winter break part one

we spent about 5 days in lima and 5 in cuzco. lima reminded me of kl, malaysia somehow, a mixture of modernity and chaos. it was such a confused place, with:

majestic spanish cathedrals that were lavishly and lovingly created and sustained but terrible imperialistic (?) reminders to the native peruvians, and:

ancient ruins that were barely there. i didn't really believe what they told us about the people of the past, because they were dodgy interpretations of whatever artifacts found. but they somehow complemented and contradicted the catacombs and architecture of the spanish cathedrals.

communicating with the people there went surprisingly smoothly. i'm sure we were ripped off wherever we went though and morris' gibberish that worked on the cab driver was a stroke of brilliance, probably sent from the inca gods.