Yesterday, April 2nd, when we were walking around downtown, there were a whole bunch of organized protests of different interest groups walking around the city. Some protested tourism, some mafia enterprise controlling the campesino lifestyle, some the unfair wages of engineers versus other trades. It was pretty intense at some points, and at least ten riot police fully clad in riot gear accompanied every group of paraders. We don't know if it ever escalated to the point of violence, but the potential was there for sure. Afterward, we crashed around all over Cuzco and the plazas to get our bearings and the guys patiently waited for me while I got the best haircut of my life. A sweet girl named Maria buzzed me really well and did the whole shaving cream, straight razor and aftershave routine. Ahh, like a million bucks now! We walked around looking for some manual bike horns to buy so we can combat all the incessant taxi honking, but there doesn't seem to be a bike shop anywhere near us. Phooey.
When it was time to get back to the hostal because night was coming and the weather was turning sour, we stopped and got a GIANT gallon jug of wine for about $7.00 and another bottle of the good stuff for about$6.00. Right as we left, BOOM! The thunderstorm and rain started. I've never seen rain come down so hard in my entire life, and we had to run about five blocks through it to the Hostal Miracle Inn where we're staying. Completely soaked, we got inside and took off the wet shirts to warm ourselves up with some vino. Every single second (at least!) for about two hours, there were lightning strikes. I'm not kidding even a little bit, it was at least one per second for two hours amidst the hail and thick sheets of rain. While enjoying the storm, we listened to music and got a bit saucy on the Kool-Aid sweet wine. I was in the middle of a heated dance session, and doing some floorwork breakdancing when the hostal owner's daughter knocked on the door. She's a nice gal named Milagros (Miracles) who explained how to get to Machu Picchu the quickest and the cheapest possible way. Reassured by her explanation, we continued to goof off and finally went to bed at a reasonable hour, for a change.
Today, I woke up super early because of an unexplained 5:00 AM rush hour outside our window and couldn't get back to sleep. So I found a gym within a block of the hostal and busted a nice sweat (appeasing my addiction to exercise for at least another day or two) in peace. The people there stared at me like an alien, I think because of how much weight I was putting up compared to the average Peruvian guy. I had to scrounge weights from all over the place to get my level right. Anyhow, feeling much better I let myself back into the hostal room and the other two were just getting up. We cruised off to the first supermarket we could find, called the Mega, to get some trail food for the trip to Machu Picchu tomorrow. It was pretty expensive, which surprised us. We then wandered for a little while and found the most AMAAAZING place just down the street from the Hostal Miracles. A small and nondiscreet doorway bloomed into a bustling street market with unrealistically cheap food and wares, and there were a dozen restaurants that served a huge plate of food for two Soles! That's about $0.65 US. We chatted for a while with some Israeli tourists next to us while we stuffed our faces with fried fish, rice and noodles, salad, and baked potato wedges with vegetables, and then bought a bunch of veggies and peppers for the trek tomorrow.
And now sitting in the internet cafe, or as we call it, the Webernet Hut. The guys are itchy to go have another adventure, so I'm outta here. Thanks for listening, as as always, Hush Hush.
Love to all, wish us luck on the Incan Trail tomorrow and I'll take some photos there. Andy got his camera stolen two days ago in Arequipa, so my crummy little camera will have to suffice.
Chau, brad
riots crashin round haircut storm rain lightning spaz to talk with Milagros, hoy Mega then cheap market
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