The short messages from the telephone are not always self explanatory. Here is a short elaboration with pictures for the messages the last week:

"Passed Hector Tejada with a micro. Bunkered up with fruits, vegetables, grains, eggs & sweets. Resting day in the tent tomorrow."

At the market in Hector Tejada, loads of kids were gathering around Anita and the pictures in the Lonely Planet. It is fun to be interesting on other terms than your money. We then walked 8 km north west with too heavy backpacks, and planned for a good day off. It is fascinating how you never find the time to do the things you plan on your day off, such as playing cards and learning some more spanish.

"Staying at home with someone we met. Had a wonderful meal. In
Llialli."

As we walked towards Hectors Tejada, we met Luis and Ricardo who were on their
way to go fishing. They shared some of ther lunch with us, to our great
pleaseure, and invited us for dinner and a sleep-over later on. We
were determined to skip Lliallia, and go straight for Hectors Tejaa, but changed
our mind after closely listening to our muscles. The picture shows Luis cooking
their self caught trout, bread, potatoes and salad. Men can cook down here!

"Visited a rolling hospital. Not sick but curious. Excellent offer and great people. Thanks for talk, juice and cookies."

We stopped by the clinical bus on or way past Ocoviri. The conductor of the bus, Ricardo Gomez greeted us warmly, and showed us in to Dr Reiser (who was not busy at the moment). We got some oreo cookies, freshly made juice, and had some really good time together with the two and Juan Pablo, who is the Labratory man.

"Anita got turnus in Stavanger. Exciting! Close to Ocoviri. Sleeping on dung. Full moon?"

Anita was number 100 in the lottery, and could choose the practice she wanted. There were still 7 places left in Stavanger when she was up, at 1050 our time. The valley we called from was totally without reception, and we had some strange looks from some bypassers as Anita spoke in the phone.

The picture below shows where we slept. Alpaccas and Llamas are very social animals, and use to pile their dung uino one spot. The spot is typically the most flat and therefore the best place for the tent. The full moon was so bright, that we did not really need head lamps inside the tent.

"Crossed our first mountain pass of 4900m. Cooked dried potatoes (andean speciality). Tasted animal dung. Fewer people, more llamas"

The mountain pass was long and hard to reach. You notice 1000m up much more at this altitude than at sea level. There is in addition a very limited supply of purifyable water. We decented to 4300 meters, and tried the potatoes we have brought with us from Copacabana. Absoulutely disgustusting, it tasted Llamadung. We will avoid home dried food from now on.

"4320m. Passed Vilavila where everybody shook our hands. Bought food (fresh tomatoes). Full and satisfied."

The people of Vilavila greeted us and cheered when we climbed up the sloped of the city. Most locals have stopped walking, and take the bus instead. "Lechos, lechos" they say, and shake their head when we tell them where we are heading. We filled up on supplies and spoke with the people in the square. Most of them were reserved, but were flocking around us once we opened the map of south America. They rarely see maps at all.

"Found scale. Anita 19kg, Eirik 31kg backpack. Passed Lampa, following river to Vilavilla. Moonlight. Happy again. Hugs A&E"

The church in Lampa was built upon old inca ruins. The picture below shows a mosuleum erected by the spanish, where they used the old skeletons from the catacombs as decoration. Freaky....

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/eirik.sunde/PeruSeptOct2008