Love & Light and everything bright...

FROM URUBAMBA, PERU

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Day 13: Return to Cusco

MT. AUSANGATE, Peru, July 10, 2008 - As if to accentuate our "graduation" with an exclamation mark, our last night on Mt Ausangate was the coldest.  When I walked out of my tent this morning, the ground was completely white, covered with frost.  But as is usually the case in the mountains, as soon as the sun came out, the air warmed up quickly.  By the time we finished out breakfast, it was pleasantly warm in the sun.  Facing a long hike downhill this time, most of us packed our heavier clothes in our duffle bags.  Bad move...

For, as soon as we went over the nearest hill to our base camp, heavy fog rolled in.  And with that, came that damp cold that penetrates through your clothing right to the bone.  Since our bags had already gone on horseback, the only thing left to do was to move fast so as to keep warm.  Which is what we did.  After about a mile or so, we saw a couple of creatures that looked like large groundhogs who seemed to be standing guards on rocks above us (right).  Jose Luis said they were bigger cousins of chinchilla.

Finally, after a few hours of downhill hiking, we emerged from under the clouds and into sunshine again.  From there on, it was all downhill, both literally and figuratively.  We stopped at the natural hot springs where everybody had a welcome hot bath.  Everybody except for yours truly.  Since my leg wounds had not yet completely healed, I did not want to chance an infection. 

Instead, I played with these little Inka kids who also took to my trail mix like ducks to water.

From there, what was left was only a short hike to the buses that were waiting for us at the same school at which we delivered those gifts to the kids four days ago.  You could feel everyone's excitement about returning to civilization again. Along the way, we came across some other uniformed school kids (middle shot).  Back at our hotel in Cusco, I played the piano while waiting for 300 of my e-mail messages to download.  Then I finally started feeling human again, after cleaning up and shaving.  The mountain adventure was over.

Day 14: Cusco-Lima-Miami

MIAMI, July 11, 2008 - Our ride to the Cusco airport didn't show up, so Jeri (from Mass) and I took a taxi.  We were the only ones leaving for home so early. 

Views of Andes peaks piercing the clouds were pretty spectacular.  I wished I had Jose Luis with me to tell me their names.  So now you'll just have to take in their nameless beauty.

The weather in Lima was the same as on my arrival, two weeks earlier.  The leftmost shot says it all.  Six hours later (see the maps - middle left), the weather in Miami was much nicer.

I reveled in the balmy ocean air as I listened to the Caribbean rhythms at my hotel's poolside patio.  I also recorded a short video clip so you could part-take in it, too:

Miami Rhythm... (July 11, 2008) (1:16 mins)

And that's all she wrote from this Day 15 of my Peru adventure. 

And since you've already seen the Day 15:  Final Word: "All You Need Is Love" (July 13), the only thing left is the Epilogue: Preparing and Burning a Despacio.

Love  Light 

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