OT[ HOLA from Peru!

[Divemistress of the Dark]

<hey everyone! i{
m in one piece, but pretty tired. i{m in a small town very near machu picchu, feeling sort of like i{ve just completed some Rhythmatist=style adventures of my own.

Among them so far[ humpback whale sightings, 40 foot sharks (largest in the world), and more. Still got Machu to do tomorrow.

<looks like everything{s still in good order! Sorry for the awful keyboard. Jose, if you see this, check your email.


I think it may be a few more days before <I can get online again. Net connections have been very scarce, so have the ATMs needed to buy access (hardly anywhere I{ve been takes credit cards.)

Hope everything is well! I miss you guys! Talk to you soon. =Dive p.s. yes, I am taking LOTS of pictures!

[nancyrose]

God, Dive...I can just imagine the exotic beauty you must be surrounded by!! As a nature freak, I have that part of the world way up high on my list of places to get to, sooner rather than later!

Hope you're having a wonderful time. Can't wait to hear more about it...and yes, please continue taking LOTS of pictures!!

Good to hear from you!!

[conroy]

And the other question is how are the exchange rates down there??? Are you able to buy lots of cool stuff to bring back??!!b

[DirtyMartini]

DIVE!

Hope you're having a wonderful time!

[shyvixen]

What a great adventure!

Please do bring back lots of pictures.

[GinaSuperCat]

MMMMMEEEEEOOOOOOWWWW!!! From SC...safe travels & good to hear from ya!

[jedsoon]

[quote="Divemistress of the Dark"] i{ve just completed some Rhythmatist=style adventures of my own.

yes, I am taking LOTS of pictures![/quote]

I just *KNOW* your gonna be riding a tube sock-adorned horsie in one of 'em!

Save travels!

[animal]

Dive,

Happy travels & have a safe trip.

[Hannaha]

DIVEY DIVE!!

It's all completely out of control on here without your firm but fair guiding hand at the tiller! We miss you too much xxxxx

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Hey kids...me again...killing about an hour before catching the (unbelievably beautiful) train back to Cusco, a town of 30,000 souls around 75 km from Aguas Calientes (where all the buses to Machu Picchu are based.)

What can I say. Finally got up to the Lost City of the Incas at around 5 this morning, only to find...vista-obscuring fog! LOTS of it. Seems the ruins are built above the cloud line and you have to wait around a while for it to burn off. Luckily I had lots of friendly llamas to keep me company. (I want one. Seriously. They are. So Cute.)

So far I´m up to around 10 gigs of photos. I´d post some - I have my laptop - but there really is no such thing as a wireless connection here. You pretty well have to find an Internet cafe, and I´m afraid my awful Spànish might not be able to handle ´"please post photos from my hard drive to the Internet." I´m having to remember everything I ever learned in high school Espanol and various visits south of the border. Luckily the natives are friendly and helpful. So far I´ve done OK - nobody has sold me a goat or served me anything unusual at the dinner table.

Speaking of the dinner table, the food here is unbelievable. I´m finding some Peruvian cuisine stat the minute I get home.

What else to say. It´s a different world. Machu Picchu itself certainly lives up to its billing. Wild condors. Pre-Colombian architecture. 14 kinds of wild orchid. I´m kicking myself I didn´t read every historical book I could find before leaving (there are some here but they´re heavy and not very portable - and in my defense I was reading a lot of Charles Darwin for the Galapagos portion of my voyage.)

The only downside is that there are a lot more tourists here than one might expect - the place is no longer a "hidden city" in any sense of the word - but they´re here from all over the world. Mostly Europeans and South Americans. Lots of Kiwis too for some reason.

If luck holds I will meet with Jose tomorrow night in a Lima hotel and present him with a passel of Police-related goodies. I´ll try to post a photo of him with la Divemistress del Oscuro, but it may have to wait till I get to Miami in a few more days.

Up next - the Amazon. Started taking antimalaria drugs this morning, wish me luck. Oh, and the exchange rate is terrific. There are lots of great alpaca goodies in the stores here...I´m afraid I´ve gone quite overboard on the coffee and silver earrings...

[cpriddims]

Hi Dive!

Be safe....

and bring us back trinkets, or...COFFEE! Yes coffee would be nice!

[Jose]

Wooow I imagine you will start your trip to PERU, tomorrow 30th!!!

So you are in Peru right now, yeah I read your email Jean!

So, now you are with me in the way of one of the most amazing shots of THE POLICE ( Sting, Andy and Stewart ) will be there with the image of "Machu Picchu" at the background

I bet "Inkaterra- Cafe" have one of the best connections with Internet... but, it is part of the "Sanctuary Lodge- Hotel" ( the same Leonardo di Caprio rest ) a five star an expensive Hotel in "Aguas Calientes" town U$500 per day is the less room...

Yeah PERU have all everyone needs, Adventure, History, Faboulous gastronomy, amazon rainforest, mountains, coast, beaches, nature, exotic animals and birds, flowers, cool people, typical andean towns, typical jungle lodges, and modern side too... some pieces of first world in some sides of Lima.

I supossed you take some "coca" leaves infussion for the high alttitude in Cuzco, eat some "unusual" meals in the andes like "Cuy" the same I watch yesterday at "Travel & Living" channel with New Yorker cheff Alain Bourghain when he visited Peru last year :) well perhaps in Iquitos ( the jungle ) you will see some "Unusual" options meals in the menu...

So tomorrow you will see the modern side of Lima - C ya there... wait my phone call between 4 till 4:20 pm

regards from Lima,

JOSE 8)

[Jose]

Hi there!

Some news about Jean aka "Divemistress in the dark"!

I met her yesterday and my first opinion is she is a cool girl with an outstanding personality!

She recognized me inmediately and me too, I mentioned she is a celebrity.... is like meeting a movie Star or something like this ( she was on Whiskey a Go go, you know ) :)

I absolutely good impressed with THE POLICE gifts he gave me... and we talk a lot about our heros and UFO's in Lima next to the hotel bar... while she drinking a peruvian cocktail called "Pisco Sour" and me "Inka Cola" the peruvian golden version of "Coke".

Then we went outside with her husband and buddies for walking near the center of "Miraflores" ( the district they stayed in Lima) at the "Kennedy Park" when we met a group of Inca's descendants with their typical clothes, walking into peruvian oxford street called "Larco Avenue" and finally took a dinner in a restaurant under a park with the view of peruvian sea and waves at night. ( will be better Jean explain it more )

Today I suppossed she was in the peruvian rainforest of "Iquitos" next for taking the plane to USA.

As she told me is very impressive with our gastronommy, sightseeings, prices (rates?) and people... as I said her, peruvians are friendly with americans and citizens from around the world.

So if you are thinking to go to South America for seeing THE POLICE on tour at December or January ( Summer time ) not hesitate for making an stop in PERU I'll be happy to show you the best of Lima... As you know we have "Machu Picchu", Amazon Rainforest and "Nazca Lines", but besides we have great Gastronommy, cool people, amazing sightseeings, adventure, Llamas and different society and regions in one place... from beaches, to mountains to rainforest... from Inca's descendants way of living to western ... "Walks into the Inca's Footsteps - Next to you" 8)

[Hannaha]

Thank you Jose - I could picture it all perfectly and even imagine the soft evening breeze...

[Kalypso]

So you have Pisco Sour in Peru too? I have several Chilean friends and they drink each other under the table with that stuff... serious booze!
So cool you met!!