I made a DVD and they just fit. It would have taken 8 CD’s… I tried to play the DVD at my parents and both of their DVD players rejected it. Mine liked it, so I finally looked at all the pictures… Well I will. The best picture so far is:
http://www.brantct.com/pics/v/SouthAmerica/105CANON_001/IMG_0575.JPG.html
Well after 14 hours of travel we are back home. Thanks for the ride Frank!!! Out first stop was ROOKIES for lunch. Traveling to foreign countries make you appreciate things in the good old US of A much more. So all those ingrates, get out for a while see how you like other countries :>
Ok, its 10:10 and I am loosing track of things. First of all the internet connection at this hotel, the one in Cuzco, casa something… sucks. Worse then not working, it kinda works and I have to sit in the courtyard to get a decent signal AND I forgot my cable!!!!!!!!!! Doh! They of course did not have one.
Lima looked like a war zone and they lost. They said something about rebuilding stuff…
We were told last night by Alphonso, ok I really don’t remember his name, that the airport was not problem, well they checked my bag. That worked out ok, but that was condor error #1. Then when we go t to the hotel we met Lauren there. She was waiting in the sitting area waiting for us, YEAH! That was the good news. Vanessa, might really be her name, gave me a price to include Lauren in the tour, but did not take a card number wanted us to pay Carlos, again, maybe his name , for the tour. I told her to just put it on the credit card…. Oh yea, I think it was about this time I determined that my ATM card was missing… my screw up, ,mad at me, cancelled the card… The bank asked if I wanted another one, I said sure, meet me in Santiago… no go.
The hotel people wanted $$$ for Lauren and gave us a bed, no biggy, bug they would not let us pay for it until we check out at oh… 5:00 AM! Fun is.
Then we met Carlos for the first tour. He wants cash money to include Lauren. I give him cash money and he has to talk to the office several times.
The tour of Cuzco was good. Those Spaniards were not nice, AND apparently they had some miracles help them extinguish the Inca’s… hmmm .
I talked several time to Condor and might have gotten Lauren straightened out…
oh yea, Lauren is my daughter who is studying in Santiago, Chile and met us in Cuzco for part of our trip.
We got a bunch of great pictures that you won’t see for a while. See earlier rant… We went to the Temple of the Sun God. He (the sun god) was not around. There was some light rain, it was pretty cool though… see pictures 104cannon. The altitude did not bother us much at all. We were out of breath a couple of times, but we had to catch up with our tour and go places that were a little more out of the way.
Food:
Lunch, was good, I had trout, Marlo had chicken, and Lauren had some veggie thing… it was ok, and not too expensive…
now dinner, that was a whole nother deal. I won’t keep you in suspense, it was very good! I did pick the place from the list that Venessa would not commit too.
I had tacu tacu (alpaca) with praline and risotto and an egg, excellent. Marlo had stuffed chicken and Lauren had veggie raviolis.
we shopped and those vendors are relentless!!!!!!!!!! There is a picture of an 8 year old hawking finger puppets! Gives a whole new meaning to tenacious!!!
We have a 4:15 wakeup call… we got up this morning at 6:00… We have a 1.5 hour van ride and a 3 hour train ride and a tour of Muchu Picchu tomorrow. I should sleep soon, but I am uploading pictures…
The flight was ok, but long!!! We had one screamin meemee behind us, but she wasn’t too bad, BUT someone was playing Christmas Carols the whole flight ARG! We had ear plugs :> We uploaded pictures! They are not all that exciting yet… make sure you watch the movies if they make it up. They are up for an award…
Well, it to Atlanta! The flight was uneventful, the most you could hope for :>
We made it past airport security without issue and a sitting and waiting… We had better get used to this.
We just overheard some jealous woman wanting her BF to miss her as much as she misses him.. BARF! Two OLD guys driving the airport golf cart made our ears bleed with the backup beeper…. ahh, they’re dead now…
Awake at 8:00ish, out of bed and Marlo is making coffee at 9:05. Frank is scheduled to get here around 10:00. Looks like we are on our way. OK, I am VERY excited!!! All that said we slept great. hmmm well we are good sleepers. Sometimes we race to see who can fall asleep the fastest. Weird, I know.
Next entry Hartford International airport. We won’t be using the international part this morning. we go international in Atlanta at 5:14 this afternoon. Lots of flying this trip…
Sunday…So my reminder just went off. I seems that I am scheduled to go to South America in 11 hours. Good thing I set the reminder…
Final things to do. Put the stuff in the bag and get some gum for Lauren. Apparently Chile has crappy gum… Who would have thought? I did remember to pay my Maine speeding ticket. It was Marlo’s fault… She distracts me.
PACKING, actually I am enjoying a bit. How much stuff to you REALLY need for a two week vacation in a foreign country with MANY stops. More importantly, what are you allowed to bring… You can’t bring any liquid container over 3oz, but you can bring lots of 3oz containers… now that makes sense. You can bring an umbrella too. That’s good… now do I want to??? Hmmm.. Here is the best link that I found for what we can bring: TSA What can I bring
Everything is packed. The walking around in circles is over. This is the most prepared for vacation I have ever been.
Marlo got home at 4:00 and I wisely choose that time to go to the gym. Have you ever seen two people walking in circles in a confined space? They run into each other … a lot :> so I went to the gym and she packed. She was all packed in a hour AND her bag was smaller than mine. What a women.
We had to eat so we went to the only logical place, Rookies of course. Frank met us there and we watched the Giants somehow manage to come from behind and win. We went to market to get the last, last minute things. We got cinnamon gum and vitamins for Lauren and books for us. Someone was supposed to get some books from work, but forgot. We won’t mention who :> I did a couple more circles, we watched The Unit and that was it for the night.
We went over the “spreadsheet of fun.” It’s the first time that we sat down and really looked the itinerary. This time through it did not seem so bad… he he he…
The next entry will be from the airport in Hartford. There will be corresponding pictures. I know that everyone is excited to see those pictures!!
So the itinerary – Just a couple of stops… What are we CRAZY???
27-Oct (12:30) Hartford – Atlanta
27-Oct Atlanta – Lima
28-Oct Lima – Cusco
28-Oct Cuzco – Mochu Piccu (Train)
30-Oct Mochu Picchu – Cuzco
31-Oct Cuzco – Juliaca / Puno – Lake Titicaca :>
02-Nov Juliaca – Lima
02 Nov Lima – Santiago
04-Nov maybe the beach
08-Nov Santiago-Atlanta
08-Nov Atlanta-Hartford (11:55AM)
So, it’s Saturday. Laundry and packing day. I got the camera battery and the memory card. Life is good. I only need the case. Sunday I will hit Wal-mart if It does not come. Marlo is at work. That works out well. Better to have one person at a time running around in circles. I brought her lunch and made copies of all of our important documents. They will live at home whilst we are away.
I think that I am just about ready. I need to print the spread-sheet of fun… We have a 12:30 flight Monday… Sent Frank the info for our ride… tick-tock…
Tonight we have a Halloween thing… some spooky walk, should be fun… Back to Laundry and lunch… Listening to the last 2 cd’s to learn Spanish.. . Not going to help…
So I got something to work for my picture uploads… Not the best but it will work…
We went to a party tonight. It was fun.
