arriba, abajo, al centro, al dentro

With the excitement of the morning behind us, we ordered two cabs back to Cusco for a weekend of adventure. The cab drivers always have the same radio station playing, which is mostly American pop music, however the announcer always cuts in during the middle of the song and says something like "Rock and Pop" in a deep voice. Random.

The Loki hostel was full this weekend, so Richard sent us to Pampawasi, a small hotel over a chicken farm featuring bipolar showers but reasonable prices. For dinner, we walked to an Argentinian steakhouse where Ralph and I shared a platter of meat, meat, and more meat. Seriously. We had everything from blood sausage to kidneys to steak to alpaca to who knows what else. Mmm, mmm, good.


Nos gusta la carne (we like meat...)

Having laid a solid base, Richard then took us to Indigo where we enjoyed shots of mescal and a nice hookah. The mescal was a bit like tequila, so we shot it with salt and a lime. This was quite fun, as I gave up shooting tequila after New Year's Eve some 11 years ago. Richard taught us a toast in Spanish as well: arriba, abajo, al centro, al dentro.


Hits from the...hookah


Get down on it

We ended up drinking all the mescal in the bar and had to switch to tequila shots, then eventually stopped taking shots and just drank gin and tonic. Later we hit the dance clubs of Cusco, where we ended up getting separated. The final events of the evening are sketchy, but this is what we think happened:

- Boy #1 got sick at one of the clubs and ran outside, where he threw away his clothes, got chased by the police, and fell down a flight of stairs. No one knows how he made it back.

- Maren, Claire, Vienna and I, after several unsuccessful attempts at finding Brendan and Ralph, started walking home. Claire and Vienna ended up getting a cab but Maren and I kept walking.

- Boy #2 left with a friend...

- Boy #3 thought HE was going to get sick and left the bar as well. He was later found in his bed, sleeping peacefully in a pile of undigested assorted meats.

- Boy #4 walked to the outskirts of Cusco where he eventually got a cab back to Loki and found his way home from there.

In the words of the Hilltop Hoods, what a great night (thanks Parker for the introduction...wish I could download the song somewhere...)