What's this, another day, another coup? An honor guard for the imminent arrival of the Three Amigos?
No, it turns out we've stumbled across a rather elaborate flag raising ceremony in the Plaza de Armas. Like most things in Peru, it takes and eternity for the flags to actually go up.
What a majestic place for an ancient fortress. Imagine these mighty walls standing silent guard over the alpine valley below as centuries slip slowly past. The vast Incan empire may have come and gone, but these stones carry the echos of a lost civilization through the aeons... Say what? Huh? You're telling me that's actually the shower room and outhouse? Hmph, well even mighty Incan warriors had to shower once in a while. You know, to wash off all the blood of their vanquished enemies and stuff like that.
Gosh darn it 
If anyone is playing the Incan drinking game - one pisco sour for every photo of a ruin - then this will put you under the table. Except for Jared, who's already under the table.
The J00ster Journal has always had a fixation with Rocks. 
Come on in folks. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight to the afterworld as we bash your skull in and give you the great honor of being sacrificed for this year's harvest. No, don't worry ma'am, of course we'll make sure you get your frequent flier points. 
Seen enough ruins? Tough, 'cause this is just the appetizer. Just wait till this blog gets to Machu Picchu. Wait being the operative road when it comes to J00ster blogging. 
The condor's eye view of Cuzco.
The cuy's eye view of a ruin. This one is called Sacsayhuaman. The only reason Rock remembers the name is because it's pronounced 'sexy woman'
Where's the bat and ball when you need it? No Mei, not you. I said the bat and ball, not the ball and chains.
The only sight that has a shot at beating ruins in the been-there-seen-that-is-it-time-to-head-back-to-Jack's count is colonial churches. But wait, there's more! This unique location counts as both, because the church is built on the foundations of an Incan temple. Two pisco sours, coming right up. In Jared's case, coming right up in a form best left in an early morning gutter, not an iced shot glass.
High altitude attitude.
Cosmopolitan Cuzco.
When you're used to alpaca meat so tough it could run the Inca Trail in four hours (more on that later), anything that you can actually stick a fork in is a welcome surprise.
Acclimatization day 2: The Sacred Valley of the Inca. Now desecrated with a long convey of smoky touristico buses, and the jarring megaphone blast of "JENNY'S GROUP!!!"Ok, fine, I'm getting a bit cynical in my ruined-out state. The valley is actually pretty cool.
See what I mean.
The ruins of Pisac are kind of like a test run for the real thing. This Machu Picchu-lite is perched on the valley walls.
Mei doesn't look like she has any inclination to get down and dirty and start working the terraces.
Remarkable how much the Incan's accomplished in their relatively short reign of less than a century. But they didn't have to come up with blog posts filled with one liners.
Now that's what I call high fashion. Geddit?
It's hard work smiling while at the same time trying to avoid plunging backwards and becoming condor fodder.
Next stop on the Sacred Valley tour - the town of Ollantaytambo, dominated by an imposing temple carved into the very wall of the flanking mountain.
You have no idea how long it took to carefully compose this shot such that not a single tourist barged their way in. Now you can sit back and relax and enjoy the solitude of an Incan ruin from the comfort of your own internet connection.
Apparently the Incas won an epic victory here against the invading Spaniards by rerouting a river to flood the valley plain, sweeping the enemy to their doom. All the more impressive considering they were battling not just the enemy's swords, but their germs too. Rock would have bartered the keys to the castle for a couple of Tylenol capsules.
As the sun sinks on the eve of departure for The Trail, there's time for one last stop at... I'll give you two guesses. A ruin? Nope, strike one. A church? Yep, how'd you guess?
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the prelude. When J00ster returns, if indeed they return at all, it will be from the wilds of an ancient trail on an epic journey to a lost city in the clouds.
See what I mean.
The ruins of Pisac are kind of like a test run for the real thing. This Machu Picchu-lite is perched on the valley walls.
Mei doesn't look like she has any inclination to get down and dirty and start working the terraces.
Mei gets some last minute posing practice in, in preparation for the main event. And in case we don't make it over the Inca Trail, we can always call this Macchu Picchu.
Remarkable how much the Incan's accomplished in their relatively short reign of less than a century. But they didn't have to come up with blog posts filled with one liners.
Now that's what I call high fashion. Geddit?
It's hard work smiling while at the same time trying to avoid plunging backwards and becoming condor fodder.
Next stop on the Sacred Valley tour - the town of Ollantaytambo, dominated by an imposing temple carved into the very wall of the flanking mountain.
Apparently the Incas won an epic victory here against the invading Spaniards by rerouting a river to flood the valley plain, sweeping the enemy to their doom. All the more impressive considering they were battling not just the enemy's swords, but their germs too. Rock would have bartered the keys to the castle for a couple of Tylenol capsules.
As the sun sinks on the eve of departure for The Trail, there's time for one last stop at... I'll give you two guesses. A ruin? Nope, strike one. A church? Yep, how'd you guess? 
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the prelude. When J00ster returns, if indeed they return at all, it will be from the wilds of an ancient trail on an epic journey to a lost city in the clouds. 
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