I feel the earth move under my feet

Actually, despite our wonderful luck, we´ve felt neither of the two recent massive earthquakes that have hit South America. You can assume from that statement, and the fact that I am writing this blog now, that both Lauren and I are safe and sound. It seems there was a quake that hit Chile (7.7 magnitude) on Wednesday morning, and another that hit the coast of Peru (7.9 magnitude) on Wednesday night. The respective capital cities (Santiago and Lima) were hit pretty hard. Fortunately for us, we had left Lima that morning on our way to Cusco, which is significantly inland. I thank all for the suggestion to get the hell out of Lima, for I've seen my fare share of quakes and don´t feel the need to feel another.

On a brighter note, we are beginning to acclimate to the elevation here in Cusco (about 10,000 ft). Cusco is a beautiful place; from the air it looks like a huge bowl with mountains all around, and hundreds of thousands of little red roofed homes. Yesterday we were bussed around the city to check out some of the Incan ruins. If you haven´t heard a thousand times before, the Incans are pretty incredible. Of course hearing all about it still does not take away from the amazement you feel when you actually see it. So that´s a plug to come visit.


(Like I said: Incredible)


(Man´s best friends, in Peru)

I feel a swarm of people waiting for my seat at the computer to open up, and therefore this post must come to a close. We depart on the Inca trail tomorrow for Machu Picchu, so we may be a little quiet for about 4 days, but I´m sure the stories and pictures upon our return will more than make up for it.

Until then