Day 19 Manu Wildlife Center to Cuzco

Our departure starts with an hour-and-a-half boat trip to the airstrip at Boca Manu. There we wait for our plane in the airport "lounge," an open-sided thatched hut at the edge of the runway. A couple of us scan the trees for birds, while the others take a break from birding. We are entertained by a couple of little girls with a new puppy.

The plane has room only for eight, so we leave our guide at the airstrip. During the journey, we retrace our trip in reverse. First we see the unbroken expanse of jungle, and the Alta Madre de Dios River snaking below us. Then we climb the Andean foothills, eventually seeing the snowy Andean range on both sides of the plane.

The arrival at Cuzco is very dramatic. We have to pass over some 14,000 ft mountains, and then drop to about 11,000 feet in a few short miles to the Cuzco airport.The pilot aims for a point maybe 200 yards short of the runway, and we dive. We do this at what seems like a 30 degree angle, with the stall light on the whole descent. At perhaps 100-200 ft above the runway, we suddenly level out and land. It seems like insanity, but the pilot is well practiced, as he does this trip at least once a day.

Later, we find out that before its return journey back to Manu to pick up the other passengers, our plane broke down! Our guide squeezed onto the last plane out, and a whole party of tourists, with international connections to make, got stuck overnight in Boca Manu. We feel very lucky to be here.

Back in Cuzco, again, we find a delicious Peruvian vegetarian restaurant. There are lots of restaurants in Cuzco that cater to tourists, but we want to find local food. They serve us soup, salad, a main course, dessert, and mint tea, all for 6 soles ($2). (It is located on Tucuman Street, on the left side of the cathedral, about 1/2 block off the square. We highly recommend it for anyone, vegetarian or not.) This restaurant, unlike the tourist-oriented ones, does not have a hawker outside shoving a menu in your face, and asking you to come inside. That gets really old, especially when you have already eaten.

This is our longest stop in Cuzco, so we take the opportunity to do some shopping. Oh, boy, Andy's first foray into bargaining! And in Spanish, too. The first step is for Julia to pick out the goods. The second step is for Andy to remind her not to appear like she really wants it, or the bargaining will get nowhere. Step three is to ask nonchalantly how much it is. Now here is where the hard part begins. The usual assumption is that they probably are asking about double what they expect. So you have to start pretty low to end up at the real price. This worked in most places.

However, in one shop the woman must know the game quite well, and also picks us for suckers. We had probably expressed too much interest in the beautiful paintings "done by her husband." We bargain away, and end up at about half price. Great! But, no sooner do we leave her store than we are offered the same paintings by a street vendor. His starting price is less than we paid! Yikes. So the lesson we learn is that you first find the street vendors, who have no shop overhead to cover. You learn THEIR starting price, and then you know what twice the real price is. Then, if you like, you can go into a shop, and you know where you want to end up. If you have no clue what the thing should cost, you might as well empty your wallet on the spot. Near the end of the day, we are getting good. Andy manages to hold a hard price, and walks away when the salesman refuses it. Miraculously, when we walk back past the shop a few minutes later, he accepts our price, and both parties are happy.

We are treated to a fancy restaurant for dinner on the square in Cuzco this night. It is time to bid Joy, Ann & Dick farewell as they are headed home now. The rest of us have signed on for the extension, which will start by touring Machu Picchu over the next two days.