I was looking forward to a break from the really rough unpavement
from Ayacucho, and I found it. With the exception of a couple
construction zones and landslide areas, I had all pavement from
Abancay to here in Cusco. And the towns with lodging happened to
be pretty well spaced along the way, making for good riding.

I climbed for 35-40 kms out of Abancay, before hitting a nice
downhill for 30 kms or so into the town of Curahuasi. It was
really nice to be able to sit down for a downhill, and cruise
along around 40 km/hr. On the unpaved descents, I'd be standing
for hours at a time, bouncing along at 10-15 km/hr.

Curahuasi was pretty quiet, and the next morning I continued
the downhill to the Rio Apurimac, back down into lots of heat
and some cacti. But the town of Limatambo was just 20 kms
of climbing, and another flat tire, from the river. Along
the way, I enjoyed listening to and seeing flocks of wild
parrots. I had a parrot in college, so seeing a group of
green loudly making its way across the sky is always a
delight for me.

Sunday is apparently market day in Limatambo, which is nice
not just for the entertainment of watching a small town
Peruvian market in action, but it also means the restaurants
in town are all open for the day. So I enjoyed a relaxing
and entertaining afternoon there.

The next morning, I thought I had a 40 km climb, but it
turned out to only be another 25 kms before dropping down
a little into flatter terrain. There were a couple glacier
topped peaks in the distance along the climb, but they were
obscured by the smoky hazy.

I had been planning on pulling up short of Cusco for the
night, but with the shorter than expected uphill, I went
ahead and rode into the huge city of Cusco. Trying to
find the center of the city, I ran into a family I'd seen
at dinner in Limatambo the night before. They were surprised
to see how far I'd made it, and also gave me great directions,
so that worked out well and was amusing.


I see a lot of places that call the city I'm in right now "Cuzco".
So I was curious if it would be "Cuzco" or "Cusco". I know some
might suggest putting both into Google and seeing which gets more
results, but since it's a well-established fact that the company
Google hates the United States [*], I try to avoid them. But
looking around the city here, I think I can say that "Cusco" is
the most popular spelling.

Cusco is probably the tourist capital of Peru, and even before
making the main plaza of the city I stopped for a chat with
a French-Canadian who's interested in bicycle touring. Cusco's
popularity comes from so much of the remains of the Inca culture
in the area, including the famous ruins at Machu Picchu. I'm
going to be here in Cusco for a little while, taking in the
sites, along with some other big plans. I'll email more later,

Greg



[*] From any computer in the world, with no previous settings...
...a visit to www.google.ca gives the Canadian Google site.
...a visit to www.google.com.mx gives the Mexican Google site.
...a visit to www.google.com.gt gives the Guatemalan Google site.
...a visit to www.google.com.sv gives the El Salvadorian Google site.
etc., at least for every country I've checked,
EXCEPT
...a visit to www.google.us gives the local country's Google site.
i.e, visit www.google.us from within Canada, and get the Canadian
Google site, visit www.google.us from within Mexico, and get the Mexican
Google site.

Why is this? www.google.com redirects to the local country's Google
site by default. That's fine, but unfortunately, Google's decided to
have www.google.us just point to www.google.com, instead of a US
version of Google.

This means that US users accessing Google from outside their
home country do not get the same ease of use that users from every
other country in the world enjoy.

I have tried over the past several months, multiple times through
official Google channels, and also through multiple friends who work
at Google, to have this situation fixed. While my friends there
understand and acknowledge the problem, Google as a company
refuses to even admit that the www.google.us behavior is
inconsistent or undesirable, much less take the simple steps
to fix it.

Given how easy this issue seems to correct (just make www.google.us
point to a static site, instead of redirecting), and how dismissive
Google has been of the reporting of this problem, I can only
conclude that Google hates the United States of America. I
suppose it's also possible that it's just a company run by
apathy and arrogance, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyone out there who's bored, though, feel free to report this
bug early and often to Google, or just ask them why they hate
the United States. Thank you.