June 1st, 2018
Sunny, scorchingly hot once more
I
am awoken by the loud sound of Disney's It's A Small World tune being played
outside! Mind you it is seven o'clock and in Peru that is practically
afternoon. Ablutions to do, I am up and soon enjoying the best, hottest shower.
In the bathroom mirror I am amazed at how thin I am. I haven't been this skinny
for twenty years! A mostly fruit and veg diet with an occasional lapse, is
obviously doing me good and the proof that I have enough energy may be seen in
the daily elevation, distance and altitude statistics. Incredible that I
haven't had to use any inhalers once and, other than in Andahuaylas where the
smog affected me, I haven't had any asthmatic or breathing problems at all,
even at altitudes of over 14,000 feet. No need for coca tea!
Showered,
time for a have and then clothes washing. I eventually get out of the room at
ten past nine, intending to find a computer repair shop. The Wifi adaptor's
driver seems to have broken and that might explain why I couldn't access the
internet at a few hostels that claimed to have Wifi. Back then it worked
intermittently. Now there's zilch. I am greeted at reception by Simeona of
Hotel Mica, the lovely lady, who was so helpful with my baggage yesterday when
I arrived. Simeona asks me why I haven't come down for breakfast! This is a
first, breakfast with the room. I have been used to being in hostels in Lima
and Cusco where breakfast comes as standard but hadn't come across this
anywhere else and had never thought to ask. Well do I remember the one last
year near to the airport that, despite costing around £4 for the night, laid on
a fabulous spread of different fruits and for an extra Sole, 25p, one could
have a fried egg bap. So coffee, lots of it, bread, margarine and jam and a cup
of herbal tea. OK.
Into
town, I need lip balm. No matter how much suncream block I put on my lips they
still have gone a light grey colour and feel swollen. What with my pink nose
that is peeling and refuses to brown up and my lips I must look a right sight.
Yesterday I looked like a terrorist as I pulled my elasticated neck garment,
given to me by my friend in Lima, Manuel, over my mouth and nose. It probably
helped me by filtering out some of the filthy diesel fumes from the passing vehicles
as well. The road over the mountains had been tranquil and mostly traffic free.
Once however I had reached the main Lima to Cusco road how that changed!
Strange to be on a road that I knew from times before. Cruz del Sur coaches
have taken me along this route in both directions. When alone I prefer to go by
coach than be carbon profligate and fly.
I
find an internet shop which has twenty or so small wooden cubicles with the
usual old computers. For the next three hours I enjoy listening to Test Match Special
on the BBC website. England are playing Pakistan and are doing every well.
Indeed they have bowled Pakistan out in two sessions for under two hundred runs
and I listen as Jennings, a young, new twenty year old is batting with the
getting to be veteran Alastair Cook. They put on fifty runs together, which for
the way England have played recently is good. Jennings is out for twenty none
but the commentators are pleased with the way he has played and feel he has a
future in the team. Just before the end of play, Alastair wafts at one going
down the leg and it feathers his glove to be caught behind. End of play,
England still have eight wickets left and are eighty or so runs behind. I adore
Test match cricket and listening to it via TMS whilst sitting in a dingy room
full of computers in Peru, is a strange experience. The splendour of the
internet, it feels a privilege to be able to hear Geoffrey, Vaughan, Aggers and
co.
Still
a problem over my laptop's Wifi drive, I return to the hotel after getting some
food at the large market in the city. In it here are the usual mass of small
stalls arranged in areas according to produce. All the fruit stalls, which by
the way have none of their produce wrapped in layer after layer of nature
destroying plastic, are on one floor. The meat stalls, mostly selling whole
chickens with yellow skin and dangling legs, are on another floor. I find the
hot food section and sit down on a bench with other Peruvians to enjoy a bowl
of soup with pasta curls followed by a plate of rice, chicken and tagiatelli.
Together with two glasses of juice the cost is fve Soles, around £1.50.
Late
afternoon is spent searching the nearby shoe shops for some suitably sized
shoes. I need size 45 or 46, the largest I can find are size 41! It seems my
blistered hobbling is going to continue.
Green Year list : 204 birds average
new birds to list per day : 3.29 birds
Distance walked, pushed
and cycled : 35.00 miles
elevation : up 5,416
feet, down 6,434 feet
altitude : 9495 feet
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