Running around

So I haven't been able to blog as often as I would like, but we are having a great time traveling, so I guess it's ok :)  We finished up in Arequipa, including a trip to Colca Canyon, which is one of the deepest canyons in the world at approximately 13,650 ft (over double the depth of the Grand Canyon), and we saw a couple condors there--that's what the canyon is mostly famous for.  We also went to some hot springs which was nice because the town we were staying in for our tour was freezing!  Well, it was in the 50's, but that's definitely considered freezing when we've spent the last 2+ years of our lives living in 80-90+ degree weather with no big climate changes.  Anyway, although it was very cold, we were still able to enjoy everything and take lots of pictures, which will be finding their way to the internet soon enough...still trying to figure out how I wanna do that.

Well, today we're in Cusco after an early morning flight, and another altitude change (up to 11,152 ft now!).  We walked around the town a bit (insert heavy breathing here) and found it to be about the same temperature as Arequipa--warm during the day (mid 70's), but cooler in the morning and evening (about 60 degrees).  It's a neat place, but definitely more touristy than Arequipa, even though we saw lots of tourists there too.  This seems to have more foreign tourists, where Arequipa had more national tourists.  We quickly  realized our hostel was located in a more foreigner area where all the restaurants have more "gringo" food and prices, so after an expensive (but very filling) brunch, we decided we would be walking further down the road for future meals.  

Today we tried looking for a place that sold used clothes--not as common here as in Nicaragua, but we found the area.  Apparently, they don't just sell them anywhere, there is a specific area "under the bridge" as we were told, that sells used clothing. Well, the bridge didn't look too shady and it was midday with lot of people around so we decided to check it out.  We walked into a few different shops and they all seemed similar and their prices were way too high for used clothing.  I was shocked!  Although, most of the clothing wasn't priced and after giving me a price and I didn't look interested, they lowered the price a few times, but it was still expensive.  Frank & I were looking to see if we could find some sweaters and possibly some sweat pants/legging type things to layer for our hike to Machu Picchu.  And since we'll be camping, not staying in hotels along the trail (those don't exist), it will be fairly chilly.  Hope the sleeping bags are warm!  Anyway, we couldn't find anything decent--just a simple long sleeve shirt came with an $8.00 price tag.  Seriously?  A used shirt.  Anyway, no luck there.  I did find some new leggings this evening at a shop for about $10,then the lady offered me a lower price because I started to leave.  I was trying to go for cheap, but at this point I'm kind of desperate, so I might cave and buy some new leggings--at least I'd be able to use those in the US too.

After our clothing adventure, we came back to our hostel/hotel and hung out and relaxed to make sure we didn't over exert ourselves in this high altitude.  Speaking of that though, we've been doing fairly well.  Frank feels it more than me, which is strange because I've had to take Dramamine for buses before and I've passed out on a bus and come close a few other times.  We were thinking that I would definitely be taking altitude sickness pills, but so far I only took one on our first day in Arequipa because I was feeling miserable, but I think that was mostly because we spent the night in the airport and I was a little dehydrated.  Oh, the joys of traveling on a budget :)  Anyway, we've been drinking coca leaf tea, chewing the leaves, eating the hard candies, and munching on the cookies, which all promise to ward off altitude sickness, and I think it's working.  It also helps you digest things better, which I have noticed.  My body already feels better less than 2 weeks out of Nicaragua and still on the road--that's a good sign! haha

So far our post-Peace Corps travel has been good, just with a few small bumps along the way, but overall great.  We're really excited to continue our travels and hike the Inca trail this weekend.  I'm starting to feel a little nervous now that it's so close, but I'm also very excited!  This has been a dream of mine for quite some time and now I get to finally do it and Frank will be by my side :)

Airport Sleepover

So we finally made it down here to Arequipa, which is in the southern part of Peru.  We left Trujillo late last night and caught a flight to Lima, where we stayed overnight in the airport, on the floor.  Good thing I swiped a blanket & pillow from the airplane ;)

Well,we're here now and it's a beautiful place.  The central park is really nice with flowers, a fountain, and awesome old architecture.  There are a lot of little cafes, restaurants, and shops.  It seems like quite a fun place and we wish we could spend more days here, but we will just soak up all we can while we're here :)

We hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving and we're planning on making a semi-Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at our hostel--details later.

Also, regarding the pictures, I won't be able to upload anymore here on my blog :(  but I will be adding them to Facebook sometime soon.

Cheers!

Last night after wandering around downtown Trujillo again, we came back to the house and hung out with the family a bit.  We gave them some gifts from Nicaragua and then we all sat at the dining room table and they shared suggestions for our various travel destinations in Peru.  We asked where the best place was to try the national drink "Pisco Sour" and they told us a few places, but then they brought out their Pisco bottles and Carolina's parents went to the kitchen to mix us some drinks.  It was great!  We got to try some fresh Pisco Sours--they are a mix of Pisco (kind of like Brandy), lime juice, sugar, and ice.  I was a little hesistant to try them since I've heard some mixed reviews, but it was actually pretty tasty :)  I guess it depends on where you find them and who makes them.  Anyway, we had a couple of those and talked about Peru late into the night.  It was a great way to spend our last night here.  Today we're going to go exploring in another place, but we fly out late tonight for an overnight flight heading south of Lima.

Not sure if we'll be around internet to make phone calls today, but Happy Thanksgiving to all!  We did have a turkey sandwich last night :)

Trying new things

Today we went to another area with ruins and got to explore those--Frank was super excited to see everything :)  Later, Carolina took us to the beach to walk around and see what the northern beaches looked  like.  We walked out on a pier and watched people fish and some take some kayak sorta things made from reeds out to tour the waters.  It was a neat little area.

Carolina's parents came and picked us up at the beach and took us to another town where we got lunch.  It's known for it's ceviche and various meats.  Frank loved the ceviche, while I just picked around at the non-seafood things which was fine.  I enjoyed a juice they call chicha morada, made from purple corn, pineapple, and cinnamon.  Then they ordered the main dishes: goat with beans, and duck with rice.  I got the goat, but couldn't quite get past the vision of a goat on my plate.  Frank of course loved the duck, and even shared the  neck with Carolina's dad. Well, at least he can be adventurous with food for me :)  I did try the goat and some raw fish from the ceviche, so I was proud of myself for that.  However, I don't think I'll be eating anymore of those the rest of the trip!  I'm not really looking forward to trying guinea pig, but Frank sure is haha  I'll dance or sing in front of a crowd, but don't give me fish, seafood, or any weird meats.

Arriving in Peru

We had quite a travel day on Monday--got up around 7am, caught a taxi to the airport, took 3 flights and finally ended up in Trujillo, Peru around 10:30pm.  Long day.  Highlights: the airline company Avianca serves great (free) meals on the flights; found a Starbucks in the Lima airport (a little bit of home); the taxi driver was outside of the (tiny) Trujillo airport waiting for us holding sign with my name :)  Also, we got here safely!

Carolina wasn't in Trujillo when we got there, but was on her way.  Her mom offered us coffee and bread to relax and then we got to bed since it was after midnight and it was a loooong day!  Today we slept in a bit, but I still felt super tired.  Lots of travel wears you down.  Hope to gain more energy soon!  Anyway, we had breakfast with the family after our hot showers and Carolina arrived.

Today we ventured out and visited some ruins just outside of the city.  They were really neat to see and we even got to go inside of some old temples--unfortunately grave robbers destroyed a lot of it awhile back, but it was a neat experience.

In the afternoon we headed into Trujillo to see the city and get some lunch.  We found a nice place and relaxed a bit after soaking up the morning sun.  Frank tried his first Peruvian beer and really liked it--it was a malt beer, so much better than the light beer in Nicaragua.  I got a slice of cake because I prefer dessert over alcohol/beer haha

After letting our bellies settle, we strolled around town, toured a museum, and got a cheap street dinner in the evening before heading back to Carolina's house.  We then finally got to make some phone calls to our (worried and waiting) parents and all is good.  We have plans to visit more ruins tomorrow and I'm not sure what else.  It's kind of fun having someone else plan things and show you around :)

Panama Canal

Well the last few days have been a little crazy, but I wanted to catch up a bit and share about our adventures in Panama.  We discovered that it was a little more expensive than we had anticipated and we're still so used to Nica prices that, at least for me, the prices were a bit overwhelming.  We made it through though and ventured over to the Panama Canal, which even had a $34 buffet (yes, per person), that we kindly refused, although Frank was close to caving when they showed us all the delicious food.

The Canal was a pretty awesome thing to see.  Frank had been there before, but we still did all the touristy things there including the 4 story museum.  It was all very interesting and I loved watching the giant ships pass through the locks.  It really is an incredible thing to see!  I'm glad we made the trip out there.

Apparently I have no more space to upload pictures on my blog for free, so the pictures will just show upon Facebook later.  I might see about deleting some pictures from some old blogs or something.  Until then, just words here :)

Detour

The plan was to take a flight from Nicaragua to Panama, stopping in Costa Rica for a 1 hour layover.  Well, apparently we weren't supposed to get to Panama that day.  We got to Costa Rica just fine, but after boarding the plane in Costa Rica, which was headed to Panama, they made an announcement that the plane was originally supposed to be going a longer distance to another destination so it had too much gasoline for such a short trip.  This meant that they needed passengers to get off the plane so it didn't weigh so much, 12 passengers to be exact, and I counted at least 12 empty rows in the back of the plane and there were several empty seats throughout the plane.  We first said no to a flight attendant because we had hotel reservations in Panama and we didn't know what we'd do in Costa Rica without any plans for there.  After they got desperate, we decided to say yes, and we were the last 2 off the plane and they closed the gate behind us after we got off.  They offered us a pretty good deal for getting off the plane, so we weren't feeling too bad.

They put us up in the Best Western in San Jose which is a pretty nice hotel (hot water, pool, wifi, free international calls...), and gave us meal vouchers for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning at the Denny's restaurant attached to the hotel.  Frank and I were feeling pretty classy in our swanky hotel and making international calls, but the hot water showers were the best!  The food was also delicious, but our stomachs took a little while to adjust to such rich food.

View from our balcony

The next morning after a bit of a hiccup waiting for the airport shuttle and lots of traffic, we got to the airport and then finally got on a flight to Panama.  We landed in Panama City just under an hour later and one time zone difference.  We gathered our bags and took a taxi to our hostel in the older area called Casco Viejo/Antiguo.  It's a neat area, but a lot of it is under construction right now.

View of Panama Bay & Panama City from our hostel

Some old abandoned buildings near our hostel

Yesterday was a low key day since we were pretty tired from all the traveling, so we just mainly hung out around the hostel and then grabbed a bite to eat.  That's when we found out that this area is pretty fancy, which means expensive meals, small portions.  Well, I think this will be our most expensive part of the trip, food-wise  so I think we'll be ok.

Today we slept in, as the dorm rooms here are dark with dark curtains, and the lights were left off.  It was nice to get a full night of sleep though.  We took advantage of the hostel's free make-your-own pancake breakfast--bananas too!  Then we explored the area.  It really is a neat place and there are some beautiful buildings.

Behind our hostel

Panama Bay low tide

Panama hats!

Just cruising the town

We walked near the bay tonight and enjoyed the cool breeze--it's been pretty warm and muggy here so far.  Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Panama Canal & maybe do a little hiking :)