Travels of a Dodo

it is freezing here. so cold. i am wearing the same clothes every day because it is too cold to take them off. i switched hostels because there was no hot water and it was up 100 m of slippery-ass stone steps.

and altitude sickness? yes. i took my acetazolymide or whatever it was as faithfully as i could, but the second thing i was supposed to do was “eat light on the first night.” well, personal pan pizza, you called and i answered. and then later that night, you wanted out. twice.

today a whirlwind tour of the ruins at pisac. and by whirlwind, i mean: twenty minutes here, twenty minutes there, mandatory 20 soles buffet, fifteen minutes another place. it was okay. lots of mangled english from the tour guide.

tomorrow a train to aguas calientes. then machu picchu!

after machu picchu starts my real solo journey. i mean for realz. i am taking a bus (that i mistakenly paid too much for when i realized that 40 soles / 3 does not equal less than 7– i blame the altitude for my mind being so spotty!) to puno, where lake titicaca is. i plan to do whatever’s clever there, kayak and doo-wah and then head to chile, the most direct and least painful way as possible. i plan to do the salt flats in bolivia and then come back to chile and then maybe take a flight to santiago.

this is the most expansive, least well planned trip ever. i am stressing both on the inside and outside about this, but i think things will work out okay.

pictures to be posted later when my internet situation is more stable. i miss everyone.