Sunday, September 26, 2026 - Day Twelve-Final Full Day
Hiya Sweetie,
Still no word on Lola, I'm heartbroken, but still hopeful. But there's nothing I can do but try to enjoy what's rest of my vacation and deal with it when I get back. Obviously, Linda's still looking, hopefully something will shake loose. Meanwhile, after breakfast today, we headed out for a day of being tourists, first to a magnificent hummingbird sanctuary, then to one of the many amazing archaeological sites here in Peru. This was in Ollantaytambo, a massive complex built on a mountain, as always, and had stairs that just seems to go on forever. I managed to make it all the way to the top, to 9800 ft., which was over a 600 ft. climb from the base. Magnificent views from up there, naturally. Then we went to lunch on the square, which was nice until a polical parade came through in a very noise fashion. They have an election coming up, and we've seen signs everywhere, and these parades are par for the course, though it seems most of the participants are simply paid to march with a flag. After this late lunch, we took a walk to up some narrow alleys until we came to a little guinea pig place. They apparently raise them here for consumption, as it seems guinea pig used to be a stable, but now is a delicacy. I haven't tried it, now do I really want to, but Jane said she had it somewhere, and it wasn't too bad. By the time we were finished with that, it was too late to see another archaelogical site that was on the schedule, so we came back to the hotel for a couple of hours before going to Marchella's for dinner. A wonderful eggplant parmesan, and again, enough food for a small army. Jane recited a couple of poems, and I did Snowy River, as I had promised Claudio I would do something. Back to the hotel, where I packed most of my stuff, showered, and off the bed. Long day of travel tomorrow! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Sorry to say the day didn't start out to well, at least for me. I got a call from Linda, who told me Lola went on walkabout last night and never came back, so naturally I spent the day worrying about her. The ride itself was memorable, inasmuch as I thought yesterday was about descending, but in truth, today was the amazing descent. We switch-backed down a mountain from about 12,000 ft. to our final destination at about 9600 ft., in just over 13 miles. Quite the descent! We had lunch at the bottom of the steepest descent, and it was extremely windy. I'm glad I've been wearing my neck gaiter, it really came in handy to keep the dust out of my mouth and nose. We've been so grateful that we haven't had any rain, and the few days that we came close, it missed us, but the wind was really nasty today, but I can live with that. We reached out destination, said good-bye to our good horses and were driven back to the hotel for an evening on our own. Alicia was determined to go back to one of the restaurants we went to, so Francesca went with her to keep her company, but the rest of us opted to stay at the hotel, though I ate on my own because I just felt that I wouldn't be very good company, worrying about Lola. Still no word, even after searching all day. Someone has her, I'm sure of it, I just have to figure out who! I hate that I'm not there to look for her, but there's nothing I can do at this point but send out good thoughts, keep posting on Lost and Found sites, and hope someone will do the right thing and turn her in. Came back to the room after a Caesar salad, will read and call it a night very soon. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

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!

Hi Darlin'!
Well, today was a long but very productive day, considering how far I've travelled! It got a late start, because Lola barked for a couple of hours until she finally managed to escape and was scratching at the door around midnight. I just let her in, and she was restless for awhile, but finally went to sleep. In the morning, I put her in the truck, figured it was easier than fighting with her, and I didn't have the time. It was still dark when I was moving out, which is tricky because the gate out the driveway is close to a power pole, so I had to adjust a couple of times to get it. Linda arrived and helped guide me out. Had an uneventful drive down to Cummins, chatted with Johnny about the issues, he's going to pass them on to Dan, allegedly. Once we dropped the trailer off, it was just a short hop to the airport, which is a really small airport that was empty at that time of the morning, so getting through security was a breeze, everyone was standing around looking for something to do. My flight got off on time, had uneventful flights from there to Charlotte, Charlotte to Miami, and finally, Miami to Lima. It wasn't terribly expensive, so I upgraded to First Class, so it was comfortable, and I got a big meal on the last leg, which was good because I hadn't eaten anything but nuts since cereal at breakfast. Arrived in Lima about 15 minutes early, and immigration was thorough and efficient, taking photos and even fingerprints for foreign passengers. The longest wait of the day was for my one piece of checked luggage (which I somehow managed to keep under 30 lbs. would you believe!), then using the airport wifi, I set up an Uber ride. Apparently this is the busiest time of the night because so many international planes arrive late in the evening, so it was a madhouse! But somehow my driver spotted me and called out, and we got me loaded and on the road quite quickly. Not surprisingly, they drive crazy here, but I'd seen that before in Argentina many decades ago, so I was prepared for that. We were pulling up to my hotel in Miraflores just around midnight, and other than my hotel doing the opposite of what I asked (I always want a high floor in a quiet section away from the elevator), I ended up on the fifth floor right next to the elevator, but it was all they had so I wasn't going to quibble. Took a shower, set my alarm, put in my earplugs, and that was that! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
A bit more sleep last night, then spent the day doing a lot of final packing and prep work for my departure tomorrow. I borrowed Linda's old Jeep for a run into town, with a quick stop at Lowe's to pick up a couple of circuit breakers in the hope that I can solve the ongoing power shutoff problem I've having, then onto Walmart for a prescription for altitude sickness medication and a few other last minute things, then onto the post office, which had three out of four of my Amazon packages, but they missed delivery this morning, but they let me pick them up. Got a new phone wallet, some waterproofing spray for my shoes, and a raised dog cot to get Lola's bed off the ground in the stall that she'll be staying in. I'm sure it will still get dirty, since she loves to scruff it up and it will undoubtedly end up on the floor numerous times, but at least it will be softer than the ground. Moved most of my perishables into Linda's motor home refrigerator and freezer, and got as much packed as I can. I'm loving the new carryon bag I bought, the only thing left to fit into it is my laptop, and I've already cleared the way for that, so it should be easy to finish in the morning. I tried to replace the circuit breaker, but neither one fit! I never realized there were so many different widths and types. That solution will just have to wait until I get back! I feel pretty ready, though I'm not thrilled at how early I have to get up tomorrow. I have to leave here by 6:30 to drop off the trailer at Cummins when they open at 7:30, and my flight starts boarding at 9:38, and Chattanooga is a small airport, so I should be fine. Linda is coming with me to drive my truck back, sorry I have to get her out of bed so early! I put Lola in the stall so she can spend the night there and get used to it, she's not liking it too much, especially since it's so dang hot out, and the forecast is just as bad all week! Hopefully she'll adjust okay, like she did at Joyce's, though there won't be as much human company for her here. Anyway, heading to bed nice and early so I can get up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the dark morning! Good night, sweetie! Love you!