EB 470: Rhett’s Father-Son Trip to Peru

But like what? Yeah, what is the reason? Wasting water. Really? Like whenever I’m, I’m make a drink for Christie, I’ve noticed that she doesn’t drink the whole thing, so I’ll like make half of it. Make a drink? What do you mean kinda make a drink? Like a make a drink. Make, if I’m make a coffee for her, if I pour a drink, like a. Yeah, well I’m gonna finish up. You don’t have to do that for everybody though. That’s a lovely thing you do for Christie. But I mean, it was just like a puddle at the bottom of the– But you were, you were in the desert for a few days. Link, if anyone needs extra water, you need extra water. Welcome to Ear Biscuits. The podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time, I’m Link. And I’m Rhett, this week at the round table of Dim Lighting, We’re gonna be catching up with each other. I was out of the country. Yes. I haven’t told you anything. I’m gonna tell you everything. You survived Peru. You, uh, you had your own experience Peruvian out of the county, not necessarily out of the state of the country. Yeah. I’m still recovering from, uh, Coachella. I want to talk about what just happened though. Uh, what just occurred moments before we started rolling, and that is you asked me, well, I was pouring my water. I had, I had this carafe of water. You, you asked me would you want water? And I said meh. I said something that sounded a little bit like yes and no at the same time. Yeah, you did. My mouth stuck together. That’s fine. You’re like meh. But I was like, yeah. And I was like, then I was like, yeah, and then I didn’t watch you. I didn’t watch him pour it in. And then I look and there is no more than a puddle of water in the bottom of my, like a fifth. Okay. Realistically a fifth fool. Like it was like enough to wet your fingernail. If you were to stick it in the bottom, it might go to your first knuckle. And I look and I got, I looked at it and I said. It is full now because I asked him to fill it up. But I looked at it, I said, what? Why’d you gimme such a little amount of water? And he said, I don’t like to waste water. What? I don’t like to waste water. Well, first of all, you’re assuming that I’m not gonna drink all of it. Yeah, I did. But also what? Like I understand that we live in a dry climate. I don’t mind, like if somebody was like, I don’t like to waste water, I would be like, oh, so you’re the kind of person who has a setting on your irrigation system that doesn’t turn on while it’s raining so that many, many gallons of water will be wasted. That I, I have that right. Yeah. That’s great. But wasting water, the difference between two ounces of water and 10 ounces of water, it adds up over time. It doesn’t. No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t, it doesn’t add up. ’cause I’m gonna drink it. But I, I didn’t think I, I literally thought, I don’t, I I’m gonna give him as much as I think he’s gonna want, but what a weird way to live is what I’m saying. It’s just a weird way to live. I was living empathetically ru No you weren’t. I, I it for Christie. You’re like somebody who went through the depression, who actually didn’t go through the, the depression. I didn’t, you know what I’m saying? Like, you, you grew up in the eighties in a time of plenty. I didn’t even go through, I didn’t even really experience the nineties stock collapse or whatever. That was the, the housing implosion. That wasn’t the nineties, you mean 2008 financial crisis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The nineties. The nineties were also great. We grew up in the times of plenty, man. Yes, it’s our kids who grew up in the times of the lean times, but I know what’s coming and so, well, I, you’re, I can respect that, that half, that top half of a mug of water that you gonna want one day, you’re not gonna have. But the thing is, I’m gonna re, I’m gonna tell you remember this moment, but being hydrated is gonna be really important in the apocalypse. Like, so you gotta, this is not, this isn’t too much. A cup of water is not a lot of water. Here’s the reason why I did it. So, so, taking a shower during the apocalypse, that might be a mistake. I’m giving you what you need. I’m giving you what I thought you wanted because when I get a drink for Christie, I, what I’ve noticed is that I’ll find like a coffee mug and I’ll look in the coffee mug and I’ll be, and I gotta pour out some coffee first. Or even if I give her a little bit of my LaCroix or something, I’ll notice later, like if I give her a bottle of LaCroix, like when I have my little treat and I give her one a bottle, I’ll give her the whole bottle. And then where are you getting bottles of LaCroix? I mean, not LaCroix, uh, Topo Chico. Oh. Um, she will, I’ll notice that later. It’s like half full. So I’ve learned, I’m just like, whenever I, I’m not that kind of person. I give her a water or something. I give her, I give her half as much because then when I pick it up later, it’s empty. Or there’s a little bit in the bottom. Yeah. Okay. Listen, and I gave you what I thought you needed. Well, here’s the thing, because I’ve never seen you drink water during the podcast. What? That I thought about. I was like, he’s not gonna, actually, he doesn’t actually want water. I’m not gonna, I drink whatever is in the cup. Usually it’s tea, but water, fine tea. But if it’s water, you don’t drink at all. Wrong. Okay. I thought I noticed that, but I guess I’m guess I’ll finish it and I might get more. Well, I know that now I’m gonna be wrong because you’re gonna prove that there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of people that do what you’re talking about. The leaving the sodas half, I mean, my kids, I gave you more water and their friends I gave me once you filled it up. Look, when my, when my boy has friends over and which is a lot, they hit your cans and there’s a lot of ’em, and they drink half your cans, I don’t know, half of them, half of the time. And they only drink half your cans, don’t they? And they drink sometimes a third of the cans and there’s just cans. I don’t do that. I take offense at that. I’m so, and I take offense at, you think I’m one of those boys. I’m not one of those boys. I’m not like your wife or those boys. What? I finish my drinks. I I would be ready to give you more if you, if it turns out you needed more water, I’ll reached out here. I’ll grab it. I’ll pour you some more. Yeah. But that’ll create an awkward moment in the podcast. I think it’s, it’s more fitting to have a full glass of water. Okay. And then, you know what, maybe it’s a spiritual practice. What you can do for your wife is that she doesn’t finish things. You pour it out. You pour it out in memory of someone in memory of what My wife didn’t finish. Yeah. This is in honor of, I won’t pour it on the curb for the homies or anything. You could do whatever you want to. You want me to walk out to my front curb and pour it out for the homies? I so, oh, you know, here’s a better question. What do you do with the extra coffee? I pour it down the sink. But what would you do? I I pour it in a cup. It accumulates and I give it back to Christie days later. But like, if it’s Topo Chico, it’s a set amount. Oh yeah. See that’s the thing. I don’t, I don’t offer her topo chicos or she can swig mine a little bit. That’s gross. That’s gross. She’s my wife. Stay out of it. Still. Still gross. Stay out of it. Stay out of it. Backwash is still gross. Listen, you’ve been to Peru and all you want to talk about is how much I put in your glass. I just, how many ways can you say you missed me? You know, that’s what, that’s what I’m saying. I love Peru. Lemme talk about it. Yeah. Don’t you wish I was there doing stuff like this the whole time in Peru? Like giving you half a glass of water? Oh, well, I’ll say, yeah. I went with my son, my 16-year-old son Shepherd. And I’ll say that, uh, seven days of, of us being together alone was, was enough. We learned. Yeah. Okay. That’s fine. Uh, and it turns out that eight was too many, which it turned into eight because of a flight. That’s right. You mishap or it turned into nine, I guess. Oh, what did nine Was that because it was no, eight. Eight. So you had to add a day and you had to move your flight. Was that stressful? I know you get stressed. Yeah, I, you know, um, it was, I, um, there’s nothing like wanting to be back in your country when you can’t get there. I, uh, I noticed something, first of all, and I, that had an intentional political meaning Shepherd and I had a great time. We really do get along, but there’s something about being with each other, constantly sharing a hotel room together, you know, for, for a full week where the 47 year oldness of a, of the 47-year-old man and the 16 year oldness of a 16-year-old boy. It wears thin after a while and you have different priorities, and, and we had a great time. We really c we connected as much as we’ve ever connected. Well, and then by the end we were kind of like, yeah, we’ve had enough of each other that’s healthy. And, uh, what, was there any, w was there any, what was like a big pain point? Because you reminded me of my, my weekend? Well, 16 year olds, um, I’ll, I’ll talk in general generalities here. Um, they’re tough to wake up, they’re tough to get going in generalities. Uh, not, not any anyone particular, but yeah, all of, all of ’em. All of them. They’re tough to wake up. They’re tough to get going. And there was a lot of like, Hey, we need to be leaving at this time. And there was a lot of like, Hey, get up. Hey, get up, get up, get up. I’m not going to shake you out of this bed. Get up. You know, in general. Yeah. In general. This is just how they are, not just my son. And, um, but what, what was he complaining about? You, did you, did you receive any complaints? Uh, the, well, so one of our big, one of our big things that we kept running up against was the fact that, so I was, you know, I was approaching this pretty systematically, which I, I do, I will have like a system for certain things. We wanted to travel without care, without, uh, checking any bags because there’s like transfers and there’s, I was like, we’re just gonna go to proof for a week. Like, let’s just take a backpack and a carry on. Mm-hmm. And so we have everything with us that simplifies all the travel, which he was happy to do. But one of the things that I did is. I was like, we’re gonna be in Peru. We’re going to be, this is a, this is, uh, a little bit more of an adventure vacation because we’re starting in Lima and then working our way to Machu Picchu. It’s a lot of hiking and zip lining and horseback riding. It was a, an adventure vacation used by all forms of Trent. That’s how you got from Lima to Yep. All the zip line. A zip line and a ho laying on a horse. And, and so what I did before we left, because I knew that she was not gonna do this, is I was like, Hey, let’s go to REI and I’m gonna, I’m going to, I’m going to equip you. What does REI stand for? Recreational Equipment International. I’m going to recreationally equip you for an international trip. I’m going to REIU. Pretty sure that’s, that’s not it, but yeah. Um, it is. Maybe it’s recreational equipment Incorporated. You are correct? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. Not as fun though, but I recreationally equip him. With like technical clothing, you know what I’m saying? Like, I was like, you need some hiking pants. They’re light, they’re quick, quick dry. You need a hiking shirt. Mm-hmm. You need, you need some t-shirts, like a ri kind of like t-shirt. So you wanted him to cosplay as you going to Peru? No, no, no. I knew he was gonna bring all his clothes and I was like, jeans, big baggy jeans. Yes. And small t-shirts. Yeah. And multiple chains that go, that connect different parts of his body to other parts of his body and his wallet. And Vince and I knew he was gonna bring all that. Yeah. Okay. Right. But, but I, but I, I was like, and I said, you know, I’ll pack it for you. There’s no, oh, okay. No, I said ’cause So not only does he not care for it, he doesn’t really know it exists or is in his bag. Well, no, no. I, I, he went with me to REI as I equipped him. And he would look at it and he’d be like, Hmm. And I could tell it was a little hesitation. Yeah. He’s not really into Rick Steve’s core, you know what I’m saying? But when you’re, you know what I’m saying, what I fail to understand is that a 16-year-old is like, I’m getting picture, like, we’re gonna go to Machu Picchu and there’s pictures that are being taken. Yeah. And dad is gonna be dressed like Rick Steves, and I can’t, I cannot dress like that. And I don’t want it to look like Rick Steves, I wanna look cool so that I, I’m dressed the way that I want to Yeah. For the gram or the snap, whatever. It, and I really know, like I thought that Machu Picchu, especially the second day, which was supposed to be this longer, more intense hike that got canceled because of rain, but Hmm. Um, so we basically just went back to Machu Picchu two days in a row. Um, he did end up wearing the technical clothing for like one day or something like that. But in, in his, and it’s funny because. Was he making fun of you for it? Was he giving you a hard time? He wasn’t making fun of me as much as he was just basically being like, dad, I don’t think I tolerate, I think I can wear these big jeans to Machu Picchu. I think it’s okay. And we would’ve these like little arguments about it. Yeah. And eventually I was just like, why am I, why do I care? Yeah. Why do I care? Why am I, why am I fighting this battle? Let him, yeah, let him, yeah. You’re supposed to be learning that lesson. Uh, it’s, well, it’s just tough to apply. Can, can I, can I tell you my version of that for the much shorter weekend going into Coachella with Lincoln? So, uh, Lincoln drove up in from San Diego. We each had like, what could be a two and a half hour drive or it could be a six hour drive. That’s how it is when you’re trying to go to like Indio or Joshua Tree or any of that stuff. So we’ve learned that lesson. I left Thursday for, and then I camped like. I decided I wanted the full Coachella experience and they have these, but, well, but I didn’t want to do the full, full, like camp in a tent or camp in a tent beside a car. So I, I camped in a sprinter van, which was parked by a company that parked like 15 of ’em in an area that’s only for those people. So it’s a little nicer. So I stayed in it, had a bed, it had a sink with running water. It had an air conditioning unit in the driver’s seat. ’cause it was a hundred degrees every day. Like in the window? In No, in the driver’s seat. Like, it was a huge unit. It looked like a droid. Like you would have it in your house in a room to like see a house. Ducted that went out window, then ducked that went out the window. Um, and then we had shade and a cooler and, uh, a refrigerator. So it was like, it was glamping and it was right on the edge. But I went Thursday to get in there. I was there Thursday. Then the, then he showed up Friday. So we saw the festival Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And then he, we got to go back and see Posty, um, and then he had to leave ’cause he had exams Monday morning. So he didn’t actually get to stay for that show, but like, so then I stayed backstage and hung out and had a good time with the people that I know back there. And I met Buzi. Oh, I’ll just throw that in there. Buzi is a familiar, is a large guy. I’d love to see you two wrestle. Well, oh, he’s real tall. He’s real tall. Huh. But he’s, but he’s bigger than you. He’d beat your ass well. You don’t have to be taught to out wrestle me. No, that’s, but I’d like to see someone that big, just like totally break you in half. And I’m, I’m nominating sha booze, which, uh, you know, you know how I am. I probably, I, I was this close to proposing that I got, I got a friend, he’s my best friend since first grade. He’s not here. Yeah. You probably shazi Shazi. But I, I really want you to wrestle him. Uh, can we, you know, I didn’t say any of that, but, um, what did you say to Shazi that I, we ran up another shot. I’m asking, I said he was asking post about like, how it sounded and stuff, and I don’t know if I don’t, I don’t know. He said he sounded good, but I actually don’t know if, if he hurt his set, but I did. So I stepped in and I was like, I was back at this point. My vantage point was from this place. And, um, you sounded great. I was a little further away. I hope he wasn’t offended. He was, he was happy to hear some positive feedback. What did he say back to you? I think he said I got, I need to move around here so I can talk to Post. Yeah, yeah. In, in like the nicest way possible. But Lincoln, Lincoln was there. Um, Lincoln met, uh, the kid Laroi, which was a big thrill for him because he was, he’s always been told that he looks like him and like when he had longer hair, they both had longer hair. And he like was him for Halloween one year, many years ago. So it was like, and he’s a fan, so it was like cool to meet him. They both have a haircut now and they still kind of look the same except he’s a Australian. Did he show him the picture from Halloween? He looked for it, but couldn’t find it. Oh. So it was one of those things. Oh. But he wasn’t. They’re talking to him, looking for it. Okay. He, he went away. Couldn’t find it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So he’s learned from the best in how to interact with, uh, you know, top tier celebs. Yep. I wish him well. Um, yeah, and he was, he was observing a lot of that. But back to the thing about like you and Shepherd interacted with each other, the things that Lincoln ended up pointing out, first of all, Lincoln is a model middle child. He doesn’t, I don’t think he knows how to complain, uh, when it’s never heard, you learn never to do it, I guess. So he’s like a quintessential middle child like that. So even when it’s us, it’s like super chill. And he’s just like, the only thing is he, yeah, he waking him up is a little bit fraught. Right. That ’cause it’ll, you don’t have to do it once, you have to keep doing it. Oh yeah. Yeah. And Lincoln is, uh, 20, but I. That still happens. It takes a while to grow out of it. But let me tell you, by day two, by day three, I was so exhausted that that wasn’t a problem. We were both just like ConEd down in this, in this van and like knowing that it’s a hundred degrees on the other side of that window. And aren’t you like hearing all sounds like going through. They don’t open the gates until one in the afternoon and then like one day we didn’t show up until five and then, you know, we’re going until like the earliest night went to bed was two. Yeah. And then I think two nights ago it was four. But um, when we got in the bed, the first, the first night that he was there, it was like there’s actually plenty of room for us to both, both sleep on the opposite sides of the van, like in the same bed. And he likes to, he likes to cram himself in a corner is what he said. His bed at home has always had a corner. He would like shove his face into and is like, his room at college has a, is in a corner. And he like, so like literally it’s, it is like he’s cowering in the corner sleeping. That’s like his habit. He likes to sleep in a corner. Wow. Okay. But he, so he was in bed first. I was like, damn, you’re in the corner. And he was like, I, this is how I’m asleep. He was like, already falling asleep. And then I get in bed and I hear him just laughing. He’s just laughing. And I’m like, I didn’t say anything. And then a few minutes, like a few seconds later, he is laughing again. And I’m like, what are you, what are you laughing at? He was like, all the noises you’re making, why, why? You’re like, it’s, why is it you’re grunting? And you’re like, you’re, it is getting ready for bed. You’re almost moaning. But it is. They’re not long enough. They’re just grunts. And I was like. Well, yeah, they’re dad grunts. It’s like you getting ready for bed is probably registered as a workout on your order ring. Just like, yeah, just like trying. Yeah. And then I was so sore. I, I mean, your homeboy had taken over 30,000 steps that day. Yeah, that’s a lot. And that doesn’t count. That doesn’t count. When I was on the bike, I, I’ll have to come back to that story. If we had time, I’ll tell you the bike story. Okay. Um, but yeah, he’s making it funny for that. And that was, and then hours earlier was, we made it to the Lady Gaga show, but this was after probably 25,000 steps. And like I’m standing out there and on the grass, we weren’t too close. We had the ability to get pretty close, but for this, we started out in the back on the grass and it was still in, in the crowd. And he looks over at me and he’s like, I looked over and I was like, where’s daddy? He’s gone. And then he said, I looked down and you were completely doubled over. You were standing, but you were completely doubled over. It was like you were doing a toe touch. It was like you had folded yourself in half and your face was in your own crotch. And I was like, yeah, I was stretching. And he was like, well, it people noticed. Oh yeah, I’m sure it did. I was like, well, I, dude, I couldn’t help it. And then if I wasn’t just bent over, like trying, trying to stretch the lower back, then I was trying, once you do that, you’re like, okay, now I gotta go into a deep squat. And now I, I gotta throw a leg out. Like there’s a, there’s a. There’s a place for this. It’s not in a crowd. And I’m with Lincoln on this. I eventually ended up, I mean, see he was making fun of me for that. Public stretching is public. Stretching is a no go, especially a music festival. And I’m just, but I was hurting so bad. I ended up sitting down. And then once you sit down in a crowd of people who are standing for one of the most historic performances in the history of Coachella, some people are arguing like the theatrics involved. People are saying in Lady Gaga’s, but yeah, they’re not talking about my performance. Hers, yeah. My performance was pretty stellar. It ended up on my ass in the grass, not seeing any of it. But I would look around and I could, I could see through legs and there would be a couple of people seated and they were, they were of the older aged variety like me. So there was, you had to be one of the older people there. Every time I stood up, lady Gaga was being carried by, by groups of people on her back in different places on stage. And she was always wearing a different outfit. Sometimes her outfit would have like gloves with like fingers that were, that were like two feet long. Sometimes she would be buried in a thing of desert dirt next to a skeleton. And I found out that it was an overhead shot and she was laying down and it was like she was either being buried or coming out of the desert and she was doing this choreographed dance routine. In the dirt. In the dirt with a skeleton. She did a lot of stuff and you sat down for them two skeletons. Well, no, that’s when I was standing up and I was like, man, every time I stand up, it’s a treat. I think I would’ve stood up more. I ca I, I wanted to, so bad you needed that little stool that we had. I did not. Where you just, where you stand and sit at the same time. Yeah. Lincoln to, he was like, you’d be one of those guys that have one of those stools that goes inside of your pants. And I was like, oh. I’ve done that. Oh, yeah. See? Yeah. On the show. Yeah. Yeah. So he was making fun of me. I think I was an added form of, I was like, am I, do I embarrass you? He was like, what? Yes. He’s not that dad. It’s just, it is amusing. It’s amusing. Dad. Yeah. Yeah. He’s, he is, but I knew what he meant. He’s not, he’s very con he’s not conflict oriented. So he’s not gonna tell you that. You embarrassed that in his way? Yes, he did tell me. Um, and in a way it kind of hurt more, you know. Oh, good. We, we had a really good time, though. Uh, okay. Well, yeah. I mean, Sherman and I had as good of a time, and I, I told him a couple of times, like, she, you’re really easy, like you’re easy to hang out with. It was just the 16 year oldness of it all, and the sharing the space, sharing the bathroom that by the end of a week you’re kind of like, I’m ready. I’m, I’m ready. Mm-hmm. I’m ready to, I’m live with my wife again, you know? Well, I mean, did you shower in a trailer with 20 other people? No, I did that. Yeah. But I had a week. That’s true. Okay. Incredible trip. I love Peru. I’m gonna talk about some of the highlights. Um, can you give a plug for Rain Wilson on Last Meals first? Oh, yes. Rain Wilson is on Last Meals, the preeminent interview series on YouTube. Okay. Um, Josh gets existential with rain. I, I guarantee you. He, he’s, he’s ready. Rain is ready to go there. Oh yeah. He loves talking about existential stuff. That’s his, that’s his whole deal. So I think it, I think it’s a good one. Check it out on the Mythical Kitchen channel. There are so many things we keep meaning to get around to trying a new recipe, cleaning out that overstuffed closet. Mm-hmm. Learning to play guitar. Oh, well I’ve already, I’ve got around to that. Not me. And while those things can wait, there’s one thing that shouldn’t. Life insurance. Yeah, life insurance. It’s one of those things that feels easy to put off, but it can make a huge difference for your family. And with select quote, it’s easier and more affordable than you might think to get the right policy for you. Select Quote is one of America’s leading insurance brokers. 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Hiring indeed is all you need. Um, let’s see. The first thing. Well, so I’ll just kinda give you the du overview of what we did, and I’m just gonna talk about some of the highlights. So again, I asked Shepherd over a year ago, where do you want to go on your spring break when you’re 16? Because the tradition that I tried to start with Lucke and was covid it out of that opportunity mm-hmm. Um, um, was, Hey, when you’re 16, we’ll do a father son trip anywhere in the world that you wanna go. Locke and I were gonna go to Tokyo and it didn’t happen. We made up for it with two cross country trips. Um, shepherd said Machu Picchu, and I asked him, when we were on the trip, I was like, you know what, when, why did you, I thought you would’ve said something like, someplace where we could go scuba dive. Yeah. Because he had gotten, you know, he’s an advanced scuba diver now I thought maybe we’d go to Egypt and like go with a Red Sea or something. Yeah. And, um, he just, he, he said that I. I think he had, they had been talking, some may have been like talking about it or learning about it someplace, and it just sounded intriguing. And he was like, why not? We’ve never been to South America. I was like, okay, I’ve never been to South America. I’m glad we’re, I’m glad we’re here. Um, so you start in Lima, which is the capital, and then, uh, you spent basically a day there kind of exploring the city and then got on a plane to sco, which is sort of like the headquarters of the, you know, it was like basically where the Incan empire was headquartered back in the day where these four areas kind of met. Okay. And I think the altitude is like 10,000 feet or something crazy. Oh. Oh, well that takes some adjustment. Okay. Well when you go from C level in Lima to that. Altitude And one day, and we came down a little bit, we ended up staying in the Sacred Valley area, which was still like 8,500 feet. I think I had a horrible headache that first day. I was just, I did, I was not. And they, and they were like, they give you like the afternoon to like, we didn’t plan anything in our itinerary for the afternoon. It was like, fly up there, go hang out and get acclimated to the altitude. And boy I needed it. Shepherd was fine, he was fine. He didn’t, he had no issues, had a crazy headache, but then the first activity was the next day was going to be zip lining again. I told the person who helped us plan this trip, you know, got a 16-year-old son, we wanna do some adventure stuff. And so I just see zip lining and first of all, I, if you don’t know, I’m. Very scared of heights. And I always think when I’m on like a zip line or I’ve like went paragliding one time, I always just think that it’s gonna break on me. I know that statistically speaking, this is not a reasonable, this is an irrational fear, but it’s gonna break on somebody somewhere in the world at some point and it’s probably gonna be the big guy, right? Yeah. And I just, I’m just scared of heights. I’ve been scared of heights for my entire adult life. Because that’s where your head’s at, right? And but then we get into the car with this guy who’s taking us to the Zipline thing, and he is like, have you climbed before? Have you climbed? I’m like, climb zip. Zip lining. Yeah, zip. We’re doing zip lining, right? He says, well, you have to, we have to climb to get to the zip lines. I’m like, oh, I know where you went. Okay, yes, continue. And then I look at the itinerary and it says, Villa Ferrata and zip lining via ferrata. That’s the word. I know what that means. I don’t know what it literally means, but what it practically means is that you basically have a line. So there’s this metal line that goes up the side of a mountain and you just are carabiner into it as you climb the mountain. Now, I will say that we were on what is considered a beginner route because it had. Like rebar that had been drilled into the, like, steps that had been drilled into the Yeah. Mountain, but like a ladder straight, hundreds of feet up. What dude, I know you would, you had. And I got there and I was like, you had to be [bleep] a brick. I, I know you, I look at it, I mean, I would’ve been scared, but, and I’m like excited. First of all, I told Chev, I was like, well, if I had known that this is what we were do, if I had known this is what this was, I would’ve said no, but you know me, I’m not a chump. Oh, is that what it is? Um, and so I was like, I’m gonna be. Almost [bleep] the entire time. But I’m gonna do this because Shepherd, first of all, shepherd is lo, he’s rock climber. He loves rock climbing. He g he’s a member of a rock climbing gym and he’s really good at it. And he’s not scared of heights and he’s fast or whatever. Okay? And so I knew that he was gonna love this. So, and then there was a guy, you know, there’s always like somebody, there’s like, Hey, I am a professional photographer and I’ll take your pictures for a feet. And of, because I was like, I’m not gonna bring my, break my camera out on this sheer cliff. I mean, looking up at this mountain, I was just like, I cannot believe I’m about to do this. Like, remember the time at the Central Florida Zoo, we just did the ropes course and I was like shaking the whole time. I hate it. I’m so scared of heights. It was like 15 feet off the ground. Yeah. And so. I’m gonna show you some pictures because the rebar, it’s like a, it’s like a u-shaped piece of rebar that’s like, both ends of it are put into the thing, and then it’s just a step. Right? Well, here’s a picture so, you know. Yeah. Oh, that’s crazy. This, this picture doesn’t really do, it just is, this is sort of at the beginning, right? We’re prob I’m probably like 60 feet off the ground at this point, and as you can see, I’m not, I’m, I’m not doing great and I’m holding on with two hands and I have two feet on the same thing and I’m carabiner in here. Yeah, you Meanwhile shepherd is way above me. Um, so we climbed for like an hour and a half to get to, to, to get to the place where, I’ll show you the place where we went. How, well, how many people are with you? Is it just the two of y’all and a guide? It’s just the two of us and a guide and the photographer. But there’s other groups of people who look like they know what they’re doing, who are like a family like that went ahead of us. And then, uh, well, no, but that was behind us. And then there was, I will say I did catch up with these two ladies who were, I mean, they were probably my age or older. Um, and I ended up passing them and I thought I was going so slow because I was like, so I never looked down. Never, never. I was like, I’m just not gonna look down. I don’t want to know how high I’m right now. I mean, you gotta look down. You gotta look out. At least if you look out, oh, I looked out. Yeah. Now we got to this one place. Beautiful. Where, oh wow. This is a, all this is is two, it’s, it is two lines. Can you see that? Like. Can you see what’s happening here? My feet are on this thing and I’m holding onto this other bar, and it’s a straight, like 200 foot drop below me. You’re not against the rocking? No, I’m just out there holding onto the thing. Now I’m strapped into it, but like I, when I got, I started going out on this thing, I thought what was gonna happen is I was gonna do that thing. When you get in the middle and you start shaking, and you can, you can’t, you can’t keep going and that’s when you bring it down, big man brings it down. But, and I get out there and I’m like, okay. I, I looked at my aura ring data and I, my heart rate was like 150 the whole time, but, and I can, but I was being, I was like joking with Shepherd and I was like, next time I ask you to clean your room, like I was just basically like finding ways to be funny and relax myself. But when, but then I would get out here and he’d be like, Hey, stop. And he would get a picture. And so I. Yeah, you, there was no posing, there was just gripping for dear life. There was a couple of times where I did do this. Oh. Where he, he would say, uh, can you, and this is like towards the second half where I was, I mean, this is a sheer face, man. Yeah. Like I know that you’re actually, ’cause you’re strapped in and you’re two points of contact, you’re not really, if you fall though, it’s not gonna feel good. You’re gonna, you’re gonna, you’re gonna be strung, you’re gonna fall down the cliff face on the, the cable that you’re attached to. Oh, it’s gonna hurt and it’s gonna like probably grab, get you one of your balls or something when, in that, in that harness. I was worried about that the whole time too. But, um, I told I was willing to do that. He told you, he told you to let go and he and, and I, and I would be. If I felt like I had a good grip and everything, I was willing to do it. But like, I don’t have a picture of she doing this, but Shepherd would like lean back, you know? Like, yeah. I’m still like kind of what, what he had in mind was more of a fabulous pose where you like, you, you Yeah. I’m not fla your body out. I’m, but you’re not, I’m not willing to do that. She, he would, he would go ahead of me and him. Maybe we’d have to tell ’em to slow down. Now let me, can I just tell you that like those, that shirt and those pants are, that’s fire right there. Yeah. See, I don’t, I look like I see, I look like somebody who knew what he was gonna be doing that day, even though I didn’t, I thought I was gonna be zip lining. That’s technical clothing from REI link does mo moisture wicking Shepherd’s not even wearing gloves. Well, he took ’em off for this picture. Uh, he’s got ’em strapped right there. But we hiked to this thing. Oh wow. Which was, they serve you lunch at a glass thing that is suspended on the side of the mountain. Oh God. And, uh, let me show you, I’ll show you the picture. ’cause I, because this guy actually, that’s wild. Didn’t get the picture, but I got a picture of the guys like cooking in there and they, um, there’s like these chefs cooking on the side of the mountain. Where are they? Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Did you get good and drunk up there and then you No. They offered on zip line? No, they offered. So like, these, these are the guys, like, you know, like cooking on the side of the rock right there. This is the inside of that thing. Oh, wow. And, um, that’s crazy. We had alpaca. You ate alpaca? Yeah. What? Whoa, I thought you were supposed to just like pet those things. Well, I pet an alpaca and then the next day I ate an alpaca. Okay. All right. Fair enough. Uh, that’s the way they, they, hey, went in Peru that I also ate Guinea pig. Okay, let’s talk about that. How did it taste? Um, I’m not gonna show you the picture of the Guinea pig because. Uh, you know, I don’t want to Oh, offend anybody’s sensibilities. I’ll show it to you. Okay. Um, because they know that like you’ve got, you know, people from other places coming in and they want to try, Kui is what they is, is the, is the Peruvian name. This, and again, this is Kui and, and their culture, this is, they’ve eaten it for thousands of years, hundreds of years, whatever. And uh, but when they at this, it’s got the name Pig in it at this certain restaurant, they dress it up. In a hat and bring it to you with a, with a, like a Peruvian, um, alpaca cap on it. And then you get all the pictures with it and it is it sitting, it is sitting up. Sitting up like a prairie dog. Yeah. Sitting up, coming out. That’s a bit much fully intact. That’s why I’m not gonna show it to you. That’s a, I’m showing it to link is it’s like a deep fried prairie dog. And then they picking up there and then they, you’re hungry. Then they take it, take my hat off first. And they, and they cut it up for you and then they give it to you to, to eat in piece it. Yeah. And I would just say it tastes like rabbit and I don’t need it. Again, I had the experience and, uh, you know, I did the Peruvian thing and but you so you didn’t have to climb back down from me. You zip lined from this height? No, I had to climb more after this. What? And then, uh, the zip lining pictures just looked like two dude zip lining. So I’m not, there’s no reason to see those, but it’s like, you know, you’ve seen that before. Yeah. But from that height, how, um, there must be, there must have been a lot of zip lining down. Less than you would think. Okay. Like six of ’em. Wow. Uh, because you’re not, you’re not as much of, you’re afraid of zip lining, but not as much. But this is, this is, this might be the most daring thing you’ve ever done. Well, I told Shepherd, I was like, I think this might be the most physically this, yeah. It might be the most daring thing I’ve ever done. I don’t know the word that I use. I think it’s, but like the most challenging thing that I’ve, the physically challenging thing that I’ve done, because it’s not like, and it, I mean, first of all, it was kind of hard. It’s hard to climb that many steps at that altitude. Yeah. But also when your heart is beating that fast the entire time, like you’re working out really hard and I can, and I was just like, man, I’m glad I don’t have like a hurt knee or my back is because you get up there and like, what would you do? So take the slide down. Um, I, so I was very happy having done it. Take the root, Steve. I was proud of myself. Shepherd was proud of me. I was proud of Shepherd because Shepherd just completely embraces every single thing without any hesitation at all. Um, so he’s very easy to, to, to travel with in that regard. That’s cool. Um, and then, and then the next day we took the train to Machu Picchu. We get on the train, there’s a family there. Uh, mom, dad, adultish daughter, like 20, whatever. Okay. And he, the dad says, um. We had our suitcases and he was like, oh, you can, there’s a storage thing over here. And he like, shows it to me. And then I sit down and he said, oh, also you can, it was like a dinner train almost kind of thing, like with these, with tables. And you’re facing, you know, like two people, four people facing a table, okay. And he was like, oh, you can move this if you’re, you’re a big guy like me, you can move this. And I was like, man, I’d be lost without you. I’m glad you’re here. And I was like, where are y’all from? And he is like. We live in Fuquay Arena, North Carolina. Nuh, are you serious? That’s crazy. Yeah. He didn’t know who you are. No. Fu the Fuquay Heights didn’t know who you were. Well, they’re, he’s from, he, he’s, he’s a Maggi, a retired magistrate from New York City. Okay. He retired to Fuquay two years ago. Because if you don’t know if Fuqua is the town that we both lived in. Your wife just grew. My wife was born there, born, grew up there, and we, uh, it’s like just down the road from Livington. Our second studio was in Fuqua, and that’s, that’s where we moved from when we moved to la. Yeah. Crazy. Small world moment. Um, now I saw them talking and the daughter was telling them who I was, so she, she did know. Okay, good. Uh, at least was somewhat familiar, so it wasn’t a complete whiff, you know. Yeah, yeah. Um, that’s crazy. But I talked to them for a while and then ended up seeing them on the train back, and then they stayed at the same hotel in Cusco. Like we, we saw each other like three times. That’s crazy. Um, so shout out to Craig and his family from Fuquay and, okay, so Machu Picchu, you’ve seen the pictures. You don’t need to see mine. It’s incredible. I think maybe the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Definitely really in terms of you’ve got the, um, I mean, it as itself is incredible in the history of it and like why it’s there and what it represents is all incredible. But the setting, I don’t think a lot of people understand that. It’s like at the top of a sheer mountain, I will show you, uh, you know, I’ll show you the, so you know, this is what it looks like. Of course, this is a picture I took, but it’s like terrace area that I guess that’s, um, the terraces were farmed and then this was where they lived. Uh, but let me just show you the pictures I got from up there, just to give you an idea of like where, how high you are and how. Absolutely amazing. The environment is like this. It it’s just wow. Absolutely crazy. Like, I mean, these pictures are pretty good at capturing it, but sheer green, absolutely mountains, nothing like being there and like the clouds like rolling in and out. We got one day in the rain where we got to actually see all the drainage systems working. The drainage systems that the Incans built when they built it, oh, are still functional. It’s all still functioning and like gutters and [bleep], and all the waters going everywhere. And then the next day it was com it was sunny. And, and so we got both and we saw two different routes and it was incredible. So was there a temple there? An in and, yeah. So what this was is, um, first of all, I’ll talk a little bit more about this in a second because I, I’ve been reading this book, uh, I think it’s called The Last of the Incans, which is basically the history of the, the end of the Incan Empire in the beginning of like the Spanish. Colonization. Okay. It’s a very long book, so I’ve still got a ways to go, but I have read enough to like kind of understand the context of the area that I was going to. And the Incons were like the last, um, like Indigenous Empire. And so they were actually around like after the year. I don’t know exactly when it started, but like, this is like a thousand years ago. This is not like 3000 years ago. This is, you know, they, they were. They were in power when the Spanish showed up in the early 15 hundreds. Okay. So, like, you know, 500 years ago or so. And I think, and they had been around for a few hundred years before that, kind of expanding their empire. So this, so Machu Picchu was, which means old peak. That’s the old mountain. That’s the, the, you know, the shorter mountain that they’re on. What they would do is they would go up there and they would basically take the granite that was in the mountain and they would train, they would, they don’t know exactly how they did it. ’cause it’s kinda remarkable. Some of these rocks are just massive and they, so it got some of like the mystery of like how the pyramids were built kind of vibe. Mm-hmm. It’s like there’s some theories and there’s like these little wheels, they like little rock wheels and stuff that are still there. They showed us one of ’em for like rolling the rocks and stuff. But these massive pieces of granite would create this society where they believe. I don’t know how, I can’t remember the number, but it’s like less than I think a thousand people like would’ve lived at this spot. And they were all basically the elite. Okay. So you’ve got the emperor who has his, his house. You’ve got the queen who’s got her house, separate houses. Well, okay. Sometimes it works. Sometimes works. And you got the temple in the mi there’s, there was multiple temples. There was like a temple of the sun and a temple of the moon, which is around the, around the mountain, which we couldn’t go to ’cause of the, the path was out, but multiple little temple areas and then like places where people stayed, places where the workers stayed, places where they stored farm equipment and they kind of took us around all that. So, and so they’ve archeologically like exposed some of this stuff. Yeah. So it’s kind of crazy because I think it’s 1911, this guy, uh, HIRA Bingham, I think is his name. American dude is like down there and there’s all these rumors about lost, lost cities and stuff like that. And like the local people kind of know. But you know, Uhhuh, it still hasn’t been discovered and by discovered, like discovered by Westerners, you know? Yeah. And he basically finds it one day like hiking up there with some other people, finds it, and it’s completely covered in vegetation. So over the next couple years they come back and they rip all the vegetation off. And so the reason it’s so like clean and exposed and just grass is because they came back and ripped everything off of it, all the vegetation that had grown over it. It was like really like, well law city would like vegetate. You could barely see anything uhhuh. And this was just 1911. Yeah. So it’s very recent. Um, and then there’s a couple of places where they started to like restore it in, in some places where they would like put a thatch roof on it. Like you can kind of see a couple of these places where, actually I don’t have it in this picture, but there’s a place where like they’ve got the thatch roof sort of recreated. And then do they allow you to walk around all of this or is like cording off? No, there’s, there’s, there’s certain places you can walk in certain places you can’t, but you basically get to see, because I don’t see people in the pictures that you’re taking. Well, yeah, they’re in there. They’re there, there, there. Oh, okay. Yeah. So you can walk around, you can walk around a lot of it enough to like, get a complete idea of what it is. And then they, I mean, there’s like guys working on these walls and basically what they’re, I was like, what are those guys doing? He was like, they’re. Taking the vegetation out between the rocks because that will cause it to split. So they can do that. But it’s now like a UNESCO World Heritage site. So like there’s different laws about it now. So you can’t, they can keep replacing the thatch roof on the places there’s the thatch roof right there on the places that they have done it. Mm-hmm. But they can’t do anything else and they can’t build anything else. Ah. So you have to keep it exactly the same once it becomes that World Heritage site. However, right there where you see that in the middle of this open field, right, there’s this like little mm-hmm. What that is, is this panel of grass on, on, it’s like a panel of wood with grass on top of it. And I was asking our guy like what it was, and he said, looks like a stage in 1980 something, or maybe it was 2000, I can’t remember when it was the King of Spain. Was coming to it. And there was this giant rock that was right in the middle of that field that had been there, you know, since the Incons were there. And they were like, well, he needs to land his helicopter there. Oh no. So they took the rock and buried it so he could land his helicopter. Like, why don’t you just take the bus like everybody else up to the thing? And so they had like footed, they, he like showed me pictures of like the guy landing and stuff. And then I was like, well, now that he’s gone, why they, why can’t they bring the rock back out? He says, well, when they buried it, like the rock got compromised or whatever. So now I just have to leave it buried. That’s a shame. Um, but it so funny about that, this was super, like I went, when we walked around the corner to come in and I saw it. Like I got like misty-eyed. It was like, this is absolutely incredible. Especially ’cause I had been reading about mm-hmm. The history of it and kind of knew enough to understand the context, but, okay. More pictures, I gotta show you. And then I wanna talk a little bit about something I learned about the history. So one of my favorite parts of the entire trip was the dogs of Peru. Okay. So I, I noticed, I noticed there was a lot of dogs, not as many around Lima, which is more of like a modernized city. But once we got into the country and we got into Cusco and we got into Mbba, and like the Sacred Valley, there’s just dogs everywhere. And so then I’m, I’m asking packs of dogs or just lounging dogs. So I started asking like, so there would be some, like sleeping outside of a store. There would be some walking down the street, no collars or anything. And so I start talking to our guide and he’s like, yeah, we have lots of, lots of stray dogs, but they’re all, they’re part of the culture and they’re cared for and they’re fed. And so I was like, I’ve got my, my little camera with me. My, you know, my Fuji camera. I’m start taking picture. I took like over 80 pictures of dogs. I’m gonna show you some of the best ones. Okay. Because this is gonna be one of my Instagram posts that will come out. Uh, no, because I mean, they’re like, they’re well fed by every one. Yeah. Okay. But it’s absolutely, and they’re all like pets. They’re like neighborhood pets. So like, so like this one’s at Machu Picchu, just in the restaurant at Machu Picchu, just waiting for this woman to feed him, right? Um, they, they, because this one is a, this is a hairless Peruvian dog. I’ll show you some more of these, but they’re, it is a black dog, all black skin, no hair. And the only hair it has is an orange mohawk. What? Yes. And that’s a Peruvian hairless dog. Yes. That there’s crazy multiple ones everywhere now. It’s not, it’s an ugly dog, but ugly in a good way. I’ll show you some more of those. But this is basically every coffee shop, every restaurant has a dog that is sleeping here. And it’s not like owned by the, the coffee shop. This dog will also be like down the street later, like getting food from somebody and then coming back. Yeah. And uh, so this is one of the ones that was at Machu Picchu. Um, I don’t have the, actually I’ll show you this one. Real, do you pet ’em? Me and Shepherd Petted petted them? Yes. Uh, but like in Machu Picchu, right here. This one. So you got five dogs right there. Those are some big dogs. That’s like a No, that’s like a, no. This dog’s a lot smaller than you think it is. It, it, it’s, it’s not that one. It, it’s this dog’s like barber size. It’s just, I’m very close to it. Oh. But these dogs, every single day they come from a Caliente, which is the city, Machu Picchu, Pueblo at the bottom there. And they climb up the trail to meet the tourist and basically hang out with the tourists all day. And they go back and they’re like a pack and they’re just like up there sleeping. Um, but in fact, that’s the same dog. You can see that that’s a, he’s small. Um, again, every look at the kid, every, they’re all cute. They’re all cute, and they, they’re all taken care of. They’re so smart because they understand the traffic laws or the traffic suggestions is what I would say they are in Peru. Okay? But like the number of, you know, if we let Barbara and Sean out in the city, they would die. They don’t understand cars and they don’t human culture. These dogs are like completely on their own, but also completely attached and dependent on the humans around them. But like, they’re just walking around and you don’t see any roadkill, like they’re, they’re not getting run over because all the ones that got run over. Got run over a long time ago, and now it’s just a bunch of smart dogs that know to like, wait with everybody then cross the street. They’re like walking down and a bus is like coming and the bus driver doesn’t even slow down and the dog just gets outta the way at the last second. Like it, it’s just part of the way that it is. This one’s chilling out. Okay. This is another, so a lot of this one’s got a outfit on. A lot of the Peruvian ones have sweaters on because they don’t have hair, so they give them sweaters. This one is dressed like a dragon. That’s great. This one is got a, this one’s got an outfit on as well. Uh, and this is the same one. This woman was, she had the dog and I was like, can I get your picture with, with this dog? She’s happy to do it. Oh yeah. This one, if you zoom in, you can see it’s underbite. Look at this underbite. It’s like an hawk. Look at the underbite. It’s crazy. Um, so you took, you, there’s, this is a good picture of a Peruvian dog. Oh yeah. With that orange mohawk. That’s a Peruvian dog that’s like mixed with something else. So it’s got like the white head and the white feet, and then it’s completely hairless everywhere else. That’s strange. And this is just like, they’re just chilling out. Then we went, we went horseback riding, and there’s just dogs out there in the field living it up, just sleeping everywhere, being taken care of. I mean, you can go to other places in the world, and this is, and I got some cat pictures. This is true for cats. There’s more cats in Lima, there were more stray cats, and the dogs were on leashes because it’s a little bit more like modernized. And so everybody’s got their dog on a leash and the cats are everywhere. Just everywhere. Uhhuh um, you didn’t like that as much? No, I didn’t, but I was like, you know, I’m gonna, I, I might put a cat picture in my post. I don’t know. I haven’t made a decision. You can put 20 pictures in a carousel. You put one cat picture, but you can put that one. ’cause there’s a dog. There’s a dog in the background and a mural in the background. I was talking to Stevie about this because I showed her this picture. She went, she went with her family. She went with Cassie and her family like 2019. And I, and I told her, I was like, lemme show you the pictures of the dogs. And she was like, Cassie insisted on petting all of them. And I was like, we pet all of them too. But you know, like Stevie’s a little bit of a germophobe. Yeah. So she, so she did not like the idea of touching these dogs, which again, they’re just outside all day walking around. They’re not, this is not the, they’re not bathed, they’re not the bathed bath, you know, cleanest dogs. But they didn’t really stink. Uh, and then at least in, uh, Machu Picchu Pueblo, the, all the animals were spayed and neutered by the government like a year ago. That’s good. And he said that you can, you can take any of them home that you want. Like you just file with a government and you can take one home with you because they’re all straight dogs. Yeah. Jenna, that’s what you, you’re going back to Peru. You’ve been to Peru. I’ve never been, I’ve never been. It’s, I’ve, it is been on, it’s been on my list for, since I was in second grade. And you’re thinking you wanna bring back a, a stray dog? A hairless dog with a Mohawk? Yes. Well, the fact is, is like, it would be like the best, they would be the best dogs because they’re so smart and they just understand everything. And they would come back and they’d be like this, they would be like, this is the life I gotta be inside. Yeah. They would they have a sense of gratitude, you say? Yes. They, they, they would love it. They would be, they seem to be pretty happy though. No, they are. They are. Um, so, okay. But one of the things, so I I, I, I wanna tell you this story from, from the book that I’m reading. Okay? Because it, this is, I kind of knew, you know, you know, bits and pieces of this stuff, but then when you kind of really acquaint yourself with it, and then you go to a place like this, the gravity of it really hits you. So reading this book Last of the Incas and. You know, we’re in Lima and they’re in the middle of the, of the square. There’s a statue of this man, Francisco Bizaro, Spanish Conquistador, who basically founded Lima. And I was like, oh, I haven’t been reading about this guy. I’m gonna tell you a story. Okay. Um, uh, trigger warning. This is a, this is a rough, rough story if you, you know, but this is what happened. So, a war story. Yeah. So you’ve got these guys. So there was a treaty that was passed, um, I can’t remember the name of the treaty. Like I. I always wanna say it’s tortillas, but it’s not that, it’s something like that, A treaty of tortillas. It’s like tor tor something that sounds like that. And it was a treaty between the Spanish, uh, and the Portuguese governments kingdoms that basically said everything east of this line Portugal owns, and it was mostly like Asia and Africa, but also Brazil, and then everything west of that line Spanish would own. And that’s why it’s the Spanish owned, basically. That’s why they got the Americas originally. Okay. And that’s why you got people speaking Spanish on Western side of South America and Portuguese on the eastern side of South America. Ah. But the way that it worked is, is there is like, you know, the way they thought about it was that God had given authority to the Pope who had given authority to the king, who gives authority to the conquistadors to basically go and claim this lane for span. It was, you know, it was imperialism, colonialism. It’s, it’s the way that they did things. Of course they show up in Peru and we’re basically at like the height of the Inkin Empire. Like the Inkin Empire had expanded to 10 million people and only like a hundred thousand of them were like in Inkin, like actual, you know, of the Inkin descent. But the Incans had kind of done their own conquering of basically everyone on the western side of South America, all the way down to Chile, up to Ecuador, I think, um, or Bolivia. I can’t remember exactly where, how far it went, but it was very, very long and encompassed like 10 million people that they were basically ruling. Okay. But their headquarters was in Peru. That’s where they were based. And, and, and. So Pizarro shows up with about 170 clunky todos. And these are like these outcast dudes from Western Spain. Like, uh, Pizarro was like, not of noble birth, he was a bastard kid. Like he born outta wedlock or whatever. And, uh, they had really no hope in Spain, but they were like, you nothing to lose. They had heard about, they heard about Columbus and they had heard about Cortez and Cortez basically going in there and ta and taking over the Aztecs and, uh, killing Montezuma. And so, and they’re like, there’s all this gold and there’s all this silver, and we, we, and we, and we have a right to it. So, right. So 170 guys is how many he’s got with him. And they’ve got, uh, some horses that they’ve, you know, some of them are on horses. They’ve got armor, they’ve got swords, they’ve got guns and they’ve got some cannons, like four cannons. And of course if you’ve read guns, germs, and steel as you did at one point, you know that, um. The Americas. They didn’t, they had not, um, they didn’t have iron ore that there was in other parts of the country, other parts of the world. So they basically didn’t have steel tools yet. So like the Incons basically had like clubs, like wooden clubs with like stone things, you know, that was like their weaponry. But there was a lot of them, and they were very well organized army. So you’ve got this emperor Atpa who has 80,000 troops, 80,000 troops, and word is beginning to get out about these foreigners showing up on their weird animals because there were no horses in the Americas. Uhhuh. They had llamas. They had alpacas, and you can’t ride a llama or an alpaca. They’re, they can’t hold the weight of a person. So they, they didn’t have any animals that they could ride. They used them as pack animals and for the wool and for meat. Mm-hmm. So these guys show up and. But like Adapa was curious. He was like, who are these? Uh, you know, he hears about these guys who are ki have come up to one of their cities that’s kind of close to him, and it’s like an incon city that’s four incon, um, low building wall type things. And then there’s a square in the middle that’s like 600 by 600 feet. And so Pizarro wasn’t necessarily committed to fighting at that point. He was like, I’m ready to fight, but maybe we can negotiate. All they wanted was all this gold, all the silver. They, they wanna come in and pillage this place, right? Mm-hmm. And of course, they want to subjugate the people because what they were also doing is they would, what Cortez had done is they would take over these, these people, then they would basically force la you know, essentially have slaves, you know, of the, the people that they had conquered. And so he’s like, well, Cortez did it. Maybe, you know, maybe I can do something like that. So again, a hundred, about 170 guys. Monstrously. Outnumbered. Yeah. 80,000 in and troops. Out of curiosity, Ottawa is like, well let’s go down. Let’s go down and and meet these guys. It’s like, I kind of wanna see what they’re about and they come down and there’s a little bit of like, there’s this moment where they like stop and they camp outside of the thing. But then like a Spanish guy comes out and like waves them in, basically like come on into the thing. And they ended up 6,000 of the troops come into this square. Basically all that could fit like the beginning of the Army. Mm-hmm. And you’ve got the Spanish guys, the Conors, all around them in these buildings. They don’t know that they’re there. The Incans don’t know that the Spanish are there. Oh, okay. And they’ve Dinkins have the emperor on this litter, which is like the thing you put on your. Shoulder and you hold him up. So that’s how he got around. Like yeah, there were dudes who were trained from birth. It was like a line of people that were trained to make his ride as smooth as possible. Like that was their job. It was like, I hold up the emperor when we travel on the ink and roads and I know how to make it completely smooth. Shock absorbers. Shock absorbers. Like that was their job and they were the best in the world at it. Okay. So they bring him in there and then a friar, I’m getting scared, A Catholic friar comes out by himself, goes up to Ottawa and says, reads this proclamation to him. Uhhuh. And I think maybe there was like an interpreter there that like tried to get some of it, but uh, this was very early in the context. So like the level of what could be perceived and understood is probably very low. But he essentially says, again, this is the, this is the mentality that, that caused basically the conquest of the new world, right? It’s like God has given authority to. The Pope. The Pope, the Pope has given authority to the Spanish King, and the Spanish king has given authority to us to come here and claim this land for Spain and to force you to convert to the true one true God. And if you do not convert, you have, you know, basically the wrath of God coming to you through us. Mm-hmm. And then he hands him a Bible and the story goes that Ot WaPo looks at the Bible. They didn’t have writing, you know, they had a system of knots that they would do for, uh, record keeping. Wow. But he like, just looks at it. He’s like, what the hell is this? And he throws it on the ground. And then that is the beginning of, that’s when, basically shortly thereafter, the Spanish fire, the cannons into this, into this crowd. They come out with their armor and their swords and their guns. And the Incans had no concept for. What these guys had in their hands explosions. They said that they had the lightning in their hands or the thunder in their hands. Right? That’s that They used that word because they, yeah. And so they didn’t even, they didn’t even fight. They just tried to get away. Right? So at the end of this battle, which was the Battle of Kaja Cajamarca, 7,000 Incans have been killed. Do you know how many conquistadors have been killed? Two. Zero. Zero. Zero. Do you know how many were hurt? Zero. Wow. And it was just shock and awe. And so did they kill the emperor or did he get away? So Bizaro goes up to the emperor Now, meanwhile, the Spanish are killing the guys who are holding up the litter and they’re, and they’re being replaced by more guys who keep coming in and holding it up. Wow. And then eventually they were, they reached up and grabbed Otto Wapa off of the thing and pulled him down. And then they, the, the story is they made him prisoner, Pizarro actually kept him in his chamber with him. And Ottawa began to negotiate with them. ’cause he was like, all you guys want is gold and silver. It’s like they didn’t have a system of currency. It was a system of trade. And they didn’t see gold and silver as money. Mm-hmm. They, it was associated with the gold was the, the sun, god, and the, um, silver was the moon. God. And they, I mean, it was all this incredible ornate stuff that they would wear, but they didn’t value it in the same way. They couldn’t, it wasn’t like, this is worth this much uhhuh. And they were like, these strange farmers just want this stuff. And so he said, I will bring, get everyone in. I will get all my people to bring you gold and silver. And he, like, he took a thing and marked it on the wall and he said, I will fill this room up with gold to this point. Because TPA was like, well, if they didn’t get that what they want, they’ll just leave. Yeah, of course. No, we all knew that, that he, you know, they Spanish knew that that wasn’t gonna happen. And eventually OT Wapa knew, but it was too late. They ended up killing him. And, you know, I’m, I basically, it just becomes, it, it is the typical story of, of a Western mm-hmm. Conquest of like broken promises, broken treaties, and slowly just taking all this stuff from people. But the crazy thing is when you’re in Lima, really, when you’re in any city in Peru, you see, you know, first of all, it’s like at this point you’ve got people all on the spectrum. Like from a race standpoint, you’ve got people who like, okay, that person is probably more directly descended from the Incans and this person looks Spanish. And then there’s everything in between in terms of just like the way the features and the way that people look, right? Mm-hmm. Because the cultures are basically just mixed at this point. And there’s some weird, like. Racism and colorism that exist along that spectrum, you know? Mm-hmm. But the thing that’s crazy and ironic is just how Catholic it is. I mean, south America is like supremely Catholic. Yeah. So you got these guys who came in with this God, and in this, this mentality that enabled them to, in their minds, they were justified. Right? And they, they had taught themselves, and this is one of those things that like really bad ideas can make. People do really, really bad things. It isn’t, and, and, you know, you can, you can rationalize and justify that and be like, well, this is right because oh yeah, my God mandates me to do this, and these people, they’re gonna die and go to hell Anyway. So the, you know, I, I, I need to by force convert them because at least they have, I’m giving them something. I’m giving them God. I’m giving them Jesus, I’m giving them heaven. Mm-hmm. That was the mentality. And maybe we’ll take some stuff in the meantime, like everything and become these conquistadors became, they were like the oligarchs of the day. They were like so rich because, and they built these giant estates all over, uh, central and South America, south because they had all this gold. But anyway, you know, I’m like, go, I, we went to a bunch of cathedrals, you know, and you’ve got, in sco you’ve got the original ink and walls still in the city. And then you’ve got the stuff that the Spanish is built on top of it. Oh, and then you’ve got like the ink and palace, and then you’ve got the, the Catholic church right next to it. Mm-hmm. And it’s, I mean, I’m just coming in as a complete outsider reading about the history, but then I’m seeing that here 400 years later, this is what it’s like. You know, I go into this store and they’re selling all this Jesus stuff. Very white Jesus. You know, and this is the, like, it’s so ironic that like the Spanish came, they gave these, they took everything. They gave them Jesus. And the thing that they’ve held onto is Jesus, is this i, is this idea? Yeah. Like the power of religious philosophy to like, grab hold of you and just like take a hold of you. Even if it’s like, oh no, all that was done, all that evil was done in, in this name. And, and that philosophy enabled them to do that. Because I was asking, because I was asking one of our guides about, ’cause he was saying that, you know, this is a very Catholic country and the old religions, the old Incan religions and the old nature religions are just sort of like these historical artifacts, he said. But all of the tourism that we’ve had over the past couple of decades has caused all of us to get familiarized with our past and our roots. Hmm. And some of those traditions have actually resurged re resurged a little bit, but it’s very weird because it’s all mixed together. Yeah. So it’s like, well we, now we know we worship the God of this. That’s in, that’s in the earth, that’s in the mountain, but we also worship Jesus at the same time. They’re kind of mixing the two. But I just found it so fascinating. I. That like when you, when you, when you replay the story and then you, if you were go, go back to that time and you were to fast forward and you were to tell Adapa, like these guys who say they only only want your gold, they’re gonna take everything and you know what? You’re gonna be worshiping their God, your people will be worshiping their God 400 years from now, but you get a really sweet gift shop out of it. Right? Yeah. So it it, yeah, that was quite, that would be quite a shock. It, it was, it was heavy, man. I mean, it was a shock. It, it probably couldn’t have been more of a shock than what it already was, you know? In one sense it’s like you were already at this point where it’s like you got these different type of people riding these different type of animals, exploding these fire from their hands. And, and then you fast forward to the gift shop and it’s like, okay, I, yeah. I already, I was already feeling that it’s probably no different. It’s, and that was. That’s why the Guns, journals, steel is such a, I mean, it’s still a textbook. I, I will warn you, it’s a textbook. It’s a textbook, but the thing that it d the thing that it did for me is I think that it, it, it’s kind of fun to connect the dots and grow. Growing up where we grew up, biggest picture with some of the things that we were taught, there’s a lot of very racist assumptions that are built into why things are the way that they are. Right. You know, the reason that things ended up, the way that they ended up, the reason that one culture won out over the other culture, like the things that we were taught was basically a bunch of racist ideas of why that happened. And then when you see that, well, it was. In, in one sense, it was inevitable. It was, it, it was basically the way that these cultures were separated tens of thousands of years ago in the places that they went to, the environments that they developed in, determined where they would be at technologically when they met again. Yeah. And where they would be philosophically when they met again. Um, and so it’s just, it’s, you know, but again, people are just like, well, the reason that that happened is because these people were white. You know, that’s basically what you’re kind of, that that’s the [bleep], the underlying assumption. Um, that you’re kind of sold Yeah. In certain places on earth. So that, that book does a good job of, um, of that. Matter of fact, I just finished reading, um. I did the audio book of, um, it’s a book called The Cretaceous Past, and it’s, it’s, um, it’s by the Chinese author, the, the hard science fiction author Xi Jing Lu, I think is his name, who also did the show that came out on, um, the three body problem. Three Body problem. So I was like, I was in a three body problem. I’m gonna, and this is a much shorter, one novel, and if you’re into an alternate history of the Cretaceous period that involves dinosaurs, like evolving basically consciousness, and through cooperation with ants, Hmm, ants and dinosaurs basically derive and create their own global civilization. Um, that kind of has some guns, germs, and steel kind of vibes to it, like the scope at and the pace at which the civilization moves and you move through it. It’s a, it’s a pretty short read, so it’s like you kinda get, you kinda get the di dinosaur ant alliance version of human cultural civilization. I like it. Pretty, it something, something I’d be into. I got bogged down in the second three body problem book. Uh, there’s not, my critique of c Cretaceous passage is that there’s not, it’s not as much character and story. There’s some character and, but it’s mostly history, like a fake history that’s based on a lot of the principles of guns, terms and steel. So I, you might, you might like it, but, um, it’s almost like it’s, it’s a soft introductory. To, to all of those type of concepts. So it makes me, makes me think about it. Um, but yeah, I finished it. Of course, I had a long drive back, so I was able to finish it. I So you would recommend going not just for Jenna, who’s Oh, yeah. Dreamt of it since she was in second grade. Yeah. I, I think it’s, I I think it, it absolute beautiful. It’s a wonderful trip. Beautiful. There’s this great action adventure. Yeah. And you know, I, the one thing I haven’t talked about it, hiking heights is the food dogs. You know, the food, food was great. I love Shepherd and I are huge fans of Peruvian food before we go to Peruvian restaurants here in town with like ceviche is probably shepherd’s favorite food. And so there’s like a bunch of ceviche and then when you get to the mountains there’s trout ceviche from, from the river, which was really good. Huh. Um, I mean the al alpaca and the Guinea pig is sort of like, do it if you want to have the cultural experience, but I think that, um. Like the ceviche and then like the big, the big corn? Yeah. Like the Inca corn. Oh yeah. That comes both hard and soft. You talking about corn nuts, basically? The original corn nuts, original corn nuts, or it’s, I, I just absolutely love that stuff. And then in, I’m gonna, I’m gonna shout out this, you know, if you happen to be going to these places, I’m gonna shout out a few restaurants because we had a great experience. So there’s a Little Town Baba, which is in the Sacred Valley. There’s not a lot going on there, but there is this African Indian Peruvian fusion restaurant called Kapu, K-A-M-P-U. And the chef Eduardo was a character in a half. I wanted to get a video of him. So you met him and you ate his food and it was great. Well, it, it was like a, a well reviewed place and it seemed interesting and we went there and there was, you know, there was, it, it basically was the end of the, the rain rainy season. So it’s not, Peru is very busy during the summer. Because it’s the winter, but it’s the dry season. Okay. So our summer’s their winter, but it’s dry. And that’s when people do most of like the big treks or they like hike the in trail. You can hike for four days and three nights On the old actual cobblestone incon trail that the Incons built, they built this incredible trail all throughout the Andes Mountains that connected all the fortresses and the, and and, and Machu Picchu and everything else to everything else. And you can like hike and you can do it. Like there’s Sherpas that carry all the camping stuff and the food and everything. That’s what their job is to Yeah, carry all that. I saw a bunch of them walking. And then there’s all the tourists who have like their little dayak who are just walking and you walk for like four days and then you camp at these nice camps. That’s cool. Um, so she ever kind of wants to go back and do that, but he is also like, but we might need to go somewhere else because, you know, um, that’s cool though. But Campu incredible restaurant. Crazy Fusion, like I said, African Peruvian, Indian. I just like great curry. And there’s a lot of fusion restaurants in Cusco. We went to a Japanese Peruvian, uh, like sushi, Peru Peruvian sushi fusion restaurant called Limo, which was the best meal that we had the whole time. And then the next night we went to a place called Keon, which was a Chinese Peruvian. So they have Chinese Peruvian fusion because there was a bunch of Chinese people that came into Peru, and they created a cuisine called Chifa, which is basically Chinese and Peruvian fusion. So basically you can get like Peruvian, dim sum what, and so we got that the second night. Second night in Cusco mean we had some really good food. That’s cool. Recommend all those places if you’re going to, and of course, any, any Peruvian restaurant there. I mean there’s so many just great Peruvian restaurants where you get ceviche, Inca, corn, alpaca. We had an alpaca pizza. Cooey, if you want that. There’s plenty of those places too. Food was great. Sounds like a success. It was. You conquered some fears. Yeah. You convinced your son that uh, there’s a limit to the amount of time he can spend with you. Yeah. These are all good things. Oh yeah. You know, he’s gotta branch out like he now knows. He’s gotta find, he’s gotta find a life elsewhere. He don’t wanna live with you forever. That’s a really good thing to teach a kid. I, I think he already knew that. I think he, he’s ready for independence right now. All right. Maybe I have to, maybe I have to go Jenna. Maybe. Yes. Maybe. Maybe me and you and my family have to go. When, when you mentioned that, uh, zip line and started talking, I was like, I know exactly what that is. The, the apparat I was thinking about doing that type of thing with our college buddies and like, you can do that in Colorado and stuff too. I, I would do it now that I’ve done it. Okay. Well it ain’t gonna be like that. It won’t be that amazing. You don’t think so in color? I mean, I mean, the view won’t be as crazy. Yeah. But it’ll probably be awesome. Alright. That’s it. We got some adventures under our belt. I have to save my bike story for another time, but, uh, okay. I, I’ll get back to it. Um. Yeah. Glad you’re back man. Let’s keep doing it. Let’s keep doing our stuff. Okay, we’ll keep we’ll keep doing it. Alright. And we’ll keep doing this and we’ll talk to you next week. I, we had to roll again ’cause I just remember one thing, how much water you still got in your mug. Oh, look at this. This is his mind. Hold on. No, this is my mo. Look, look. Hold on. We’re not done. We have to do the ads. Look, look, look at all that water. Oh, come on. That was like that much water and I wanted to drink it. That was this much, it was that much water. Like I poured. This is how much water I poured him and it is still in there. Hold on. You’re you’re bad at math because it had this much left, which is what you poured me originally. I had had that much in there. I drank that much and I wasn’t done with it. You were done. If I had have been, if I had this much in, we had, we had cut. If I, we gotta do the ads, I always finish the water during the ads. Well, you can finish the water during the ads, but, but you came outta your cup now. Well, it came outta your cup first. I drink all my water. It’s all gone. You better believe it. I was watching your water the whole time and I was like, I’m thirsty. I’m gonna drink. There’s hardly any in there. I he, he doesn’t notice that I’m drinking because I don’t wanna remind him something. My whole pinky is in there, there, and it is not even wet. Look at that whole Pinky’s in there and I still not touching the water. It full of water. No, it’s not. It’s right at the bottom. I’m just saying, I, I know what you need, man. Trust me. This is how much you put in. Originally you would’ve been getting, you would’ve been exactly to the bottom. No. No, because you filled it to the top. You think 75% and 25% are equal. You want, do I need to make a, don’t fool me with your numbers. Do I need a pie chart? Uh, I missed having you both here. Okay. Alright, now, now we’re actually at the end. Okay. Now that I’ve proven my point. Mmm not quite, not quite, not quite, not quite. Hey, Rhett and Link. This is Kayana. Just wanted to say that I am currently in labor for my home birth, listening to Ear Biscuits. Um, just thought that was interesting that I’m choosing y’all to spend this intimate time with. But yeah, love you guys. Thank you.