August 19, 2008
After a week in the high mountains of Peru, we took a luxurious bus ride back down to the lowlands (at 8,000 feet!) of Arequipa this morning. It was a Mercedes-Benz double-decker bus and we had front row seats upstairs thanks to Tomas. I´ve never ridden on a bus as plush as this. We literally had a living room window seat on the world with a badly dubbed flick on the tube (Nicholas Cage speaking Spanish in ¨Next¨). Made for surreal ride and I got some of it on video tape to post when I get home next week.

Looks like we won´t make it to Bolivia and the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid death site. It was too many airplane rides and bus transfers (one 14 hour ride on a bus, plus two plane rides) and we just ran out of time.

Ate Chifa food today. That´s how the Peruvians spell ¨China.¨They also spell the horse breed ¨Paso.¨In the States we call them Peruvian Paseos, but here they are called simply Pasos. Not sure why.

Tried to post blogs at various times up in the mountains with little luck. Went to Chivay on Saturday and the two kids at the internet cafe said meekly, ¨Our mother didn´t pay the internet bill.¨Yesterday, in Tomas´s village we went to the biblioteca (the library) and the librarian said, ¨The government stopped the internet subsidy this morning.¨When I did get online on Sunday it was a Spanish computer with strange commands (by the way, the at symbol, @, is only obtained by hitting the alt button and the numbers 6 and 4). So that is why the posts have been few and far between. Sorry about that.

I´ve had a high mountain common affliction that occurs while sleeping. As your body slows down during REM sleep, in high altitude (we were at 10,000 feet) your body feels like it isn´t getting enough oxygen and you do this gasping reaction thing. I felt better hearing that even the youngsters in the Peace Corp have all experienced it.

The soups down here in Peru are exceptional. I´ve never had better. Also, they have about 15 varieties of potatoes and they serve them with almost every meal.

One of the main reasons for this trip, besides seeing our son, was to get me as far away from deadlines and pressure as Kathy could. As part of Tommy´s Peace Corp assignment, he told me he wants the kids in his village to do a mural on a wall of his village. I got real excited and posed several locals for art reference and went to the local library for research. T. Charles and I even met with the mayor about funding and locations and I showed them my sketches. When I told T. that we needed a Monday deadline for final art, Kathy laughed and said, ¨You just can´t shut if off, can you?

Nope. But it´s going to be a bitchin´mural though. Hope you can come down and see it. The making of the mural book, goes to the printer next Tuesday.

Just kidding.

It´s Thursday.