3/31 Church last night was amazing. 2 hours long that started with allmof us going back outside, where they started a campfire to light the Easter candle. We bought a little candle for the mass from a blind lady and she knew exactly what coin you were giving her.They had a table of snacks out front too. Once the candles were lit, we all went back into the church. Somehow listening to a mass in another language makes it seem almost magical eventhough for the most part you know what they are suppose to be saying. The priest did his reading and talking (other than the homily) in a chanting voice and used the pulpit high up. His robe was exquisite and all 16 altar boys (no girls allowed) wore very ornate robes. The nuns were in the old black and white full habits. The entire service was much more ceremonial than ours back home. The church itself had 40 to 50 ft. ceilings with a wooden floor and benches. The kneelers were padded, which is very unusual. The walls were rounded stones. Absolutely beautiful.
After church we went to a cafe, meant more for tourists and treated ourselves to a piece of elderberry cheesecake and a black forest cake with a good cup of coffee and tea. What a treat.
So, T is off to buy our supply of water and then we will be off.
Back on line Friday evening.
Adios!

3/30  Today was logistical day. Bought bus and plane tickets and packed our little packs for the trail. Had a couple of little snafus along the way
1. My towel blew off the balcony in Vina del Mar
2. Someone stole my little fleece "sleepingbag"on one of the bus rides
3. Terry can't find his warm hat
But all in all, we are ready. Here is what is in the pack for 5 days.......
1 pair of socks, 1 t shirt, 1 long sleeved t shirt, 4 pair of underwear, 1 set long underwear, rain pants, rain coat, 1 fleece, hat, gloves, toothbrush and toothpaste, new small camping towel (about the size of a washcloth), bandaids, comb, cheap flip flops (to rest your feet at night), swimmsuit (for the hot springs after the trek), flashlight, camera, sunblock, bug spray, 2 liters of water, and my quecha dictionary. I am wearing my zipoff pants, a t shirt, underwear (of course), socks, hat, sunglasses and my chapstick in my pocket. The porter will carry our sleeping bags.  NO shampoo, deodarant, soap, extra pants or pjs.
Sounds fun, right?
Tonight we are going to church for Easter. This is the big mass. There is none tomorrow, but on Monday instead. Then it is a light dinner, lots of water and bed. The guide comes tomorrow at 11am to take us to the porter's village for a home stay. We will help them, eat dinner with them and sleep there. Then , on Monday morning, after breakfast, we are off.
We will be incomunicado until later on Friday. Please say a prayer that we all have the physical and mental strength to finish.
Since I am not taking the tablet, there will be no pictures until we get home. It is too much extra weight.

3/29  Change of plans last night... no guinnea pig. Instead we went to a cultural center to watch some native dancing. Beautiful costumes and dancing. See pics.
After dinner we had a quicker local meal. Boy oh boy were we all tired. Off to bed we went. You should see our room. Can't open the door without hitting the bed, but the bed is really comfy. So if given the choice, extra room not so important since we hardly spend any time there.
Today we,really didn't do much. Some logistical-get ready for the trek stuff. We sat in the plaza and watched the world go by. We checked out a couple of amazing churches and saw the Good Friday processional. Amazing, people throwing rose pedals on the "casket with Jesus in it" float, a band, and thousands of people walking along saying the rosary. At the end was an enormous float of Mary with tears and her heart was "bleeding".  I have never heard of a religious parade in the USA.  The priest walks along and so do some nuns. Very emotional.
Dinner was bar b que alpacca for all but B. He tried the guinnea pig. When it came it looked like a char broiled rat, head and all. He ate the whole skinny thing. Not very much meat and it tasted a little gamey. YUCK!
We are now back at the B &B, making plans for after the trek. We may be splitting up. T and I want to go to Lake Titicacca, B and G are not sure. I made a reservation for a nice hotel there. One mile from the lake and some well deserved luxury (especially after the 5 days on the trail). After 2 nights we plan on flying to either Lima or a small fishing village 65km south of Lima. Not sure yet. The last 3 or 4 days will be relaxing on the beach before we head home.

3/28  We arrived in Cusco at 6:30am, grabbed a taxi to our bed and breakfast, right in the historic district. Beautiful old house and very big. Lots of open courtyards and such. None of us really slept last night. The best bus ever, but on the worst roads ever. We are pretty sure they were dirt roads. A couple of times it felt like the bus was going to tip over. So, we got a slow start...a couple of showers and Bob napped.
Eventually we took off to explore the city. It is much bigger than I thought. This area is very nice, but tons and tons of peruvians trying to sell you something. The rest of the city, that we saw on the way in, is quite run down, dirty and lots of poverty.
The 4 of us split up as B and G wanted to do different things. T and I went to a textile museum where they were weaving and to a gigantic market (like our Broadway market during Easter, but 10 times as big).  There was a small food fair, where we tried a couple of things. We then went further and entered the local area. Oh my goodness where there people. Reminded me of Chinatown in NYC. Lots of noise, commotion, people sitting on the sidewalk selling food stuff etc. etc. etc. Quite the experience. We then went wall hanging shopping. I am really trying not to get ripped off. I want something hand made with real alpacca wool. It is hard to tell sometimes. Nothing yet. We stopped at a monument to the Inca King who developed Macchu Pichu. Lots of interesting information and we could walk up the inside to the top. Great view of the city and surrounding hills. Now T is napping before we go to the cultural museum where they demonstrate local dancing and clothes.
Tonight it is off to a local restaurant our host recommended. The main dish....guinnea pig!
Even after all that walking and stair climbing, neither of us is feeling any altitude sickness. They say you should know almost right away. Our host this morning did give us some coca tea. Maybe that helped.

3/27  Right now I am in the lap of luxury. We are on the bus to Cusco. Our seats have more room than in 1st class on a plane. Even getting on is like a plane.... check in your bags, have your carryon inspected, wait in the lounge area and get on. So different than any other bus. The seats recline ALL the way and there is a power outlet to charge your electronics. We have trays to use and are now being served our meal, while watching Skyfall.  Love it.
The day was really nice. We slept in and had a nice breakfast. The day was spent exploring the city some more. First T and I went to the post office to mail more stuff home. What an experience. The lady was mean and very impatient and it took forever.
We toured the chapel and got to go on the roof. See pics. The organ has 1500 pipes. So beautiful. The bell in the tower was huge. In the plaza there were older men sitting with manual typewriters. People came up to them, started dictating to the men and then they paid him. Maybe for poorer people without computers??. There are also lots of people begging for money, many of which had physical deformaties or were very old. T and I felt very sad for the old people and gave some of them some money. There were also lots of police officers everywhere. We think maybe because it is Easter week and they have those parades every night. Not sure though, it could be like that always.
We had peruvian chinese food for lunch. Ordering was tough. Saying chinese thingsmin spanish.....Thought we would give it a try. Not bad, a lot like our chinese food. We did some window shopping and I ended up buying some silver jewelry. The silver is very inexpensive as Peru is a large producer of silver. We stopped at Starbucks so B and G and even T could enjoy a good cup of coffee. All they have here is instant Nescafe coffee, which is strange because Peru grows good coffee. T and I wanted to visit the museum where "Juanita" is. She is the Inca frozen girl they found in the Andes. They had the most interesting movie and artifacts that are 550 yrs old. Juanita was actually in the lab being worked on, but they had another young girl that was found in the same spot and just as old. The amazing part about Juanita is that all her internal organs were in almost perfect condition. She was actually frozen, not mummified. They sacrificed young children whenever a natural disaster (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, etc) happened to appease the gods.
Back to the hostel at 6 to do our final packing. We had the desk lady, Sandra, call us a cab for 7 because all the little cabs driving around can be dangerous. The scam is to take tourists to some dark area, take their cash and atm or credit cards and leave them there. The funny part is, we had quite the taxi experience. For some reason, the cab she called never came, so Sandra flagged down one of the bigger, more reliable ones. In the first 5 minutes we get into a traffic jam like none other. Makes what you see in NYC look like a casual Sunday drive. Cars everywhere and in no lanes. They are criss crossed cutting eachother off and I can't even explain it. Anyway our driver is doing a great job at being aggressive. We have been sitting in traffic for 20 minutes and are starting to get nervous about missing the bus. So we tell him and he tries to cut off a brown van and hits it. The guy jumps out and starts ranting. We didn't see any damage. Our driver blows him off and just then there was an opening in the traffic and he takes off. We look out the rear window and the van is chasing us. Our driver is taking all kinds of shortcuts and turns but the van keeps up. Finlly he stops and 2 guys get out of the van and start yelling. The driver opens his window just as we are locking our doors. G is pinching my leg, she is so nervous. Terry has his hand on his pocket knife, but luckily, after 5 minutes or so they come to some agreement. The driver just kept saying "listen to me... tourists...". So to end the story, we literally got to the terminal, went through the check in process, got on the bus, sat down and it pulled away. A little too close for comfort.
Tommorrow we get to Cusco. The plan is to follow all the suggestions we have heard and read about. We will, rest, drink lots of water and coca tea, no alcohol or red meat and take an aspirin. All this to avoid altitude sickness. Wish us luck!

3/25 Ok, so somehow the dates got mkxed up. Today is Monday the 25th. The high altitude lakes were on Sunday. We went out for dinner last night at a really cool place. We sat outside, which was most of the restaurant. There are very few doors and windows. They had chimineas in all the corners. Loved the atmosphere. The meal was quinoa soup, beef and for desert, red beet ice cream. Yum. I know it doesn't sound good and we were apprehensive, but it was sweet with a hint of beet flavor.
We are really getting into the South American culture... eating dinner at 10pm.

3/26  Today we leave. I think San Pedro is one of my favorite towns. It has such atmosphere, with the dirt roads, adobe buildings and friendly people. The sun shines 363 days a year. This time of the year, the days are nice and really warm, no humidity and the evenings cool enough to need a jacket and heavy blanket to sleep.
We went to Calama, where we took a tour of the Chuquicamata copper mine, the largest open pit mine in the world. It was amazing. The trucks look like matchbox cars and just the tires on them are as big as our tour bus (Greyhound size). See pics below. Terry was in his glory. They produce 1500 tons of 99.99% pure copper everyday. 
On our way to the pit, we stopped in the little town, which is now a ghost town. At one time 25, 000 people lived there, but due to environmental problems, they relocated them all to the big city near by. So weird to see  the bank, movie theatre, town square complete with Christmas decorations just like people where there.
After the tour, we walked around the city, bought some copper souvenirs and ate in a little local stand. The 4 of us shared a churrillana called The Titanic. See below. Yummy
Now we are sitting in the bus station waiting for our sleeper bus , which leaves at 11pm. This will be jnteresting, since there is not a full cama (full reclining)bus. Bet it will be a long night.

3/26  As expected none of us slept well. The bus stopped several times, which means lights and noise. Oh well, we have a 6 hour ride to sleep some more. It worked out really good. We found another awesome taxi drive in Arica who did the following: found us breakfast, helped us exchange money, drove us to the border and took care of all the paperwork (G lost her receipt we got when we came into Chile. You need it to leave, but Carlos made it happen), drove us the 1 hour to Talca and took us into the right bus office to get our next set of tickets...all for $20 US.
As we crossed into Peru, the landscape remained the same... dirt, sand, rocks and no trees or bushes. But all of a sudden we did see a cactus farm. Pretty cool.
Now, we are on the bus to Arequipa. We will spend 1 night there and will leave tomorrow night at 8pm. Another sleeper. It is the only time they go there, but it is the full cama seats. Much better. I will make some observations of Peru as I notice them.
One important thing to know is the money. No more 10, 000 bills. There are 2.5 soles per US dollar. We have to change mental gears.
The Inca Trail is coming soon. I am starting to get a little nervous. Although none of us felt any effects at 4,200m. That is a good sign. Plus we will be in Cusco 4 whole days before we start the trail. According to the travel books, plenty of time to acclimate to the elevation. Hopefully this is true.
This 6 hour ride went pretty quick. We saw a couple of solar farms and the bus had to stop to let the herd of goats cross. The herder was a little kid maybe 7 or 8 years old. Really cute.
Ariquipa is a big city. Our hostel is in an old colonial house right in the city. We spent the evening walking around towards the famous plaza. The architecture is amazing and so is the cathedral. On our walk we came across an Easter parade. The local churches all have a float of Jesus. The floats are carried on peoples' shoulders. There is a marching band that played a religious song and people follow with candles. Very interesting. We ate dinner on the balcony level in the plaza. Potatoes are the staple here. Peru has over 400 different types of potatoes, the most in the world. The food was delicious. I don't think I have eaten anything that I did not like so far.
Our hostel has a terrace on the roof overlooking the city. We spent a little time up there watching the world go by. The garbage trucks here have a loudspeaker and they play music. There is no traffic control at the intersections. A real free for all.
Our room is huge with a sitting area. Such luxury. The beds are comfortable. Thank goodness. We all need a good nights sleep.

Laguna pics

3/25  Today we took an all day tour to 2 little villages, a flamingo reserve and 2 high altitude lakes. On the way we saw the Alma Project antennas. They are high up in the Andes and there are 66 antennas which produce better pictures than satellites and now scientists can also hear in outerspace. They should be functional at the end of this year. There are 400 volcanoes in Chile, 150 are active. When they erupt, it is not magna flowing, only toxic fumes and ashes, which the wind always sends into Argentina.
The landscape chanes dramatically and suddenly, depending on the salt and water content in the ground. Anything from completely barren to lush greenery. It is mesmerizing.
The flamingo reserve was pretty cool. There are 3 different types here. The guide said in about 5 years there won't be any. Some company is draining the rivers underground for the lithium content, which has reduced their habitat by 80%. Chile exports 40% of the world's lithium for batteries.
We stopped in a small village Toconao, which farms on terraces. They do it just like the Incas from long ago. Channels bring water to each of the individual terraced plots. They grow apples. Pomagranates, nuts, oranges, etc.
The 2nd village, Socaire, has only 200 residents, high up in themountains. They grow quinoa, which only grows in dry climates between 3500 and 5000 meters above sea level.
The high altitude lakes are at 4200m. The cout bird can be found here and no other place in the world. Not many left. We saw a few and some wild camels that look more like a llama.
On the way home, we stopped for lunch. A local soup made from vegtables and chicken. Very good and filling. Pretty much everyone took a siesta on the way home.

3/25  The trip to Lake Ceja was fantastic. Swimming in the laguna was such fun. It was a little cold, which surprised me being that we are in the desert. The water comes from underground rivers which run off the Andes Mountains. The salt content is 38%. We were able to float without trying. See pic below. I have my legs crossed and my arms too. A womanmswallowed the water and T had to help her. After we got out (immediately), as the water dried, we turned completely white. The tour guide brought fresh water and a weed killer sprayer to shower us off. See pic below
We then went to another laguna with a much lower salt concentrate. It almost felt like fresh water. We all took turns changing out of our swimsuits behind the bus, naked in the desert sun.
We ended the tour at the flat salt flats. It looked like an ice skating rink. Incredible. The guide provided us pisco sours and some snacks as we watched the sun set again. A very nice ending to the tour. See pic below.

Salt flat pics

3/23  The sleeper bus night was not as good as I had hoped. The bus was on dirt roads which were extremely bumpy,, especially on the 2nd level. Plus we stopped in a lot of towns, which means lights on and noise. Also, for some reason, we got our snack at midnight and breakfast at 6am. Oh well, this is an adventure.  Once here, we realized we are in a desert for sure. The whole town is made of adobe. It only rains 3 days to a week a year here.  But when it rains, it's a flash flood. Our hostel is really cute, BUT super noisy. You can hear everything. People sneezing, turning over in bed, etc. Not much we can do.
We decided on the tour to the Valley of the Moon at 4pm. First we walked knto town, T and B found a barbershop and got haircuts, we took our laundry to be done(charge by the weight), checked out a couple of stores and stopped for lunch. We went with a place that has no menu. You eat what they are cooking for the day.mthese places are much cheaper. Today it was pork, stir fried veggies, tomato salad for an appetizer and peaches for dessert.
We left at 4 and what a beautiful trip. See pics on Valley of the Moon. The salt mountains, volcanoes, the Andes Mountains were stunning. We ended the tour with watching the sunset from the top of a 300ft. sand dune. That was a hard walk up. Sand is hard to walk in, but kind of cool. As we were leaving it was getting dark and we passed a few bikers. Can't believe they rode their bikes and I am nkt sure what they will do in the dark. The bikes had no lights. I know I would have been very scared. It is dark in the desert. Nothing around for miles and miles and miles and miles.
Got back at 8:30 and we went to a local pub like place for a hand made pizza, beer and pisco sours. Very good. This town is hopping at night. Very cool looking. Dirt roads, small adobe buildings with very small doors. The buildings are all connected like one big plaza.
Got home at 10:30 and to bed we went.
3/24  Just as expected, heard everything last night to include every dog in San pedro barking in unison. Ugh!  So, I got up early, took a shower, had a good breakfast, am blogging right nkw, and when G gets out of the shower, we will plan our next leg of this trip...to Peru. Today at 4 the tour leaves to Laguja Ceja. A lake like the Dead Sea, super high salt concentration, so you float. We will go swimming and stop at a few other places. Before then, we will go into town, buy our bus tickets, souvenir shop and eat lunch.
Pic below is our adobe hostel, Mama Tierra.

Valley of the Moon pics

Valley of the Moon pics 2

3/21  We really didn't do much today. Packed, charged up all the electronic gismos, answered a few emails, went for walk on the beach at noon (it was completely overcast, but within the hour, the sun was out), shopped for snacks for the bus, since there will be no meal served in the 16 hours...bummer, and just randomly explored the beach area.
The bus is taking us north along the coast, through the same area we drove through yesterday, but today the clouds (or fog) are very low, so the mountains are in the clouds. It looks very eerie.
The sunset picture was taken from the bus.
This bus is like the 1st sleeper bus we took...super wide seats and lots of leg room.  It should be a good night.

Beautiful sunset

Plus a harsh landscape

Pictures 4

3/20  Today was our tour to Isla Damas. The guide spoke no english, but we were with 2 older ladies, one of which knew some english. We drove fof 2 hours through desert mountains that bordered the Pacific. See pictures 4. If went on for as far as you could see. Rocks, sand and cactii.
Lots were for sale for 3.5 million pesos. Nothing but a small patch of desert to call your own. Only the view of the water was worth any money. It was the complete opposite of Ireland...lushious green cliffs overlooking the sea.
We saw wild mules, more guanacos and some guy who looked like Juan veldez from the coffee commercial, on a mule, herding goats.
We took a big rowboat with a small motor 5 km out to sea to the islands. See pictures 4
We saw tons of pelicans, humbolt penguins, seals (both swimming and sunning), dolphins along side the boat (swimming and jumping), and just as we were leaving the area, 2 blue whales. They are HUGE!  One even came out of the water so we could see its tail. Guess it is rare to see them. The 2 boat guys were excited too and we followed them for a little while.  After we went to another island, where we got out and went for a quick dip. It was freezing.
On the way back, we stopped for lunch...seafood empanada, salad and fish with a bread pudding and papaya jam for dessert.
We also got to see an olive plantation. It was right smack in the desert. All of a sudden there was green. See pictures 4. Amazing. We didn't stop, but the restaurant had olive trees with olives and we learned all about the olive oil process. I bought a small bottle, made right there. Only 1000 pesos.
I also learned they play futbolito on the smaller soccer fields. We saw a patch in the desert, where they were building a new house. It was not even half done, but the small soccer field was. Metal poles for goals and a dirt pitch.
I also found it interesting that every time the drive started the car, he made the sign of the cross. Works for me.
Tomorrow, relaxing on the beach here. It is only 300m to the beach. Our bus leaves at 6:15 for a 16 hour ride to San Pedro. We were joking that we are not even in what is considered the desert of Chile and it looks like this. Wonder what San Pedro will look like. I am looking forward to the Valley of the Moon.