Once we left the cloud cover of Lima and the coastal area... our first view of the Andes was wonderful... sharp, jagged, snow capped mountains. The journey between Lima and Cuzco is 55 minutes by air.. but we learn that it is a two-day... two-night.... trip by bus, which is the way most of the people of Peru travel.

We quickly depart Cuzco on our way to the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River. Our driver knows a short cut, so we take off through lovely country roads and see the life of the country people as we pass. Some of the roads are being... uh.... repaired. There are huge heaps of dirt piled in the middle of the road and while navigating around one of these mountains of dirt... our bus gets stuck between the dirt pile and an adobe wall of a field. I mean wedged tight! It is so tight that our driver cannot open the bus door and has to crawl out through a window!

Soon the driver and our guide are trying to dismantle the adobe wall to free the bus. Those walls are stonger than anyone could imagine... no wonder they last forever. It took about half an hour to displace enough of the wall so they could wiggle the bus back onto the road. I thought for a while there that we would all have to climb out through a window and start pushing! Whew... Gypsy doesn't do bus-pushing very well.

Finally we are "On The Road Again" and going the long way around this time. This major bit of excitement has played havoc with our itinerary... so we leap off the page as some last-minute changes are made. After lunch and a quick check-in at the hotel.. we head for Pisac to see something.. I didn't know what.

We drove up in the mountains to a portion of an Inca trail.. which we will take to see the ruins of a village and sun temple at Pisac. There are marvelous terraces around the mountains. They are still being used for agriculture today.

Walking along the mountain trail was ok for a while, but pretty soon Gypsy began to notice that there was no oxygen in the air. I have been here for several minutes now and I have altitude problems already. This isn't encouraging. And what problems they are... gasp, gasp. Trailing along after our group on path across the mountain is a flute player. He is playing plaintive, haunting melodies that give the day a watery, dreamlike quality... very lovely. Or is it the lack of oxygen that makes every thing seem dreamlike? No matter... it is wonderful.

We enjoy seeing the sun temple and get our first real look at the Inca stone walls. They are amazing and lovely. Very austere and plain but the intricate way the stones are set makes them very beautiful.

The walls are without any sort of carving or decoration other than the set stones themselves... no inscription.. no art. The Inca's lasting art was the architecture itself.. with slanting walls, trapezoidal doorways, niches, and windows, with complex stone work. We were told that the inside of the temples had been covered in gold. Well... I don't know, perhaps that is where all the decorative stuff was.

Time to head back to the bus... as the sun is setting. It makes for a lovely scene.. and yes... the flute music is still flowing aound the mountain. But the hike back is really steep in places. Poor, groggy Gypsy is having a hard time of it. I find myself being grateful I do not to have to play that damn flute while I walk... in fact, I wonder how he can walk, and breathe, and blow all at the same time... he must be superhuman... gasp, gasp. Then I notice I am staggering and wandering around on the trail... even in my altered state I know it isn't a good idea to fall off a mountain... so I sit and rest and gulp air with nothing in it... until I can walk again. No flute playing for me!

At this point, Cuz seems untroubled by the thin air and has made it back to the parking area. There she waits... she is so worried about Barely Conscious Gypsy that she is off haggling with vendors over the price of ocarinas! If poor Gypsy had fainted and fallen off the mountain, she wouldn't even been able to wave good-bye to her Cuz!

Thoughtful Cuz has bought some beautiful ocarinas and presents one to staggering, wheezing Gypsy when she finally arrives at the top of the grade... "Oh, Look what I bought you.... Try it!" I would have screamed in anguish if I had a tiny bit of air in my lungs.. but all I could do was wave away the ocarina and continue to pant!

Finally we all returned to the bus and headed for dinner at the hotel. It was a rather washed out evening for some of us... yes.. I am one of the washed-out... and so to bed with the hope that tomorrow will be better. Although it was an interesting and enjoyable day... some oxygen would have made it a bit more fun.