Well I haven’t done much in the past week since Veronica’s been back at work. On Saturday we went out for dinner in San Blas then we went to a bar that Veronica said served nice Mojitos. We were there for a while and Veronica noticed the 2 American guys seated next to us kept looking over at us, I thought maybe they were just looking at Veronica. So I just ignored them for about an hour then one of them taps me on the shoulder and says “You know you look like Leonardo DiCaprio from this angle?”……What the? Way to make conversation buddy, normally someone would bring up the weather or something. I wondered what his motivation was and felt kind of awkward after that. I looked at Veronica sideways and she just cracked up laughing hahahaha, I think she saw the slightly nervous expression on my face.
The next day I woke up feeling weak and a bit weird. I met Veronica at her MBA classes and we went out for Sunday lunch with her family to a really nice seafood restaurant. I ate far too much. I then went back to Veronica’s house and started to feel even more weak. By the time 9pm came around I felt a fever coming on, I was hot and cold and almost shivering. So I got a taxi home hoping I would wake up feeling better. Well I woke up without the fever but then I spent a lot of the next 2 days on the bowl. Veronica got me some pills from the pharmacy which seemed to help.
So yesterday I woke up feeling fine and my stomach and bowel movements seemed to be back to normal, thank goodness. It was Veronica’s uncle’s birthday and we were invited for lunch. There were a lot of people there so I had no chance of remembering everyone. The first thing served was a Pisco Sour each…nice.
I haven’t shaved since I’ve been here (see photo below) and it seems to be directly related to the number of offers for cocaine (or charlie, cocita etc) and marijuana I get each time I walk to Veronica’s house. There’s a skinny road I walk through that I almost always get asked and “Maybe later my friend?” is the response I get after saying “No gracias”. Veronica has since told me the road was called “The Airport” cos it’s where you go if you want to fly and or get high. She said now it’s not so dodgy as the police patrol it. So I might shave, cos apparently I’m starting to look like a drug addict….oh and because Veronica has asked me “When are you going to shave?” twice in the last few of days

On Tuesday we went on a tour out to the sacred valley, visiting Pisaq, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo & Chinchero.

First we stopped at the markets in Pisaq, they are huge and we only had half an hour to look around before the bus left for the ruins at Pisaq. I managed to pick up 2 hammocks for S/. 95 (about NZD40) they’re bigger than the ones I got last time. Then we were taken by our guide up to the Pisaq ruins, the weather wasn’t sunny, probably best it wasn’t though cos the walking up steps at altitude was exhausting. We spent about an hour and a half there with the guide (I think I was the only one that didn’t speak Spanish in the 30-odd group cos whenever he repeated everything in English he only looked at me).
Then we were off to Urubamba for lunch, it took about 30-45mins. It was a buffet lunch for S/. 15 each, cheap cheap but not that good. I just loaded my plate up with Ceviche and filled myself up on that (mmmmmmmmmmm I feel hungry now). 45mins later we were off to Ollantaytambo, a town I had visited last time but only to catch the train to Machupicchu, so I hadn’t seen the ruins. They were pretty amazing, it was a fortress that hadn’t been completed, so you could see the work in progress. The wind was really funneling through the valley here and with the sun going down it started to get quite cold.
So the next and final stop was Chinchero, dusk was upon us now so it was getting really cold. There was an old church we went inside that had big old paintings (1600’s) etc, we weren’t allowed to take photos though. I wasn’t really listening to the guide by this time so I don’t really remember what he said.
The next day we planned on going mountain bike riding (cos I don’t like horses, read: scared) but it was raining and flipping cold so we put it off till the weekend. We ended up visiting a couple of the Museums here which was quite interesting and then watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 on DVD (cost me S./ 4.50, just over NZ$2 hehe, I don’t think Video Ezy would do too good here).
Oh and the day before the tour (Monday) I had lunch with more of Veronica’s family at a restaurant just down the road from my apartment, they were all from her Mother’s side. It was good to meet them but I really need to learn Spanish

I moved into my apartment and have had spent 2 nights here, it’s very quiet which is good. I uploaded some photos of it: Mi Apartamento. Veronica and I also walked up to Sacsayhuamán, some Inca stone walls above Cusco. I will upload some photos soon (they’re up). Yesterday I had lunch with Veronica’s church group friends, it was funny, everyone likes to joke around here. I just wish I could understand them . Today we are having lunch with some of Veronica’s family I haven’t met yet and tomorrow we are going to take a trip out to the Sacred Valley for the day.

Arrived in Lima on the 29th, the weather was really hot and humid. We went straight to Veronica´s Uncle and Aunty´s house about a 40min taxi ride from the airport. Their house was really nice and big. They took me down to their offices where they do stone carvings, pretty amazing. They then took us out for lunch at a nice seafood restaurant where I also met Veronica´s cousin. After having 2 Pisco Sours I came back to their house and fell asleep on the couch haha. That night they took us out again, this time it was Chinese, pretty similar to what you would get at a nice Chinese restaurant in NZ. I met more of Veronica´s relatives, had more Pisco Sour and felt even more tired. The next morning we had breakfast with Veronica´s aunty then said goodbye and headed back to the airport for our flight to Cusco. After the 1hr flight Veronica´s Dad was waiting for us at the airport, I was freakin nervous but he´s really nice. When we arrived back at their house I met Veronica´s twin sister Gissel and brother Diego, they are also really nice.
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In the VIP lounge at the moment, hopefully going to finally get some sleep. Didn’t get much at all on the plane. So still got 14hrs till my flight leaves for Lima. Much better airport than Buenos Aires though, it’s so massive.