squeaky cheese

Yes, that´s what I said. Squeaky cheese. That is what I had on my sandwich the other morning. Seriously. It tasted fine, but it literally squeaked every time I chewed on it. It was like having wet shoes on tile floor inside my mouth. Weird.

So last night we stayed in a little town called Ollantaytambo (or Ollantay). It is the halfway point between Cuzco and Aguas Calientes (where Machu Picchu is). There are some great Incan ruins there as well and the town is much more of a tourist train stop than a tourist stop, so it was fun to be in a little less of a tourist trap for a night. We drank some great Chilean wine with dinner, and met an interesting fellow from LA (of course) who proceeded to try and convince us to write a book about our travels and he would (so selflessly) be our agent. Two bottles of wine in, we could almost see oursleves on Oprah.
This morning we woke up early (for us...about 8am), ate some breakfast and hiked up to some of the ruins, overlooking the town. It´s pretty amazing to think that these structures have been around for so long. The town itself is still built on the existing Incan design, with aqueducts bringing water from the river to almost every other street in the town. It makes some of our architecture seem very ephermeral in design.
Now we are back in Cuzco. I love this city. I actually just love Latin America. Seriously, for all of you who wondered if I´d ever really come home from this trip, I can guarantee you that this will be the hardest continent for me to leave. Once I leave here, you can all stop worrying. It´s all downhill after that. Even with having to carry around your own toilet paper, and NEVER throwing it in the toilet after you have used it, taking your chances on getting a hot shower, waiting an absurd amount of time for any service in any restaurant, almost getting killed daily by the crazy drivers who obey no standard set of rules of the road, and wondering if any of the stray dogs will accidentally mistake you for a piece of delicious food...I really, REALLY love it here.