I have just done something vastly different than I had planned

My bus from La Paz, Bolivia to Cusco, Peru was three hours late, bringing me to the sprawling and confusing city at the uncomfortable hour of eleven PM. But, I knew I was safe; I already had a hostel reservation complete with detailed directions for a cab-driver.

The directions were sound and I arrived at ´Av. Los Incas 1726´ within minutes of getting off my bus. Excpept that the building at ´Av. Los Incas 1726´ was a house. After I rang the doorbell some seven times, a vaguely ethnic man in a robe answered the door, with the air of someone expecting Jehova´s Witnesses. In my most hurried and nervous spanish I rattled off an explanation of why I had woken him, saying:

"Lo siento mucho por despertarse Usted, pero es que mi hostal debe ser aqui en Los Incas 1726, y esta es Los Incas 1726, no? Y Sabe Usted si estamos cerca de un hostal que se llama ´Casa de Carola?´ Pues, de veras, es en Ingles, entonces se llama ´House of Carola.´ pero sabe si hay un hostal cerca?"

To which he replied,

"Calm down, I´m from Jersey. Stop speaking Spanish."

His attitude reminded me of the old saying "You can take the man out of New Jersey, but you can´t take the unhelpful asshole out of the man."

As far as I know, ´the House of Carola´ does not exist except as an eloborate internet prank. Instead, I stayed the night at a three dollar hostel that the cabbie recomended. When we entered the cabbie told the kid checking me in (he couldn´t have been older than fourteen) to "give him a clean room, he understands spanish."

If the room I stayed in was ´clean´ I cannot imagine what the other rooms are like. Nevertheless, I survived. And, having decided that Cusco was not my favorite city, I left early in the morning on the mythical ´backroad to Machu Picchu.´

The route took me through three towns over two days. It involved a six -hour local busride, two ninety-minute car rides (in overpacked subarus over perilous dirt roads) and a two-and-a-half-hour trek along an active railway (with the occasional rush to avoid an oncoming train).

Visisting Machu Picchu was pretty amazing (photos to be posted upon my return to Asuncion) and I managed to top off the excursion with a nice long rest at some beautiful hot springs in Santa Teresa.

I plan on returning to Asuncion in the next few days, but who knows? I also planned on getting A´s in high school.

Join me next Saturday for "There´s no place like Asuncion"