the journey of death

so about a week and a half ago i decided to go cusco for Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun.

its been a looooooooong past 56ish hours. summary: depart salta, argentina at 7am on sunday morning. salta to calama=12 hours. calama=waiting 3 hours. calama to arica=10 hours. arica=waiting 2 hours bc the border doesn´t open until 8am. arica to tacna=sketchy car ride for a couple hours. tacna=i find out there are no buses from there to cusco and probably none from arequipa to cusco. the strikes in peru have made transportation difficult. tacna to arequipa=7 hours. arequipa=i almost give up because all the bus companies are saying buses are not going to cusco. then just as i was about to go get a hostel and shower i hear someone in the corner shouting CUSCO! i ran over and was like en serio? en serio? and yes, they were going an alternate route leaving at 8:30 pm...supposedly 13 or 14 hours instead of the normal 9 to 11. 19 hours later of winding through the mountains on gravel roads on a crappy bus i made it to cusco!

i hadnt slept in a bed for 2 nights. i smelled. i ate shitty sandwiches with the meat picked off. BUT i´ve made good traveling companions. i´ve laughed. i´ve listed to all the songs on my tiny ipod several hundred times. i´ve slept. i´ve watched bad movies. i´ve contemplated life.

somehow i made it to cusco alive. barely, but alive. 56 hours of travel straight is a bit much. but now im showered, have clean clothes, am full of coca tea. i got a bed in the hostal with friends. so life is good.

today is the festival! im going to enjoy!