llama drama

Oh she looks all innocent now, but one second before she was smacking those pups.

Llama, up close and personal!

The ruins of Machu Picchu!

hello from aguas caliente, aka Machu Picchu according to the mayor. just trekked around the ruins. don´t really have any concept of how to integrate them into my understanding of the modern world, but will post impressive pictures as soon as possible. also had close encounter with a llama that was really less interested in me than I was in it. lots of terraces stoned off for agriculture, small room-like areas that were maybe houses, and various plazas and watch towers. we traveled there and back from the train on Mercedes Benz buses, very posh, but i didn´t particularly notice the vehicle much because i pretty much immediately fell asleep like i do in every moving vehicle. the train ride up was also very nice, with a breakfast of ham sandwhich (in so much abundance on transportation), fruit, and strawberry shortcake. the baños was also quite servicable. the tracks ran along a rocky river at the foot of tall green mountains. it made me think about what americans do with some mountains, cordon them off to build trails for shuttle buses and campsites. but with how large our human population is how can we interact with nature without destroying it? nature is then by nature so unnatural. how much better is it to take an Orient Express train to see it? No se.

On one of the train stops I caught a photo of a girl with two puppies, the bigger of the puppies whose neck she would yank at and whose head she would periodically whack. Ah, au naturale.