cuzco

What a prime hassle that journey was. People spewing out of the window as the bus twisted its way through the last past; heralding the finale of our 14 hour bus ride.

The city is beautiful; that much is clear even with our mild altitude sickness and exhaustion after days on the road. It´s evident that money flows freely into the place, but serves instead to more clearly highlight the divide between have and have not. The distribution of wealth in this part of the world is staggeringly imbalanced; bolivia perhaps being worst of all. These countries have rich natural resources, but lack of infrastructure and staggering levels of corruption form a climate of political instability.

Looking into deals on the hike overland to the macchu picchu ruins. bit pricey, but when will the chance pop up again? Seeing a sunrise and a sunset over that magical place is not a fiscal issue.

strange to be surrounded by tourists after some much more remote spots.saw a ciggarette seller approach an american middle age tourist to hawk his wares, and was promptly pushed away in a physical and aggressive manner. I have been quite irate with people in the last few days, who try to take advantage, but this made me sink into a passive and pensive state, rather than telling him what I thought of his incredibly unjustified response. Some people are so cloaked in their own shrink-to-fit world, that they will never truly connect with life in a purer form...understanding that sad fact brings the realisation that the american tourist is in many ways, worse off than his reluctant sparing partner. I let it go.

Had a fantastic skate in Nazca last night. Loooong smooth marble path with a marbl block running alongside. I couldn´t believemy luck after all this time scraping a session togther from whatever happens by. The strange things was, that it gathered a crowd. Must have been 50 people watching, cheering when i made something (laughing when i didn´t). Two street dancers incorporated me into their show and hijacked my giggling audience. They didn´t, however, cross my palm with silver.

off to have a long snooze and try to make it to plaza san blas for some maté brewed from coca leaves tomorrow morning, which is good for altitude acclimatization. Rather not chew too many of the leaves though, saw some salivating oold locals chuckling at nothing in particular as they meandered through the crowds, and reckon i need to have a slightly firmer grip on reality at the mo.

entonces, cheery bye fur noo.