Only wind this strong and the fact that I´m really far from home could make me buy (and wear) an apricot coloured corduroy coat. But that´s what I found at the thrift store (Dylan can find them everywhere, it´s like they call out for him) and I wear it as soon as I leave the house. The wind never stops, ever.
At the same thrift store though, we found some pretty sweet Halloween costumes, so we got them, hoping there will be some kind of festivities tomorrow. A pumkin for Dylan, an Austin Power suit for Randy and of course a black witch dress for me, to match my hair.
Yesterday I took another hour of my life to fill out another one of the endless forms US immigrations ask for. I swear I have answered every singe question at least five times before. I hope we find something to do here, but more than anything I wish we could get some kind of time frame, how much longer we have to wait.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
the best Thriller-dance ever
This morning I went to the gym that is (conveniently enough) located right next to Jamie´s house. I don´t know if I´ll get a membership yet, Randy says there are more gyms in the area and I should compare prices and stuff.... but I got a one time pass to try it out. And the class and the gym was everything you´d expect a gym to be, but what happened after class was the most spectacular thing I´ve seen in a long time.
So after class, into the room with the mirrors and the stereo walks a group of maybe 20 mentally handicapt teenagers. They had some kind of dance class, and did this routine to Michael Jackson´s "Thriller"..... it was so cool, they were all in sync too, even had two people in wheel chairs do all the hand movements with assistants pushing them around on the dance floor. From what I understood they were preparing for a Halloween show. It was really cool.
I don´t know if we´ll do anything for Halloween still, it all depends on other people since we don´t exactly have our own group of friends here. What we do have though, finally, is keys to the front gate. We got them today so now we don´t have to jump the fence anymore, which is nice. People just look at you kind of funny when you have to jump the fence to your own place.
So after class, into the room with the mirrors and the stereo walks a group of maybe 20 mentally handicapt teenagers. They had some kind of dance class, and did this routine to Michael Jackson´s "Thriller"..... it was so cool, they were all in sync too, even had two people in wheel chairs do all the hand movements with assistants pushing them around on the dance floor. From what I understood they were preparing for a Halloween show. It was really cool.
I don´t know if we´ll do anything for Halloween still, it all depends on other people since we don´t exactly have our own group of friends here. What we do have though, finally, is keys to the front gate. We got them today so now we don´t have to jump the fence anymore, which is nice. People just look at you kind of funny when you have to jump the fence to your own place.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Satan vad det blåser!
We finally made it down to Punta Arenas yesterday, this is pretty much as far south as you can go on this continent and you can tell by the wind. When we were in Santiago a lot of the people from this area complained that their noses and throats felt stuffed and that they missed the breeze. Here, you open your mouth to say something and almost choke on the wind. My eyes are running and I need to buy some warm shoes, pants and a hat.
But other than that, this place seems pretty cool so far and we are hoping we will find something to do here so we can stay a while. Right now we´re living in Jamie and Feliepe´s house since they are on their honeymoon. It´s right next to Randy and his parents so that´s nice. It feels amazing to unpack, do laundry, buy groceries and cook for yourself in a nice, normal kitchen. Not that it was too terrible to constantly be waited on in Limache, but still.
Monday night (when we were still staying with Randy´s friend Tommy) I got an impulse and decided I had to dye my hair. Most things I do with my hair, I unfortunatly do on impulse. My hair has gradually gotten worse and worse since we left Idaho. A lot of sun, crappy schampoo, no time or space for condtioner and then in Ecuador I treated myself to some form of volume perm that completely fried my hair. Terrible decision, terrible result.... it was cheap, though. In Lima, while Dylan was puking his guts out and I was bored, I got a haircut and was almost yelled at by the hairdresser for how bad my hair was, like I didn´t know. I told her to just trim it like half an inch or so and she took off one and a half, which I guess was a good thing. Didn´t look good, though.
And then, to top it off, I decided to go darker since the sun has bleeched my hair so much. I swear the box said "Chocolate" but this is black, very black. I feel like the next step would be to do a Brittney and shave it all off, but I´ll try not too.
Dylan is nice about it too, "hey, at least you can be something really scary for Halloween".
That I can.
But other than that, this place seems pretty cool so far and we are hoping we will find something to do here so we can stay a while. Right now we´re living in Jamie and Feliepe´s house since they are on their honeymoon. It´s right next to Randy and his parents so that´s nice. It feels amazing to unpack, do laundry, buy groceries and cook for yourself in a nice, normal kitchen. Not that it was too terrible to constantly be waited on in Limache, but still.
Monday night (when we were still staying with Randy´s friend Tommy) I got an impulse and decided I had to dye my hair. Most things I do with my hair, I unfortunatly do on impulse. My hair has gradually gotten worse and worse since we left Idaho. A lot of sun, crappy schampoo, no time or space for condtioner and then in Ecuador I treated myself to some form of volume perm that completely fried my hair. Terrible decision, terrible result.... it was cheap, though. In Lima, while Dylan was puking his guts out and I was bored, I got a haircut and was almost yelled at by the hairdresser for how bad my hair was, like I didn´t know. I told her to just trim it like half an inch or so and she took off one and a half, which I guess was a good thing. Didn´t look good, though.
And then, to top it off, I decided to go darker since the sun has bleeched my hair so much. I swear the box said "Chocolate" but this is black, very black. I feel like the next step would be to do a Brittney and shave it all off, but I´ll try not too.
Dylan is nice about it too, "hey, at least you can be something really scary for Halloween".
That I can.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
craziest wedding I´ve seen
This has been a crazy week. After we met up with Randy in Santiago on Wednesday we headed straight out to Limache, a small town next to Viña del Mar and stayed with the groom´s family on their mansion like property, helping getting things ready for the wedding. And we did help, I mean we worked and did everything we could and that they asked us to do, but they had staff doing all the hard stuff. In fact, hey had staff doing pretty much everything around the house. We had people make our bed, cook us breakfast, clean our clothes.... it was like a real honeymoon. And then yesterday, the wedding and grand final, was so far over the top... it was just ridicoulus. But cool.
250 people, first witnessing the ceremony at the private chapel they have in their garden, then feasting on 12 grilled lams, king crab and just tons and tons of food, cakes, wine, rum and probably every other drink known to man. And that was just lunch.... I don´t know for sure how long the party lasted. I lasted till about 10 or so.
Today we are having lunch at the hotel we´re staying at with the Twyman family and then me, Dylan and Randy will probably go back to Santiago and stay with one of Randy´s friends untill we fly to Punta Arenas on Tuesday. We have to be out of our room in half an hour and we just started talking about where to go next about an hour ago, planning is not a priority here. But we´re having a great time. It´s so good to be among friends and not have to worry about much else than being on time and doing what you´re told.
250 people, first witnessing the ceremony at the private chapel they have in their garden, then feasting on 12 grilled lams, king crab and just tons and tons of food, cakes, wine, rum and probably every other drink known to man. And that was just lunch.... I don´t know for sure how long the party lasted. I lasted till about 10 or so.
Today we are having lunch at the hotel we´re staying at with the Twyman family and then me, Dylan and Randy will probably go back to Santiago and stay with one of Randy´s friends untill we fly to Punta Arenas on Tuesday. We have to be out of our room in half an hour and we just started talking about where to go next about an hour ago, planning is not a priority here. But we´re having a great time. It´s so good to be among friends and not have to worry about much else than being on time and doing what you´re told.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
About to join the wedding mania
One evening, one night and one morning. That will be all the time we spend in Santiago, at least this time around. It seems like a cool city though, so I definitly like to come back. We arrived yesterday and got a hold of Randy, who is flying in today. He basically gave us the choice of either staying in central Santiago by ourselves for a couple of days and see the city, or join him and the wedding party right away to help getting things ready for the big celebration saturday. And that´s what we decided on, that way we can get to know more people and also helping out will make us feel less like outsiders and should be fun.
So now we´re just haning out at our hostel, we just had breakfast and in about an hour we will take the subway to meet Randy who just flew in. We haven´t seen him since way back in the old Moscow days, so I´m really excited.
What sucks though, is (as always) the whole battle with US immigration and my Green Card. It just doesn´t ever end, or make sense. So we pay $70 to file the seccond part of the application, after six weeks they send us a form asking if they have my correct address. Yes, they do, so I cross the box and send it in. Another six weeks pass and they send a new form, if I want them to keep processing my case, that´s another $400. And what have they done in these almost three months...? Made sure they had my correct postal address. If it wasn´t my time and money I´d be laughing. I don´t even want to think about how much money we spent on this ordeal so far, although I kind of wish we would have kept track, cause it´s a lot. A lot more than we spend travelling for weeks in South America.
But so far there´s nothing to do but patiently wait and see what happens. As for right now I´m just going to focus on Jamie Sue´s wedding and having a good time with Randy, Juri and their families.
Problems and headaches never need an invitation to find you.
So now we´re just haning out at our hostel, we just had breakfast and in about an hour we will take the subway to meet Randy who just flew in. We haven´t seen him since way back in the old Moscow days, so I´m really excited.
What sucks though, is (as always) the whole battle with US immigration and my Green Card. It just doesn´t ever end, or make sense. So we pay $70 to file the seccond part of the application, after six weeks they send us a form asking if they have my correct address. Yes, they do, so I cross the box and send it in. Another six weeks pass and they send a new form, if I want them to keep processing my case, that´s another $400. And what have they done in these almost three months...? Made sure they had my correct postal address. If it wasn´t my time and money I´d be laughing. I don´t even want to think about how much money we spent on this ordeal so far, although I kind of wish we would have kept track, cause it´s a lot. A lot more than we spend travelling for weeks in South America.
But so far there´s nothing to do but patiently wait and see what happens. As for right now I´m just going to focus on Jamie Sue´s wedding and having a good time with Randy, Juri and their families.
Problems and headaches never need an invitation to find you.
Monday, October 19, 2009
One last walk-about in Arica
Last day in Arica, we fly to Santiago tomorrow. We actually thought we were leaving today, having no job and minimum responsebilities makes it hard to keep track of days and dates.
The weekend here in dessert Chile has been good and not very exciting as we´re trying to save money and energy for the wedding-filled week to come. Yesterday we went to a local soccer game, the team was not that good but it was fun to see, and we´ve also been checking out the local markets and trying some of the excellent seafood they have here.
Normally empanadas (som piroger fast tusen gånger bättre än Gorby´s) are not for me since they usually stuff them with pork, chicken or the kind of fresh cheese that makes my stomach a factory of pain and gas. Here, however they have seafood empanadas, cheap and delicious. They also have these hot dogs called Completos, which is like a gigant sub sandwich with a small hot dog completly covered in guacamole, tomato, mayo and lettuce. Minus the dog, it´s a great veggie sandwich.
Today we plan on walking up to the view pont overlooking the city and maybe take another stroll along market street. Dylan is on the lookout for a suit or jacket for the wedding. He found one at the market yesterday that supposivly was "money". But it was also too small, so no deal. It´s hard to fill the days with activities in small cities with little to offer while you also try to save your money. We do a lot of walking around.
The weekend here in dessert Chile has been good and not very exciting as we´re trying to save money and energy for the wedding-filled week to come. Yesterday we went to a local soccer game, the team was not that good but it was fun to see, and we´ve also been checking out the local markets and trying some of the excellent seafood they have here.
Normally empanadas (som piroger fast tusen gånger bättre än Gorby´s) are not for me since they usually stuff them with pork, chicken or the kind of fresh cheese that makes my stomach a factory of pain and gas. Here, however they have seafood empanadas, cheap and delicious. They also have these hot dogs called Completos, which is like a gigant sub sandwich with a small hot dog completly covered in guacamole, tomato, mayo and lettuce. Minus the dog, it´s a great veggie sandwich.
Today we plan on walking up to the view pont overlooking the city and maybe take another stroll along market street. Dylan is on the lookout for a suit or jacket for the wedding. He found one at the market yesterday that supposivly was "money". But it was also too small, so no deal. It´s hard to fill the days with activities in small cities with little to offer while you also try to save your money. We do a lot of walking around.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Bienvenidos a Chile!
We finally made it to Chile, and even though it seems it´s quite more expensive here than other places we´ve been, I don´t care. Just so excited to finally have made it.
Last night after my Spanish class we had Italian food from this small, expensive restaurant called Domino´s... yeah, we spend more money on pizza and cheesy bread than on the hotel yesterday, but the food still wasn´t more than in the US. You can´t eat like that every day travelling, but sometimes it seems worth it and just what you need. Suprisingly enough this was also the first American chain we´ve seen since Colombia. There has been no McDonalds, Subways or KFC´s around. Not like in China where they were everywhere.
So now we have 4 days to spend here in Arica before we fly to Santiago on tuesday. I don´t know what there is to do here, so far we have only made it from our hostel to the internet café down the street where they´re playing Abba in Spanish. I wonder if it´s really them singing or not...? It sounds like the real Anne-Frid and Agnetha... but maybe it´s Agñetia and Fridolita, my music ear has never quite been in tune.
Last night after my Spanish class we had Italian food from this small, expensive restaurant called Domino´s... yeah, we spend more money on pizza and cheesy bread than on the hotel yesterday, but the food still wasn´t more than in the US. You can´t eat like that every day travelling, but sometimes it seems worth it and just what you need. Suprisingly enough this was also the first American chain we´ve seen since Colombia. There has been no McDonalds, Subways or KFC´s around. Not like in China where they were everywhere.
So now we have 4 days to spend here in Arica before we fly to Santiago on tuesday. I don´t know what there is to do here, so far we have only made it from our hostel to the internet café down the street where they´re playing Abba in Spanish. I wonder if it´s really them singing or not...? It sounds like the real Anne-Frid and Agnetha... but maybe it´s Agñetia and Fridolita, my music ear has never quite been in tune.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Flight of the Condors
Peruvian time is not like other time. That actually goes for all parts of South America we visited so far. So when we were told they´d pick us up at our hotel at 02:30 am we knew there was no way in hell they´d be there a seccond before 3, unless of course we actually stayed in bed in which case they would be prompt, I´m sure.
3:15 they came and it was well over 4 before we had located all the other gringos and could finally embark on our day trip to see flying condors and the Colca Canyon. It has been a long day, but worth it. The condors were really impressive as they flew back and forth over the canyon and the view points where we were standing. Part of the thrill was lost when I found out that the locals regulary throw dead animals into the canyon to make sure the birds fly and the tourists keep coming.... But it was still cool. They fly fast though, Dylan got a few decent pictures but the best ones (if he posts them on facebook) are actually photos of postcards =)
As for the canyon, it is supposed to be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but I don´t know.... Well, I´m sure it is but to me it looked more like a really deep valley and not what I pictured a canyon to look like. At the bottom of the canyon is Colca Village, a small village where locals live off of farming and tourists. They have a school and a doctor, but only a "natural doctor, you know, with plants and herbs" and in case of emergency "yes, then they will of course die". All according to our very informative guide.
Tomorrow we will try to buy our bus tickets to the Chilean border and I also have to do my Spanish homework since I have my seccond class tomorrow. I have already made plans for what coffee shop to go to for my studies and I´m really looking forward to it.
I´m a nerd, I know.
3:15 they came and it was well over 4 before we had located all the other gringos and could finally embark on our day trip to see flying condors and the Colca Canyon. It has been a long day, but worth it. The condors were really impressive as they flew back and forth over the canyon and the view points where we were standing. Part of the thrill was lost when I found out that the locals regulary throw dead animals into the canyon to make sure the birds fly and the tourists keep coming.... But it was still cool. They fly fast though, Dylan got a few decent pictures but the best ones (if he posts them on facebook) are actually photos of postcards =)
As for the canyon, it is supposed to be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but I don´t know.... Well, I´m sure it is but to me it looked more like a really deep valley and not what I pictured a canyon to look like. At the bottom of the canyon is Colca Village, a small village where locals live off of farming and tourists. They have a school and a doctor, but only a "natural doctor, you know, with plants and herbs" and in case of emergency "yes, then they will of course die". All according to our very informative guide.
Tomorrow we will try to buy our bus tickets to the Chilean border and I also have to do my Spanish homework since I have my seccond class tomorrow. I have already made plans for what coffee shop to go to for my studies and I´m really looking forward to it.
I´m a nerd, I know.
Monday, October 12, 2009
We´ll be flying
We got plain tickets! It only took about 3 hours and visiting the same number or offices, but we got them. My butt says thank you and now we are looking at 3 hours on a plane instead of 48 hours on various Chilean busses, for only about 30 dollars more, if even.
Now I just hope we actually have tickets when we show up at the airport. The lady who sold us the tickets acted like it was her first time making such an arrangement and when Dylan was going to pay with his credit card she freaked out because his signature didn´t look exactly like on the card and had him rewrite it three times.
So now we don´t have to rush out of Arequipa, we plan on being here till Friday. We did move to another hotel though. Cleaner, bigger room, a sink that works and hot water all day, for the same price. What really made me want to get out of "Hostal Lari" though was that they always locked us in there and sometimes there would be nobody around to let us out. Not only is that really anoying, but also not the best in case of a fire or emergency or something. At the place we´re at now, we can come and go as we please.
Wednesday we are going to check out the canyon and the condors, tomorrow I am taking my first Spanish lesson! Mucho exciting.
Now I just hope we actually have tickets when we show up at the airport. The lady who sold us the tickets acted like it was her first time making such an arrangement and when Dylan was going to pay with his credit card she freaked out because his signature didn´t look exactly like on the card and had him rewrite it three times.
So now we don´t have to rush out of Arequipa, we plan on being here till Friday. We did move to another hotel though. Cleaner, bigger room, a sink that works and hot water all day, for the same price. What really made me want to get out of "Hostal Lari" though was that they always locked us in there and sometimes there would be nobody around to let us out. Not only is that really anoying, but also not the best in case of a fire or emergency or something. At the place we´re at now, we can come and go as we please.
Wednesday we are going to check out the canyon and the condors, tomorrow I am taking my first Spanish lesson! Mucho exciting.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Arequipa
Yesterday in Hucachina, Dylan´s stomach was no better and I had to head out to the sand dunes by myself (well, with the rest of the group).
It was awful, the single most horrfying thing I have spent money on in a long time. Not the sandboarding itself, that was actually kind of lame since we had super crappy boards with broken straps for bindings, so we just had to go down laying on our stomachs, head first. No, but the dune buggies.... I thought they were for transportation only, but appearantly riding in those monsters on wheel were part of the adventure and our driver was insane. He drove like he wanted us all dead. When we stopped at the first hill, one girl was crying (not me but only because I was in too much of a shock) the guy next to me stole my seat because it was "too scary to sit on the end" and the rest of us were just shaking, wiping the snot, sand and eye ball juice of our faces. The crying girl asked the driver to please go slower, which just made him laugh and blast away even faster to the next hill. It was not fun. Scarier than any roller coaster I have ever been on. And I don´t even like roller coasters. It was probably a really good thing Dylan didn´t go cause it would have made him shit his pants for sure.
But while I was paying money to be scared to death, Dylan headed out for new diarrhea pills and found some that were so effective ("I´m backed up like concrete...") he decided it would be safe to ride the nightbus to Arequipa. So we did. But since we decided to go so late, we could only find tickets to the crappiest bus. They were cheap though, and much to our surprise we actually made it here on time. So now we´re trying to set up a trip out to the Colca Canyon tomorrow and hopefully spot some condors on the way. We´re also debating whether to buss it the whole way to Santiago or get a domestic flight in Chile since they´re pretty cheap.
We´ll see, if we do decide to fly, we´ll probably stay here a little longer and maybe try to take a Spanish class or two. A lot of places offer them, but we haven´t stayed anywhere long enough to sign up yet.... and we´re doing ok with sign language, our limited Spanish and most local´s limited English, but it would be nice to get more of a vocabulary.
It was awful, the single most horrfying thing I have spent money on in a long time. Not the sandboarding itself, that was actually kind of lame since we had super crappy boards with broken straps for bindings, so we just had to go down laying on our stomachs, head first. No, but the dune buggies.... I thought they were for transportation only, but appearantly riding in those monsters on wheel were part of the adventure and our driver was insane. He drove like he wanted us all dead. When we stopped at the first hill, one girl was crying (not me but only because I was in too much of a shock) the guy next to me stole my seat because it was "too scary to sit on the end" and the rest of us were just shaking, wiping the snot, sand and eye ball juice of our faces. The crying girl asked the driver to please go slower, which just made him laugh and blast away even faster to the next hill. It was not fun. Scarier than any roller coaster I have ever been on. And I don´t even like roller coasters. It was probably a really good thing Dylan didn´t go cause it would have made him shit his pants for sure.
But while I was paying money to be scared to death, Dylan headed out for new diarrhea pills and found some that were so effective ("I´m backed up like concrete...") he decided it would be safe to ride the nightbus to Arequipa. So we did. But since we decided to go so late, we could only find tickets to the crappiest bus. They were cheap though, and much to our surprise we actually made it here on time. So now we´re trying to set up a trip out to the Colca Canyon tomorrow and hopefully spot some condors on the way. We´re also debating whether to buss it the whole way to Santiago or get a domestic flight in Chile since they´re pretty cheap.
We´ll see, if we do decide to fly, we´ll probably stay here a little longer and maybe try to take a Spanish class or two. A lot of places offer them, but we haven´t stayed anywhere long enough to sign up yet.... and we´re doing ok with sign language, our limited Spanish and most local´s limited English, but it would be nice to get more of a vocabulary.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A nice place in a dusty maze
One night in Pisco would have been enough, that´s for sure. We bargained pretty hard with the lady at the hotel, though and got two nights for the price of one so we are still here even though we were done with the boat tour (and the only appearant reason to stay here) at about 11 am. The tour was cool though, and well worth the money. We saw tons and tons of birds (pelicans, penguins, gulls etc), sea lions, crabs, sea stars and mussels. A few times the boat was stopped for a long time while the guide was pointing out something to us and everyone was snapping away on their cameras like crazy except for me and Dylan who couldn´t understand what they were looking at. When we booked the tour we were told there would be an English speaking guide, but our 70 year old guide´s English sounded an awful lot like Spanish to me. Still, I probably saw more birds today than I have before in my life, total and it was a good time.
Pisco in itself is, however a broken, dirty shithole of a city. That mostly due to two recent earthquakes and that they just haven´t had the time or money to rebuild. But walking along the streets of the very straight and square blocks you feel like the marble in one of those games where you´re supposed to tilt a board with a maze full of holes to guide the marble from start to finish without it falling into the holes. The people are mostly very nice though, we splurged a little bit for dinner today and went to an Italian place and had sallad and sea food lasanga, very tasty, and talked to the chef who told us about the city and himself and it was a very nice time. Earlier today though, Dylan wasn´t feeling so good. He still/again has an upset stomach and I headad out to find him more medicine. Walking the streets alone is way different than walking with him, that´s for sure. Mostly it´s just a lot of whistling and harmless "hola" and "Buenos tardes" but today I got this ugly teenager stalking me for blocks.
First he wanted money for food. He was being very rude and in my face and if I only knew enough Spanish I would have told him that if claiming to be hungry was going to be his way of begging he should probably slim down a little, since this was a pretty porky little pimpled faced fellow. Instead I just shook my head and tried to walk away, but he kept running after me, now grabbing his crotch and saying things I was only happy not to understand.
Tomorrow we are heading for the sand dunes of Ica. It´s supposed to be cool and it´s only an hour bus ride from here. But before that we have another night at what might actually be the nicest hotel we have stayed at so far on this trip. The room is big, clean and we have our own, also very clean bath room with fresh towels, hot water and little soaps (I love little soaps and Dylan loves to make fun of me for it). We also have a TV, which is good for my dear stomach pained companion who can watch baseball and cheesy soap operas when his tummy hurts too much to marble around these dusty streets.
As you might expect, there are a lot of bars with specials on Pisco Sour here. But both me and Dylan get the chills just thinking of having one of those any time soon. Like Dylan said "I´m not having another Pisco Sour till I get out of this country".
Pisco in itself is, however a broken, dirty shithole of a city. That mostly due to two recent earthquakes and that they just haven´t had the time or money to rebuild. But walking along the streets of the very straight and square blocks you feel like the marble in one of those games where you´re supposed to tilt a board with a maze full of holes to guide the marble from start to finish without it falling into the holes. The people are mostly very nice though, we splurged a little bit for dinner today and went to an Italian place and had sallad and sea food lasanga, very tasty, and talked to the chef who told us about the city and himself and it was a very nice time. Earlier today though, Dylan wasn´t feeling so good. He still/again has an upset stomach and I headad out to find him more medicine. Walking the streets alone is way different than walking with him, that´s for sure. Mostly it´s just a lot of whistling and harmless "hola" and "Buenos tardes" but today I got this ugly teenager stalking me for blocks.
First he wanted money for food. He was being very rude and in my face and if I only knew enough Spanish I would have told him that if claiming to be hungry was going to be his way of begging he should probably slim down a little, since this was a pretty porky little pimpled faced fellow. Instead I just shook my head and tried to walk away, but he kept running after me, now grabbing his crotch and saying things I was only happy not to understand.
Tomorrow we are heading for the sand dunes of Ica. It´s supposed to be cool and it´s only an hour bus ride from here. But before that we have another night at what might actually be the nicest hotel we have stayed at so far on this trip. The room is big, clean and we have our own, also very clean bath room with fresh towels, hot water and little soaps (I love little soaps and Dylan loves to make fun of me for it). We also have a TV, which is good for my dear stomach pained companion who can watch baseball and cheesy soap operas when his tummy hurts too much to marble around these dusty streets.
As you might expect, there are a lot of bars with specials on Pisco Sour here. But both me and Dylan get the chills just thinking of having one of those any time soon. Like Dylan said "I´m not having another Pisco Sour till I get out of this country".
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Yeah, Dylan is better and we are leaving Lima today! I had the lady at the hotel´s front desk write me a note in Spanish yesterday, that supposevly said said that my husband was sick and I needed medicine for him. I took it to the pharmacy, got six little pills and now he´s all better =)
Very excited to get out of here. Of course it is unfair to blame the city for what happened, there´s bad people everywhere, but I just rather be somewhere else now. Big cities may have a lot to see, but there´s just no peace and quiet, cars honking, road construction, people yelling and getting in you way.... not for me, although I do like the markets.
We are going to Pisco, down the coast, where there is supposed to be a pretty cool wild life to observe, sea lions, penguins, condors, whales and stuff like that.... should be cool.
Very excited to get out of here. Of course it is unfair to blame the city for what happened, there´s bad people everywhere, but I just rather be somewhere else now. Big cities may have a lot to see, but there´s just no peace and quiet, cars honking, road construction, people yelling and getting in you way.... not for me, although I do like the markets.
We are going to Pisco, down the coast, where there is supposed to be a pretty cool wild life to observe, sea lions, penguins, condors, whales and stuff like that.... should be cool.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
That Pisco was Sour
Last night was the worst night of my travelling life. Everything is allright now, we´re fine (well, Dylan is actually sick.. but he´s alive) and from now on it will hopefully just be a story and a lesson to be more careful in the future. But it was pretty horrible. Here´s what happened.
We had bought bread, cheese and olives at the market and decided to just stay in our room and have a cheap, simple kind of dinner to ourselves. At about 8, we decided to go for a walk around the block to maybe grab some dessert or a drink somewhere. As we walked by this kind of shady looking bar on the seccond floor of a building, two men standing on the balcony yelled at us to come upstairs and check out their place, said they had specials, live music and what not. We decided to give it a chance and walked in and up the stairs. The two dudes, one really skinny, gay looking fellow and one older, more stocky guy, came half way down the stairs and practically dragged us up and sat us down at a table. They both spoke decent English, enough to be understod, and were soooo excited we were there. We were the only foregneirs in the place, also (as we realized later) the only guests in the place. The stocky guy asked what we wanted to drink, when we hesitated he said we had to try the Pisco Sour, the Peruvian national drink and the best the bar had to offer. We agreed and Dylan said to order two. Then the gay dude tilted his head and gave Dylan this akward puppy-eyed look and asked if he would "pleeeease order me one too?" That right there was strange enough to get the hell out, but we didn´t. Dylan said "fine, 3 drinks" and the stocky friend jumped up and ran to the bar to order. While we waited, they offered us to buy drugs and even though we were pretty clear about not being interested they were really presistent. They said it was ok, that they had closed the doors downstairs and that nobody would come into the bar for the rest of the night. At this point I was pretty freaked out and really just wanted to leave. But right then the drinks came and they stopped talking about drugs, the waitress brought glasses for everyone and a big pitcher of Pisco Sour. I realized that wasn´t what we ordered, but figured maybe that´s just how they serve them when you order more than two..... but no. Tow more pitchers came in, together with three shots of pure pisco. They wanted us to drink them, we said no and started asking who had orderd them and how much it would all cost. Dylan got up and went to the bar to pay "our" bill, the two guys went after him and since I was too scared to sit alone I went after them too.
Sure enough, it was just one bill, our bill and it was at 300 soles (about 100 US dollars). Dylan was pissed and kept saying how unreasonable it was, that we had ordered 3 drinks not 3 pitchers and that no way in hell was he going to pay. The stocky dude kept giving him these pats on the back, repeating lines from some frat movie like "come on man, it aint that bad", "you gotta pay that shit man" and "just pay up bro´, no biggie" his gay friend who had begged for a drink offered to pay his part, a third of the bill, saying "listen, that´s fair even though you said you´d pay, I pay my drink and you pay your two". It was such an obvious scam and the waitress was pissed, yelling that someone had to pay, in Spanish...she spoke no English. Finally Dylan offered to pay 40 soles, which is more than enough for 3 actual drinks but they weren´t having it. The waitress started talking about the police, which me and D thought was a great idea, but that freked the two guys out and they blocked the way to the stairs so we couldn´t leave. I took the 40 out of my purse and handed it to the waitress who got even more mad, screamed NOOO and grabbed me by the arm so I wouldn´t try to run. Dylan pushed the guys out of the way and headed down the stairs so I pulled loose from the arm grip and went after him, but then one of the guys (I couldn´t see who) grabbed my purse that I had around my shoulders and pulled me down so I fell on my back on the stairs. I screamed, the waitress screamed and they let me go long enough to run away. Out on the street though, I was crying and just wanted to run back to the hotel, we ran into two older men. One was the owner of our hotel, he had recognized us and they stopped a police man for us. Appearantly the same thing had happened to some other of his guests the night before and he was just out to keep an eye on that bar. So there started a long night of questioning, very poor translating and numerous incidents that made loose all faith I ever had in the Peruvian police system. For example, when driving us to the police station they almost put the waitress in the back seat with us. They let a bunch of her friends come along (the two men were unfortunatly long gone) and they waited out side the police station. The poilce men kep coming and going and we had to repeat our story probably ten times to a bunch of people who spoke no English. When they were finally done with us, they weren´t going to drive us back across midnight Lima to out hotel, instead we had to take a cab. I forced a police woman to walk out with us though, and wait till we had gotten into a car since one of the guys waiting for the waitress looked like he ate gringos like us for breakfast.
So all I wanted to do today was get the hell out of Lima. But Dylan woke up puking this morning, so it looks like we are here for at least one more night. Staying in tonight though.... and never again are we going to local bars alone, never again am I ordering something at shady places without knowing what it costs first and hopefully will I sleep without nightmares tonight and Dylan will wake up feeling better tomorrow and we can go on with our travellings in nicer, safer places.
We had bought bread, cheese and olives at the market and decided to just stay in our room and have a cheap, simple kind of dinner to ourselves. At about 8, we decided to go for a walk around the block to maybe grab some dessert or a drink somewhere. As we walked by this kind of shady looking bar on the seccond floor of a building, two men standing on the balcony yelled at us to come upstairs and check out their place, said they had specials, live music and what not. We decided to give it a chance and walked in and up the stairs. The two dudes, one really skinny, gay looking fellow and one older, more stocky guy, came half way down the stairs and practically dragged us up and sat us down at a table. They both spoke decent English, enough to be understod, and were soooo excited we were there. We were the only foregneirs in the place, also (as we realized later) the only guests in the place. The stocky guy asked what we wanted to drink, when we hesitated he said we had to try the Pisco Sour, the Peruvian national drink and the best the bar had to offer. We agreed and Dylan said to order two. Then the gay dude tilted his head and gave Dylan this akward puppy-eyed look and asked if he would "pleeeease order me one too?" That right there was strange enough to get the hell out, but we didn´t. Dylan said "fine, 3 drinks" and the stocky friend jumped up and ran to the bar to order. While we waited, they offered us to buy drugs and even though we were pretty clear about not being interested they were really presistent. They said it was ok, that they had closed the doors downstairs and that nobody would come into the bar for the rest of the night. At this point I was pretty freaked out and really just wanted to leave. But right then the drinks came and they stopped talking about drugs, the waitress brought glasses for everyone and a big pitcher of Pisco Sour. I realized that wasn´t what we ordered, but figured maybe that´s just how they serve them when you order more than two..... but no. Tow more pitchers came in, together with three shots of pure pisco. They wanted us to drink them, we said no and started asking who had orderd them and how much it would all cost. Dylan got up and went to the bar to pay "our" bill, the two guys went after him and since I was too scared to sit alone I went after them too.
Sure enough, it was just one bill, our bill and it was at 300 soles (about 100 US dollars). Dylan was pissed and kept saying how unreasonable it was, that we had ordered 3 drinks not 3 pitchers and that no way in hell was he going to pay. The stocky dude kept giving him these pats on the back, repeating lines from some frat movie like "come on man, it aint that bad", "you gotta pay that shit man" and "just pay up bro´, no biggie" his gay friend who had begged for a drink offered to pay his part, a third of the bill, saying "listen, that´s fair even though you said you´d pay, I pay my drink and you pay your two". It was such an obvious scam and the waitress was pissed, yelling that someone had to pay, in Spanish...she spoke no English. Finally Dylan offered to pay 40 soles, which is more than enough for 3 actual drinks but they weren´t having it. The waitress started talking about the police, which me and D thought was a great idea, but that freked the two guys out and they blocked the way to the stairs so we couldn´t leave. I took the 40 out of my purse and handed it to the waitress who got even more mad, screamed NOOO and grabbed me by the arm so I wouldn´t try to run. Dylan pushed the guys out of the way and headed down the stairs so I pulled loose from the arm grip and went after him, but then one of the guys (I couldn´t see who) grabbed my purse that I had around my shoulders and pulled me down so I fell on my back on the stairs. I screamed, the waitress screamed and they let me go long enough to run away. Out on the street though, I was crying and just wanted to run back to the hotel, we ran into two older men. One was the owner of our hotel, he had recognized us and they stopped a police man for us. Appearantly the same thing had happened to some other of his guests the night before and he was just out to keep an eye on that bar. So there started a long night of questioning, very poor translating and numerous incidents that made loose all faith I ever had in the Peruvian police system. For example, when driving us to the police station they almost put the waitress in the back seat with us. They let a bunch of her friends come along (the two men were unfortunatly long gone) and they waited out side the police station. The poilce men kep coming and going and we had to repeat our story probably ten times to a bunch of people who spoke no English. When they were finally done with us, they weren´t going to drive us back across midnight Lima to out hotel, instead we had to take a cab. I forced a police woman to walk out with us though, and wait till we had gotten into a car since one of the guys waiting for the waitress looked like he ate gringos like us for breakfast.
So all I wanted to do today was get the hell out of Lima. But Dylan woke up puking this morning, so it looks like we are here for at least one more night. Staying in tonight though.... and never again are we going to local bars alone, never again am I ordering something at shady places without knowing what it costs first and hopefully will I sleep without nightmares tonight and Dylan will wake up feeling better tomorrow and we can go on with our travellings in nicer, safer places.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Just made it to capital # 3 - Lima
We have now made it to Lima and so far it´s my favourite capital in South Amrica. This is based on an awesome hotel, right down town in a really cool old building with a bunch of old roman statues and furniture, our room is on the fourth floor with a roof top terrace view over the city....it´s nice, and not at all expensive as you would think. We just took a walk around the neighborhood and had some delicious street food and saw some random street performers... far from Bogota that turned into ghost town at 6 pm. Tomorrow I think we are going to try and check out the central market and I also really need to get a haircut.
The bus ride here was shorter than I had thought, only about 6 hours. But a kid behind us puked all over the floor when we drove through the mountains and so we had to stop to get the bus cleaned up. He puked a lot too, it splashed up on my legs...gross. But it is nice that they cleaned it up, in China they just let it sit on the floor together with the baby pee.
Other than that, not much else is new. Watching TV and sleeping in a real bed last night was everything I thought it would be, wonderful.
The bus ride here was shorter than I had thought, only about 6 hours. But a kid behind us puked all over the floor when we drove through the mountains and so we had to stop to get the bus cleaned up. He puked a lot too, it splashed up on my legs...gross. But it is nice that they cleaned it up, in China they just let it sit on the floor together with the baby pee.
Other than that, not much else is new. Watching TV and sleeping in a real bed last night was everything I thought it would be, wonderful.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
back in Huaraz
We just came back into civilisation and decided that after three nights on very questionable sleeping mats in not all waterproof tents, we didn´t want to jump on a night bus tonight. So we got a pretty cheap room at a really decent hotel (with TV, can´t wait to watch!! I don´t even care what´s on) and are staying in Huaraz tonight and taking a morning bus to Lima tomorrow.
The hike, though was really good. We really lucked out with the weather (it only rained the first night and a few hours last night after the tents were already set up) and the scenery was just amazing. Dylan will surely post some pictures on facebook soon. We covered about 56 km I think, and went through a pass at 4750 m. Except for some painful head aches, though we both felt fine the whole time. Hiking without gear is really a lot better than carrying all your own stuff and Dylan now thinks about buying a donkey for future Idaho backpacking.... I vote he then also hires a donkey driver to cook our food and set up our tents.
In our group was (except for the two of us, the guides and the donkey drivers) a French couple that was really quiet (I don´t even remember their names, I just refered to them as Frank and Francis), 8 Isrealis that were really nice, really slow and sang the whole time and Torunn and Travis that we don´t really like so much anymore are now kind of trying to dodge.... It´s not like we got in a fight or anything, I just decided she´s a bossy besserwisser and everytime she opened her mouth I wished she would close it again and Dylan started rolling his eyes and making comments about Scandinavians always being up someone´s ass, which is unfair...she´s Norweigan, don´t blame the rest of us. Anyway, you can´t be best friends with everybody, I guess. Especially not me who may not be the best at cutting people a break....and I know that.
Last night T&T stayed in their own tent and ate their dinner without the rest of the group while me and Dylan joined the Israelis for some Jewish holiday celebration which (in the Peruvian mountains) included eggs, cookies and a lot of singing. What really cracked me up was when they realized I was Swedish, just like Charlotte Perelli and they all started singing "Take me to your heaven" from the top of their lungs.
Out of all the people we meet, the majority is definitly either from Holland or Israel. A lot of Aussies moving around SA too, but I have yet to meet a fellow Swede.
The hike, though was really good. We really lucked out with the weather (it only rained the first night and a few hours last night after the tents were already set up) and the scenery was just amazing. Dylan will surely post some pictures on facebook soon. We covered about 56 km I think, and went through a pass at 4750 m. Except for some painful head aches, though we both felt fine the whole time. Hiking without gear is really a lot better than carrying all your own stuff and Dylan now thinks about buying a donkey for future Idaho backpacking.... I vote he then also hires a donkey driver to cook our food and set up our tents.
In our group was (except for the two of us, the guides and the donkey drivers) a French couple that was really quiet (I don´t even remember their names, I just refered to them as Frank and Francis), 8 Isrealis that were really nice, really slow and sang the whole time and Torunn and Travis that we don´t really like so much anymore are now kind of trying to dodge.... It´s not like we got in a fight or anything, I just decided she´s a bossy besserwisser and everytime she opened her mouth I wished she would close it again and Dylan started rolling his eyes and making comments about Scandinavians always being up someone´s ass, which is unfair...she´s Norweigan, don´t blame the rest of us. Anyway, you can´t be best friends with everybody, I guess. Especially not me who may not be the best at cutting people a break....and I know that.
Last night T&T stayed in their own tent and ate their dinner without the rest of the group while me and Dylan joined the Israelis for some Jewish holiday celebration which (in the Peruvian mountains) included eggs, cookies and a lot of singing. What really cracked me up was when they realized I was Swedish, just like Charlotte Perelli and they all started singing "Take me to your heaven" from the top of their lungs.
Out of all the people we meet, the majority is definitly either from Holland or Israel. A lot of Aussies moving around SA too, but I have yet to meet a fellow Swede.
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