Terrified!

I think that about sums up this pic. I love it. It illustrates my experience in the Potosi mines perfectly. Thats about all the room we had to move and I was definetly losing it at this point. Good fun.

I just returned from Machu Picchu. I´ll refrain from saying "coolest place I´ve been" again but really, it was amazing. Too bad I don´t have a camera but any web search will certainly turn up millions of photos. Machu Picchu is probably the biggest attraction in South America and certainly one of the bigger attractions in the world. Usually big tourist sites like this suck -- the Eifel Tower, Empire State, Big Ben, the Coliseum -- but Machu Picchu is truely worthy of being one of the 7 wonders of the world or whatever. I´d even risk seeing more fat, old, annoying Americans again tomorrow if it didn´t cost so much to get in.

Machu Picchu is often described as ruins but I´d have to somewhat disagree. Almost all of the city structure is still in place. Most houses aren´t even missing a brick and the irregation system that tapped into natural springs for farming is still opertational. It was one of the few cities that the Spanish didn´t find and subsequently weren´t able to destroy. Walking around the city I found it very easy to imagine the city the inhabited and alive. Also, I found the site much bigger than I had anticipated -- I even got lost a few times. Pictures just don´t do it justice. It´s touristity as hell and getting there, and in, is terribly expensive but it really is a must see.