Peru underwent presidential elections this year. All through Peru candidates have painted their names on every spare inch of wall that was within a sight line of a road. During my travels here, I have passed literally thousands of these ads. The campaign ad in the picture below is for Acuña, who is by far the most prolific of the painted wall politicians. His staff would paint brick fences that went on for miles, entire towns, and anything else that was not nailed down. The second most prolific painted wall advertiser was Keiko, a former first lady, and the daughter of President Keiko who served as president in the late 90's. President Keiko was continuously in trouble for his various bad deeds (coup attempt) in office, so much so that he is currently in jail, and Peru is still charging him with serious crimes to this day. The election is now over, and the winner by 0.24 percent was Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK), a former senior finance guy at the World Bank, Keiko was second, and what became of our prolific painter Acuña, well, he was disqualified for buying votes. Hopefully his sentence will be to clean all of his adverts from walls, cliffs, and slow moving sheep.
Today was a fun day yet again. We took off out of Espinar about 8:30am and rolled into Cusco around 2:00pm. Turns, twist, and pure fun were on the ticket for the bulk of the morning. The traffic situation coming into Cusco from the southeast was much worse than when I when entered from the northwest. Twenty miles of congestion verses basically no traffic.
We are staying at a very nice hotel just a block from the Plaza de Armas, and I must admit, it is nice to be in luxury for a day or two. Hot showers, fluffy towels, and deep mattresses. Very nice. We spent the afternoon walking around the historic center. Tomorrow we will run down into the Sacred Valley, this time without blockades and angry protesters..... I hope.
Trip Summary
Today was a fun day yet again. We took off out of Espinar about 8:30am and rolled into Cusco around 2:00pm. Turns, twist, and pure fun were on the ticket for the bulk of the morning. The traffic situation coming into Cusco from the southeast was much worse than when I when entered from the northwest. Twenty miles of congestion verses basically no traffic.
We are staying at a very nice hotel just a block from the Plaza de Armas, and I must admit, it is nice to be in luxury for a day or two. Hot showers, fluffy towels, and deep mattresses. Very nice. We spent the afternoon walking around the historic center. Tomorrow we will run down into the Sacred Valley, this time without blockades and angry protesters..... I hope.
Trip Summary
Today's Leg: 141 miles (229 km)
Total Distance Traveled: 9,490 miles (15,752 km)
Total Borders Crossed: 10
Total Countries Visited: 11
Total Times Stopped by the Police/Tickets Issued: 16/0
Shaken Down by the Police/Total Times Paid: 5/1
Visits to a Holding Cell: 1
Countries Following this Blog: 30 (Welcome Canada)
Mike's Trip Summary
Today's Leg: 141 miles (229 km)
Total Distance Traveled: 950 miles (1,533 km)
Total Borders Crossed: 1
Total Countries Visited: 1
Total Times Stopped by the Police/Tickets Issued: 2/0
Shaken Down by the Police/Total Times Paid: 0/0
Visits to a Holding Cell: 0
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