What a long travel day. Aquas Caliente to Ollaytambo by train. Ollaytambo to Cuzco by car. Flight delays then CUZ to LIM, LIM to SCL, SCL to SAO and SAO to GIG.

Now wonder it took this guy Bingham until 190? to find the place.But it was worth the trip. We did the redeye from Lima to Santiago, Chile and left there about dawn. On climb out we approached the southern Andes and even after 20 minutes in flight with constant increases in elevation I felt like if I reached out the window I coule touch the Andes.

We never left the plane in Sao Paulo and nobody got on for the 35 minute flight to Rio. I was having a difficult time with the movie playback and could not finish the Frost/Nixon interview in time. In fact, I couldn’t even get back to the place I left off before it was time to close things down.

Oneof the advantages or disadvantages of award travel, depending on how you look at it is the lenghty connections.We have surely added a day by now with lousy connections, but that all ends now. Everything else is one flight per day until we get to S.E. Asia.

The Lan Business Class serivce was OK with true lay flat beds, but they seemed cramped to me. The food was unremarkable but then again, I’m not the kind of guy to take pictures of airline meals like some of my blogging buddies. In my book, food is to eat and if you look at my pictures, I’m damn good at it.

Going around the world offers special challenges for a guy that eats meat and potatoes. Should I have the Guinea pig or Alpaca tonight? Not. How about Mexican or a bowl of chicken noodle soup. My last creative adventure was in LaJolla at a Korean place several months ago. I wouldn’t eat it so I certainly would not take a picture of it, although some of it looked like it could find its own way off my plate.

We are resting at the Luxor hotel on the third floor of the airport. shops tight down the hall, and the food court as well. Thankfully they have English menus but the guy explaining them isn’t sure what they mean. My roast beaf and cheese sandwhich had way too many sauces on it and the spinach leaves just didn’t cut it. katy was thrilled with her Brie, spicy apricot and spinach leaf sandwich. Women have to be different then men, just based on what they eat.

Back to the hotel, its the highest priced room on the itin at $158 per night. It was either that or give up starwood pionts to head into town to turn around and come back tomorrow. There are no cheapie SPG properties in Rio and realy no hotels near the airport. This will work out just fine. The room is an interior room with no windows, but no mold or moisture and steps away from the check in counter tomorrow.

The clothing is more provacative and the people are helpful, just not as friendly as the Peruvians, but this is big city life and that tends to jade some people at times.

We’ll see how things go tomorrow evening at Iguazu Falls, Argentina and the Sheraton Resort.

Thanks for coming along.