Round One: We arrived in Cusco after three days in the desert. From the desert to the fertile valley, it’s easy to see why they call this place “sacred“. The sprawling, tourist-ready town was just what we needed. Jeff and Connie in tow, we arrived at our apartment and attacked all the town had to offer.
We dropped the overland façade and joined the legions of tourists haggling for fake Ray Bans in the plaza. We were handing over a sole for an opportunistic photo with a campesino and her strategically placed baby lamb. We took tour buses everywhere and even walked into a restaurant without looking at the prices first.
Noontime would bring us to the plaza for ice cold Cusquenas in the sunshine. Sunset brought us sundowners and heated games of Apples to Apples.
It was glorious.
Tight squeeze getting the beast into her parking space near the apartment
The giant stones of Sacsayhuamán were carved to fit together exactly without mortar
Connie's Fortune: Seeing art is not understanding, understanding is to see it for what it is
Who can resist an adorable baby lamb?
Enormous rocks at the Sacsayhuamán ruins
A fabulous dinner at Ciccioliona
Round Two: Catching a glimpse of a large, out of place, 4×4 monstrosity, with foreign plates on the horizon results in an immediate acknowledgement. You can’t help but wave like a lunatic and grin from ear to ear as you pass each other on the highway.
Cusco, or more specifically Camping Quinta Lala is where we all meet up.
Overland Heaven
Our first day at Quinta Lala and familiar faces abound
We spent a week catching up with old friends and making new ones. Each day started with good intentions of errands to be run and laundry to be cleaned. Each following day was our supposed departure. Instead the mornings were filled with coffee talk, the exchange of camping spots, mechanics with reputations to be sworn by, and GPS maps.
Just grillin up some alpaca and llama this lovely Saturday afternoon
Evening bonfire paired with genuine German Schnapps
Round Three: After a trip through the Sacred Valley and the Amazon Jungle we show up with the intentions to stay for only a hot shower and the night. New old friends and old new friends were just arriving. On repeat, we leave almost a week later.
The scene at Quinta Lala
Hey guys. David Sedaris has a super funny story called “6 to 8 black men” about the Netherlands Santa and his helpers. Here’s a YouTube link to David Sedaris telling the story. Unfortunately, the video portion is of crappy footage in what I assume to be the Netherlands. I would just close my eyes and listen to the audio. I used to have this audiobook, and I would play this story over and over again whilst stuck in LA traffic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCUHTDrca4s
Sweeet, we’re looking forward to watching this… in Chile when the internetz are back to normal again.
You two might want to plan Bolivia as your “vacation time” as even La Paz internet is only slightly better than dial-up.
can we see some more pics of the rigs at Quinta Lala? would like to see what others are using. thanks. Aaron
We didn’t get any close ups unfortunately. The most interesting rig was a 4WD Mitsubishi van (model L300). We were most impressed with a 4×4 Mercedes Sprinter with the interior looking like it was designed by a Swiss interior decorator with mad organizational skills.
Those Euros, even though they pay through the teeth for them, have all kinds of options we don’t have in the States.