Day O me say DayyyyyO

Alright paly by play

September 29th, that night was my last night and I ended up going to this thing called La Bomba. Now this thing was crazy, it was a huge warehouse and was just packed with people. We are all there to watch this performance of 12 or 13 people all playing different instuments that range from different types of drums like bongos, some sort of horns, even had a guy come up to play a keyboard and play just some funky sounds out of that thing. I have videos and pics but in Peru I can't figure out how to upload any of these things because they don't have the right software. We went like 10 people deep and it was amazing I was dancing and just enjoying the perfomance and not to mention the beers they gave us were just huge. After we left I decided to put my new found independence to the test because everyone wanted to eat Chinese food and it being my last night I went to my favorite steak place and had my final Argentinian steak and it was just great. Once I got back to the hostel everyone was tired and wanted to sleep so I ended up meeting a couple of girls from the states and we decided to go out to a bar across the street that played some hip hop and the fist pump was back and I was twerking these girls from Ireland who didn't know what it was. All in all it was a good last night in Buenos Aires.

September 30th: Not much I hopped on a plane and watched Don't mess with Zhohan and it wa funnier the second time around also once I got into Lima at 12 I had a flight to Cusco the next morning at 7 so that means I got like 3 hours of sleep that night. My first impression on my taxi ride was how does this country have so many casinos so I might have to abuse some of these guys with my poker skills when I go back tomorrow.

October 1st: I arrive in Cusco ealry in the morning and I have someone waiting there for me with a Pinkett sign so I felt like a star of course and I get in the van and meet a very nice lady named Allison who is my contact person while i'm in Cusco. I signed up for a package tour so they were helping me and providing a lot of transportation for me. Allison asks if I feel ok and was a little unsure at what she meant and she let me know that I was currently 12,000 ft above sea level. At that point I did realize it was a little hard to catch my breath, dammit Allison why did you tell me that. She lets me know what the plans are for my week and bring me to my hotel which was a good break from all the dorm rooms I had been sleeping in. Cable TV, double beds, personal bathroom, it was definitely different from what I had been experiencing for the past couple weeks. That day I just took it easy and caught up on some sleep and ate at my hotel, I had chicken and rice because apparently you shouldn't have red meat your first day. That night was horrible I woke up in the middle of the night and had a throbbing headache due to the altitude and couldn't sleep for like 2 hours, just had my pillow over my head and listened to CNN. I've been watching a lot of CNN to stay in to tune not only with the US but the world. I have learned that world history when I was younger was one of my most hated classes and as Americans we don't really care about what happens around the world when we are young. The rest of the world knows way more about other countries history and just has a better sense of America than some Americans. By the way about the whole world wants Obama to win and totally believe that he will increase our reputation because the world hates us because of Bush. I have had more political talks then ever with a lot of the people that I have been meeting.

Later on I learned so much about the history of Cusco and the Quesua people this day and wasn't affraid to ask questions. I went on a city tour and saw 4 ecological sites, the first was the Cathedral. Now when the Spaniards came here and found the Incas and Quesua people they basically told them to give us a room full of gold to bring back to our king and we won't slaughter you, Incas are the kings Quesua are the people. The Incas did and then the Spaniards killed a lot of them and then tried to domesticate the people. So the Cathedral was built to teach the Quesua people religion since their gods were pretty much everything they saw. The moon, the sun, the puma, the snake, the condor, the wind, the rain. The Spaniards took a lot of the gold back to Spain and the church has ton of gold all throughout it, I mean so much gold in there. Anyway I 'm not going to give you a history lesson but after that we saw where they tore down these temples that were there and learned a little of how the Quesua people built there temples. No mortor, no cement, all the stones were made pefectly symetrical and would fit exactly right with the other. It was amazing to see and to understand because they had sooooo many stones and to build temples like that it was pretty cool to see. Next we went to a different site where once again temples used to be that were destroyed by the Spaniards and they had stones that were actually in shapes of llamas, puma paws, snakes that used to be completly covered in gold, again just cool to see. So the people here are all short and I make them look like dwarfs and some of the native people that don't live in the city wear extravagant hats, tops, skirts and I have pics of that.

October 2nd: I wake up early to take the 645 train to Maccu Pichu and it was a 4 hour train ride and I ended having a discussion with an 70 year old man from New York who told me a lot about himself. He called me Santiago and just loved what I was doing and we talked about his mother and how he's taking care of her, his divorce, his sister, how he has no kids and I slowly realized that he is gay. It was kind of weird cause I think he liked me if you know what I mean. When I arrived I found out that I was in his group for the tour, oh hurray, and we(30 of us) take a bus to the top of Macchu Pichu. It was crazy to see and it's seriously on top of a mountain and there's all these mountains all around and I just took some time to sit back and reflect a little. I would abandon the tour at some points to take pictures and to just look around. I hear, Santiago would you get in this picture and he took a pic of me with the mountains in the background, again weird. I had him take a picture with my camera and seriously even after explanation he still had his eye directly on the 3.5 inch screen thinking it was some sort of view on the disposable cameras. Needless to say I found so other people to take my pictures. After I went down and had lunch and as I'm sitting there I realize I having lunch in the Andes, helped me strive for more on this trip. After the train ride back that night I decided to go out with the guy who worked at my hotel to an all Quesua club and I was the only foreign person there. I had a lot of fun, salsa, samba, all different types of music was being played. Now me Juan and Wilbur decided to go in the middle of the dance floor and I was dancing and looking at all the girls look at me and the baddest girl showed up with 2 other friends so we had a good ratio. Those girls come by us and are just hounded by all the guys there coming up to them and they are just playing them to the left, shoving them away, putting her friends in between them and her, one guy even got muffed(hand to face). Juan says in his little accent, James she wants you. I was like naw man go ahead go holler at her, when I start drinking I fall back into my old speech patterns and use words like chop her up, holler, spittin game, I doubt they have any idea what I'm talking about. So after I kept my back to these girls the get attacked by three guys who decide its cool to wear backpacks when you go out. They move even closer to us and now this girl is giving me the, as I like to call them, good eyes. This girl was close to my height and decided to show her puppies as some might like to say and had more back than a little bit, the women here have no buns. After ahwile I approach the girl who seemed un approachable and dance with her for about 2 hours complete with dips and twrils and a whole lot of me not knowing what I'm doing but once again I faked it. After awhile I decided to leave this bar, Juan, Wilbur, and the girls and head out to another bar in the main square. Met some other girls and a nice man named Eloy who handed me more pounds than ever. Everytime we made eye contact it was JAMES with the pound extended. I ended up getting back to my hotel at around 630 am and went to bed.


October 3rd: I had a free day to explore the city and thank god because the only thing that I explored was the American speaking channels and the toilet. Dry heaving at 12,000 ft is very, very painful and I had a bit of the hangover, well more than a bit. I stayed in bed all day and watched a very touching episode of Extreme home makeover or whatever its called. They took this guy Luis who was in the army and lost his leg but had crutches because his artificial one was too painful and he couldn't move around the house that well. As he goes away they fix his house but send him to a clinic that gives him a leg suited for him and has computer chips in it and at the end he's doing the salsa, it was a great episode. Seriously though pain all day.

October 4th: I wake up at 530 to go on my Lares trek. After a 3 hour van ride I'm in a group of 8 with 7 people from Holland who all took this trek unknowing the others did and have seen them before in their travels. I'm an outsider and sometimes they would speak in English so I wouldn't feel like one which was nice of them. First stop is the hot springs which I jump in and really enjoyed it, we have lunch there and these cooks were great. We head out and go on a 7 mile hike through the terrain and we walk by pleanty of people who live out there and that just helped me realize the difference in our lives and just aprreciate a little more the things I do have. During this hike I felt a little bit of pain in my groin muscle which through the evening and the cold got tight on me and I was really affected by this. Dinner was great the night was freezing. It probably got down to like 40 degrees and I woke up plenty of times.

October 5th: I wake up in extreme pain and after breakfast I tell our guide my problem and walking was very painful. He gives me some icy hot and tells me lets see how you feel in 10 minutes. I apply the icy hot never using it before, it was soothing and then all of a sudden my balls are on fire. The most pain ever, it should be something you do to get into a frat because seriously icy hot on the balls put me out of commission for about 20 minutes. Still it was very difficult to think I could continue and hike another 17 miles in that condition so I had to walk back accompanied by a guide and a couple who also couldn't continue because one had an allergic reaction. Around 5 hours later I am back at my hotel and in bed to rest up and get my leg better. I ordered a pizza and to much suprise Sunday Night Football was on so that helped me pass the time while I was in the hotel.

October 6th: If you haven't noticed these are getting shorter because I am tired of writing but I woke up to eat breakfast but was bed ridden for awhile because my leg was still hurting but I ended up making it to an internet cafe to write my short litte blurb yesterday and found a place that had Monday night football. What a game that was, Vikes vs Saints I really enjoyed it and ended up going out with a guy I met there from San Diego and had a great night.

Well that catches you and me back up, I'm doing fine, get to see my Mom and my sister in 2 days so I really excited for that and then I head off to Austrailia. I got a work visa so that allows me to stay for a year and I'm most likely going to take adavantage of the full year and work while I'm out there so that means I'll be traveling 9 months longer than expected bringing me home sometime in 2010 and I just wonder what kind of man I will be then. Everything will be so different so I am looking forward to the opportunity that I am recieving and my hunger for more knowledge through my travels is growing stronger everyday. I wanted to come home when I first started but that was just being uncomfortable and now I am growing more and more comfortable with what it is that I am doing. I miss everyone still and I will write again. PEACE