FEB 18-19 Victoria - Lima (via Seattle & Houston)
Hola, Peru

It was my first time flying with Continental. Maybe because I'd suffered too much from Air Canada, I was quite impressed by Continental's service - at least the flight attendants were smiling and busy serving passengers almost the whole time. After about 18 hours in transit including two layovers, I finally arrived at the Lima Jorge Chavez International Airport before midnight. The officer at the passport control kept yawning. It took a quite a while for the passengers to get through the custom and immigration. Fortunately, I found my driver Raul at the arrival hall with no problem. On the way to the hotel, we drove through many shabby neighborhoods which contrasted greatly with the fairly modern airport. Not until we got to the downtown area, I barely saw anybody on the streets. The single room at the so-called 5 star Sheraton Lima was rather disappointing. The amenities were aging and the minibar was locked. Perhaps that's the reason why it cost only 50 dollars a night with breakfast included. On Sunday, I had a full day city tour with Lima Vision. In the morning, the bus drove us around this colonial-style city and we visited the Museum of the Central Bank of Reservation and Catacombs below San Francisco Church. After a very nice lunch at Doubletree, we were transferred to a small van to continue our afternoon tour to the Archaeological museum and the Larco Museum. At night, Sheraton Lima disappointed me once again - there were flies all over the dessert bar in the restaurant!

FEB 20 Lima - Cuzco
Sacsayhuaman, Not 'Sexy Woman'

The flight from Lima to Cuzco was packed with tourists. My agent Esther picked me up at the airport and transferred me to Hotel Ruinas. The hotel was nothing fancy but was very well-maintained. The altitude of Cuzco is about 3400m. Although AMS is unlikely to strike me at such altitude, I tried the coca tea offered by the hotel on arrival just in case. Turned out, the coca tea gave me 2 hours of great nap:D In the afternoon, I joined a tour of Cuzco city and nearby ruins. The churches in Cuzco were boring to me, but the 'Sexy Women' cheered me up. In the evening, I had dinner with my new friends Andrew & Robert from NJ and Laura from France. After I got back to my hotel, I was surprised to see a piece of chocolate sit on my pillow with a little "Sweet Dream" card - these days even most 5* hotels don't bother to do that!

FEB 21 Machu Picchu
I knew you were gonna come!

Initially, I was supposed to visit the Sacred Valley today. Because of a possible strike on Wednesday, Esther changed my schedule and sent me on the 6am train to Machu Picchu. The Vistadome class cabin was comfortable but nothing special, which made me wonder what the backpacker class would be like. It seemed most tourists were having the same itinerary. I ran into many familiar faces along the way. We got off the train at Aguas Calientes and switched to a bus continuing onto Machu Picchu. Although the weather had always been nice since I arrived in Peru, it started to rain when we arrived at Machu Picchu. The mountains were covered in mist and it wasn't very good for photos. I decided to ditch the tour guide and wander around the ruins myself. Machu Picchu was absolutely amazing. I haven't had similar excitement since Egypt. To make things even better, the sun finally came out around noon - time to kill my memory card! I was very happy to ran into Andrew and Rob near the top of the mountain because I thought they were gonna stick to their original plan and get stuck in Cuzco the next day due to the strike. We walked around the ruins together and then I went back to Aguas Calientes myself to have lunch. While waiting for the 5pm train back to Cuzco, I wandered around the market near the train station. There I ran into Andrew and Rob again. The rain came back. We sat near the river and chilled out. Andrew started to talk to a local woman and her daughter. Their family was suffering from the corrupted local officials. And Rob was busy handing out pens to the kids and taking photos .I was really impressed by their kindness. The train journey back to Cuzco was full of drama. The conductors were giving the passengers Cultural and Fashion shows along the way. Instead of going back straight to Cuzco, Esther picked me up at a nearby train station to save some time. In the evening, Andrew kindly helped to arrange a day tour to the Sacred Valley for me with their tour company. Before I went to bed, I phoned Laura and said goodbye to her. She's leaving for Galapagos! I am so jealous!

FEB 22 Cuzco
Coins or Corns?

In the morning, I went to Novotel to meet with Andrew and Rob. Unsurprisingly, the tour to Sacred Valley was cancelled because of the road block. We walked around the town together. Some protesters were on the streets, marching peacefully. The police scattered all over the place with tear bombs ready. I learnt from Andrew that the protests were because the Peruvian government charges a very high price on the locally-produced natural gas in Cuzco while selling it considerably cheaper to Chile. That seemed like a common problem for most developing countries. Rob, Andrew and I visited a food market, a church and a museum. Rob found out that, instead of handing out coins, it would be cheaper to use food to exchange for photos with the kids. So he bought a full bag of corns in the market:D We had pizza for lunch at a small restaurant. The pizza was surprising good. While we were chilling out at the main plaza, two little girls started to bug Andrew and Rob. These two girls were well-trained and tried all sorts of techniques to ask for more money, from selling stuff, persuading Andrew to buy overpriced food, reciting all the former US presidents, to even attempting to pickpocket. In the end, Andrew had to ask for help from the hotel security guards to get rid of them. Before dinner, Andrew and Rob went back to the hotel for a nap, and I went to an Internet Cafe to check my e-mails. It's a small world after all. I was very surprised to find out I'd actually been to Andrew's webpages on VT before! During dinner, I tried to be adventurous and order the guinea pig. But the way they cooked it made the meat tasted horrible and I had to switch back to pollo. After all, I am not Cantonese! :D

FEB 23 - 25 Puerto Maldonado
Wanna a bite?

After a 25 minutes flight from Cuzco, I arrived at the Puerto Maldonado airport around 1pm. I was picked up by my guide Jesus and transferred to the lodge Posada Amazonas. It was very hot and wet, but the breeze made the boat trip on the river quite enjoyable. Because it's the low season, beside a group of high school kids from the States, Johan & Alida from South Africa, Laura from Toronto and I were the only guests. Since Johan, Alida and Laura had a different itinerary and were going to the Tambopata research center the next day, I was the only client in Jesus's group. After we arrived at the lodge, we were given some time to settle. The lodge was very well designed and maintained. It's much better than the one I stayed in Nepal. Although there's no electricity in the room, we had all the essential amenities. In the late afternoon, we had our first excursion to the 37m high Canopy Tower to overlook the rainforest and watch the sunset. On the way, I had my first official ant bite. Ouch! The next morning, we had an early start to visit the Oxbow Lake on a catamaran. Although we were not lucky enough to see the giant otters, fishing for piranhas was interesting. Later, Jesus, Rebecca, a teacher from the school group and I went to the Clay Licks to watch the parrots. However, the parrots were too paranoid to fly down to the ground and all of them were finally scared away by the motor sound of the cruising boats on the river. After lunch, I had a relaxing afternoon on the hammock in my room. But I forgot to put on enough repellent. When I woke up from my sweet nap, I found there were kisses from little sun flies all over my arms. The next day, I managed to board on an earlier flight back to Lima and enjoyed my last night in Peru. There's nothing better than a great hot shower!

FEB 26 Nazca
Left, Right, Left, Right

My last day in Peru. I was transferred to the airport early in the morning to catch a small plane to Nazca. Peru is a very interesting country. Within one and half hour flight, you can experience diverse landscapes including rainforest, mountain, ocean and desert. Ica town is an oasis suited in the middle of the desert, about 25 minutes away from the world famous Nazca lines. Overlooking from the sky, we saw many blue swimming pools scattered in this oasis. The pilot told us, although the annual rainfall was less than 1cm in this area, there's lots of water under the ground. After a short rest at Aero Condor's private airport, we boarded on the airplane again to see the Nazca lines. Fortunately, Aero Condor arranged the Nazca flight before the lunch. Otherwise, there might be a lot of trouble.:) When I was in Puerto Maldonado, I was warned by a group of travelers from Edmonton about the "aerobatic flight" over the Nazca. They were right. Although it was not my first time taking such a small plane, the endless turning left, right, left, right, left, right over the lines made me almost sick. However, at least I managed to see all the figures and take a photo of each one of them. The BBQ lunch at the boutique hotel Las Dunes must be the best meal I'd had in Peru. In the afternoon, we had a short tour around the town. We visited a lake surrounded by dunes as well as the regional museum of Ica. The plane took us back to Lima Airport in the late afternoon. Since the counter of Continental wouldnt be open till 8pm, I had to spend 2 hours in an Internet cafe to kill time. The check-in process was a pain. You had to answer a bunch of stupid questions before you could proceed to the check-in counter. And there was even another security check right at the boarding gate! Oh well, that's the price you had to pay to transit via the States:(

FEB 27 Lima - Victoria
Time or money?

The 18 hour journey back home was absolutely exhausting. Fortunately, I was able to sleep almost the whole time while I was on the plane. The flight from IAH to SEA was overbooked, again. Continental offered $300 certificate plus first class upgrade for passengers who were willing to take a later flight. That seemed a very good deal. Interestingly, the flight from SEA to YYJ was overbooked, too. And this time, Alaska Air offered a free round-trip ticket to anywhere within their network, including Mexico! That's a smoking deal considering a SEA-YYJ flight is usually less than 100 bucks! I wish I had the energy to jump for such a deal~ 2 hours waiting = a $900 worth of free flight! God knows Air Canada would ever bother to offer even a free sandwich!