In Cusco

And by the way, I'm in Cusco. And folks, for those of you who've never
been here, you really should come.

Some of you all had heard that I was going to take a 30-hour bus ride to
Cusco. As it turns out, the road has gotten a lot better since the
Lonely Planet book was put together, so the ride is scheduled to take
only about 20 hours now. From 5:30 in the afternoon until about 1PM the
following day. But it was closer to 24 hours for me, since it was about
4:30 when we pulled into the Cruz del Sur station in town.

For any of you who haven't ridden these South American luxury buses,
it's a hoot. They show movies pretty much constantly, serve meals, and
play bingo. And the seats recline to almost horizontal so you can
almost sleep well.

They also run a metal detector over you and video you as you're getting
on to prevent (or deter) you from hijacking the bus and stealing
everybody's baggage and passports, etc. That has been known to happen,
though I definitely felt secure on this one.

Oh. And they offer wireless internet. Seriously. But I didn't want to
haul the old computer and make myself a target for entrepreneurial
Peruvians in search of some cash. And as any Bolivian will tell you,
all Peruvians are thieves and crooks. Just kidding, of course, although
the Bolivians actually do say that. And they refer to them as "rats."
Pretty hilarious. For the record, my experiences with Peruvians have
been almost universally aboveboard. Only gotten ripped off by the
occasional taxista.

All in all, it's a pretty good deal. About $50 for that trip, which is
a hell of a lot less than flying. Especially at the moment, as several
local carriers have gone out of business and the level of competition is
low.

And it's totally worth the literal pain-in-the-ass to see the incredible
views. Peruvian mountain scenery is, if anything, more beautiful than
Guatemalan mountain scenery.

Plus, I saw the following movies in Spanish: Superbad, What Happens in
Las Vegas, that movie about Sept. 11 with Nicholas Cage, and some action
flick about snipers. I'm probably forgetting one, as well. Not that I
would have ever paid to see any of those movies, but still. And not to
mention that it's one less night that I have to find a place to stay!