A retreat from the cold... leaving Cusco

Finally!!! I am out of bed and feeling much better.

Festival continues, water abounds... seems not much has changed in the last few days.  

I have made arrangements to leave Cusco and head to the coast.  I am ready to go, and the doctor thinks it is a good idea to get warm and dry.  Today I did a wee bit of shopping. found a nice shawl for mom, and now all I need to do is get it to her. Hopefully before her birthday.

So my plans for the next two days:

Tomorrow, more shopping and a search for Fedex.

Tuesday I fly to Lima and then right back out to Trujillo, a city on the northern coast.  I could have taken the bus, but that would have involved tackling the Lima Bus station(s) and then an 8 - 9 hour bus ride.  I decided that the $60 plane ticket was a much saner choice.

I am not sure where I am staying yet, but have the names of several good hostels.  Then I will arrange to see Chan Chan (another set of ruins) and spend a couple of days on the beach...  Who knows?  The world is my oyster and all that.

Right now I have reservations to head to Iquitos on Feb23 for a week.  I am determined to see snakes and big spiders.  If I happen to see toucans and monkeys as well, all the better. Hopefully whatever is left of this mega-cold will have gone away by this time, because I really don`t want to head to the Amazon sick.

Last night we got a bit of a surprise... an earthquake hit about 8pm.  Short and sharp.  No damage done, but it sure did get everyone talking.  I read today that they had a much worse one on the north coast yesterday, but don´t know yet about damages.  I am going to have to work on my drop and roll though... just stood there stupidly while my brain tried to compute that the ground was jumping.

That is about it for today.  I hear the trumpet sounding to lower the flags in the main square, so must run off and play tourist again.

Hi to mom, and I hope she eats lots more ice cream.