Peru is a good place to sleep

It is pretty good.

But first...this train ride from Cusco to Machu Picchu is slow and winding bu beautiful. We are following a twisting river, passing through broad valleys with the imposing Andes jutting up - sometimes sharp and craggy, sometimes lush with life, and sometimes capped in snow and clouds.

We´ve passed rural villages with ragged farland and ragged livestock, a pig or two here, a cow or three there. Some of the villagers are dressed in t'shirts and typical pants, but others don the brightly colored skirts and wraps and scarves signaling they are traditional native Andeans. Children abound, often surprisingly on their own with no adult in sight.

On to the sleeping. I have to admit that, even though it is dau four, we haven´t really done much. Our first night in Lima we were all tied from a long day of traveling and slept. The next day in the morning we walked down to the beach in Miroflores outside of Lima where we were staying, went to a great lunch at a swanky restaurant on the ocean, napped, and then took a quick tour by car of Lima´s old city in between drinks at our friend Carlos´ house and dinner.

Because of our ridiculously little amount of sleep that night - an hour at the hostel before our flight, and another hour on the plane - we slept for another 2.5 hours upon arriving in Cusco. This was followed by the necessities of lunch, a trip to the train station to buy tickets, and a trip to the bus station to buy more tickets. After another nap, all we had time for was dinner and bed as we had to be up at 6 AM to catch our train to Machu Picchu (we ran into 3 other Ross grads when we got off the train - small world!)

This has meant surprisingly little actual sightseeing - Dan, you would be disappointed. I definitely would have liked to have seen 2 or 3 of the catherdrals and museums in Lima and Cusco, but I think I´m okay with how things have developed. Not necessarily being a fan of the style of art and architecture here, for me this trip is more about the land, the environment, and life in general. No church will ever make the kind of impression on me that the Basillicas in Rome and Florence did. But Peru offers a simpler, more rustic, harder'edged experience and a bit more adventure or challenge and this is probably the more important take-away for me. That being said, we´ve had two amazing and anything but simple, hard-edged meals already! Some things I can´t resist I guess!

P.S.: Please forgive my typos but this web connection is way too slow for me to spell check and I have to get to the thermal hot springs!