tourism; machu picchu anticipation; camera envy

Cuzco has been fun, though overrun with tourists nd the ubiquitous corresponding salesfolk with unbelievably pushy tactics: "Pase, amigo!" Goddamnit, I can see that you have sweaters and socks ad hats and gloves and pipes and paintings and typical Peruvian goods! Now leave me alone while I browse your wares. It´s enough to drive a gringo MAD, though I suppose it´s a fair tradeoff for our incessant intrusion.
I succumbed to a tour agent who took advantage of my lost look upon arrival as I searched for information on Machu Picchu. He succeeded in convincing me to put my faith in their hands, and in truth, I only dropped about $20 extra for the convenience. Not too bad, when you consider I now have all the details in one organized packet including train tickets, bus tickets, entrance tickets, hostel tickets, etc tickets.
Tomorrow morning I wake up at dawn to head out. Hopefully it will be worthwhile and spiritually inspiring. For now, I´ll spend time and money in this tourist trap Agua Calientes, filling up the rest of my gift list and taking part in the gringo throng.
The trainride here reinforced my longing for a nicer camera and the skill to snap sweet shots. I sat across from a French-Canadien photographer with lovely equipment who captured beauty in the most mundane of frames. My measly megapixels, I fear, will serve me poorly in Machu Picchu and especially in the Brazilian rainforest--but hell, I have to say, everytime someone brings up that old axiom about photos vs words, I think about what I can capture in 1000 words, and it beats the hell out of any picture which is restricted by time to a frozen instant in two shadowed dimensions. Show me any picture, and I´ll capture its entire essence and much m ore in less than 1000 words.

I´m sitting here stuffing pizza down my gullet, having been hoodwinked/convinced to eat here by a pretty young sales-savvy lass who made a special enticing offer of the largest-size pizza for 25 soles. When I hesitated, she added a glass of wine to sweeten the deal.
Now I´ve spent 3x what i had intended on food, though the fare is much much better than what i was prepared for. I often wonder, when I haggle, if i´m even achieving any benefit to myself or simply less loss. I´ve become good at it, but i still have a sneaking suspicion I´m still the one coming out on bottom. I spend the rest of the evening chatting with the brothers running the restaurant and watching Peru lose to Colombia before retiring to bed at 9.