Tim_Day 66-67 (Ica)

Day 66 (Continued)
Luckily the magic of the words ¨Chung King¨ worked and right after the internet we headed to scared on some noodles and rice. Good stuff. I think Ana really likes the food but doesn´t want to admit it.

After lunch we grabbed another bumpy three wheeled taxi ride back to our hotel. It´s so funny because the cart barely has enough power to make it up the small hill into the city. Every time they need to drop to the lowest gear to make the hill. Although there slow there still the most fun and the cheapest. We pretty much only use them as taxi’s unless we have no other choice.

We had a couple hours to burn before the dune buggy ride so we crashed in the room for a while and took a short nap. Were like cats lately for some reason. We woke up in time to head out and catch the dune buggy ride. Ana was a little excited but not too much. I was thinking she was going to have a good time but she was a little afraid I think. She´s never been on a dune buggy ride before.

We got to the hotel and their were a ton of people signed up for the buggy ride. We were one of 5 buggies that ended up going together from the same company. I was a little worried it was going to be crowded and kind of suck with so many people. Although having that many people actually ended up being really fun.

We took off out of the city and headed for the sand desert. The buggy was very open and a bit old so sand was flying in our eyes and face and water was hitting us from the radiator of the engine. Pretty funny. I was wishing I brought my glasses so I could see better. I was constantly blinking and squinting to see anything.

The ride was really fun and the buggy’s were pretty fast. They didn´t have much of a suspension so most of the ride was on smooth ground going up and down large hills. Was a good time and more than I expected. After about 20 minutes of driving we stopped and got the sand boards out to go down the first hill. It was a tiny hill and was only for practice. It was funny to watch everyone eating it on this little hill. I joined in and tried. I was glad I messed around with the board the previous day because it gave me a sense of what I had to do to get down the slope standing. I was only able to turn to the right since that was the most comfortable for me. It also had me facing the hill so if I went down I didn´t have far to fall.

We spent about 20 minutes going down the crowded small hill. It was fun and Ana took a run down on her stomach. She was going pretty fast and enjoyed it allot. I went down about 3 times or so. I looked like an idiot but I did make it all the way to the bottom without wiping out to hard.

We got back in the buggy and headed out for more riding. It was fun and this time he went down some really large hills. He actually had time to shift 3 times while going down. Big hills and it was great. We must have been doing around 50 mph when we hit the bottom. Good times and we stopped about another 20 minutes away at another larger and steeper dune.

The dune looked pretty massive and was allot larger and steeper than the first one. A couple guys who knew more of what they were doing hit the hill. They wiped out pretty hard a few times before they hit the bottom. There glasses would fly and there would be a large dirt cloud then a couple flips and they would stop. Pretty funny and they were pretty crazy. I just wanted to stay standing so my strategy was to cut to the right only and learn that well. I knew there were larger hills coming and it was only going to get harder.

After a few people eating it all the way down it was my time to go. I hit the slope and fumbled my way down the hill. I was doing ok till I heard one guy saying watch out! I looked above me and he was screaming down the hill sideways on the board. I´m not sure how he wasn´t stopping? Rather he was screaming towards me. I had to aim the board straight down the hill and run the hill out to keep from being wiped out by him. I´m pretty sure I would have gotten the bad end of the crash should be have hit. I ended up going way faster than I wanted but it was the only way to get away. Luckily I just held the speed to the bottom and there was no problem. The hill was pretty steep and I couldn´t believe the guy was flying down the hill with the board in the same position I use to break which is perpendicular with the hill. I was laughing and watched bodies and boards crashing and flipping down the hill.

About a minute after I got to the bottom I saw a guy eat it really hard on the hill. I heard a crack when he fell and it sounded like he smacked his head on the board. He wasn´t moving too much after falling so I decided to start walking his way. Then this stupid girl started down flying down the hill right at the guy who just fell hard. She was flying and couldn´t stop. Luckily at the last minute she pulled her feet up and the board just missed hitting the guy right in the head. She did a couple flips and landed on her but. I started running toward both of them to make sure they were ok. The guy wasn´t moving so I wanted to get to him first. I think the girl though I was coming to help her but she looked ok and I passed her up. She looked pretty stunned and her face was covered in sand and she was spitting sand from her mouth.

I got to the guy and he was laying face down in the sand. I asked him if he wanted me to take the board off his feet and he said ¨yes please¨ I could tell he wasn´t feeling too good. I pulled the board off his feet and he turned over. His body, face and hair was covered in sand. His mouth also was black with sand which he was trying to spit out. He said his collar bone was hurting him and he thinks he broke it. He said he heard a cracking sound. I heard the same sound from down on the bottom of the hill but I thought he hit his head on the board.

One of the drivers came up and started touching his arm. I think he saw a couple shows on tv and thought he was a doctor. He started moving his arm and trying to role his shoulder back into place. I told him he didn´t dislocate his shoulder he thinks he broke his collar bone. He didn´t pay any attention to me as I tried to stop him from moving his arm. The guy was in some serious pain and the moving was killing him but the guy keep trying. The guy with the broken collar bone was saying ¨what are you doing?¨ and he just keep moving it. I would have punched the guy in the face but he let him move it. After putting him through some really good pain he realized he needed to take him to the hospital. They had an arm bandage in the buggy (this must happen pretty often to have one in the buggy) and they bandaged up his arm.

I felt so bad for the guy. He keep saying ¨why me?¨. I know that feeling. It was his first run down the hill and he was probably having a good time. Then crack and it´s all over for another month or so. Poor guy. They put him in one of the buggies with his girlfriend and took him back to the local hospital to take care of his shoulder. I´m sure the ride in the sand must have been pretty painful. Getting back to the town was about 20 minutes on bumpy roads and then at least another 10 minutes to the main city on bad roads. Nothing’s better than bumpy roads with a broken bone. You feel every little pebble in the road.

The guides rushed him off pretty quick and were trying to have us forget about the whole thing. But the air was ripe with new worry and concern about what we were doing. I was a little more worried but figured what the hell and grabbed another board to run the hill again. I figured I just need to be more careful and not crash the same way he did.

After about 20 more minutes the hill was filled with a small group of people who were still willing to sand board despite the crash. In fact they drove us to the top part which was even more high and steep. I was starting to get the hand of sand boarding and was able to stay upright most of the time. I was only concentrating on right hand turns since I figured if I could master that then I could at least make it down the hill. I would work on turning and left hand riding another day on smaller slopes. For now it was more about survival than anything.

I got about 5 good runs down the hill. A couple were from the top which was pretty crazy but VERY fun. We took off in the cars and did some more trials in the buggy. Long enough to get a nice coating of sand on your face and in your eyes. When I wiped my eyes I got a ton of sand out. In fact I still had sand in my eyes the next morning. Could feel it like sandpaper. Crazy.

They brought us to the last hill to ride. It didn´t look that steep and I was like is this it. No they said it was the dune to the right. Oh great. I walked to the crest and we were standing on the biggest sand dune I´ve ever seen. I didn´t know sand dunes could actually form as tall as this one. It was crazy and I strapped on my board to give it a shot.

By the time we hit this hill only about 10% of the people in the large group were game to try it. I got my board on and there were already a couple of guys way down the hill. They were small as ant and that showed me even more how large the hill was. It was really cool. Ana was even scared to walk on the hill but I had her come over and film me going down the hill. I took off and the new wax that was put on the board made the board move pretty fast. It was really cool. Soon enough I was flying down the large hill at a right hand slant since that´t the only way I knew I could go with confidence. The hill was steep and I picked up some pretty good speed.

It was an amazing feeling going down the hill. I´ve never done any snow or water skiing so the experience for me was really amazing. I will never forget the feeling of flying down the hill and hanging my right finger to the side to scrape S shapes into the virgin untouched sand. Was really magical and I felt almost like I was in control. A couple times I almost ate it but at this point I didn´t care. It was so cool flying down the mountain I didn´t care. Very magical. The sky was starting to set and the colors of the air and sand were beautiful. Memory I´ll have forever.

The ride lasted about a minute or two. Not sure but it was a long time. When I got to the bottom Ana looked like a little ant. It was amazing to look at the hill I came down. Very cool and really fun. We jumped aboard the buggy and met up with everyone else. We rode back to the hotel and got off. Was well worth the money and I wished my family could be there to enjoy the desert as well. Would have been great with everyone.

We hit the drop off point and something funny happened. We looked up on the porch and there was the same girl from Israel that went on the Uyuni trip with us. No way! She was such a pain in the butt. We got off the buggy and pretended we didn´t see her. We headed out and didn´t want to make small fake talk with her. Of all people. Oh well as long as we weren’t on the same hotel or buggy ride as her we were fine.

We laughed and talked about the trip the rest of the evening. Was really fun. We took a shower and dropped a couple pounds of sand off. Then we went and bought two ice cold waters and one large thing of orange juice. We drank it by the lake and enjoyed the evening. Good times.

We´ve have two great days sand boarding and playing in the sand. I now want to now sand board down the large mountain behind the city. I have the confidence now to do it. I was joking with Ana the day before when we were trying to sand board and I could only go about 5 feet before I fell on my butt that I wanted to do that large hill. She said ok whatever. Now I really think I can do it. I think it´s actually smaller and less steep than the hill we did already. I´ll try the hill the next evening. Should be really cool.

We hung out by the pool and I had another cigarette. A nice way to relax. I prefer cigars but all I have access too here are cigarettes. It will have to do. We crashed later on. We were both very tired and jumped on the bed like a sack of dead meat. We both sleep like a African sheep after mating season.





Day 67
Woke up early since we went to bed a little early the night before. I woke up kind of sad thinking this was our last day of adventure for a long time. From now on we are just going to Lima to catch a plane flight and then to Panama and Nicaragua for a month.

I´m excited to see family there but it won’t be the same as here. Everything is going to be planned and known. Life is going to take on more of an at home feel where things are known and organized. No more random crazy lifestyle. Just moments of that not everyday all day. It´s kind of sad.

This last 2.5 months have been SOOOO fun. We´ve done SOOOO much and seen SOOOO much. It makes me sad to think it going away for a while. Africa will be the next great adventure. I´m excited to have that in my future. But for now I will settle down the adventure and catch up on the family stuff which I have also been missing dearly. I´m planning on not doing a day to day blog during the next few months but more of a weekly re-cap. I don´t think there is going to be as much to write about and I´d rather just catch the high points in a general.

Anyway that morning I was thinking of sand boarding the large hill but my legs are a little too sore from the previous day. We headed into town on a 3 wheeled taxi. The nicest one yet. It was clean and had two functioning doors on it. Love those little taxis.

We ate breakfast at a local place. We didn´t have jam and bread can you believe that. We actually found a place that had bread with ham and cheese in it for breakfast. Was actually really good. There were allot of locals there so we knew it must have been a good place. We also drank 2 glasses of orange juice each. We love that fresh orange juice. Probably spent about 2,000 dollars just on orange juice this trip. It´s good though and so nice in the heat here.

After breakfast we headed to where we are now doing internet again. We also drew a little more cash out of the bank to make it to Lima and eventually Panama. I think were going to eat lunch her then head back later to do some more sand boarding. I´m going to go down the large hill next to town. That was one of my high goal in the beginning and it will be great to do it on the sand board. Hopefully I make it down with no broken bones. Although if I was to hurt myself this would be as good of a time as any. Let´s hope not though.

Tomorrow we head to Lima. I´m not looking forward to that and I don´t really like large cities. There’s more people, dirt, crime, and craziness. Also it´s the end of our adventure here in South America and I´m sad about that. Oh well it´s been great and I´m really grateful we got to see as much as we did and came through it all safe and sound.

Till next time.
t*

Tim n Ana_Pictures10 (Nasca/Huacachina)

NASCA

Can you tell Ana was feeling sick?


The astronaut figure from the plane.


Tim pointing out the one of the Nasca Lines.


HUACACHINA

Our dune buggy.


Tim getting ready to sand board the small dune. What a ROOKIE!


Tim getting ready to jump the big dune! In the background is the medium size dune he sand boarded on. PROFESSIONAL!


Huacachina Sunset.

Tim n Ana_Pictures 9 (Cusco, Peru)

View at night from our hostel. Pretty nice!


Cusco´s Cathedral.


The steep stairs to our hostel. What a workout!


No comment. =)


Man weaving a blanket. It takes him 8 days to complete one.


An interesting looking llama, a cute native boy and mua around the nearby ruins. The ruin’s Inca name is pronounce something like "sexy woman".


MACHU PICHU!


The cute couple at the top of the site.


The massive mountains surrounding Machu Pichu.


The steep stairs! Not fun going up.


Walking down towards the middle of Machu Pichu.

Ana_Sand Boarding in Huacachina!

AWESOME! I loved riding the dune buggy. I liked it so much better than I thought. The ride was awesome. It was like riding a rollercoaster, but better, smoother. The dunes were huge. Our first stop was at a small dune to try sand boarding. Yeah, right! It was way too big for me. The fact there were like 40 of us trying to sand board on small dune was crazy. So I saw another girl sliding on her belly so that’s what I did. I still was a little nervous; I know you can call me CHICKEN. I waited until the end to slide. It was very fast. The good thing you had more control to stop by dragging your feet.
Tim did great. He was able to go down no problem. He went down like two times. It was cool to be the spectator.

We were off to the next dune, bigger, this was a medium dune. It was huge to me. No way Jose I was going down even in my belly. I decided I was just going to take photos of Tim. I’m glad I did. This time when you finished riding the dune they’d pick you up in the buggy. I tried sliding on my belly I was to CHICKEN to do it. As soon as I’d placed myself on the board I started sliding so I decided I’d walk down instead. Right when I was walking one guy ate it pretty bad. I heard something cracked. No good! He wasn’t getting up. Tim was nearby so he went to help him. It took a while for people to react. They thought he was OK! People fall and roll all the time. But this time he was hurting. Tim said he hurt his collar bone. OUCH! Poor thing they took him to the hospital in Ica. We were kinda serious after, it took a little while for people to start trying it again. But sure enough they started. Tim was one of them. He started sand boarding again. He did it like three more times after the incident. After the buggy returned from dropping the guy off, we went to the bigger dune. WOW it was huge! The people at the bottom looked like tiny ants. Tim was going to try it. Here I was being the photographer. I was able to get a QuickTime of him going down. He did great! No broken bones. He was so excited!

On the way back to the oasis we hit some more steep hills. SO MUCH FUN! We kept screaming and asking for more. The driver liked it that we were having fun. Great times!
much better than I thought.

Tim_Day 61-66 (Nazca-Ica)

Day 61
Woke up early in the morning packed up to head out. We put our stuff in storage and checked out of our room. We head out to Nasca at 6:00pm today. We went down to the local restaurant where we had breakfast the previous day. I found some Top Ramon´s in the local store a couple days before and I´ve been wanting to cook them up so bad. So at the restaurant Ana ordered breakfast I had them cook me up two packets of Top Ramon. I was a little concerned but they did a great job with the soup. Man it was great and reminded me of home. My stomach was giving me high 5´s all morning.

We went and drew more money out of the ATM. The stupid city has been very expensive. Nice but really expensive. I´m glad were getting out soon. We´ve been her long enough.

We also stopped into a local store and burned our photos down to CD´s. We also changed some money and watched a movie in the hostel. Basically were wasting away the day doing errands and messing around. It just starting raining again so we´ll see how the bus ride tonight to Nasca goes? We´ve heard the delays can be crippling. Were going to make sure to bring lot´s of food and water. We might be sitting in the bus for a while if there is an avalanche or something stupid like that. Wish us luck.

T*




Day 61 (Continued)
That night around 6:00 we boarded the bus. The bus was actually really nice and reminded me of the buses in Argentina. I was debating on whether I should us a sea sickness patch or just take a Dramamine pill. About 1 minute into the trip I decided to put my patch on. It was the smartest thing I´ve done in a while.

The bus started out on mountain roads. I had expected that for a little bit but not for the next 14 hours. That bus ride turned into the toughest ride yet. The bus was nice it just was the crazy driver and the roads that killed us. For the first couple hours all I could do was stare at the road as the crazy driver slide through the turns. I think he thought he was driving a race car. About 1 in 4 turns you could hear the front tires screeching. Crazy punk. I also think the top level swings and sways more than the bottom so the effects are amplified. Oh so fun.

We were so lucky to get the seats on the front top level of the bus. What that meant was that I had a clear view of the road right in front of me. I keep wiping the humidity off the window so I could keep the view clear. I felt more sick when it got fogged up and I couldn´t see out of it. If I was further back in the bus or on the bottom I´m confident I would have my lunch on the bus.

After 3 hours of being green Ana also started felling not to hot. I told her to stop watching the movie and focus on the road. We sat there watching the driver slide through the wet and dangerous mountain roads. He also didn´t give a damn about the speed bumps. He would barely slow for them. About 50% of the bumps I was getting air in my seat. Crazy punk.

To top things off about 6 hours into the trip and he suddenly stops behind a line of vehicles. Great there is something wrong with the road. Come to find out all the rains has washed tons of dirt over the road so it looked like a dirt road with huge dirt bumps for about 500 ft. There were about 10 vehicles waiting. The driver said we won´t be able to pass till the morning when they come with heavy equipment to clear the road. Great it was 12:00 and morning was a long way away. I´ll have to say there was some relief knowing that we wouldn’t be winding down any more roads for a while. My stomach was really pissed at me.

About 15 minutes into waiting for morning the driver started up the engine and started backing up. He said he had seen a small car make it past the washed out river so he was going to try. Crazy guy. We drove past all the other standing cars and he floored it over the washed out area. Ana just about broke my hand off she was holding so tight. The guy was a pretty good driver and made it through without too much trouble. I gave getting across it a 50/50 chance. But in the end he crossed and we were off down the rain slicked mountain roads at 100 miles an hour. I leaned back and watched the road as long as my eyes would let me. Then I would almost fall asleep and start feeling really sick. I had to open my eyes and stare at the road again till they fell shut on me. I repeated this action all night.






Day 62
Morning didn´t come for about 4,897,675 hours and 23 minutes later. At least if felt like that. Finally after 14 hours we made it to Nasca. It was morning around 8:00. I was so happy to get there. I wanted to kiss the dirt ground when I got off the bus. I would have if I didn´t think bending over would make me barf.

Me and Ana must have looked like a couple of terds coming off the bus because the vender flies were all over us in about 2 seconds. Come to this place, Come with me free this and that. Man what a pain in the ass after a night like the one we had. Eventually we decided to go with one guy who said he was from the hotel we wanted to go to. I think in the end he took us to a different hotel but oh well. The hotel was nice and it was inexpensive.

The guy who taxied us to the hotel said the last two days were bad to fly in the plane over the Nasca lines and that this day was a good day. He recommended we take it this day. He had a plane ready to go if we wanted to go directly to see the lines. We said hell no and that we needed to lay down for a while. We agreed in two hours we would go to see the lines. Not sure if he was lying but the price was decent (45 American each) and we said ok.

After a short nap we felt a lighter shade of green. I was wearing my sea sickness patch so when I woke up the side affect of the patch was apparent. My mouth was dry like beef jerky and tasted like the thing dogs leave all over the floor. I ate a lollypop to hide the taste and bring back some of the water in my mouth.

We headed out to the airport in a small taxi. When we got there the little Cessna plane was waiting for us. There were also a group of three German’s a dad and his two kids that would be joining us. We got on board and I told Ana don´t worry if the plane bounces all over the place it´s normal for them. She didn´t want any sea sickness pills. Probably was a mistake not to give her something. I had my trusty patch on my ear.

Right after the plane took off I could tell it was going to be an interesting next half an hour. There was allot of turbulence and the plane keep falling in short burst from the sky. Nothing out of normal just rough skies. Probably the roughest I´ve been in on a small plane.

We proceeded to fly over about 10 different distinct formations on the ground. It was a really magical experience. The shapes were very visible and no chance they weren’t man made. We saw a monkey, spaceman, tree, hands, flower, spider, condor, hummingbird, and a formation they called Alcatraz. There were a few more but I can´t remember them all. There were also lines that spanned the whole desert all over the place. There were so straight and clear. Not sure what they were for. Some believe they were runways for spaceships. I don´t think so but it is an entertaining idea.

Although in the end the flight was amazing it was a thought flight. The pilot was constantly banking either to the right of left to show us the lines. He would bank pretty hard and at times was pulling some pretty good g´s.

I keep focusing on the lines and tried to ignore my stomach that was yelling at me in a deep satin like voice "get me out of her you idiot. You´ll pay for this later". Ana was trying to be ok but she wasn´t doing so hot. I watched as she smiled her fake concrete smile saying everything is ok. By the end of the flight she wouldn´t even acknowledge me. She had her eyes closed and was focusing on her stomach. She said later her stomach and the sense of being in a cramped space was killing her.

We finally landed and it was nice to be on the ground again. Damn after 14 hours on that bus a 2 hour break then the flight we were pretty beat. We headed back to the room and laid down for a few hours and tried to get our color back.

The rest of the evening we just pretty much sat around and tried to get better. I had to fight to not fall asleep. I didn´t want to sleep too much before the night since we had to take another malaria pill and that might make for another rough night.

Toward the night when the city cooled down we headed to the Plaza Del Arms (center of the city) to grab dinner. It´s funny but I think every city in Peru has a Plaza Del Arms. Same name has been used in every city we´ve been in so.

We found a little restaurant in the center of town that had an eating area on three floors up. It was really nice. The wind was actually a little cold but the view was great. We ate and watched the crazy city unfold before us. It was a really fun and magical dinner. One of those experiences you find that while traveling. Something you could never create you just stumble upon them.

The food was ok but we had a great time watching all the crazy people and taxi drivers down on the street. There was a constant honking in the air. I don´t think 3 seconds ever past without a horn being blown. It was actually quiet crazy but was fun to match from our perch above.

We grabbed a little ice-cream to top off the evening and headed back to the room to sleep. We set up another ground tour to see the lines for the next morning. I wanted to see them closer and not just from a plane.

We sleep pretty good that night. No real problems other than idiots parked right outside the door talking and drinking. Ana sleeps like a log but those kind of things bother me. Overall though was pretty good sleep.





Day 63
Woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. The usual breakfast of bread, butter, strawberry jam, orange juice and coffee. I don´t think anyone in the history of South America has ate a different breakfast. It the staple and I would kill for a regular Denny´s Omelete or Grand Slam breakfast. Hold on a sec. I need to clean the drool off the keyboard.

Anyway we headed out with out guide in a small car. The guide was a nice guy and spoke Spanish. I understood about 50% of what he was saying. The rest I got from Ana.

The first part of the trip was a stop at a small mountain. Or maybe it was more of a hill. It was from there that we were able to see a bunch of lines spreading outward to the horizon. They think that hill might have been the spot from which they viewed the lines that made up the calendar. The hill was only about 100 feet in the air.

Before we went up he showed us a line on the ground. It was a little hard to recognize and I would have walked right by if he didn´t stop us. Sure enough though when you looked down the horizon you could see the line stretching all the way to the mountain and further than you could see. It also was perfectly straight which was really amazing. I don´t know how the hell they did that. The line from the ground was only about 3 feet wide and was simply the moving and cleaning of the ground that created the lines. Funny but somehow that was enough to make a clear line that was lighter than the darker untouched rocks all the way across the desert. Also it was amazing to think that the lines have stayed there for thousands of years. I can´t believe the wind and rain haven’t whipped them out? Very strange and also very cool.

After looking at the line and talking a little more with the guide we went up the small hill to the top. It was really amazing to see the lines from this close. Also sure enough about 8 different distinct and straight as an arrow lines took off into the distance and disappeared. Was very cool and gave me a magical and spiritual sense. Also a very powerful sense. The idea that this might be the central place in which to view such a massive calendar. Wonder how many people have the privilege to stand there in ancient times. It definitely was like walking back in time.

The guide explained to us that there are some that believe the lines were built as runways for aliens. Sounds a bit out there for me. I´m more in line with the idea that they used the lines an figures for two things. One to build a massive calendar to track time and the seasons for growing crops. Also the large calendar served as a sacred place to communicate with the gods. They had gods that were in the sky and what better way to communicate with them then large figures on the floor. I think they built wooden platforms to view and construct the images.

The lines were build around Christ birth and I think they were a pretty advanced civilization. They had underground aqueducts, advanced pottery, and were growing and harvesting crops and animals.

We headed off the mountain and to the next stop which was a 4 story metal platform where you could view two shapes. One was a large tree and the other was what they called the hands. Climbing up the Peruvian platform was a little scary but I was a great way to see the figures. Once on top we could see on the right the large tree which was about the size of a football field and on the left was the hands which were about half the size of a football field. Both were very visible and fascinating to see.

The tower was about 30 feet from the tree and 100 feet from the hands. From that distance the actual lines that made the shape up looked about 1.5 feet wide and about 6 inches deep. They looked like they had dug the dirt a little to make those shapes. The lines that we saw didn´t look dug down just that the rocks were pushed to the side and the ground cleaned.

We got some photos and headed back to our room. I was really glad we took the tour on the ground. Gave me much more of a 3d understanding and experience of the lines. We ate lunch and checked our internet for a while. Then around 2:00 we decided to head to our next city Ica about 2.5 hours north of Nasca.

We got to the bus station with all our heavy gear on. I was sweating pretty good but I enjoy this heat much more than the humid heat. It´s drier and reminds me more of the heat in LA. We gave our bags to the guy who put them on top of the bus. I always feel like I´m rolling the dice when I hand our packs to those guys. You hope they stay up there the whole trip and that they tied them down well. I won´t be surprised the day they aren’t there when we get to the next city. I´ll just say we were lucky for a long time before this.

Anyway we got on the bus. When I say got on the bus imagine walking into a crowded oven and shuffling your way down the isle to find a crocked seat in the back. I love the way people don´t move out of your way. Drives me nuts. Luckily I´m about 200lbs heavier than most of them so I just grab my bag like a football and mow the old ladies and kids down to get to the back. There´s no being polite. In fact I don´t even think they see me as rude. I think they just see me getting to my seat. Crazy people. I think I´m going to buy a jacket with spikes all over it for ridding on the bus. Maybe they will move then? Probably not there would just be more blood on the floor.

Anyway we did the 2.5 hour ride on the bus. It´s nothing for us. I could do a 2.5 hour bus ride holding on the ladder on the back. Were getting so used to long rides that 2.5 hours is a joke.

We made it to the city around 4:30 and hopped off the bus. To my surprise the bags were still there. Man I´m getting lucky. I saw some ropes as we were driving start falling down the side of the bus and was waiting to see the bags fall off the back of the bus. But not this time. We had some friends in Cuzco say that a couple people lost bags off the top of there bus they took. The bus driver just says sorry and that´s it.

As soon as my first shoe hit the pavement I had about 500 vendors selling me stuff. I play like I can´t speak Spanish and point to Ana. That usually cuts a couple hundred of them off of me. We ended up getting a taxi to the hotel we read about in the book. Hopefully it would be ok.

Of course right as we got in the taxi the driver is trying to sell us another hotel for double the price. We say no and he keeps talking. Then he starts talking about the sand buggy rides he has. That lasted for another few minutes and I keep saying I don´t understand and pointed to Ana. By this time Ana was getting annoyed and short with him. After he realized we didn´t want anything from him he shut up and had nothing to say for the rest of the ride. He tried to lure us one more time to his hotel at the end but we said no and paid him for the ride. Peruvians have vendor blood in there souls. I don´t think I´ve meet one regular person in this whole damn country that hasn’t tried to sell me something. I would probably faint if someone just said hello and just meant hello. Not hello would you like to buy a finger puppet, or hello would you like to buy a cook book, or hello would you like to buy a beanie even though I´m wearing one on my head.

Anyway we got the room and it was ok. The place was a little run down and we were being charged too much so we decided in the evening to walk around and find another place that was nicer. We settled into the room and headed out to see the town. The small town was really nice and situated right in the middle of a huge sand dune desert on a lagoon. It was truly an oasis in the desert. Very cool and I love the little cities like this with lot´s of character. We decided to check out a couple hotels and found a nicer one that was cheaper. We made reservations to move there the next day.

We ate dinner at one of the 4 places available to eat at in the little town. We had some spaghetti that tasted like it had Chinese herbs and spices in it. It was a refreshing change in taste. I was hoping they had some kind of Chinese tasting food but the menu was pretty standard. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to chill for a while on the hammocks and chairs in the back yard.

I bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked one since I couldn´t find any cigars in the town. Ana got a mango and I cut it up for her and she ate it with salt. Was nice just to chill swinging and talking for a good hour or so till we got to tired and headed to bed. Ana wasn´t filling the best and thought she might have a cold coming on. We headed in early and crashed for the night. If Ana was filling sick I wanted her to get some good sleep so she didn´t get even sicker.








Day 64
We woke up in the morning and lazed around till about 10:00 when we checked out. We paid up and headed to our new hotel. We settled in and headed out to have breakfast at the local place. We ate at a little at the same little place we had dinner the night before. Breakfast was ok. The usual ¨Desayuno Americano¨. Bread was good but the mixed juice sucked.

After that monster breakfast we headed out to visit some more of the local town Ica. We took a taxi into the center. It was funny but once we got to the center about every car on the street was a taxi. It was heavy traffic and all of it seemed to be small car taxis or the small 3 wheeled taxis. The three wheel taxis were basically motorcycles with a box on the back for two people to sit in. Pretty fun to ride in also. Kind of like a go-cart.

We first went to the bank and waited in line for about 45 minutes to exchange money. It was ok though since Ana wasn´t feeling to good and the place was air conditioned. That was a nice break and probably the second time I´ve felt air-conditioning in all of South America. No kidding.

After the bank we took a small three wheeled taxi to the local museum. It was a nice little museum and had a really nice collection of mummies. Surprising how well they were preserved. I can only imagine they are going to be similar to the mummies in Egypt. We´ll see.

One thing that was really interesting about the mummies was that many of the skulls showed a deformation that made there skulls really tall and thinner than the normal skulls. This was something they thought was really great back then so from birth they would tie really tight bandages and sticks around the babies heads to deform them. They would tighten the bandages everyday to eventually make the skulls really deformed. Very interesting and I wondered if it caused any mental problems? Maybe that´s why this country is the way it is?

One other thing that was also interesting was they did brain surgery. They would actually cut part of the skull off to relieve stress. They said they usually did this to people who had head injuries. The holes were up to 4 inches in diameter and were made by using sharped stones and shells. I bet that felt good. They said they would use medications to sedate the people. I can´t imagine they were to good at that. Interesting and very advanced for such an old civilization. This was around later BC and early AC.

After the museum we headed to the center to eat. Through a stroke of sheer luck I found a Chinese food place! Can you believe that. Man I was so happy. I found one in Cusco and now in Ica. Damn there everywhere. I convinced Ana to give it another chance. It was that or more rice and meat which we´ve been eating for the last 50 years. We headed in with me smiling like a kid and Ana frowning like and old grumpy women. We both ordered and Ana got fried rice and I got a whole meal that included wanton soup, fried rice, noodles with chicken, and fried wantons.

I sat there like a kid on Christmas morning. The food was wonderful and my stomach was congratulating me for finding the place in the mist of all the city madness. Ana enjoyed the meal as well which I was surprised to see. It was heaven and nice to eat something so light and with tons of vegetables. It felt so healthy and I was loving every bit.

After eating we headed to back to our hotel. We chilled there for a the evening and just enjoyed the city and the evening by the lake. Ana continued to burp up the Chinese food all evening and said she never wanted to go to the Chinese place again. I said that was fine and that we would be eating separate dinners the following day.

Sitting there looking at the town and the sand dunes was killing me. There were people all over the hills having fun and we were just sitting by the lake side chilling with Ana burping Chinese food. Nice but a big part of me wanted to get a board and go try and kill myself on the slopes.

I jumped in the pool quick and it was nice. There were no tin cans or dead birds in it which was really nice. It actually was about as clean as a pool in the States. We headed off to bed early again so Ana could get some sleep. She wasn´t feeling to good again and was having head aches and body aches.





Day 65
Ana woke up feeling better and I was glad to see that. I don´t like seeing her that way. Especially in such a fun city. We headed out and had breakfast. I could barely sleep the night before thinking about that yummy breakfast of bread, coffee and juice. I was dreaming all night of bread jumping over a fence. Wowzers.

We hit the town just before noon and then to a local winery where we did a tour of the place. Was interesting and was a smaller winery. It was old and wasn´t the sterile clean image you imagine of a winery in the states. It was more old school and I don´t think they have ever cleaned much of that place in the last 100 years. Had that old sort of rotting grape smell to the place. We tasted some of the wines they produce and they were ok. They are well known of the Pisco they produce. Pisco is a little different alcohol created from the same grape as wine is made. They put it in jars rather than barrels and cure it for less time.

At the end of the tour we bought a large bottle of mango juice they also made and drank it. Was fun and we headed back to the city. We got a taxi and was able to avoid being burned on the price because the guy at the winery told us how much it should cost to get there. Pretty much the whole day we had been getting burned on prices and it was starting to get to me. It sucks knowing your getting charged 2 to 3 times as much as the guy in the car right next to you. It feels like you got a big SUCKER sign on your forehead. Oh well got to roll with the punches.

Once we got to town we started walking and same taxi driver we used before said hi. We jumped in and said we wanted to go to the chocolate factory he mentioned on the earlier ride. Bad move on our part. He basically took us to a factory that had a shop to buy chocolates. We went in and the girl showed us candy to buy. Not exactly the tour we expected. We bought a couple candies not to offend the girl and headed out. It was such a tourist trap and I can´t believe we paid for the taxi ride there. Punk ass driver. Got to give him props though he did swindle us pretty good. I guess he deservers the money. Punk. I hate the way they lie and cheat you but were in their territory and that´s the game here. Just got to play it better in the future.

After the factory we decided to walk back to town. After 20 minutes of interesting side streets we found our way to the center where we found a nice internet place next to the Chinese place we ate the day before. I was happy to see that. We checked our email for a while and then headed to the Chinese place for lunch again. Two days in a row who could have dreamed. I was able to convince Ana to go again and this time only get white rice and vegetables it would be lighter for her stomach. She agreed and we ate together. Was just as wonderful the second time as the first.

After eating we floated back to the hotel to relax and try some sand boarding. I´d been wanting to since we got there the first day and Ana was finally feeling up to it. We got on our dirty cloths and headed out. We rented one board for the both of us and hit the bunny sand slopes. I´ve never skied before so it took allot of falling on my butt to get a decent ride in. But I was determined. Toward the end of the two hours we spent boarding I was able to get going pretty fast and cut back and forth with some kind of sense of control. It was really fun and Ana even got a couple small rides in. I think she averages about 4-5 feet on each fun. My runs at the end were about 100ft or so. The hill wasn´t very huge since we were just trying to get the hang of it. A few times Ana just went down on the board on her butt.

We had a blast during those two hours we spent on the dunes. We were both dead tired, had sand in every crevice possible, and extremely thirsty. We were like little kids in the sand not caring how dirty we got. Good times.

We headed down and returned the board. We got two large bottles of ice cold water which were heaven. We both drank the water too fast and got brain freeze. It was great though and I almost drank all large bottle of water myself. We went back to the hotel and jumped in the pool to rinse the sand off. Something I can´t do in my mom’s pool or she´ll shoot me.

We were pretty exhausted and decided to go to the local restaurant and get a fruit salad. I keep forgetting to not have an image in my head when I order something. It´s a golden rule here and when the fruit salad came I remembered the rule. The fruit salad looked more like ice-cream than a fruit salad. Basically it had chocolate, sugar smacks, and sprinkles on top hiding all the old brown fruit underneath. We smiled and ate enough not to show that we hated it. After that I bought a little ice-cream to hide the taste of the fruit salad and we headed back to the hotel.

We chilled by the pool for a little bit and I had a smoke. It started to sprinkle a little and it was nice. Not enough to really wet anything. The nights have been nice and usually are a little cool. Weather reminds me allot of Californian summers. Dry hot days with cool nights.

We headed back to the room and I found a 3” cockroach in the bathroom. After killing that Ana said she would give me a massage on my back since it was sore. She said there was a worm on the back of my shirt. Sure enough there was a caterpillar on my shirt. I got it when we were at the pool. Was an insect filled evening. I flicked the caterpillar off and Ana grabbed it outside the door with some toilet paper to throw it away. Right as she was picking it up I touched her neck like it was another worm. She freaked out and was so mad she threw the toilet paper right at my face. Was pretty funny and it´s hard to get Ana that mad.

We laughed and chilled the rest of the evening. We were beat from boarding and fell asleep really quickly.





Day 66
Woke up in the morning and had another power Americana breakfast. Had to get my daily bread, butter and jam in the old stomach. I might drop dead without it.

After that we headed to town and watched a small parade that was going on in the center square. I guess they have it every Sunday and it has something to do with the country and the flag. I always fell really American around those things and kind of a target. I don´t think I am but I always wonder what people are thinking.

To make things worse just a few days before a couple of crazy American’s bombed a hotel in LaPaz. They were insane and acting alone. It was funny to think we were in a hotel in LaPaz just a couple days before the bombing. Lucky for us we were out of there. To close for comfort. But there is no way to predict that and the same thing could have happened to us in the US.

One thing that was really funny to see on the TV was the Bolivian president reacting to the incident. He was saying that America was so against terrorism but now they were sending Americans to bomb them. It showed how juvenile even the president of the country was. Having traveled there and dealing with the people made me understand why it was the way it was. There a country full of people with no real education and it´s almost like a bunch of 6 graders trying to understand the things that are happening to them. They don´t really have the ability to see outside themselves. There minds just don´t work the same as developed countries. The good thing is they are no real threat to the world and there actions really don´t affect the international community that much.

Anyway we got some more money out of the bank and headed the internet café where we are now catching up on our blogs. It´s been tough to keep them up but in the end it will be worth it. It´s nice to share our experiences with people and it will be nice to build a book with coordinating images out of blog later.

Later today were headed to do the buggy ride and some more sand boarding which should be fun. After this internet session I´m going to try and ease Ana subconsciously into the Chinese food place again for lunch. I´m been very quietly whispering ¨Chung King¨ for the last hour. Wish me luck.

T*

Ana_Ica & Huacachina, Peru

The bus ride wasn’t bad at all; other than I had a still had that annoying headache.

Ica is known for producing wine and Peru’s drink, Pisco. But nearby only 3km is the oasis of Huacachina, which is known for dune buggy rides and sand boarding. We took a taxi to Huacachina. I’ve never seen so much sand in my life, sand everywhere, huge sand mountains around the oasis. It felt like we were in our own resort. Nice! The place we stayed the first night sucked. It just had a bad vibe, the rooms were not the cleanest and the bathroom sucked. No toilet seat. Handy!

We walked around the oasis, which literally takes only 5 minutes. We found another hostel for cheaper and nicer it had a pool and everything. So we made the reservation for the next day. My headache was still there and my body was aching at this time. Didn’t feel horrible but enough to slow me down. We walked around so more to find out about the dune buggy rides. They’re all about the same price around $12 USD each for two hours. Not bad! But feeling how I was the sound of a bumpy ride didn’t sound like fun.

The next day I felt sick too. So we decided to wait two more days. Yesterday, I felt much better. We came to Ica to walk around the town and visit a local winery. We finally saw how the make pisco. It’s actually from the grapes and then they distilled it to make it white looking. It’s quite the process. They still had the old “Lagares” where men actually use to crush the grapes with their feet for hours to drain the juice out of it. Then the juice would go to another place where they’d filter the skin and then later would put it in a jar looking thing. They seal it for 25 days and then take it to an underground pot for days. The pisco has three parts the head, the body and the tail. The only good part is the body. The rest has too much alcohol. The body only has 43% alcohol. After the small tour we had a taste of the different wines and pisco. Good stuff! Strong too!!! They also had mango juice. Mangos grow everywhere in this town. YUMMY! I love mangos.

We then came back to town to have some lunch. Again Chinese!!! Tim found this Chinese restaurant and his hooked! He’d eat every meal there if possible. It was pretty good but every time I’d eat it I’d burp the food. Not so good!!!! Tim think is because he likes than I don’t like it. But I tell him if he’d be burping it he’d like either.

Around 4ish we went back to Huacachina. We decided to book the dune buggy ride for today Sunday. We also rented a sand board to try it before today. I must say it was pretty fun, even though I can’t do it. I did sand board for about 4ft. without falling on my butt. I was scared at first, what else is new I’m such a chicken but I manage to always try it at least once. The rest of the time I kept sand sliding, that was a blast too.

We’ll see about today!!!

Ana_Nasca, Peru

The worse bumpy ride ever!!!! We took a direct bus from Cusco that left at 6 pm and we arrived in Nasca at 8 am. Bumpy roads the entire time. I never get road sick and this time I did. HORRIBLE! I felt I wanted to puke the whole ride. YUMMY! Tim was feeling sick too. He even had his ear patch the whole time. Our driver was crazy! He kept going fast even in the rain. I was scared few times, that we’d go off the cliff. I’ve never seen so many signs for curves, every 5ft. At one point we stopped since other buses a head of us stopped also. Apparently there was a big puddle on the road due to too much rain. Here a lot of rivers overflow the roads when is rainy season. But our crazy driver thought of giving it a chance. He saw another car coming the other way and he felt daring enough to try it. I was so scared of tipping over. We made it though. I manage to take short naps throughout the night. I was so glad to be in NASCA alive in one piece. =)

As soon as we got off we were bombarded with hostel and hotel options. They all claim they had the best deal and the best accommodations and their competition sucked! We already had reservations so all we needed was to take a taxi. But they wouldn’t go away. I kept ignoring them and the more I did the louder they got and more people were surrounding us. Some guy claimed he was from the hotel we wanted to go. So we went with him. I’m glad we did those people were driving me nuts. We got there and he wanted to sell us the tour around the NASCAR lines that was basically the main attraction. The city itself was plain and small in the middle of the desert. But we were tired and wanted to take a nap. We were crazy enough to schedule it for noon. The flight itself was expensive we each had to pay $50 USD for a 35 minute ride on a small Cessna.

Our room had cable TV. We’re in heaven. It’s a privilege to have TV for relatively cheap and our own bathroom. For both we paid less than $10 USD.

After our power nap we went to the airport for our ride around the Nasca lines. There are a total of 200 figures and about 1,000 lines in this area. But we were going to see about 10 As soon as we got on the plane I felt sick. The plane was really tiny and there were 5 of us plus the pilot. Thank goodness we had the front seats. We took off and it wasn’t that bad. Tim warned me that these planes moved a lot, it was normal. So I was mentally preparing myself. At first it wasn’t bad, but when we took the first dip to see one of the figures I felt my stomach detaching from my body. I felt a hot and cold. I had to concentrate really hard. We’d fly twice around each figure one to the right hand side of the figure and the other to the left hand side. Not only I was feeling sick to my stomach but I was feeling trapped in tiny plane. It was sweating cold. I kept closing my eyes to breath and make sure I didn’t pass out. But Tim kept asking if I was OK! He said I’ve never looked so serious. I’m glad I did. The lines were cool to see. The figures we saw included spider, monkey, astronaut, humming bird, parrot, hands, tree and trapezoid. But I don’t think I’d do it again. The RIDE FROM HELL!

We went back to the hostel to rest a bit more. After a while we walked around the town. Like I said before, not to much to do. We went to the “Plaza de Armas”, which is like the downtown of the city. So far every city we’ve been to in Peru has one. We had some lunch at local place. After that we walked around some more in the hot and dry weather. I did time I was still feeling a bit sick, with a major headache. We decided we wanted to see lines up close to get the complete picture. So we were looking for another tour. This time it was cheaper only about $10USD. We left the tour for the next morning.

I’m glad we did. The tour was only the two of us and the guide. We first went to a small mountain where you can view a bunch of straight lines pointing to the horizon. It was cool to see how they made it. They moved the rocks away and the flattened the surface. I was amazed to see how straight the lines were. The German lady who studied the lines Maria Reiche, didn’t know how they’d make it that straight especially back then. The idea of the lines still remains a mystery. Maria studied the lines for 40 years trying to figure out the meaning of all the lines. She concluded the lines were created by the Nasca civilization dating 200 BC and 600 AD, since some of the geogliphs found were the same found on the culture’s artifacts. She also thing it could represent their calendar.
Interesting stuff! Even the guide said that it was a mystery that Maria stayed in that area studying for so many years, pretty much the rest of her life.

After our two-hour tour we headed back in to town for some lunch. Then we decided to just leave directly to our next town Ica, only 3 hours away, which in our clock is like 10 minutes. We’re so use to the long bus rides. We caught the bus right when it was leaving, talk about good timing. We were the only tourist on the bus. Not too bad! Nothing beats the first bus ride in Bolivia. =)

Ana_Cusco, Peru

Here we go again; I just lost what I was writing. It’s so frustrating! Rrrrrrrrrrrr. Obviously I don’t learn that I need to save often. I kicked the on/off switch by accident and shut the computer off. Rrrrrrrr! And worse Tim is telling me I told you so – SAVE often.

Anyway back to my experience in Cusco. I love it and hate it. I love the history and the beautiful colonial architecture built on Inca style foundation. It has colorful churches and the streets are very small and narrow. I hate the vendors. They follow you everywhere and a nice NO THANK YOU, doesn’t help. They keep following you for a while. And sometimes when you don’t buy anything they insult you in Spanish, of course not every vendor. I t makes me really uncomfortable to be rude. But after a day I’m use to saying NO. You can’t buy everything or do every excursion in Cusco.

We did the Machu Pichu trip on our own. It was still the most expensive tour we’ve done so far. We each paid about around $100 USD for the train ride, park entrance and the bus ride to the park. But it was well worth it! AMAZING site!

We went on Sunday early morning. Our train was delayed 2 hours because of a landslide. We had to wait for them to clear the track. Even though it sucked! I was glad we’re not crushed by the landslide. We finally got to the park. We were recommended to go to the top first so you can see the overview of the site. I’m glad we did. It was incredible. Can’t explain it! The mountains surrounding the site were truly magical. I asked myself how did the built it on top of such high mountains. You can still see the most of the massive rocks foundations. The steps are so steep. It took us around 3 hours to walk around the site. I’m glad we went. I see why thousands of thousands of tourist visit every year.

Ana_Last Days in Bolivia

Going to back to La Paz from Rurrenabaque was a bit choking. From hot tropical to cold and high altitude. It sucked! I felt the altitude as soon as we landed in La Paz. It wasn´t as bad as the first days but I felt it for sure.

We went back to the same hostal. The taxi driver took us the long way becuase there was a protest and they blocked the main highway. Apperantely Bolivians protest a lot especially in La Paz. This time the fishermen of the nearby lake Titicaca were protesting since they were not selling many fish and there was rumor that the fish was contaminated. They claimed it was not true. So they were very upset!
The protest crossed the Peruvian border and they were going to block the main road to Puno which was the same road to Cusco. So we had to stay an extra day in La Paz.

Good thing we had cable TV in our room. It was luxury for us. Very nice to just watch TV for hours. There wasn´t much left to see in La Paz. It´s big city but after few days you had enough. Especially walking, every step you huff and puff like crazy.

We did go to the Coca Museum. Pretty interesting stuff. Bolivians are very religious with the coca leaves. But of course has caused a big contraversy especially with the US over the years. Becuase with the coca leaves you can make cocaine. But from start to finish is a long process. You have to mix it in with a bunch of chemicals to have the end product. Bolivians don´t agree with the use of cocaine, but are sacriligious about the use of coca leaves. It goes back to the Inka times. It was use in ceremonial rituals and for medicine. The main effect of just the coca leaves is to supress apetite and gives you energy. It´s kinda like coffee. I had some coca leaves but didn´t feel much. Plus you have stuff your mouth with the coca leaves and leave it there for hours. I didn´t last very long with it my mouth. The leaves are kinda of bitter. To my suprise Coca Cola has extracts from the coca leaf. And medicine like of novacaine uses it as well.

After that we didn´t do much other than kill time by walking around the nearby markets.

Ana

Tim_Day 55 - 61 (Cuzco)

Day 55 (Continued)
After the finishing up our blogs that day we mostly just hung around and took care of details. We watched the tube and enjoyed every single brainless minute of it.

Slept ok that night but I think those pills are still messing with my sleep. I think Ana is also feeling them. I had a weird dream I was hunting human´s with a bow and arrow? It was really sad and I didn´t want to but I had to if I wanted to live. I ended up shooting a little girl on a bike. How messed up is that. I carried her so her younger sister wouldn´t see it. I asked the girl to forgive me and she said don´t worry she understood. Man I wonder what Frued would say about that dream. Probably say Ana´s driving me nutz. Just kidding Ana.





Day 56
Woke up at 6:00 to catch our early bus to Cuzco. It sucks getting up early with my stomach feeling the way it was. Morning always makes my stomach feel off. I was happy though to know that we were getting out of La Paz. I´m not a big fan of large cities and I felt like we had spent allot of time in this big city. I´d rather be in smaller towns with more character. Large cities are all about the same. Busy, loud, and crowded.

We got on the bus and it turned out to be full of tourist. That is always a good things since it means there are less odds we will get our stuff stolen. Also it means there are allot of people doing the same thing we are. In the end it makes boarder crossings and things like that easier since your in a small group. Allot of times you also meet good people that way.

We sat in the bus for a couple hours winding through some really nice country with small farms everywhere. They were dotted along the horizon for what seemed like forever. Each farm had a few different crops on it and a couple animals. Either a cow, pig, or lama. Each farm was carved out of the earth. Some farms were up really steep trails and on the side of mountains. Funny that land was so valuable that they would farm on some pretty massive inclines. I guess it wouldn’t be to bad if you were doing all the farming by hand like they were.

Seeing all those small farms scattered across the country was really like stepping back in time. I think America was like that a hundred years ago when we were all independent farmers. The time before tractors and the large machinery of today. Everyone owned their own little piece of land and farmed it then sold their goods in the city. Seeing those farms made sense of why there were thousands of markets in La Paz. Everyone went to town to sell what they grew or made on their farms.

After about 2 hours we got to the border of Peru. We crossed without too many problems. The usual confusion, pushing, and general chaos that goes with government run things. The one thing that did surprise me was there was a guy toward the end that was trying to make us form a line. It was really weird to think that they had lines and order. Was actually refreshing. I was thinking is he going to now ask for money or something. You get that way in these countries. Seems nothing is for free.

We found the bus on the Peru side and drove another 10 hours to get to Cuzco. The country was more more rich than Bolivia and you could see that everywhere. The buildings all had nice steal roofs (not dirt’s and grass) and there were really nice cars. When I say nice car I mean they don´t look like there going to break down in the next 10 minutes. They actually look like they could go a couple hundred miles before a tire fell off, or the engine dropped out. Being in a richer country was nice. But at the same time it means we have to watch our money closer. That kind of sucks.

We arrived in Cuzco in the night around 6 or so. The whole day we spent winding through mountain roads. The landscape is really beautiful and covered as well with more small farms. The earth and weather seem very fertile for growing things. The mountains were green and there seems to be a ton of rivers and water everywhere.

I was pretty sea sick by the time we got into Cuzco. We hadn´t really eaten anything the whole day and we were starving. The bus never stopped so we had to only could eat what they gave us which was some crackers and a couple candies. What a great and nutritious meal. That kind of meal keeps you powering through the day. We should have brought more food on the bus. Our bad. I was so hungry I even tried eating a piece of the seat in front of me. Tasted a bit to salty and I decided against it.

During the trip we met a nice German girl traveling alone. She was only 20 and had been traveling alone for 6 months in South America. Crazy girl. We decided to take a taxi together to our place where she was going to ask if they had a room available for her.

Our place was up a massive hill and it was fun hiking our bags up to it. Damn Incan streets. If they were so smart they should have figured out how to build things on flat land rather than hills. Anyway we made it to the hostel and all three of us were our of breath. We ended up getting a dormitory room together.

We headed out on the streets to go get something to eat. The town was really magical from the hill. It has that colonial architecture feel to it. Very European feel which was nice in the middle of South America. The lights were very yellow in tone so the whole city glowed a warm yellow glow. We made it to the main square where everything was nicely paved, and the groomed. Little nice benches and trees. It reminded me of Disneyland.

Then this magical vision was brought down to earth with the horde of vendors that rushed us. All the sudden we had at least 5 different aggressive restaurant vendors fighting for our business. Come here free this, come here we have that. They were very aggressive and Ana was getting frustrated and feeling like she had no choice.

I´m not as bothered by them and I don´t have a problem being rude to them. Ana tries being nice and you can´t be that way with them. My thinking is they are being rude to me so I can be rude to them. I don´t acknowledge their presence and pretend like there not even there. When I totally ignore them they know that there is no chance in hell no matter how long they bug me that I want what their offering. When you acknowledge the vendors they think they have a chance of earning your business and will follow you all the way down the street trying to force you into buying what they have.

These venders were the most aggressive by far in all of South America. They have no moral sense and will do anything just shy of holding a knife to your throat to get you to buy there goods. They try to pin things on your shirt, they put stuff in your hand, pull on your shirt, you name it anything is game here. Very vicious.

We ended up going to a place for dinner that was only 9 soles (3 American dollars) for a 5 item meal. It was a good deal and the lowest they could offer. I knew that since I pitted those guys against each other on price. A couple guys were pretty mad and Ana said they were cursing at me in the end. The vendors are like that. They seem mad and angry that you don´t want to buy from them. Screw them though it´s all part of the game here. There out to screw me so why can´t I leverage the same back at them. Oh well.

We had a great dinner. Included a lime drink, orange juice, chips ( 4 to be exact) and guacamole, burrito, and banana desert. It was a great meal and light. We headed back up Mount Everest to our hostel. Going to get some exercise in this city. Will be nice since allot of the cities we´ve been doing have not included much walking. I guess we were also feeling pretty sick though in the last few cities.

We sleep pretty good. The place doesn´t have heating but they have thick blankets and that’s always nice to sleep under.





Day 57
Woke up early since Peru is an hour behind Bolivia. We decided to get up and go schedule all the things we wanted to do in this city (See Machu Pichu and see some of the other ruins). We decided to eat the breakfast they offered at the hotel to give us some energy for the day. Bad choice. The guy who was the receptionist was also the cook? That says allot. On top of that he is I think a little retarded. He also had to go to the local store to get the ingrediants for breakfast. Interesting. I think we were the only idiot tourist dumb enough to eat there. Anyway we had bread with jam and an egg. I didn´t know you could make an egg so bad. It was not cooked enough so it was runny. It also had some pieces of shell in it for extra protein and crunch. Yummy. I think it was also those brown eggs cause it didn´t taste right.

After our powerful breakfast we headed out on the town. We spent most of the day walking all over the city fighting vendors and looking for places. We did end up buying the train, bus, and entrance to Machu Pichu. Which by the way is a rip off. Stupid government knows you’ll pay for it so they jack up the price. We got it as cheap as possible and it was still 100.00 American dollars. We could have done a 4 day all inclusive jungle tour with that much money. Oh well you got to see it. It´s one of those icons. I was actually considering not seeing it. I wasn´t sure how overrated it was. You know how those things are. But we coughed up the cash and paid for it.

During the day we also bought another city site pass to see a bunch of museum and historical sites around town. We dropped into a couple museums which were ok. There were some nice pots and things like that. Good to see but the first one was similar to the other two. We also stopped by a large statue. Went to the top and saw a great overview of the city. Was fun.

We ate lunch at a nice little local place. The chicken was pretty good. I´ve been getting kind of daring with the food latel. They had a salad bar (trust me it´s not like what you think of at home) and I just dug in like what the hell I´ll try it. It didn´t seem to bother my stomach later. I´m not sure if I´m getting lucky with the food or if my stomach is getting stronger. Time will tell. Man I´m daring.

The rest of the day we just bummed around town. Sat for a while and soaked up the atmosphere. Beautiful little city. It´s funny because at the same time your enjoying the city you have to keep watch on your belongings. I´m constantly watching the people and making sure my bag is secure and my wallet is still with me. Kind of sucks but it the price you pay to keep your belongings.

We slept pretty good that night. There was a local bar with some bass but I did my best to ignore it. We were pretty tired out as well from walking at least 10 miles in the city that day.




Day 58
Woke up and headed out early. Decided to skip the breakfast offered at the hostel. I missed the runny eggs with small bits of shell in it. We walked down to the bus station and caught a bus up to one of the ruins near the city. The bus was interesting. The usual aroma of local people along with the small bus seats made for smurfs.

Getting off at the first ruins was nice. It was good to see some ruins and the craftsmanship of the Inca´s was really impressive. Carved stones fitted perfectly together. Massive rocks carved and moved to create walls for the river, homes, and roads. Really cool. Just like you see on the National Geographic channel. So nice to see things I´ve only seen on tv in real life. It gives so much dimension to how I think of things. The Inca culture seems so 3 dimensional now. I can really imagine what their life must have been like. Very cool.

We walked to 4 different sites that day. Each with it´s own character. These sites were on the outskirts of Cuzco and must have been little towns that traded goods. There are different ceremonial buildings where they would sacrifice things. Not sure if they killed people but I wouldn´t be surprised. I know the Aztecs did and there no to far away from this country.

We opted to not see the sites with a guide but to do it ourselves. It was nice since we could just sit for a little while and soak up the environment. We sat for a long time just looking at the site, the mountains around, the people and the animals grazing on the local hillsides. Very tranquil and I can only imagine the Inca´s felt the same peace at times.

We got some photos of some local kids. Ana loves takings shots of them. You have to pay them to take their photos but they are so cute and it´s worth it. There were a few cute little kids dressed in more traditional clothing.

We ended the day back in the city. We were pretty tired and walked pretty far during the course of the day. We made some phone calls and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Watched a little tv in the main room and went to sleep at a reasonable time. We were waking up early the next day to go to Machu Pichu.

Slept ok. Still restless from dreams and the pills.





Day 59
Woke up at 4 in the morning. We forgot to set the alarm clock to Peru time. We wanted to get up at 5 but pretty much got up at 4 since neither of us could really sleep after the alarm clock went off.

We got out of bed and packed quickly at 5:00. We headed down and caught a taxi in the central part of the city. Got to the train station and got a coffee. We boarded the train and sat down. The seats were a dumb a design as most of the things in this country. They had 4 seats that faced each other with about 10 inches of room between them. So basically when I sat down my legs almost touched the seat in front of me. If I ever catch a South American engineer I swear I´m going to kick him in the nads.

Sure enough right as the train was about to head out girls from Israel sat down in front of us. I´m trying not to have any pre thoughts when I see them. Maybe these girls are cool. They ended up being rude and a pain in the ass the whole way. Although they were about 4 feet tall they took more leg room than I did. Rather than sit up in their seat they slouched and pushed their legs out. They also had to have their bags down by their feet rather than in the overhead baggage compartment. Fucking rude and it drove me nuts.

Those girls were either talking, sleeping, or one of them was blowing her nose. Was so nasty. Damn I´ve never been so grossed out. She was using one of her three used tissues and keep trading them off to blow her nose. She would blow her nose like an old truck driver for about (no shitting either) 3 minutes straight. She wen´t through all her 3 Kleenex about 4 times in the process. I think she thought they were cleaner if she keep switching them. The whole time I´m thinking this Machu Pichu better be pretty cool. All this money and dealing with so much stuff to get there.

To top it off the train ride was terrible. The tracks were really old and crocked so I was getting sea sick as the train went back and forth. Then in the middle of the trip the train stops and they say there is a landslide ahead that they need to clear. I was thinking no way. We´re not going to make it there. All this for nothing. But we waited for two hours and they were able to clear it. The funny thing was that while we were waiting they let everyone get off the train and wait outside. They would never let anyone do that in America. Pretty cool and it was nice to get off the train.

Later that evening we finally made it to Agua Caliente the small town where you take a bust to Machu Pichu. It took 6 hours to get there. We got the bus up the top and got off. Interesting ride on a steep dirt road. The mountains were beautiful and I was starting to understand why they built the city in this area. The mountains were also heavy jungle which I didn´t imagine it to be that way in my head. It was though very dense and very beautiful.

We got to the top and there it was Machu Pichu. Just like the photos. It was spectacular and all the money and pain of getting their quickly faded away. The mountains were spectacular and we sat and just admired the city. It was really peaceful and magical. They say they built the city on that mountain because of the power and magic in the area. Standing there you could feel it. It was really beautiful and must have been amazing when it was an alive city.

We walked around the step hills for a few hours. Sitting and admiring the buildings. The amount of work they did to create that city was amazing. They had to step most of the mountain to keep in stable. The one thing that was also really interesting was the large hill in the background also had a little carved town on the top of it. The trail was closed to go up to it which was a bummer. Oh well next time.

Was great to see the site and it was funny later when I saw an image of Machu Pichu on a restaurant wall it looked different. I could see myself walking in it and I imagined looking at the mountains to the right of the photos and the large river way down the mountain. I love that feeling to bring life to images I´ve always seen in life. I hope at the end of this trip that I can look at a huge percentage of the worlds images and experience them that same way. When I see images of Africa or China I want to me able to smell, hear and taste them. If I get that from this trip I think I will experience the rest of my life from a perspective few people are lucky enough to share. Will be really cool. I´m excited to see how seeing the world changes me. It already has and I only feel like we´ve just begun.

Deep man. Deep.

We went down from the mountain and ate a great dinner. We again didn´t plan our food great and were very hungry by the time we hit the restaurant. The food was great and we moaned the whole time we ate. Was beef and rice and a great avocado salad. Good for the tummy.

We got the train back and the ride back was much more smooth. I didn´t have anyone in the seat in front of me so I had lot´s of room which was really nice. There was an older English guy sitting in the seat in front of Ana. We ended talking the whole way back to Cuzco. He was a fascinating guy and had traveled most of the world. He said he was an addicted traveler. He remembers traveling the world before planes were huge. He said he would spend from 5 -7 weeks on a boat getting to the different parts of the world. Pretty crazy. Makes our flights and bus rides look pretty short.

When we arrived into Cuzco it was raining. We took a taxi back to the place and crashed. We were pretty tired. Was a full day. Slept like a log.





Day 60
Woke up feeling pretty good. Both of our legs were a little sore from walking mile around the hills. We ate a great breakfast at a local restaurant and headed out to see a couple local museums. They were ok. Had some nice paintings. Nice things are starting to become a blur. Another nice church, antother nice painting. You can only see so many and you just start getting tired of them no matter how spectacular they are. Crazy but true.

The day was kind of cloudy and rainy all day. Off and on. Sprinkles then clear. Over and over. Was nice though to have a little weather. We are a little worried though that all the rain in going to make our bus ride to Nasca interesting. We´ll see.

Later in the evening we went to the local market to buy a bunch of gifts. We´ve been waiting till the last part of the trip to stock up on gifts and art for our home. We found some great paintings and charcoal drawings of children. There going to look great in the house. Was fun walking through the hundreds of stalls all selling about the same thing. I enjoy haggling with the vendors over the price. It´s always fun. Walking away and them trying to get you back. Then you turn around and say maybe. Good times.

On our way back to the hostel to drop off the loot we found a Chinese food place. I was so happy. I wanted to order the whole menu. It´s so funny to see a couple Asian guys cooking up Chinese food in the front. We sat down and ordered a large thing of rice and the closest thing on the menu to orange chicken. The food ended up not being as good as it looked. It wasn´t bad but it just tasted a little off. I think the spices or ingredients were not the same. I ate a ton and we both left with stomach aches. We tasted the food once again when we walked up the step hill to our hostel. It tasted even worse the second time around.

After dropping off our goods in our room we went back down to the center square to meet up with our French friends we meet about a month ago at the bottom of Argentina in Ushuia.

It was really funny but we bumped into them by chance when we were at Machu Pichu the previous day. It was so funny. We couldn’t believe it was them. We emailed and decided we would have a drink together that night.

We met Jenny and Jerome and walked over to a local bar to have a drink and catch up. We had a great time. Their really a fun couple and we communicated in mostly Spanish with some English and a little French. I´m starting to get enough of a hold of Spanish to be able to communicate. I´m butchering the words but somehow I think other people are starting to understand me. What´s also really nice is I´m finding it more and more easy to understand people who are talking in Spanish. Very cool. I´m still a long way from mastering the language but at least I fell like I have some kind of foot hold.

We sat and talked for a few hours then headed back to the flat. Was good times with the French couple and always good for the heart. I slept like a rock. I did though have a funny dream about winning the lottery. Was funny and sad because I woke up and realized it wasn´t true. In the dream I had won 84 million dollars. Man I was so excited.

Oh well I´m already living one dream. Winning the lottery is just going to have to stay a dream for now.




Day 61
Woke up early in the morning packed up. We put our stuff in storage and checked out of our room. We head out to Nasca at 6:00pm today. We went down to the local restaurant where we had breakfast the previous day. I found some Top Ramon´s in the local store a couple days before and I´ve been wanting to cook them up so bad. So at the restaurant Ana ordered breakfast I had them cook me up two packets of Top Ramon. I was a little concerned but they did a great job with the soup. Man it was great and reminded me of home. My stomach was giving me high 5´s all morning.

We went and drew more money out of the ATM. The stupid city has been very expensive. Nice but really expensive. I´m glad were getting out soon. We´ve been her long enough.

We also stopped into a local store and burned our photos down to CD´s. We also changed some money and watched a movie in the hostel. Basically were wasting away the day doing errands and messing around. It just starting raining again so we´ll see how the bus ride tonight to Nasca goes? We´ve heard the delays can be crippling. Were going to make sure to bring lot´s of food and water. We might be sitting in the bus for a while if there is an avalanche or something stupid like that. Wish us luck.

T*

Tim n Ana_Pictures 8 (Pampas & Jungle)

Sunday Market in Rurrenabaque.


Riding through the Pampas!


Sunrise in the Pampas. Que romantico!


The pet alligator at our campsite in the Pampas.


The Anaconda that almost bit Tim. YIKES.


The cute Chichilos monkeys that came to our boat for some bananas.


Tim and his phirana. Look at those teeth!!!


We barely survived eachother in the jungle!


Me showing off the jewelry Elvis made for mua!

Ana_Rurrenabaque (Jungle)

The jungle part of the trip I thought it was going to SUCK big time. Not the case. We were suppose to go only for a day but we switch our plans to make it two days, which is what the agency recommended.

Tim was tired from fishing with Rami and the morning we were suppose to go to the jungle he decided it might be a good idea of switching our plans. At first I was upset because of the last minute decision. We woke early for nothing and I thought it would be a hassle to change our plane ticket back to La Paz and the bus ticket to Cusco. But like Bolivians say "TODO ES POSIBLE, NADA ES SEGURO," we were able to change our plans. The saying translates to "EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE, NOTHING IS CERTAIN or FOR SURE". I love that saying! We took care of details in the morning and it was not a problem to change our plans from 1 day to 2 days in the jungle. I was glad at the end. I really like the town. It has a great vibe.

We went back to our hotel after taking care of details. Tim took a long nap. I did too and I claimed I was not sleepy. I have to say we´ve slept alot on this trip so far. Our average sleep time is 8 to 9 hours. It was nice to just be lazy bums all day and hide from the sun. We were both pretty burn from the sun during our pampas tour.

At night we went to a new place for dinner. The usual place, Camila´s, was getting old. We went to Butterflies Restaurant. Tim loved the orange juice. I didn´t too much. It was a bit watery! We´ve been on a quest for the best orange juice. When we finished having dinner. We were walking back to our hotel, when Rami, our guide from the Pampas, comes behind us in motorcycle. He scared the shit out of me. He was way to close. I almost used one of my karate moves. Rami is a clown, just like Tim and he was laughing to know that he scared me. He said he was looking for us to invite us over his house. They were celebrating his baby girl´s first birthday party. Tim and I were both suprised but honored that he invited us. We accepted the invitation. But first we had to scramble around the town to buy a present. We found a stuffed bunny. Off we went to Rami´s house. They had no electricity that night so it was interesting finding our way. We were introduced to his wife and other family members. Rami is 1 or 11 kids. His parents didn´t have TV =). Some of his nephews were there. So cute! I do have to say on this trip I´ve had a soft spot for kids. They´re so adorable. We had our camera with us to show Rami some of the pictures from las pampas. In no time we had some of the kids around us. They love the camera. So I started taking pictures of some of them.They thought it was pretty funny to see their photo. They all wanted their picture taken to see it aftewards. Hay que cute!

We were served dinner again. We felt bad saying NO, so we shared a plate. We had a picante de pollo, basically spicy chicken with rice and potatoes. Very good! But my stomach couldn´t handle more food. Muy full! Right after we sang Happy Birthday and that was it for us. It was very nice to spend a night with a family. Although everyone would starred at us we felt very welcome. Great family!

Day 1
Next morning we were off to the jungle. In the morning we had time to go to the Sunday market. It was crowded with vendors selling fresh produces, meats and clothing. Rami met us in the morning at the market to show Tim big fishes. We did see a huge, bloddy, catch fish. Grosse! But Tim was fascintated with size of it!

Right after we got on a small motorized boat, similar to the Pampas. This time we were going on bigger river, River Beni. To our surprised Jacob was going to be our cook again. We had a new guide, Elvis. He seemed very nice, although a bit more shy than Rami. The ride to our campsite was three hours on the river. The other couple on the trip seemed very quite at first. The view along the river was again beautiful. Bigger trees than of the Pampas. The water was more muddy looking and the land was just wider.

We arrived at our campsite around noon. We had to hike our little butts and all of our stuff for about 10 minutes. It was hot and humid. We made it though! The campsite was facing a small lake. The beds were pieces of logs put together and thin matress on top. Jacob started cooking a huge meal. This time there was so much food. No Israelitos to eat the food. They actually were leaving when we got there. The jungle was definately different. Just huge trees, more of a dense forest. Tons of more insects crawling around everywhere. And the humidity was thick, my hair was loving it!

After the awesome lunch - rice, steak, plantains and vegetables; we went for a walk around the jungle. Our guide, Elvis, explained to us that the jungle was different than the Pampas in the sense that we had to be careful where we walk and not to step on snakes, spider or any toxic plants/trees. He´d walk in front of us with a machete. We had walk in a single file and be quite as we walked. It was unpredictable what we´d see. Since the animals and insect usually go away when the here noises and specially from humans. Ironic, they´re scared of us and we´re scared of them. Elvis, showed us some medicine plants. Pretty interesting. We even saw a tree that has smells and taste like garlic. He said in the jungle that is what they use to cook. He was born and raised in the jungle so he was knows how to survive from just what he finds in the jungle. We didn´t see much other than a huge ant called "La 24" it was HUGE. It was fun walking around the jungle for like 3 hours. Then we got back to our campsite. The feeling of just being outthere with nature in the middle of nowhere was a great thought. Suprisingly! They idea of nowhere to go to nowhere to be, was very peaceful.

By this time Tim was a Spanish talking machine. He felt more comfortable and was having conversations with Elvis and Jacob. He kept saying "Quiero pescar!" I started joking with Elvis saying "don´t mention anything about fishing because Tim´d want to fish." Elvis said "OK Tim vamos a pescar." Tim was happy about that. In the lake nearby you can fish for phiranas. I was not in the mood. I was the spectator and the photographer. The other couple was there fishing as well. The girl, Eli, caught the first phirana. I can tell the guys were not happy about that. Soon after Tim caught a small fish. He was happy, but not content since it wasn´t a phirana. Minutes after, he caught a phirana. FINALLY! It was a pretty big one too. But of course Tim wanted another. No luck. No more phiranas for Tim.

Jacob cooked the phiranas for dinner. Tim was happy to eat his own phirana. It tasted like fish, but less fishy taste. It was pretty good, I must say. After dinner the plans were if we wanted to walk again around the jungle, but this time it was pitch dark. The guys said yes right away, but of course me was a little more hesitant. Part of me was scared, but wouldn´t stay behind. So we agree to go for a little bit. Even Elvis said he was scared at night, since it´s harder to see. Great I thought. He instructed us to turn off the flashlights when he did. That meant he heard something and wanted to make sure we could see it and not scared it away. Man, I thought I was going to have a panic attact. Everytime I made Tim hug me and had to cover my mouth not to scream. My flashlight died along the way and all we had was Tim´s flashlight. The other couple had only one as well. Thank goodness Elvis had a good flashlight. After an hour in the dark walking in the jungle, Elvis asked us if we wanted to keep going or go back to the campsite. I immediately responded I wanted to go back, the other girl too. So we did. It was fun and all but I was a little scared. Specially after Elvis told me earlier in the day that the only thing he was afraid of was snakes. He told me the story about the snake Pucara, it´s known to be the queen of the jungle in that area. It´s small, green and fast. It can jump up 3 meters and it can kill you in 15 minutes. Great!

Day 2
We woke up the next morning to a nice rain. It was raining pretty hard. It was kinda of fun, just to watch the rain fall. We had a huge breakfast. Jacob made us rice bread, empanadas and cheese. The empanadas were really good. Since it was raining, Elvis, said we had the choice to make jewelry or walk around the jungle some more. Of course, I wanted to make jewlery. The guys were not to excited about that. They went fishing instead. First, we walked around to find the materials to make the necklaces and rings. It was cool to know you can make rings out of a small coconut. We couldn´t find a big enough coconut for the guys. So after a while we gave up and came back to the campsite. Elvis started making the rings for the girls. It was so amazing how handy and crafty Elvis was. He made a nice ring for the both of. He even edge the ring. He also made us a neckclace just using natural stuff. The charm on the necklace was in the shape of a dolphin. Elvis made it for us. Pretty cool! The guys also had a necklace made. Tim chose an eagle´s claw for his necklace. He thought he was so cool! Making jewlery pretty much took all morning.
After lunch we headed back to town.

I must say it was a great experience. Eventhough we didn´t see much animals it was awesome just to be in the dense jungle. I´ve never done anything like that. I can believe I´m saying this but, I could of stay one more day. FUN TIMES!