Day 4 SA Amazon to Cusco

Well it is March 27th today, still on the Tambopata river in the Amazon basin. Up at 7 for an 8:30 departure back to Peurto Maldonaldo to catch our flight to Cusco. About a 3 hour boat ride on the swollen muddy river. The bottom steps of the boarding platform at the lodge was now underwater. We did get some bad news today as we found out everyone else had hot water for the last 2 days and the Patrick's and us had suffered through cold showers thinking that was "normal" for the lodge! Our wet stuff was starting to stink and we will have to do laundry when we get to Cusco thank goodness that is available.

Today it is sunny and beautiful making for an excellent boat ride. The boat ride was an hour shorter due to the currents. With the sun, the mossies will be moving in to greet the people arriving to the lodge.

We boarded our Taca flights to Cusco. They check luggage by hand here, but fortunately it was pretty quick with no problems. The views from the windows were good due to the clear day. The flight is short being only about 40 minutes so soon enough we were in Cusco. Julie developed a headache quite quickly from the altitude change, as we are now at 3600 meters above sea level. A couple of ibuprofen took the edge off so that we explore around the town and the markets, Cusco is a very old historical town and was the capital of the Inca Empire until their defeat in 1532 by the Spaniards. Still steeped in many old ways with narrow cobbled streets, lots of dogs wandering around as well as alpacas and llamas. Women in traditional dress wanting to pose for photos. Stuff here is not expensive. Bartering is normal and tons of stalls selling trinkets. We visited the local market with many different fruit and vegetables that we did not recognize.

We went out for a group dinner and Dawson started developing a headache as well. We were all sucking air with our bodies looking for oxygen. Julie felt lots of pressure on her chest. We headed to bed early with hopes of building lots of red blood cells overnight to help combat the thin air. We were only at this altitude for the one night, but still quite high for the next couple so all hemoglobins welcome.

Cheers Julie and Dawson