Gastrointestinal Tract: who needs it, really?

This has been a trip of extremes so far. The extreme poverty of almost every city contrasted with the extreme beauty and austerity of the Andes and the self-sustaining terraced farms that cover each mountain like cartography. The extreme excitement of waking up every day compared with the extreme exhaustion we experience almost every night (perhaps we should slow down...). The extreme deliciousness of each bite of every dish we try compared with the extreme discomfort we feel almost without fail. Neither Ally nor I are particularly prone to intestinal discomfort, but perhaps as a polite farewell gesture the bug we had in Lima has decided to bite once more, albeit in a very attenuated form. We're taking it easy tonight and tomorrow, holed up in an expensive ($15/person) hotel with a TV in the room for the sake of our sanity (more on that in a bit) and our health.

The Cusco experience has been bizarre, to say the least. This is truly a tourist city, replete with hawkers on every corner and little girls dressed in indigenous garb holding llamas by a leash and asking for 1 sole (about 33 cents) to take a photo with them. We know that this is the way in which the overwhelmingly friendly and competent people here make a living, but it gets very stressful and frustrating at times.

We spent our first full night here with our first South American Couchsurfing host--or should I say, we spent it with the 12 other people he had graciously invited into his small home, we actually only ever saw him for perhaps 10 minutes. The group we met at Wilman's was diverse, interesting, and fun. The accomodations were spare and dirty. No hot water. No bed. No heat. Oh, and at night the temperature gets down to about 40 degrees. Not very much fun. So tonight, after a long day at the Pisac artisan's market (we both bought alpaca wool sweaters, so warm and fuzzy!), we're content to nurse our stomache aches in the comfort of a king-size bed and dubbed American television.

Love you all,

Sam