Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to tell you that we're safely onboard the ship. At least 2,000 people were stranded in Machu Picchu right after we left because of a rock slide from all the rain, which went across the train track--the only "normal" way to get to the town near Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes. There are around 50 people who are supposed to be on board, who were still up there. Apparently, this has made some international news. As of yesterday, Regent wass looking into the use of helicopters to "rescue" them. They are actually fine, just in a difficult situation. We had dinner with the General Manager of the ship, Anthony Miller, and he was filling us in. We were very lucky as we left a couple of days earlier to spend time in Cusco.

As is, because of the weather the last morning, they canceled all the flights back to Lima from Cusco. We, too, were examining alternative scenarios. Apparently, one cannot even get from Cusco back to Lima easily. They told us it would take 25 hours for what is an 80-minute flight. Fortunately, things cleared enough so planes could land, and we were less than 3 hours late. Everything was taken care of fairly efficiently by the tour company, so we were onboard by about 4:00 PM on Sunday.

I'm working hard on the blog during these two sea days we have so I'm not going to go into anymore detail now. I hope to "publish" it tomorrow.

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Eugene (and Gail)