and their mom and Rob...I mean Rov... and I piled into the car with Vanessa behind the wheel.

Lucky for me, Cusco is a small airport and there isn't much human traffic there. I say this because it was already 11:15 and I was checking in my bags, only to find that not only had they charged me $25 to change my flight a week prior, but they had cancelled my return ticket! This happens when you miss the first leg of your flight, as I had, but I'd had them confirm this leg of the flight when I was dealing with them the first time and they said it was all set to go! This was a problem until Vanessa, as usual, noticed that one of her friends was working at the counter. Rov quipped that I was on the flight for sure now, probably upgraded to first class, and had a limo waiting for me in Lima because on his last trip to Peru one of her friends had helped sort out his flight too. Well, I didn't get upgraded but at least I was on the flight. I napped a bit on the quick flight and touched down in Lima, where part two of the trip would begin.

Some Background

My gigantic roommate from college Ryan came to South America for six weeks about two years back with some of his SoCal friends and had met Lili through one of the guys he was traveling with's girlfriend (a Peruvian) while they were in Lima. Sure enough, they hit it off and they've been virtually long-distance dating since then with him making the trip down once a year or so. If anybody out there knows Ryan, you know that he doesn't exactly talk a lot. So when he visited me in New York last year and would spend an hour a night talking to her in Peru, I knew that she must be something good for him. When I went to Vince's wedding in LA back in September and stayed at his house while she was at the tail-end of a four-month visit and had a chance to meet her, I thought she was quick-witted and sparky and a great match for him - since he's the opposite.

Since I chatted with her every once in a while after meeting her and she got to know me a little better, she decided that she thought I'd get along great with her friend Erika and even if we didn't hit it off, she thought we'd make good friends with each other. When I first chatted with them when they were together and found out they are massive Shakira fans who love to dance, Erika was thereafter known to me as 'Shakerika' ;o). Because of her busy work schedule, Shakerika and I didn't talk much but I figured it would be fun to meet her while I was there.

As an added bonus, Ryan decided to visit Lili and arrived the same day as me in Lima! They were going to go on vacation for two weeks through the northern coast of Peru the day after I left, but we'd all get to spend a good three days together which was great. And it would be wonderful to finally have another male friend to hang out with, especially one as good as Ryan (who was my roommate all through college).

And Back to the Story

In any case, Lili was going to pick me up at the airport and take me back to the hotel near her house where Ryan and I were staying. After I got off the plane and got my baggage and headed for the exist, I looked around for Lili but all I found were taxi drivers that were swarming around me offering to take me wherever I wanted to go. I thought for sure I looked like a local and nothing like a gringo with my button-up shirt, cargo jeans, and lace-less shoes, not to mention the blonde hair and blue eyes, but somehow the taxi drivers picked me out of the crowd :o/.

After waiting around a while, I hit the pay phones and got ahold of Lili, who was stuck in miserable traffic, which didn't surprise me because this was Lima. This gave me a chance to go talk to the very unhelpful American Airlines desk, who told me that Lan should not have charged me the $25 to change my original flight to Cusco and that if I wanted to be reimbursed, I should talk to them about it. He even suggested writing to them through an inevitable black hole: their website. I was too tired to fight, so I just walked out and headed down to get some food. In Lima, Peru, there is a Papa John's next to a McDonalds in the airport. Disgusting. Looking at the array of fast food venues to choose from, I immediately disqualified Papa John's and McDonalds and although there are a lot of Chinese in Peru, the Chinese food didn't look interesting to me. Which left me with the Peruvian fast food counter. I ordered an appetizer of what looked like fried yucca, but I think it was more like potato. I was eating out of necessity, not looking for a fine dining experience!

Shortly thereafter I met up with Lili and was whisked away down to the hotel Ryan and I were staying at. Because of traffic, we drove along Lima's coast, which I hadn't been to before, and I got to admire the beautiful coast line along with massive cliffs that were crumbling to our left with houses sitting precariously close to the edge. Rocks were falling from the side enough that the authorities had closed two of the lanes closest to the cliffs because people were getting killed by the landslides. Ahh...life in South America!

After checking into my hotel and slipping into something more comfortable (it was warm and humid!), Lili and I went to grab something to eat. There's a great place called Norky's (which is as hilarious a name as Yonkers) that was within walking distance of the hotel that we checked out. Apparently, this is their definition of fast food but it was anything but. They specialize in roasted or bbq chicken and it did arrive rather quickly, but the quality of the chicken was amazing. I typically cook organic free range chicken because it tends to be a million times more tender and juicy than the hormone, antibiotic infested stuff that is sold in Gristedes. This chicken was easily as tender, if not more tender, than my free range stuff. Add to it a wonderful rub and some chimmichuri sauce on the side and it's a recipe for delish! Not bad for a meal that cost about $5.

After lunch, Lili and I took a cab into downtown Lima for a quick little tour. I've heard basically nothing good about Lima, all I've heard is that it's a very dangerous city and it doesn't offer a whole lot to visitors. Despite Lili warning me about locking my wallet in my pant's cargo pockets, I was surprised by the beautiful buildings downtown. Well, at least the big green one, the presidential palace, and the Cathedral! I guess compared to other cities it's not the most fantastic, but I did find it somehow exciting to be on the verge of being mugged at every moment. I found out sometime later that Lili, weighing in at somewhere around 100 lbs, knows a few Jiu Jitsu moves so I was in safe hands ;o) .

After going to another district called Mira Flores, which is very popular with the young crowd and with younger tourists, for ice cream and a walk around the park in the center plaza, we headed back to the hotel so that I could take a nap and Lili headed home to get ready for the big evening. Lili had plans for meeting up with Erika in a few hours and at 9:00pm to be at my hotel, grab a little something to eat, and then head off to the disco for the evening.

I begrudgingly woke up at 8:15 to start getting ready and was somewhat out of it. I got ready and prepared for yet another evening of dancing the night away at a real Latin disco, Lima style. At 9:00, I was ready to go and just waiting for the phone call from Lili to meet her and Erika outside. I guess when Ryan had told me in the past that things operate on island time in South America, that should have been a clue that they wouldn't be on time. At somewhere around 10:00, I finally got the call and headed out to meet Shakerika and Lili and then to go get something to eat.

After climbing into the back seat, I said hello to the girls in the front seats and we were off to San Antonio (the restaurant, not the city). Once we finally got out of the car, I got a formal introduction to Shakerika, who was beautiful!! We went into San Antonio and perused the 100 or so sandwich variations they had, most of which came on hard bread that's difficult to eat, but I ended up getting a mozarella and tomato sandwich (plus an Inca Kola, of course) because I was still pretty full from eating lunch.

After dinner, Erika and I caught a cab to the disco while Lili drove to the airport to pick up Ryan. The disco was going to have a show with all the different dances from Peru and then the place would open up and we could all dance. But the place was already full (it was late, like 11:00), so we ended up hopping in another cab and going to a new place called Producto Peruano, which had an atrocious cover charge of $10, but with limited free drinks until 3:00am. I typically only drink water when I dance because I sweat profusely (I know, that's hot), but in this case I guess I had to stick to rum & cokes, pisco sours, beers, etc! The place was pretty empty for a while which gave Erika and I time to talk and get to know each other well.

I may not be John Travolta, but I do like to dance and I think I dance decently well with a partner, so when Erika and I got on the dance floor and I started my Latin twirling moves, we had a great time out there. I was very much into her and her dance moves and she was clearly into me, which was a great combination for a night of dancing. Eventually Ryan and Lili came from the airport and we all got to catch up together and do some line dancing to an annoying singer called Guajaja, who was the special guest of the evening and is apparently popular in Peru (for some reason). I was hoping that he wouldn't be there all night and he only lasted for an hour or so, thank goodness, before the dance floor opened and the DJ started playing some great Latin music. Erika and I were on point, big time, and the chemistry on the dance floor was perfect. On one of my dips, I even snuck in a timid little kiss ;o).

We stayed at the disco for a few hours and everyone had a great time. Major props to Ry for arriving at midnight after flying all day and lasting until 4:00am! I don't think I could have done that, but he's a trouper. Once we were all done at the disco, Lili drove Ryan and I back to the hotel and dropped us off. I got a few goodnight kisses from Erika before Ry and I headed up to crash and get some much needed sleep!

Yusteen, I really dug Lima this time around ;o)!

Justin dancing with Lili

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!