cuzco 3rd day

it´s official. i´m sick! it sucks. i´ve been feverish and with chills all day. we had signed up for the sacred valley tour today so we had to be outside the main cathedral by 8:40 am for bus pickup. of course it was late and i was getting worried we missed it.

anyways, both of us didn´t sleep so well again. i really can´t tell how much i sleep at all. to be honest, i´m not really having the greatest time. the lack of sleep is getting to me.

anyways, we started out at pisaq where we went to the main market as well as a smaller independent market run by koreans. we bought some scarves at the first one, and we ended up spending all our time at the main market looking for a sun hat big enough for nick´s head.

after that we got dropped off at allpa manka, where we had another gringofied overpriced buffet. it was alright but it´s not what i wanted really and i was feeling really sick.

after lunch we went to ollantaytambo, an incan town with ruins. the tour guide was from here so he had a lot to say. in the end, the tour moved so slowly we barely got to see the ruins. then it started raining! we´ve been dreading this. i don´t want to hike in the rain to machu picchu. anyways, after that we stopped at this bar and had chicha. i know i said i wouldn´t, but the tour guide didn´t mention anything about spit. he says there´s a similar drink in the amazon where they use spit to ferment the potatoes. hopefully he´s right. we also played this game called toad or sapo, like horseshoes kinda.

after that we went to chinchero and sat and watched ladies spin alpaca thread and dye the stuff. of course after that we had to tip or buy something so i got a scarf. by then it was dark. we then saw chinchero ruins in the dark and the cathedral. by this point, i was really over it. it was totally dark and freezing.

also worthy of note is that there was this huge dork on the tour. an american guy in an ozomatli shirt tucked in to slacks that were tucked into his hiking boots. sorry for being superficial, but come on! nick was threatening to go over there and rip the shirt off his back, saying "bitch, you ain´t allowed to wear this shit!" he asked so many damn questions so loudly. nick wanted to punch him in the throat. i hope to god he isn´t part of our trekking tour group tomorrow, but it seems like he will be. i just have to ask, haven´t i suffered enough? i haven´t slept in days and i´m sick. what did i ever do to deserve this?!

anyways, the tour got back super late like after 7 pm. we got more cash for the trek and went back to the hotel. when we were heading back out for dinner, the hotel staff finally asked me to pay. i´d been offering to since we arrived. but of course now there´s a ton of stupidity. the owner had quoted me the price in dollars over email. but of course he´s nowhere to be found and the ladies up front insisted on soles, which would be fine, but they wanted to charge me more since the exchange rate had changed. now if they had simply asked me to pay more to account for it, i would´ve. peru treks had a similar situation where they asked people to voluntarily pay more, and we gladly did it. but the damn hotel confirmed as recently as last week i owed them exactly $180 in dollars. ugh! i ain´t paying till i talk to the owner. i like how the absentee landlord can tell you one thing but the hotel staff has totally different ideas. i´m not going to be leaving a very positive review of this place on tripadvisor. the damn hotel in lima stuck with the dollar price they quoted me.

by the way, we finally got to have a pretty basic peruvian meal for dinner, at los aromas de nucchu, for less than $3 each. there were locals there, plus it was recommended to us by our hotel front desk, so we figured it would be ok. we had this cold potato salad thing, creamy spinach soup (good), and some pollo a la plancha. they also gave us some pineapple juice that we opted out of once we saw it had been sitting in this container all day.

anyways, it´s past 9 pm and we need to get back and shower and pack. we´re getting up at 4:45 am tomorrow...

signing off till at least thursday night. here´s hoping i wake up tomorrow well again.