Mirada! mamá, un turista!!

Yes, a child shouted out to her mother. "Look! a tourist!" I love it.

Today is my second day apart from Kevin, as a productive explorer of Cusco.

I walked to Plaza de Armas which is the main square in this area. I was in search of a market called "Gato" something. I finally found it to pick up some apples and water because tomorrow morning I leave for Aguas Calientes, which is the closest town to Machu Picchu. Everything in Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu is over priced (of course) SO I had to stock up on some snacks and water.
I enjoyed a peach drink in the Plaza overlooking the breathtaking Baroque Cathedral in front of me and to my left at a single glance I enjoyed another massive church ("La Compañia").

After my morning snack and the soon unbearable, brisk, wind chill and THEN drizzle I trekked up the steps to our hostel. The walk up the steps and hill to the hostel is a constant topic in this hostel. Someone, said something to me as I reached the top of the steps and I didn´t understand him and robotically replied "yeah." Him and his buddies were cracking up and commented on how they were barely ready to walk down the steps, but they were definately not looking forward to coming back up in a couple hours. Even when I enter the hostel, people sit in the front area to catch their breath from the steps and high altitutde that doesn´t allow you to catch it.

After reading and chatting with my roommates I was ready for another mini trek around Cusco. I headed over to the main Market just block away from this hostel and next to San Pedro, another sightful church and previous convent (like MANY in the area).
Just on the way to the market I saw...

1. Children performing skits and comedy shows in front of Plaza San Francisco.

2. Locals performing magic tricks for other locals.

3. A man with a MONKEY on his back with local teenagers poking at it and screaming when the monkey reacted with a gentle paw back at them. This same man also had a parrot!

4. A woman selling food that looked like corn on the cob. The woman stored her food on a metal wheel barrel and also had a baby infant on the wheelbarrel next to the food all bundled up.

5. A father with his child inside the market showing a friend his daughter had learned to walk a few steps. As I was looking at scarves I couldnt help but light up with joy and smile when looking at the baby. The father told the baby to wave at me and blow a kiss and I was floating for the rest of the day. I asked how old the adorable child was and only a 1 year 4 month old baby blowing me kisses. ahhh. cuteness.

6. I haggled with a 10-13 year old girl for the price of a scarf as she went back and forth asking her mother how much it was worth. I felt a little ridiculous haggling over the total difference of a dollar or so. I eventually gave her 2 soles more than she quoted me and called it a (wonderful) day.

That's all I can remember off hand for now, but Kevin has the camera so I will document with words in my journal and here.

Kevin is trekking on the original (publically available) Inca trail. I pray he is not sick with whatever he had before he left!

I will leave tomorrow morning at 6am and get to Aguas Calientes 4 hours later. Trek a short ways to a waterfall and wait for Tuesday when I will take a bus to Machu Picchu and again be reunited with Kevin. Haha.

MACHU PICCHU!!!!

Saqsayhuaman or as the Gringo´s say: Sexy Woman

Yesterday we paid about 12$ to take a full day tour to the furthest sites in the Sacred Valley in Cusco, Peru. This included waking up by 8am to be picked up at 8:30.
Picking up passengers all over the town and then dropping them off?? And then picking up a tour guide ? Very funny scenario.





these photos are from PISAC.
Anywhoo... Our first stop was Pisac which included a small but neat market. We were greeted by locals who instantly gave us coca tea. This always helps me with the altitude. We then went to Pisac to visit ruins. These were quite a mini trek to get up to. DO not hold on to the ONE wooden hand rail that extends maybe 5 feet. it doesn´t look sturdy! It appears to have been part city, part ceremonial center, and part military complex. The Pisac ruins might have been a royal estate of the Inca emperor (Pachacútec). It was certainly a religious temple. It has a current running waterway that connects to a well and once the water level reaches a certain point the excess water goes down the hill. Still being used today. WOW!

Second stop. Buffet. for lunch. As our tour guide said "Very important, VIP tour group, our second stop is the most important, the buffet. Do not push your spouses over the cliff to get there. not yet." Silly tour guide who I caught listening to his MP3 player singing "hey, hey, yeah yeah I could be your girlfriend!!"

Second ruins visited: Ollantaytambo. These were more impressive because of the size and layout. I stopped halfway due to illness but met Kevin at the bottom and still enjoyed their running fountain. How are they still running these waterways. I am impressed.





Last site was more of a visit. No ruins. This was at the town of Chinchero. The church there was very historic. Frescos still painted and restored on the walls. Canvas paintings over that. No pictures allowed but I took a sweet mental picture that might last a few more days. The most interesting part of this place was being able to watch a woman recreate the process of cleaning alpaca and llama fur with a tree root that created suds. then strung the fur into perfect threads of string. and create a red dye from a cactus parasite and everything. so we bought gloves here. WHICH I LOOOVE!!! and supported this community town and how much hard work they put into creating goods.



The whole time our guide kept saying. Last person to the van has to buy a round of Pisco sours (alcoholic drink) and he was consistenly the one last to the tour van. So at the end of our trek right after visiting Chinchero, he let us try this anise alcoholic drink which was alright. Anise is a spice very similar to black liquorice. It was nice to try. We also were able to try Chica which is fermented corn turned into an alcoholic drink by all locals, still today. If you see a large tall branch with a red plastic bag at the end that means that house sells chicha!

tasting the anise drink. mini cups.
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TODAY We took a $5 taxi ride up to the top of the furthest but CLOSEST cluster of sacred valley sites. We got dropped off at Tambomachay which was known as the bathing place for royalty. Still running waterways. neat.

We walked across the street to Puka Pukara and no one punched a hole in our ticket (We had to buy a "tourist ticket" for 16 included sites and museums and show our ticket with student i.d.s for each site) This was a small tiny site where apparently a bunch of school children were playing hide-and-go-seek...Imagine playing games in a historical Inca site. crazy!

So all the children - in their uniforms - must be wealthier than the children we see on the streets... They practiced their English with us and said "Hello" "hello!!" and one girl: not thinking we speak ANY spanish shouts from atop the highest rock looking down to us "Hello Gringos Feos!" HAHAHA calling us ugly white people. oh well. Kevin whispered "I´m not white" Then her classmate says "Un SOl por favor" pretending to beg for money. Because a Gringo´s favorite passtime is handing out change to local children? haha.

We walked about 1 hour or more to the next site called Saqsayhuaman or Sacsayhuamán. As the guides like to make fun. This name sounds SOO much like Sexy Woman and it is hard not to pronounce it like that. This site was HUUUGE. The rocks were large and the largest weighs about 70 tons. The Incas worked together to carry these rocks to build this structure. Man, do I feel lazy and unproductive compared to them. :)
We spent the most time here and at the end found out we could walk back to our hostel from here. For a total of a 5 mile walk across all the local Sacred Valley ruins. Neat!!

Cusco, Pêru

I´m here way up high in Cusco. We arrived yesterday morning at 8am after a 12 hour bus ride from Arequipa. We are staying at LOKI Hostel and it´snice here. The only problem is, the hostel is HUUUGE and it´s hard to not hog the computers. there is always a line of some sort.

I no longer have a fever which is AWESOME! I, still, however am only restricted to a very tiny bit of food each day and water with gatorade (ELECTROLYTE!!!)
I´m definately taking care of myself because I can! I don´t have to pressure my self to get to work.I stayed in bed ALL day yesterday and last night. Kevin went out with some people we met last night in the dorm room (10 person dorm room) pretty busy and hard to avoid meeting people. He´s still sleeping because I slept for 14 hours and he came in late last night or early morning. Can´t wait to hear his stories.
I will update the blogand back track a bit about the Colca Canyon Trek. It was beautiful and quite a calm town full of genuine locals.

Condor Lookout. Before the trek...

Colca Canyon Trek.

Day 1 after 9 hour bus ride. Not feeling well... Toughed it out and hiked 5 or 6 hours downhill with walking sticks.



starting the trek


Day 2: Much easier hike. We were able to stop through different towns, see the local school, the local hospital and the area where they celebrate and have a 3 to 4 day dance competition.





a town we stopped in

hiking




in another town a woman who served others corn alcohol and help our guide describe what was in the museum we saw from pre-inca times





before getting to the oasis and right before an uphill hike





the oasis pool we arrived to..
relaxing after a swim and before not eating dinner



Day 3: I had to take a mule up the hill. The third day is uphill only and with my illness and weak knees AND with our time constraint to catch the bus. The mule took me up. But afterwards we met back up in Cabanaconde where I saw many children just playing in the streets while their parents were out at work. Then Miguel took a picture of me with the lady who sells ice cream in Cabanaconde. We had lunch in some town on the way back to Arequipa. We stopped at another lookout point where there were SOO many stacked rocks and another adorable child!

the morning before the ride

the ride




kevin`s photo from his hike

It´s not Coca Cola It´s Colca Canyon

After a night starting at 5pm. I´m pretty sure I had a fever. I think I had altitude sickness.

We are preparing for our 3 day 2 night trek in Colca Canyon. In a few hours at 3am we will be picked up by a bus. Ride the bumpy roads for 5 hours. Hike from Chivay to Cruz del Condor where we will have lunch. from Cruz del Condor we trek to Pampa San Miguel and stay there overnight. The next morning Day 2 we trek or hike to Malata where there is an Oasis and hot springs. We stay the night here. Day 3 we wake up at 5am and hike all up hill. We will being going through the towns of Cabanaconde, Pinchollo, Maca, Achoma, Yanque and Chivay.

Just hangin out in the computer room listening to American music all day. Just finished listening to "Mister Roboto" Kevin and I were laughing the whole time.

Arequipa, Peru

So after traveling from Lima to Paracas, Paracas to Ica and Ica to here. We are currently in Arequipa. We have been town hopping south south and south.

Paracas: We were here for 4 hours and went on a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands and saw billions of birds, sea lions, penguins and more. The cutest and my favorite were the penguins. I´m pretty sure I will be able to put up the video soon!
im on a boat!




penguins

sea lions

Ica: We were here for 1 night. An amazing Oasis in the middle of a sand desert! SO shocking to see this in the middle of Peru. Seriously, beautiful to see an oasis lake in between mountains of sand. Kevin attempted to go sand boarding. I dont know what happened, but in combination with lack of time and a half broken board Kevin failed. He exchanged the board and failed again. I watched and took video :)We left this town at 830 pm for a 12 hour bus ride to Ica. The nice thing is we booked the overnight bus ride so we saved on what money we potentially would have paid on a night´s stay at any given hostel. We slept for the majority of the bus ride but often had dreams the bus was maneuvering around a turn and flew off a cliff (as this is what it felt like) Yes we did fork over more money for the included bathroom on the luxury bus. The video that played on the bus declared a list of given rules the bus had like always fastening your seatbelt. it also CLEARLY states and repeats: "Ürination only in the toilets." hilarious. People sadly did not follow the rules. Because the bus was so turbulent and bumpy when I got into the bathroom there was urine everywhere. I´ll stop the story there.
Kevin and I luckily laughed pretty hard at all the human extrements we were submitted to in the back of the bus. Luckily we made light of it and after maybe 1 hour and the bus attendant literally spraying air freshener we were able to fall asleep with our nose hairs burning. hahaha
here are pictures of Ica

this is the main oasis


this is a shot from our room of the pool and the sand mountain behind!!


Arequipa: Hot here, nice "southern california" weather. and it´s supposed to be winter right now. crazy.
Right when we got off the bus (used the ground bathroom and took forever to fight for our bags) We went out to the taxi area. There were four taxi driver men looking for customers. OUT WE CAME. the one closest to us and by order the one who was SUPPOSED to take us. Saw us. Turned around. A fellow taxi driver says "those are your customers" (in spanish) This man, as he turns away from us says "No me gusta" which means he didnt like us. Man.... Kevin and I laughed the whole taxi ride and tipped him, for actually taking us. hahaha
We are currently staying at Koala Hostel in Arequipa and it´s nice here. We got here so early this morning after our 12 hour bus ride we were in time for the complimentary breakfast. which is always nice. Nap we go.

What are they honking at?

It seems as though the taxi and bus drivers are constantly confused. So much honking. I just realized they honk to get your attention to offer you a ride. Also, in reverse technique they raise their hand out the window and at YOU for you to choose them as your means of transportation. If your shoelace is hanging in the street behind you they will honk. I´m sure.

We actually witnessed a car accident yesterday and in shock the driver who got hit, reasonably got out of his car to assess the damage and the collective bus (WITH NO TIME SCHEDULE TO ADHERE TO) honked for 3 minutes straight. What is the reason? Silly drivers.

Today we took a double decker tour through Lima which was an additional tour included in our original tour to see more Inca ruins. Anywho, on our way to the ruins there was a huge area for drivers to receive their license and the drivers practiced not individually but in a very car filled road in this educational driving center and Kevin and I joked. This is where they learn to honk. It must be true.

In one very fancy restaurant I went in (for bathroom use only) I noticed right as I entered the restroom facility there was a wall filled with hand towel dispensers, soap dispensers and what the heck? A toilet seat cover dispenser. The idea here is that the restaurant owners seek to suit their bathrooms for possibly Americans or Canadians. Whatever countries carry toilet seat covers. But THEIR dispenser was empty. They realized, in our countries we flush paper. This does not work for Peru. Hence, the empty dispencer looking like it knows what it´s doing on the wall by the entrance of the bathroom.

TACA TACA ALPACA

Yesterday we went to Lima Centro.
We saw historical buildings. The most impressive was the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco. This is now a museum and no pictures were allowed, so sadly I have NONE of the inside. The interior included amazing tiles imported from Sevilla, Spain. Ceiling woodwork with wood imported from both Nicaragua and Panama. The dressing rooms for the religious monks had large wooden drawers with personalized 2d etchings above each drawer. They had a beautiful, very impressive two story library where they only used natural skylights to read (to prevent fire from candle lit reading) There was so much more. One notable part of the Convent was the underground catacombs. These catacombs were the burial grounds for about 250,000 religious figures! They were creepy and had skulls and femurs on display throughout the full scale catacomb tour.

On a brighter note we walked through two major plaza´s in downtown Lima. One is the major man plaza and the other is called Plaza Saint Martin. They include large statues in the center and sometimes fountains. They were green with wonderful seating areas.

We got to try cebiche which was highly recommended and rightfully so. With a nice spicy kick it was fresh with a tastey lime base. This fancy restaurant we went to layed the cebiche dish over a sweet potato slice and the peruvian corn (huge kernels). Our lunch for two which included apetizer, main dish, dessert and soda FOR TWO was a total of $7 USD. Incredible deal!

We took a colleective bus there and back which is a whole other story in itself. This bussing system is truly unique!It is a municipal bus, a privately owned microbus or a collective minibus. The driver gets to ONLY drive which is nice because the streets are BUSY and FULL of honking. There is a person who hangs out the bus door which is actuall placed in the middle of the bus. He repetitively shouts the destination of the bus and a few minutes after hopefully succeeding at getting YOU to ride on his bus he collects the fair for the bus ride which again is either 1.5 or 2 soles. SUPER CHEAP! They also pretty much stop where-ever you want to get off. CONVENIENT!

On the way back we tried churros which were too buttery and Kevin tried these tiny hard boiled eggs. the shells were white with black speckles which we later found out were quail eggs. I did not try them, Kevin says they taste no different from regular eggs.

TODAY. no bus required we walked to Huaca Pucllana the only standing Pre-Inca remains. Kevin and I received a private tour in English (it was a slow wed. afternoon) by a Japanese Peruvian. It must have been a 2 hour tour around the remains with all the questions we asked. It was fascinating history.

We walked again to the Inca Markets after our informational historic tour where I bargained and bought an intricately hand embroidered wallet for $2 USD. The work the Incans and locals do to produce these purses, gloves, scarves, wallets and everything is so impressive.

We are taking a break before going to a local restaurant to try some recommended Lima local food. I will try the sweet potato dishes and I will let Kevin try Alpaca and GUinea PIG!! yikes!

Later we were told to try the local drink a "Pisco Sour" happy hour is soon approaching!

Miraflores, Lima, Peru

preincan ruins !!!

Well, the minute we were picked up by our hostel taxi and entered the town of Lima I could not put my camera down. Culture was everywhere. This town is so different from Costa Rica.

Each cube shaped house building has a rooftop floor with hanging laundry. The buildings similar to Costa Rica are painted bright cheerful colors. There are many buildings falling to crumbles and not being repaired.

On our way to Miraflores there was a major reconstruction phase for the beach and unlike San Diego (which usually has roads closed and cones everywhere) Lima had tons of workers doing visible work and repairs and painting buldings. It was nice to see such a huge effort to repair their city.

We passed a neighborhood VERY similar to La Jolla, San Diego and ended up in Miraflores in Lima. Miraflores is a safe town day and night which is comforting!

We trekked to the bank and through the town square. We walked down Inca Indian Market street where there are BILLIONS of crafts, jewelery, fabrics and knick knacks from Peru. It was so colorful and again full of history and culture.

Today is our first day waking up in Lima. We are staying at PIRWA HOSTAL and they served delicious free breakfast. Bananas warm rolls with strawberry jam with coffee and mango juice.

We are off to Downtown Lima to visit churches and old colonial buildings. Iglesia de San Francisco has catacombs too!

Santa Teresa de Cobano ....Mal Pais (Costa Rica)

Well we´ve been in Mal Pais for a few days now.
We are staying at Casa Del Mar which is 500 meters down from Tranquila Backpackers. There were no reviews for Casa Del Mar but we had a recommendation for this place from another hostel. The recommendation was correct. It´s a relaxing place full of surfers. The new owner and his wife are 30 something and live such a chill lifestyle of upkeeping the place (which includes letting their friends live there and clean and fix things in return) The place is FULL of hammocks and it is just SO relaxing here.

The MOMENT we arrived.... it was the first day we had been at a beach without rain so we quickly changed into our swimsuits and swam and layed out. We watched the sunset over the pacific beyond the low clouds and fog and soon the lightning and thunder began. It was all so perfect. For as many people as we see booked in hostels and walking around the town...the actual beaches are SO SURPRISINGLY vacant. Its so different from San Diego.

The crazy thing is the waves, here. You walk 5 feet past the water´s edge and there are INTENSE waves. The first time I got in the water I was confident the wave only a few feet in would be fine for me to walk towards and it pushed my feet behind me like in a cartoon scene ... face approaching the water straight in front of me. I had a great laugh. Good thing Kevin is a trained lifeguard. haha The 2nd day of swimming I also literally got knocked on my behind FROM A WAVE! fun.

Today will be a beautiful day again. I think the rain passed.
Today will include Kevin watching more than one soccer game on tv with the locals and hostel owners. Which means, I get to paint in my journal.

In each hostel there is a little area where you can use the things people have left behind and at THIS hostel someone left a travelers mini set of paints and it surely is awesome!! I´ve been enjoying just reading, writing and drawing. This is the life for me.

Tomorrow we head out to San Jose´Costa Rica, the main city... to prepare for our flight Monday morning at 10AM. From There we are off to Lima, Peru. It should actually be more settling there. In Costa Rica we´ve been rushing to get to every city we could because we had an 11 day deadline. In Peru we are very adamant about not hostel hopping as much and trying to relax and explore one town.

La Catara de La Fortuna

Today we took a taxi to the waterfalls in La Fortuna.
It was a 5 min. drive from our cabina.

The hike was steep and strenuous but only 10 to 15 minutes which isn´t bad. It was 10$ entrance fee so they had a nice path with stone or cement steps that led to different view points and the final waterfall.

The waterfall was gorgeous. It was 70 meters in height and surrounded by mini pools created by rocks and the natural waterfall flow in which we could swim in. We brought our bathing suits but somehow forgot towels? We would have gone in the water if the sun was out. But we sat for 30 minutes and walked around the waterfall area just soaking in the beauty.

We shared a taxi back to town with two girls we met.... who were from Israel. They are taking the same trip out to Monteverde as we are today at 2:30pm. SO crazy how that works. We´ve met people everyday where we´ve been able to travel from one city to the next with them.

We are traveling via ¨"Jeep, boat, Jeep" which is literally that.
Jeep because the streets are hilariously terrible. (Not to mention the road is usually paved for a few meters then not paved. Possibly related to the hotels who fork over money to pave the street in front of their place. Who knows.) boat because there is no other way to get there.

5PM we are now in Monteverde. staying at La Pension de Santa Elena for 2 nights.
This is a great place. Friendly staff. Free coffee. extra towels and blankets. open clean clean kitchen! wooo hoo!