At 4910 meters above sea level

That's 16,109 feet, higher than any mountain in the contiguous 48 states (the highest is Mt. Whitney at 14,494). It's also the highest point on our tour, and since it's late and I haven't had any connectivity for a few days, I'll do a quick catch-up now and then when I get some time (which may be after the trip), I'll post some more.

Quick highlights: Sand surfing; Pisco tasting and winery tour; Watching a world cup match in a country that is *really* into soccer. How into it? TVs are set up on the street with speakers blaring the match. Nearly everything just stops. OK, continuing...flying over the Nazca Lines. That was amazing and I'll post the pictures that the natives used to communicate with the aliens; Touring the cemetary of the Nazca indians, who used to strap blocks on to the heads of children to shape their skulls so they were elongated; An overnight bus-ride with wifi on the bus (I would have posted something, but actually just checked e-mail and went to sleep); My 4 Soles haircut (Which is about $1.41, and the haircut looks like it, but it'll grow back); Visiting Colca Canyon (our tour guide said "If you are a vegetarian, welcome to the hell", but it wasn't actually so bad); Staying at La Casa Mamayacchi; Hiking at 4100m; Petting llamas and alpacas; Drinking coco tea; visiting the condor sanctuary (great pictures coming soon); horseback riding at the same altitude and actually being pretty good at handling the horse...and, believe it or not, managing through some very long bus rides (several ~7-hour rides or longer). My iPad is coming in very, very handy for this trip.

Cities visited: Lima, Paracas, Arequipa, Chivay (Colca Canyon); and now in Puno, on the coast of Lake Titicaca. I may have forgotten a city; I'll update later.

Seriously? The Parque del Amor - The Love Park

What more is there to say? A giant sculpture of two people making out in a park. This was part of our bike tour, and apparently (obviously?) this is the place where Peruvians go to do just that. Or to take pictures of the statue, like us.

A purple drink that isn't grape

Ahhhh, a new country, a new cuisine, and a yearning to not have diarrhea. I hope I don't jinx it, but so far so good. The spinach quiche you may recognize, but the drink is something entirely new, called Chicha Morada, which is prepared from purple corn. It's served cold, and was really quite refreshing.

Today started with a taxi ride to our new hotel, then a quick walkabout through the city. We did what you're never supposed to do, which is eat from a street vendor. It was only sliced pineapple, and it was worth it. And, as I write this days later, it didn't disagree with me at all.

We then took the top-rated tourist attraction on tripadvisor, which was a bicycle tour of Lima, led by Franco. Imagine riding a bicycle in a city where stop signs are regularly ignored and then going AGAINST TRAFFIC in a traffic circle. It was, in a word, perilous, but at the end of it we seemed no worse for wear, got a bit of exercise, and saw some pretty parts of Lima. The day ended with a briefing from our tour leader, Daniel, for all of us on the tour. Two Americans (Paul-Marcel and myself), 3 Irish, 2 Danes, 1 French. A few of us then went out for dinner, and then back to the hotel to get some sleep before the next day's activities...