January 6th and 7th - Traveling: Futa to Chaiten to Puerto Montt to Santiago to Lima to Cuzco. Whew!

Note: this post is out of order and we can´t figure out how to move it. Subsequent days appear after this one.

We had to get up early this morning to catch the 7am 3 1/2 hour bus ride back to Chaiten, in order to catch our noon flight on the Cessna to Puerto Montt, then we had a long 6-hour layover in Puerto Montt before flying to Santiago. It was going to be a fun day. Not.

The bus wasn´t so bad, Carrie managed to get into the front row of seats to best control any car sickness on the windy roads. She ended up doing just fine with a dramamine, but unfortunately a local behind us didn´t fare as well and the bus driver had to clean up some puke at our bathroom break. Yuck.

We got to the airport in time to catch our little 7 seater Aerotaxi again back to Chaiten. It´s certainly an experience in those tiny little planes in the mountain winds. We survived just fine, though, and made it to Puerto Montt where we had a 6 hour layover. Luckily we had some errands to keep us busy. Carrie had left her jackets and swim suit and Dave had left his glasses in the cabin in Puerto Octay, and Betsy had kindly tranported the stuff to Puerto Montt for us and left it in a hotel downtown. So, we went to town to pick that up, then plunked ourselves down at an internet cafe and caught up on the blog. It was a good way to spend the time.

Back to the airport and off to Santiago. There were some amazing views of the Andes on our flight away from Puerto Montt. The two previous trips to P.M. had been totally socked in, so it was amazing to see all the volcanos looming over the town. Carrie´s parents probably won´t believe how pretty the town can be in sunlight with the surrounding snow covered peaks, since they had such rainy negative experiences there.
We arrived late and took a taxi to town to our hotel, Hotel Orly, in the Providencia District. It was a super cute area, but we were pretty tired by then and only had time for a late dinner before hitting the hay. We had a 7am flight the next day...

We got the wake-up call at 5:15am and packed up and got in a taxi back to the airport. Once there, it took us about 15 minutes to figure out where to check in. Our tickets said LASCA airlines and there weren´t any LASCA desks. Finally we found someone who informed us that LASCA was the same as TACA. Of course, who wouldn´t know that? So, we were directed to the TACA line, which was of course the longest line in the airport. We moved our way towards hte counter chatting with a Seattle-ite just starting a 6 month trip with her boyfriend who she was to meet in Cuzco.

We eventually got through the ticket line, through customs, and to the gate. Finally got on the plane and flew to Lima. There we had an uneventful 4-hour layover in the Lima airport (more blogging), and finally we were on our way to Cuzco. The approach to Cuzco was pretty incredible. All the roofs in the city are red, and the city sits in a long valley surrounded by green hills. It was really gorgeous. The plane had to go around to the end of the valley with a series of big banking turns, then begin the descent. We were already excited about being here by the time we touched down. We arrived in Cuzco around 2pm and luckily Betsy had pre-arranged a hostal and airport pick-up when she ws here about a month ago. Betsy did a great job. We were picked up promptly by a very friendly lady who took us in a taxi to the Hostal San Blas. The hostal is in a great part of town surrounded by artist and souvenier shops and some of the best restaurants we´ve seen since Portland.

Upon arrival, they sat us down to drink Mate de Coca, the first of many many cups of Coca to come. Cuzco is at an elevation of 10,000 ft, so it takes most people a little time to adjust to the altitude. Especially if you are planning on hiking the Inca Trail (as we are) you are supposed to arrive in town two days in advance and to take it easy while acclimating. We were directed to drink Coca tea abundantly and then rest for the remainder of the day not eating anything until that night. Coca tea is made from the leaves of the Coca plant, but is very different from cocaine which is also made from the leaves. Something about extracting the alkaline...

The hostal has a great 2-story living room with a pretty stained glass ceiling, and best of all - a friendly kitten!
The kitten instantly cozied up to us as we drank our tea. We then retired to our nice-sized room, as directed.

Carrie passed out for several hours, already feeling the altitude change. Dave watched TV on our 100 station cable hook-up.

Eventually, we got up and headed out to see where we were. We walked down to the main Plaza De Armas, which is only blocks from our hostel. It´s am amzing large plaza with several churches built by the Spaniards after they conquered the Incas around 1550. The churches are build on top of the old Inca palaces, and in many places you can see the old Inca architecture. I´m sure we´ll have much more information to come on Inca architecture since we´re headed for Machu Pichu.

After our walk to the plaza, we headed for Jack´s a cafe on the same street as our hostal that Betsy and Rich had highly recommended. Once again, they didn´t steer us wrong. Maybe coming directly from the states, it would have seemed different, but after a month in Chile, the North American based menu seemed like a dream. Nachos, burgers, huge salads, huge grilled sandwiches with fries, amazing soups, stir-frys, curries, smoothies, milkshakes, chocolate cake, and all-day AMERICAN BREAKFAST (pancakes, french toast, scrambles, oh my!) tempted us from the menu. Boy, it was hard, but we finally chose some items and we weren´t disappointed. We really can´t emphasize what a miracle this place seemed after a month of the same bland Chilean food over and over again.

Completely satisfied, we walked back across the street to our hostel, watched a little TV, then fell asleep.