Kelly John Peru Trip
John and Kelly arrived two Wednesdays ago. I gave them a brief tour of where I live, because there is very little to see in Lima, and flew off to Cusco. Kelly found us a hell of a hostel nestled in the hills, and we settled on in. The view was fantastic.
Altitude sickness kicked. We were exhausted from walking up one flight of stairs, and remedied the illness with tons of coca tea. Kelly and I took the opportunity to try to balance spoons on out noses. The altitude as was against us, and we failed.
Cusco is absolutely gorgeous at night. We laid back and ate in a balcony restaurant and watched people walk by and enjoyed the free pisco sours.
The next day I gave John and Kelly a brief tour of Cusco. The lack of oxygen kept us wandering a cruelly slow rate. John and I stopped for a picture with a new friend... the terrifying male manikin that dominates the store fronts of Peru. Then I took them to a local market to try one of my favorite fruit, which they hated, and to see where the tasty food we had been eating originated from.
We bought a couple of bottles of wine and sat back to watch the sunset, chat with Europeans, and play a lot of Shithead. We met a friendly couple, and the girl of the couple was from Andorra. ANDORA! That dinky little country of 80,000 people between France and Spain. What is the likely hood? Equally unlikely, an Oregonian staying at the hostel works with good old Anthony in Bend. What a small fucking world full of Andorrans and Bendonians
We arrived in Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Pichu, after a long train ride. I am not quite sure what I was expecting of Aguas Calientes, maybe a little jungle town out of the ways of the world. What we found was a town with more restaurants and shops than people. The median age of the people there was probably 40… but about 50% of the people were 60+ year old white tourists and 40% where Peruvian school kids on a holiday to there most famous national park. What can you expect for a $200 price tag (for gringos, more like $40 for the Peruvian kids) for entrance travel and room? By the time this picture was taken my tummy was turning knots, a prelude of the fun to come.
For two days I was feeling boated and gassy. After dinner I barfed. A very satisfying vomit, and I hoped that would be the end of the subject of sickness. But no! What ever microbe I got (I have my theories about the identity) I was in for a hell of a night. I spend the entire night shitting hot liquid while simultaneously vomiting into the bathtub. Good thing they were next to each other. John and Kelly left for Machu Pichu at 5 am. I could not feel my arms at this time, and elected to continue vomiting for the next 3 hours rather than see the splendor of a New Wonder of the World. But I would be damned if I missed it all together! I finally managed to crawl to the bus stop at noon, and explored the mountain top 100 feet at a time, crawling in to shady patches behind rocks to fight stomach cramps and hot flashes of sweat.
I ran into John and Kelly. Kelly, the persistent trooper that she is, was having some (less severe) tummy troubles of her own, but managed to cowboy through the day. I am being eaten alive by sand flies in this picture.
On the way back I made a friend. According to John this cat found our room in the middle of the night, and spent hours watching me sleep through the window.
The next day we bussed to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. I was getting over my sickness still, Kelly had a cold and tummy troubles, and John was coming down with both, so we crashed almost instantly. The next day we charted a local boat to Tequile in the middle of the lake. Josh, I sang that Animaniacs song for you. Here is our boat caption.
On the way we stopped by islands made of reeds. According to the shop keep I spoke with, the reeds mats making up the islands are 2 meters thick, while the Lake at this point is 6 meters deep.
Then off to Tequil!
Well it was a long trip. Tourist boats past us constantly and soon we followed the cue of the local passengers and settled back to sleep the trip through.
Taquile was nothing to special, but the views were fantastic and the sunset was amazing.
We found a cozy room in a boarding house, which was my favorite room of the trip. It may very well have been the same house that Hadas stayed; I’ll have to ask her. The bathrooms were particularly interesting. There were not showers or hot water, but I was so stinky by this time I had given up on the idea of being clean. There is no running water on the island, so all water is either pumped or carried out of the lake. The bathrooms had porcelain sinks and toilets, but to flush one had to walk out side to fill up a bucket with lake water from a barrel and dump it down the toilet. The sinks worked on the same principle. Anyways, the host woman made fucking fantastic pamqueques (which is a pancake made with bananas or something).
Left the next day for Arequipa, arriving at 1am. Hugo and Michelle were kind enough to give us a place to crash in Gringo House 2, and to wait up for us. The next day explored Arequipa, which turns out to be the best city I have been to in Peru. The city is bustling and friendly, less polluted than Cusco, and generally less segregated than Lima. I could probably live there for an extended period of time and be very happy. I took John to the square to case pidgins
Latter, we made friends with the pidgins, with the help of 10 packets of pidgin food from the pidgin lady.
We walked down a road to find several men constructing a complex art thing out of sawdust on the stones. John and I discussed the art, and came to the conclusion that they must be planning on burning the sawdust to make an imprint on the stones. We got super excited and watched them build it for an hour before we realize that our idea was, in fact, really stupid. John and I convinced our self that Kelly was mocking us, since it was her job to stop us from latching on to stupid ideas. It turns out Kelly was just as misguided as us, and thought burning the art was reasonable. Anyway, they never burned it, but it did look cool.
We went back to the apartment and enjoyed yet another great sunset.
Looks like mount fuji.
We went off the next day to Colca canyon as a part of a tour group (our first real tour!). Tours suck. Don’t do them. The schedule was drive, stop, picture op, buy stuff, get on bus, repeat. I prefer the confusion and wander of the other trips wee took. Any ways, along the way we paid a few soles for photo ops with llamas.
Kelly loves Llamas
Sean loves Llamas
The canyon was indeed big, but the Grand Canyon is way more impressive. Every few minutes a condor would swoop along the canyon side, but to our disappointment did not make off with any of the many children where were running about. Feel the power of the canyon.
We ended out stay in Arequipa with a good by party for Hugo and Mark, who were heading off to work in Bolivia. We found the best ever cock-rock cover band playing in the Frog Bar. Out Peruvian drinking partners were not nearly as excite d as we were, as we stomped out feet and screamed along with the AD/DC’s classic rock ballad ‘You Shook Me all Night Long’. The next day we flew back to Lima, and celebrated the ending of our trip with expensive Cuban cigars (best I ever had) and cheep, cheep beer. I took care of a $20, 3 year old debt I had to Kelly and Kelly too care of a 3 year old debt of buying me a beer. John and I got freaky with a pole, then Kelly and John emulated the terrible statue in Parque de Amor.
All in all a hell of a trip, and I can’t wait until Ari and Alissa move to Europe so we can have an eastern hemisphere trip. Now, all I have to do is visit the jungle and I will have seen all of Peru! Can’t wait for Anjie to come and explore it with me.
Altitude sickness kicked. We were exhausted from walking up one flight of stairs, and remedied the illness with tons of coca tea. Kelly and I took the opportunity to try to balance spoons on out noses. The altitude as was against us, and we failed.
Cusco is absolutely gorgeous at night. We laid back and ate in a balcony restaurant and watched people walk by and enjoyed the free pisco sours.
The next day I gave John and Kelly a brief tour of Cusco. The lack of oxygen kept us wandering a cruelly slow rate. John and I stopped for a picture with a new friend... the terrifying male manikin that dominates the store fronts of Peru. Then I took them to a local market to try one of my favorite fruit, which they hated, and to see where the tasty food we had been eating originated from.
We bought a couple of bottles of wine and sat back to watch the sunset, chat with Europeans, and play a lot of Shithead. We met a friendly couple, and the girl of the couple was from Andorra. ANDORA! That dinky little country of 80,000 people between France and Spain. What is the likely hood? Equally unlikely, an Oregonian staying at the hostel works with good old Anthony in Bend. What a small fucking world full of Andorrans and Bendonians
We arrived in Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Pichu, after a long train ride. I am not quite sure what I was expecting of Aguas Calientes, maybe a little jungle town out of the ways of the world. What we found was a town with more restaurants and shops than people. The median age of the people there was probably 40… but about 50% of the people were 60+ year old white tourists and 40% where Peruvian school kids on a holiday to there most famous national park. What can you expect for a $200 price tag (for gringos, more like $40 for the Peruvian kids) for entrance travel and room? By the time this picture was taken my tummy was turning knots, a prelude of the fun to come.
For two days I was feeling boated and gassy. After dinner I barfed. A very satisfying vomit, and I hoped that would be the end of the subject of sickness. But no! What ever microbe I got (I have my theories about the identity) I was in for a hell of a night. I spend the entire night shitting hot liquid while simultaneously vomiting into the bathtub. Good thing they were next to each other. John and Kelly left for Machu Pichu at 5 am. I could not feel my arms at this time, and elected to continue vomiting for the next 3 hours rather than see the splendor of a New Wonder of the World. But I would be damned if I missed it all together! I finally managed to crawl to the bus stop at noon, and explored the mountain top 100 feet at a time, crawling in to shady patches behind rocks to fight stomach cramps and hot flashes of sweat.
I ran into John and Kelly. Kelly, the persistent trooper that she is, was having some (less severe) tummy troubles of her own, but managed to cowboy through the day. I am being eaten alive by sand flies in this picture.
On the way back I made a friend. According to John this cat found our room in the middle of the night, and spent hours watching me sleep through the window.
The next day we bussed to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. I was getting over my sickness still, Kelly had a cold and tummy troubles, and John was coming down with both, so we crashed almost instantly. The next day we charted a local boat to Tequile in the middle of the lake. Josh, I sang that Animaniacs song for you. Here is our boat caption.
On the way we stopped by islands made of reeds. According to the shop keep I spoke with, the reeds mats making up the islands are 2 meters thick, while the Lake at this point is 6 meters deep.
Then off to Tequil!
Well it was a long trip. Tourist boats past us constantly and soon we followed the cue of the local passengers and settled back to sleep the trip through.
Taquile was nothing to special, but the views were fantastic and the sunset was amazing.
We found a cozy room in a boarding house, which was my favorite room of the trip. It may very well have been the same house that Hadas stayed; I’ll have to ask her. The bathrooms were particularly interesting. There were not showers or hot water, but I was so stinky by this time I had given up on the idea of being clean. There is no running water on the island, so all water is either pumped or carried out of the lake. The bathrooms had porcelain sinks and toilets, but to flush one had to walk out side to fill up a bucket with lake water from a barrel and dump it down the toilet. The sinks worked on the same principle. Anyways, the host woman made fucking fantastic pamqueques (which is a pancake made with bananas or something).
Left the next day for Arequipa, arriving at 1am. Hugo and Michelle were kind enough to give us a place to crash in Gringo House 2, and to wait up for us. The next day explored Arequipa, which turns out to be the best city I have been to in Peru. The city is bustling and friendly, less polluted than Cusco, and generally less segregated than Lima. I could probably live there for an extended period of time and be very happy. I took John to the square to case pidgins
Latter, we made friends with the pidgins, with the help of 10 packets of pidgin food from the pidgin lady.
We walked down a road to find several men constructing a complex art thing out of sawdust on the stones. John and I discussed the art, and came to the conclusion that they must be planning on burning the sawdust to make an imprint on the stones. We got super excited and watched them build it for an hour before we realize that our idea was, in fact, really stupid. John and I convinced our self that Kelly was mocking us, since it was her job to stop us from latching on to stupid ideas. It turns out Kelly was just as misguided as us, and thought burning the art was reasonable. Anyway, they never burned it, but it did look cool.
We went back to the apartment and enjoyed yet another great sunset.
Looks like mount fuji.
We went off the next day to Colca canyon as a part of a tour group (our first real tour!). Tours suck. Don’t do them. The schedule was drive, stop, picture op, buy stuff, get on bus, repeat. I prefer the confusion and wander of the other trips wee took. Any ways, along the way we paid a few soles for photo ops with llamas.
Kelly loves Llamas
Sean loves Llamas
The canyon was indeed big, but the Grand Canyon is way more impressive. Every few minutes a condor would swoop along the canyon side, but to our disappointment did not make off with any of the many children where were running about. Feel the power of the canyon.
We ended out stay in Arequipa with a good by party for Hugo and Mark, who were heading off to work in Bolivia. We found the best ever cock-rock cover band playing in the Frog Bar. Out Peruvian drinking partners were not nearly as excite d as we were, as we stomped out feet and screamed along with the AD/DC’s classic rock ballad ‘You Shook Me all Night Long’. The next day we flew back to Lima, and celebrated the ending of our trip with expensive Cuban cigars (best I ever had) and cheep, cheep beer. I took care of a $20, 3 year old debt I had to Kelly and Kelly too care of a 3 year old debt of buying me a beer. John and I got freaky with a pole, then Kelly and John emulated the terrible statue in Parque de Amor.
All in all a hell of a trip, and I can’t wait until Ari and Alissa move to Europe so we can have an eastern hemisphere trip. Now, all I have to do is visit the jungle and I will have seen all of Peru! Can’t wait for Anjie to come and explore it with me.