Hola!
Back in Lima and staying at the Flying Dog Hostel, which is very clean and quite nice. (WAYY better than the last spot we stayed here..) We went dorm style rooms and were lucky enough to get a bunk bed without reservation ahead of time! And once the toilet flooded and left an inch of water outside the door which Nik splashed through without hesitation. HAHA. Then a man ¨cleaned it up¨with a mop and bucket and there was still an inch of water next to my bed, which is where we accidentally dumped a pile of chips. Gross. Soggy chips. There´re still there right now.
To celebrate we went out and got a few drinks with three other people from our hostel...two 23yr olds from Holland and one roughly 45(?give or take 3yrs?)yr old from Florida. It was really fun and we learned two games, one called Hello bishop, which I will try to bring back to EEUU.
A few highlights of the night..
*After introducing themselves to us, Nik and I almost simultaneously turn to each other to get secret clarification of one of their names...IS THAT BOY´S NAME...HAM?? (it was not.)
*One of the boys kept addressing us as ¨girl.¨ I´m not sure why, but I found it hilarious every time... It´s your turn girl! or You have to drink girl!
* The word for burp in dutch is the same as the word for farmer. (knowledge points)
*Long conversation about showers in Holland. Not gonna go into it but I´m now under the impression that families and friends shower TOGETHER in Holland. All the time.
Other than that we´ve spent most of our time in Lima planning the next part of our trip and doing nothing. We walked a long way today and I ate a hotdog for lunch. I think our old travelling companions would be proud at how far we walked in place of getting a taxi. It is cold and I´m concerned for BA, since it is winter there and I have no winter clothing.
Also, one more thing about LIMA. THE MEN HERE SUCK AND ARE GROSS. We are sick of the kissy sounds and gross greetings. GET A LIFE YOU IDIOT MEN. plus YOU´RE OLD so why do you even BOTHER??
We miss you all and are excited to come back and see you though this next part of our trip should be extra fun...tango lessons, world wonders and cheap pizza (or so I´ve heard.)
This post was more boring than I meant it to be..oh well, it was at the very least informative.
Neat-o Burrito,
Kelsey
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
pHOTO jOURNAL
SUCCESS!!! MACHU PICCHUUUUU!
Martin! The porter/chef who cooked us gourmet meals along the trail!
Kelsey´s hilarious makeshift blister remedy.
Truck on fire at the bus terminal in Chimbote, Peru...ghetto
Allie, Mikhail, Pierce and Peter At the beach in Mancora, stop number 1 on the whirlwind journey
Less Money, Mo´ Problems in Peru
So WE DID IT!!! WE SURVIVED THE INCA TRAIL and have some neat Apus Peru (our trekking company) tshirts, some massive blisters, and atrophying calf muscles to show for it :) Those of you that thought our two out of shape butts would never make it were almost right, but still..WRONG! To be honest, yeah it was a challenge, but totally not impossible considering we had 9 tiny peruvian men carring all of our crap (over 100lbs per porter) plus they would sprint past us to all of our camp sites where they´d set up a fancy dinner tent and cook us gourmet meals, ballin.
Highlights Include:
-The name of our guide: Big Willy
-Big Willy´s magic potions which involved rubbing something that smelled like teatree oil all over kelsey´s altitude sick head. greasy. and then clapping alot and making her smell his hands.
- Pooping in little holes in the ground.
- Unbelievably beautiful, clear starry nights
- The porters getting a little too close for comfort when thanking us for the generous tips (accidental boob squeeze?)
- Porters baked cake for mikhail´s birthday...how do you even do that in the woods
- Making friends (or enemies) through song: being recognized by the other 800 people hiking along the trail as the girls who sing (everything from motown medleys to showtunes) to keep themselves from jumping off the cliffs.
-abSURD blisters: a few days before hiking the inca trail we hiked a mountain in Huaraz national park to practice and acclimate. Unfortunately all it did for Kels was give her MASSIVE MOON CRATER BLISTERS on the backs of her ankles due to the new hiking boots
- Kelséy´s makeshift attempt to fix the blister problem by wearing one venus (4$ ecuadorian style chuck taylor) and one hiking shoe
The Ancient City was all we expected it to be and more, though our sheer exhaustion after the four day hike led to a midday machu picchu nap and yoga session. We also saw many bird spirits.
Since then we saw the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, man made islands constructed of reeds where entire communities have lived for hundreds of years, originally started as a way of evading Incan and Spanish conquerers...ingenious!
We´ve spent the last few days in the lovely little colonial city of Arequipa, Peru, catching our breath and trying to plan the next leg of our trip: some charms of the city--delicious alpaca steaks and lovely christmas themed tablecloths at our cozy hostal. Also, they sell candy (mojjjey???) covered skewered strawberries here, like apples at a church bazaar but better!
Last night we decided to nurture our culture craving souls with a seemingly highly regarded and well advertised argentinian ballet that turned out to be a live, amateur, soft core porn. GREAT. It would have been less awkward if i hadn´t graciously offered to buy an extra ticket for a lonesome 31 yr old civil rights lawyer who had just arrived in the city and was also staying in our hostal......
So now, our friends have gone, and the two of us broke college students are trying to figure out how the heck to get all the way to buenos aires without having to live on teh streets when we get there... suggestions would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
off to lima to hitchhike back down south,
CATCH YOU ON THE FLIP SIDE!!!
Highlights Include:
-The name of our guide: Big Willy
-Big Willy´s magic potions which involved rubbing something that smelled like teatree oil all over kelsey´s altitude sick head. greasy. and then clapping alot and making her smell his hands.
- Pooping in little holes in the ground.
- Unbelievably beautiful, clear starry nights
- The porters getting a little too close for comfort when thanking us for the generous tips (accidental boob squeeze?)
- Porters baked cake for mikhail´s birthday...how do you even do that in the woods
- Making friends (or enemies) through song: being recognized by the other 800 people hiking along the trail as the girls who sing (everything from motown medleys to showtunes) to keep themselves from jumping off the cliffs.
-abSURD blisters: a few days before hiking the inca trail we hiked a mountain in Huaraz national park to practice and acclimate. Unfortunately all it did for Kels was give her MASSIVE MOON CRATER BLISTERS on the backs of her ankles due to the new hiking boots
- Kelséy´s makeshift attempt to fix the blister problem by wearing one venus (4$ ecuadorian style chuck taylor) and one hiking shoe
The Ancient City was all we expected it to be and more, though our sheer exhaustion after the four day hike led to a midday machu picchu nap and yoga session. We also saw many bird spirits.
Since then we saw the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, man made islands constructed of reeds where entire communities have lived for hundreds of years, originally started as a way of evading Incan and Spanish conquerers...ingenious!
We´ve spent the last few days in the lovely little colonial city of Arequipa, Peru, catching our breath and trying to plan the next leg of our trip: some charms of the city--delicious alpaca steaks and lovely christmas themed tablecloths at our cozy hostal. Also, they sell candy (mojjjey???) covered skewered strawberries here, like apples at a church bazaar but better!
Last night we decided to nurture our culture craving souls with a seemingly highly regarded and well advertised argentinian ballet that turned out to be a live, amateur, soft core porn. GREAT. It would have been less awkward if i hadn´t graciously offered to buy an extra ticket for a lonesome 31 yr old civil rights lawyer who had just arrived in the city and was also staying in our hostal......
So now, our friends have gone, and the two of us broke college students are trying to figure out how the heck to get all the way to buenos aires without having to live on teh streets when we get there... suggestions would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
off to lima to hitchhike back down south,
CATCH YOU ON THE FLIP SIDE!!!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
a sleepy time in cusco
hello all!
so TOMORROW at 6am we start the inca trail! craziness...but other than that we´ve been trying to relax here in cusco. here´s a brief update of our trip
1. we decided to fly into cusco and what a good decision..turns out people were protesting so intensely (the govt wants to privatize water but the farmers disagree) that roads were blocked. the guys we´re travelling with met girls who had to walk 35km into cusco because their bus was overtaken by protesters who kicked everyone off and then stole their toothpaste in order to write on the side of the bus. interesting.
2. at the beginning of the flight, when they were giving annoucements, nikki was doing something funny that caused me to laugh. the laugh came out as a sort of snort-cough which sounded kind of gross. the two people in front of me turned around and glared and i had no idea why. turns out, i cough-laughed right after the swine flu announcement. i felt like a jerk.
3. we´ve been feeling pretty under-the-weather since being here and actually spent the entire day sleeping yesterday. luckilly, we´re in a really nice hostel that is clean and is a charity that helps orphans in peru. doubly good. let´s just hope that nik´s crazy stomach pains go away. i called my parents for advice and it seems like it is NOT apendicitis due to the quiz my mom gave me for it. we actually slept about 34 hours alltogether.
4. today we went shopping and it was quite nice. i bought my nana the cutest hat that i hope she will wear. if she doesn´t want it, i will gladly take it.
5. with ease we´ve been finding veggie restaurants for allie, hooray!
we love you, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on the next leg of our trip...mountain climbing with no pants!
so TOMORROW at 6am we start the inca trail! craziness...but other than that we´ve been trying to relax here in cusco. here´s a brief update of our trip
1. we decided to fly into cusco and what a good decision..turns out people were protesting so intensely (the govt wants to privatize water but the farmers disagree) that roads were blocked. the guys we´re travelling with met girls who had to walk 35km into cusco because their bus was overtaken by protesters who kicked everyone off and then stole their toothpaste in order to write on the side of the bus. interesting.
2. at the beginning of the flight, when they were giving annoucements, nikki was doing something funny that caused me to laugh. the laugh came out as a sort of snort-cough which sounded kind of gross. the two people in front of me turned around and glared and i had no idea why. turns out, i cough-laughed right after the swine flu announcement. i felt like a jerk.
3. we´ve been feeling pretty under-the-weather since being here and actually spent the entire day sleeping yesterday. luckilly, we´re in a really nice hostel that is clean and is a charity that helps orphans in peru. doubly good. let´s just hope that nik´s crazy stomach pains go away. i called my parents for advice and it seems like it is NOT apendicitis due to the quiz my mom gave me for it. we actually slept about 34 hours alltogether.
4. today we went shopping and it was quite nice. i bought my nana the cutest hat that i hope she will wear. if she doesn´t want it, i will gladly take it.
5. with ease we´ve been finding veggie restaurants for allie, hooray!
we love you, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on the next leg of our trip...mountain climbing with no pants!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
updizzle.
Not too easy to keep this thang updated without internet. This is the first time i´ve had internet since the start of our adventure (kels had a sec for a s hort post a few nights ago). I´ll try to give you a short play by play of what weve done so far:
2 days in mancora, sweet beach in northern peru, where we mostly just layed around getting sunburned. Pierce was very excited when he found us a 5$ hostal on the beach, what a GREAT DEAL!!! What he didnt realize was that kelsey´s bed was infested by ants, there would be a cockroach in our toilet or, my personal favorite, that ocean water was pumped directly into our shower--how refreshing!! Actually my hair turned into one giant dreadlock from that. it was sort of gross. we did find a nice vegitarian restaurant where i hastily orded the hummus which, obviously, could never live up to moms but was a nice latino-style attempt. From there we took a bus to Chimbote, and from Chimbote a connecting bus to Huaraz. This portion of travel was the most treaturous and the biggest mishap of the trip yet. Here they have busses they refer to as ¨bus camas¨(cama in spanish means bed). They advertise luxurious leather seats that recline completely and charge a pretty penny. Knowing the trip would be at least 14 hours (it turned out to be 24) we coughed up the dough only to find out we´d been SCAMMED. Not a BUS CAMA AT ALL. BUS TRASH CAN IS MORE LIKE IT. lowest ceilings ever, the seats not only didnt recline into beds, they pretty much leaned forward. Also, no windows, it was suffocating. We arrived inChimbote in the am around 6 to see a giant 18 wheeler on fire in the bus terminal. Next we bussed to national park Huaraz which took about 10 hours and a bus filled with crates of chickens. I can confidently say that These were the most death defying switchback mountain roads i´ve seen yet in south america. Barreling down A one lane unpaved dirt road teetering over an ominous gorge was enough to make me want to poop my pants, but i did see some amazing views and have some cool pics ill try to load when i get a chance. Along the way we stopped at a shack stuck to the side of a mountain for ´lunch´. Allie, our vegetarian friend, asked for a platter without meat. No problem, the indigenous lady promised us, and promptly gave her a heaping helping of cua cua, a stew made of cow innards and potatos. YUM.
After that we finally got to huaraz where we st ayed in a beautiful hostal with nice hot baths and comfy beds. After a good nights sleep we did a crazy hike up to mt. churup to see lake churup at an altitude of around 13 to 14,000 ft. The atltiude was tough but we took breaks and ate snacks until after a few hours we came to a treacherous mountain scaling portion that required 10000% arm strength that, to be frank, i just aint got. Us three girls decided to wait while the boys hap hazardly, sans ropes or safety nets, attempted the climb when, of course, it started to hail and thunder. Obviously us three decided to make a break for it and turned around. Even though we never saw the lake we did see the snowy peak from the hike and it was really beauitful. Overall it was about 7 or 8 hours of hiking. I´ve never been so exhausted or full of achies but it was a good day. Since then we got a real bus cama and came to Lima where we are now. Something awkward happened though in the bus station where, in order to board, they forced us to give our fignerprints. Some warning thing went off in my head and i imagined my parents telling me some lawyer stuff about why it was a bad idea and i freaked out at the woman and told her i wouldn´t do it. she grabbed my hand jabbed it in the inkpad and with only a moment left to think, i smeared my print messily across the paper, grabbed my ticket and sprinted away. Thinking back i´m lucky i didnt end up in a Peruvian jail, i realize i didnt follow my moms advice: KALP (KEEP A LOW PROFILE). Dont worry mom, i wont let you down in the future! That´s it for now, tomorrow we fly to Cuzco where we´ll be for two days before we finally start the four day hike to Machu Picchu on friday!! Til then,
Nik
2 days in mancora, sweet beach in northern peru, where we mostly just layed around getting sunburned. Pierce was very excited when he found us a 5$ hostal on the beach, what a GREAT DEAL!!! What he didnt realize was that kelsey´s bed was infested by ants, there would be a cockroach in our toilet or, my personal favorite, that ocean water was pumped directly into our shower--how refreshing!! Actually my hair turned into one giant dreadlock from that. it was sort of gross. we did find a nice vegitarian restaurant where i hastily orded the hummus which, obviously, could never live up to moms but was a nice latino-style attempt. From there we took a bus to Chimbote, and from Chimbote a connecting bus to Huaraz. This portion of travel was the most treaturous and the biggest mishap of the trip yet. Here they have busses they refer to as ¨bus camas¨(cama in spanish means bed). They advertise luxurious leather seats that recline completely and charge a pretty penny. Knowing the trip would be at least 14 hours (it turned out to be 24) we coughed up the dough only to find out we´d been SCAMMED. Not a BUS CAMA AT ALL. BUS TRASH CAN IS MORE LIKE IT. lowest ceilings ever, the seats not only didnt recline into beds, they pretty much leaned forward. Also, no windows, it was suffocating. We arrived inChimbote in the am around 6 to see a giant 18 wheeler on fire in the bus terminal. Next we bussed to national park Huaraz which took about 10 hours and a bus filled with crates of chickens. I can confidently say that These were the most death defying switchback mountain roads i´ve seen yet in south america. Barreling down A one lane unpaved dirt road teetering over an ominous gorge was enough to make me want to poop my pants, but i did see some amazing views and have some cool pics ill try to load when i get a chance. Along the way we stopped at a shack stuck to the side of a mountain for ´lunch´. Allie, our vegetarian friend, asked for a platter without meat. No problem, the indigenous lady promised us, and promptly gave her a heaping helping of cua cua, a stew made of cow innards and potatos. YUM.
After that we finally got to huaraz where we st ayed in a beautiful hostal with nice hot baths and comfy beds. After a good nights sleep we did a crazy hike up to mt. churup to see lake churup at an altitude of around 13 to 14,000 ft. The atltiude was tough but we took breaks and ate snacks until after a few hours we came to a treacherous mountain scaling portion that required 10000% arm strength that, to be frank, i just aint got. Us three girls decided to wait while the boys hap hazardly, sans ropes or safety nets, attempted the climb when, of course, it started to hail and thunder. Obviously us three decided to make a break for it and turned around. Even though we never saw the lake we did see the snowy peak from the hike and it was really beauitful. Overall it was about 7 or 8 hours of hiking. I´ve never been so exhausted or full of achies but it was a good day. Since then we got a real bus cama and came to Lima where we are now. Something awkward happened though in the bus station where, in order to board, they forced us to give our fignerprints. Some warning thing went off in my head and i imagined my parents telling me some lawyer stuff about why it was a bad idea and i freaked out at the woman and told her i wouldn´t do it. she grabbed my hand jabbed it in the inkpad and with only a moment left to think, i smeared my print messily across the paper, grabbed my ticket and sprinted away. Thinking back i´m lucky i didnt end up in a Peruvian jail, i realize i didnt follow my moms advice: KALP (KEEP A LOW PROFILE). Dont worry mom, i wont let you down in the future! That´s it for now, tomorrow we fly to Cuzco where we´ll be for two days before we finally start the four day hike to Machu Picchu on friday!! Til then,
Nik
Sunday, May 17, 2009
24 hour travel
hey people,
just wanted to keep you updated real quick on our one month adventure... today after HONEST TO GOD 24 HOURS OF STRAIGHT TRAVEL we landed in huaraz, peru. we´re staying at a really nice hostel and got upgraded for FREE to this bangarang room. also we had delicious indian food for dinner tonight.
tomorrow i´ll try to post photos of the ridiculously awesome views we had on the last 8hour or rather, 12 hour portion of our trip.
tomorrow we´re off to see a lake, a 3 hour hike in order to practice for the big mama of all hikes, MP!! tomorrow evening a bus to lima.
just wanted to keep you updated real quick on our one month adventure... today after HONEST TO GOD 24 HOURS OF STRAIGHT TRAVEL we landed in huaraz, peru. we´re staying at a really nice hostel and got upgraded for FREE to this bangarang room. also we had delicious indian food for dinner tonight.
tomorrow i´ll try to post photos of the ridiculously awesome views we had on the last 8hour or rather, 12 hour portion of our trip.
tomorrow we´re off to see a lake, a 3 hour hike in order to practice for the big mama of all hikes, MP!! tomorrow evening a bus to lima.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
the monster, PARTIN
he does things like this on his own without prompting. he knows how to capture hearts.
i think my parents could relate to this photo
sometimes i give him a taste of his own medicine
in my house lives an adorable little two year old named martin. sometimes we call him isaac. and SOMETIMES we call him partin, because he can't pronounce m-sounds and instead says m's as p's. its hilarious and he's cute. he is slightly disastrous. sometimes we make him dance for water, Martin--dance and we'll give you water! hahaha. and he does and its cute.
and once when i came out of my room in the morning he was eating butter out of the container with a fork. his mom was horrified when i told her.
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