Well, I have had to say goodbye to Cusco, for now. Sunday was spent eating a number of large meals, topped off with a little going away fiesta in the evening. We danced and drank and ate 'till all hours of the night. A great send off. I am really going to miss all of the friends that I have made in Cusco, it's givin me a lot of great memories and experiences.

The crib being finnished on my arrival back to Cusco, we went to today to install it in the orphanage, along with some other items to furnish it for the babes. The mood was festive and the baby Saul seemed to enjoy it. I was happy it all worked out. This would be my last day working with the carpentry and orphanage, as I am headed back home on Monday. Yes, its true the schedule has changed, for various reasons. I must attend to some matters of state back in the homelands. But I would say all in all I have taken a great deal from this trip. On Saturday, barring any further difficulties, I will learn the art of the salsa dance. Fernando the carpenter has agreed to help and tutor me.

Our last day in Puno, we got up bright and early (a bit too early for the day after the festivals) and headed out on a boat into the waters of Lake Titicaca. Despite its astonishing height above sea level (the highest there is) it is quite a large lake and highly navigable (if i had done more research, I would have added some astonishing figures here). We started our tour with the floating islands of Uros.

Monday was the big day for the Fiesta of the Virgin of the Candelaria. Although the groups had been dancing all weekend, this was the day that all would be at their best, and everyone went out to watch on the street. The dancers started at 8am and the last group did not finish up until about 11pm. There were about 70 groups in all, from all over Peru. Each had its own band and elaborate crazy costumes. They danced all day through the hot hot heat and on into the cool night air.

On Friday night, I left on a 9:30pm bus for the city of Puno, on the coast of Lake Titicaca. The bus trip took about 7 hours, and we got to Puno about 4am. The bus itself was not the most comfortable of transportation, some sort of double decker behemouth packed to capacity, traveling through the Andean countryside. So needless to say, I didn´t get too much sleep. Got to the hotel we were staying at, and to my dismay, the parades started at 5am. Marching bands continued to pass directly by the hotel for the next 3 hours. By the time I finally decided to give it up and go downstairs for breakfast, the streets were silent. (I´ll add some pictures in a couple days)

We finally got the wood that we needed to begin work on a new crib. Me and Fernando have been working the past two days and made some good progress. Its amazing to me to see what can be done and how quickly with relatively simple machines. I have high hopes that well get done by friday. I also picked up some safety goggles and dust masks at the hardware store, which the kids seem to be quite pleased with. Best of all, I have reduced my wood intake greatly.

Seems like this has been my first free weekend since I´ve gotten here. I guess I´ve just been doing too many important things for the good of the children of Cusco. So I finally had a chance to check out some of the popular shady crawls of the Cusco night scene.

Today was spent with more carpentering. Got up bright and early to be at work at 8. We went looking for more wood, but as it happens, there is a shortage of inexpensive, dry wood in the Cusco wood district. So no new wood was to be had, and we returned via the Batman bus to the woodshop. We have almost completed a new crib for the 2 babies at the orphanage.

This morning, me and the head carpenter went to buy some wood for the woodshop, as we were running low. It was kind of an interesting experience shopping around at the different woodshops trying to find the best deal on dry wood, and haggling over a fair price.

Machu Picchu has been completed! It should be up now. Hope that satisfies some curiosity.