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.
1 comment:
Hey guys!
The trip seems awesome so far - I don't know how you guys always seem to meet some local who'll take you in for the night!
In any case, about Holland: there's no difference. The country is officially the Netherlands, but for historical reasons, Holland is often used in English and a few other languages. I believe Holland is actually just the name of a couple provinces in the Netherlands. You can think of it as similar to calling the UK "Britain"; even though Great Britain technically doesn't include Northern Ireland, most people use UK and Britain interchangeably.
Have a great trip!
Kevin from Eugene
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