Just arrived in Panama City

From now on we are going to try to do a better job of posting more regularly even if we don´t have a really interesting story to share. We realize there are a few of you out there who really look forward to updates (Dad, this is for you). Also, if there are people out there besides our parents who check our blog . . . we would really love it if you would comment and let us know! Those of you who have commented (everyone knows who you are), we cherish every single word you type!



So we just arrived at a hostel in Panama City after 30 hours of traveling. We had a 21 hour bus ride from Cusco to Lima that we barely made because Tessa was waiting to pick up some handmade boots she had custom ordered while Alisa stalled the bus for 20 minutes by telling them that Tessa had terrible diarrhea. This was a bus company that´s reputation is based on their timeliness . . . let´s just say the staff did not love us . . . and we learned a few lessons. First, when the bus company tells you to be at the station at 1:30 for a bus that leaves at 2:00, you should probably be there at 1:2o, not at 2:20. Second, always put down the minimum down payment on custom made boots, not the maximum. We live and learn . . .



On our 21 bus ride, in which half the passengers seemed to be throwing up throughout, 6 movies were played at incredibly high volume. All 6 were American but 5 out of 6 were dubbed into Spanish. 3 of the movies were prison movies (two of which were incredibly violent and graphic, plus they played ¨Unfaithful¨ . . . unedited . . . with children on the bus) and 2 were Adam Sandler movies. One was both an Adam Sandler movie and a prison movie. What more could we have asked for?



P.S. If anyone has any ideas for what to do in Central America or any contacts, we have absolutely no plans and would love any help, especially with homestays!

The long and winding road to Machu Picchu

Alisa and I arrived into Cusco the morning of the 23 and went in search of our Servas host for the night. We had the address - a home on Avenida Camino Real and so we hopped in a taxi and asked to be taken there. A few minutes later, we´d arrived! Except for what should have been a house looked more like a hotel . . . it turns out we had the right street but the wrong city! The wrong Camino Real.

Uh . . . no problem . . . Two buses and 3 hours later we arrived at the correct Camino Real in the small and beautiful town of Urubamba. We had the privilege of staying with the wonderful Senor Yoyo, his incredible family, his three dogs, and his two talking parrots. They took us out to a delicious Peruvian lunch and we spent the evening sharing magic tricks and travel stories.



0800: There is a train that takes people directly to Machu Picchu but we decide to take the scenic (aka cheaper) route. We begin our journey by heading to the bus stop to catch a bus we think is coming at 8:30am.
1030: Our bus finally comes. We board.
1200: We watch rocks slide off the mountain and into the road.

1201: Our bus drives straight through the rock slide.

1209: We stop to fix the flat tire . . . who would have guessed??

1210: Someone in the back yells ¨We´re missing three people!¨

1212: Three out of breath people climb onto the bus.

1221: We stop again to fix the flat tire.

1630: After an incredibly twisty but beautiful drive through the sacred valley, we arrive Santa Maria.

1645: Us and 21 others squeeze ourselves into 12 passenger van.

1700: All 23 of us get out of the van and walk a particularly narrow part of the road . . . not sure why . . . something having to do with the van being too heavy . . .

1745: All 23 of us pile out and off the van again. This time just to take in the beautiful views.

1845: Two hours later we arrive in Santa Teresa and grab some cheese and avacado sandwiches to take with us in the next van. It is now down to just us and 10 boys from Chile. We realize the route we are on is nicknamed ¨The Chilean Route¨ for a reason.

1900: We arrive at the ¨hydroelectrico¨ and begin following the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, the town next to Machu Picchu. We have to cross a few rivers.2200: We finally make it to Aguas Calientes and go in search of a hostel. The Chileans go in search of a campsite (they ended up sleeping for free at the police station . . . if only we´d known).

0030: We finally get to sleep.

0500: We wake up to catch the first bus (5:30am) to Machu Picchu.

0600: 22 hours later, we finally make it to Machu Picchu. Alisa is so excited she tries to hug the llamas. We ran into some of the Chileans again and hike to the top Wayna Picchu. It was a really steep climb but we walked really slowly and absorbed lots of energy just like our guide told us to. It was really wet and cold but we were lucky to catch glimpses of Machu Picchu and the surrouding area when the clouds moved. (In this picture, the clouds have not moved.)

Really, really wet and dirty now, we walk back down to Aguas Calientes instead of taking the bus.

All in all, Machu Picchu was absolutely wonderful and half the fun was the adventure of getting there.

Colca Canyon: The Trek of a Lifetime

We met up with a good crew of people on our bus ride to Arequipa (I think the puppet show cemented our friendship). Iain, Thijs (he is from Holland...does anyone know the difference between Holland and the Netherlands, feel free to comment), Rob (graduated a Santa Cruz slug), and Pascoe (also known as the 29 year old birthday boy...as evidenced on the birthday crown we made him). We went out on the town to celebrate. Luckily, the night before, we had discovered an incredibly romantic (according to all of the Peruvians) karaoke/dance-the-night-away bar (for all those reading from Eugene, the place was as close to Skate World as you can get....we could not have asked for more). The guys tried to veto our suggestion and, at first, were very reserved. They warmed up quickly and, after the first song, we could no longer access the microphone.

This night, which should have ended early in preparation for the 5 am trekking departure, carried on with great strength until the wee hours of the morning (we got home around 4 15 am).

Not too far from Arequipa, Peru is Colca Canyon, one of the world´s largest canyons. We went on a three day trip trekking down and up the canyon. The views were breath-taking, we stayed in a tiny village nestled into the canyon wall, and we got to see condors in flight. On the second day of our trek we had the opportunity to dress up in traditional Peruvian outfits. This is our trekking group, all of whom we loved. Our favorite moment was during our first day of rigorous trekking (the day after our night of birthday celebrations) when the other groups somehow ended up far ahead and our whole group had stopped to eat cheese and smoke cigarettes.

So far we have twirled in every country.

Tessa and I were, by far, the most athletic and adventurous trekkers in the group (we really did choose to bring up the rear) and we really were planning on hiking back out of the canyon...but then we discovered the mules. Actually, these mules begged to take us up the canyon. We wanted to hike out of the depths of this canyon yet we succumbed to their constant pleading, we both ended up riding up hte canyon on the back of the mules.

How to Prevent Boredom: Finger Puppet Shows

We got incredibly bored on our bus ride from Cochabamba, Bolivia to Arequipa, Peru and so we decided to put on a puppet show in Spanish, much to the amusement of everyone in the back of the bus. Hand-knit finger puppets are for sale every where in Bolivia and Peru and they are Tessa´s new addiction (Mom, these are going to be family heirlooms). We already had 15 at this point so we busted them out and tried to convince kids to play with us. We finally recruited these three young-uns. They got a little aggressive with the puppets, however, which was a little disconcerting because they are valued family heirlooms in the making.

In the middle of playing, a man got up in front of the bus and started trying to sell miracle pills. On most any bus someone gets up and tries to sell something, but this guy was especially irritating and yelled for well over an hour. At one point Alisa put her hair up in the bottle to amuse the kids and the man stopped talking and wouldn´t start again until Alisa took her hair down. We were playing first! The indignity.

An entire world of very, very little things

This is long overdue, but back in La PAz, Bolivia we went to a market called Alasitas. It is a gigantic market (seriously, we kept getting lost) made up of hundreds of stalls selling millions of very little things.
The idea behind it is that you buy in miniature whatever you want to come true in the coming year. There was absolutely everything: all kinds of foods, tools, tiny stores, armies, animals, intenet cafes, graduation certificates, marriage certificates (including fake miniature marriage ceremonies with miniature bottles of champagne), and even divorce certificates.

There were also chocolate and candy coated grapes - incredibly delicious.

We bought very little suitcases and ate lots of very little churros (stuffed with dulce de leche).

Bolivia in all it's glory

After that terrible overnight bus ride mentioned below, we finally arrived in Uyuni, Bolivia at 4.30 am. We took advantage of the free space and slept on the bus for a few hours until they kicked us off. At 10 am we embarked on a 3 day jeep tour to explore the natural wonders of southern Bolivia.



This is the world's largest salt flat.

Alisa is really small.

She's still really small.

Gravity does not exist on salt flats . . . a little known fact.

We saw lots of crazy boulders.

And lots of llamas!
This is the desert that inspired some of Salvador Dali's paintings. Our tour guide told us that he rode through here on a camel . . . this is the first news of camels in South America . . . the tour was amazing.

This is one of the many lagoons we saw. The colors were even more vivid in person. The little pink dots are flamingoes!


Our friend, Camilla. We are still trying to figure out the difference between lagoons and lakes. We asked many people and the only response we received was that lagoons were smaller. This just does not seem right. If anyone has ideas on this, let us know.

Carnaval, Coca, and T-Mo

Our Carnaval experiences in Rio de Janeiro, La Paz, and Cochabamba all deserve a lengthy (and quite animated) blog entry. ..time is of the essence though, so we will briefly skim over a few of the high-lights.

Carnaval:

Every single person that we have met on this trip has told us to BE CAREFUL at all Carnaval celebrations...we kept that in mind.

In Rio, we put up a magical hairstyle and were immediately beckoned over by a group of five or so Brasilians. They proceeded to share all of their food and drinks with us for the rest of the day.

In La Paz, we were targeted with balloons (that entry is below). We found out later that there is actually a reason why water ballons are thrown. During Carnaval fire crackers are set off to scare the dangerous spirits out of hiding and then water balloons are thrown to send them back into the earth. These spirits are not good or bad, just dangerous (T-Mo, if you could explain more about Carnaval/clarify in a comment, we would deeply appreciate it). We figure we did our fair share to help send those spirits back into the ground. Bolivia should thank us.

So, as we set off for Cochabamba, Bolivia, we felt fairly confident in ourselves. As much as everyone had warned us that robbery, drugging, massive water balloon attacks, and violence were all quite commonplace, we figured that we had survived so far with flying colors.

We then arrived in Cochabamba and met up with our friend, T-Mo. He is living in a homestay in Bolivia and working on his Spanish. The previous weekend he went to celebrate Carnaval in Oruoro (another city in Bolivia). Apparently, he was drugged and then robbed. I guess they (the infamous druggers) slipped something into his drink. They waited until he went to the bathroom and then knocked him out and stole everything on him (including his camera...an interesting side note: Alisa left her camera cord in Brazil and would have been unable to transfer photos for the rest of our journey..oddly enough, T-Mo´s encounter left him with a useless camera cord that he in turn passed on to us). After hearing his story, we decided against taking our cameras (and our valuables) to our last Carnaval celebration.

We did, however, get a few photos the night before. Here we are chewing coca leaves with T-Mo. The coca plant is an incredibly important part of Bolivian culture. The vast majority of Bolivians seem to chew the leaves or drink coca tea at least on occasion. Many, however, chew the leaves non-stop in order to get through the grueling work day (a major factor in Bolivia's large mining industry). Coca is said to help stave off hunger, alleviate elevation sickness, and cure headaches and stomach pains. Coca also plays an important role in spiritual rituals.

T-Mo also informed us that although Coca-Cola says that they no longer put actual coca in their soft drinks, in reality they buy the Bolivian flavoring through an intermediary. We also heard that Bolivia is suing Coca-Cola to get them to admit they use it or take "coca" out of the name. If any knows more, please share.

and celebrating T-Mo´s mother´s birthday. This is also our Cochabamba Carnaval crew. They took us under their wing.

Happy Valentine's Day from Us to You

Our Valentine's Day this year began far too early when we woke up at 4.30 am to go look at some geysers and mudpots. It was freezing cold. We don't think it's necessary to wake up at 4.30 to appreciate mudpots, as cool as they are.


Afterwards, however, we warmed up in a hotspring.

Later that day, out jeep broke down in the desert.


We passed the time as best we could . . .


Then we went to a volcano!


Happy Valentine's Day! We *heart* you.

A day that began wonderfully turned miserable as we sat in the train station for hours waiting for our 1.45 AM train. Why would any train leave at 1.45 am? Luckily Alisa scored a new jacket that day (Thanks, Camilla!). Valentine's Day ended with one of the worst nights of our lives as we huddled in our sleeping bags in our terribly uncomfortable, absolutely freezing $4 train seats.* All in all, the longest Valentine's day ever.

*The only night worse was the overnight bus ride 3 days earlier in which we made the huge mistake of offering to share our seat with first, a lady, her baby, and a grown man, and second, a little boy. We thought the little boy couldn't be half as bad as sharing 2 bus seats with 5 people, but the boy managed to fall asleep in a way that took up over one seat leaving us with less than one seat between us. I never knew two bodies could contort into so many painful positions. Alisa and I will never share bus seats again.

Makeover One: La Paz, Bolivia

We went into the salon and asked for the most beautiful hairstyle that they could fathom....and they delivered.

Tessa´s locks of love

The bangs are not fully evident in this photo...you can only imagine.


And Alisa´s turn:

All seemed quite normal at this point...

And I started wondering...

I guess a few things might have been lost in translation...

She told us that it would last anywhere from one to three months.

And the final product.

La Paz, The City of Peace: South America´s Biggest Lie

Today we went for a walk exploring La Paz, Bolivia and at first everything seemed very quiet (it is a national holiday). All of the shops were closed and everyone seemed to be resting. We noticed a few people wearing ponchos and were taken aback (it was a little bit like seeing the abounding Pringles in ¨Brazil¨) It is a warm sunny day and it seems quite ridiculous to dawn a poncho in this cloudless sky.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a water balloon hits Alisa in the back. For the next hour, we were bombarded periodiocally by balloons, super soakers, and shaving cream. At this point, however, most of the hits we were receiving were from little smiling children (who are being encouraged by their fathers) and drive by shootings (of shaving cream and super soakers, of course).

We decide to treat ourselves to a peaceful lunch in the plaza where we figure we can get an intimate viewing of the water escapades, but not get too intimately involved. The plaza is full of families and little children playing together. Eventually, we decide that we should probably join in. So we buy a mere ten water balloons and get ready for the fun to ensue.

In no time we were engaged in a full on water battle, unlike any we could have ever conceived, within minutes we were SOAKING wet and bruised (both internally and externally...truly the force that these children throw with is unparalleled).

Tessa: ¨I don´t know if i should aim for the feet or the body!¨
Alisa: ¨Aim for the face. They´re hitting us hard!¨

(I feel like I should explain myself. We truly were being clobbered and these kids had no respect for any personal boundaries..nor our passports, cameras, or important personal documents).

We started gathering children to protect us and then hired them out to buy balloons and attack our most serious enemies, mainly a four year old boy who had the best aim and a never-ending water supply. Eventually we had spent the great majority of our daily stipend on water balloons. Finally, we were forced to give up and retreat.

Soaking wet and cold, we start the long walk home. Little do we know, our troubles have just begun. We continue to be tormented by water balloons and shaving cream our whole walk. At one point, we had to cross streets and enter the main avenue, and it is like walking through a gauntlet. Now our attackers are no longer little children but gangs of teenage boys. We are like sitting ducks. Out-armed, out-skilled, and out-numbered. Suddenly, a gang of at least 15 athletic 14-17 year olds attacked, with their full might. Alisa started running. Tessa thought it would be wise to duck and cover, and she obviously suffered the consequences. Okay, maybe she wasnt thinking it was wise to duck and cover, in war-like situations, there is no time to think. Either way, she was getting destroyed. Balloons pelting from all angles and they seemed to never cease. I think we were the only ones screaming for our dear lives on these streets.

It also seemed as if everyone could tell that we were foreigners. As the balloon crashed against Tessa´s skull, we heard one man shout, ¨Welcome to Bolivia.¨

At this point we were exhausted, and truly hoping for a respite. We then passed a kind older man and his son who looked us in the eyes and pleasantly remarked that they would not attack. Moments later, the father crushed his balloon over Alisa´s head.

With our hostel in sight, we assumed that we were in the clear. However, we saw a group of kids lying in wait twenty feet ahead. We moved to the other side of the street and started sprinting. All the kids chased after us, as wild as ever. Definitely the best work out we have ever encountered (and at this altitude, even a simple walk up a short flight of stairs is quite the work out).

Funny that the one advice we were given was to ¨TAKE IT EASY ON YOUR FIRST DAY IN LA PAZ¨ yet this was, by far, the most intense day of our lives.