August 19th - Home

Hi there blog readers, and thanks for sticking with me all summer.

I arrived home again on Tuesday night, and am working on getting the details of my life back in order so I can move on to the next adventures here. It's interesting to get used to computer keyboards with all the punctuation in the 'normal' places. I keep using the wrong keys for my dashes and apostrophes and slashes and @s. Sooner or later I'm sure my fingers will remember their old ways.

It's great to be home, strange to be operating soley in English, and amazing to have all those creature comforts that we're so used to taking for granted. Who knew that rinsing your toothbrush with tapwater, or flushing your toilet paper, or buying vegetables and eating them raw and unpeeled could be such a thrill! And then of course there are the predictably hot showers, laundry facilities that are free and available whenever I want them, and my jeans - I don't know what I was thinking packing for the summer and not including a pair of jeans.

The summer was fabulous, and I love balancing my life between California and Peru. Many thanks go out to all the new friends I met over the summer for the conversations, the pisco sours, the friendship and comeraderie and chocolate. And thanks too to all my friends and family at home for the e-mails, the words of support and encouragement, and for making me feel that I wasn't so far away after all.

I hope you enjoyed reading along with me this summer, and please let me know when you're heading out for your next adventures. I'd love the chance to travel with you too!

Hasta la proxima vez,

Karen

August 15th - Leaving Lima

Wow, it's my last day in Peru. And, as always so much has happened since my last blog.

On Friday, I moved from Puno to Juliaca in the morning. The airport is there, and I figured it would make my Saturday morning flight easier, and also give me a chance to go up to Pukara, an important site nearby. The Pukara culture lived between 300bc and 200ad, and were the 'seed culture' for the Tiwanaku and Huari civilizations that came later, or so the theories say. They also have amazing stone carvings, and there was a very nice little museum in town which showed them off. The site was quite interesting, and there were hardly any people there which made for a very peaceful morning. I was hoping to run into a couple of people I met at the archaeology conference in Arequipa, but there was no sign of them, so I toured the site, then had lunch at what appeared to be the only restaurant in town. The set meal was a large dumpling of mooshed together sweet potato with some regular potato and a thin slice of cheese through the middle, batter fried and served with rice. Carbs? These people live on 'em. Anyway, it filled me up, and I grabbed another local bus back to town. I had meant to stop at a town between there and Juliaca, but the bus took the 'other' road, so we sailed right by and I ended up back at the busyard of Juliaca. I took a tricycle taxi back to my hotel, kind of a rickshaw type thing. It was fun. My hotel was nice but had no heat, and I spent a chilly night dreaming of the summertime weather waiting for me in California.

After flying to Lima on Saturday, I've spent the last few days seeing some friends from Acari, touring a few museums, doing a lot of window shopping, and checking out yet another archaeology site. Today, after visiting the site, we decided to take it easy and saw another movie at Larcomar - 'The Island'. We didn't even know what it was about, it was just the next movie starting which was in English, and that was good enough for us.

Tonight I'm meeting Annalisa for dinner - the others have all gone now - and then I have one last night in my cute, plant filled Lima hotel before heading to the airport tomorrow morning and catching my flight home.

It has been a truly amazing summer. I have had so many fantastic experiences, and honestly I'm feeling ready now to just be home and let things quiet down a bit before school starts up again on the 22nd.

I'll post again from the good ol' US of A. Until then, thanks for keeping me company this summer. See you soon!

Karen

August 11th - Lake Titicaca

Hello again,

Well yesterday morning I blitzed some museums in La Paz (Archaeology, Ethnography, and Music) and then had chinese food for lunch at the Jackie Chan Chifa-no kidding, before boarding my swanky tourist bus back to Puno. For some reason there were several long stops along the way, and the trip back took about 7 hours from the scheduled departure time. My trip to La Paz took about 4 on collectivos. No matter, I had no plan for the evening, and I made it back to the hotel before they gave my room away, so it was all good.

La Paz was an interesting city. It lies in a canyon, with a giant snowcapped volcano behind, and is very picturesque when seen from afar. The houses spill down all sides of the canyon and pool at the bottom where they grow into skyscrapers. The 'highest' hotel in the world is in La Paz. I think that's a measure of altitude rather than floors, but I really can't say. The city is very hilly. I don't believe there is one level street in the place. Several are so steep that the sidewalks are staircases. At 12,500 feet, walking around is a bit of a challenge. The taxi system is interesting. Taxis are not really private, so a driver who already has a passenger will pull up and ask where you want to go. If it's not in the right direction, he'll say 'no' and drive away. Sometimes drivers without passengers will say 'no' and drive away. Not one cab I rode in knew where to find my destination, except for the ride to the bus station. Generally I was dropped off somewhere in the general vicinity, but somehow always downhill from where I wanted to be.

Today, back in Puno, I finally had my trip out to the islands in Lake Titicaca. We rode first out to the Uros, which are the floating islands. They are made of reeds, and people have been living on them for centuries. We got out and walked around and saw some demonstrations of cooking and fishing and the home life of the Uros. Walking on a floating island is very interesting. They are about 6 feet thick, made of piled reeds, and are squishy under your feet. Most everyone there was barefoot. Why not? The people were wonderfully friendly. We had the opportunity to peruse their crafts and I wanted to buy everything they had, just to support them. Somehow though I couldn't picture their embroidered crewel-like tapestries hanging in my home. Everything there is made of reeds, the island, the homes, and the boats. After exploring the first island, we took a reed boat across the channel to another island. It was powered by two burly oar wielding locals, and was lots of fun. We explored the second island a bit, then got back on our high speed boat to go to the island of Taquile.

This tour luckily goes to the less touristy side of Taquile, and we hiked up the island to a small village, where we saw demonstrations of weaving and spinning and knitting. Knitting is the work of the men in that culture, and even small boys were walking around working on their projects. Women spin with drop spindles and weave extraordinarily fine textiles. For that matter, the knitting was so fine you could barely see the stitches. It was truly amazing work. Unfortunately for me, it was priced somewhat appropriately to the labor involved, and I just hadn't expected things that would cost $50 US, so I couldn't bring home the most amazing things they had. But they did have several things that were 'less fine', which would be amazing in any other market, and I did luck into a few opportunities there. After that we had a demonstration of local plants used for food and other purposes, and then some men with cane flutes came and serenaded us up the hill to where we had our lunch. Lunch was served in a local styled courtyard and included quinoa soup and a choice of fried kingfish or an omelet. Nobody there eats meat. I was in heaven! After lunch, we hiked about an hour across the island to the main port, passing farm houses, grazing sheep, amazing agricultural terraces, and astonishing views of the Bolivian mountains to one side, and the Peruvian skyline to the other. Lake Titicaca itself is sapphire blue, once you get away from Puno. It was gorgeous.

Along the way, I met a really nice family from Georgia who invited me to join them for dinner tonight, so I think I shall. Tomorrow I'm thinking of moving to Juliaca, which is where the airport is, and then finding my way up to some archaeology sites near there. With luck I'll run into some folks I met in Arequipa at the conference. And then Saturday morning, I fly to Lima.

Somehow it's all coming to an end, but what a finale! I had an amazing day and the people were just so nice.

And there are still a few more days of adventures to come. Incredible...

Hasta luego,

Karen

August 10th - La Paz (Bolivia!)

Betcha didn't see that one coming! Yes, after my last blog I had a reality check about what living at 12,500 feet can do to a person and had to take a down day on Monday. I rallied, consulted my mobile stash of western meds, and now am happy to report that Diamox is good stuff, although the tingly feet and hands are interesting. In any case, it was good to have a day to sort and pack my stuff, hoof around Puno a bit, and go to see an old ship that's been restored in recent years. It's actually a good story - in the 1850's the ship was ordered from England, broken down into parts, shipped around the Cape of Good Hope to Arica (then part of Peru), and taken overland by mule train to Puno, taking 6 years. It was then assembled, retrofitted to run on dried llama dung instead of coal, and put to work on Lake Titicaca for many decades. However it was left to rust in the latter part of the 20th century and was only recently discovered and adopted by a British woman who has set about founding a project to restore it. It's now a fully functional floating museum, and by next year they hope to be doing overnight lake cruises.

In addition to the bonus day of relaxation and sights of Puno, I got the opportunity to re-evaluate my plans, and I decided to reduce my island visit to a one day trip instead of the overnight. It's dissappointing, but on the one day we go to the floating islands and to Taquile, and they were really my top priorities. And that way, I still have time to go to Tiahuanaco, La Paz, and hopefully a few other Peruvian archaeological sites that I'm interested in before I fly out on Saturday. So, the islands are now scheduled for Thursday (tomorrow), and this morning I'm sitting in La Paz.

Yesterday I stored all my stuff at the hotel in Puno and took a cab to the bus depot. I found a local bus to Desaguadero, a border town at the south end of the lake, and piled in. It was a local bus, and so was packed to the gills, of dubious comfort, but still serviceable and fun for people watching and soaking up Peru. Local buses don't run on a schedule. They wait until they're full, which means all seats are taken and several people are sitting or standing in the isles. It's cozy. The seats were once upholstered, but are now covered by well worn and peeling white vinyl seat covers. I had thought to crochet on the bus, but with no elbow room and a rather bumpy ride, that wasn't an option, so I watched the lake shore flow by outside the window. Not a bad option at all.

Two hours later, I was in the border town of Desaguadero. It's a bustle of market goods and people moving every which way, and I made my way to the emmigration office for Peru and had my documents stamped, then some 'helpful' local guys decided they would personally guide me to the immigration station on the other side, which they did, for a tip of course. In any case, I got through all the necessary logistics and then worked on finding a money changer. After searching all streets in a four block radius I finally started asking people and found that there are two people, seated in the middle of the street at small school desks, who serve as the exchange bureau. All righty then. With my bolivianos in hand, I easily found another local bus heading for La Paz (and passingTiahuanaco on the way), paid my fare and climbed aboard. This bus promised to be a bit more comfortable, although still packed to the gills. Once we got rolling, a woman with a baby on her back (in a manta-blanket, traditional style) got on board and was standing in the isle next to me. Well, this didn't fly in my book, so I offered her my seat. After politely saying no, I persuaded her that I was only going a short distance and she really should sit, so she did. Well now things started to get funny. First off, I'm now the local hero of the locals in the back of the bus. Also, the Canadian guys sitting nearby are all embarrassed that they didn't think of that, so now they're trying to give me their seats or hold my bag or something. I was fine, and my stop was only 50 minutes or so down the road. Besides, people here are not tall and buses are built for the people they carry, so at 5'4" I had about 1/2" of clearance between my head and the roof and was towering over all the other locals who were standing. Those poor guys would have been stooped and miserable. In any case, as we got closer to the site, I chatted with the locals a bit, and asked them to let me know when we were near Tiahuanaco. A woman sitting in the isle behind me gave me a handful of the beans they were munching on - cooked, chilled beans from a plastic bag. They laughed at me when I popped some in my mouth and chewed them down because you're supposed to shell them first. I laughed along, and shelled the rest. And just a few beans later, they said we were there, so I threw the rest of the beans in my pocked (having nothing else I could do with them), grabbed my stuff, and hopped off the bus.

The Panamerican highway passed about a mile down the road from the city of Tiahuanaco, which is itself a km or so from the site. So, I headed on down the road with my daypack on my back and my magic beans in my pocket. When I got to town, I found a local restaurant which was made of red cinderblocks with a roof of sewn together feed sacks and staffed by a very bubbly Bolivian woman. I had a very yummy trout lunch, then got directions and headed off to the site.

Tiwanaku (the spelling changes) is a very important pre-columbian site, especially known for its stonework. The ticket price includes two museums and the site. The first museum was all lithics (stonework) and signs were posted saying no photos, which is silly because flashes won't harm rocks, its just a proprietary thing and they didn't even have a gift shop to take advantage of their exclusive photo rights. Anyway, as I soon found out, almost all rules in Bolivia can be broken for a little fee. So, I took pictures of everything I wanted to, and put out about $.50 for the opportunity. Not bad. After the museums, I wandered the site, which is only partially excavated with more work in process. There are several large courtyards, many constructions of huge slabs of stone, making you think of Stonehenge - where the heck did they get this stuff and how did they move it here??? The rock carvings are very interesting and intricate, and all in all, it was a great site. I finished my wandering about 5pm and started walking the road back to town, when a collectivo drove right up to me and said 'La Paz?'. Perfect. So, I hopped in, read my Lonely Planet on the way and made my way into the city.

And a city it is. It's huge. I took a cab from where the collectivo stopped and spent a good 20 minutes of freeway time getting close to my hotel. Close because there are apparently rules about who can drive into the city center, and my driver was stopped and told he couldn't proceed. He was very apologetic and offered to walk me the rest of the way. I declined, but he gave me great directions, so I was hoofing it again the last six blocks to the hotel I was hoping for. Unfortunately when I got there it was all booked up, but they recommended another place that was only 3 more blocks, and that one was a winner. It's International Youth Hostel affiliated, and a private room with bath cost me $6 for the night. It was basic, but for all the time I spent there, it was perfect. I dropped my stuff and walked another 4 blocks or so down to a restaurant with a nightly show and had a fabulous evening watching folkdancing and listening to traditional music while munching on some very good food. The folkdancers in particular were amazing. I have no idea how they can jump and stomp and twirl like that at this altitude! The costumes were very elaborate, each dance with a different theme, and including bells or rattles on the dancers legs, feathered headwear, masks, and no shortage of costuming budget. It was a blast. I even allowed myself to be pulled into the 'audience participation' parts, and had a fabulous time.

Now, I have four or five hours to blitz some musems before I grab my cushy tourist bus back to Puno at 3pm. Wish me luck!

Stay tuned. The whirlwind finish has begun!

Karen

August 7th - Flaming Guitars and Floating Islands

Hello all,

My stay in Arequipa was really nice. It was great to see some familiar places, revisit my favorites, and see a few new ones too. Arequipa is celebrating its 450th anniversary of being a city on August 15th, and in anticipation, there are lots of cultural events going on. While I was there, there was an International Festival of the Guitar - four nights each featuring 6 or 8 guitarrists from eleven different countries, and then a final evening which brought them all together. I caught the last two nights, and it was amazing. Brilliant classical guitar, amazing latin guitar, melodies and countermelodies and fingerpicking like you wouldn't believe. It was a lot of fun. I bought a few CDs too, so I can share some it with those of you who live close by.

My bus ride to Puno was surprisingly fun. The bus was quite comfortable as busses go, and in our five hour ride, we were served a meal, played a game of bingo, and watched two movies. Not bad, hm?

Puno itself isn't exactly as I pictured it, but that's not a bad thing, just a surprise. I don't know why I imagined that the hills would be green. It's the altiplano - a very high altitude environment, and there's very little rain here. The streets are narrow and busy and bustling, and buildings are two or three or four stories tall, and creep up the mountainsides surrounding the city. 200,000 people live here, and the major industry is tourism, so it's easy to find what you need and get around. I had brick oven pizza for dinner tonight, which was surprisingly tasty (Pizza is fairly common in Peru but not really well understood. One place I went to in Nazca used pie pastry as the crust.)

This morning, I went on a private tour south of Puno to visit the towns of Chimu and Chucuito. Chimu is tiny and specializes in making boats from tortoro reeds. It was interesting to see the tortoro all laid out to dry along the lake front, and to watch the people weaving it together. One thing that I really love about this area (and about the mountains of Peru in general) is that people still dress traditionally, not because of tourists, but because they are proud of their heritage. Further south is Chucuito, whose main claim to fame is a pre-Incan fertility temple. I'd heard about it, but sure enough, it's a big rock garden of penises. Some are 5 feet tall, most are smaller (although I imagine the Incas all claimed they were 5 feet!). Some point up, others are pointed down into the earth. They're arranged in rows inside a rectangular stone structure with two gateway penises out front. There's even a tiny penis on top of the church tower next door. Interesting.... The local kids do the tours for tips. It was entertaining. After all that, we went up to a mirador (view point) high above Puno. It was a great view, and I'm so glad that I got a ride up instead of walking.

Oh, incidentally, Puno is at an elevation of 3,830 meters, which is something over 11,000 feet. Lake Titicaca's claim to fame is that it's the highest navigable lake in the world. Anything higher up would be frozen, I guess. Temperatures in the day are fairly warm - maybe in the 60's, but at night it's down to freezing or below. The lake helps to insulate the valley though. It's not as cold as it could be!

After my morning tour, I walked by the plaza where it appeared that all 200,000 of Puno's inhabitants had gathered. Apparently every single Sunday there is a major gathering and parade in the plaza, where all schools, government related agencies (like hospitals), and the army come to goose step (yes, really) around the plaza and sing their national anthem and listen to the army band play. Even the tiny children are dressed in military costumes and carry little flags. It was an impressive showing of patriotism and community and the kids were so adorable. I braved the crowds for a while and then did the gringo thing and got myself a balcony table at one of the restaurants overlooking the plaza. Hey, great view, no crowds, and fresh squeezed orange juice - can you blame me?

This afternoon, I took another tour, this time on a big ol' tour bus, to Sillustani. Sillustani is an important archaeological site, from both the Incas and the Colla culture who came before them, featuring over 200 round funerary tours on the hills overlooking Lake Titicaca. It was inspiring to see, and interesting to see the stylistic changes over time. Our guide was informative, and alternated between English and Spanish. It was fun to follow both. The wind picked up and the extremely rare rain started threatening as we left the site. I was so hoping for a rainbow, but no luck. I'm sure I took enough pictures as it was.

And then, after my aforementioned pizza, I gave my parents a call because it's my Dad's birthday tomorrow (Hi Dad!) and I won't be near a phone then. It was great to hear their voices and catch up on things. Dad, have fun at your recording session. I want a copy of the CD! :)

Tomorrow I'm taking a trip to the islands, starting with the floating islands, then going on to Amantani to spend the night with a local family there. On tuesday, I'll head back to the island of Taquile and then Puno again. I'm going with a group from the same agency as today's tours, so I'm really looking forward to the trip. I'll blog you all about it when I'm back.

For now, I need to head up to my room and pack up my stuff. The bus will be by early in the morning. Thankfully I can leave my suitcases at the hotel and just bring my day pack with me, but still I need to get everything contained.

Good night, from my corner of the planet to yours.

Karen

August 3rd - Arequipa and the road ahead

Hello blog fans. Yes, it's me again. I'm back in blog land. I took the night bus from Arequipa - a cushy double decker, and checked into my hotel near the plaza. It's comfy and convenient. I dropped off my stuff, organized briefly, and headed out to figure out my travel plans. First stop, the airline office to check on my ticket exchange. As it turned out, my ticket isn't changeable after all, so I'm back to my original plan to be here another two weeks. I'm fine with that - I was just thinking it would be nice to have a bit more time at home before school, but if forced to see amazing Peruvian sites, I guess I'll just have surrender and enjoy.

I finished me errands in the morning, visited some familiar haunts from last month, and had a late breakfast of eggs and bread and actual espresso. Joy! My afternoon was low key. I stayed in the room, took a nap, watched CNN for a while, and generally puttered until dinnertime.

I have to tell you, I have a new favorite restaurant. Not just a Peruvian favorite, it's definitely high on my list of all time favorite places. It's a cute little Morrocan place called Ras El Hanout, with a domed stone ceiling, muraled walls, tiled tabletops, and traditional moroccan food - beautifully presented, fabulously seasoned, and served on traditional ceramic morrocan plates. The salad plate was green and square and the entree plate round with a tall domed lid that's taken off with a flourish and reminded me of El Misti, the volcano that stands behind Arequipa. There were olives on the table in a miniature version of the dome lidded plate, and then there was the tea. The tea alone was enough to put the place on the favorites list. I had sweet minty tea scented with jasmine, served in an elaborately worked silver pot, with an accompanying tall, slim decanter for the jasmine essence. Along with this, I had a glass of fresh squeezed passionfruit juice, a salad of diced olives, cheese, marinated tomatoes and preserved lemon served in a whole artichoke heart with a vinagerette, and a chunky vegetable stew with a name I couldn't begin to spell. All this for 30 soles, less than $10. Amazing.

The stereo at the internet place is playing Pete Townsend's 'Face the Face'. I'm sorry, but I've never been able to multi task when that song's on. One moment please.....

Okay I'm back. Actually, though that just about wraps up my night. With my new plans, I'm expecting to be here tomorrow too and then bus down to Puno for my last week. And of course, I'll keep you posted.

Just two weeks to go. It's been amazing.

Karen

August 2nd - on the road again

Yep, I'm moving on. Alina didn't appear in Acari as scheduled and she sent no word, so after a few days of waiting, I've decided it's time to get myself in motion again. It's been a truly peruvian day of traveling, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

The dig last week was really amazing. I got my own 4 meter square unit to excavate, and while the going was slow and my particular piece of earth didn't yield evidence of the next King Tut, I had a great time and learned a lot about excavation technique. The units near mine had some very interesting finds, so I vicariously enjoyed all that while sifting my broken pottery bits and shells. The archaeology project in the Acari valley is really special because the goal is to prove that Acari and its two sister valleys to the south hosted a unique pre-columbian culture, which may have traded with the Nasca culture, but wasn't controlled by them. The passion behind it is focused on building the heritage and pride of the local people, and the archaeology is supporting the hypothesis. There are something like 160 identified sites in the Acari valley alone, most of which are largely unexcavated. It's very intriguing.

By Thursday we were off the dig, with some folks heading back to Lima to catch their planes. On Friday the rest of the group left, and I was by myself for a few days, finishing up the textile processing, catching up on some reading, and generally taking it easy. By Monday morning, the group was back with a bus load of new recruits, and I was completing my preparations to go. It was nice to meet the new crowd, and I joined them for an afternoon field trip to a local site I hadn't seen. We had a good time there, and I got to share my textile knowledge - every time anyone found an interesting piece they called me over to explain it. I don't even pretend to be an expert on these things, but it turns out that I did pick up some useful tidbits during my time in Arequipa, and they were grateful for the information. Among the things we saw was an example of twining - a pre-weaving technique, which I've seen in books, but hadn't actually touched before. It was very interesting.

Today was my drop dead date for getting out of town. I was almost out of money with no atm in sight. The previous day I had cashed in my last $14 USD. Oh, that's a funny story... I had to wait until Monday because the national holidays were the previous week and the bank was closed, so I'd been budgeting for a few days. Monday morning I went to the bank, waited in line, and when I got up to the single window I was told that they didn't do exchange there, I should go to the pharmacy instead. The pharmacy? Yes, the pharmacy. So, off I went to the pharmacy. However, the fellow there said no, he didn't exchange US Dollars, but I should try the auto parts store or the hardware store. Why not? So I went to the auto parts store, and sure enough, they were happy to take my dollars and give me a straight exchange for soles at the going rate with no commission. Go figure. Okay, back to my original story.

This morning I caught the 11am bus from Acari, which actually left about 12:15. I got into Nazca and walked over to the bus station to buy my ticket to Arequipa. Yes, they had seats available on the night bus tonight, but no, they don't take credit cards. I'll need to go to the atm machine and get some cash. But they will store my bags for the day without a fee (score!).

So, on the way to the cash machine, I stopped at the phone card place and bought a card to work out my travel plans. I'm hoping to change my return flight for one week sooner - I'm feeling like I've had about as many amazing adventures as I can handle for a while and it would be nice to have some time at home before the school year starts again. So, I bought my card and called the agency from whom I bought the ticket. Good news- they answered the phone and confirmed that there's plenty of room on the flight I want. Bad news- they can't do anything about it, I have to talk to the airline. So, I call the airline with the number the woman from the phone card place gave me. Nobody answers. So, I call Arequipa to make a reservation at the hotel I plan to stay at. They're full. Bother. So, I start walking again.

I stopped at another travel agency which has a Lan sign to see if they can help with the ticket issue. Well, they can't really, but Enrique (who I've run into in one context or another for 3 weekends this past month) has the right phone number and dials it without charging me anything for the call. Yippee. I get a helpful agent on the line eventually who tells me that yes, I can change the ticket for a fee, but no I can't do it from Nazca because I have a paper ticket. I need an office. Well, there's one in Arequipa, so I'll add that to my errands to do while I'm there.

From there, I go to the atm machine and it's out of service with a message saying it's being maintenanced. Fine, I'm starving anyway so I find a swanky tourist restaurant that takes Visa and live it up for a couple of hours - fresh juice and sea bass 'a lo macho' and a cold beer and then a double espresso ----ahhhhhh.

Okay, back to the quest - so I'm back to the atm, which still is 'being maintenanced'. I go into the bank, and ask the guard how long the maintenance will take. He says two more days. Interesting. So, I ask him if I can get money with my card inside. Of course he says, and gives me a ticket with a number. The banks here have a system not unlike the DMV in California, where you take a number and take a seat. After about 20 minutes, my number came up, but the teller says she can't give me cash with my ATM after all, and I should walk over to a swanky hotel around the corner. Well glory be, the swanky hotel actually has a functioning ATM, so I'm back in business. Now, back to the hotel problem. I walked back to the phone place and called another hotel, and glory be, they have a room for both nights, so now I can buy my bus ticket. I walked down to the bus station, and again, glory be, there's still a seat for tonight, so suddenly I'm batting 1000. I have cash, a full belly, a bus ticket, and a hotel that's expecting me in the morning. Oh, and fast internet, so I can update the blog. Life is good.

My bus is a double decker cushy one with reclining seats, so between that and my day of logistics, I think I'll sleep really well. I expect that you'll be hearing from me more often now that I'm back in the world of internet.

Hope everyone at home is doing well. I'm counting the days until I'll be there lounging in the sun along with you!

Karen