Here´s what I´ve discovered about backpackers in Peru:
1) Unless they´re from the US, they tend to stay here for anywhere from 1-6 months. And its not just limited to Peru, they´re traveling all over South America. How do they do this? Well, from what I gather, they quit their jobs, max out their credit cards, and hope on a plane.
2) There are a ton of Israeli travelers here. When Thom and I finally sat down with one of them at our hostel in Huacachina, its because once they finish their mandatory military service, lots of them come to Peru. Which is good for us, I guess, because most of them speak english.
3) They smoke a ton of weed. I guess I already knew this from South Africa, but still....they like to play crappy songs on their guitars, smoke weed, and booze it up. They also usually have dreds or at least have an unshaven look about them. Oh yeah, and they´re usually barefoot.
What does this all have to do with my next travel post? Well, just about everything! Day 2 in Ariquipa led Thom and I to whitewater rafting. But, let me mention - you cannot find an underwater camera anywhere in Ariquipa. And, the worst part of it is, if they do have one, they won´t sell it to you. We went to probably 10 shops looking for an underwater camera, and the only one that had it wouldn´t sell it to us. Why? I DON´T KNOW!!!!!
Anyways, we get picked up early and pile into a hippie van, and swing around town to pick up other assorted adventurers. The first stop nets 2 Israeli girls who surprisingly don´t speak any english. The next stop gets us 2 british girls, one of which is celebrating her birthday. And our final stop gets us 4 Americans, although we only talk to 2 of them. They were actually the funniest of the bunch, talking about drinking every night, taking Xanax to help him deal with a tooth ache, and mexican wresting. A short ride later, we end up in this beautiful canyon where the rapids are. Like all rafting guide, these guys all are tanned, have long hair, and like to tell jokes about not knowing how to raft and that this is their first time out. You´d think they´d tell you different rafting jokes in Peru, but you´d be wrong. Before we´re totally ready, Thom and I decide that its the best time to take a piss. Well, we´ve all been in horrible bathrooms, but this one took the cake. I almost wish I had a camera to document it. First off, there´s dried shit all over the floor. Second, there are flies everywhere, and there is just the strongest smell of feces and death all around. Needless to say, that was the fastest piss EVER.
So we get strapped into our gear and reject the use of a wetsuit. Why? Well, in our momentary stupidity, we´re told that the water is 9 decrees celsius. We figure, what, that´s like 55 degress fahrenheit, right? Ahhh...no Mr. Science, that´s a whopping 48 degress. Yeah, that was some cold water. We end up in a boat with the 2 brit girls and the 2 girls from Israel that don´t speak english. The rafting itself wasn´t all that hard, mainly II and IIIs with one IV build in for good measure. Funny thing was, the first 3 that we hit, we nearly capsize and lose the 2 brits downstream. Thom and I were able to grab the 2 Israelis and got them back in, but the other 2 brits were lost down stream. Being the good guides that they were, they tossed them the rope bag and actually saved them from body riding the rapids. After that, the rest of the day wasn´t much to write home about. We did a small cliff dive (maybe 20 ft), which is when I realized exactly how cold the water was. Other than that, we floated in without incident and headed back to the hostel.
Next, you kids get to hear about our climb up El Misti and the hardest thing I´ve ever done. Get excited!!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
I ate a Guinea Pig
Ok, its been a few days, but they´ve been a hectic few days. Let me explain....no no, let me sum up.
First things first....we ate. Get ready for the first picture from Peru, just to make sure you all know that I wasn´t making this trip up. Yes, kids, that is Cuy, otherwise known as guina pig. Yes, I am biting that cuy´s foot and yes, it is starring at the camera with its big toothy smile. As many of you know, I love food and I´m willing to try everything once. Let me first describe how the whole deal was prepared. It looks like they basically take the cuy and split it down its back, much like how you´d split a chicken. However, the head is split too, so basically its jaw is split in two too. Yes, the head is left intact, as well as the feet and hands (I guess its all feet, but I digress). But what was a little disturbing that all its innards are pretty much left intact too. So, we´re talking liver, stomach, intestines, all the way down to its little guinea pig asshole. That was where it took me a minute to carve out all of this out - normally, if this were the US and I wasn´t afraid of pooping all day and night, I´m all for the offal and would have totally ate it (except the asshole itself, even I have limits). Ok, so now that I´ve described it - oh yeah, it was served with a side of fries too, which were surprisingly good - let´s talk about eating it.
Thom and I took an overnight bus from Ica (Huacachina) to Ariquipa. I mentioned before how nice busses were in Peru, but the overnight busses are like flying in first class. First of all, they show movies - I got to watch Just My Luck in spanish (you know, that movie with Li Lo in it...don´t tell me that you´ve never seen it!). But, more inportantly, the seats recline all the way back and they have this sort of reversed foot rest that lies behind your knees and supports your legs, bascially to create a Lazy Boy experience. I totally passed out on the bus and the next thing I knew, I woke up in Ariquipa.
Ok, first things first, Ariquipa is about 2335 meters high, or 7660 ft (at least that´s what google tells me). So, if any of you have been to Denver and experience that most wonderful altitude sickness, then Ariquipa is the mile and a half city. If you don´t know what altitude sickness is, check this out. Well, the first few hours of walking around the city and finding a hostel, I already could feel myself getting a little winded. Thom and I eventually stop into Colca Trek and immediately book a whitewater rafting trip ($25) and a 2 day hike to the summit of El Misti. These are perdy too. Anyhoo, that left the first day of the entire trip for Thom and I to relax and check out Ariquipa.
First things first....we ate. Get ready for the first picture from Peru, just to make sure you all know that I wasn´t making this trip up. Yes, kids, that is Cuy, otherwise known as guina pig. Yes, I am biting that cuy´s foot and yes, it is starring at the camera with its big toothy smile. As many of you know, I love food and I´m willing to try everything once. Let me first describe how the whole deal was prepared. It looks like they basically take the cuy and split it down its back, much like how you´d split a chicken. However, the head is split too, so basically its jaw is split in two too. Yes, the head is left intact, as well as the feet and hands (I guess its all feet, but I digress). But what was a little disturbing that all its innards are pretty much left intact too. So, we´re talking liver, stomach, intestines, all the way down to its little guinea pig asshole. That was where it took me a minute to carve out all of this out - normally, if this were the US and I wasn´t afraid of pooping all day and night, I´m all for the offal and would have totally ate it (except the asshole itself, even I have limits). Ok, so now that I´ve described it - oh yeah, it was served with a side of fries too, which were surprisingly good - let´s talk about eating it.The first challenge was how to break this whole thing apart. It looks like it was fried, and the skin had a really lovely fried fat flavor with an ultra crispy, brittle texture, not unlike a pan seared duck leg or something like that. So, like a chicken, I started with its leg. Its good, kinda tasted like duck but even a little less gamey than that. Maybe closer to pork than duck, but either way, its was good. But like eating any rodent, there wasn´t much meat on the bones. Once I broke into the rest of the body, I was basically eating skin and that was about it. I was tempted to try to ears and maybe try to scoop out the cheeks, but I figured that was really pushing my poo luck, so I just left it. I have this great photo of the finished cuy starring back at me, sitting on top of his bones. Alas, you kids will have to wait for me to get home to see those pics.
After that, we found our beautiful hostel right near the Plaza de Armas (center square) and set off for more adventures....
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Its like shooting womp-rats on Tatooine...
If anyone gets that reference, you´re truly a nerd. I met up with Thom without a hitch, and we immedately left Lima for Ica, then off to Huacachina. Well, when I say we left immediately, we really just said, `Dude, Lima´s not that great. Let´s get out of here and head to the desert.´ Just like that, we hopped into a cab and not 30 minutes later, we were on a bus to Ica. Let me first say, unlike the US busses, the Peruvian busses are 20 times better. They have nice seats, they don´t smell, and they leave on time. Uhhh...last time I checked, Greyhound still took 5 hours to get from DC to Philadelphia and the chinatown busses were still leaving whenever they wanted to.
Driving to Ica is bascially driving through the middle of nowhere desert. As soon as you get outside the Lima city limits, you´re surrounded by desert. We basically saw the same sandy desert for 5 hours down to Ica, with a few villages along the way. What I don´t get is what these people do in the villages - I mean, we´re talking desert here. There weren´t any oil drills, so what exactly do you do there, and more importantly WHY are you there unless you´re trying to hide Luke from Darth Vader or a crazy man named Old Ben Kenobi. Unless they´re all Sand people, then all bets are off...
In any case, we get to Ica which is a hole of a town, and head straight to our final destination - Huacachina. Now, Huacachina is basically a lagoon in the middle of the desert. It looks like it came straight out of Aladdin. We get there at night, and we don´t realize how far out you are from civilization. You just see this lagoon and a grassy area around it, with a few hostels and restaurants. We end up picking the most jumpin hostel and check in - friggin $8 a night. You can´t beat that. Everyone is smoking up in the court yard and looking like smelly, granola backpackers. Don´t get me wrong, they´re interesting people, but once they broke out the drum circle in the middle of dinner, Thom and I both thought we might be a little too old for this crowd.
The next morning we went dune buggying and sandboarding. Now, when they say that in the desert, sand gets everywhere, they mean EVERYWHERE. I still have sand in my ears, and this was almost 2 days ago. And don´t get me started on the sand accumulation in the showers or in my shorts pockets....Anyways, we head out to the dunes, any any vision that you have of the desert is exactly how this little trip looking. Sand....check. Dunes....check. Oasises (Oasies?)....check. Aladdin could have flown in on his magic carpet ride singing about being Prince Ali, and he wouldn´t have been out of place. So, our dune buggy driver decides to take us all over the dunes first, so we´re riding up 100 foot high dunes at 40mph, sand kicking up everywhere, and like a bunch of dumb tourists, we´re loving it. I took a movie of it, but you´ll just have to wait until I load it up on YouTube when I get home to truly appreciate it. We get to our first sandboarding stop, and let me just say, I have no experience on a board, let alone on sand. So like any idiot, I strap in and head down the biggest hill we´re offered. I am proud to say, beyond a bruised and sandy ass, I came out without a scratch.
We get back into town, and head out to check out some bodegas to see where they make Pisco, the national drink. Nothing really interesting here except that they make Pisco (with grapes though) the same way we make whiskey. Funny to think you travel this far to see people making booze the same way. Makes you question the world, or at least makes you realize everyone likes to knock some back.
I´ll add in more about Huacachina, which I loved, but needelss to say, we had a great time. We´re now in Ariqupa getting ready to go whitewater rafting tomorrow, and climbing up a volcano on Monday and Tuesday. Check out Thom´s blog for another take on this trip - www.gogothom.blogspot.com.
Driving to Ica is bascially driving through the middle of nowhere desert. As soon as you get outside the Lima city limits, you´re surrounded by desert. We basically saw the same sandy desert for 5 hours down to Ica, with a few villages along the way. What I don´t get is what these people do in the villages - I mean, we´re talking desert here. There weren´t any oil drills, so what exactly do you do there, and more importantly WHY are you there unless you´re trying to hide Luke from Darth Vader or a crazy man named Old Ben Kenobi. Unless they´re all Sand people, then all bets are off...
In any case, we get to Ica which is a hole of a town, and head straight to our final destination - Huacachina. Now, Huacachina is basically a lagoon in the middle of the desert. It looks like it came straight out of Aladdin. We get there at night, and we don´t realize how far out you are from civilization. You just see this lagoon and a grassy area around it, with a few hostels and restaurants. We end up picking the most jumpin hostel and check in - friggin $8 a night. You can´t beat that. Everyone is smoking up in the court yard and looking like smelly, granola backpackers. Don´t get me wrong, they´re interesting people, but once they broke out the drum circle in the middle of dinner, Thom and I both thought we might be a little too old for this crowd.
The next morning we went dune buggying and sandboarding. Now, when they say that in the desert, sand gets everywhere, they mean EVERYWHERE. I still have sand in my ears, and this was almost 2 days ago. And don´t get me started on the sand accumulation in the showers or in my shorts pockets....Anyways, we head out to the dunes, any any vision that you have of the desert is exactly how this little trip looking. Sand....check. Dunes....check. Oasises (Oasies?)....check. Aladdin could have flown in on his magic carpet ride singing about being Prince Ali, and he wouldn´t have been out of place. So, our dune buggy driver decides to take us all over the dunes first, so we´re riding up 100 foot high dunes at 40mph, sand kicking up everywhere, and like a bunch of dumb tourists, we´re loving it. I took a movie of it, but you´ll just have to wait until I load it up on YouTube when I get home to truly appreciate it. We get to our first sandboarding stop, and let me just say, I have no experience on a board, let alone on sand. So like any idiot, I strap in and head down the biggest hill we´re offered. I am proud to say, beyond a bruised and sandy ass, I came out without a scratch.
We get back into town, and head out to check out some bodegas to see where they make Pisco, the national drink. Nothing really interesting here except that they make Pisco (with grapes though) the same way we make whiskey. Funny to think you travel this far to see people making booze the same way. Makes you question the world, or at least makes you realize everyone likes to knock some back.
I´ll add in more about Huacachina, which I loved, but needelss to say, we had a great time. We´re now in Ariqupa getting ready to go whitewater rafting tomorrow, and climbing up a volcano on Monday and Tuesday. Check out Thom´s blog for another take on this trip - www.gogothom.blogspot.com.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Spanish Keyboards
So I made it. Not much has happened, although my initial, romantic plans for the start of my trip didn´t really turn out. Before I start this post, I will say that these damn spanish keyboards have too many symbols that aren´t in the right place, so you all just have to deal with it.
Let´s see...well, arriving in Peru at 4am didn´t go as expected. I had this idea of going through customs, getting my bags and by the time I´d leave the airport, it´d be about 6am - the perfect time to watch the sun rise on the beach. Alas, it was not to be. Instead, it was an early landing in Peru at 3:45am, bags at 4am, and out on the streets at 4:30. Thom warned me about the cabs at the airport, and told me that he paid about $13 to get downtown in an official cab. Well, of course, the only official cabs I see are asking for $28 and being the tourist, I pay up only to see a cheaper official cab right outside. Damn you Peru!
Peru 1 Paul 0
The cab driver (who spoke english very well) kept saying, are you sure you don´t want to stay at a hostel. Well, needless to say, when I saw the deserted streets, the cloudy skies and the fact that NOTHING was open, I second guessed my trip to the beach. Instead, I got a room at a fairly nice hotel and went watched tv. I will say though, that having 100 cable channels was pretty awesome. Between all of the Peruvian movie channels, I had a virtual Saturday afternoon TNT lineup - I caught the end of American Beauty and the middle of Forest Gump. All I needed was to see Shawshank Redemption or the Green Mile and I would have been right back at home. I´ll give Peru a half point on that one.
Peru 1.5 Paul 0
Looks like I´ll have to bargin extra hard for that alpaca sweater to make up for it...
Funny story before I end this boring post - I´m typing up an email to my parents, and Thom Googlechats me from an internet cafe a block from here. Yea technology!
Ok, I´m off to find Thom and actually leave my hotel....
Let´s see...well, arriving in Peru at 4am didn´t go as expected. I had this idea of going through customs, getting my bags and by the time I´d leave the airport, it´d be about 6am - the perfect time to watch the sun rise on the beach. Alas, it was not to be. Instead, it was an early landing in Peru at 3:45am, bags at 4am, and out on the streets at 4:30. Thom warned me about the cabs at the airport, and told me that he paid about $13 to get downtown in an official cab. Well, of course, the only official cabs I see are asking for $28 and being the tourist, I pay up only to see a cheaper official cab right outside. Damn you Peru!
Peru 1 Paul 0
The cab driver (who spoke english very well) kept saying, are you sure you don´t want to stay at a hostel. Well, needless to say, when I saw the deserted streets, the cloudy skies and the fact that NOTHING was open, I second guessed my trip to the beach. Instead, I got a room at a fairly nice hotel and went watched tv. I will say though, that having 100 cable channels was pretty awesome. Between all of the Peruvian movie channels, I had a virtual Saturday afternoon TNT lineup - I caught the end of American Beauty and the middle of Forest Gump. All I needed was to see Shawshank Redemption or the Green Mile and I would have been right back at home. I´ll give Peru a half point on that one.
Peru 1.5 Paul 0
Looks like I´ll have to bargin extra hard for that alpaca sweater to make up for it...
Funny story before I end this boring post - I´m typing up an email to my parents, and Thom Googlechats me from an internet cafe a block from here. Yea technology!
Ok, I´m off to find Thom and actually leave my hotel....
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
The night before...
For the first time EVER, I'm actually ready to go. Well, that's not totally true....
This:
And this:
Has to fit in this:
Yeah, I don't know either....
For my last night at home, I'll be stuffing my bag and watching the Shield. Yeah, I really am that exciting. See you all in Peru!
And this:
Has to fit in this:
Yeah, I don't know either....
For my last night at home, I'll be stuffing my bag and watching the Shield. Yeah, I really am that exciting. See you all in Peru!
Monday, May 7, 2007
T-Minus 2 days...
...Until I depart for Peru. Yes kids, its that time around my house where I try to spend as much time with my girlfriend as possible, squeeze a call into my parents, and pack up 12 pairs of socks into Ziplock bag at 7:00am while watching 24 (that's my morning!).
I'm both excited and nervous - obviously, I'm excited for spending 10 days around Peru with Thom, trying to be as scrubby as possible. But nervous because I took French in high school, when I really should have piled into Mr. DeMeo's Spanish class (before he got fired). I spent the waning hours last night laying in bed while Heather taught me how to count in Spanish. Plus, I haven't traveled to a 'developing' nation since I came back from Africa 5 years ago, so my sense of adventure may be a little blunted. We'll see how I handle the first few hours in Lima...
More to come later, but for now, check this out to see more granola folks like I'm going to be, and to see the other places that I'll be heading to.
I'm both excited and nervous - obviously, I'm excited for spending 10 days around Peru with Thom, trying to be as scrubby as possible. But nervous because I took French in high school, when I really should have piled into Mr. DeMeo's Spanish class (before he got fired). I spent the waning hours last night laying in bed while Heather taught me how to count in Spanish. Plus, I haven't traveled to a 'developing' nation since I came back from Africa 5 years ago, so my sense of adventure may be a little blunted. We'll see how I handle the first few hours in Lima...
More to come later, but for now, check this out to see more granola folks like I'm going to be, and to see the other places that I'll be heading to.
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