Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Michael and I ate that risotto for breakfast this morning. It was so, so good, even though, or perhaps because, sitting on the windowsill all night left it as cold as if it had been in the refrigerator. I order risotto whenever I can, because I love it but it's just so hard to make. I still feel guilty about keeping those leftovers for myself, but I'll have to live with it because I'll probably never give away risotto.

We met Ben in the Plaza at 1:00. Poor Ben had had to be at the police station by 9:00 a.m. to file a report on his stolen camera, which must have been tough since he and Michael had been out til after 2:00 drinking. We went to Govinda's for lunch. Govinda's is a chain of Hare Krishna restaurants that serve vegetarian food at low prices all over the world. Naturally there's one in Cuzco. It was pretty good, and we had our first mate de coca, or coca leaf tea. It tasted muddy, but I liked it. Coca leaves are supposed to help one acclimate to the high altitude, but Michael said they need a catalyst to work.

Ben told us that the police were happy enough to help him make a report for insurance purposes, but didn't feel particularly motivated to actually catch the thief. Catching someone in a case like that would probably be pretty tough, but since the bus passengers had all been required to give their names when buying tickets, there might have been some possibilities there.

But the police seemed to think the insurance would be enough. Interestingly enough, the tourist section of Cuzco has quite a few camera shops, which Ben pointed out wouldn't get much business if it weren't for tourists getting their cameras stolen, because most people buy their cameras at home before they go on vacation.

Afterwards Ben went to go buy a new camera and Michael and I bit the bullet and signed up for the Salkantay trek with United Mice, for $300 USD. We leave next Monday. (Ben has a super-budget Machu Picchu plan involving two or three busses, a few hours of walking, and spending the night in a place called Santa Teresa.) In the end it was between United Mice and SAS for Michael and me. We were actually in the process of signing up with SAS and had written down our names, but not signed anything, when we suddenly backed out.

It was my fault. We had been willing to overlook the fact that they were forty dollars more expensive per person than United Mice even after we bargained them down, because as I said, we didn't want to skimp on this experience. But United Mice gives trekkers an allotment of seven kilos each to put on a horse. SAS makes you carry all your things yourself unless you want to pay extra for a horse of your own.

That was all well and good until I saw the sleeping bags they were going to rent to us. They were HUGE, like we were going on a camping trip to our best friend's backyard in the seventies. They would easily fill our daypacks by themselves. And I started to worry about having to carry everything all day long, up and down mountains, in the highest altitude we've ever experienced. Fourteen kilos between us on a horse would really help us out.

So we went back to United Mice and put down a deposit to reserve our places. We are numbers ten and eleven, and the group capacity is sixteen, so we don't know how many we'll be in the end. But there will be two guides, and cooking staff and porters. And horses, who will be carrying some of our things. Seven kilos each should be most of it, because we'll be leaving our main packs and anything we don't need at the hotel. ("This is your home!" our hotel guy said when we asked if that was possible.)

Tonight we ate more alpaca, at a restaurant called Sumaq Misky that has free wifi. It's so good when we find a wifi restaurant, and just take our time and use our own computer to work. The only thing better is finding free wifi in our hotel room. (The Latin keyboards in the public Internet cafes are ruining my typing skills because all the punctuation marks are in different places. And I still haven't found the apostrophe.)

Cuzco is not really looking any better. It's cold, and it's still impossible to walk around unmolested. We're not thrilled about having to hang around for the next week while we wait for the fifteenth and the trek, but at least we're going to be plenty used to the altitude when we set off.

We're both a little worried about how well we'll be able to do on this. Michael is afraid of a trekful of Europeans nodding knowingly at each other about typical unfit Americans. I just don't want to be last. Yes, yes, it's not a contest. But I still don't want to be last.

 

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Streets of Cuzco.

Ben meets a guy whose sister does laundry. Plaza de Armas, Cuzco.

In case you were wondering how to choose the best cut of alpaca. Sumaq Misky, Cuzco.

Requisite photo of me writing. Hotel Suecia II, Cuzco.