Monday, September 21, 2009
Canyonero!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Could I have another PISS-co sour?
So we booked an extra day at the hostel, but after checking out our travel possibilities it meant that we needed to wake up at 2 30 am to catch a 4:15 am bus. We decided to take the Cruz Del Sur which is supposedly peru´s most reputable (and expensive bus). We show up at Paracas with no plans or booking to see the Ballestas islands packed with birds, even penquins, and sea lions. We hop of the bus infront of a hotel and get on a tour for only 2 more dollars than the guide book said it was. They crammed some 30 or 36 of us on a tiny boat and took us out to see the animals. We then returned and hopped on a bus to Ica. In ica we took a cab ride to lake Huachina, a desert oasis surrounded by huge san dunes. The hostel we stayed at had a pool. That night we went to their dinner with all you can drink for an hour and a half. This really turned into about and hour or so with the british, australian, and irish folk behaving as predicted. It was enjoyable to try a pisco sour, but not to slam them in all you can drink manner as the egg got super heavy. Also fun was since it was mostly people who come from countries with a Union Jack on their flag, they spoke no spanish and refered to the pisco sours as ´PISS-co´sours. appetizing! The next day i got up and attemped to sand board down the dunes on their home made board, the first of which had bad bindings. It didn´t really work out as well as i hoped but i told myself if i had a real snowboard it would be ok. We hung around the bus all day and took a 8:30 pm bus to Arequipa last night. When we got in the bus it reeked of BO and we got the seats infront of the bathroom. I´m not sure if it was the speedy hair pin turns or the smell of human excrement, but needless to say i couldn´t sleep very well on that bus.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
You guys took my birthday money, got me arrested, sent to Miami with no way home except to take down the country of Peru - and I'm being a dick?
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Thanks to Mayor Simpson, now we’re ALL taking golden showers!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Sunny day at the beach at last.
After our monteverde stop, we once again have difficulties getting up and making our 6 am bus to puntarenas. There we hopped on a ferry, then onto another bus. We then arrive at a town and decide to finally splurge and take a taxi down the dirt road to mal pais and santa teresa. Here we go to a recommended place Casa Del Mar owned by a Spaniard and his wife. Most of the people here are primarily spanish speaking but nonetheless the place was relaxing. We finally found a sunny day to go down to the beach. After a quick swim we became fascinated with the literally thousands of hermitcrabs wandering around the beach. The next day we did a little tanning and sunset viewing(eventhough it was cloudy) We were excited to get in a little sun since it is the rainy season and rains quite often. When it rains we can hang out on the patio in hammocks which is quite relaxing. Today looks like a day of watching world cup qualifying although I doubt anyone will be watching the US game, rooting for costa rica to beat mexico would have a similar effect. Tomorrow we head back to San Jose to catch our flight to Peru. 12 days in costa rica just isn´t enough!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
General Discomfort
We then took a trip to Monteverde whcih involved taking a car to a boat ot a car on a dirt road, but was supposedly twice as fast as taking the local bus....plus the lake was sweet. (still no views of the arenal volcano). The amuzing thing about this trip was there were 5 people doing this trip, us, a local, and 2 israeli's who we met at the waterfall. The bus and boats could handle maybe 10 people yet 2 different companies managed the trip. As a result, 3 of us were in one boat and the 2 girls were in the other. Monteverde is in the "cloud forests" which means there's almost a perpetual layer of fog, but not sweating my balls of is a plus. Today we took a hike into the forest, saw a small watefall and a monkey. Without a guide it's pretty tough to see any animals but we did ok. Similar to before, i set the alarm for 6:40 PM and we woke up late and had to rush out without all our supplies which made things difficult. There was an area with humming bird feeders and some 200 birds buzzing around. Pretty awesome. Tomorrow we head to the west coast to relax on the beach... Pray for good weather.
Eating and buying food so far has been interesting. Lora and my combination of spanish knowledge pretty much gets us where we need but there are of course the few things they do different. For example, the vegegtable counters require you to give them to someone to weigh. It is similar to europe, except they don't trust you to weigh it yourself. The non-corporate breat goods are often a crapshoot, but overall you end up with something tasty. To manage our budget we are trying to figure out the cheapest way to eat, which means breat, veggies and maybe beans for protein. I am doing ok so far, but we'll se after a while. Hopefully we can get under budget and eat out more, but until then pasta it is!