14-Jan-2010 7900 Miles

San Bartolo, Peru. OK. I can't describe this. All I can do is lay it out there, add a few pics and hope you all can grasp the enormity of today. Yesterday was amazing, today was different and still amazing. We left the hotel fairly early and headed down(south, but acually up) the valley between the Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Blanca. First let me say that we have been way the hell off the normal tourist routes. This road went up and up and up but kind of gradually so we didn't really realize how high we were getting. Except the BMW was sucking wind bad. I'd go to pass someone and I'd have to shift down 3 gears to get any power. At the top we checked our altitude and we were at 14,000 feet. WOW, 7000 feet in 2 hours on a "hiway". Then we started down. And down. And down. And down. Within the next 2 hours we were at sea level. 21,000 vertical feet before noon today. WOW. And Nick has a head cold. I feel bad for him.

We are back at the Pacific Ocean tonight just south of Lima. After looking at the maps, we decided to head this way as opposed to committing ourselves to 500 miles of dirt road to get to Macchu Picchu. We both definately have mixed feelings about this decision. The 200 miles of dirt we were on the 2 days before were amazing and I would not change that decision for anything. But it took 2 days and a big nap and now Nick is sick, so I think this was the right choice.

We hit the coast and headed south and blew right past Lima. I know, I know. I'm sure there was amazing architecture, awesome culture, a beautiful city, hot chica's, wild nightlife, all that in Lima that we missed. Don't care. The one thing they had less of that we had at 14,000 feet was oxygen. Wow, what a dirty polluted place. Didn't mind missing it. Anyway, we are at this nice, but not quite beautiful beach south of Lima. Nick is trying to recover. Hopefully he feels better in the morning.

This side of the mountains is desert. Lots of sand and wind. Way different than we have been used to. But as someone I know used to say, "a change is as good as a break".

It is nice to be at the ocean again. I can look at it for hours. I need to look at a globe and see if you would run into anything if you headed due west from here. We are at 12 degrees south latitude now. Probably Australia. So much relentless power in the sea. No wonder the ancient cultures, especially the sea going cultures created gods(Neptune, Poseidon, Triton, etc.) to explain their sucess or failure with the sea. But in reality, it doesn't care. It just does it's thing. Oh well, add that to the more Mark BS file.