Saturday evening – coca tea

August 23, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

Its about 8pmm and diane and i are sitting in the wonderful Apu Lodge iin Ollantytantambo Peru. Im sipping coca tea… And am really likeing it. The locals recommend it for altitude sickness.. So.. Why not ?! Its a sacred plant in these parts.

Diane and i began the day in Lima.. I had a high fever last night.. But somehow woke up feeling pretty close to 100 percent better.. We spent the morning repacking, ate a nice breakfast (who says you cant put hot fudge sauce on oatmeal ?) then took a short walk along the ocean.

The flight to Cuzco was pretty quick,. they sell oxygen in spray cans at the airport ..because it takes work to find enough airmolucules to squeeze together into a breath here at 11,500 feet

Our new freind Lenin was there to meet us at the airport. My buddy Carlos had hired Lenin to drive he and his wife around when they came to Lima.. And really liked him.. I see why. He'S a really nice guy, fun to talk to.. Andspeaks spanish slowly enough for me to understand (at least when hes talkign to me) he is goign to help us get around during our stay in the sacred valley.

I have to say thanks again to carlos for helping us find Lenin.. And for helping with lots of other details of or trip. What a great friend

The drive from Cuzco airport to Ollantytambo (or Ollanta) was about an hour and forty minutes. Great scenerey.. Like these two little girls who sold me a coke

There were a few cool historical sights along the way as well

We got to ollanta around 3:30 and it was already getting close to sunset. We walked up the beutiful narrow cobbled street to Apus Lodge.. Its an amazing setting…

Apus is quiet and welcoming.. Its right up against the hills. Here are a few views from our room beelive it or not

We headed out for an explore and an early dinner around 4:30. Everyone says to take it very easy the first day or too to reduce the risk of alltitude sickness or Saroche.. So we wanted to get to bed ealry..

The town is so wonderful.. Here a few scenes from our walk down town

Great meal in town at heart cafe… Then a walk back to Apus

Ok.. Ready for bed .. It must be at least 8:30 🙂

More tomorrow

Nite all, nite sam

-me

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Friday evening – Chile to peru

August 22, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

I’m back in Peru after a good morning in Santiago.. Man, what a BEAUTIFUL city. It loos like northern europe to me.. I gave a talk at AIEP University whihc was really fun. The audience was great.. and managed to follow my slang laden English I wish I could follow their sanish. THe Chilean accent just escapes me for soem reason.. Now I’m back in Peru I’m able to catch more.. Lets see how htis week goes.

Diane is going to show up here ina a couple of hours and i can’t wait to see her. I have missed her very much…. and look forward to spending soem adventure time together..

While I wait, I’m trying to burn through a pretty high fever.. not sure what I caught.. bt I’ve ben sick for about 3 days now.. hope I’m better soon !

Here are a few pics from my morning and the flight back to Lima

Here’s the university

and

here are the folks I got to interact with !

and here are soem shots of the andes from the plane.. and landing in Lima

ok.. bandwidth here is pretty low.. I think I’ll sign off here and get ready for dianes appearence 🙂

nite all, nite sam !

-me

Thursday night – inside Santiago.

August 22, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

Nice day in Santiago.. though i spent nearly all of it indoors. It is a beautiful city with beautiful people with a beautiful (but for me) impenetrable Spanish accent.

here’s the view from the hotel.

.. I didn’t get outside until a run at 6:30

I managed to help this guy push his stalled truck out of an intersection.. I was taking this picture then realized he needed help. Two Australian girls came and helped us as well

Later in the eveing, Our wonderful host Ivan took us through the subways to the center of town..

here’s the river that bisects santiago

we went to a nice area of shops and restaurant. We picked a Columbian place in honor of Ivan who’s from Columbia

Empanadas

and tostones !

Who’s this guy on their money ? He looks very smart !

OK.. gotta sleep. I’m goign to jump in the tub.. and see if the water swirls the other way 🙂

tomorrow back to Peru !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Wednesday night – Tortillas in the mist

August 21, 2014 johncohn Leave a comment

greetings from Santiago chile, just flew in here from Lima.. what a beutiful city !

I woke this morning after 10 hours of sleep to find that I was really sick: fever and.. uh..digestive problems..That didn’t prevent me from having a good day. I hung out with Carlos who helped us on our vacation plans.. then he and I had lunch with Walter from the Peruvian Council on Technology and Innovation. we’re going to finds a way to do soem work together on Open Data.. I’em very excited by that.

Apologies to Diane Fosey for the blog title. but that’s how it felt today. It was cool and grey and misty as it’s been all week.. I ate quesadillas by the beach telling everyone how the 60 degree weather was just fine.. until i realized that my teeth were chattering.