Hola todos!!!
The past few weeks in Lima have been crazy.... here what's happening.
I arrived in Lima and quickly went to Cusco... and guess who I ran into!? Mom and Earle! Ok... that was planned, but still. I spent the day with them and had a not very delicious meal with them, but it was nice to see them!
Mom and Earle left, and I went to Puno, the main town on Lake Titicaca. It was just my luck that when I arrived it was the end of Virgen de la Candelaria Festival, aka the Devil Dancing Festival, which is a parade celebrating the victory of good over evil. The parade was huge and lasted for hours with lots of people in crazy costumes, marching bands, oh yeah, and the people who aren't in the parade partake in a giant town-wide shaving cream fight! Adults, old men, kids, everyone. Totally amazing!
The following day, I took a tour of the islands of Titicaca, include Isla Uros, floating islands that are completely made out of reeds. Everything is made of reeds including the actual island, the houses, the boat, they even eat the reeds. Sadly, because it's become such a tourist destination, it's become rather commercial, but still very cool to see. Then, I hung out for a bit on Isla Taquile which is one of the larger islands and quite beautiful. Its population is under 2,000 and they don't really go to the other islands to "make friends" so there is a lot of inbreeding.
After Lake Titicaca, I returned to Cusco to have my last family encounter: Aunt Sam and Paul! We took a city tour of Cusco which included the ruins on the outskirts of town and went to a very cool market in Pesac to buy lots of baby alpaca goods. Softer than cashmere and cheaper! What could be better? We went went to Macchu Picchu and explored the ruins there and heard about how it was found accidentally, and I ditched the family and guide to climb up Waynapicchu to see Macchu Picchu from a birds eye view, definitely an intense hike, but only an hour up, so it wasn't so bad.
Back in Lima, Aunt Sam and Paul treated me to yet another delicious dinner and a stay in the 5 star Marriott. How could they spoil me so and then expect me to go back to the slumming ways of a backpacker staying in hostels, sharing rooms, sharing bathrooms, wearing flipflops in the shower, having no TV, no cable, and eating cheap food? Easily, but I enjoyed everyone second of my time with them along with the accomodations.
From Lima, I made a detour to head south to a town called Pisco. Pisco was devestated about a year and a half ago by an 8.0 earthquake and there are several organizations there helping to rebuild the homes. I went there intending to spend just a few days, and stayed a week. I dug trenches for homes that would use concrete and helped put a tarp roof on homes that are more like glorified huts. The owners of the soon to be completed homes were so grateful, and it was nice that we were able to meet them. I wanted to stay longer and continue to help, but it was time to get moving. Really, I wanted to stay another week because my arms would have been seriously buff, and I wanted to be there when they poured concrete because apparently, it's fun, oh well. But, all of the manual labor was fun... there were cool people and we were all there for a good cause, but I have other cool things that I want to see.
The pictures of me as a construction worker are coming, sadly, we didn't use hardhats or boots, but I know my way around a shovel, pick, and lots of tie-wire.
While in Pisco, I also tried octupus ceviche. A little chewy, but quite tasty! If you get a chance to go to a Peruvian restaurant, you should definitely try it.
Pictures from Cusco and Lake Titicaca:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2368770&id=907196&l=3dc99
Next stop.... the jungle!
Hope everyone is well.
besos!
Lauren
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Bariloche, aka the most wonderful place in the world.
Something struck me as odd upon entering Bariloche, Argentina. Was it the abundance of chocolate shops? No, but I did love that part. Was it the crystal clear lake that I was actually excited abut jumping into? Was it the fact that it was finally bathing suit weather? No. No. It was that there were traffic lights! Yes, traffic lights! Lindsey and I hadn't seen one in what felt like ages, but was actually 3 weeks or so. Can you imagine only being in such small towns that there wasn't even a need for traffic lights? It was sort of a strange realization.
Bariloche! One of the highlights of our trip! We went kayaking, we went hiking, we went to clubs where there were lots of people, we drank, we ate delicious argentine meals, it was fabulous. There was one day however, we had gone out fairly late the night before, and the following day, we decided we were in Bariloche, we had to continue our outdoorsy activities kick. So, in a slightly hungover state, Lindsey suggests we go on a bike ride. There is a beautiful 35 km circuit that we were told was a great half day activity. I am sort of not up for it, but I decide to go for it anyway. I mean, I am a triathlete! I do that distance in between a mile swim and a 10 km run. No sweat, right? Wrong. I was dying, it was painful, I actually got off and walked the bike up a hill. More than once. It was a sad sad day. Don't ask if there are pictures of me struggling, there aren't any.
Anyway, Bariloche was incredible, but sadly, it was time to cross the Argentina/Chile border one last time. We headed to Valdivia, Chile to go the the Kunstmann Cervezeria. Home to our favorite Chilean beer, the Kunstmann Torobayo. After eating a hamburger piled high with deliciousness, we tried every beer they made and even shared a "column" of beer with some Chileans we met, before quickly getting out of Valdivia (there isn't much to do there) and make our way to Pucon.
Pucon, the adventure capital of Chile! However, I had already done many of the adventure activities that they offered (rafting, hiking, canyoning, kayaking, etc...) throughout the last month, so I just focused on one thing, climbing Volcan Villarica. It was difficult, tiring,and at times a bit painful, but awesome. And once we got up there and saw smoke coming out, we got to slide down the volcano. Very cool stuff.
I made a quick stop in Talca to go to the wine country and then back to Santiago. Below is the link to the pictures from January:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2364757&id=907196&l=968e4
For those keeping track, I am clearly behind on updates, I returned from Patagonia nearly 3 weeks and have now been in Peru for a while. Will write more soon!
besos!
Lauren
Bariloche! One of the highlights of our trip! We went kayaking, we went hiking, we went to clubs where there were lots of people, we drank, we ate delicious argentine meals, it was fabulous. There was one day however, we had gone out fairly late the night before, and the following day, we decided we were in Bariloche, we had to continue our outdoorsy activities kick. So, in a slightly hungover state, Lindsey suggests we go on a bike ride. There is a beautiful 35 km circuit that we were told was a great half day activity. I am sort of not up for it, but I decide to go for it anyway. I mean, I am a triathlete! I do that distance in between a mile swim and a 10 km run. No sweat, right? Wrong. I was dying, it was painful, I actually got off and walked the bike up a hill. More than once. It was a sad sad day. Don't ask if there are pictures of me struggling, there aren't any.
Anyway, Bariloche was incredible, but sadly, it was time to cross the Argentina/Chile border one last time. We headed to Valdivia, Chile to go the the Kunstmann Cervezeria. Home to our favorite Chilean beer, the Kunstmann Torobayo. After eating a hamburger piled high with deliciousness, we tried every beer they made and even shared a "column" of beer with some Chileans we met, before quickly getting out of Valdivia (there isn't much to do there) and make our way to Pucon.
Pucon, the adventure capital of Chile! However, I had already done many of the adventure activities that they offered (rafting, hiking, canyoning, kayaking, etc...) throughout the last month, so I just focused on one thing, climbing Volcan Villarica. It was difficult, tiring,and at times a bit painful, but awesome. And once we got up there and saw smoke coming out, we got to slide down the volcano. Very cool stuff.
I made a quick stop in Talca to go to the wine country and then back to Santiago. Below is the link to the pictures from January:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2364757&id=907196&l=968e4
For those keeping track, I am clearly behind on updates, I returned from Patagonia nearly 3 weeks and have now been in Peru for a while. Will write more soon!
besos!
Lauren
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