after a brief stopover in nasca and a very brief glimpse of the ever-so beautiful and mysterious nasca lines - no, i take that back, i refuse to perpetuate the hype. the nasca lines can be best described as old lines in sand. the tower allowed us to see a bit of two designs; there was supposed to be three but someone accidentally drove over the lizard. nasca was alright though, i had a hot dog in a hamburger bun with various other random things that you receive when you reply ´todo´ to what toppings. it cost me 1 sol, a bargain if i´ve ever seen one. next we were off to cusco, 3300 metres above sea level. the bus ride was 15 hours, so we opted to tackle it during the night - then we wouldn´t have to worry about accomodations. it sounded perfect - dinner, movies, breakfast, leather seats, toilet.. only we weren´t informed the toilet accepted just liquids. around 3am, the 1 sol hot dog burger was rotting in my stomach, and i needed a more capable toilet. i waited about half an hour, contemplating whether or not to ask to do, and more importantly, how to ask (no hablo mucho espanol). finally it became too much; i turned and asked, in the best spanish i could muster up, ´tienes papel para toilet?´ through her hand gestures and laughter i could understand that, although she had it, i couldn´t use is it in the bus for what i wanted to. as it were, luck was on my side - someone else had a similar problem and the bus was being stopped for him. the rest is too graphic and degrading to willfully recount.

right, and then i made it to cusco about 7 hours later. beautiful scenery on the way, fascinating architecture within. will post pics when i can. hopefully everyone can get over their various ailments and we get have a big night out in cusco.

100% el paca skullcap - 8 sols (maybe a sol or two too much, but i didn´t want to quibble as he´d already lowered it by 2)

alright so i´m in huacacina (i think that´s how to spell it), which is just outside of ica. i´m surprised how well i´m dealing with a complete change of environment; i was expecting crippling culture shock, but it´s been a smooth transition. that´s not to say there haven´t been a few new situations to deal with. i´ve had to come to terms with the attention span of peruvian restauranteers, who seem to completely forget that you´re waiting for food as soon as another thought pops into their heads. the shopkeepers wield guilt as their most powerful selling tool; they lure you in off the street and offer you item after item until guilt sets in - you´ll feel bad leaving without buying something of theirs. i´ve learned sometimes you have to be a bit rude to avoid wasting time and money. the thing that has irked me the most so far is the peruvian love for strikes. yesterday, striking teachers picketed the highway, forcing us to delay our bus to cusco by a day. the day turned out alright though, we climbed a dune at sunset and went sandboarding again ($10 usd for 2 hours around in a dune buggy and a sandboard). the driver nearly flipped the buggy more than a few times.
glass bottle of coke - 1 sol
650ml beer - 5 or 6 sol in a restaurant
1L beer - 12 sol in a club in miraflores, the wealthier district in lima
breakfast (juice, coffee, eggs, toast) - 6 or 7 sol
business class bus from lima to ica (5 hours) - 23 sol
1 us dollar - 3.159 sol

hola mis amigos! ahora, estomos en miraflores, lima, peru. taca airlines managed to misplace my baggage in sal salvador, so i only have my daypack and sleeping bag at the moment - but it's enough. lima is cozy and friendly. i've yet to be confused for quezcoatl but most people are very nice. will try to post photos later.