it's the end of the world as we know it

Vienna, Maren, Claire and Gillie humor me and pose for a pre-work picture


Little Bo Peep keeps losing her sheep


The "boys' side" of the project


The "girls' side"


The progress we've made in a week


Remember what this used to look like?!??


My own private island, aka where I went for Nature Breaks during work hours


The crew!

I woke up full of energy this morning, still riding on a protein-high from yesterday's lunch I guess. It was hard knowing today was our last day on the job...forever...but swinging a pick axe helped work out some of the frustration. Plus, it's awesome to look at the site and see how much progress we have made to date and to think about what the final result will be. I wish I could get to see it or at the very least, make a handprint in the concrete these guys will be pouring next week. :-(


The last supper


Richard demonstrates his musical talents


El jefe (Gilberto) and me


Richard, Yrene, Me, Elizabeth (front)

For our last meal as a group (Ralph and Parker are fasting tonight), Yrene made us pesto pasta, which was so delicious that I had three helpings. Hey now, I've been digging trenches for two weeks. Don't judge my eating habits.

We packed up our bags for the last time after lunch and piled into two taxis bound for Cusco. The whole group was supposed to be staying at Loki this weekend but they were overbooked so Loki sent us back to...Pampawasi. Honestly, I can't believe they even let us back in the place after last weekend's festivities but whatever. Everyone really just wanted to shower and use the toilet. However, this wasn't in the cards. Last weekend we could barely get hot water in the showers - you'll have that sometimes, as my brother would say. This weekend there wasn't even any water coming out of the faucet. Poor Maren didn't even get to break out the shampoo before the stupid thing went out, so I trucked down to the front desk and tried to sort things out in Spanish. The hotel owners called the repair people then shrugged and said it would be a while. Super. Maren went back in the bathroom to try and wash her hair in the sink and I decided to go and check email at the lobby computer.

As I was sitting there, the female hotel owner told me I could shower in their private bathroom downstairs if I wanted. Score! After the hot shower, Maren, Claire and I went souvenir shopping and played a fun game of haggling and bargaining with the local vendors. We loaded up with all kinds of goodies then went to meet Gillie, Vienna, Brendan and Richard for pizza. Not just any pizza though. These were the fanciest pizzas ever and came with toppings like lamb, duck prosciutto, prawns, etc. Magical.


Clean girls - Maren, Gillie, Vienna, me, and Claire at the Plaza de Armas fountain


Maren, who has borrowed Captain Richard's (Richard reminds us of Captain Jack Sparrow) hat, and Gillie look at pictures


Good times at dinner

We had ordered Pisco Sours as a pre-dinner cocktail then shared wine with the meal. I was feeling more buzzed than usual and then I saw the bill...the waitress had given us all doubles. Ha ha nice. If I had any sense at all, I would have gone home at this point and called it a night. Yeah. We all know how this story will end.

The group of us went to Norton's, which is the pub we went to on our first night together two weeks ago. We hung out for several rounds of cocktails, then Brendan and I decided it would be nice to shoot some 1800, which in all honesty, did end up being quite nice. Very smooth. But again, if I had any sense at all I would have gone home at this point. We had met an American guy from Colorado though, who knew of a fun bar just down the street! Naturally we all thought this was a great idea.


Brendan and Richard bond

A few drinks later and I was just plain silly. Somehow we all managed to make it back to the hotel in one piece - I vaguely remember walking to Loki first but the bar was closed. Brilliant, especially with a long flight back to the States tomorrow. :-P