Day 3 Cuzco to Pillahuata (pronounced Pee-Yah-WAH-Tah)

After a bountiful breakfast buffet at the hotel, the Lads load our gear on the bus and we climb aboard and hit the road at 5am. We have a third Lad joining us on this part of the trip who will be our cook. It is dark on the drive out of Cuzco. The sun rises and sets about six o'clock every day. Since Cuzco is located very high up in the mountains we begin the long journey over the Continental Divide, and down the Andes Mountains.

We pass through many small villages, all of them very poor. They grow potatoes and we see a horse threshing hay. We stop and bird along the road for a couple of hours finding a spectacular Andean Hillstar (this guy has a fluorescent green mustache that sticks way out). Hummingbirds in Peru have such great names, don't you think? There are steep trails to climb on this stop. The Lads have "second breakfast" all laid out on the table for us when we get back to the bus. (Oh! How we love this) Yogurts and granola cereal, rolls and cream cheese, coca tea and Milo. A Black-tailed Trainbearer flies over the breakfast table and off we all go to try to get a better look. Two young children, a brother and sister, have been shyly watching us while we are eating and we notice that the Lads give them some food after we leave the table.

Back on the bus. Just as we are passing through a small village, Bill shouts out: "Andean Ibis!" and Huw signals for the bus to stop. Sure enough, there in the field not far from the road are 8 of these not-so-easy-to-see birds, all long, downward curving bills with golden heads and necks. We get good looks at them through the spotting scope. The village children get good looks at us.

We stop for a short while at an Inca burial site. This is some incredible scenery from these steep cliff roads. Guillermo is a very experienced driver, which helps Ms. Scaredy Passenger feel a bit more comfortable. An unsuccessful stop for the Creamy-crested Spinetail but we see a couple of Shining Sunbeams. (Wouldn't you want the name Shining Sunbeam if you were a hummer? Julia would!!)

Finally, we arrive at our campsite. The Lads will be setting up sleeping tents and a dining tent and a cooking tent and even a potty tent with a real seat! The toilet paper is an afterthought, but of course we always carry some with us by now! We bird the road while all this is happening. The clouds and ranges of mountains make a beautiful layered sunset.

Dinner and the Bird List. Our Cook makes us a spinach soup (we become accustomed to starting every dinner with a fabulous soup), a delicious curry dish, and some banana cake for dessert. Coca tea, Milo and toilet paper are present on the dinner table. Candle light. Oh, how sweet this is. After dinner some of us head back out into the dark night to find the Swallow-tailed Nightjar and any owls that might be around. This is our first great look at the Southern Hemisphere stars. We don't recognize any of the constellations - there are so many stars and the Milky Way taboot! The Southern Cross is pointed out to us. Julia sees a couple of old friends, Orion and Scorpio, during her middle-of-the-night trip to the potty tent. This is a very cold and clear night and Julia wears all of her clothes to bed and is still shivering. Being overly warm gets her vote over being overly cold any day. She borrows Andy's fleecy jacket in the middle of the night, which definitely helps. Wake up call is at 4 again.