Archives for September 2026

Hiya Darlin'!
Was exceptionally glad I spent the night in my room, managed to get a lot done, and the rest did me a world of good. Woke up early again, finished off some more work on my computer, went down to breakfast, and was picked up by Francesca at 9:30. We drove to where the horses were waiting for us, and headed out on the trail. We once again began by skirting the lake, retracing our steps from the second day of riding, as we begin to head home over the next two days. We spent most of the day descending, got a little gaiting in, saw lots of livestock along the way, passed through a couple of small towns, got a little song, dance and horn-blowing from one of the locals in the street, and generally had another excellent ride. Our lunch stop was by an old abandoned church, which we explored for a bit. I can't believe our last day of riding will be tomorrow! It's been a fabulous time, great food and companionship with everyone, and of course, wonderful horses (though still not as smooth as my Flash!). So many memories have been made! We had dinner down at the little restaurant in the hotel, where I only ate a little, but it was still too much after a big lunch, but I'm ready for my shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Babe!
Wow, what an incredible day! Up bright and early at 5:30, up to the 7th floor for a light breakfast, then down to the lobby all packed and ready to go to meet our guide at 6:30. Didn't sleep all that great, short hours, but was so excited it didn't matter, we were all raring to go! Our guide Elizabeth arrived, and walked us down to the bus stop, which already had a long line waiting, but one it got started it moved along pretty quickly, with bus after bus filling up, turning around and leaving. Like most roads here, it was barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass, with plenty of places where that wasn't even possible, so there were numerous times one of the busses had to back up to make room for the other to make the corner. We arrived safely, (it's obviously not their first rodeo!), then stood in another line waiting to get in. Everything is highly efficient, using electronics to check everyone in and out. We finally made it through the line, and headed down the walkway that was the entrance, until it opened up into the ruins. It was breathtaking! Elizabeth spent nearly a full three hours taking us around Circuit 3, which in my humble opinion, was excellent for my type of tour. We were able to get down to the main grounds, and the royal house, and was a much more close encounter than the other two. Apparently Circuit one is only about 90 minutes, and it takes you to the highest spot, so you get the widest photo shot, but you never really get down into the heart of the ruins. Circuit 2 was supposed to be good, too, but still didn't get as deep into the heart of the buildings as we did. Loved it! After three hours, and a lot of education, we headed back out to the busses, once again went down the switchback road into town, where we split up. Jane and I decided first to have a frothy iced latte, wandered through the markets for awhile, then found a restaurant on the way back to the train station where we decided to have a good meal to tide us over, since I prefer to eat much earlier than we've been eating, and not sleeping too well because I've eaten too much, too late. This worked out fine! We had a great meal, enjoyed some musical entertainment, then walked to the train station, met up with the other ladies (who splurged on a foot massage!), boarded the train and had a lovely trip in the observation car, with the tracks following the river all the way back. Our cabin attendants presented a little fashion show of alpaca wear, and we were given snacks as well. We saw a long string of wildfires on the mountain just before we were arriving, but there's not that much growth to burn and the wind was blowing strong uphill, acting almost as a back burn. Claudio met us at the station, we walked to his truck, and drove the 45 minutes back to the hotel, where we all pretty much crashed for the evening. At least I certainly did! A nice long hot shower and into bed for me! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
Had a great night sleep, was up early, had a nice complimentary breakfast, then headed out to find a baby alpaca poncho. I decided to go by the main square first, where the tourists go, just to see the difference in quality and compare prices, but I had already been warned about the many scams about the material that was there, so I was careful. I ended up at a place called the Vicuna Factory, which was recommended by the hotel, and everything there was beautiful. They spent time educating me on the different types and how to tell the difference, served me a lovely cup of mint tea, and I ended up buying my poncho there, which was my original plan, but you know me! I'll walk into every store in a mall just to check it out before buying something I intend to keep a long time! The walk around the square was nice, though, I saw some little girls doing some kind of cheer dance routine, a lot of difference stores, and, would you believe, a McDonalds! Seriously! No, I didn't eat there, I went back to the hotel, lazed around for the afternoon, then splurged on a gorgeous dinner in the hotel, which serves excellent food, but again, I had to wear my new poncho because it was quite cool. The lit a fire in the fireplace just as I was finishing my dessert, kind of wish they'd started that sooner. Anyway, got back to the room, did most of my packing, showered, and now I'm just going to settle down for the rest of the evening. Love you sweetie! Good night!

Hey Sweetie!
Had another good night sleep, didn't have to get up quite so early, was packed and ready for my Uber pickup at 6:30. An expert drive to the airport, this driver managed to turn what is usually a 60-90 minute trip into barely 35 minutes, getting me there well in advance of my flight, which was fine, it gave me time to luxuriate over breakfast, which I kept light per advice on how to combat the altitude sickness I'm likcly to experience when I land later at 11,300 ft. It was a lovely large piece of sourdough bread spread with avocado and a few cherry tomatoes and cheese chunks. Had a great flight, chatted with a guy named Hal for a bit, he was sitting on the aisle and we didn't have anyone between us, and we arrived in Cusco just fine, though it was quite cold and rainy, mid-40's, but it will be up to 70 tomorrow. I was disappointed they didn't have free wi-fi at the airport, so I wasn't able to call for an Uber like I had planned, so I ended up at a taxi stand. The guy said it would be $25, I said too much and talked him down to $20, but later, when I did get online, I learned Uber is about $5, so they ripped me off. Oh, well, live and learn! The hotel is older but evidently newly remodeled, it has all the mod cons. I had to wait in the lobby until the official check-in time at 1:00, and the lobby wasn't heated and the doors were open, so I had to stay bundled up in my jacket. My room is small but very clean and modern, though the showerhead didn't have much more than a dribble, but it was enough. Spent most of the relaxing, and so far I haven't had any altitude sickness problems (yeah Diamox!), until around 5:00 I went to their restaurant (also not heated, I had to go back to my room for my wool cap), and had a nice dinner and a couple of their local drink, the Pisco Sour. Alcohol is not recommended at high altitude, but I've been doing well, and I'll make up for it by drinking more water. Settled down in my warm room for the evening, looking forward to a little shopping excursion tomorrow, and hopefully meeting up with the other members of my riding group, who are all supposed to be gathering. I haven't heard anything about a ride meeting, just a pickup on Sunday at 9:00, so we'll see what happens. It was nice to have a quiet day, it's been such a hectic pace since I arrived! Anyway, that's it for now! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe!
Wow, another amazing day in Peru! Got up in the dark, but was ready in plenty of time to be met by my guide, Geiner, and a driver, and I was swept away in a very nice car to play chicken in the traffic of Lima. It wasn't too bad this early in the morning, and we were soon on the PanAmerican Highway zooming southward. Three hours later we arrived at the harbor where I grabbed an empanada and were soon being loaded onto the sightseeing boat, heading out past an armada of boats and naval ships, though we saw three seals right on a platform next to the dock! The whole trip took about two hours, and we saw thousands of different types of seabirds and a lot more seals. Apparently the big industry is bird guano, which is still going on. My guide was surprised to learn that we harvest bat guano in this country (at least we did in the caverns out west, don't know if they still do). It was very educational, and I enjoyed the boat ride, though the amount of wildlife was a tiny bit underwhelming. What can I say, Africa spoiled me! We actually caught an earlier boat ride than was planned, so we had a little time on our hands, so we walked through the market until I found a place with more finger food, just to tide me over for the rest of the afternoon. When it was time, we headed to the Cusco International Airport, which, considering the size of the small town and the emptiness of the buildings, was WAY overkill for their needs. I'm guessing another "jobs program" type development. There was barely enough air traffic to consider it a civil airport, much less an international one! Oh, well! After paying the appropriate airport taxes, I was loaded onto about a 12 seater, single engine plane with half a dozen other people. I lucked out, Geiner got me the first seat in the front directly behind the pilot, so I had lots of window space, and wasn't near the back of the place, for which I was grateful, particularly when the "moves" started. It was a pretty quiet flight for about 30 minutes, then the fun began! The way it worked was, we would arrive at the first giant hieroglyph of the famous Nazca lines, and the pilot would put the plane at an almost 90 degree so that one side of the plane could look practically straight down at the carvings. Then he would circle around and do the same for the other side of the plane. I'm talking serious aerobatics! A lot of skill involved, for sure! Once we finished with the first one, we then moved on to the next and the next, 16 hieroglyphs in all. I was glad I took my Bonine this morning! I made it through, but not before breaking into a sweat, then later having a quick chill. All the while, the co-pilot was counting down to each glyph so that we all knew exactly when it would appear. It was quite the experience! I'm happy to report the Bonine did it's job, I didn't get motion sickness, though I will admit I was a bit queasy, and happy when the last glyph was done and we were able to straighten out for the return to the airport. Well worth doing, though! Another bucket list item checked! Geiner way waiting for me back and the airport and we quickly loaded into the car and headed back northward. I was pretty tired by then, and ended up falling asleep in the car for a couple of hours on the way back. Arrived back at the hotel, ordered a salad and their famous local drink, a Pisco sour through room service, which was delivered promptly, did some packing, took my shower, and now I'm headed to bed! Not such an early morning tomorrow, but still going to be a long day as I adjust to the 11,300 foot altitude of Cusco. I felt you with me today, my darlin'! I trust you're enjoying my adventures as much as I am! Love you! Buenas noches!

Hey Sweetie!
Well, I'm off to a busy start! Slept pretty well considering, woke up about 7:20 and got up right away, re-packed my new carryon bag for just the stuff I needed to take with me today, and was out walking over to the bus stop well before 9:00. I had already purchased my ticket online last night, but I wanted to make sure I could find the stop. Turned out to be no problem. This is an interesting section of Lima. The neighborhood is known as Miraflores, and it's the upscale part of the city, and directly across from the hotel is a mall, partly open air, partly underground, and right next to the Pacific Ocean, though it's above it on a cliff! Amazing geography here. Anyway, I "hopped on" the Hop On Hop Off bus, settling down on the top deck, which I was surprised to find had a roof, though it was open air (and we had to keep watch that tree branches didn't scrape as we went by!) and it made it's way all the way back north to the Historical Center, which took nearly two hours with traffic. I barely had time to take a quick turn around the main St. Martin Square before time pressed me to walk three blocks to the San Francisco Cathedral to join in a tour around the catacombs. Then I passed through the main Government Square where a band was playing and there was the changing of the guard going on. I stopped for a few minutes, but moved on to find the next bus stop and picked up the bus heading back southbound. I passed my original stop and then got off at Kennedy Park (I didn't quite follow why the park was named after JFK, but apparently it was), where I walked to a restaurant called Kauza, known for it's true Peruvian food, exactly what I was looking for, and exactly what I had. It was seafood, shrimp and octopus, spiced up and put on top of a mound of mashed potatoes. Delicious! There was also a little appetizer of roasted corn kernels, and they were delicious as well! Left there, paused at an alpaca outlet store but didn't find the kind of hooded poncho I'm looking for, then, since I had missed my bus by luxuriating over my dinner, walked up to the archaeological site known as Pucllana. This is a massive temple that was build between 400 and 650 AD. I went on a very informative group tour (in English, fortunately), and learned a lot. Also had done some climbing and lots of walking today (15807 steps according to my watch!), so I should sleep even better tonight. The hotel, the AC Hotel by Marriott, is very modern and comfortable, and I'm glad I chose it over the one downtown, which, though it may have been famous in a previous lifetime, had a lot of poor ratings, and I'd rather be sure than sorry! I was going to catch the last Red Route Hop On Bus, but it was going to take an hour to get back to the hotel, and I wanted to see the sunset from the mall, so I called an Uber instead, and he was there to pick me up within minutes. Much more comfortable way to travel, I must say! So glad Uber is so prevalent here, a very easy way to get around, as long as you don't have a heart attack by the way all traffic just pulls into intersections and expects everyone else to stop in self-preservation! Got back to the hotel in plenty of time for the sunset, exchanged some currency at the mall so I would have some local money, then promptly found an ice cream shop and got a cone to finish off my night. Got back to the hotel, took my shower, and now I'm just getting caught up on my diary and preparing for tomorrow. Fortunately, my pickup time was moved from 4:10 to 5:00 am tomorrow, so I should have no trouble getting enough sleep tonight. So that's what I'm off to do now! Good night, darlin'! Love you!