Day 10 - 11

Cusco, Peru:

Here we are in Cusco still... As we posted previously, Brandy and I are engaged. She actually said yes! I´m as shocked as you!!! For the details, I´ll let her tell you that right now:

We were in Cusco, Peru on a romatic christmas eve. The city was one huge party with fireworks, people crowding the streets and peruvian christmas music in the background. Amazingly, we found my favorite food, an Indian restaurant with one balcony that over looked the huge street party. We sat and talked about what an incredible this trip has been and how spending christmas in an exotic place was so very "us." We also talked what amazing 5 years it has been together and how lucky we are to have found each other. A bottle of wine promptly arrived at the table and we enjoyed our wine while watching fireworks over the city. I said "this couldn´t be a more perfect moment." Paulie then said was now ready to hear the answer to the question he had been waiting to ask. I started shaking and my face as Paulie describes was "in shock." He got down on one knee and asked me if I would do him the honor in becoming his wife. I fell to the floor with him and said "YES!!!!" I, of course cried, and we cried together. He is so amzaing and I am the luckest girl ever. It was the most fantastic amazing night of my life!

Ok, now that the mushy stuff is out of the way, The next morning We took off on the LONG journey to Machupichu. Unfortunately, there were no spaces left to to the two or four day hikes to machupichu, so we took a train straight there. check out this racket!!! So we bought train tickets (sold in dollars) to get there. Once there we had to buy bus tickets to get up the mountain (also sold in dollars). Once up there we thought we were in the clear... nope! We had to pay for entrance to machupichu (guess what... also sold in dollars!!!). That´s ok, at least we can now go into the park in peace... nope!!! I had to check my backpack because it was "too big," and had to check my tripod because that would constitute me being a professional photographer and would entail me paying another $70!!! I didn´t know tripods were the defining peice of equipment for professional photographers. :) O´h well. After I was done being bent out of shape, I gathered myself and we entered the park. Machupichu is as beautiful as you would imagine it would be! The one thing you don´t expect is just how enormous it is. We stayed for a few hours and made the 5 hour journey back to Cusco.

Today, we are taking the city tour of cusco and then probably going out. How interesting the next posting will be depends completely on how entoxicated we get tonight. :)

Crazy scarry looking dolls being sold:

Random Shots of Cusco:

Xmas Eve Church and giant baby Jesus:

Train to Machupichu:

If I have to explain, read a book:

Day 10

Brandy and I are engaged...

Us in Copacabana, Bolivia... That´s the edge of the city with lake Titicaca in the background.

Bus trip from La Paz to Copacabana

Below is me with my Uncle Carlos and Fam. at their house for lunch. (the image with the fountain is their livingroom!)

Ok yall´, since our last encounter our heros finally defeated their arch nemisis... the stomach flu (I was going to describe it another way for John, but I should keep it pg-13 for the youngsters). We hung with some more family on Sunday and Monday afternoon and took off to Copacabana, Bolivia. It´s about a three hour trip to this city that sits on Lake Titicaca (highest navigable lake in the world with the world´s funniest name). Stayed overnight and expected to leave the next morning, but Bolivian business practice is not know for being client friendly and the banks were closed. We didn´t plan very well and didn´t have any cash on us and NO ONE takes credit card. We met a irish couple that had been stuck there since Saturday, awaiting a bank to open! We were able to convince a lady at a tour office to loan us 200 bolivianos with 10% interest to continue onto Puno, Peru or else we may have had to stay another night. Once there, we took out $ and payed the bus driver his share and enough to give to the tour lady and caught another bus to Cusco, Peru... home of Machu Pichu. By the way... I should mention that while on the bus to Cusco from Puno we got into it with an overberring indian (chola) lady. I don´t want to say much, but i´ll tell you this, I kicked her ass!!! But seriously, it´s funny how pushy this culture is! It breaks our heart to see such poverty and lack of education, but they don´t help the situation with their manerisms and sense of entitlement (not all of them of course... some are great people).

We arrived last night (Tuesday 12-23) and stayed in the first hostel we found. Would have taken pictures but didn´t want to contaminate the camera! Brandy took a cold shower (no hot water) for the second night in a row... i tried this morning, but electricuted myself. The shower head has wires running to it supposedly to heat the water a bit, but instead passed a current onto me. It goes without saying that we found another place to stay this morning. :)

We have spent the day so far checking the area we are in (2 blocks from the main plaza) and writting this blog. The latter takes a long time. :) Being Xmas eve, the town is jumping with people buying presents, wrapping paper, etc... one interesting thing we saw so far is a bunch of lines with cholas (indiginous people) and their kids awaiting free presents. These lines are each about a block and a half long! Got to go now... have to get into line soon or those damn kids will take all the good toys!

Copacabana, Bolivia.

Some entrance to a museum in Cusco, Peru

Day 6-7

So we are back on a better computer and are able to add images!!! We've updated our previous post to include a few pictures of the festivities in La Paz with Paul's family.

Coroico was simply breath taking. To start, the views from our hotel was incredible as you can see from this picture we posted. Not to mention that it was only about $20 per night and this was one of the best hotels in the town.

I finally started feeling better our second day in Coroico so we took a tour of some waterfalls, coffee plantations and coca leaf processing operations... I know what most of you are thinking... no drugs involved and no we won't bring you back a couple of kilos!!!

These are the coca leaves out to dry on the right. Underneath the leaves are large flat hot rocks to speed up drying time. I know that you are imaging these tours to be ones where you go inside this large building and you meet a tour guide who works at the plant and they show you around. No actually, the tour consists of this local man who drives you around in his car and he pulls up outside someones house like the one you see here ... he then proceeds to tell you how it works as you stand outside hoping that no one comes out and tells you to leave. Can you imagine that view out your window everyday?

Although the views are beautiful, the town itself is very poor and they rely on tourism to support their economy. As you can see from this next picture the homes are run down, but in my opinion, beautiful in their simplicity. I love how colorful they are.

Ok, this is Paul writing again... Arrived back in La Paz on Saturday afternoon. Met up with another cousin (damn i have alot of family here!!!) and his wife and two kids. We quickly became close with the kids, who were absolutely awesome! Note the latin santa... this would never fly in the U.S.!!! Don't we look like a happy family?

Finally, later that same night we met up with my other cousins again for another night of boozing. They took us to see a band called Octavia, which is kind of like the U2 of Bolivia. The played a small venue to celebrate their 20 years together. Its kind of fun hanging out with my cousins... they are like rock stars here! We never wait in lines and always get into the vip sections. This concert was sold out and we still had no problem getting in! Two bottles of rum later, we headed to a club called Forum, where we proceeded to consume a couple more bottles of rum. Brandy and i are kind of lame because we only made it till 3am. They weren't done till 5. Staying out and dancing till 5 or even 7am is a way of life to people here.

Today, Brandy and I are planning our exedous from La Paz. We will keep you posted.