Backpacking South America

Day 22- La Paz, Bolivia

2010-01-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

After a quick breakfast at Loki hostel we hailed a cab and headed down to Plaza Isabela La Católica. We waited there until a double-decker open top tourist bus arrived. I'd seen an ad for the tour at the hostel yesterday, and since La Paz is very hilly and spread out I thought it would be a good way to easily see the city (and allow me to avoid walking on the sea urchin spike!). The price wasn't bad at all, so we climbed on to the top level. Every seat had a set of headphones so we could hear a recording stating historical facts and what we were looking at. The bus quickly filled up, and it was a very diverse group. Our tour guide asked John and I where we were from, and she was surprised to hear the US. She said not many Americans come to Bolivia because it is not very popular with the US, and many Americans are hesitant to come since our country has somewhat negative relations with the Bolivian government. The US ambassador was recently asked to leave the US embassy in La Paz actually! It is also expensive and somewhat difficult to obtain all the necessary things for the Visa that Americans need to enter the country. It did make me feel good though that despite that, we were still adventurous enough to give the country a try!

We began to ride around the main streets of La Paz and saw many plazas and statues. Most of the monuments were of heroes from the many wars for independence, as well as a few of the original indigenous leaders. One thing I noticed about La Paz, besides being extremely filled with people, is that there are a mass amount of electric wires strung over the city streets. The bus was very tall, and there were several moments where the wires were just inches away from hitting the bus. There were many close calls that made me a little nervous, and a few times we had to duck our heads down!

After about a half hour, we stopped the bus at a mirador called Killi Killi. We walked up the steps to the overlook and instantly had a fantastic view of the entire city. We could see how massive the city is, and how it continues on into the mountains. We could see the infamous "death road" in the distance (the world's most dangerous road- it has crazy narrow streets looming on the edges of steep cliffs), the soccer stadium, and the large mountain called Illimani. It was a fantastic vantage point, and it was easy to get some great photos. We then got back on the bus, continued driving through the city, and returned to the Plaza.

Since the tour was over, John and I decided to get a cab to take to the Plaza Murillo. When we arrived, the place was buzzing with activity. Families were out enjoying the sunny day, and vendors were selling their goods while the large population of pigeons walked around begging for crumbs. Many people were gathered around the steps of the Cathedral, so John and I went in to take a look. Mass was going on, so we quietly walked around. It was a European style Cathedral, clearly built by the Spanish. Once we left the church we tried to go and look around the President's mansion. Unfortunately, the place was closed for construction. It was a bit of a disappointment since that was the plaza's main attraction. Despite that, John and I continued to walk around the side streets. We came across a smaller church that was decorated for a wedding, and after peeking in to get some pictures, we saw the guests and wedding party begin to file in. I had seen several other brides at churches during our bus ride, and it seemed odd to me that there were so many weddings going on in January. I guess I should have thought about the fact that it is summer in Bolivia! After I bought my mom some religious themed jewelry from a vendor by the church, we started walking up the hill to find food. On the way, we saw the same German couple we had talked to in Puno! We introduced ourselves, and once they remembered us, we chatted for a little bit. I am still so jealous that they can travel the world by docking their yacht at various harbors- they had been out of Germany for nearly a year!

Once John ate his usual empanada, we cabbed it back to the hostel. After quickly freshening up we walked back to the main Plaza San Francisco. On the way there I was hunting for some lunch "to go", but fast food options don't really exist in La Paz. Out of desperation I had to get a kids meal from Burger King. The chicken was very odd tasting so I didn't even end up eating it. Once we got to the plaza, packed with people as usual, I bought some ice cream from a vendor. That hit the spot! After strolling around, John and I decided that we wanted to see the lower part of the city, so we decided to cab it back to Plaza Isabela and do the second tour offered by the bus company we had done earlier.

We paid for our tickets and were ready to go on the tour which would explore the "southern circuit" of La Paz. This part of the city is the wealthier part of town, and it is unique because in most cities the wealthy people live at the higher elevations, or on the mountaintops. In La Paz though, the higher you climb, the more poverty you will see. On the bus ride we drove through a tunnel that was very low, and it was somewhat scary sitting on top of the bus. We also drove through some neighborhoods were political protests were going on. There were some rallies and people picketing, and the cops were of course nearby. There is much political unrest in Bolivia because of the huge money gap. The wealthy few make thousands, but the rest make almost nothing. There is no such thing as a middle class in Bolivia, and this imbalance naturally creates a lot of tension.

The final stop we arrived at is an area known as the Valle de La Luna, or Moon Valley. It is a very beautiful and interesting landscape, somewhat reminiscent of the southwest US or Grand Canyon. It is a national park, but in the surrounding areas you could see many newly built mansions and upscale country clubs. We entered the preserve, and got to walk around and explore the many unique rock formations. The rocks have crazy shapes, formed from erosion. The one in the photo is an odd rock named "Lady's Hat". Climbing the steep rock formations was actually fun- luckily there were little trails to follow. In the distance we could also see an oddly shaped mountain called El Diente Del Diablo, or the "Devil's tooth". There were also many steep crevices and little caves throughout the tall, narrow rock formations. It was all so unique, and beautiful. I think these views are on of the highlights of the trip that I will always remember first when I think of my time in La Paz. As we continued to explore we got many great photos, and at one point a random man started playing some tribal flute while standing on a rock. Towards the end of our time exploring, it began to rain. We got onto the lower level of the bus and headed back to the Plaza.

Once we were dropped off, we weren't exactly sure what we should do next. We decided to go back to El Mercado Hecicheria (Witches Market) to get in some last minute bargain hunting and souvenir shopping. I had seen on the Internet that there was a Hard Rock Cafe in La Paz, and since I collect their merchandise we began a hunt to find it. While we were in a shop buying chess sets which hilariously depicted the Incans vs. the Conquistadors, I chatted with the woman about it. She gave me directions, but when John and I walked there it didn't exist. It was very confusing. We eventually figured out that a local bar called itself the Hard Rock Cafe- copyright infringement anyone? After that futile search, we went back down to the fruit market. I got some more apple juice in a plastic bag, and John got a huge papaya. By this point, my foot was killing me. Walking around on the hilly cobblestone streets filled with potholes and people traffic is not easy to navigate while having a gimp foot!

Back at Loki Hostel we decided to check out the oxygen bar on the third floor. It is the self proclaimed "world's highest oxygen bar", and after picking out our flavors (I picked lavender) we sat back, and relaxed. The oxygen bar is supposed to help people like me, who have some soroche (altitude sickness) but after the session was done I basically just felt drunk. Not sure why. At that point though, we discovered that you could climb onto the roof of the hostel. There were some Brazilian teens hanging out up there, and it provided a perfect view of Mount Illimani in the distance. It was beautiful to see!

For our final venture in La Paz we had the hostel call us a cab that would take us back to the Killi Killi Mirador. We arranged for him to take us there so we could get photos, and then wait for us and bring us back. I was glad about this because the mirador was in a somewhat sketchy area of the city and I was paranoid about being stranded there at night. Once we arrived we got some photos of the city lights and took in our final views of La Paz. The cab driver took us back to Loki, and we decided to check out the restaurant and bar on the second floor. The place was totally packed with travelers, most of which were from New Zealand, England, and Ireland. After ordering some food at the bar, I noticed a table behind me that consisted of 12 young British guys. I texted Christina saying that our life dream was happening- if only that table had been there when we were single ladies traveling together two years ago! Haha.

After enjoying some celebratory drinks, John and I sadly went back to the room to pack up. The hostel has a glass ceiling, and at that point it started storming and raining really badly. It was pretty cool to see, especially since the hostel is so pretty on the inside. Once we were done packing I headed downstairs and decided to put my brown shoes I had bought in Lima in a collections box so that the they would be given to the street children in the city. They were only used once, so I hope whatever kid ends up with them will enjoy them! It was then time to shower, and after the first three stalls I went to weren't emitting water, just scary noises, I finally had success. Then, I went to sleep listening to the sounds of thunder and young travelers loudly partying the night away.

Day 21- La Paz, Bolivia

2010-01-15T23:54:00.000-08:00

The majority of last night and this morning were spent on a parked bus at the Chilean-Bolivian border. Once the border crossing office decided to open, we could finally move. We did the whole visa-stamping business, and said adios to Chile. Then we got in yet another line to re-enter Bolivia. They searched our bags and while standing there I realized that my foot was throbbing in pain. On the rest of the smelly bus ride I tried to elevate my foot a little, but it was so bumpy that didn't quite work out. Finally, we arrived in La Paz! We got a cab and made it to our next hostel, Loki Backpacker's. It was a huge 4 story place, and I learned it was a Victorian era hotel and theater that they had renovated. It was definitely a really eclectic and nice place.

Our room was trashed when we first got to it, so while we waited on the maid I tried to tend to my foot. Apparently the best cure for sea urchin wounds is to soak it in vinegar. I had no idea where I would find this though. I tried to just ignore it, and so John and I headed into town towards the Plaza San Francisco. Luckily he was being patient because my gimp version of walking was a bit slow. We basically just looked around and tried to get our bearings, making a quick stop at the Cathedral, and had an overly slow lunch at a tourist restaurant. After that, we wandered up the crowded, narrow cobblestone streets towards the mysterious Calle Linares, where the Mercado de Las Brujas (Witch's Market) is located.

We walked down the narrow street- it was a bit dark from the clouds, and that added to the mystical vibe. There, the local witches known as the yatiri, who dress in dark hats and carry coca pouches, sell their goods. In the past, the yatiri were healers who studied herbal remedies (many of them involving coca leaves) and who were seen as religious leaders. When the Spanish came they of course labeled these revered people as "witches". At first the street just seemed like another place filled with various trinkets for sale, but upon closer look I realized that the merchandise was a little different. In addition to the jewelry, ceramics, and Incan god pendants being sold, many of the old women were selling dried up llama fetuses and dried armadillos that were hanging from the ceilings. It was a bit grotesque to see, and when we entered a small shop the odd smell of their bodies took over. It might sound disgusting, but it was actually really interesting! We tried to haggle with the old woman in the shop, and successfully walked away with our hands full of some souvenirs (no llamas here!).

Apparently Bolivians believe if you burn a llama fetus, sacrifice it to the Pachamama (Mother Earth), and bury it under your house you will have good luck and prosperity. It is supposedly common for most Bolivian households to do this! In addition to these goods being sold, many people were selling odd talismans (owl feathers, toad legs), herbal remedies or "potions", unique jewelry amulets, and some places even had signs advertising spells for sale! I ended up buying a necklace that is the Incan sign for the sun, and also bought a ring for Christina. John and I also bought several small pendants that depicted different gods in the Incan religion, and that each symbolize something different. While some of the stands were obviously touristy and fake, there were a few you could tell were legitimate "witch" shops. They had signs for sorcery and fortune telling, and rather than selling t-shirts and rings they had gems, little potion bottles, and a variety of dried up animals. The yatiri are wary of having their photos taken, so we didn't get the chance to take all that many.

Another interesting tradition we saw while at the Witches Market was that many people were selling statues of a short, little fat guy. His name is Ekeko, and he is the god of material possessions. People will buy statues of him, put it in their homes, and hang miniature items on him to represent what they want. If you want financial success, put little dollars on him, or even a lottery ticket. Many people deck him out with chocolate, coca leaves, money, tickets, photos, etc. and for it to become "real" the statues have to be blessed by a yatiri. If Ekeko thinks you are too greedy, he will keep with the Aymara tradition of "all things in balance", and your wishes may not come true. Upon learning this, John of course bought an Ekeko statue.

We departed the Calle Jimenez and headed down hill towards the crowded and never-ending town of tent booths known as El Mercado Negro: The Black Market. There you can find cheap knock off designer items and pirated entertainment. The booths went on forever, and there were so many items for sale and so many people it felt a bit stressful. I didn't find very much I wanted, though I did buy a Spanish copy of the Twilight book! We continued to roam around the loud, crowded and chaotic streets towards a large outdoor food market known as Mercado Lanza. They had many fruits for sale, as well as some unidentifiable meats. After purchasing apple juice, made by smashing up apple slices and then serving it in a plastic bag with a straw stuck in it, we continued on (I thought the apple bag drink was funny, it was their version of a "to go" cup I guess). We passed a large crowd gathered around a man story-telling, and after walking through the local flower market, we attempted to find a place for dinner.

The restaurant choices in La Paz seemed a bit limited. We had a hard time finding places, and we ended up eating at Angelo Colonial- somewhere our guidebook recommended. The food was okay but the restaurant was a bit creepy. It was medieval themed, but it was really dark and full of antiques, plus we were the only customers. Walking up steep, narrow hills all day in the tiring altitudes of the world's highest capital city can really suck up all your energy, so we returned to Loki. Next to the hostel's doors I noticed there were 3 children sitting on a blanket- one was an infant. They were just there on the side of the street, no parent in sight. I had seen them earlier but didn't realize the sad reality that were likely homeless children, maybe waiting on their mom alone all day. It really upset me to see that. I later found out that there are an estimated 9,000 "street children" in the city. Charities have some homes set up, but the local government does nothing for them. Thinking about them, I counted my blessings, and it was time for bed.

Day 20- Arica, Chile

2010-01-14T22:24:00.000-08:00

Today we again woke up early, packed, and left our things at the front desk of the Surf House. We chatted for a while with the very friendly hostel owner named Curt, and got some suggestions on things to do with our last morning in Arica. After a quick breakfast on Calle 21, we took a colectivo taxi to the nearby San Miguel de Azapa Archeological Museum. Once we arrived, we went in and had the chance to see many Pre-Incan native artifacts, as well as the world's oldest mummies! Yes, it is true, they are older than the famous ones in Egypt. I had never even heard of these Chilean mummies before, but they were truly unique and amazing to see. I am surprised they are not more famous since they are very well preserved, and the oldest known existing mummies. They were very tiny, almost shrunken looking, and had creepy faces with clay accents. The people wrapped them in tight cloth to mummify them, and then put clay on them to keep the features pronounced. While they were a bit scary looking, it was fascinating to think how long they'd been around. After walking around and seeing our fill of ancient artifacts, we headed back to Calle 21 de Mayo again. Instead of having a real lunch, I persuaded John that we go to a heladería (something America needs to pick up on). A heladería is basically just a restaurant, but the menu only consists of amazing and intricate desserts! It is a heavenly idea. We sat down, and the waiter brought us out banana splits. Yes, I ate the whole thing. No, I am not ashamed. Delicioso! We had a bus out of the city at two, and when we got back to the hostel we realized that there was a time change we had not noticed. We thought it was noon, but it was actually 1pm. Good thing we checked! We grabbed our backpacks and cabbed it quickly to the Arica bus station.

Once we were there, I walked up to the office where we had bought our tickets yesterday from the company Trans Salvador. I showed them our receipt, and the woman looked confused. She said the bus was sold out. I was also confused because we had proof of having bought seats. She made some calls and then informed me that they had accidentally sold our seats to someone else. I was furious! I mean, really- enough is enough! I officially hate South American bus companies. I started losing my cool, and yelled at the woman saying that since we bought the tickets first we should get the seats, and the other people should have to wait. For some reason that made no sense to her, so John and I were the ones stuck. I found out that the next bus didn't leave until midnight that night, and so I demanded a refund. She said no other bus companies were leaving for La Paz sooner than that, and wouldn't refund it. I started getting emotional from all the frustration, and cried in front of her. It was embarrassing, but at least she knew how her horrible business practices made me feel. I should have left to calm down and made John talk, but she spoke no English. I continued arguing with her, and finally just gave in and swapped for the bus leaving at midnight instead of at 2pm. I then told her that since her company had inconvenienced us, they had to pay for John and I to take a cab back to our hostel so we'd have a place to leave our things and spend the day. Apparently customer service isn't the best in Chile. She should have been nicer and gone out of her way to help us since she had ruined things, but no. She didn't even once say she was sorry or apologize. Since she wouldn't help us I went to the other desk for the company, and after some arguing with another lady I finally got my way. John and I left the bus station in a free taxi, but we were so mad! We would now have one less day in La Paz thanks to the company being idiots.

After all the drama, we were back in the central part of town. Curt, the hostel guy, was shocked about what happened and said we could use the common rooms and showers at the hostel for the rest of the day. At least he was nice! Since we didn't have many things left to do in Arica, we decided to change and head to the beach. On our walk into town we noticed a street light that had an "ultraviolet ray indicator" on it since Arica is so close to the equator. It had 5 levels of strength, and today the light was on orange (the middle one) meaning "high risk". It said for people with pale skin, it is only safe to be exposed to the sun for 17-20 minutes max! Making sure we had sunscreen, we took a small bus down to a different beach than the one from yesterday. It was extremely crowded with people, and the area to swim in was a small inlet of water, almost like a lagoon. There were many rocks in the water, and children were swimming everywhere. It wasn't exactly relaxing, but I was happy to be by the ocean regardless. John and I ventured out into the water, and for some reason it was freezing! The water yesterday had felt great. As we were swimming around, I noticed there were many sharp rocks on the ocean floor. We were getting pushed by the undertow and kept hitting our feet on them. At one point, I stepped down and then felt a surge of pain. I thought I had just bruised or scraped the sensitive middle part of my foot on a rock, and so we went back to our towel. I looked at it, and noticed it was very purple and splotchy, and then noticed several long, black, splinter-looking things in my foot. I wasn't sure why it was like that, but I knew that it hurt. After a while we got up to catch the local bus, and I then realized walking was very painful. I had to limp my way to it!

Back at the hostel, Curt took a look at my foot and told me that I had stepped on and been stung by a sea urchin! He said they leave dark purple or black spikes in your foot if you step on them. He advised that we try to get the spikes out so that walking wouldn't be so painful (the photo is of a sea urchin, I obviously didn't take it though). So, John and I sat down in the common area of the hostel. There were about 5 other people in the room and they witnessed this whole ordeal, which was embarrassing. John took out his head lamp to be able to see where the spikes were in my foot, and then got out some supplies. I saw scissors, needles, and a tweezers and knew I couldn't watch. He began the painful process of cutting open the areas around the spikes, trying to dig them up with a needle to be closer to my skin's surface, and then using tweezers to remove them. After about an hour of me sitting there in pain, crying and making odd noises in front of strangers, only 5/6 of the spikes were removed. The biggest one was very deep in my foot and wasn't coming out. John didn't want to cut a huge slice in my foot, so I resigned myself to the fact that walking was going to be painful for a while.

After that lovely event, John and my gimp self headed out for dinner. We chose a nice place on the main street with outdoor seating, and our waiter Felipe was very chatty. I decided to get apple juice, but it was just chunky apple slices blended up together. It was odd. Afterward, we decided to do some window shopping and stroll the main street for a final time. I was trying to figure out ways to walk that wouldn't put pressure on the spike- I was only partially successful. We returned again to the hostel, and weren't sure what to do to kill time before our bus left. We ended up watching TV with some New Zealanders in the common room for a while, and then I took a shower. Curt called us a taxi to the bus station, and we gave him a few dollars to thank him for letting us stay there that day.

Back at the dreaded bus station, I was surprised that our seat was still ours and hadn't been re-sold again! We boarded the charter bus at midnight, and then for some unknown reason it went about one block away, and then stopped. It stayed idle for an entire hour. I was getting furious again. It didn't help that it was insanely hot on the bus and my window was stuck shut so I couldn't get any breeze. By that point, I had lost all patience. Finally, the bus decided to move. We didn't travel very far, and then we stopped at the Bolivian border. The border crossing was closed for the night, so the bus parked from 4am-8am. This 6 hour journey was now going to take about 11 hours thanks to the bus company being horrible!

(As an update, the sea urchin spike stayed stuck in my foot, partially dissolving until it was close enough to be tweezed out in mid April-- 3.5 months later!)

Day 19- Arica, Chile

2010-01-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Waking up after dawn is a great feeling! Being clean is nice too. To start our day on the coastal town of Arica, John and I got some advice from the owner of our hostel. We then went to the main street in the town and exchanged our remaining bolivianos for some Chilean pesos. While there, we stopped and had some omelettes then took a colectivo taxi to the local bus station. While there we bought our tickets from Arica to La Paz. Now, to give a little background on the city, one thing you should know is that Arica has extremely strong UV rays. It is so dry that many of the houses, stores, and buildings are open-air and have whole nice furniture sets and paintings just sitting outside. It is so arid that our hostel owner said it hadn't rained more than .03 inches since he was a little boy. Arica is thus known as one of the "driest inhabited places on Earth"! It also is well known for its great surfing waves, and is the surfing capital of Chile since the 2007 Rip Curl Surf Championships were held there.

Next, we went to the Catedral de San Marcos. It was designed by Gustav Eiffel, the man who designed the Eiffel tower. We walked around inside, interrupting a field trip, and got some photos. We then stepped outside into the Plaza Colón and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. The weather was of course, sunny and beautiful, and there were fountains everywhere. After getting some fresh squeezed juice at a street stall we began to walk uphill towards a large rocky hill/cliff overlooking the whole city. It is known as El Morro, and it had a Chilean flag flying atop of it and a banner saying "Feliz Año 2010!" There was a path leading from the residential streets (filled with turn of the century colorful homes) that lead up to the top of the morro. The path zig-zagged up until it reached many steep, narrow steps. The intense heat made this journey not so fun. Arriving at the top was worth it though because the view was great! You could see the coastline, beaches, downtown, and the dry, rocky mountains. There was also a Jesus statue (which is apparently a popular thing to put on top of hills) as well as a historical museum which contained the old cannons the Chilean army used during their war for independence. As we walked around the perimeter of the cliff enjoying the views, I also appreciated the breeze. As we were leaving we found a man selling popsicles, and I gladly bought one for the walk back into town.

We headed back to Arica Surf House hostel, and decided to do some laundry. We filled up a tub in a back room and handwashed some of our things, hanging them out on a line to dry. Afterwards we went back at the main plaza. There we found an interesting McDonald's called "Auto Mac" that was an outdoor walk up stand. The monetary symbol for pesos is the dollar sign $ and since one USD equals 490 pesos, we saw advertisements that said "Big Mac: $1700", it was pretty funny. After walking down the main street filled with shops, restaurants, and street vendors we went back and got our things ready for the beach!

We decided to walk to a nice beach area known as Playas Corazones, and after a 25 minute stroll we finally arrived! The beach was very wide and had a decent crowd. There was a playground on it, as well as some hotels and snack shops. We set down our towels and then went out into the refreshing water. It felt awesome, and I was excited because it was my first time ever swimming in the Pacific ocean! We went out somewhat deep, and as we were swimming I noticed something large and grayish swim by about ten feet away. I freaked out for a minute thinking it was a shark or a whale or something, so we swam back. About 5 minutes later I saw it again, but this time I realized it was just a sea lion! It was so cute! I was enjoying the ocean, but since John isn't a big ocean lover we went back to the towel and I bought myself a snack and sat down, soaking up the sun. It was great to get a chance to relax since the last few days had been so full of activity!

When it was time to leave I made John find us a cab since I had bad blisters from the wise decision of walking in flip flops. After that, we decided to stroll the lively main street called Calle 21 de Mayo. It has a really fun, beachy, atmosphere so I of course loved it! Filled with many unique shops, street musicians, colorful flowers, and food, it was also a great way to get a feel for the city. While walking I noticed a bunch of teenagers carrying around signs saying "abrazos gratis", meaning "free hugs". I'm not sure what it was for, but for some reason I went up and asked the girl to give me the free hug. You know, just bonding with the Chilean people. Anyways, we then returned to the hostel, showered, and headed out to the other side of town with all the large open air markets and shops. All of the stands are totally packed with the goods for sale, and the walkways down the rows were filled with people. I ended up buying a keychain, a little red pot, a locally made shell necklace, and a lovely purple dress. I was happy because as always, they were all purchased at a great low price! So, there is this energy drink popular in Chile and it's called "cocaina", and John wanted some. Needless to say, it was a little awkward walking up to different shops and asking if they had cocaina- but don't worry, I always made sure I specified it was the drink! After we had our fill of shopping and bartering, we strolled back towards Plaza Colón and then headed towards the walkway that went along the beach. On the way there I started hearing a very weird sound coming from the trees. It honestly sounded like pigs oinking. It was actually coming from these huge crane looking birds that were everywhere. They were splattering giant drops all over the sidewalk too, so we were very cautious! We then sat down to watch the sunset over the ocean, and were entertained by some lively pelicans.

We headed back to the main calle for dinner and chose a place called Cafe del Mar. We assumed from its name "Ocean Cafe" that it would have primarily seafood, but oddly they only had one seafood dish! We sat at a table outside on the street, and after chatting with our waiter, a few stray dogs came up next to me. In Chile they don't seem to have a very good animal control system, because stray dogs are very common. They seem to be all over the place and it is normal and accepted by the locals. These two dogs were dirty and likely had fleas, and they started barking and biting each other. It was dangerously close to my legs and I was getting scared. The waiter tried to shoo them away but at one point just gave up. Oh well- when in Rome...

While finishing up our meal we noticed that some sort of parade was beginning on the street. It was getting dark, and several people walked by chanting with t-shirts and banners saying to re-elect Edoardo Frei for President. It wasn't that interesting at first, but then the musicians came followed by a huge crowd of people singing some song about how great this guy Frei is. It was a little bit comical, but definitely a great thing to witness. After the chorus the flag wavers came, and then a group of dancers in elaborate costumes danced down the street. It felt impromptu because the streets weren't blocked off and people were confused, yet despite that it was a very entertaining political parade. I was glad we had front row seats for it too! With the music and the energy it was really fun and definitely made me feel like I was in a hispanic culture.

El Desfile Politicó

Since nothing else could top that display, we headed back to the surf house for the night. The TV was playing shows in English, I was so excited. After speaking to people in Spanish all day it is nice to just check out and stop trying at the end of the day. As I was falling asleep later on, I heard an odd noise. I was convinced it was cockroaches evilly running around in the walls. There was a cockroach in the shower earlier, so I was on guard. However, it only ended up being the sound of the ice in my cup crackling and melting. It didn't last very long, Arica is so hot.

Day 18- Oruro, Bolivia - Arica, Chile

2010-01-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

To preface this entry I would first like to say this is probably the worst day I've had this year. Second, I hope it doesn't get any worse. Third, it wasn't all that bad so I should consider myself lucky! Anyways, John and I were on the bus from Uyuni and we were dropped off at the small town of Oruro whose main attraction is its large bus station. We got off our bus at 3am, and started wandering around the very confusing and disorganized two-story bus station plaza. Our goal was to find someone who would sell us a ticket to our next destination Arica, Chile and to get on that bus as soon as possible. In retrospect, we should have just found a hostel, passed out, and come back later that day- but no.

I started asking workers and people in the station, and someone told me "oh there is a bus to Arica leaving at 4am!" I think "yes, perfect." Apparently this was a lie. No such departure existed. We learned that at 6am the rest of the kiosks opened for the other bus companies, so we decided, "we can wait 2 more hours... then get our ticket!" Those two hours of waiting seemed to last forever though. We were sitting on a hard, broken bench next to a window letting in the cold. People were all around us, and there were tons of locals sleeping on sacks of food they placed on the floor with blankets covering them. I deduced that the homeless women and children come to the bus station to sleep, or they are so used to the slow system they just come prepared. It was an interesting thing to witness though. At this romantic moment, John and I realized it was our one year of dating anniversary- sitting on a broken bench, angry, and smelly at a bus station in Bolivia. Wow. Despite that, I was still tired and mildly miserable. Also, because Bolivia always charges you to use the restroom, none were opening until 8am. So, I wandered around on a hunt, but to no avail. I had to get creative again, and determined that an abandoned hallway with a tiled floor would suffice.

Two hours later we started looking around for these companies that supposedly opened at 6, but few of the places inside the bus station had "Arica" listed as a destination. Only about three did, but none were open. No one around knew when they were opening either. I was, at this point, extremely cranky, gross (no shower in 4 days) and distraught that we'd be stuck in this godforsaken town. In my desperation I found a cop and asked him what we could do. He wasn't very friendly, or helpful. He said, "just wait a little longer because a bus leaves at 8". I was comforted, and I thought, "well we've been here for 4 hours already, we can handle 2 more". Then 8am came and went: no bus, no companies selling tickets. Mentirosa! At this point, I broke down and started crying (lack of sleep will do it to you). So, John and I gave up and went upstairs and sat on a bench near the few Arica ticket selling stands, and decided to just wait and stake them out until the workers finally came in for the day. The only entertainment or hope I saw was found in a video jukebox by our bench; kids were watching Michael Jackson music videos and Spanish rap intermittently.

Finally, a worker came in to one of the stands. I optimistically inquired about bus tickets to Arica, but they had sold out of them the day before. I felt mildly panicked, and was really upset we'd spent a miserable night wandering around a bus station when we should have just left when we arrived 5 hours ago. Then, a bit later, another woman came in. I tried to explain our situation to her in Spanish, and I said "I'll give you a tip if you call your friends and see if any companies go to Arica." She said there were maybe one or two, but that the workers would not come in for some time more. I know patience is a virtue, but it was to hard to keep in mind! I was convinced we were stranded. Maybe two hours later, a man arrived at a neighboring stand. I ran up to talk to him. His name was Hernán, and he is now my hero. Hernán chatted with me and, God bless his soul, he finally sold us a ticket to Arica after a horrible and uncomfortable 7 hours of uncertainty. There were only two seats left in the very back, and he made some calls to double check we would be on it. I asked him if he could tell them we were foreigners and to help give us instructions when we had to change buses, and he said he would. I was a little worried that it was not a direct route, and based on our last confusing bus changing experience, I was a bit hesitant. I couldn't afford to be so picky though.

Finally... food! The bus station was close to this nice hotel, so John and I wandered up there and discovered a buffet room offering all you can eat for a cheap price. It was like heaven! Resting, filling up on food, and knowing we had a ticket made me cheer up and feel instantly better. Since it was daylight we decided to leave the dreaded bus station and head out into the city of Oruro. It is a small, urban town so we just walked a big circle around the bus station and explored. There were several stands where young boys were selling fresh squeezed lemonade. They would smash and squeeze the juice out of the lemons right in front of you, and John was in love with it.

Finally, the time came for our bus to leave Arica. Hernán met us at his ticket stand and then personally escorted John and I out to our bus that was headed to a no-name town called Patacamaya. He told the driver we'd need help with the bus change to Arica, and so we thanked him and I gave him a couple bolivianos as una propina (a tip). Then, we waited patiently for the slow Bolivian bus system to finally depart Oruro. I was not sad to leave!

Two hours later, we reached Patacamaya-a small deserted town with no shade, and no people. It felt deserted. The bus driver decided to ignore Hernán's instructions to help us, and when we stopped in the middle of the road there he screamed at us to get off. He then literally chucked our backpacks out into the road, and said "wait here for the next bus. It will be soon." We didn't know where the new bus would pick us up, what time to expect it, etc. It was a bit scary and abrupt. John was mostly calm but I was slightly panicked. This would be a worse place to be stranded in than Oruro! So, John and I sat there in the shadeless heat in the middle of this concrete median, waiting. It started to get really hot and we hadn't seen any buses pass by, so we decided to cross the side street and wait in the shade. Every time a bus drove by we checked its name, and a few times I yelled to the driver asking where they were going, and if he knew when our bus was coming. I was convinced it never would.

About an hour later, the bus still hadn't come. I was freaking out a bit. Many had passed by, but few had even stopped. One bus did stop to let off a few people, and I asked them if they knew about Arica and they kept saying "ya viene," meaning it already came. This did not help calm me down. I was pessimistic about our prospects, and I did have reason to be based on past experience. I was worried why we were still stranded there. The company we left Oruro with was called Paraiso, and since there were two intersections John and I split up to stake out the roads for buses with that name on it. Another hour later, one came to the side street John was at. It said Paraiso, and a few locals were loading things onto it. I sprinted over there and frantically asked the driver if they went to Arica. He said "no the bus is full, the one to Arica already came". I was on the verge of tears, and as a last attempt I yelled to him as he was about to close the door. He then said, "this does stop at Arica. Hurry up!" We rapidly threw our bags on, and ran onto the bus. As we were walking down the aisle it was driving away. All the seats were full. Ugh. I'm not sure why the driver changed his mind, maybe he didn't fully understand me the first time, but thank God I asked him twice!

We showed our tickets to the two kids and woman sitting in our seats, and they got up and moved to let us sit. Then they sat in the narrow aisle on the floor next to the bathroom, and us. It was very cramped, and slightly awkward. The woman spoke Quechua, so that made things even more interesting! I felt bad making them sit on the floor, but they didn't buy a ticket and that was likely what they were used to. It was also extremely hot, and there was barely any breeze. As we drove on the attendant passed out immigration papers, and we filled those out. The woman next to me somehow helped me and we actually communicated successfully- not sure how though!

Over time we began to enter more mountainous areas with narrow roads. After a few hours we were randomly stopped and some intimidating looking policeman got onto the bus. I was a bit freaked out, but they simply handed us all brochures instructing us not to litter the highways once we entered Chile? Our next obstacle to overcome now was crossing the border from Bolivia to Chile. Tons of buses were already in line, so we pulled up and parked for a while. The surrounding views of the mountains were amazing! Finally we went through and got our passports stamped. Then, we had to go through the drug and bag screening building. We all threw our bags in a pile and a drug dog walked around sniffing them. Then the bags went through a scanner, and we were all questioned about our belongings. The scanner beeped when John's bag went through, and so the Chilean officer started asking him questions about what set it off. I translated into English for John, and explained to the man in Spanish that it was probably this ornament with seeds in it we bought in Lima. The machine likely thought it was drugs or illegal plants, haha. We dug through and found it, and were given the okay. The officer then randomly started speaking perfect English, and complimented me on my accent and proficiency. I was very flattered!

After several more hours on a bus ride winding down the mountains towards lower elevations and the coast, we had a brief dinner stop overlooking the Andes mountains at sunset. Then, after the 12 hour journey, we finally arrived in the darkness to our destination- Arica, Chile! Earlier, I had told the bus attendant to personally inform me when we stopped at Arica, because everyone else was headed to this other city Iquique and I didn't want him to forget about telling us. Luckily, he listened. We stepped off the bus, had our bags thrown out on the curb, and it drove away. John and I were instantly hounded by cab drivers begging us for business. This one very pushy man followed us around and wouldn't shut up. We couldn't figure out where to go, so we just gave up and let him drive us. We had the directions to our hostel, Arica Surf House, and he claimed he knew where it was. He drove into the city, and stopped at this hotel that was not at all what we told him. He got out and tried to make us get off and stay there. He then acted like he didn't know where the street was we had been telling him. It was a bit sketchy. I yelled at him and firmly said, "no, we need to go to our hostel. We have reservations." I knew he probably had a friend who owned the hotel we were at, and he was trying to trick us to stay there so he'd get some reward. So then he lied and was all "oh, I didn't know you had reservaions!" Then, after telling us he didn't know where our hostel was, he suddenly remembered and drove us there without any problems. Shady! He also overcharged us, but we didn't feel like dealing with him anymore. (Pink line on map shows our route)

Finally, we entered the long awaited paradise of Arica Surf House Hostel. It was a cool, breezy evening, and the hostel is mainly open air. It had a great atmosphere and was decorated with surfboards and canvases on the ceiling. The common area had a kitchen, computers, TV, couches, and ping-pong. It was a great place overall. The owner also spoke fluent English and was very friendly and helpful. We checked into our room and I almost cried from happiness when I saw a shower. It was the best thing ever. I have never loved a shower more in my life.

Day 17- Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

2010-01-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

At 4am John, Emma, Jo and I woke up and struggled to pack our backpacks up in the darkness. Luckily everyone had a flashlight! We walked outside and it was surprisingly cold considering we were basically in a desert. Andrés loaded up all the bags and we headed out from the hostel. There was a really disgusting, moldy smell in the car though. I'm still not sure what it was, but it was sick! Us girls in the back had to cover our faces for most of the ride. It was still dark, and that was because our first stop was at an area of geysers known as the Sol de Mañana geyser basin, and the geysers are most active early in the morning (hence the early wake up call). My guidebook describes the area well: "The main interest here is the 16,000 feet above sea-level geyser basin with bubbling mud pots, hellish fumaroles, and the thick aroma of sulfur fumes". We all stood around and watched the geysers shooting up steam and water with the sunrise in the background- it was amazing! This area is known as the "geothermal hotbed of Bolivia" due to all the underground activity from the volcanoes and such. It reminds me a bit of Yellowstone in the US. It was also the most crowded place I'd seen in days, many of jeeps were there in addition to our own.

Geysers in the morning

After the sun rose, we drove on to another area filled with active geysers. I was a bit surprised at the lack of rules or restrictions around them, because they could potentially be very dangerous. People were stepping on them and getting uncomfortably close, and some people got splashed. Also if you stood at certain parts, the sand would start to sink in a little, and it would be all too easy to slide down and fall onto one. My guide book says "approach the sites cautiously; any damp or cracked earth is dangerous and cave-ins do occur. Serious burns have been reported by tourists." People never listen! Anyways, these geysers were even taller and more bubbly than the first ones, and despite watching dumb people be risky, it was amazing!

After that, we were off to our next destination- the natural hot springs known as Las Termas de Polques. Although everyone was talking about bathing in them, it was so cold us girls couldn't imagine putting on a swimsuit, plus I didn't have a towel handy. When we arrived there was a decent crowd of people, and at 6am all the Brazilian girls climbed in the water sporting their lovely not-leaving-much-to-the-imagination style bikinis. Actually that choice of swimsuit seemed to be the trend there, haha. Some of our group ended up swimming, and the rest of us just put our feet in. It felt great, plus the view was fantastic. After a quick breakfast consisting of stale rolls, we were back in the car for another long stretch of bumpy driving.

Most of us slept, somehow, during this portion of the trip. Our next destination is known as Laguna Verde, and it is another beautiful multi-colored lake. In the background was the giant Volcano Licancabur. It is very popular for people to climb actually. We learned that in pre-Incan times the top of the volcano was a site where the locals made human sacrifices for the Pachamama (Mother Earth)! Crazy stuff. After we took a group photo, we drove on through an area filled with randomly placed, crazily shaped rocks everywhere. They're known as the Rocas de Dalí since they look like they came out of one of Salvador Dalí's surrealistic paintings. They look like someone just stacked together several individual stones, so it's weird to think they are naturally formed. We also drove by a rock that looked like the Devil's face, it was a bit creepy actually. The area we drove through after Laguna Verde is described as one of Bolivia's "harshest wilderness regions", and I can see why. Our next stop was at the Chilean border. At the border crossing office travelers had the option to take the jeep back to Uyuni, or to continue on to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. At this point Yuri left our group to go climb the volcano with some friends, and Emma and Jo left on their way to Chile. I was sad to see everyone go, we all had so much fun together!

After that, there were only four of us passengers left in the car. It was much more spacious, but still an incredibly bumpy and long lasting drive. We continued on past more strange and interesting sights until we arrived at another tiny town for lunch. I find it interesting that throughout this whole trip, whenever you have to pay to use a restroom (the majority of times) you never get paper or soap. When it's free though, you usually do. Odd. After we left, there were hours more of driving. We didn't stop at all, except to help other stranded broken jeeps along the way or change tires. Once we were nearing Uyuni again a storm set in. Because of the flat terrain of the altiplano you could see how far the clouds went on, and which way it headed. It looked like a bad storm, and with the heavy rain I was a little worried about our bags on the roof. Despite the bad weather, we stopped at one last place called the Train Graveyard, or Cementario de Los Trenes. Out there un the middle of the Salar there are just tons of abandoned trains sitting there. No tracks. It was a little creepy feeling. John loved it. As he put it "there was a large silver boom at the turn of the century causing explosive expansion in Bolivia, but once the silver mines 'dried up' there was not a need for the large train network they built. The leftovers were then parked in one place to spend eternity. This allowed for some creepily awesome pictures."

The storm finally died down, and we arrived back in Uyuni. The streets were all uneven and there were massive puddles everywhere- walking was interesting. We headed to an Internet cafe with the world's slowest connection, and then had lunch at this little place. For some reason, it was really dark in there. Also, our server was a 10 year old boy, and John got his food and ate it before mine was even brought out, haha. Our next task was to find the bus station in the town. We started walking, and realized it wasn't where we thought. We were a little lost, and continued wandering around for a while until we finally found it. As usual, it was a place of confusion and disorganization. It was very crowded, and local traditionally dressed women were loading multiple giant bags of seeds and crates of food into the storage compartment at the bottom of our bus. I was surprised they don't have bag limits.

Finally, John and I sat in our seats. During the whole ride people were standing in the aisles of the little bus though. I think it's a normal custom in Bolivia to let people without tickets just stand up in the aisle on the bus if they pay the driver a little bit. It was aggravating, plus being that close to someone's armpit who doesn't use deoderant can be pleasant. Our overnight bus, en route to Oruro, also stopped continuously about once every 20 minutes it seemed to pick up random locals and drop off the people in the aisles. To top it all off, they had loud and cheesy hispanic music blaring on the bus speakers all night. Luckily, it kept cutting out. Also the bathroom on our bus broke, and we never made any stops or breaks, so at one point I had to get creative. This "creativity" involved the middle of some dark Bolivian street behind the bus. Anyways, as you can imagine, sleeping was a bit tricky. As a side note, John and I hadn't showered in about 3 days, so I know that we looked and smelled amazing, haha!

To sum up our time at the Salt Flats, John's journal entry does a good job: "The Salar is home to many salt hotels and adventure seeking tourists. There were not many older people on the Salar, I believe due to the bone rattling 4x4 rides. This was three days of the bumpiest ride of my life (I couldn't even read a book it was so bumpy). Everything was covered in salt and dust, but I loved it."

Day 16- Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

2010-01-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

At 5am alarms started going off. We all groaned and slowly within the next 15 minutes everyone who had been sleeping in the room rolled out of their salt beds and tried to get ready in the darkness. We all had desayuno on the salt tables, and then we helped Andrés load up the jeeps. We still got a late start, but that seems to be the Bolivian way though; schedules are more like guidelines. After riding/sleeping in the jeep for an hour, we took a break at a tiny town on the Salar called San Juan. Only 1,000 people live there, and it has several volcanic rock tombs and burial chullpas. John, Emma, and Jo went around to explore and found a group of llamas, and they got pictures of this adorable baby one. I was still half asleep at this point, and I was shocked that the Brazilian girls who were up partying all night were so lively and energetic at that point. I started talking with one girl who I learned had studied abroad in Indiana for a year- wow, small world! We then departed there out onto the desert-like land known as the Salar de Chiguana, which continued endlessly into the horizon .

After some considerably bumpy and jostling hours in the jeep, we passed through more amazing landscape until we arrived at an isolated area full of rocks that had a perfect overlook towards a giant volcano looming in the background. It is called the Volcan Ollagüe, and it is straddles the Bolivian-Chilean border. It is still active, and when we were there, it was emitting smoke. It was an amazing sight, if not somewhat foreboding!

Our caravan of jeeps continued on until we reached our next amazing destination- Laguna Hedionda. The laguna was very colorful and had the surrounding mountains and volcanoes as its backdrop. The still waters of the lake were full of flamingos, and they were very photogenic. As I got closer to the water though, I noticed its bad rotting egg smell. It's due to the algae and sulfur in the lake. I didn't realize until later though that the word hedionda actually translates to mean fetid or stinking, haha. Despite that though, it was a beautiful view. Back at the jeep, Andrés had prepared lunch for us. We sat on some stone walls and enjoyed it. Then us girls noticed there were no bathrooms around. However, visitors had developed their own makeshift ones behind this stone wall. We walked over to it, but were too disgusted to bother. I guess that simply adds to the smelly name of the Laguna?

After that, the real driving began. We went very fast through rough, rocky, bouncy terrain. I was amazed at how the drivers even knew where we were going as there are no trails or markings anywhere. All of us in the jeep had taken turns playing our iPod songs, and it was then my turn. Whenever I listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers music now, I will always think of that jerky drive through the Salar! We passed through more of the unique, harsh landscape and saw some of the local animals known as vicuñas. We also passed the locally famous "Seven Colored Mountain" which makes the border between Bolivia and Argentina. Finally, we reached our next destination, and it was a relief to get out and stretch.

This stop is another popular site for most Salar tour groups, and it's called El Arbol de Piedra, or the stone tree. Its name explains itself if you check out the rock's form. All the rocks surrounding it were also very unique and odd shapes. They were carved into these shapes slowly over time by the strong, whipping winds in the area. It felt a bit surreal to be out there in the middle of the Siloli desert. It was so isolated and beautiful; the strong winds were ripping around and throwing sand everywhere. We were also at the highest altitude we had yet experienced on the trip, so John decided to go for a run to test out his lung capacity. He ran for about 20 seconds and was out of breath. After taking pictures of the Arbol, some of our group decided to climb the surrounding rock formations. Being high up on the rock ledges made for some great viewpoints.

Video panorama John took from the top of a rock by Arbol de Piedra

After that we headed towards the entry into a National Park sanctioned off in the Salar known as Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. We had to show our visas to the officers and pay a fee. On this portion of the drive our jeep was behind the others and the trail of dust and sand was huge, we could barely see! We also looked out the windows and saw "sand tornadoes" a few times! They were actually a decent size. We stopped and changed the tires several times during the day, but this stretch of the Salar required the most. Luckily today I was sitting in the middle row seats of the car, because yesterday I was in the very cramped back! We then arrived at yet another amazing destination called Laguna Colorada. The water was a myriad of colors, and some of it was a dark reddish tint. We found out this color is caused by a high amount of borax in the water. These sediments attach to the algae, and this is what attracts all the flamingoes. There were tons of flamencos feeding on the laguna, which is a salt lake, and with a volcano in the background it made for one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in my entire life. I found out it's a candidate to be the next of the 7 wonders of the natural world. With the strong winds and high altitudes, it literally took my breath away! (CLICK to see a video I took). After this visit we were done with our tour for the day, and began the long drive to our hostel.

We arrived at a gathering of several small buildings, and after getting out of the car to check with people, Andrés told us it was full. We were mad and confused because when we booked our tour we paid for our hostels already, and so assumed we had a reserved room. That is not the case. These Bolivian tour companies apparently just like to wing it, and so since the first place was full we drove to a second. Not good news there either. We heard rumors from the other group about having to camp out for the night, and us girls were getting a tad worried. Finally, Andrés figured something out. He said there were 4 open beds in a room at the one building, and 3 in the other. He said we would split boys and girls. We didn't like this idea and yelled at him, and so he ended up putting the 3 Brazilians in one place and John, Emma, Jo and I at another. I liked the idea of having a guy in the room since we were in a strange place, and they probably did too. From the outside, this "hostel" looked a little rough around the edges. It was made out of caked mud bricks, and the roof was tin and had rocks stacked on top of it. Not what I was expecting, but we were in the middle of nowhere after all!

After unpacking, Andrés said he would bring us tea in 20 minutes and that dinner would be at 6:30. That time passed- no tea, no Andrés. An hour later we weren't sure where he was, where the Brazilian guys were, when we'd get dinner, etc. Very disorganized. We shrugged it off with the catchphrase of the trip, "it's Bolivia", and then hung out and wrote in our journals. I checked out our little room and I noticed my bed had a mysterious stain on the blanket, and also the pillow had several strands of hair on it. This led me to believe it wasn't washed since the last person who used it. I took the case off the pillow, and thanked God I packed a sleeping bag so I could sleep on top of the sketchy blanket. We still couldn't find our guide, and finally we cornered him. He forgot about tea, and said "dinner will now be at 7:30... or 8". Which one? Let's guess 8. We finally reunited with the Brazilians and sat down at a little table and waited for dinner. At around 8:30, the food was served. It was really gross, but our hunger overrode that. It was a good time though, everyone chatting. I have always had a strong love obsession with England and British culture for some reason, so talking to Emma and Jo was a real treat for me. I learned that Emma had met Ron from Harry Potter, and then Jo and I discussed the differences between Universities in England/US and I tried to explain sororities to her- (They are a weird thing if you really think about it).

John then left with the guys for a while, so us ladies had some girl talk. We talked about books and I was excited to find fellow Twilight fans- haha. We then went outside and realized that the sky was so clear in this unpolluted highland environment that we could see thousands of stars, and even the milky way! It was amazing! The night wound down with John and I joining all the Brazilian students in this room to play a card game that reminds me of the American game "Mafia". We learned some more Portuguese words, and it was a really fun time. I went to bed a little scared of the pillow hair, but it was all okay. I was the furthest south I have ever been in my life, and we were near the Argentinian border. This was all so awesome, I couldn't really complain!

Day 15- Uyuni & El Salar, Bolivia

2010-01-09T21:22:00.000-08:00

The early morning was spent on the incredibly bumpy "luxury" bus, and I kept waking up. On some dirt road that was more or less invented since it had no sort of marking or pavement, the bus broke down for about 2 hours. Finally, after the rough journey we arrived to the small isolated town of Uyuni. It was very hot since it is located in the middle of the world's largest salt flats. The salt flats, known as the Salar de Uyuni, look more or less like a desert. The city had a really deserted and lonely feel since it was out in the middle of nowhere- literally. A girl met us at our bus stop, and we followed her with our bags around the town to a tiny office. The whole space was filled with luggage and the title of the building, Toñito Tours, was a completely different company name than the one we arranged our tour with. That was where the sketchy business practices began! We had some time before our tour, so John and I walked around town. We stopped and bought bus tickets for after our tour and got some food. Finally, when it was 11am, our designated departure time, we went back to the building. There were only 2 workers, and mass confusion. People were waiting outside and sitting on the street curbs trying to find shade. We sat and waited on the dirt road for about 45 minutes, since they were running late. The sign for the company also said we would have an English speaking guide- we later figured out this was just an advertisement white lie.

Finally, we learned which jeep we were assigned to for the trip. We were paired with 2 British girls and 3 Brazilian guys. The man who sold us our tour in La Paz said there would be no more than 6 people in our jeep tops, but there were actually 8. Another white lie maybe? Then, randomly, this girl started yelling at us saying since there were so many people in our jeep that some of us couldn't bring our luggage, and to just pack a small bag for 3 days. Why would they not inform us of this ahead of time? I argued with the woman and refused because they had already misled us enough, and I didn't trust leaving my backpack in the tiny office. Nobody else wanted to leave them either, so the driver stacked all our bags in a giant heap roped to the roof of the jeep. He made the guys help him do this, which made me wonder what he would have done if his passengers weren't strong guys. All the bags fit, so who knows why they were so mad? Basically, the scene on this tiny street was one of mass confusion and disorganization.

Finally, we crammed into the crowded jeep, introduced ourselves to each other, and headed out of Uyuni onto the "roadway" (there are no roads, haha). Our guide/driver Andrés was very quiet, and spoke about 10 words of English. He wasn't much of a guide since he was so silent. Despite this the drive out was great, and almost surreal. It was so amazing that it made all the trouble worth it! The salt flats were intensely bright to look at, and they stretched on and on into the distance. The whole place is so unique and unlike any other environment I have ever seen. Many people say it has an "eerie" feel to it, and I'd definitely agree. It is considered a very harsh and diverse landscape, and is often aptly described as "blindingly white". Some parts had collected water, and you could see the reflection of the sky onto the ground. According to my guidebook, the Salar "was formed as a result of transformations between prehistoric salt lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine very rich in lithium. It contains 70% of the world's lithium reserves which have yet to be extracted. The large area, clear skies and surface flatness make the flats an ideal location for observation satellites."

Video panorama of the Salar

Once we were in the main part of the salt flats, we all got out for photos. Because it is so flat and continues out into the horizon, it is easy to take fun pictures with confusing depth perception. All of us passenger kids had fun coming up with different scenarios, and got some great photos. Kneeling in the salty mush felt a bit like sand, and it bleached my jeans! The Salar was such an awesome sight though, almost indescribable. We then got back in the car and drove over to a little building made entirely out of salt. There was a salt llama sculpture, and being curious, I decided to lick it. It was gross!! Not sure why I did it. Oh well, "it's all about the story".

The very bouncy and bumpy ride continued on for a while to our next stop, which was called Isla de Los Pescadores. Guidebooks say that it's actually called Isla Incahuasi though. Not sure which one is more correct. It basically looked like an island of rocks and cacti just hanging out in the middle of the Salar. There were gigantic cacti everywhere on the rock formation. Some of them were over 20 feet tall and around 200 years old! While our guide was setting up our food for lunch we all went up on a trail to climb the rocks and get a view of the flats as well as the volcanoes off in the distance. It was crazy hot, and I learned the hard way that the sunscreen I applied had expired! Ouch. Once we came back down from the rocks we took some more fun photos with our British jeep-mates, two girls in their 20's named Emma and Jo from London. They were a lot of fun to be around and had been in S. America for several months already. They were on a 6 month trip and had started in Mexico and traveled their way down through central America and spent time in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru already. After later conversing with an Argentinian hippy guitar player and seeing a wild ostrich we went back to the jeep for lunch.

After a tasty meal that we ate sitting on tables made from salt (with the Tunupa Volcano in the background!) we packed up and continued on. During the ride we chatted with the 3 Brazilian boys and found out that 2 of them were friends from Rio de Janeiro (Marc & Léo), and the third guy (Yuri) was also from Rio. Since Yuri didn't fit in his group's jeep he was separated and put in ours, but he seemed to make friends with everyone fast. The guys were all fluent in about 4 languages too, making us Americans look bad!

We drove for a long time, passing interesting landscape features and seeing volcanoes and unique salt flat animals. That evening we arrived at our hotel for the night. It was in a very tiny town called Aguaquisa. From the outside, it looked really sketchy. Us girls were all getting worried and talking about finding somewhere else to stay- though being that we were in the middle of nowhere there weren't many other options. We went inside to check it out, and luckily it wasn't as bad as it seemed. It was a "salt hotel", and literally everything was made out of salt: salt tables, chairs, beds, walls. It was actually really neat! Our room had 7 beds in it, so we were glad we all knew and trusted one another. Emma told me the guy they booked the tour from said they'd get private rooms and vegetarian food options- both untrue. The company's reliability just keeps getting better! There were about 30 people total in this little hotel, and there was a common room everyone hung out in. We had dinner served to us on salt dishes (just kidding) and chatted a lot with our jeep-mates. After discussing that you could take a tequila shot there and simply lick the wall to offset the taste, we got on the topic of how drinking games are totally different in all of our 3 countries represented. So, the Brazilian guys said they'd teach us some Brazilian drinking games that night. I also made a little video tour of the hotel, CLICK to see it.

After dinner, I discovered there was actually a shower in the building! If you wanted hot water you had to pay for it, so I forked over the cash and went into the shower room. It had a large open window next to it with no shades, so I was scared people outside would see me, which I think they maybe did- awkward. Also the water was freezing cold. I told them, but I didn't get my refund. After hanging out some more our group tried to hunt down our guide Andrés because he had disappeared, and we had no idea what our schedule was. We never got any itinerary or brochure from them of course. Finally we found him and he said "oh yeah, well you have to be packed and ready to leave by 5am." Wow, good thing we took the initiative to find him; how else would we have known that? We then watched the sunset over the Salar, and the strong winds kicked in over the isolated town.

The rest of the night was a blast! Some of the Brazilian guys bought some drinks at a little store in the valley and since there were 2 more jeeps of the Brazilian students at our hotel, it made for a fun night. Everyone sat at a long table and though I just watched at first, John learned how to play a game called 21 which required him to learn to count to 21 in Portuguese. The Brazilian girls thought his attempts were cute, and I could tell they were eying him! (haha) We also learned a new game called "pa-pi-po". Overall, it was a very fun time, and we plan to bring these games back to the US. Maybe they'll really catch on?

Day 14- Copacabana - La Paz, Bolivia

2010-01-08T23:37:00.000-08:00

At 7am we left our hostel; the owner and his wife said goodbye to us and the woman gave me this cute mini Peruvian style hat that said "Inka's Rest" on it. I thought it was a cute gesture. We headed to the bus station and boarded for our journey out of Peru. By some weird chance, the same group of Canadian students we chatted with on our bus in Cuzco were sitting in front of us! We talked to them and found out they were robbed in a restaurant in Puno and lost their wallets, cameras, passports, etc. A man placed his coat on their chair which was behind him, and when he got up to leave he picked up his coat and the bags too. They looked for him but no luck, he had left several minutes before they noticed.That would be so so awful! It reminded me to be extra vigilant about my belongings- as if I wasn't paranoid enough already!

Our bus was headed towards La Paz, the Bolivian capital. After a while we got off the buses at the Peruvian-Bolivian border and walked towards a long line that led to a building where you get your exit visa and passport stamp. Nothing was labeled so it was just a guess, but luckily we were right. Then, we walked under this little arch that symbolized we had left Peru and were now in Bolivia. We walked up a hill and basically just followed the crowds to figure out where to get our entry visas. We got in another line where you had to stand on concrete next to a 3 foot ditch. Due to my strong coordination skills I somehow slipped and my foot fell into the ditch. I twisted my ankle and it really hurt. It was later swollen and purple. Only me... haha. Then we got into another tiny building where our passports were stamped and our visas and yellow fever vaccination cards were checked. We left the building, hunted around for our bus for a bit, and then finally after the disorganized struggle known as "border crossing" we were ready to conquer Bolivia! If you don't know, Bolivia is considered the most isolated country in South America, and also its highest. The city of La Paz is the highest capital city in the world (12,000 feet above sea level). It is also the poorest and least developed country in South America, partially because it is landlocked due to some bad luck in wars over the years.

After an hour or so we arrived at the city of Copacabana. A random man got on the bus and said we had to buy "city entrance tickets" for 2 bolivianos. Everyone bought one. Then we got off the bus and I realized it was a scam because no one was checking for the tickets- they were totally unnecessary! We were then told we had an hour for lunch. The touristy city of Copacabana is located on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We walked down the road to the overlook of the lake- it was a pretty sight as the area is very scenic and the lake was specked with various colorful boats, but once we began walking around, we realized there was really nothing to do. It is always billed as a popular tourist destination and place to go, but beyond the fact that you can take a boat from there to the Isla del Sol, we're not sure why. It was extremely touristy, filled with street vendors and overpriced restaurants. The beach area was very littered and the hotels all seemed a bit rundown. We decided to go up towards the 16th century Catedral de Copacabana though, and we saw many people kneeling and intensely praying before a shrine to Mary. As we walked around we noticed many giant flower arrangements and various flower necklaces were being sold everywhere. Even the cars were decked out with flowers! Everyone around was buying loads of them, and I didn't know why. I later looked it up and realized it was because that day was the feast of our Lady of Copacabana, and since Bolivia is strongly Catholic, everyone was preparing to buy flowers in Mary's honor. It definitely made our walk very colorful!

We then got to a street filled with more vendors. Since I lost my sunglasses somewhere in Puno, I decided to buy cheap knock off shades. John got some aviators, and then I found a jewelry stand where I bought myself a cheap yet unique ring from a 10 year old boy. It was then time to walk back to our bus. We stood by it thinking we were going to get back on it, and then the workers started throwing our big backpacks out into the street. We found ours and assumed this meant we were changing buses. We tried to ask where the next bus we were supposed to get on was located. There was a lot of confusion, no clear instructions, and nobody really knew what to do or where to go. Frustrating! I did not want to be stranded in this town so I directly confronted the worker and he finally gave me a straight answer. We were completely changing bus companies apparently (way to tell us). Our new bus was at the top of a steep street, so we rapidly walked up there hoping to get on before the bus left us. Since the altitude there is so high, I was really struggling. Carrying the big backpack up a steep hill at high altitudes caused me to honestly have moments where I couldn't breathe. Sitting down on the next bus was a huge relief, as it was a very irritating ordeal trying to figure out what in the world was going on! (This was my first taste of the business practices of Bolivian bus companies, and if you think this is bad, it only gets worse in days to come).

Once we left, we drove through narrow mountainous roads hovering near the edge of cliffs until we got to another part of the lake. There was no bridge in sight. The bus stopped and they made us all get off and said something in Spanish about buying a ferry ticket and riding it across. John, the Canadians and I were a bit lost and just followed people who looked like they knew what to do. Once we figured it out we got on the little crowded ferry boat and rode to the other side of the river. We then waited for about 30 minutes for the bus to be ferried across too! Finally, we began the last leg of the journey towards La Paz. This final part was very bumpy, windy, uncomfortably close to cliffs, and thus slightly nerve-wracking. Somehow, we finally arrived. We were dropped off at the large bus terminal, and stepped out into the narrow and hilly streets.

Once there, we needed to find our company for the bus we had lined up to take us to Uyuni that night. It was called Todo Turismo, and we couldn't find it on our map. After some unsuccessful wandering I ended up asking la policia for help. We were directed to their office, which thankfully was nearby. The bus company was very professional and organized, and they offered to store our bags until our departure that night. We then began to walk around the city.

La Paz is hard to describe, but basically it is a bustling, busy city with tall buildings scattered around a very steep and hilly landscape. The sidewalks are cobblestone, narrow, and very packed. Vendors and loud honking cars are everywhere. It is very noisy and full of commotion, definitely a very urban setting. There are also several open-air markets in the plazas and squares in front of churches. Also, as there are no crosswalks, crossing streets is both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. It is like playing the game Frogger, and you are the frog. It is also interesting to see the contrasts. One minute you see a businesswoman in a suit chatting away on her phone while hopping into a cab, and you turn around and see an old woman in a colorful woven skirt knitting on the street corner where little barefoot children are playing. At one point during our walk I felt a tugging on my backpack and I turned to see an old lady trying to unzip it. Luckily my backpack was locked shut!

After we explored the area around the cathedral we came across a building offering tours of the Salt Flats. We went in and spoke with a nice English speaking man about our options. He offered a good price and an all inclusive trip, so we booked our 3 day tour! He told us we would have a guide who spoke basic English, and stay in a decently nice hotel for each night. We then had to get online there and cancel a hostel we had previously booked due to the schedule change. We also had to find a hostel in the city of Oruro, which was hard to do since no hostels there had websites and we didn't know when we'd get Internet access again. We then hunted around the city for an ATM because we had to change our remaining soles and dollars into the Bolivian currency, bolivianos. After a dinner on the go, we went back to the bus company's building.

At around 11pm that night, we boarded our "luxury bus" towards Uyuni. The bus was very nice indeed. It had TVs, its own introduction video which comically showed the bus in various settings with exciting music in the background, reclining seats, blankets and pillows, and free dinner and snacks. I was very happy about the comfort of the bus, yet it was a bit ironic because despite the fact the bus was amazing, the ride to Uyuni was extremely bumpy and crazy. We drove on non-existent roads, little stony paths, and did some off-roading as well. They changed the tires 2 times over the course of the night, and after a while I got used to the constant bouncing and hitting my head on the window.

Day 13- Uros Islands & Taquile Island, Peru

2010-01-07T22:42:00.000-08:00

At 6:45am a cab took John and I from our hostel down to the docks on the lake. We got on a boat with about 20 other passengers from all over the world, and with our island-hopping tour group (Edgar Adventures) we booked yesterday, set out to explore the islands of Lake Titicaca! Winds blowing, we made it about 200 feet and then... the boat died. We waited for them to try to fix it, but ended up jumping onto another boat. Our guide gave us a commentary on what we were seeing, and we were excited to find we weren't the only Americans on the boat. Half an hour later, we arrived at our first destination: Las Islas Uros, also known as the Floating Islands. It was very hot outside, and I had lost my sunglasses, but I didn't care because this place was amazing!

These islands are very unique because they are man-made out of reeds stacked together to float on the water which are tied to the floor of the lake. The people who live on these islands are from a long line of descendants who have been living in the same manner for centuries. Their ancestors built these reed islands out in the middle of the lake to isolate themselves from the violent Incas in Puno. The current residents speak the native Aymara language, as well as Spanish and even a little English (so they can barter with us tourists!). They make a living from fishing and tourism, and their homes are very uniquely crafted and decorated. These locally famous islands are made by combining layers of the totora reeds (which you can also eat) and they are constantly replenished on the top since the layers on the bottom rot.

As we walked around on the "island" we were greeted by a woman named Delia who took us on a brief tour and showed us inside her home. Other residents were pairing off with other tourists, doing the same. Delia introduced John and I to her family and pointed out different things. The specific island we were on had about 10 homes, and there are many other islands scattered all around. It was very kind of her to show us around, and so obviously we felt obliged to buy some of her handicrafts that she had set out on a blanket. I ended up buying a necklace for myself, a bracelet for Jenna, and a little blue pot for Christina. It might have been for show, but the locals all had traditional clothing styles and lived without technology inside reed homes. They had traditional reed boats too. Some people go on rides in them but I was happy to just take a picture! As we continued walking around the small island, we learned about the history of the people, how they built the islands, etc. and it was all very fascinating. The ground is somewhat bouncy or spongy feeling, and it is a very odd sensation. When you get near the edges you can see how it just cuts off into the water, and certain parts where the reeds are rotting you kind of sink into it a little.

A video John took from atop a small lookout panning the island:

The islands were very unique and definitely interesting, and although the one we visited is used to seeing tourists, apparently there are many more isolated islands where the people live in a very traditional fashion and prefer to not be photographed. Once everyone was back on the boat we began the 2.5 hour long ride to our next stop, the island of Taquile. During this time we started chatting with the other Americans on the boat. A very friendly San Francisco couple introduced themselves as Valerie and Jeremy, and we swapped our traveling stories. We ended up all moving to sit on the back of the boat so we could be outside and could enjoy the breeze and the sights. We were later joined by a hilarious guy named Jake who was from Ohio (small world) and has been living in Lima working as a teacher. He was on his summer break and was doing some traveling in the country. We all just hung out back there and had some really good conversations until we arrived to Taquile.

Once we arrived, we prepared ourselves to climb a steep trail leading up the side of the hill. It consisted of over 500 steps going from the dock to the high center of the hilly island. It wouldn't have been difficult except for the fact that we were at a very high altitude, and as usual I struggled. The views as we all walked were stunning though. You could see a panorama of the lake and mountains of the Cordillera Real in Bolivia in the distance. As we walked we were stopped by a couple different sets of kids trying to sell us crafts or get us to take their photo for some soles. They were all super adorable of course. According to my guide book, "the island is a tiny 7 km place with a Quechua speaking population. They are a self governing body within Peru, and maintain a strong sense of group identity. The rarely marry non-Taquile people and live lives unaffected by the modernity of the mainland." They have limited access to electricity, and have a very unique culture. John described the island as "a treat because the people continue to live largely without influence from the modern world."

Once we reached the main square we explored a little and John and Jake banned together to exchange "photo-sniping" aka stalker photo techniques. With their powers combined they got some pretty great photos of the locals in their traditional clothing. Our group then went up some more steps to have lunch on an outdoor patio overlooking the lake. It was very tasty, and during this meal I had my first try of mate de coca, or coca tea. It's made out of the popular coca leaves, which Peruvians chew to aid altitude sickness. It is illegal in the US, Chile and Bolivia because it is used to make, of course, cocaina! After we were finished, the owner of the restaurant and our guide explained to us the unique customs and practices of courtship and marriage that the islanders do. Here is what we learned:

Most of the unique handicrafts on the island are made according to a system of deeply ingrained social customs. The men wear tightly woven woolen hats (looking like a floppy Santa hat) that they take great pride in knitting themselves. If a man's hat is red it means he is married, red and white means he is single. When a man is interested in a girl, he will give her the woven hat for a night. To judge if he is a hard worker and proficient knitter, thus good enough to be her husband, a girl will pour water into the hat to see if it holds. If she likes it, she likes him, and she will then begin making him a thick, colorful waistband. These decorative belts are given to the men once they marry, and sometimes girls weave the hair from their head into the belts too. We also learned that if a guy is interested in a girl, he will get out a mirror and aim the reflection from the sun on the mirror at her face. If she is interested, she can come over to talk. If not, the girls have shawls with decorative pom-poms on the end, and they can use that to hit the guy if they don't care for them (like my outfit). Good stuff!! We got to try on some of the local ware, and also learned it is normal to carry around a little pouch full of coca leaves every day.

On the trek back down the island, we were stopped by many more children selling crafts. I ended up buying a llama ornament from this little boy, just because he was so cute. We also stopped at the famous stone arch which overlooks the lake and is very scenic. Some kids were there dressed up in local clothes making bank on tourists photographing them. John and Jake got photos of these kids, but thanks to their skills at photographing people without them noticing, they got the photos for free. It was funny to watch them bond over being paparazzi. The boat ride back was another long 2.5 hours, and the five of us Americans chatted some more.

It began to rain, and once we arrived back to Puno we all went separate ways but planned to meet for dinner in town. Later that night John and I met up with Jake, Valerie and Jeremy in front of the Cathedral and had some dinner and drinks at a local restaurant. It was a fun time, and at one point it was very hilarious because this Australian couple at the table by us ordered cuy, and once they got it they started screaming and freaking out about how gross it was. They didn't speak Spanish so the waiter was confused, thinking he cooked it wrong. Jake is basically fluent, so he sorted it out, and then him and John somehow convinced the couple to let them eat the rest of the guinea pig so it didn't go to waste. Boys being scavengers for guinea pig scraps- wow, just wow. Overall our last night in Peru was very fun, and it was nice to get to make some new friends.

Day 12- Puno & Sillustani, Peru

2010-01-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

After a long night of a bumpy bus ride weaving its way through narrow mountain roads, we finally arrived at our destination: the bus stop in Puno. We pulled in at 4am during a bad thunderstorm. There was no shelter so everyone had to stand in the pouring rain waiting to get their bags thrown to them from the bottom of the bus by the one 13 year old kid in charge of the operation. Lightning was striking uncomfortably close, and I was convinced someone was going to die. I ended up running inside while poor John waited in the rain for our backpacks. Once we entered the bus station it was full of men trying to convince us to use their taxi. We were tired and stressed so we went along with the first annoyingly pushy man who confronted us. I told him the name of our hostel, "Inka's Rest", and he said he knew where it was. We started driving into town. In the rain and dark the place looked pretty shady, and I was getting worried. Eventually we realized the driver didn't know where it was, and after repeating the name several times it finally clicked. Luckily John wrote down directions to it before we left the US or who knows what would have happened!

We were dropped off in the narrow street in front of the hostel, rang the doorbell and were greeted by the owner. He told us our room wasn't available until 11am. Great. I asked the man (in Spanish) if I could pay for an extra night if we could stay in a room until then. I said any bed was fine- but he said they were completely full. Ugh! I was so tired and cranky I almost cried. We tried to fall asleep sitting in the check-in room, but it was unsuccessful. Randomly at 5am, I think he took pity on us and told me there was an open room on the 2nd floor. We headed up there and it had 6 empty beds. I'm not sure why he lied to us initially, it was odd. He also started speaking fluent English at that point. Tricky man. Then, we passed out til 10am. It was great.

After our rest, we headed out to the main plaza in Puno. The town was very lively because it was the Feast of the Epiphany (when the 3 kings visited Jesus), or El Dia de Los Reyes. Women dressed in traditional clothing had stands in front of all the cathedrals and in the main square, selling dolls. I later learned that the children buy the dolls and at mass that night they put them on the altar for baby Jesus, then they later give the dolls to charity. We peeked inside the crowded Catedral de Puno, and then went inside a tour company building to look into our Lake Titicaca island hopping options for tomorrow. (If you don't already know, Lake Titicaca is 12,500 ft above sea level, making it one of the highest navigable lakes in the world. By volume of water, it is also the largest lake on the continent.) After a brief pharmacy stop for me, we hailed a cab. The driver was very talkative and friendly, and I had a nice in-depth conversation with him. I actually used Spanish vocab words they teach you in school that you think you will never use. Now I can say I did! Once. He drove us up a hill toward El Arco Deusta. It was just some arch to honor war heroes, but it was a scenic view for sure.

We then continued up towards a lookout on the hilltop known as Cerro Huajsapata. It had a statue of an Incan king and overlooked the town and the famous Lago Titicaca. Its name might sound weird, but in the native language it means "grey puma" since the lake is supposedly shaped like the animal. After we went back down to the central part of town we had lunch at a place Lonely Planet recommended, it was fairly touristy and had a weird church like theme. It was very quiet and the food was just so-so. We ran into a German couple who were apparently loaded because they had sailed to South America and left their yacht docked while they explored the continent for months. Must be nice.

Video panorama of Lake Titicaca as seen from Cerro Huajsapata

At about 2pm we went to a travel agency and bought bus tickets for a day trip to the nearby area where the ruins of Sillustani are. Our guide spoke English, but his accent was so thick that when he repeated what he said in Spanish, I actually understood him better! The ruins were pre-Incan and Incan structures which served as funerary towers. The burial towers are known as chullpas. The people would put the body of the ruler who died inside the stone tower, and then kill his family and all of his servants so that they could be buried with him. The towers have since been looted of the treasures and the bodies, and the stones are crumbling, yet it was still a very interesting place. The site sits on a hilltop overlooking a lake, and is out in the middle of the countryside. With the wind and isolation it had an eerie yet peaceful feel to it. We had the chance to take many great photos, explore, and learn about its history. We also got some nice photos of the lake as seen from the cliffside.

Our bus left Sillustani and on the way back stopped at a local rural homestead. A family lived and farmed there and let us come visit and see how they live. They had various foods sitting out, a population of guinea pigs, llamas, and alpacas, as well as some woven goods for sale. The homes were made out of stones and dried mud or clay. It was very interesting to explore their home and try to imagine what it would be like to live in that isolated area, selling llama wool for a living. They also had the "pig" statues on their rooves, and we learned that they are actually bulls, and they are a symbol for good luck and prosperity. Tons of Peruvian homes have them. Walking back to the bus, several local kids ran up to us begging for tips. They tried to guilt me but since they didn't do anything worth getting money and didn't even live at the homestead we toured, I denied them. They were really pushy though! We then headed on the bus ride back to Puno, enjoying the rural scenery of the isolated lands.

Puno is at a very high altitude, which causes me to get headaches and tire easily. After I took a necessary nap, during which John wandered the town, we reconvened and walked around the surrounding streets. I bought some snacks from street vendors, and then we went on a quest for peanut butter a.k.a. crema de cacahuete. No street stalls or even large markets had it- they don't know what they're missing! Mission failed. We then ate dinner at a local chifa restaurant. The food has an Asian influence and is a mixture of rice, meat and veggies known as chaufa. It was a local place, so was highly affordable. Then we headed back to the hostel to prepare for another early day tomorrow!

Day 11- Puerto Maldonado-Cuzco, Peru

2010-01-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

After enjoying our final breakfast at the Corto Maltes lodge, we got our stuff ready to go in our backpacks and said our goodbyes. I was a little sad to say goodbye to Luci, I really did view her as a friend and she was so interesting to talk to, I was sad to think I'll likely never see her again. The canoe motor driver put our things into the boat, and for a minute there was a struggle trying to maintain balance on the boat so it wouldn't tip over! Once we worked it out, we all headed on the 45 minute ride down the Madre de Dios river, out of the jungle, and back towards the small town of Puerto Maldonado. At the dock we were met by a girl working for the tour company, and she helped us put our bags into the van. Before taking us to the airport she said we would get to explore the town a little. We then stopped in the middle of a busy street in the central part of the town. She led us around the open air markets to get a feel for the town. It was definitely a new experience for me. We were the only foreign people in sight as we walked around the open air markets, taking in all the sights and action around us. The dusty streets were full of motor bikes, carts, and vendors. The different stands for things like fresh fruit, meat, fish, clothes and jewelry lined the streets, and continued back underneath many more tents. I saw a wide variety of things being sold- it ranged from pirated Spanish DVDs and colorful clothes to live chickens, bunnies and puppies. (I hope the puppies were being sold as pets, but I doubt the rabbits were!) There were also massive fish just laying on tables with flies swarming them. It was loud, busy, colorful, and a lot for the eyes to take in. Once we had our fill of exploring in the heat, we were taken to the little Puerto Maldonado airport. It was oppressively hot in there, and since it was basically outside, the only cool air was coming from the fans on the ceiling, but it didn't help much. John and I had about 2 hours to kill before our flight, and since the airport was one large room, there wasn't much to do besides read and write postcards.

Once our flight came and left, we were back in Cuzco- and back to comfortable temperatures! At the Cuzco airport we were more or less assaulted by the many people trying to sell tours or trips to Machu Picchu. I wish I could have worn a t-shirt that said "I already went" or something. Would've been nice. We went out to get a cab, and since the last time we took a cab into the city from this airport we were basically jipped, we were resolute in our price negotiations with the cab drivers. We started at 30 soles and after getting rejected by some I talked it down to about half that. It was nice that we knew the tricks they try to pull, since we're basically pros now, haha. We found ourselves back in the Plaza San Francisco, and back in our old hostel, Pirwa Colonial. They let us store our luggage there and we headed out to get lunch at the empanada place John is obsessed with for one last time. We then wandered around the Plaza de Armas some more. I saw the evil little girls again, and tried to avoid them. They scare me a bit. Anyways, we kept strolling around central Cuzco. During this time sales girls ran up to us frequently and we were probably offered about 30 different chances to get a massage or a manicure. It was fairly annoying, but a little funny. I guess they thought John's nails were looking bad. At one point a guy came up to John and asked if he was an American, and upon saying yes, offered him some illegal stuff. We of course denied this offer, and left that area right away. It was a bit humorous though that he assumed American = go for it.

Since we had a lot of time before our night bus, we went back to the hostel and spent time hanging out on the top floor. We played some pool (I lost) and darts (I won!), and then spent some time reading and writing. For dinner we found a place earlier that offered a 5 course meal for only 15 soles (2.50$), so we returned there. I was amazed at how much food we got, and at such a great price! I will miss that about Peru for sure. After that we got our backpacks and cabbed it to the bus station. We waited for a little, and then got on our two story bus. Our assigned seats were luckily "bus-cama" seats (the label for a bus seat that reclines back into a 'bed' or a lounge chair sort of thing), and we were in front of a group of Canadians about my age. We started chatting with them about their travel experiences, and it was fun to swap stories. Before the bus left the station though, a woman decided to have a hissy fit. We think that in Peru, the wealthier people normally sit on the bottom floor because the seats are a tiny bit more spacious. On this bus though, they were all the same. The woman didn't realize this, and so thought the company was degrading her by making her sit on the top floor, and in a small seat. She started screaming and yelling in Spanish, and I caught that she said "you have cheated me!!"/"Me ha engañado!!" and she also said something derogatory towards Argentinians? Not sure why. She was so mad that she screamed "Stop this bus!!!!/Pare este autobús!!!" and would not allow the bus to leave until her little problem was fixed. Basically the workers convinced her all the seats were the same, they were not cheating her, etc. yet she was still extremely angry, throwing a little temper tantrum for all of us. I can't believe what a snobby and inconsiderate person she was, thinking that the whole bus was happy to stop and wait for her to throw a fit before we were finally allowed to leave. It was actually really funny though. The Canadians got a big kick out of it and so did I. The rest of the night was spent attempting to fall asleep on a cold and uncomfortable bus ride through the narrow mountain roads on the way to Puno.

Day 10- Corto Maltes, Rio Madre de Dios, Peru

2010-01-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

I woke up expecting to be attacked by the intense heat, but it was actually somewhat cloudy and overcast- Yay! Less heat, happier me. After breakfast, John and I said goodbye to our Dutch friends. They were a very entertaining group to be with, and it was a bit sad to see them go. A few new guests had arrived to Corto Maltes, but all in all the visitors were sparse and after the family left things felt very quiet. Of our original tour group, John and I were now the only ones left. No one else had opted for the 4 day tour I guess. So, we hopped back on the boat with Luci and our boat driver guy, who was barefoot during the whole day (I am amazed).

We arrived at the residence of a small family consisting of the Grandfather, his daughter, and her two children. Their home was on the riverside, and we had another interesting venture of climbing up a muddy cliff to get to it (in the photo, click to see enlarged version). It was beginning to rain, and the family came out to greet us. We began walking around as the elderly man gave us a tour of his property. They lived in a very small home and had dogs and chickens running around everywhere in the mud. They didn't harvest one thing in particular, and so the land was full of a variety of fruits and trees. I think that the two children, a boy and a girl, lived mostly in isolation. They probably didn't go to school, and only knew their family and the few people who lived around them. It was almost a
little bit heartbreaking to look at the little girl and think about how her daily life was. I thought about how many opportunities and privileges I was given at her age, and how she will likely never have those same things. She is probably still happy though, because she doesn't know not to be. Despite that, I couldn't help but wonder how her life would be without an education, without access to medical care, etc. and it just reminded me of the stark difference between her life and the lives of spoiled kids in the US. The kids were very excited to have visitors though, and energetically followed us around while their grandpa explained to us what various plants or trees were. He let us try many of the fruits, which John mostly did. I am very picky, but I did try a couple things! I was a little paranoid about eating some of the fruit because of the whole "you shouldn't drink the water in South America ever" thing, but we were fine. It was definitely a very eye opening visit for me, and it made me think about all the privileges and blessings I have, and appreciate them more. I don't think I have ever really seen firsthand a family living in remote poverty. Even without access to all the things we think we can't live without, and without access to even some basic things, they still manage, and still seem very happy and excited about life. It gave me a lot more perspective on things. The old man was a very chatty and happy guy and was really excited that John liked all the fruit he cut up for him. Luci translated for us, but I did try to say a couple things to him and the little girl. After we had explored the property, the rain stopped, and we went back down to the river.

We were back on the water for almost an hour, headed towards a local village where the people literally live in straw huts and wear traditional rainforest clothing- like something you'd expect to see in a movie. Sadly when we arrived though, Luci discovered that the villagers were all missing and the place was empty. She told us they had probably headed to visit a neighboring community, which was a bit of a disappointment because I wanted the chance to see how they live. Luci had an alternate plan though, and so we headed down river a bit to a man's house that sat by the riverside. Luci told us she used to come play here when she was a kid, and that she knew about a giant tree that was back in the middle of the forest. We got off the boat, and talked to the owner of the property. He had a fairly big lodge constructed that he lived in, and it looked like it maybe used to be some sort of dining hall for tourists, but I'm not sure. It was a very isolated feeling place, and surrounded by a very dense forest. As we began walking back on the narrow trails I envisioned seeing jaguars or huge snakes or something that would come attack us, but luckily that was not the case! After exploring, sweating, swatting mosquitoes, and walking around we arrived to the location of the giant tree! It was really wide and definitely the tallest I have ever seen. We got some pictures in front of it, and if you looked up you couldn't tell where it ended. Luci said it was probably 400 or so years old, and that her friends used to climb it! On the trail on the way back to the home, John reminded Luci of his desperate hunt for a custard apple fruit he loves known as cherimoya. She had the boat driver guy find some, but to John's dismay it was too ripe. To make it up to him though he decided to knock down some coconuts off a tree, and let John drink the milk in it. He chugged it down, but I took one sip and wasn't so sure that I liked it.

We took some photos and said goodbye, and took a long relaxing boat ride back to Corto Maltes. During the ride I discussed Spanish bands with Luci, and I was excited that she listened to some of the stuff I like. Back at the lodge we had a decent amount of time to kill, and since it was still very hot, we decided to test out the swimming pool. It felt awesome, and I definitely enjoyed it. I could have stayed in the pool for hours, but after about one hour John was bored because he is not as into pools and sunbathing as I am-maybe it's a girl thing? We then just hung out, laid on hammocks and listened to music for a while. Then we headed to the bar and lounge room at the bottom of the lodge. No one else was there, so we just relaxed and played chess. John got a drink, and I tried to explain to the bartender what a strawberry daiquiri was. Once he knew what I was talking about he said they didn't have strawberries at the time, but he offered to make me a daiquiri of some fruit I've never heard of. I was worried I wouldn't like it, so I opted out. I was still slightly queasy from my illness so I didn't want to risk any crazy tastes. We had our last gourmet meal up at the lodge later, and I was a little sad about having to leave the next day. We went around and got some final photos of the crazy flowers, and of Pedro the parrot. Then we checked out the gift shop run by a family who lived at Corto Maltes, and I bought a little green bracelet. Overall today was a somewhat low key relaxing day, especially compared to yesterday, but it was still a great day in the jungle. Power went out at 10, so we had to pack our backpacks with the use of flashlight. Buenas noches!

(the video is of the huge tree) :

Day 9- Corto Maltes, Rio Madre de Dios, Peru

2010-01-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

In the darkness of 4 in the morning I climbed out from under the mosquito net, and fumbled around for a flashlight. Using this, I somehow managed to get ready for the day, and try to hide from the gigantic cockroach roaming around the room. I think John named it Fred, but I am not entirely positive. We walked out to the lodge and when our group was assembled, we followed Luci and Pablo (I forget his name?) back onto the trail behind the property into the forest. We walked quietly for about a half hour during dusk until we reached a small lake where a little bird blind had been constructed. This is where we would hide out in order to watch the birds come and get their breakfast at a clay-lick. It just looked like a muddy hillside, but the birds love feeding there.

The sun finally rose, which was good since the birds are mostly active at dawn (hence the early start to our day). We were all extremely quiet because we didn't want to scare the birds away. We sat and waited for a while, anticipation building, and then we began to hear a couple birds up in the canopy of trees. The sounds started multiplying and soon there were hundreds of green feathered parakeets and blue chested parrots all around the surrounding trees. You could hear the parakeets cawing, their many wings flapping, and even the sounds of some monkeys in the distance if you listened closely. I took a video in order to capture some of the sounds of being in the middle of the rain forest when birds are coming to feed. Click to listen. It was a beautiful sight to see all of the brightly colored birds, and it was fun to watch them interact. I was amazed at how many of them there were. Luci told us that not all guests get to see the birds when they come to the blind, and that we were lucky with our timing. After spending some time relaxing and enjoying this part of nature, we headed back on the trail to the lodge.

While eating breakfast, I turned around to look out the screened windows towards the river when my vision was assaulted by a scary, huge, evil spider! Ahh! It was on the wall about 2 feet behind my chair, and had been there the whole time. I naturally freaked out and scooted my chair as far away as I could. John, being the guy that he is, decided to put his face close to it for a picture. It makes me shudder. Nasty.

After that, John walked down the main path toward the river and noticed a tarantula feeding on some fruit in a tree that was asleep, and now hiding inside the tree. Gross. We walked around the property and took some photos of the river, and of the beautiful and exotic flowers that were all around. Luci told me that we would need some rain boots to wear for the rest of the day since the trail would be very muddy, so we went and tried those on. I of course checked inside my boots for spiders first! Then we noticed a large parrot just chilling on a nearby tree. I thought it was someone's pet, but no. It lived in the wild, but it liked to come hang out by the lodge, and the staff had named it Pedro. He was very photogenic and funny to watch. After that we headed back and relaxed on our hammocks. I was just lying there, listening to some Canto Del Loco (my favorite Spanish band) on my iPod, when I felt something slimy on my leg... It was a tree frog! I screamed and flung it off me. In my future hammock uses, I will cover my legs with a shirt.

After a mid morning siesta, it was time for our little group to go to our next activity. We all got into the boat, and headed down the river closer to the Bolivian border until we reached a little uninhabited island (uninhabited by people that is) locally named Isla de Los Monos, or Monkey Island. Because the river levels were low it was harder to get out of the boat onto land. We basically pulled the boat up next to a muddy little cliff, and the guides helped us climb up it onto the flat ground. As soon as we were ready, I noticed the sound of mosquitoes. There were so many, and they followed us around in little swarms since everybody was so sweaty from the intense heat. Luci lead the way with her machete, cutting down stray branches and things blocking our trail. As we headed deeper and deeper into the forest, we could hear the jungle sounds, and it was again almost surreal to me. Luci started making monkey cries or calls in order to attract the monkeys so we could maybe see some. She said that not every group who comes to the island get to see them. The trees and landscape were very thick and our trail was very narrow. Since I was second in line I was fortunate enough to walk right into a spider web. A huge yellow spider ended up on my eye! I felt it and swatted it off but it really scared me because if a poisonous spider bit my eye so far away from medical help, I'm not sure how that would have worked out. Luci was a little worried, but luckily it didn't get a chance to do any harm besides scaring me. I made John walk in front of me after that point. I kept swatting at the bugs, but I realized it did no good so just gave in and tried to get accustomed. As we kept walking further into the trees we began to hear the sounds of the monkeys. I was hoping we would be a lucky group who got to see them.

Finally we came to a small clearing where there were 2 rundown buildings with straw roofs. Luci told us they were abandoned monkey research facilities. It had a very eerie and nostalgic feel to it, and all of us joked about how it felt like something from Jurassic Park. While we were standing around, Luci took some bananas out of her backpack. I thought it was humorous that she used these to bait the monkeys because it is so cliché, I never knew monkeys actually liked bananas! We started hearing some branches rustling above us, and soon about 2 or 3 monkeys were visible. Luci threw bananas up to them and one of them caught it, and then started calling out to his friends to come and get some too. Then, more monkeys came. One of them had a baby monkey riding on its back. It was so adorable. John luckily got several good photos of this, as well as a video of the mom monkey. I love how the baby was sticking its tongue out. Precious! I was very excited that we were able to experience all of this. It was amazing and something I will always remember. The abandoned huts reminded me of my former life dream I had when I was 12. I wanted to be a zoologist and go study animals in the middle of the jungle. While I realize now that it would be very fascinating, I’m not that upset I changed my calling in life because heat and mosquitoes are not a fun combination!

Because it is mating season for the monkeys, they tend to be more aggressive, and Luci wanted us to leave just to be careful. We got back to the boat and set out on the river again. The wind felt phenomenal at that point. We were headed to a nature reserve called Tambopota National Park. We docked (if you can call it that- the dock consisted of a pole for the boat to be tied to with broken, crooked stairs leading you up the muddy riverside) and headed to the visitors building. Once we started the trail we would be taking to get to the highlight of the park, Lake Sandoval, I realized why we needed tall boots. The trail was made of broken up mud that had been rained on and so now was just gigantic, sloshy, puddles of muddy water. I thought “well, I can do this, at least there aren’t mosquitoes and it won’t be for too long.” Wrong. We were on the trail for what felt like hours, when really it was only about a 1.5 hour walk. If the trail were gravel or solid ground it wouldn’t have been bad at all, but the slippery, shin-deep, wet mud in a miserably humid jungle made it difficult. Luckily we all had hiking sticks or else I’m not sure I would have been able to keep my balance! During the walk we saw some cool things though, like wild iguanas and brightly colored birds and lizards. We also chatted with the very tall red-headed Dutch man. I never did catch his name, but he was funny. This kept my spirits up, because the walk was not so fun. Finally we arrived at a tiny stream that had a few old canoes in it. We piled into one with Luci and the Dutch family. It was somewhat dark since the trees covered the sky, and it was very quiet. The sound of the canoe paddle on the water was all we heard for a while. We weren’t moving too fast, and so during the ride we were able to see a cayman in the water. We stopped and tried to get closer to it for photos, and at one point it was about 5 feet away!

Once we had passed through the little, winding stream through the trees, we came out onto the open air of the lake. It was a fantastic sight! Lago Sandoval was a big, impressive lake, truly out in the middle of nature. The surrounding trees were very tall and it was an amazing feeling. The sensation of being out in the wild, no cities nearby, no planes flying overhead. Just nature, plain and simple. It was quiet, except for the sounds of the birds. We were out on the river canoeing for quite some time, heading towards a place where we would dock for lunch. We stayed close to the shore and got to see many large and unique birds. Many of them were garzas, or cranes. We also saw some orange howler monkeys jumping around in the trees. They travel so fast just hopping around from one branch to another, and they really did howl! When we pulled up to get lunch we sat down and Luci gave us our meal, which had been packed by being wrapped up in a giant leaf. I made sure John re-applied his sunscreen- I have never seen a human so sweaty before! John was literally dripping. So were the Dutch men. I was definitely sweating, but not to that extent. It was ridiculous! We made sure we drank lots of water too- I was glad John brought his camel-back. After lunch I decided to move from the log we were sitting on because there were ants crawling on it and I was scared of bullet ants, and there

were monkeys getting a little too close for my comfort. A random man then appeared in our little clearing, and it confused me because I thought we were all alone. Luci later told me he was part of a local indigenous family whose ancestors had been living on this land for years. His family, along with 4 others, were allowed to live and farm on the land even though it is a national reserve. I think it would be very interesting to see how they live and what they do on a daily basis. I mean, they live out in the jungle with wild leopards and crazy insects! It is also neat to think about how different their lives are from the lives of people living in the US. Anyways, I got some nice photos of a crane that perched artistically on our canoe, and then we got back on the water.

On the ride back, I felt very relaxed, just taking the whole experience in. We canoed past a tree that had several large bats sleeping on it, and saw a few more monkeys. Being out on the lake was so peaceful, I really loved it. (My Viewpoint). Unfortunately though, the experience had to end, and we had to walk another 1.5 hours back on the mud trail. I tried to tell John stories of my high-school days in order to pass the time, and I’m not sure how much it entertained him, haha. We saw some more iguanas, and at one point John and I got far ahead from the rest of the group and saw some monkeys up-close. Then, John got bit by some Brazilian fire ants. That must have been pretty painful! The trail was no fun, but the time on Lake Sandoval made it worth it. After a restful canoe ride back to Corto Maltes, it was time for everyone to take desperately needed showers. I don’t remember the last time I felt that disgusting. It felt like I had jumped in a pool, but I didn't. A cold shower was the perfect remedy- and so was a nap!

Dinner was nice, except afterward John discovered that the tarantula was out of its hiding place. He went to get pictures, I stayed far away. Except for the spider, everyone headed to bed extremely early. It was a very long and eventful day for sure. At one point during the night, maybe around midnight, I woke up because I felt water splashing on my face. It had begun thundering and raining (it is the rainforest after all) and I guess the roof wasn’t the most waterproof of things. I made sure any electronics were stowed safely away, and fell back asleep, listening to the surprisingly relaxing sounds of a nighttime storm in the jungle.

Day 8- Puerto Maldonado, Peru

2010-01-02T21:59:00.000-08:00

We woke up early and cabbed it to the Cuzco airport, saying goodbye to streets filled with yellow confetti and firework casings. We got to el aeropuerto around 10am and went through a far more relaxed security check than us Americans are used to. After paying the "airport tax" and getting the little sticker safely on our tickets, we were ready to go! We were flying with Star Peru, and once we arrived at our departure gate we were informed it would be delayed 1 hour. I decided to curl up in a ball on the chair and sleep. I didn't even want to deal with eating. An hour came and went, and John chatted it up with a Dutch family hanging out nearby. Instead of making an announcement to us passengers as to why we still weren't boarding 1 hour later, we had to hunt down a worker and ask them what was going on. The guy told us our flight was delayed another 1.5 hours. Great. I decided to kill time by sitting and staring obliviously. It wasn't so bad because I got to be entertained by watching a young Australian girl completely freak out and yell at the gate attendant about our flight being so late. She demanded that they pay for her to get a new plane ticket, because apparently this is not the standard procedure for Star Peru. She also wanted money for a hotel since she would have to remain in Cuzco overnight. I think she finally got what she wanted after a lot of loud yelling and rude sighs and shrugs. It was comical to watch her boyfriend stand behind her looking both frightened and embarrassed at the same time. No mystery as to who wears the pants in that relationship! Although she was over-reacting, I can't say I blame her for complaining to the manager about poor customer service. Our flight was delayed 2.5 hours and they switched our gate on us twice, and no one ever got on a microphone to announce this to the people waiting. We were in a cloud of mystery, and we only knew what was going on by staking out workers and asking.

Finally, we boarded our tiny little plane. There was almost nobody on it besides us, the Dutch family, the Australian couple, and some young people headed to Puerto Maldonado to do some mission work. I found it interesting to realize that I was more or less vacationing in a place where others were going for a mission trip. (As a side note, the city is located near the borders of Brazil and Bolivia on the eastern side of the country.) The flight was nice because we could enjoy our last moments of feeling somewhat cold. We arrived to the Puerto Maldonado airport and wow! The heat just hits you! The airport was very tiny- only one exit. It was just a large open air building full of ceiling fans. The plane pulled up close to the building, we walked down some steps, and then only waited a few minutes for our bags to show up on the one carousel. I worried that since we were late our tour group wouldn't pick us up, but since the airport was so small they of course knew when to expect us. We found a sign for our tour company, Corto Maltes, with John's name on it, and discovered that the Dutch family John made friends with were on our tour as well. We all piled into a little van and set out into the town! The drive there had some very neat sights, including a motorcycle with 2 parents, 2 children, and a baby somehow all riding. There were lots of people walking around in the open air markets in the very busy main part of the town, and the place was loaded with scooters and those tiny rickshaws. It was colorful, exotic, lively, and very hot outside! Luckily John and I both wore the pants we got that you can zip off at the knee to be shorts. Good for days like this of going from cold to hot.

We arrived at the Corto Maltes office, paid our final dues, and waited for the Dutch family. We met a very cute, cheerful young Peruvian woman named Luci who said she would be our guide for the trip. The 8 of us tourists got back into the van with her and headed to the dock on the river. All of us somehow fit onto a little narrow canoe type motor boat, and began our journey down the River Madre de Dios (that feeds into the Amazon), away from civilization, and into the jungle! I was so excited, you have no idea! Ever since I was about 12 I've had an odd obsession with the rainforest and I have always dreamed of going, so really this was yet another life dream being realized. I was very happy, especially since the breeze from moving on the boat allowed you to forget about the heat (average temperatures were around 95-100 degrees) and the 100% humidity! Don't worry, I made sure John put on ample sun screen! While we were cruising down the Rio Madre, Luci told us that the river is home to piranhas, giant anacondas, creepy parasite fish, and caymans. I was thinking I would never want to swim in it, and then I noticed some local children all playing in the water. They are brave ones! After about 45 minutes of riding down the river, it felt like we were really out there, in the middle of the jungle. There were a few small homes/huts, and no buildings in sight except for one or two other guest lodges like the one we would be at. Finally, we saw the Corto Maltes lodge area. We pulled up on the muddy river bank and walked up steps to the main lodge. Everything was so colorful and beautiful! The lodge had the dining area, and behind that was the pool. The rest of the area was full of colorful landscaping, and about 20 guest huts. Only about 5 were occupied at the time though because it is "off season". The guests all get to stay in these huts that have cold showers (yes!), a balcony with hammocks, and beds equipped with mosquito nets. Our specific hut was in the front of the property and had a view of the river. I was pumped. Back in the lodge we were served a very fancy lunch with some plantains for dessert, and I actually ate some of it! After that we had time to unpack and look around, and I was amazed. It was a very relaxing atmosphere since very few guests were there, and the background sounds were just noises of tons of exotic birds and some howling monkeys in the distance.

The first thing on our agenda was to go on a nature walk into the forest on the property. Thank God I was feeling better because I did not want to miss my first chance of being in the jungle! Before heading out we were advised to wear long pants because of bugs, and to load on the bug spray. John and I had purchased straight DEET for the trip, and we definitely needed it! Mosquitoes galore! We went along the trail following Luci (she speaks very good English, and it was a nice break to not try to translate) as she explained to us what various plants and trees were. She told us what the native people used them for- whether it was for food, or medical purposes, etc. She also warned us to look out for the gigantic bullet ants, whose bites burn and cause swelling - extremely painful! We did see a few, and I was super careful to avoid them. I also saw many large spiders and gigantic bee/wasp hybrid things. The bullet ant anthills were about 5 feet tall! At one point we stopped and Luci and her assistant guide, a younger boy named Pablo or something, chopped up some stuff with a machete and then inside were some peanuts! We all got to try some. Also Luci found a leaf the indigenous people used as a pain reliever. John chewed on it and his whole mouth was numb for a while! She also mashed up some leaf with water and it created a red face paint that she put on the little girl (named Cheska- I know this because they repeated her name so much) that was with the Dutch family. She also showed us a plant that looks like a parrot's beak, and she said when she was little they would hold it on their noses and pretend to be one. The sounds of the jungle were almost surreal to me, and I loved it! We weren't even that deep into yet either. Despite the heat, it was really fun and interesting.

On the way back John volunteered to swing on some monkey vine, and then it began to get dark. We were all privileged to have yet another 3 course meal prepared by the on staff cook, and I successfully ate a couple bites here and there. Later that night, we all went down to the boat and Luci, equipped with a flashlight, took us out to look for caymans. It was a nice escape from the heat, and I was in a good mood since I was feeling better. We didn't see any caymans for a while, and then on the way back we saw several of them close to the river bank! We got fairly close, and I was again reminded why I really hoped our boat would never capsize! After 10pm all of Corto Maltes shuts down their power. Each hut has a small gas lantern, but that is it. Luckily John brought a head-lamp because trying to get ready for bed in total darkness can be difficult. We had to get up at 4:30am the next morning, so bedtime was early! Once I pulled down the mosquito nets, I ignored the intense heat, and passed out.

Day 7- Cuzco, Peru

2010-01-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Today started out with me feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Normally on this trip our days have been starting no later than about 7am so I decided to "sleep in" until about 10am. I felt bad for being a hindrance to John who was probably dying to go out and explore, but he was nice enough to just wait for me. Once I got ready we walked back to the place we dropped our laundry off at yesterday. The worker told me that they were running behind so our clothes wouldn't be ready until about 5pm now. I had a bad feeling about it but just figured they forgot and hadn't even started it yet. Afterward we went back down to the Plaza De Armas and shopped around in the local artisan areas. I really love seeing all the different souvenirs, crafts, and artwork they have for sale. Everything is so colorful and there are so many choices I don't know how I ever choose! John took some good stalker photos of some colorfully dressed locals, and we got some more soles out of an ATM on the very busy street of Avenida El Sol. The guide book told us not to go there because it is "too crowded and full of pickpockets", but I actually thought it was just lively and fun. Plus John and I were well armed against banditos because we each sewed hidden pockets into all of our pants where we store the bulk of our cash, and then the rest of it went into our backpacks, which we had locked with a small combination lock. There were many good shops there, and I bought some good souvenirs, including some bracelets for my many roommates in Lexington. We saw a wooden tram stop in the main plaza yesterday, and realized that it did city tours. This appealed to me because I could sit down, not aggravate my illness, and take in the sights. Unfortunately though it was full. We were going to try for it today so I asked a local shop owner what its schedule was, but she rambled on about something I didn't understand. She also gave me some confusing information about buying stamps and mailing postcards when I asked for information. Apparently in Peru it costs about 4$ US to mail out one little postcard! She then answered my initial question and told me the tram was closed for the holiday, yet a nearby police-woman said it stopped by every 1.5 hours. We had just missed the last one apparently. Conflicting stories, but we were glad the tram was up and running. To kill time before the next one we went and got lunch. Sadly I still couldn't eat.

After we felt we had gotten a good feel for central Cuzco we decided to head uphill to the more artsy barrio of the town known as the San Blas area. On our way up the hill we stopped at this narrow street where a crowd was gathered and a man was dressed up as an Incan King. We realized that the foundation of one of these buildings was an ancient Incan structure that they had built on top of, and that it was famous because it had a "12 sided stone" (in the photo)- something typical of Incan architecture. They would stack oddly shaped stones and they somehow all fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. We continued on and arrived to the main plaza in the San Blas area. There were many people selling crafts and items laid out on blankets. However, the whole area seemed somewhat quiet and most of the churches and shops were closed; maybe because everyone was sleeping in from too much partying the night before! We looked around at some art galleries and shops, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and John got some photos of the city since it provided a nice vantage point. I was feeling really pathetic because after going up about 5 steps I would start breathing loudly and gasp for air. I guess altitude and I don't get along so well.

We headed back downhill from San Blas to the plaza. The Tram known as the Tranvia was running late and we were worried we had missed it, but luckily it showed up. It pulled up to the street and people (tourists) started running towards it trying to secure a spot. I was relieved we could get on. It was a 1.5 hour tour, and I was excited to get to sit and rest while enjoying the city. The tour drove us around to take in the sights and there was a guide explaining the history and significance of some of the places. Once the Tranvia was done with central Cuzco it started going uphill into the poorer neighborhoods, and we had to see some of the poverty present in the city. John pointed out to me that many of the local homes had a little pig statue on the roof, and we wondered what its significance was. Once the bus had climbed up to the top of the hills we stopped at an overlook with a gigantic Jesus statue to take some photos of the city from above. It was really a beautiful sight to see the ancient city with its orange roofs and how it is all tucked away in the Andes mountains. Some local children were there with llamas hoping to get a tip for photos. It also started raining, thundering and lightning. It was neat from that high view because you could see the bolts of lightning all over the city.

We returned to the Tranvia and drove past the famous ancient Incan ruins known as Sacsayhuamán. It appears to be just many giant stones, but it really was a community fortress built in 1100 AD. If you read the title out loud it sounds hilariously like the English words "sexy woman". When the guides would be speaking rapid Spanish and then mention the name of the ruins you can't help but laugh a little. It is interesting to know that the stones are so close together a single piece of paper won't fit between them. According to my guide book, "This precision, and the way the walls lean inward, is thought to have helped the ruins survive devastating earthquakes." When the Spanish came they took many of the stones from the ancient structure and used it to build Catholic churches in Cuzco. How kind of them again! This is why the walls are in perfect condition up to a certain height, and then messed up above that point. It also has an extensive system of underground passages that connect it to other nearby ruins. We had thought about doing a half day trip to the ruin but we were glad we just drove past. It was definitely interesting and historically important, but it wasn't enough to occupy us for that long.

The Tranvia took us on a narrow windy road back down to the Plaza. I was feeling better by this point and felt like I could try to eat something. The only thing that would be quick and bland was sadly, McDonald's. Hilariously, there was one in the main square. I felt like a horrible person for going there and ruining the cultural immersion experience, but I was sick and really hungry and it seemed like the best option. John cringed at the thought but he patiently sat with me while I scarfed down my meal- which shockingly was the most expensive meal I bought on the trip thus far (even though it was the worst and least amount of food). On our way back to the hostel we decided to check in on our laundry again. The store worker told me that they had forgotten to start our wash, and it was because the laundry people didn't show up since they had been out partying last night (if only that excuse would fly in American companies! It would be awesome!) I told him, in Spanish, that we absolutely needed our laundry tonight and that we had brought it in about 30 hours ago, and that was plenty of time to get our clothes back to us. He told me that our clothes were at the laundry place their store used but that it had closed, so he had no way to access our clothes that night. I had a slight freak out moment because I figured something like this would happen, and John and I had a flight out of Cuzco very early the next morning. I started getting flustered, and a little angry. I explained our situation and started being a bit snippy with him, saying that it was not my fault they did not do their job properly, that he needed to find someone who would get our clothes tonight, and that we could pick it up later (the place was supposedly a 24 hour laundry service!). I think he got a little scared because he kept apologizing over and over. He wasn't solving the issue though. Finally I just laid it out straight to him. I said if he didn't bring it to our hostel by 6am the next morning there would be a major problem. I think I successfully scared him into doing his job. He got our names and the name of our hostel, and he promised that they would have someone run it there early in the morning. I didn't entirely believe him, but I hoped for the best. Then, back at the hostel, we gave money to the front desk for the laundry people when they were supposedly going to come tomorrow. We then met with the on-staff travel consultant who sold us bus tickets from Cuzco to Puno that we will be using once we get back from our rainforest trip!

After taking care of all the chores we decided to just take it easy in the hostel. We both got on the internet for a little bit and sent out some emails to the friends and family. Then we set out into the streets of Cuzco to search for a place for dinner. I think John took pity on me being sick and worked up about the laundry issue and so allowed me to pick a restaurant. I picked a "chain" called Chez Maggy because they had calzones on the menu and that sounded delicious to me. They had hospitable and quick service, a new experience for Peru! I felt fine when I initially sat down, but then the illness came back, evil thing that it is. I ordered my calzone and then I was only able to eat a few bites. John had finished his meal, and then I ran into the back room. It was not fun. It was awful. I was so mad that I was still sick. I thought it was getting better, but no. We went back to the hostel and I went to bed, but could barely sleep the whole night since my stomach hurt so bad. I slept with a little bag by my bed, which was embarrassing, and I tossed and turned miserably all night.

Day 6- Aguas Calientes - Ollantaytambo - Cuzco, Peru

2009-12-31T23:57:00.000-08:00

We got up bright and early as usual today, got our backpacks ready, and walked across the bouncy bridge over the river to the train station. It was a very stress free ordeal, and even though I was sick a lot during my time in Aguas Calientes I think I will miss it a little because something about the constant running water and not having cars just really relaxed me. We then got on the lovely scenic train ride back to the little town of Ollantaytambo. When we arrived, many of the passengers from the train started running up the hill towards the bus station area. When we got up there John and I realized it's because the buses get full very quickly, so if you want to save money on transportation you have to be one of the first to get there. The bus we had originally taken in to the city was already full, so we wandered around for a while unsure of what to do. A man approached us and offered us a private cab ride back into the city of Cuzco. It wasn't too outrageous of a price, so we agreed. We sat in the cab (with no seatbelts, of course. None of the cars there ever seem to have them) ready to go, and then our driver asked me if it was alright if a friend of his rode into town with us too. Random. So, all cozy in the cab we headed on the route to Cuzco. We drove over cobble stoned streets for a while (bumpy!!), then we got out into the more rural mountaintop areas. We drove past many interesting things, and it was unlike anything I've ever seen before. It was more so the "real Peru" than anything we'd seen the last few days of being in tourist towns. We passed families out farming with their children, and I wondered things like where they went to school, where they go when they need a doctor, where they get clean water from etc. because it is a very remote area. It just makes you realize how much you have and take for granted as an American when you see any sort of poverty. The drive was beautiful though, and the altitude was definitely getting to me. I started getting my first of what would be many random headaches during the trip. Finally, we arrived back into Cuzco. I was glad because our cab driver was listening to a radio station the entire time of the same little girl singing multiple whiny mournful love songs with a man yelling things in Spanish in the background like "sing it girl!". It was a bit odd.

Cuzco. 11,000 feet above sea level, and man you can tell! If you aren't used to high altitude like me, you will be out of breath after about 1 minute of walking. The city is very historic and is the ancient land of the Incan rulers and has many ruins still standing. The main part of the city has the central Plaza de Armas with the 600 year old Catholic churches, modern day restaurants, fountains, shops, and vendors. Most of the buildings are colorful and seem to have orange terra-cotta or adobe style roofs. I think the city is beautiful! There may not be too much to do, but it is nice to look at! The first thing we did in Cuzco was take a cab to our hostel, Pirwa Colonial, located in the Plaza San Francisco (about 2 blocks away from the main square). It is situated next to a 500 year old church and is a renovated old colonial building with an open air courtyard. It has two stories and the second floor has a lounge area with pool tables, free internet, and a restaurant and bar that were buzzing with activity in preparation for the big New Years Eve party. I was feeling better, but when John and I set out to get lunch I was still too nauseous to eat anything besides a candy bar. John had a coworker who had been to Cuzco before and taken a photo of a little restaurant that she said had amazing empanadas. John printed this photo, and by coincidence the hostel woman recognized it, and we found it easily! John was thrilled of course, and since it was a local place it was very very affordable. John had about 4 empanadas and an Inka Cola for probably 2$ US. I just sat and observed him eating, willing my stomach to stop being so mean.

Our first stop for the day was the Qorikancha ruins. We walked up a hill and on the way up saw a group of local girls wearing brightly colored traditional style clothing. One of them was even carrying a lamb. It seemed so cute and natural that I made John take a stalker photo. Then, one of the girls ran up to me and started chatting with me in Spanish. It was then, we realized, that they were only dressed like this so that tourists would take pictures with them and then they could get money for posing. This girl asked if I wanted a picture, so I figured "sure I'll just give her 1 sole and it'll be fine." We stood there for the photo then instantly the 4 other girls, baby, and extra lamb jumped in the photo too. I gave the girl I talked to a sole, and then the bad stuff went down. Those girls were mean, rude little you-know-whats! The girl whined to me that the sole "was not enough". I told her all she had to do was stand there, so that should be plenty. Then she said the other girls wanted money, and she wanted more since she was the one who talked to me first. Demanding!! I kept walking up the hill but they followed me, pestering me and all sticking their hands out in my face trying to block me in. I pulled out all the change I had in my pocket which was only 5 more soles, and I tried to hand it to the original girl. However, one of her other friends snatched it out of my hand and ran away! She then yelled at me that she should get more, and I scolded her back saying that 6 soles was more than enough and that it wasn't my fault her friend left and wasn't going to split the money evenly. The other girls eventually gave up following me and after the main girl asked if John had any money I finally just yelled at her and said "that is all I have, it is plenty, go yell at your friends who aren't sharing, it's not my problem." I was getting very irritated and flustered at this point, and she was still following me. I then just totally ignored all the whiny, annoying, rude things she was saying until we got to the entrance of the ruins. I was relieved to get her out of my sight. They all seemed so cute and innocent at first with their little lambs and babies but no, they are fierce! The only plus side of this is it's a good story and I probably spoke Spanish more rapidly than I ever had before because I was put on the spot so much. Good practice. If you read this and go to Cuzco, avoid those deceiving little lamb girls!!

Anyways, the Qorikancha ruins are really just stones now, and these form the base of the current colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo. It was once the richest temple in the Incan empire, but all that remains of it today is the original stonework and some carvings of Incan gods. In the Inca times the place was literally covered with gold, but within months of the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors the incredible place was looted to just the stone base. The Spanish wanted to oppress the local people and "put them in their place" and so constructed a church on top of the Incan ruins as a way to dishonor and desecrate the Incan gods and religion. Through putting their Catholic church on top of the site, they successfully disrespected the local people's beliefs and heritage. How kind of them! (in the photo the stones at the bottom are the Incan ones) John and I walked around and since we had no map we were confused about where to go. We heard a man giving an English tour and so, assuming it was a complimentary tour, joined in. We learned a lot about the history and saw most of the church, colonial artwork, and Incan walls. Then, the man asked us if we were in his group, and we said "no..." and then he basically told us he was a tour guide for a company, so we just awkwardly ran away. We ended up finding someone with a map, which they just forgot to give us, and once we had that we were fine. We explored the garden area and overlook of the city, and it was very beautiful. The next thing included in our ticket was entry to the nearby Convento de Santa Clara. We walked down some alley where John was pestered by a man to buy his un-original artwork. When we arrived, the interior was very dark and empty. Although there were a lot of interesting artwork and artifacts, it was a little creepy because they had wax mannequins of the nuns acting out the activities or duties they used to do, and they looked like they were going to start moving or talking at any minute!

After that, we headed back towards the main Plaza de Armas. It was a very exciting place to be since everything was bustling with activity in preparation for New Years Eve. In Peru, everyone wears yellow and decorates with yellow for the holiday. There were yellow balloons, banners, confetti, and children selling yellow necklaces and hats everywhere! There were also many vendors selling fireworks, roman candles, and various other unsafe pyrotechnics. It was definitely an exciting atmosphere though! Since the main Catedral de Cusco was closed because they were decorating and setting up music in front of it for the fiesta that night, we decided to go inside and check out the other church of La Compañía de Jesús. From the exterior it is beautiful, and inside is even more impressive. It reminds me of most of the Gothic cathedrals in Europe, but much of the artwork had local people or natives painted in place of the traditional "white people" that appears in most religious art. According to the brochure the church was "originally begun in the late 16th century but was almost entirely demolished by the earthquake of 1650, rebuilt, and finally finished 18 years later. Like the main cathedral, La Compañía was also built over the site of an important ancient palace, that of the Inca Huayna Cápac, said to be the most beautiful of all the Inca rulers' palaces." Again, how nice of the oppressive Spanish people! We hired a very friendly guide for about 30 minutes and he explained the history and some of the artwork, then took us downstairs to see the catacombs (luckily I saw no creepy skulls like the one in Lima). Then, we walked up an extremely narrow and steep set of steps up towards the second story bell-tower area. It had a great view of the plaza, and made for some great photos.

Once we left the church I bought some yellow necklaces from a little girl so we could be festive for New Years Eve! We then returned to the hostel and gathered up our dirty laundry into a bag. We walked about 3 blocks up a hill from our hostel to the first place we saw advertising laundry. We gave the man our names and he told us to come back to pick it up tomorrow. At this point in the evening I was feeling the effects of the altitude, some dehydration, and my nausea, so I decided to stay in the room and take a nap. I felt so sick though that I just laid there listening to music and couldn't fall asleep at all. Luckily no one else was there to see me, because it would have been so embarrassing. John walked around the city for a few hours, enjoying the hype in the atmosphere, and found a good local place to eat dinner. I had looked forward to celebrating New Years Eve in Cuzco ever since we started planning this trip back in April, and I tried to make myself feel better so hard, but it didn't seem to be working.

When John came back around 10pm it had started raining, and he said the city was so alive and fun and that I absolutely had to go out for it. I started crying because I felt miserable, and honestly didn't have the strength to walk around unless I really forced it. I was feeling sorry for myself, hadn't eaten anything the whole day, and really what else would a girl do besides let a few tears loose in that situation? John talked me into standing up, and then I somehow put on all my yellow accessories and made myself presentable enough to take a photo holding the grapes he had bought from a local woman. It is tradition in Peru to eat 12 grapes at midnight, one for each month, for luck and prosperity during the coming year. We also put coins in the corner of the hostel room to have financial success in 2010. To get to the Plaza John basically just walked for me, holding up most of my weight. It was around 10:30 when we went so I could look around and see the gigantic party and crazy firework shoot-off it had already become. It began to rain harder so we came back to the hostel to wait until closer to midnight. We went up to the bar where the dance floor was hopping with some awesome salsa music, and John got himself a Cusqueña beer. We got some free party hats, and just enjoyed the festive atmosphere. I was sad I wasn't feeling better because I would have loved to have a drink and done some dancing. However, I was thankful to just be able to walk around.

Closer to midnight we headed down to the main square again. I made John stand with me underneath the balconies that line the plaza because I felt it would be slightly safer from all the random haphazard fireworks. There are no rules or restrictions on New Years Eve apparently because anyone and everyone were shooting off fireworks, roman candles, and various other explosives without any warning to the people nearby. You would look over and see a kid sticking their arm up in the middle of a crowd, with babies nearby even, and then shoot off a roman candle that was taller than they were! It was pretty entertaining actually, but you just had to be on guard. People were popping champagne bottles too and just drinking and dancing in the square. It was so crowded and lively though, I loved it! I was starting to feel slightly better too so I was definitely glad John dragged me down to the Plaza for it. To quote John's take on this: "Here we celebrated the coming of the New Year by wearing as much yellow as possible (even the dogs did), eating 12 grapes at midnight and running from children with 5ft long roman candles (yes, taller than the kids were). I didn't get any really good pictures that night because I feared for my limbs due to the high explosive content in the air".

The clock on the main cathedral got to 11:59, and then the countdown began, it was fun to yell out "DIEZ! NUEVE! .... FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!", people went crazy at midnight and threw confetti which got everywhere, all over our hair and clothes, and John even got sprayed by someone's champagne! We celebrated the American tradition of a New Year's kiss (how cute) and then we each ate 12 grapes. Even though I thought I was going to get sick the whole night, I somehow digested the grapes. Miracle! Then, the people in the center of the square began running the traditional 4 laps around the plaza. It was a crazy group, and it was fun to watch. Back at the hostel, things were hopping. I went to bed early but the bar party was going on with the loud Spanish music bass booming til about 4am or so. Despite being sick, New Years Eve in the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco was a crazy, insane, fun experience that I will definitely remember the rest of my life. CLICK to watch someone else's video of their experience in the Plaza!

Day 5- Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu, Peru

2009-12-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

Around 4:15am I was awake and preparing for the day. I didn't sleep very much last night due to being miserably ill, but my excitement for what was ahead gave me energy to get up and deal with it. I took some of the medicine I had bought, and that made me feel surprisingly better. This was great, because if I was sick for Machu Picchu my anger and disappointment could not be completely expressed. Once we got our backpacks ready John and I walked to the bus stop. We expected that since it was before dawn and since the site didn't even open until 5 am that there would not be much of a crowd, but oh how wrong we were. There was a gigantic line waiting for the buses! It didn't take all that long actually, and before I knew it we were heading on a very narrow uphill zig-zag road toward the site. I kept being paranoid that the bus would veer off track and we'd tumble down the cliffs to our imminent death, but all was good. The sun had finally risen and then we arrived! I was so so excited!

Now, as a side note, before this trip I had heard about Machu Picchu in history classes in school, and seen photos in National Geographic. I had always been fascinated by it and had wanted to go ever since I was a kid. So, for me, this was sort of the realization of a life dream. It was the main reason I wanted to go to Peru in the first place, and the driving factor behind me working all summer to save money and convincing John to join me on this trip. I thought it was internationally famous, but shockingly several people I talked to had never heard of it before! If you are one of these sheltered people, Machu Picchu is a famous Incan ruin and is located 8,000 feet up a windy mountain road. You can get to it via the Inca trail, however we didn't want to spend the 3 days hiking it. To quote John, "Machu Picchu is also extremely popular and has grown in popularity massively after being named one of the wonders of the world." It is often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas" because it was unknown to the outside world until an American historian named Hiram Bingham "re-discovered" it in 1911 and began researching and excavating the site. The Incas started building it around 1430 but it was abandoned a hundred years later around the time that the Spanish conquistadors came and started wreaking havoc, spreading diseases, and basically oppressing the people of South America. Since the Spanish didn't plunder it, it is still very well preserved and to this day is considered a sacred place. According to my brochure, "Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its primary buildings are the Intihuatana, the "Temple of the Sun", and the "Room of the Three Windows". It is also interesting to note that many religious celebrations occurred here, and that child sacrifice was practiced as a part of the Incan beliefs.

Once we arrived we waited in another line to get entry into the site, and once we handed over our tickets we were instantly bombarded with requests to go on this or that tour with this tour guide, etc. Somehow a young woman named Yrene convinced John and I that we should hire her as our personal tour guide for 2 hours. Her price wasn't bad, and since the site didn't provide many brochures or maps even, we figured we might as well. Huffing and puffing from the altitude (well, only I was feeling its effects- John is lucky) we climbed up many winding steps. We still couldn't see the city, so the anticipation was building. We turned one last corner and then suddenly, BAM! You could see it all, hiding up in the mountains, surrounded by clouds. (the photo shows our first view) It had a very surreal, almost eerie feel. My Spanish teacher had described it to me as "eerily magical", and I have to say I agree with that statement. It is hard to explain what it looks like and what it is like to be there without actually going, but in my opinion it was truly amazing. Our guide took us down towards the main city and we learned about its history, and saw some of the main structures. The way they stacked the different shaped stones to somehow form even walls was very interesting. We also learned that they were very advanced technologically, especially for living in such an isolated, remote location. They had several buildings made to worship nature and the sun, and on the summer solstice the sun shines directly in the center of the "Temple of the Sun" (the circular building in the photo). They also had running water going through the whole village, and the step looking things on the grass are terraces for farming. They did this partially to avoid landslides, and also to be able to do agricultural experiments by testing different crops. It wasn't very crowded during the morning, and so we were able to do a lap around most of the site, and take many amazing photos. I was in awe from all of the stunning views, and it was really neat to try to imagine what it was like to have lived there during its prime. It's also interesting to think about how and why the civilization ended. It was likely from disease wiping out most of the town, but there are some conspiracy theories about it too. John also asked Yrene about climbing up one of the mountains called Huayna Picchu, but sadly other tourists had already taken up all the slots to hike it for the day. It was alright though, because the views were still amazing. We understood Yrene's English most of the time, and so we did learn a decent amount from her. It was definitely worth it to hire her, especially since she led us around the potentially confusing and maze-like design of the place. Once our tour ended, John and I had some breakfast near the entrance, and by this point in the day (around 9am) it had gotten very crowded. Our first photo we took has almost no people in it, but if we tried to take the same thing again later it would have been cluttered with tourists. We decided to do a second lap around the site, and explore more in depth. This involved some dodging and avoiding maneuvers of tour groups, (which we were happy to not be in) but once we broke free of crowds it was all good.

We walked around some of the homes, and saw the temple of the condor (stones shaped like a bird) and a tomb where the Incan priests were buried. John touched some stone that supposedly gave you the sun's energy, and at one point I slipped and fell down a couple of steps, scratching the screen on my camera. I wasn't that upset about it though since I am normally clumsy, and at least it's a cool story when people ask what happened to my camera! As we explored we got to see one stunning view after another. In a way, it is indescribable. We ended up going higher up the mountain toward the guard's hut, and it was there that we found the population of llamas! We got some good photos of them and then laid out John's poncho on some grass and sat down to just rest up and take in the sight. It started getting really crowded after that, and then it began to rain. I was very glad about my purchase of a yellow rain coat at that point! The clouds were more or less blocking most of the views, so we were definitely lucky to have arrived when we did because otherwise we would have missed out on the initial clear view we had. Once we decided we had taken all the photos we wanted and had seen Machu Picchu to my satisfaction, we took the bus back into town. I was very happy with our visit- it was everything I had ever hoped it would be, and more! It was amazing and something I will always remember. Plus, John got the most classic photo of a llama ever. It looks so confused, it completes my life:

Once we were back in good old Aguas Calientes we decided to get lunch. After the usual attack of menus in your face we ended up at some generic tourist place, again. There isn't much variety though. It is odd because even though the workers are so exceedingly pushy and desperate for your business, once you sit down, they more or less forget about you. You have to flag them down and fight to make eye contact so that you can order, then your food takes forever, and then they disappear until you can hunt them down to get your check. It was actually humorous to me in a weird way though. This restaurant took especially long, and so John and I played a whole game of chess waiting for our food. It was also funny because someone ordered a pizza, and then watched the server run the pizza across the street, and then run it back later. I guess their oven wasn't working? I was so happy I was feeling better though and that I had been able to eat food.

After lunch we did some more shopping in town. I had my eye on a colorful woven blanket at the craft market, and so I asked the old woman vendor the price. It was a bit too high for my liking so I said no thanks. She protested and lowered the price slightly, but I ignored her and we continued on. About fifteen minutes later after I had bought some other items I turned a corner and the old woman was there again! She had been following me with the blanket, and basically handed it to me and stated a price about 15 soles less than her first offer. I could tell she was really desperate for my business, and since it wasn't a bad price I gave in. It was just funny to me that she stalked me that far! We also stopped by a less-touristy fruit market where John began his hunt for custard apples. Sadly, no one had any. After that John and I hung out in the hostel and did some writing until dinner time.

I guess that since I had gone most of the day without feeling too sick, my illness was angry at me for ignoring it, and so decided to strike back. I ordered pizza at dinner, and as soon as it was set in front of me the smell of the cheese made me feel queasy. I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat it, and so without taking so much as a single bite I had to sacrifice it to John. I was pretty upset that my sickness had come back, and so we went to one of the pharmacies so I could stock up on the gravol for the rest of the trip. The woman at the pharmacy randomly told me that the place I bought my drugs at the day before was a bad place and that their pills were "contraband", and since hers weren't she was going to charge me more money. I don't care if they are contraband or not because they were the exact same thing, so I returned to the original store and bought more! Take that! At about 9pm it was bed time for me, and I was so happy about it. It was a long day for sure. I fell asleep to the sounds of children loudly playing and yelling on the street.

Day 4- Lima-Ollantaytambo-Aguas Calientes, Peru

2009-12-29T20:55:00.000-08:00

The morning began bright and early, or should I say dark and early, at 4am. I had slept decently although the hostel guests were serenaded by some street cats getting into a huge hissy fight around 3am. It was actually pretty hilarious to listen to. Anyways, our cab showed up and we had a surprisingly calm ride to the airport. Unfortunately, my illness was back with a vengeance! Poor John had to wait in all the airport lines while I ran off "mysteriously" for 2 minute spans. After paying the random "airport tax" we got onto a very tiny baby plane and I sat next to a Canadian couple. I talked to the guy, and he told me he had been in South America for 3 weeks already, and gave me some advice about the rainforest. Basically I bought those shoes in Lima unnecessarily because most companies give you boots for hiking since it is "rainy season" currently, a.k.a. summer, in South America. I felt pretty sick the majority of the plane ride, so I had to give my free food away to John. During the flight we saw our first glimpse of the Andes mountains, and then we arrived in Cuzco/Cusco (In Spanish it is spelled with the "s" but for some reason English speakers are too cool for "s" and so we use a "z"?).

We got our luggage, and took an over-priced cab from the airport to some alleyway that was also the location of the bus company we needed. After the workers chucked our luggage onto the roof of the little bus we set off on our journey! John and I were the only tourists on this bus, which he of course loved. The drive ended up being incredibly scenic as we drove higher and higher into the mountains. We got to see a lot of local small towns and some really beautiful Andean landscape. Since I was feeling queasy I thought the driver was going crazy fast and taking the turns a bit too hard, but John assured me that we were fine. After about 2 hours we arrived to a small mountain town called Ollantaytambo (between Cuzco & Machu Picchu on the above map). We got there much earlier than the time our train was departing, so we had about 3 hours to kill. Luckily I wasn't feeling it yet, but it was only inevitable before the soroche, or altitude sickness, would set in. We started out by eating breakfast. John had his beloved empanada and I successfully ate some bread and butter-I was pretty excited about it. We spent the rest of the time people-watching, taking photos, bartering, and playing a trivia game I brought. I bought Rachel a colorful woven purse from a really nice lady who also sold John this cowboy/Indiana-Jones style hat (you will see it in most of the future pictures since he fell in love with it!) We didn't have a place to put our backpacks so we had to carry them with us the whole time. This wasn't a problem until it started raining, but luckily we snagged a sheltered bench just in time. By the time our train was close to arriving the little street had gotten very crowded with tourists.

When the time came, we got on the train. For some reason the train is set up so that 2 seats face inwards towards 2 other seats. A Brazilian couple sat across from us and the man across from me wasn't exactly petite, so there wasn't really room for my legs. It was kind of awkward so I tried sitting sideways etc. After the train departed Ollanta the Brazilian woman suggested we switch seats, it was nice because now John and I could both see out the window. The train ride to the city of Aguas Calientes was really scenic, it followed the river, and being able to look up and see the Andes mountains and the surrounding landscape was great. We saw waterfalls, and some small local schools and homes too. It was a nice relaxing train ride, and definitely very beautiful. When we arrived into Aguas Calientes (the most touristy town in all of Peru) we looked for a person holding a sign with John's name on it. I saw a sign from Pirwa Backpackers that said "Jhon Weiold", and I thought "hmm that is pretty close to John's name.. Probably us." It indeed was. After we waited for them to rally up some more of us tourists we followed our hostel-person into the small town.

The town is centered around the Urubamba River, and it almost is like a semi-waterfall because it runs slowly downhill through the middle of the city. You can only access the city by train so the town has no cars or anything. The rushing water is fairly loud but it makes you feel relaxed and "away from it all" since you get to listen to the water instead of cars honking. To get to our hostel we had to cross a bouncy rope-bridge and walk uphill on cobblestone streets. Our hostel was a nice place right next to the river, so there was always the relaxing running water sound. After dropping off our backpacks we went out into town. Our first stop was the ticket office to buy our entry into Machu Picchu for tomorrow. It was the most expensive thing I've bought on the trip so far! After that we got in line for a bus ticket from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. They only let you pay for this in US dollars randomly? We then spent some time shopping. They have a crazy amount of vendors and shops and open air markets selling anything and everything you could ever need in the souvenir department. The most repetitive items were things like vases, necklaces, sweaters, snow hats with llama designs on them, and colorful woven blankets, scarves, and purses. I bought a Peruvian style snow hat, some shot glasses, a magnet and postcards. For dinner we walked down the steep street that the majority of restaurants were on and within seconds we were swarmed! All the servers come out in the street shoving their menus in your face and telling you about free drinks, happy hour, their set menu, etc. It is a bit overwhelming and hard to choose with how pushy and desperate they are for you to eat at their restaurant. I never know how we end up deciding which place to eat at, but we ended up somewhere where I could eat a pizza, since I was craving one. I actually ate it but then once we left the restaurant I started feeling extremely sick. I convinced John to let me take a nap in the hostel while he went out and explored the less tourist-infested parts of the city.

When he came back I still wasn't feeling any better, but we had one thing left on our agenda- The natural hot springs! In English the name of the city Aguas Calientes means "hot waters", and so it was only natural that we should want to visit the source of its namesake. I was feeling very miserably sick and told John I didn't want to go, but he more or less forced me by saying I would always regret it if I didn't go, and that saying no wasn't an option! I agreed with this, and I somehow changed into a swimsuit and dragged myself up the hill to where the hot springs were. It was actually a neat walk because it was dark and with the running water it felt all mysterious and cool. When we got there we thought that the various pools would have different temperatures, but we realized they were all the same. We tried out a bunch and finally settled in and relaxed at one. I was hoping the water would calm me and make my intense nausea go away, but it had the reverse effect. I was sitting there relaxing, enjoying the hot water and then suddenly I jumped out and ran to a nearby isolated flower bush. Getting sick in public is not fun but is something I have to get used to for this trip apparently. I started pathetically crying because I was feeling both sorry for myself and guilty for ruining John's fun. After that incident we went back to the hostel and even though the international call was crazy expensive I caved and called my mom. She had been talking to some doctor friends about what I could do, and she gave me the spanish name of a strong anti nausea medicine. The doctor who told her the name frequently went to Peru on medical mission trips and said the drug was over the counter and very popular all over the country.

After I reviewed the page in my Spanish phrase book about medical symptoms, John and I went to find a pharmacy. We fought our way down the restaurant street and I am glad I knew how to say "we already ate", because it would have been a lot worse otherwise, haha. We arrived at a pharmacy and I, (be proud) in Spanish, explained my symptoms and told them what my US doctor had told me. The pharmacist said she had never heard of this supposedly popular drug, but recommended something else called "gravol" that I could take every 8 hours. We went to another pharmacy to see if they had heard of the meds I was supposed to find, but they also did not know what it was. It was frustrating for sure, but I ended up trusting their judgement and, after price comparing, went back to the first place and bought the gravol. I didn't really feel any difference after taking it, but I could at least keep down water. I had a miserable time falling asleep because I felt extremely nauseous and had really bad cold chills almost the whole night. I just kept praying that I would be okay for the next day because tomorrow was Machu Picchu! It has been my life dream to go there for years and I did not want to let some stupid illness ruin the experience for me!

Day 3- Lima, Peru

2009-12-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

Today started out with a quick photo shoot of the view we have from the street our hostel is on (in the below image), then we continued to walk into the streets of Barranco where we found a man wearing a yellow vest. Just hanging out in the middle of the street exchanging money with foreigners might seem odd, but it's his full time job. It was a little strange, but very convenient! With our sewn-in hidden pockets full of nuevo-soles, we were ready to begin the day. We took a cab to a place about 20 minutes away known as Huaca Pucllana. This place is a location full of ancient pyramid-like structures from 200-700 AD, and is right in the middle of the city. It "features walls of adobe bricks, built in a bookshelf fashion, which were found to be earthquake resistant. It was constructed by the pre-Incan peoples of the Miraflores district in Lima as a ceremonial site. Today it is an active archaeological site." Shockingly it wasn't a landmark or anything special until about 50 years ago when the government decided to kick out all the poor people who lived on it and turn it into a national historic sight. When we got there in the blazing sunlight we were happily greeted by our tour guide. He was a very sociable guy and we learned a lot about the history of the place. We learned that they used the structures primarily for religious reasons, and they had found remnants of child sacrifices there! Crazy stuff. They also stacked the bricks vertically instead of horizontally, which is how it has lasted through the many earthquakes Lima has. When you climb to the top of the structures you can see the ocean and the surrounding mountains, so it also made for a great view of Lima in general. While we were there construction workers were there too rebuilding parts of the sight since all of the bricks are just made out of sun-dried clay.We also learned that in their society, women were the leaders. When our guide said this I nodded my head thinking it was awesome and said "that's right", and then he continued to say that despite this, most of the human sacrifices were women. John of course made some snarky comment and the guide thought we were hilarious. I guess he gets a little bored with his job, but I'm glad we could entertain. Anyways after we looked around the pyramids and at the creepy mannequins for a while we went to a little farm area and I saw my first llama of South America! We also saw a little hut full of guinea pigs getting plumped up to be someone's dinner someday. After the tour finished we perused the gift shop and got some much needed water.

We then took a quick cab ride to the next location we had highlighted in our Lonely Planet guide book, which was a place to shop and barter known as El Mercado de Los Indios. We walked around the numerous open air shops, perusing the Peruvian souvenir goods for the first time. I was impressed by how inexpensive and colorful everything was- though it was a little annoying to have the workers constantly following you around and pressing you to buy their products. (I later realized that only in more tourist cities are the workers this obnoxious.) It was probably more beneficial to the workers who weren't paying attention because I was more likely to stay at their stand longer if I didn't feel pressured. I ended up buying a ceramic vase item for Danielle, as well as a Christmas ornament. John got a traditional brightly colored woven blanket. I didn't have my usual buyers remorse that tends to happen to me when shopping because we paid in Peruvian soles- definitely a plus! After we wore ourselves out from shopping it was time for lunch. We were in the fun, beautiful, and more artistic area of the city known as Miraflores, but unfortunately no food places were to be found for several blocks. Luckily, we stumbled upon a tourist info stand where the nice lady kindly informed us of a street to go to that had many food choices. When we got to the very decorative and colorful street we were instantly targeted as tourists (thanks to our pale skin and backpacks, haha) and so the pushy waiters were running out into the streets with their menus, trying to convince us that their place was the best choice. One man was extremely pushy, possibly the most pushy waiter we experienced on the whole trip (and trust me, we experienced many), but unfortunately his restaurant seemed to have the best menu and prices, so even though it hurt our pride to give in to his annoying ways, we sat down there to have lunch. We didn't make it very far down the street, haha. John kindly ate there for my sake, since it was an Italian place, even though he disapproved of its status as a "tourist restaurant". He dealt with it though because after being so sick yesterday I needed some substantial food! During our meal a man came by playing three instruments at once, and John of course used his crazy zoom lens on his amazing camera and got some choice candids. (The photo on the right is the view from our table)

After a nice and relaxing lunch we went out to hail a cab. (This process of "cab hunting" was a new experience for me that day, but it would later become a very frequent occurrence- You go up to drivers and say "how much would it cost to go to ___"?, scope out their price, and compare. If you don't feel like actually comparing you can just lie and tell the cab driver that the other driver close by was going to do it for 5 soles less, and then they will usually jump down to your price and comply. However, you do have to know how to speak decent Spanish for this to happen!) We then took this oh-so-craftily hailed cab to a more distant location, Parque de Las Leyendas Zoo, which allowed us to take a long and scenic oceanside drive. I had a 30 second chat in Spanish with our cab driver about sand dredging, which made me happy because I actually understood him. Once we arrived John and I realized that we were the only tourists (white people) around. It was a neat feeling though because we felt like we were finally in the "real Lima" or something. Admission to the zoo was inexpensive, and we walked around for a long time and saw many different animals. One thing I noticed is that the big cats weren't necessarily contained all that well, and they were crazy close! It made for good photo taking, but it was somewhat scary. We witnessed a bear sitting in a hilarious pose eating a banana randomly, and also some jaguars get into a little tiff. I was impressed with all the monkeys there and how active they were being, and also with the fact that I could get within 4 feet of a huge Bengal tiger. John and I also had fun attempting to pick out good candy from the vending machine- we had never heard of a single one of the brands before.

After we had our fill of being in the heat we got another cab to take back to the main Plaza de Armas. Since it was rush hour the cab ride took an eternity. Our driver took a different route than the one we took to get there and we went through some somewhat sketchy parts of the city. Thanks to the paranoia instilled in me by the pessimistic guidebooks I harbored a slight fear that we were being taken to a remote location where we would then be mugged and abandoned. But, that of course was not the case! It was just a usual crazy, jilting, terrifying cab ride! Once back at the plaza we went shoe shopping for me since John thought it'd be a good idea for me to buy shoes I didn't care about ruining for the rainforest trip. After having semi-confusing discussions about shoe types and sizes with the workers (I am a size 39 apparently), I ended up getting some brown gym shoes. John then went outside and bought an empanada, and since we were tired we took another scary, near death experience cab ride back to the hostel. We stocked up on more cash from our in-room locker and then at dusk we went to an ocean view mirador (lookout) that we had noticed from the balcony of our hostel. The walk there was very scenic and we got some good pictures, and the mirador itself was very pretty at that time of night. We then had a quick dinner at a local place, and returned to the hostel where I arranged for us to have a cab pick us up at 4am the next morning. Ugh! I hadn't been feeling sick all day luckily, but for some reason I started feeling nauseous again before we went to bed. Also our hostel had a little bar in the common area, and so John got a Cusqueno beer- and now, sleep!

Day 2- Lima, Peru

2009-12-27T22:50:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up far too early and put on the same sweaty, smelly clothes from yesterday. I also had leftover makeup on, and my face broke out but I didn't have concealer with me. Strands of my hair were also suspiciously crunchy. Let's just say, I looked incredibly attractive! Our hostel luckily provides free breakfast, so I dragged my nauseous self downstairs. During the time it took John to be able to eat 3 pieces of bread, a banana, and drink a cup of tea I managed to eat 3/4 of one banana. It was a struggle to even do that. I had to mentally will myself not to get sick. I also then realized that it was crazy hot, and humid. So, with that wonderful start to the trip John and I set out. We walked around the streets and shops in the Barranco area, and exchanged some US dollars into Peruvian nuevo-soles. It was very exciting to give the money changer man $100 of something and then get $280 in return. I love it! After the morning stroll we went down these stone steps across the street from our hostel. The steps led us to a bridge which then led us to the beach! The ocean here has almost no waves, and the beach consisted of large stones instead of the usual sand. It wasn't conducive to being barefoot, so my first time touching the Pacific ocean was actually just me dipping my hand in, but I was excited nonetheless. Once we walked back up the steps, John bought some nuts from a local vendor. We then went back to the hostel and I asked our worker Carmen if she could call us a cab. She then informed me our luggage would be arriving around noon- yayy!! But wow American Airlines, 12 hours behind our arrival into the city- way to go! While waiting for the cab we hung out in the hostel's lobby and got into a conversation with a British ex-pat about the rain forest and horseback riding in Cuzco. Then the cab came and took us to the Plaza de Armas- Lima's main square. It was an amazing place- It has many brightly colored colonial style buildings, fountains, gardens, restaurants, street vendors, and huge cathedrals. Since it is summer down here everything is green and vibrant too. I had no idea what to expect of Lima really, and it is a far more beautiful city than I realized. We went into the Catedral de Santo Domingo during Sunday mass, and it is crazy to think that Francisco Pizarro (the Spanish conquistador) founded this church when he came over to oppress the local people back in the 15th century. It is also the oldest church in the entire country of Peru! After that we wandered over to the yellow colored Monasterio de San Francisco- a home for monks in the 16th century. We bought tickets and went on a tour. It started out normal, typical, looking at paintings and ornate ceilings. Then we went down these narrow steps into the dark catacombs- the ones in Rome have nothing on these! Without any forewarning you go underground and then suddenly BAM! Bones. Bones everywhere! So many real, human bones. That place HAS to be haunted! I noticed that all the bones were in huge piles but separated by body part. For example, we'd see a mass pile of legs, then a stack of skulls. Some skulls still had teeth and chunks of hair. One had a jaw open like it was in pain and screaming. Graphic. I wonder if they separated the bones after they were bones or while they were still... fresh? Who knows!

After that interesting venture we went to a nearby park, Parque de La Muralla. It was alongside the Rimac river and the reggaeton song "Calle Ocho" was blaring by this festival area full of inflatables and rides for kids. The park had some of the ancient pre-Incan city walls on site, and a restaurant full of Asian tourists. Beyond that though, John and I were the only gringos to be seen. The park had an excellent view of these houses on a nearby hillside- it was very colorful. When we were exiting the park a local man randomly walked up to us asking us where we were from, and introduced himself with a big smile and just said "Bienvenidos a Peru!" The Lonely Planet travel guide book made me paranoid that this was the scenario where he was distracting us with conversation while his friend was pickpocketing us. However, John and I had locks on our backpacks, so even though I glanced behind me I had no need to worry. It was actually a nice feeling to know that unlike French people, the Peruvians don't harbor bitterness towards tourists.

Lunch time! John led us to a place near the plaza (of course it was full of locals since John picked it, and as such was a sign it had decent food) called Restaurante Machu Picchu. I ordered us an appetizer of cancha, or partially popped Peruvian popcorn, mmm! John got some Inka Cola- a locally made soda which outsells Coca Cola in Peru each year (Coca Cola was mad about this and so bought them out) and tastes kind of like bubblegum, very sugary. For my meal I ordered chaufa de pollo, a very tasty dish of rice, eggs and chicken stirred together in a tasty sauce. So good. The first meal I'd had in about 24 hours was bound to be good though! As for John, well, he decided to go all out and ordered cuy picante- also known as roasted guinea pig! It was served in a shape that you could still tell where its cute little face was, and its tiny paws too! After lunch I had my first experience with public restrooms in South America- even though you pay to use the restroom, more often than not there is no toilet paper, soap, or flusher, and you cannot flush the toilet paper anyway. This of course is conducive to pleasant odors and even better personal hygiene! Oh well, I came prepared for this. Anyways, we left the restaurant and walked around the busy streets looking in on a few tourist shops. The majority have the same thing for sale over and over, and most of the workers were hovering and pushy, but they did have some really neat items. I got a scarf with a llama design on it and also a little mini llama statue. Plenty of practice asking "cuanto cuesta?"

Next we wandered over to this shopping area by the river known as Jirion de La Union. It has street vendors and fruit stands- so John bought a mango. There was also a festival of some sort going on and so the park was full of people, food, and live music. I love the music here, very upbeat and lively! Also for less than 1$ I bought chocolate covered strawberries on a skewer and John got a local dessert recommended by our guidebook called suspiro limeño (as seen in the photo). We then went on a hunt for Saint Rose of Lima's birthplace, all for the sake of my mom, and ended up in a sketchy area of the city. When we found it, it was closed, but I got some photos anyways. On our later unsuccessful search for the Museum of the Spanish Inquisition we were hassled by some 6 year old girls who really wanted a sole. By this point in the day we had walked close to 10 miles and were exhausted. After negating the idea of going to an art museum and a mirador (lookout) on a hilltop in a poor area of Lima we decided to hop in a cab and say adios to central Lima.

We were dropped off at a very pretty park called Parque de La Reserva, it really should have just been called "Fountain Park" or something though because there were close to 15 huge and unique fountains there. It was easy to get some neat photos, and John took some of me walking through this canopy of water. Some of the fountains coordinated to music, and apparently at twilight one of them has a laser light show. Tons of kids were there at the park playing in some of the fountains- a fun way to beat the heat. I noticed here for the first time that many of the older women still dress in the traditional Andean clothing style- a flat wide brim bowler hat with dark pigtail braids, and a full woven skirt with colorful stockings and flats.

Once John and I had our fill of seeing moving water we cabbed it back to Barranco. We freshened up, were reunited with our backpacks, and I showered and decided to blow dry my hair. Somehow when I pulled it out of the wall I ended up getting electrically shocked. It scared me so much I started crying, and my arm felt weird for a little bit. Despite that, feeling clean and refreshed inspired us to set out at sunset for a lap around the area. The main square at Barranco has many street vendors and John got a locally popular pisco sour alcoholic drink for us. I also bought Matt an alpaca (llama) woven bracelet and my mom a Peruvian Nativity. It is a little odd to see Christmas trees, nativity sets and Feliz Navidad everywhere since it's so warm and palm-tree filled here. It's crazy to think Santa came to my house in Kentucky only two days ago! So for dinner, John and I decided to go down to the beach walk again. A woman approached us and told me we could get free pisco sours if we ate at her restaurant. We agreed (I'm holding it in the photo). The restaurant was called Toto's oddly and was on a balcony which overlooked a narrow, stone street which led down to the ocean. Salsa music was playing in the background, and it was a great atmosphere. For dinner John ate seafood- some octopus thing with creyfish and something with shells which I would never eat. I got aji de gallina, a local dish of chicken and potatoes smothered in a decent tasting cheesy sauce with rice all over it. Once our meal was done and we had gone through the usual South American custom of hunting down your server and trying very hard to make eye contact in order to say nos trae la cuenta por favor (bring us the check please), we strolled hand-in-hand around town (how cute). Now we are both back at the hostel being nerds and writing in our journals. My feet are sore and I'm absolutely beat! We have no AC so the windows are wide open and I must say you can hear everything happening outside! Should be interesting.

Day 1-Lima, Peru

2009-12-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

(I am typing these after the events actually happened- I am copying down what I wrote in my journal and adding photos)

I can't believe I'm finally here! After about 7 months of some serious planning, preparation, and money spending, John and I are finally here in South America! Our flight left the US out of Miami yesterday morning, and it was not off to the best start. As usual I had my irritating stomach acid problem that loves to pop up whenever I travel, and so within the few hours we waited at the airport before our flight left I got sick multiple times- figures. I even took medicine ahead of time hoping to prevent it, but it still happened to me of course. Anyways, the flight from Miami into Lima, Peru wasn't too bad, it was just extremely cold. I was feeling less nauseous and could actually keep food down though.

Once we landed and went through customs John and I were saddened to find that while we made it to Lima, our luggage did not (as a side note, my backpack only weighed 27 pounds! Be proud of my light packing skills!). We had to fill out some papers, and I was sad because my makeup and fresh clothing wouldn't see me for about 12 more hours. After that ordeal we scoured the airport for a man holding up a sign with John's name it. We finally found this man, named Jon (pronounced "yon") ironically, and followed him out to his car. He drove us, along with two Chilean boys, to the Barranco's Backpackers hostel. The drive to the hostel from the airport was about 30 minutes, and I felt my life was threatened about 25 times. People in Lima are crazy, insane drivers! Worse than in Rome even- and I thought that was bad! No rules basically. Blinkers- Why bother? Lanes- Why did they even paint them? Speed limits and stopping at stop signs are just unnecessary. Large buses almost merged onto our tiny car several times. I was more or less cringing the majority of the drive. To distract myself, I had a fairly decent conversation with Jon in Spanish, asking him questions about Lima. Compared to the last time I was in a Spanish speaking country (2.5 years ago) my abilities at conversing have increased, and I could definitely notice a difference in my confidence and ease when it comes to speaking Spanish- it was nice! It made me feel like all those hours of Spanish classes and papers were somewhat worth it!

We finally arrived and checked into our hostel around 11:30PM. I had been feeling better but I guess the car ride made me feel a little off again unfortunately. Another problem was that John had nothing to put his contacts in since our luggage was still in Miami. So, we ventured out into the Barranco neighborhood of Lima on a Saturday night. This area of town is notorious for its party time night life, and I can definitely see why! The streets were packed with people drinking and going from one discoteca to the other, loud reggaeton music was blaring- much to John's dismay (although I really love that type of music!). We found a small restaurant still open, and John had a quick Peruvian dinner. I, on the other hand, proceeded to get sick again. Twice. On the streets of Lima. Luckily I didn't stand out too much since there were many other people doing the same thing as me, although likely for reasons involving alcohol! I don't think anyone else actually saw me besides poor John, but it was still embarrassing and kind of degrading. So, after that unfortunate incident I felt loads better and then successfully negotiated in Spanish to a worker at a pharmacy to get John contact solution, a case, and toothpaste. Finally, we returned to the hostel. I'd like to say I fell asleep immediately, but that is not the case. John passed out in his bed almost instantly. I however stayed up in mine until about 3am relieving my body of the contents I had eaten in the past day. I also had cold chills, likely due to dehydration, and so even though earlier I thought the no AC and heat was oppressive, I shivered in my little bed all night.