Today unfolded in unimaginable ways given that we only planned to visit a museum. Here goes (no pics today since it is getting late and they take a bit to upload)-
We thought we would try this place for breakfast that had a great vegan option. Well, it was closed so we went to a pastry shop that we had seen before. We had cheese empanadas, Moyra had her coffee and we shared a pastry called "luenga de suegra" "mother in law's tongue." It was a long puff pastry type concoction with stuff in the middle, quite delicious.
Then we went the museum with the mummy Juanita the Ice Maiden. She was discovered in 1995 and was a child about 13 years old sacrificed to appease the gods (the mountains) 500 years ago. She had remained frozen until a nearby volcano spewed ash and melted her grave. We were also able to see many relics from her grave and the graves of other children sacrificed. They were children of royalty, the most beautiful, the most pure.
After the museum we saw that mass was ending at the Cathedral. We asked if we could go in knowing that it was going to be closed today for a saint's day. They said yes, the men's chorus was still singing as we went in. It was a song that I knew (in English) and the entire setting was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes. The cathedral is large and airy and the only cathedral in Peru allowed to fly the vatican flag. I was happy to find the fonts with the holy water and saw people crossing themselves. Imagine my surprise to find the fonts empty. There were police and press outside, lots of them. We couldn't figure out why but Moyra later read that there was to be a protest today. If so we missed it. We decided to pretend that they were all there to see us (except no need for those really big guns).
For lunch we went to a Turkish restaurant and we ran into a couple that we had met in Cuzco. We were all staying in the same hostal in Cuzco. The best part of traveling is meeting new friends.
After lunch we had some time to use before starting a 2 hour bus tour. We sat on the cathedral steps listening to a tuna play music. I first became acquainted with Tunas while living in Spain. They are made up of young men from a certain school and form a group to play music. There are tuna competitions around the world.
Finally, we got on the bus for our tour. It took us to places around and outside the city that we would never have seen. We got to learn more about llamas and alpacas and their wool. We met one llama that made the sweetest little noise any time we started to leave, like a baby. I wanted to bring it home. We enjoyed it so much that after 2 hours (the half tour that we had signed up for) we decided to stay for the whole tour 4 hours. Many times we almost hit cows in the roads, and other cars....crazyness. The top of the bus was open air and we were getting so cold. We finally moved downstairs since it was getting dark and there were no more pictures to take.
By the time we got off the bus we were starving. We tried to find this vegetarian place but it was gone so we ended up at Che's pizza place (as in Che Guevara) and had amazing vegi pizza with green beans, carrots, brocolli, cauliflower, mushrooms, and who knows what else. Moyra had her first Pisco Sour.
We got back here to our hostal after 8. Tomorrow we leave for a tour of Colca Canyon. It is the deepest canyon in the world. We will spend the night in the area, no computers but I will catch you up on Friday. Hugs!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Arequipa and finally some pictures (but not all 400)
Good Evening from Arequipa the White City-
We left Lima this morning with no problems and arrived here at 9:00 AM. Arequipa is surrounded by spectacular mountains. Here is Misti a lovely volcano. We checked into our hostal with is run by Jose. He is probably in his 30s and is a pro a customer service. We are in a cute little room on the third floor with an amazing view of the city and mountains. We also have a rooftop terrace with a 360 view of the city. Not bad for $14 a night including a bathroom in our room and free wi-fi. Once we arrived we unpacked and then went to get money and visit The Monastery of Santa Catalina recommended by Moyra's friend Claire (thanks Claire). It is called a city within a city and was beautiful. We took many pictures. I may try to post some to Facebook later in the week as it takes a long time to upload pictures to Blogspot on my netbook. After that visit we found a vegetarian cafe for lunch. We had the menu of the day which was a salad, bread, huge bowl of soup, rice, fried yucca, a beet, potato, asparagus salad, yogurt, a jello like dessert and a drink for $2. It was an insane amount of food and delicious. It also had a sign that said "No comemos a nuestros amigos" meaning "We don't eat our friends" and it had a picture of people and animals together. There are actually quite a few vegan restaurants here....so nice. After lunch we came back here for a little rest and were delighted to find that the internet works in our room even though Jose thought it wouldn't. We got online for a bit to make sure all of you were ok and then we set off to explore some more. We went to the main square which is also home to the cathedral. It is a hot tourist spot and gathering spot for locals as well. We explored some shops and finally hit the grocery store for yogurt, more Inka Corn (corn nuts but made from the large corn here and so much better than regular corn nuts, Whole Foods carries them as does Food Fight) , and tangerines. We had previously bought a large bottle of water. We are excited to stop taking our high altitude meds tomorrow and hopefully we will not need them again. Both Arequipa and Ayacucho are lower than Cuzco. We were back to our little room a bit after dark. Thanks to Gilli who helped me figure out how to get the pictures to upload. For all of you that are starting to doubt that we are really in Peru at all simply because we used Machu Pichu images from Google here are a few pics that prove we were really there.
Also I have included a picture of a young woman and her baby. She was selling things on the street in Cuzco. The people work very hard here. The adventure continues to be amazing although we miss you all. Stay tuned. Hugs!
We left Lima this morning with no problems and arrived here at 9:00 AM. Arequipa is surrounded by spectacular mountains. Here is Misti a lovely volcano. We checked into our hostal with is run by Jose. He is probably in his 30s and is a pro a customer service. We are in a cute little room on the third floor with an amazing view of the city and mountains. We also have a rooftop terrace with a 360 view of the city. Not bad for $14 a night including a bathroom in our room and free wi-fi. Once we arrived we unpacked and then went to get money and visit The Monastery of Santa Catalina recommended by Moyra's friend Claire (thanks Claire). It is called a city within a city and was beautiful. We took many pictures. I may try to post some to Facebook later in the week as it takes a long time to upload pictures to Blogspot on my netbook. After that visit we found a vegetarian cafe for lunch. We had the menu of the day which was a salad, bread, huge bowl of soup, rice, fried yucca, a beet, potato, asparagus salad, yogurt, a jello like dessert and a drink for $2. It was an insane amount of food and delicious. It also had a sign that said "No comemos a nuestros amigos" meaning "We don't eat our friends" and it had a picture of people and animals together. There are actually quite a few vegan restaurants here....so nice. After lunch we came back here for a little rest and were delighted to find that the internet works in our room even though Jose thought it wouldn't. We got online for a bit to make sure all of you were ok and then we set off to explore some more. We went to the main square which is also home to the cathedral. It is a hot tourist spot and gathering spot for locals as well. We explored some shops and finally hit the grocery store for yogurt, more Inka Corn (corn nuts but made from the large corn here and so much better than regular corn nuts, Whole Foods carries them as does Food Fight) , and tangerines. We had previously bought a large bottle of water. We are excited to stop taking our high altitude meds tomorrow and hopefully we will not need them again. Both Arequipa and Ayacucho are lower than Cuzco. We were back to our little room a bit after dark. Thanks to Gilli who helped me figure out how to get the pictures to upload. For all of you that are starting to doubt that we are really in Peru at all simply because we used Machu Pichu images from Google here are a few pics that prove we were really there.
Also I have included a picture of a young woman and her baby. She was selling things on the street in Cuzco. The people work very hard here. The adventure continues to be amazing although we miss you all. Stay tuned. Hugs!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Getting to Machu Pichu, loving Machu Pichu, and leaving Machu Pichu
Where do I even begin this blog? I guess at the beginning of yesterday. Moyra and I got up at 4:45 which at least for me is not the best time to start the day. We grabbed some breakfast and walked in the dark down the cobblestone streets to where the "collectivos" wait. These are vans that go to certain places and leave for their destinations once they are full. They were just two people short so they were happy to see us. We were the only non-Peruvians as most tourists tend to take taxis. Again everyone was very nice. There were 19 of us in the van....they make the most of their space. We paid about $2 each to go to the train station which was about 20 min away. The driver dropped us off on the side of the road. Luckily we asked where the train station was. He said just go down that way (all in Spanish). It was just a short walk. The train station was very nice and clean. We waited for about 30 min and got on our train. The trains are are very nice and clean. The seats were cushy, they played pan flute music overhead which made the teenagers from Toronto sitting across from us happy to have their IPODs. We were served a wonderful breakfast of prickly pear, melon, watermelon, puffed wheat cereal, and breads. Our silverware was placed on our Peruvian placemats with silver tongs. The ride was incredibly scenic (and soon I will post pictures I hope). Three hours later we arrived in the town of Aguas Calientes. This cute little town exists purely to accommodate visitors to Machu Pichu. We thought (silly us) that there would be signs to buy the entrance tickets and bus tickets needed to get into Machu Pichu....nope, we got off and directly entered a marketplace full of stuff for tourists to buy. It was only after asking around that we found our way to the cultural center. To get tickets we had to show our passports and our name and passport number appeared on our ticket. The bus tickets were sold elsewhere. Finally, after about 45 min we were on a bus headed for Machu Pichu. The ruins are accessible only by these buses. No private vehicles are allowed. The road is narrow so anytime two buses meet one must back up so the other can go. They seem to have a great system worked out although I have no idea what it is. The road was a series of switchbacks getting us higher and higher. After 30 min we arrived at the ruins. There is no food allowed so we checked our snacks and jackets as the day was quite nice. Again they checked our tickets and passports and we were on our way. There were plenty of people offering to be our guides but we really wanted to set our own pace so we declined. The first sign we saw said long integral...well, that seemed like a good idea. Pretty soon we were sucking some serious air. I thought the Incas were rather short but the stone steps they built were far apart and we had a workout. The view was truly indescribable. I did get some amazing pictures that hopefully will at least partially do it justice. Words however cannot. Moyra scattered some of her sister Pebble's ashes there yesterday. Gordon's son scattered some of his ashes there shortly after he died in 2006. What a view they both have. Eventually we took the bus back to Aguas Calientes and had some lunch at a restaurant. We had their giant corn with cheese and a quinoa risotto. We looked in a few shops and finally found a comfy bench in their main plaza. There have been lots of dogs in both Cuszo and Aguas Calientes. They appear to be strays. They just wander around. Strangely and wonderfully enough they don't really seem to bother anyone and everyone seems to be nice enough to them. We made friends with a few yesterday and fed one a cheese sandwich. He was great at catching bites tossed up in the air. The dogs all had their own personalities and were so fun to watch. At 5:30 PM we got back on our train. Moyra was sitting next to a boy who was born and spent 9 years in New Jersey and now lives in Argentina. They talked about soccer and other things of interest to a 13 year old boy. I sat by Daniel a 29yr old cutie from Brazil. He was in Cusco for just 4 days so we compared adventures. He had traveled a great deal and was very interesting. He lives with his girlfriend in Sao Paulo. He has been with her for 8 years and living with her for 3. I told him they should get married. He got a chuckle out of that and said both families are pressuring them. He said he would tell his girlfriend that a tourist that he met said they should get married....funny.
Ok here is where the story gets complicated. We could not get return tickets to the station close to Cuzco. People who hike the Inca Trail also use the train to get back to Cuzco so inbound trains fill up much faster than outbound trains. We knew this already as we purchased the tickets from home in April. So our train took us to a town 1.5 hours from Cuzco. We knew that there were collectivos galore and that we could just find one. Daniel had no experience with them so asked if he could go with us. We quickly found a man and the three of us asked how much. He said 15 soles which is about $5. It doesn't sound bad but we knew the price should have been about 10 with Nationals paying about 7. It is not uncommon for tourists to pay more and we accept that. He would not budge and we were tired so we said fine. Soon we were joined by a couple from Chile, two women speaking French and a young woman that appeared to be Peruvian. He said the van had to have 11 for us to go and then the saga started. At first we waited patiently but after about 15 min we asked when we were going to go. The driver told us there were 4 people in the bathroom that were going with us. We waited...no people. By then everyone from our train was gone with the next train not arriving for 1.5 hours, still this man refused to go. He said we could pay for the remaining seats and divide it among ourselves. He was already overcharging us. Now throughout this everytime he would leave we would come up with storied about what was going on. We (all of us in the van) were laughing hysterically. This man was being so untruthful with all of us. Every person in the van spoke Spanish so it was not like we didn't understand the problem. Finally, after deciding that it would not be a good idea to drive the van ourselves, nor did we want to spend the night in the train station, we ALL got off and found another van together(even though the man had said they were all gone, he was just lying again)...power to the people. We were soon on our way and arrived in Cuczo after 1.5 hours of dark windy roads that were best not to think about. We slept quite soundly last night. Got up this morning, packed our stuff and flew here to Lima, our 5th flight in 6 days. We are now spending the night in an ok hotel somewhat near the airport. We have been told by several people not to leave the hotel as the area is not safe but we are hungry and our small supply of snacks does not sound like dinner.....hmmmm. we have an early morning flight tomorrow to the city of Arequipa. Hugs for you all!
Ok here is where the story gets complicated. We could not get return tickets to the station close to Cuzco. People who hike the Inca Trail also use the train to get back to Cuzco so inbound trains fill up much faster than outbound trains. We knew this already as we purchased the tickets from home in April. So our train took us to a town 1.5 hours from Cuzco. We knew that there were collectivos galore and that we could just find one. Daniel had no experience with them so asked if he could go with us. We quickly found a man and the three of us asked how much. He said 15 soles which is about $5. It doesn't sound bad but we knew the price should have been about 10 with Nationals paying about 7. It is not uncommon for tourists to pay more and we accept that. He would not budge and we were tired so we said fine. Soon we were joined by a couple from Chile, two women speaking French and a young woman that appeared to be Peruvian. He said the van had to have 11 for us to go and then the saga started. At first we waited patiently but after about 15 min we asked when we were going to go. The driver told us there were 4 people in the bathroom that were going with us. We waited...no people. By then everyone from our train was gone with the next train not arriving for 1.5 hours, still this man refused to go. He said we could pay for the remaining seats and divide it among ourselves. He was already overcharging us. Now throughout this everytime he would leave we would come up with storied about what was going on. We (all of us in the van) were laughing hysterically. This man was being so untruthful with all of us. Every person in the van spoke Spanish so it was not like we didn't understand the problem. Finally, after deciding that it would not be a good idea to drive the van ourselves, nor did we want to spend the night in the train station, we ALL got off and found another van together(even though the man had said they were all gone, he was just lying again)...power to the people. We were soon on our way and arrived in Cuczo after 1.5 hours of dark windy roads that were best not to think about. We slept quite soundly last night. Got up this morning, packed our stuff and flew here to Lima, our 5th flight in 6 days. We are now spending the night in an ok hotel somewhat near the airport. We have been told by several people not to leave the hotel as the area is not safe but we are hungry and our small supply of snacks does not sound like dinner.....hmmmm. we have an early morning flight tomorrow to the city of Arequipa. Hugs for you all!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
We love Cuzco!
We had another great day today, so many interesting things to see here. Before I start on the day there are a few things I keep forgetting to post. First, since it is winter here it gets dark at 5:30. It also gets pretty cold (30s-40s we are told). We have two heavy blankets on our beds but still sleep with socks on. There is no heat. Also there is an extreme amount of counterfeit money. Every time you exchange money you have to check it to make sure that it is not fake. People have been so kind teaching us what to look for. Also, I will be posting pictures but since the internet here is in the lobby I don't have time to download the photos. At our next stop I should be able to put some up. Brian bought me a great camera for Christmas with a 12X zoom so it has been fun taking pictures.
I slept for eleven hours last night. I guess I was tired. After we got ready we had our regular breakfast of coca tea and bread. Today we got fancy and added some tangerines and little bananas that we had bought at the neighborhood grocery store. Then we went to the San Pedro Market. This is a huge indoor market with everything you could imagine. The produce is amazing. It kills us to not be able to buy the huge grapes, enormous papayas, and other beautiful fruit. Since we have no way to peel the fruit we will wait until we are living in Ayacucho to eat such wonderful things. They had two aisle of juice stations where women in white coats peel the different fruit you want and put it in a blender to make juice for you. There was a large meat section complete with the smells. I'll spare you those details and we got out of that section pretty quickly. We found more sweaters, scarves, gloves, hats, t-shirts. We have bought some things but don't have much room until we unload books in Ayacucho. Sugar cane is everywhere as are coconuts. This would be a vegan heaven if we had a kitchen to prepare food. We are also in love with the corn with huge kernels and the amazing variety of potatoes. Today we saw some that looked like white mushrooms. We ask lots of questions, what things are, where things are, and everyone is so kind. After the market we went to lunch. Moyra had vegi lasagna and I had gnocchi stuffed with sweet potatoes. It was really good but I'm still getting used to eating creamy things. Tonight my stomach is protesting a bit. After lunch we went to some Inca ruins, very beautiful and a fun place to take pictures. The site was once the richest Inca temple with gold everywhere. After that we stopped at the grocery store and got some food for tomorrow. We have to catch a taxi at 5:30 in the morning to get to the train station in time to catch the train to Machu Pichu. It is a three hour train ride which will leave us only about 4 hours to explore but I feel so thankful to have the experience(along with the other 2498 people that will enter tomorrow). I may not post tomorrow since we leave early and get back late. On Monday we leave Cusco and fly back to Lima for a quick overnight and then off to Arequipa. Besos for you all I hope you are enjoying the journey with us!! Feel free to post any questions or just say Hi, including Moyra's people.
I slept for eleven hours last night. I guess I was tired. After we got ready we had our regular breakfast of coca tea and bread. Today we got fancy and added some tangerines and little bananas that we had bought at the neighborhood grocery store. Then we went to the San Pedro Market. This is a huge indoor market with everything you could imagine. The produce is amazing. It kills us to not be able to buy the huge grapes, enormous papayas, and other beautiful fruit. Since we have no way to peel the fruit we will wait until we are living in Ayacucho to eat such wonderful things. They had two aisle of juice stations where women in white coats peel the different fruit you want and put it in a blender to make juice for you. There was a large meat section complete with the smells. I'll spare you those details and we got out of that section pretty quickly. We found more sweaters, scarves, gloves, hats, t-shirts. We have bought some things but don't have much room until we unload books in Ayacucho. Sugar cane is everywhere as are coconuts. This would be a vegan heaven if we had a kitchen to prepare food. We are also in love with the corn with huge kernels and the amazing variety of potatoes. Today we saw some that looked like white mushrooms. We ask lots of questions, what things are, where things are, and everyone is so kind. After the market we went to lunch. Moyra had vegi lasagna and I had gnocchi stuffed with sweet potatoes. It was really good but I'm still getting used to eating creamy things. Tonight my stomach is protesting a bit. After lunch we went to some Inca ruins, very beautiful and a fun place to take pictures. The site was once the richest Inca temple with gold everywhere. After that we stopped at the grocery store and got some food for tomorrow. We have to catch a taxi at 5:30 in the morning to get to the train station in time to catch the train to Machu Pichu. It is a three hour train ride which will leave us only about 4 hours to explore but I feel so thankful to have the experience(along with the other 2498 people that will enter tomorrow). I may not post tomorrow since we leave early and get back late. On Monday we leave Cusco and fly back to Lima for a quick overnight and then off to Arequipa. Besos for you all I hope you are enjoying the journey with us!! Feel free to post any questions or just say Hi, including Moyra's people.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Cusco Continued
We are having a great time in Cusco (also spelled Cuzco) I really don't even know where to begin. Let's just hope the internet holds out long enough for me to post. At this hostal the internet is off the lobby and the out let is so old that the connection comes and goes. Yesterday Moyra ended up puking for a bit. Once I convinced her that being sick was not a required part of the high altitude experience she rebounded with amazing energy (perhaps its all the coca tea we are drinking). Twice a week Coco the onwer of the hostal invites his guests to sample picso sours in his little bar downstairs. Last night was one of the nights. It was so much fun. Coco made the drinks in a blender. They have pisco, egg whites, lemons, and sugar and a few drops of bitters on top. I'm not a big drinker but these were so good. At one point I asked to see the bottle of pisco. Not only did Coco show me the bottle but then he decided that we needed shots of pisco to see what it really tastes like. Since I'm taking high altitude meds I took it easy. It was fun talking to people from other places. We slept nine hours last night and woke up feeling good. We were happy to have hot water showers and went downstairs for our usual breakfast of coca tea and bread with jam. We left the hostal by 9:30 and proceeded to the main plaza. Today was Inti Raymi (festival of the sun). I have never in my life seen so many people in one place. We sat down on the sidewalk and soon were approached by vendor after vendor. We did buy a few things. People continue to be so nice especially when they discover that we speak Spanish. After the celebration in the plaza disbanded we decided to skip the second part which involved a rather steep long walk with thousands of people. Instead we explored a part of the city that we had not seen yesterday. We found a cute place for lunch. We are finding it pretty easy to be vegetarian here. I'm not trying to be vegan because there is cheese in so much of the food. I have been served eggs in two dishes and have not been able to eat those yet. Moyra and I shared a baked potato stuffed with vegetables. Moyra had a vegi sandwich and I had a spinach crepe. Then we decided to do some shopping. It was so fun. We bought some stuff on the street and a few things in shops. Again the vendors were all so kind and patient with all of our questions. I love all of the sweaters, mittens, hats. Things are so colorful and beautiful. I don't know what tomorrow will bring. We do plan to hit up a large market with food, beautiful produce, and other things. People have told us not to miss it. Ok that's it for tonight. I love and miss you all! Hi to Moyra's people as well! Hasta manana!!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Cuzco!!!!
Eduardo was waiting for us early this morning for our ride to the airport. He told us about fighting with a man yesterday who was attempting to enter his taxi and steal his radio. We left Lima early this morning and took a flight to Cusco (Cuzco). We flew Star Peru which seems to be a very nice airlines. The flight was only a bit over an hour but they gave us a box breakfast of a roll with cheese and meat and a piece of cake and drinks. Flying directly over the Andes was absolutely breathtaking. I was really sleepy but did not want to miss a thing. Many of the mountains looked quite green but as we got into Cusco more and more were covered with snow. The city of Cusco is nestled in the mountains. For you NW people the altitude is similar to the top of Mt. Hood. Coco the owner of the hostal where we are staying was waiting for us at the airport. He and his wife own this place and run it like a home. We have access to the kitchen, can cook if we want. We already had some coca tea (the same plant which cocaine is made of) which is supposed to help with altitude sickness. The owner gave us a crash course in what happens to the body at high altitude. In a nutshell people who live here have more red blood cells which carry more oxygen to the body. We have fewer and it can make you not feel great as you acclimate. We were advised to take it easy today which we will do. Neither of us feel too bad. The medicine makes you tingle like when your foot falls asleep...weird. We will venture out soon to a grocery store for water and to see the main plaza. We have four days here which I expect will not be enough. Tomorrow is the Festival of the Sun that brings people from all over the world. I told Moyra that sun tattoos would be a great souvenir. Time to go for now. I hope this finds you all well. I wish you could see all that we are seeing. Hugs!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Playing in Lima
We have had a great first day here in Lima. Well, it started off with Moyra receiving an email letting her know that one of her flights later this week had been cancelled. I was scheduled on the same flight but received no email. The flight was rescheduled for the next day which meant we also had two hostal reservations to change. Moyra emailed the airlines to confirm her new flight and asked about my reservation. They responded later with "oh sorry, yes her too." All we could do was laugh.
We had wonderful hot showers, got dressed and went out to explore. The first thing we found was a candy store which of course had samples....yum, we tried some plum, chocolate candy...really good. We walked around for a bit and stumbled upon a vegetarian cafe. We went in to explore the menu. The man working there said they were running out of food. Well, we figured that if the food was almost gone it must be good so we sat down. We had three courses, drinks, and bread for $2.90. It was so good. One dish was this amazing quinoa salad that hopefully we can recreate when we get home. We also had a great soup, some type of bean stew with brown rice, linguini with some type of nut sauce. We have no idea what the drink was. We guessed maybe apple juice and green tea mixed. We asked the man if we could pay in dollars. Most places accept dollars or soles. He took our dollars then left to go get change somewhere. When he came back I asked about identifying counterfeit money which is a big problem here in Peru. He was so nice and gave us a lesson and took money out of the till to show us different bills. We left the restaurant and walked around finally ending up in a large grocery store. I love looking at food in different countries. This store was beautiful. There were so many types of produce that I had never seen before. Looking at all the tags was a great way to build vocabulary. We ended up buying plantain chips, Inka corn (corn nuts), chocolate, and bottled water. While walking around we found a bubble tea place. You HAVE to try bubble tea wherever you find it. We asked the people working what flavors we should try, again they were so nice. We ended up with two flavors of fruits from Peru and I have no idea what they were but it was really good. It did not appear that they had jellies so we both had bobas. Finally, we ended up at a souvenir place close to the hostal. Of course I wanted to buy all of the softie alpaca sweaters, hats, and mittens but I don't want to carry stuff yet so sadly it all stayed in the store. We have made friends with Eduardo one of the taxi drivers for the hostal. He will be picking us up at 5:50 in the morning as we catch a flight to Cusco. We are leaving two of our bags here so we can travel lighter for the next week. Ok that's it, time for bed. We are also noticing that the news here is much more graphic. The TV really cleans things up for us at home. Buenas Noches!
We had wonderful hot showers, got dressed and went out to explore. The first thing we found was a candy store which of course had samples....yum, we tried some plum, chocolate candy...really good. We walked around for a bit and stumbled upon a vegetarian cafe. We went in to explore the menu. The man working there said they were running out of food. Well, we figured that if the food was almost gone it must be good so we sat down. We had three courses, drinks, and bread for $2.90. It was so good. One dish was this amazing quinoa salad that hopefully we can recreate when we get home. We also had a great soup, some type of bean stew with brown rice, linguini with some type of nut sauce. We have no idea what the drink was. We guessed maybe apple juice and green tea mixed. We asked the man if we could pay in dollars. Most places accept dollars or soles. He took our dollars then left to go get change somewhere. When he came back I asked about identifying counterfeit money which is a big problem here in Peru. He was so nice and gave us a lesson and took money out of the till to show us different bills. We left the restaurant and walked around finally ending up in a large grocery store. I love looking at food in different countries. This store was beautiful. There were so many types of produce that I had never seen before. Looking at all the tags was a great way to build vocabulary. We ended up buying plantain chips, Inka corn (corn nuts), chocolate, and bottled water. While walking around we found a bubble tea place. You HAVE to try bubble tea wherever you find it. We asked the people working what flavors we should try, again they were so nice. We ended up with two flavors of fruits from Peru and I have no idea what they were but it was really good. It did not appear that they had jellies so we both had bobas. Finally, we ended up at a souvenir place close to the hostal. Of course I wanted to buy all of the softie alpaca sweaters, hats, and mittens but I don't want to carry stuff yet so sadly it all stayed in the store. We have made friends with Eduardo one of the taxi drivers for the hostal. He will be picking us up at 5:50 in the morning as we catch a flight to Cusco. We are leaving two of our bags here so we can travel lighter for the next week. Ok that's it, time for bed. We are also noticing that the news here is much more graphic. The TV really cleans things up for us at home. Buenas Noches!
In Lima
Greetings from Lima! This post comes with a disclaimer. Moyra and I just started taking our high altitude meds and we are feeling pretty buzzy! Currently we are sitting in our room in our hostal both on our computers. It took me about an hour to figure out how to write a new post....something that should have been very easy. My computer wants everything to be in Spanish. Apparently it knows we are in Lima.
The journey yesterday took about 20 hours. Moyra and I had different flights through different cities. I went from Portland to Phoenix to Mexico City. In Mexico City I had to retrieve my suitcase, clear customs, check my bag again, find the train to another terminal, use a kiosk to get my boarding pass since they could not do it in Portland (of course at that point there were only 3 middle seats available), went through security AGAIN, and finally caught my flight which was never announced in English or Spanish. AS it turned out there was only one other person in my row and he moved to a window seat so I had the row to myself...so nice. Once in Lima I cleared customs again and went to find Moyra. When I exited the customs area there was a sea of people many holding up signs for various hostals. I was looking for Moyra not the sign. After about 15 min. I started looking for the sign and found a nice man holding a sign with Moyra's name but no Moyra. He checked on her flight, found out it was late. Eventually she arrived and he took us to a taxi. The driver put most of our stuff in the back and advised me to put my little bag between my legs on the floor. Apparently it is not uncommon for people to smash the windows at red lights and take stuff. Sure enough at one of the first lights there appears a man at my window. He only knocked at the window and the driver said he just wanted money although he was clearly looking to see if I was holding anything. Later another car approached us and the driver made a sign which freaked us out. We got here just fine but things were feeling a bit sketchy at 1:00 in the morning. Our hostal is very cute, we have our own bathroom. Breakfast is included. We had rolls, jam, coffee, tea, and they brought ham and cheese. There was a bowl of coca leaves next to the tea. Many people use the coca to help with altitude sickness. We are just taking the pills instead. Tomorrow morning we leave for Cusco and a huge festival that brings people from all over the world. I'll keep you posted! Carrie
The journey yesterday took about 20 hours. Moyra and I had different flights through different cities. I went from Portland to Phoenix to Mexico City. In Mexico City I had to retrieve my suitcase, clear customs, check my bag again, find the train to another terminal, use a kiosk to get my boarding pass since they could not do it in Portland (of course at that point there were only 3 middle seats available), went through security AGAIN, and finally caught my flight which was never announced in English or Spanish. AS it turned out there was only one other person in my row and he moved to a window seat so I had the row to myself...so nice. Once in Lima I cleared customs again and went to find Moyra. When I exited the customs area there was a sea of people many holding up signs for various hostals. I was looking for Moyra not the sign. After about 15 min. I started looking for the sign and found a nice man holding a sign with Moyra's name but no Moyra. He checked on her flight, found out it was late. Eventually she arrived and he took us to a taxi. The driver put most of our stuff in the back and advised me to put my little bag between my legs on the floor. Apparently it is not uncommon for people to smash the windows at red lights and take stuff. Sure enough at one of the first lights there appears a man at my window. He only knocked at the window and the driver said he just wanted money although he was clearly looking to see if I was holding anything. Later another car approached us and the driver made a sign which freaked us out. We got here just fine but things were feeling a bit sketchy at 1:00 in the morning. Our hostal is very cute, we have our own bathroom. Breakfast is included. We had rolls, jam, coffee, tea, and they brought ham and cheese. There was a bowl of coca leaves next to the tea. Many people use the coca to help with altitude sickness. We are just taking the pills instead. Tomorrow morning we leave for Cusco and a huge festival that brings people from all over the world. I'll keep you posted! Carrie
Friday, June 17, 2011
Getting Ready!
My first day of vacation has been busy! I returned home from our school year-end party yesterday afternoon to an email letting me know that my flight home from Lima to Mexico City had been cancelled. Since the company is based in NY I had to wait until 6:00 this morning to call. After an hour I had a new ticket which now involves a nine hour layover in Mexico City. I wonder what one can do for nine hours in Mexico City? Duty free shops are only entertaining for so long. I made what is hopefully the last trip to Fred Meyer, mowed the lawn, had the car tires checked, went to the bank. I'm used to the girls leaving me but it feels very strange to be leaving them. I feel a huge responsibility to make sure that things are in place for them here at home. Tomorrow I will pack since the girls and I are meeting Brian at the coast for Sunday and Monday. At least if I'm not here I can't obsess over everything I could possible take care of before Tuesday morning. Happy Summer!
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