Lindsey's Arequipa

Selina and I have been keeping busy the past few days and have covered

a lot of ground in experiencing the Peruvian culture. After our last

emails we had a few hours to relax back at our hotel before venturing

back out to check out a little bit of the nightlife that Miraflores

has to offer. In search of dinner we circled the main square a few

times not wanting to make the same mistake as we did for lunch. We

ended up at a moderately priced restaurant where we had our waitress

laughing at us when we were confused by how to eat our appetizer. Cold

corn on the cob with a dipping sauce and cheese.

The next morning we woke up early for our flight to Arequipa on

Peruvian Airlines. This is a new airline that just started flying this

past fall. Their planes looked like they were made of recycled plane

parts from the 1980s. I´m glad we landed and that part of the trip is

over.

We´ve been enjoying our time in Arequipa just bumming around the main

square of the city and into the neighborhoods. Our hostel is decent

with a nice staff that endlessly tries to sell us tours to Arequipas

neighboring Colca Canyon. We decided that hiking the Grand Canyon was

enough desert hiking for one year and declined the 3 hour bus ride to

look at another big hole in the ground. What we were really excited

about was a museum that has a frozen body of a 12 year old girl,

Juanita, that was offered to the volcano gods as a sacrifice by the

Incas. The artifacts were discovered by a geologist after the

neighboring volcano erupted and it´s ash thawed the frozen ground

enough to reveal Juanita and the trail that the Incas had taken

hundreds of years ago. Everything from her skin, hair, clothes and

other offerings were preserved in the frozen ground. In the early

evening we wandered the streets and came across the main downtown

markets with everyone out and about shopping for the holidays. At

first it felt like Arequipas version of the cluster of people on

Michigan Ave. (Obviously not nearly as big). The farther we got from

the main square the more the lights of the store fronts gave way to a

market feel. I started to go into a booth with shoes and realized

about 20 feet in that it might have been an endless black hole of fake

Addidas and Converse. We resisted the bootleg DVDs and went in search

for dinner. We ended up having a great 5 course meal for 23soles which

is about $8 each of soup, chicken, potatoes, crepes, coco tea, and of

course a pisco sour.

Today we have kept just as busy wandering the streets enjoying some

more market areas and views that look out over Arequipa and some of

the nearby volcanoes. I visited the main cathedral in town and had a

few minutes to say a quick prayer. Their nativity seen was gigantic

and I´m sure will be a site on Christmas. (definitely an easy place to

forget your children haha) We also spent part of our afternoon

visiting the Santa Catalina Monastery. It is considered one of the

most impressive colonial structures in the city and takes up a few

city blocks. The monastery was built in 1579 but has not been open to

the public until recently in the 1970s. Very good experience but our

tour was probably a little bit too long when the only descriptive

verbs our guide could describe things were as ¨old.¨ No shit.

Well we´re off to grab a small dinner and then bed. Early 6 hour bus

ride to Puno in the morning. We are hoping to go to one of islands in

Lake Titicaca, Amantani Island. They are the only island that is part

of Peru that has a small family run inn. Hopefully we won´t have too

much of a problem with the Christmas holiday.

Hello From Lindsey

Just wanted to send an update, Selina and I made it to Peru safe and

sound last night. It was a long day of flying with a six hour layover

in Costa Rica. We had an airport pick-up pre scheduled which worked

out great. Our driver was very friendly, a women born in Lima, who

gave us some good tips for visiting the city. Last night we didn´t

venture out much since it was late and not safe to be walking. But we

did enjoyed some Mexican style food "pollo" chicken tacos that we

found right next to our hotel. And obviously we had to try our first

(and second) Pisco Sours. A peruvian drink that even had me taking a

few Excedrins this morning.

Today we slept in and decided to have a relaxing day bumming around an

area of Lima called Miraflores. It is probably the most affluent area

in Peru. We had a 20 minute walk to the beach this morning, stopped in

a grocery store (to our surprise very similar to Whole Foods) and then

had lunch at a steak restaraunt. The main attraction in the beach area

isn´t necessarily the beach itself. Miraflores sits along a cliff edge

and at the bottome of it is a rocky beach, some surfers, and a few

families and beachgoers. Along the ocean front cliffs is a beautiful

park which Selina and I called the "Lincoln Park" of Lima. We were

hoping to have an ocean view for lunch but the only thing that we

could find was very similar to a shopping mall with a Tony Romas and

Starbucks. Unfortunatley we headed in the wrong direction and

eventually ended up eating at an expensive steak house due to our

hungary bellies. Lets just say it´s a good thing I´m no longer a

vegetarian. The meat platter that the table next to us ordered was

very impressive. Although the beach front wan´t necessarily what we

expected it was still beautiful and we saw an awesome display of

paragliders flying off of the cliffs.

Right now Selina and I are at an internet cafe in one of the main park

areas of Miraflores. Since our hotel is a little pricey ($60 a night)

we found ourselves a hostel  for our return visit over New Years Eve.

Other than that we´ve enjoyed the outdoor parks, shops, neighborhoods

and cafes that the area has to offer. Its about time to head back to

our hotel to wash up and relax a bit before finding dinner this

evening. We´ll be calling it an early night since we  have an hour

flight out to Arequipa tomorrow morning.

There hasn´t been anything too shocking on our trip. Other than the

language barrier things are relatively easy to figure out. I´ve

learned how to say, "no, hablas espanol" "I do not speak Spanish¨"

Selina has been keeping us afloat from having some phrases down after

her 5 weeks in Panama this summer.

Lima

After a very long journey (left apartment to blue line at 11pm, airport at 12;30, 2 am flight, 3 airports and 7 hours of layer over time) We arrived in Lima Peru!!   Our hotel owner meet us at the airport and drove us to the hotel.  We put down our backpacks and ventured out the door looking for a pisco sour!!!  Found them around the corner at a Mexican Resturant we sat outside on the patio eating fresh gauc and sipping our drinks. 

Today we slept in went to the beach watched the surfers and then returned up to the cliffs to watch the paragliders.  There were soo many of them the sky was covered with colorful sails!! It is about 70 outside.  We got a little lost and ended up eating lunch at some fancy meet place.  My minimal Spainish is working well and we have had two meals and booked our accomidations for New Years Eve.  Kinda proud of myself (thanks gina for all those lessons this summer)  was even able to tell the lady at the grocery store that I didn´t want a bag!!  Tomorrow we are off to Arequipa to see a volcano and the world´s deepest canyon.

Still in Costa

So we left monteverde and traveled to San Jose for one night!!!  Then we went to the national park of La Tortugero (Turtles)  This place is you can only get to by plane or boat.  It was so so so beautiful miles and miles of black sand beaches!!  The town is a perfect union of tourists and locals.  it is the first place on this trip that you could truly see the way people live!!

we set out on a turtle watch at 8 pm. we waited at a shelter with our guide till a ranger from the park radioed us then we went down to the beach to see the turtle lay eggs.  The ranger said that once the turtle digs the nest she is in the zone and does not notice people watching her.  you can not have any lights or cameras because the turtle uses the moon to guide their laying.  She laid about 100 eggs and then buried them and went back to sea.  it was amazing.  i have never seen anything like this it was so intimate and surreal.

the next day Laura and i rented a two person kayak and went through the national forest.  it was so remote it was just us and the river and jungle for as far as the eye can see!!!

So yesterday we tried to head to bocas in panama but our bus got a flat tire so we missed our connector.  we ended up in Chauita for two more nights.  hopefully tomorrow we will be in panama!!!

Wildlife up Close and Personal

Hey guys so we are in San Jose for the night.  The past few days have been crazy busy.  We first went to Arenal there we booked a tour with a guide named Mr. lava lava he organized a evening at the hot springs and lava sightings.  We went to the hot spring and it was crazy!  the only thing natural about this place was the water everything else was like hot spring gone vegas.  Swanky pools and swim up bars.  There were 20 hot springs in all ranging from 70 degrees to 150.  There was even some crazy water slides!!  At 5 Mr. lava lava picked us up to take us to the volcano we stood in the rain and got eaten by lots o skeeters.  (he did provide rain coats)  there was no lava to be seen.  he took us back to the hot springs for dinner and more soaking.  Then at 10 he picked us up and took us back to the volcano and there before our eyes lava was exploding and flowing down the volcano the power of nature was amazing.

The next day we went to Monteverde via a boat the ride alone was so green hilly and beautiful.  In monteverde jen and i went on a night hike.  We saw a tarantula, sloths (with babies)  leaf hoppers, walking sticks, caddy dids, a Pygmy tree frog and so much more.  So So cool.

Tonight we are in San Jose and tomorrow off to the remote area of Totugerro to see sea turtles lay eggs.  There is no cell service or internet so see you all in three days.

Cahuita, Costa Rica AKA Heaven on Earth

Well we made it over the border and to the beach town of Cahuita.  This two road town is where a bunch of Rasta folk got sick of the island and made their own place on the mainland of Costa Rica.  It´s a chill town with a few places to eat one bar to drink and two beaches one with white sand and the other with black!

We´re staying at a wooden guest house run by a girl from Minnesota and her rasta boo.  It looks a lot like my room at camp but the porch has two hammocks and I´m not going to lie I could spend the rest of my trip here!!!

Yesterday we took a hike on the white sand beach that is part of a national park there was a trail along the beach for about 8 km.  While hiking we saw raccoons, lizards, crabs, monkeys, and these monkeys make such a loud noise we thought they were wild pigs!!!  The trail ends at an Italian guy´s house with a pool, cabana and a mean pasta dinner, now that´s a sweet way to end a hike!!  Instead of hiking back we got a ride in a back of a pickup truck from a Tica family who lives in Cahuita and was just hanging out at their friend´s pool.  The perfect combo beaches that rival a corona commercial, cold beer and pool and food right from Tuscany!! 

Tomorrow we are off to watch a volcano erupt!

It's cold in Bouqete!

Gabrielle tried to leave us on the first but the airports were all closed due to the swearing in of the new president.  intresting beings that the air panama website sold her a ticket for that day!!  After her airport debacle the 8 of us took off for Bouqete Panama which is a mountian town that is famous for extreme sports and coffee (my kind of place)!  when we arrived in the late afternoon we decided to journey to a natural hot spring about 15 km outside of town.  the taxi dropped us off at the end of the road, the lonely planet guide book neglected to mention it would be a 45 min hike from there through a cow field and a major hydro electric construction sight.  after we finally made it we paid the woman whos land it was on and enjoyed a great hot soak.  it was so beautiful and refreshing (said that anyone who soaks there enjoys great health benifits)  not going to lie i feel great though not sure if it is due to the spring or the joy of  not working!!

the next morning we went zip lining through the rain forest.  the ride up there was as ms ortiz described it like the oregon trail but the view was amazing.  i met a couple that had just finished producing the show i´m a celebrity get me out of here.  they were cool to talk to!!  we zipped throught the forest on 12 different platforms.  more of a thrill than an actual eco site!!!

the next day i tried to hike this famous trail.  we asked taxi cab driver to take us to the trail head which according to the lp was only 3 km from the trail.  when he dropped us off we proceded to walk uphill in the hot sun.  about an hour in I bailed and jen anita and i walked back down hill.  we had a picnic lunch next to a river and then hiked on the remote rode for the way back to town.  on the way back we were stopped by a couple who was inspecting their bridge.  they owned a coffee planatation.  we chatted to them about coffee farming.  they were awesome they were 80 and let me tell you if i look that good when i´m 80 i´ll be in business!!

at night here in the mountians it gets very cold and rainy. today the sun has not come out at all and it is about 65!!

tomorrow we head out to the beaches of costa rica