I guess this means that we busted, because we certainly didn't make it to Buenos Aires, haha. We didn't even make it to Argentina! More on that momentarily.
So Friday in Cuzco we wandered around and explored and the city is AWESOME with architecture and everything but fuck man there are SO many tourists and the people there just swarm you like hungry flies
"taxi? taxi? manicure? massage? massage? massage?! TATTOO PIERCING PEDICURE MANICURE TAXI TAXI TAXI TAXI TAXI" *head explodes*
anyways. we went to dinner and i had really good soup and Anton had GUINEA PIG! Yep, guinea pig. I have a pic and everything. It was the full little guy, all shriveled up and roasted. So ridiculous. He said it was good, "kinda like chicken but with a better flavor." I had to take his word for it since I couldn't really chew.
I wasn't feeling in top form (obviously) so after food I watched Anton drink a bit at this place called Kamikazee, which we found after like an hour of searching because there are like no bars there only restaurants which also sucked.
Saturday we were wandering around trying to figure out Machu Picchu for the next day and I just was dying and one of my teeth was just throbbing and we were looking at practically a week of overnight buses and Anton was miserable because he was so worried about me and we just decided fuck it, let's go home. We were going to have to rush through Bolivia (like not even stopping in a single town rush, not just hurry) and only go to two places in Argentina and also we were only going to be able to spend one night at lake Titicaca and rush through Machu Picchu and it was just so shitty. So, we bought tickets home! PLUS we're going to sign up for the Inca Trail in March, which is a 4 day hike INTO Machu Picchu that's supposed to be AMAZING that you have to book 6 months in advance, and PLUS ALSO we still have our return tickets from Buenos Aires, so we have to go back and do Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, and do them right. So I think it worked out for the best.
Anyways, upon deciding this we went and i ate spaghetti and Anton ate pizza and SALCHIPAPAS, which are AWESOME little sausage guys cut up and mixed with french fries. Such a great duo.
That night we did more wandering and such, we found a good bar for happy hour that night and had a few drinks. Well I had a few drinks, Anton had a few more. We also made friends with the bartenders Grainne and Rob, who are now my facebook friends. Very exciting stuff, people.
Sunday we returned to said bar. AND it was a drunken FEST on Anton's part, I was designated caretaker. He was so drunk, it was fabulous. We met this cool girl Gemma from Australia who we talked to for hours and hours about tons of offensive topics, and her ex boyfriend who she was traveling with (weird right?) Daniel and their red haired dude friend whose name I forget. Anton got so drunk he could barely walk and was passionately arguing with me about whether the plaza we were in (we'd walked there with our Aussie friends so they could club and we could go home), was in fact, the main plaza (it was). He was determined we were very far away (our hostel was like a block away from the main plaza) and kept trying to take a taxi and shit. All these drug dealers were swarming us going "Weed? Weed? Weed? Cocaine? Weed? Weed?" And I'm like HE CAN BARELY WALK I DON'T THINK HE NEEDS ANY FUCKING WEED. And Anton is rambling trying to ask them if it's Plaza De Las Armas, and they say yes and then he's like "NO! No! It's not here, but HERE *pointing far away as the drug dealers shake their heads in confusion*" I finally convinced him that I knew where we were going and got him home. It was spectacular.
The next day we began the dumbest flight itinerary in the history of man.
Cuzco to Lima.
Lima to Houston.
Houston to Mexico City.
Mexico City to Houston.
Houston to Phoenix.
Yeah. That's right. We went to Mexico City for NO REASON. But those two extra flights saved us A THOUSAND DOLLARS. I just CAN'T figure out why the airlines are losing so much money a year? SO strange.
Anyways, so we're home and I went Wednesday and got my teeth worked on and the one had a splinter broken off all the way to the root so I'm gonna get that crowned in a few weeks but they didn't want to do it now because they don't want to strain my jaw. Which is still sore. So Tramadol is still being a very good friend.
When we got home I was SO happy to see Drew at the airport and then so happy to see my parents and brother and lauren and then LIKE THE HAPPIEST IN THE WORLD to see my son, Crooked Tail, and wednesday we just layed around all day (except the dentist appt) which was wonderful and then last night I got wings and got to drink 50 cent coronas and see my bff's Chuck and Trevor and yeah, it's good to be home, though I already miss my travels.
If we weren't already planning our next bout of travels I don't think I could take it, it's already the light at the end of another tunnel for me. So, until March, I guess this guy is about closed up. I'll probably put some pictures on here I guess, but I've got to figure out a good way to get them all together because I have over 1600 of them so I'm trying to decide how I want to go about it. Maybe a website or jut buzznet or something...we'll see.
In closing, South America and Central America kick complete ass. I can't wait to go back.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Making it to Peru, Lima disaster.
It has been a rough few days. But we have made it to Cuzco. Where to begin...
Well, the 12 hour bus ride from Quito to the border town Huaquillas took 14 hours, and when we arrived in that SHITTY town we found the worst organized border crossing we´ve encountered ever. To get stamped out of Peru, you had to catch a cab from the bus terminal 4KM back to the immigration, which the bus PASSED but didn´t stop at, forcing everyone to take a cab. The guy told us 4 dollars to drive us there and to the Peru side. We agreed, and went and got stamped out, then he was driving us back and stopped in the middle of the road. He´s like "Oh I can´t go any further, this is Peru now". Okay fine whatever we said, so then we got out and were looking for the Peru immigration office. We asked someone, they´re like "Oh, it´s 3KM ahead." EVERY other border crossing has been walkable, except for one or two where we took a bicycle cart out of laziness. This was ridiculous. So we got a little Took Took (little motorcycle cart taxis that were all over guatemala, and a little bit here) for a dollar to this totally unlabled non descript building. We NEVER would have found it without a taxi. They´re just forcing you into it, jerks.
Anyways. So we managed that, and this was about 730 or so. We were hoping for an 8 oclock bus or a 9 oclock bus since it was 17 hours to Lima and we had to be at the airport by 440 or 500 at the latest. No deal. Earliest bus was at 11AM. And it took 16-18, which means 19. Only in this case it meant 20. Tuesday on the bus all day was rather unexciting, we ate corn on the cob and stopped at a shitty cafeteria
place and managed to get quite a bit of sleep with the help of some rum...only 6AM ruined all of that. At 6 in the "$/(%" morning, this dude gets on and is talking EXTREMELY LOUD in Spanish about some shit, some dude just trying to get money for this and this and that and that. He woke us both up and Anton was freaking out and I was trying to calm him down by telling him he´d stop soon. Like 15 minutes later he was just begging the guy "Get off the bus!! It´s 6 in the morning!! GET OFF THE BUS" so then the guy was like trying to get money and still yelling so Anton tried to hand him a wrapper of some sort while I told him we´d been on this bus for TWENTY HOURS and he WOKE ME UP and could he please be LESS LOUD and the guy said something
else to the people and then TWO people through soda bottles (one empty, one half full) and hit Anton in the head. After a life of being super tall being hit on the head is like his least favorite thing, so he freaked out and stood up and was yelling and I was trying to restrain him and not laugh because he was a bit tipsy still from the rum and all the people in the back (and whoever through the waterbottles) just froze and looked so uncomfortable and just stared at their feet. It was so ridiculous, they were terrified of him. Not that I wouldn´t be, but yeah. Very very ridiculous and frustrating. The guy FINALLY got off the bus after like a half hour. I couldn´t believe it. Try that in America. Try getting on a bus from Portland to Arizona at 6AM after the people have been cramped and miserable for 20 hours and yelling shit and collecting donations. You´d be thrown out the door within 2 minutes. Or shot. Sweet sweet US, almost makes me miss you.
Anyways, so we get to Peru at about 700 and take a bus to the airport so we can figure out our tickets and we find out that our flight has been delayed till 1030 so we can still get on. "Great!" we say, maybe pissing off the maybe was maybe wasn´t preacher won´t curse our day. No deal. After telling us we could get on and us celebrating she was like "oh, wait, I only have 1 seat. We switched from a 150 passanger plane to a 120 passanger plane. Sorry." That would have been much better to hear before feeling overwhelming relief and celebrating, afterwards it was just another blow. Sigghh... And you can´t talk to people here like you can in the States. She said the tickets were non refundable, and I was like, "Well isn´t it the airlines fault that we can´t get on since we are here before the plane left and there are no seats? I mean, if we´d found out the flight was delayed by calling or
something and didn´t show up till now what would happen?" And she flips out and starts being like "You are VERY late, this is not my fault, I´m just trying to HELP" and getting all bitchy and I was like "GEEZ calm down, I wasn´t saying it´s YOUR fault, it just seems like a weird policy" and then Anton sent me away because I was making things worse because 38 hours en route and 30 minutes of being preached to in Spanish at 6AM makes me a bit of a bitch, I´m afraid. So anyways, the girl was very helpful in the end and I was definitely wrong in how I talked to her, but you can get away with that shit in the states. We would have got a refund no problem considering the reason the plane was delayed was because they had to switch planes so if we had been there on time we STILL might not have been able to fly. Whatever though.
So we were told to come back the next morning and we could hopefully fly out then.
AND SO BEGAN THE DAY OF MYSTERIES.
We went to a hostel listed in lonely planet that seemed nice, but it was full, but the same people owned another hostel a mile or so away and took us there and it was a really non descript building with no sigh that was really nicely furnished, was more a 3 bedroom apartment than a hostel, though they didn´t have towels so we had to use tshirts, but that happens) and then we were off to explore Lima. I promptly broke my sunglasses. They were $4, so that´s okay. It was a sign of things to come. We walked a couple miles into the main square and literally the day before Anton had been blabbing and talking about how funny it would be to put a clown nose on me and then take me to dinner and when ordering drinks be like "I´ll have a beer...one for the clown too." and I have NO idea where it came from but we laughed and forgot...and then while walking down the streets of Lima there is a peddler guy selling CLOWN NOSES. It was the most ridiculous coincidence. So we bought it and I wore it around and we went and ate some chicken wings and chicken nugget thingys and garlic bread and Anton ate cow hearts and he got to say to the waitress, "oh, and can you get some salt for the clown?" But it was in Spanish and it was, "O, puede traer alguno sal para el buffon?" It was very funny.
Then we went and drank way too much. Unreasonable amounts even for us. I think the joy of finally getting off the bus carried us away...plus the Pisco (the Peru liquor, 45% and not hard to take shots of) was flowing like water. We were in a bar connected to a hostel, and it had tapas so we had some mushrooms stuffed with cheese and something else (it´s fuzzy now) and a cheese/salami/green olive plate that was tasty. While there I broke this little orange glassish ring I´d bought in Antigua. Broken thing number 3. I guess it was okay though because it was due to me laughing so hard I hit the counter and it shattered, so it was broke in merryment. We met a very fabulous gay Peruvian dress designer that spoke good English and yelled with him for awhile. He had quite the crush on Anton, it was very funny. Gay guys LOVE HIM. Gay guys and older women, that´s his decreed market.
Anyways so at some point we made a really old man draw our pictures (which we managed to not lose, score 1) and we think we took a taxi back from the bar because of a mysterious photo where we appear to be in a car but neither of us know for sure, and also unknown is how we knew where the hostel was because when we had to return later (more on that soon) we had no idea and had to go back to the sister hostel to this one to get directions. ANYWAYS.
While being extremely blacked out at our hostel (the hypothesis is we were trying to take a shower because I was naked, which I only know because I ended up with blood on my stomach and lower) I took a fucking nasty fall and split my chin open. I barely remember this. Anton remembers it slightly better, but not really. We managed to get dressed and out the door, and I just remember crying and he thrust 50 soles at the cab driver and told him to FUCKING GET THERE and the guy was like running red lights and driving on sidewalks and other insanity. I vaguely remember being there but I don´t remember the shot they gave me to numb me, I remember a little bit better the 3 stitches I recieved. The visit cost 27 dollars. Then I blacked out again.
Antons memory is a little better at this point and I guess we had to go to the FIRST original hostel because it actually had a name and taxi drivers knew it instead of the signless pseudo apartment we were staying in and get directions to OUR hostel but considering we couldn´t find it this time I can´t imagine we found it the first time so we might have gone to the first hostel TWICE and demanded directions. That is mystery 1.
Somewhere during this night we lost our clown nose. Mystery 2. Also mysterious, there was a entertainment center in the living room that the (foolish) owners had left three bottles of liquor in, Anton got into the rum, but to do so you had to open 2 little glass doors. Come the morning, one was missing without a trace. Mystery 3. And the blood from my wound disappeared at some point (there was nobody else staying there, so did we clean it up? Who knows.) Mystery 4. And the bathroom door was locked from the inside when we awoke that morning. Mystery 5. Also mysterious is what we did for a good 3 hours between blacking out at the bar and me splitting my chin. Did we stay there? Did we go somewhere else? Mystery 6.
Needless to say Thursday was horrendous. Even Anton didn´t feel good. He had a headache and I was a disaster and yeah....needless to say we didn´t wake up at 300 in the morning to Antons lightly beeping watch. We slept till like the afternoon.
And when I say disaster I mean disaster on the grandest of scales. I dare say I felt worse this day then in Cartagena when my vomiting was so loud the maid came to check on me. I was too nauseous to drink anything (without promptly puking) but SO dizzy and weak and miserable because I was SO fucking dehydrated and plus I slammed my jaw sooooo hard the whole thing is sore as shit (though it´s improved slightly today) so yesterday I could barely open my mouth and I was just stuffed full of Tramadol.
I have to say though, Lima was the PERFECT place for this to happen. It can´t be ignored that this is the FIRST place where we´ve seen fucking Jello and Pudding cups at little shops. It was dream food for injured me. So after eating pudding and jello and managing to drink some powerade I was feeling more or less human again so we went and got some sushi. It was very tasty, I mainly had a couple pieces of tuna that could kinda melt in my mouth and then stuck to bowls of miso soup and cups of hot green tea...it was a good cure.
We layed around last night and read our books and went to sleep pretty early and SUCCESSFULLY woke up at 300 in the morning (actually it was 251, a terrible hour to wake up at. If you´re still awake, that´s cool, it´s not like 5 o´clock which is bad no matter if you´re still up or waking up, but yeah, anyways) we hailed a cab and asked him how much it would be. "40 soles," he says. It´s like 3 soles for 1
dollar, so that was ABSURD. We were like no way and started to walk away and he yelled after us "20! 20 soles!" And Anton was like "15" and the guy started grumbling so we were like fine, 20. He drives us to the airport and when we get out Anton goes to pay him with a 50. He gives him back 10. Anton´s like, um, what? And the guys like 40! 40 soles! And so Anton grabs the money back and tells him he can have 20 or nothing, and the guys like 40 40 40! So we just walk away and left him with a few choice words so the guy follows us into the airport pestering Anton but (very amusing) not going NEAR me, like dramatically. Anton was in front and I was in second, and no matter how much slower I walked the guy wouldn´t pass me because he´d have to get closer than like 10 feet and he was terrified. Women may have less rights in these countries but you DO NOT F with somebody elses girlfriend, which is nice for me. Whistle maybe, but beyond that not even the slightest touch or angry word is ever directed to me.
Anyways, so we get to the counter and the guy walks up and tells the guy at the ticket booth that we didn´t pay. We explain that the guy is trying to rip us off by doubling the agreed upon fair, and the counter guy calls over security. (luckily EVERYONE at the airport speaks english, or nearly everyone). They saunter over and within a minute or so it´s obvious that they are completely on our side (I mean even if we were lying, are they going to piss off the rich tourists or the poor taxi driver!?) and PLUS they knew themselves that 40 soles was a RIDICULOUS fair for the airport, we even got them to admit that 20 was a bit of a rip off. But the guy would not back down, and this back and forth went on the whole 15 or 20 minutes we were at the ticket counter, half dealing with the tickets and half dealing with
the crazy taxi driver. About halfway through he was like okay, 20, so then Anton was like, okay Good! And then instantly he was back at 40,and then he went down to 30 and Anton told the guards to tell him that he was getting 20 or nothing, his pick. So AT LAST the guy took the 20 and grumbled off. What a piece of shit! The guards were very nice though, they just laughed and such.
The flight was uneventful (and late, as per usual, even though it was the first flight of the day), and we arrived here and split a taxi with two Israelis into town. It´s a cool city, there looks like there lots of cool buildings and such. We haven´t done much exploring yet, we napped for 5 hours or so and are now here trying to figure out Machu Picchu and such. I´m just glad that we have a few days off till
the 2 day bus ride to Iguasa Falls.
Oh, and if you are reading this Donovan don´t tell mom and dad about my injury, it will just worry them. I´ll tell them upon my return.
Well, the 12 hour bus ride from Quito to the border town Huaquillas took 14 hours, and when we arrived in that SHITTY town we found the worst organized border crossing we´ve encountered ever. To get stamped out of Peru, you had to catch a cab from the bus terminal 4KM back to the immigration, which the bus PASSED but didn´t stop at, forcing everyone to take a cab. The guy told us 4 dollars to drive us there and to the Peru side. We agreed, and went and got stamped out, then he was driving us back and stopped in the middle of the road. He´s like "Oh I can´t go any further, this is Peru now". Okay fine whatever we said, so then we got out and were looking for the Peru immigration office. We asked someone, they´re like "Oh, it´s 3KM ahead." EVERY other border crossing has been walkable, except for one or two where we took a bicycle cart out of laziness. This was ridiculous. So we got a little Took Took (little motorcycle cart taxis that were all over guatemala, and a little bit here) for a dollar to this totally unlabled non descript building. We NEVER would have found it without a taxi. They´re just forcing you into it, jerks.
Anyways. So we managed that, and this was about 730 or so. We were hoping for an 8 oclock bus or a 9 oclock bus since it was 17 hours to Lima and we had to be at the airport by 440 or 500 at the latest. No deal. Earliest bus was at 11AM. And it took 16-18, which means 19. Only in this case it meant 20. Tuesday on the bus all day was rather unexciting, we ate corn on the cob and stopped at a shitty cafeteria
place and managed to get quite a bit of sleep with the help of some rum...only 6AM ruined all of that. At 6 in the "$/(%" morning, this dude gets on and is talking EXTREMELY LOUD in Spanish about some shit, some dude just trying to get money for this and this and that and that. He woke us both up and Anton was freaking out and I was trying to calm him down by telling him he´d stop soon. Like 15 minutes later he was just begging the guy "Get off the bus!! It´s 6 in the morning!! GET OFF THE BUS" so then the guy was like trying to get money and still yelling so Anton tried to hand him a wrapper of some sort while I told him we´d been on this bus for TWENTY HOURS and he WOKE ME UP and could he please be LESS LOUD and the guy said something
else to the people and then TWO people through soda bottles (one empty, one half full) and hit Anton in the head. After a life of being super tall being hit on the head is like his least favorite thing, so he freaked out and stood up and was yelling and I was trying to restrain him and not laugh because he was a bit tipsy still from the rum and all the people in the back (and whoever through the waterbottles) just froze and looked so uncomfortable and just stared at their feet. It was so ridiculous, they were terrified of him. Not that I wouldn´t be, but yeah. Very very ridiculous and frustrating. The guy FINALLY got off the bus after like a half hour. I couldn´t believe it. Try that in America. Try getting on a bus from Portland to Arizona at 6AM after the people have been cramped and miserable for 20 hours and yelling shit and collecting donations. You´d be thrown out the door within 2 minutes. Or shot. Sweet sweet US, almost makes me miss you.
Anyways, so we get to Peru at about 700 and take a bus to the airport so we can figure out our tickets and we find out that our flight has been delayed till 1030 so we can still get on. "Great!" we say, maybe pissing off the maybe was maybe wasn´t preacher won´t curse our day. No deal. After telling us we could get on and us celebrating she was like "oh, wait, I only have 1 seat. We switched from a 150 passanger plane to a 120 passanger plane. Sorry." That would have been much better to hear before feeling overwhelming relief and celebrating, afterwards it was just another blow. Sigghh... And you can´t talk to people here like you can in the States. She said the tickets were non refundable, and I was like, "Well isn´t it the airlines fault that we can´t get on since we are here before the plane left and there are no seats? I mean, if we´d found out the flight was delayed by calling or
something and didn´t show up till now what would happen?" And she flips out and starts being like "You are VERY late, this is not my fault, I´m just trying to HELP" and getting all bitchy and I was like "GEEZ calm down, I wasn´t saying it´s YOUR fault, it just seems like a weird policy" and then Anton sent me away because I was making things worse because 38 hours en route and 30 minutes of being preached to in Spanish at 6AM makes me a bit of a bitch, I´m afraid. So anyways, the girl was very helpful in the end and I was definitely wrong in how I talked to her, but you can get away with that shit in the states. We would have got a refund no problem considering the reason the plane was delayed was because they had to switch planes so if we had been there on time we STILL might not have been able to fly. Whatever though.
So we were told to come back the next morning and we could hopefully fly out then.
AND SO BEGAN THE DAY OF MYSTERIES.
We went to a hostel listed in lonely planet that seemed nice, but it was full, but the same people owned another hostel a mile or so away and took us there and it was a really non descript building with no sigh that was really nicely furnished, was more a 3 bedroom apartment than a hostel, though they didn´t have towels so we had to use tshirts, but that happens) and then we were off to explore Lima. I promptly broke my sunglasses. They were $4, so that´s okay. It was a sign of things to come. We walked a couple miles into the main square and literally the day before Anton had been blabbing and talking about how funny it would be to put a clown nose on me and then take me to dinner and when ordering drinks be like "I´ll have a beer...one for the clown too." and I have NO idea where it came from but we laughed and forgot...and then while walking down the streets of Lima there is a peddler guy selling CLOWN NOSES. It was the most ridiculous coincidence. So we bought it and I wore it around and we went and ate some chicken wings and chicken nugget thingys and garlic bread and Anton ate cow hearts and he got to say to the waitress, "oh, and can you get some salt for the clown?" But it was in Spanish and it was, "O, puede traer alguno sal para el buffon?" It was very funny.
Then we went and drank way too much. Unreasonable amounts even for us. I think the joy of finally getting off the bus carried us away...plus the Pisco (the Peru liquor, 45% and not hard to take shots of) was flowing like water. We were in a bar connected to a hostel, and it had tapas so we had some mushrooms stuffed with cheese and something else (it´s fuzzy now) and a cheese/salami/green olive plate that was tasty. While there I broke this little orange glassish ring I´d bought in Antigua. Broken thing number 3. I guess it was okay though because it was due to me laughing so hard I hit the counter and it shattered, so it was broke in merryment. We met a very fabulous gay Peruvian dress designer that spoke good English and yelled with him for awhile. He had quite the crush on Anton, it was very funny. Gay guys LOVE HIM. Gay guys and older women, that´s his decreed market.
Anyways so at some point we made a really old man draw our pictures (which we managed to not lose, score 1) and we think we took a taxi back from the bar because of a mysterious photo where we appear to be in a car but neither of us know for sure, and also unknown is how we knew where the hostel was because when we had to return later (more on that soon) we had no idea and had to go back to the sister hostel to this one to get directions. ANYWAYS.
While being extremely blacked out at our hostel (the hypothesis is we were trying to take a shower because I was naked, which I only know because I ended up with blood on my stomach and lower) I took a fucking nasty fall and split my chin open. I barely remember this. Anton remembers it slightly better, but not really. We managed to get dressed and out the door, and I just remember crying and he thrust 50 soles at the cab driver and told him to FUCKING GET THERE and the guy was like running red lights and driving on sidewalks and other insanity. I vaguely remember being there but I don´t remember the shot they gave me to numb me, I remember a little bit better the 3 stitches I recieved. The visit cost 27 dollars. Then I blacked out again.
Antons memory is a little better at this point and I guess we had to go to the FIRST original hostel because it actually had a name and taxi drivers knew it instead of the signless pseudo apartment we were staying in and get directions to OUR hostel but considering we couldn´t find it this time I can´t imagine we found it the first time so we might have gone to the first hostel TWICE and demanded directions. That is mystery 1.
Somewhere during this night we lost our clown nose. Mystery 2. Also mysterious, there was a entertainment center in the living room that the (foolish) owners had left three bottles of liquor in, Anton got into the rum, but to do so you had to open 2 little glass doors. Come the morning, one was missing without a trace. Mystery 3. And the blood from my wound disappeared at some point (there was nobody else staying there, so did we clean it up? Who knows.) Mystery 4. And the bathroom door was locked from the inside when we awoke that morning. Mystery 5. Also mysterious is what we did for a good 3 hours between blacking out at the bar and me splitting my chin. Did we stay there? Did we go somewhere else? Mystery 6.
Needless to say Thursday was horrendous. Even Anton didn´t feel good. He had a headache and I was a disaster and yeah....needless to say we didn´t wake up at 300 in the morning to Antons lightly beeping watch. We slept till like the afternoon.
And when I say disaster I mean disaster on the grandest of scales. I dare say I felt worse this day then in Cartagena when my vomiting was so loud the maid came to check on me. I was too nauseous to drink anything (without promptly puking) but SO dizzy and weak and miserable because I was SO fucking dehydrated and plus I slammed my jaw sooooo hard the whole thing is sore as shit (though it´s improved slightly today) so yesterday I could barely open my mouth and I was just stuffed full of Tramadol.
I have to say though, Lima was the PERFECT place for this to happen. It can´t be ignored that this is the FIRST place where we´ve seen fucking Jello and Pudding cups at little shops. It was dream food for injured me. So after eating pudding and jello and managing to drink some powerade I was feeling more or less human again so we went and got some sushi. It was very tasty, I mainly had a couple pieces of tuna that could kinda melt in my mouth and then stuck to bowls of miso soup and cups of hot green tea...it was a good cure.
We layed around last night and read our books and went to sleep pretty early and SUCCESSFULLY woke up at 300 in the morning (actually it was 251, a terrible hour to wake up at. If you´re still awake, that´s cool, it´s not like 5 o´clock which is bad no matter if you´re still up or waking up, but yeah, anyways) we hailed a cab and asked him how much it would be. "40 soles," he says. It´s like 3 soles for 1
dollar, so that was ABSURD. We were like no way and started to walk away and he yelled after us "20! 20 soles!" And Anton was like "15" and the guy started grumbling so we were like fine, 20. He drives us to the airport and when we get out Anton goes to pay him with a 50. He gives him back 10. Anton´s like, um, what? And the guys like 40! 40 soles! And so Anton grabs the money back and tells him he can have 20 or nothing, and the guys like 40 40 40! So we just walk away and left him with a few choice words so the guy follows us into the airport pestering Anton but (very amusing) not going NEAR me, like dramatically. Anton was in front and I was in second, and no matter how much slower I walked the guy wouldn´t pass me because he´d have to get closer than like 10 feet and he was terrified. Women may have less rights in these countries but you DO NOT F with somebody elses girlfriend, which is nice for me. Whistle maybe, but beyond that not even the slightest touch or angry word is ever directed to me.
Anyways, so we get to the counter and the guy walks up and tells the guy at the ticket booth that we didn´t pay. We explain that the guy is trying to rip us off by doubling the agreed upon fair, and the counter guy calls over security. (luckily EVERYONE at the airport speaks english, or nearly everyone). They saunter over and within a minute or so it´s obvious that they are completely on our side (I mean even if we were lying, are they going to piss off the rich tourists or the poor taxi driver!?) and PLUS they knew themselves that 40 soles was a RIDICULOUS fair for the airport, we even got them to admit that 20 was a bit of a rip off. But the guy would not back down, and this back and forth went on the whole 15 or 20 minutes we were at the ticket counter, half dealing with the tickets and half dealing with
the crazy taxi driver. About halfway through he was like okay, 20, so then Anton was like, okay Good! And then instantly he was back at 40,and then he went down to 30 and Anton told the guards to tell him that he was getting 20 or nothing, his pick. So AT LAST the guy took the 20 and grumbled off. What a piece of shit! The guards were very nice though, they just laughed and such.
The flight was uneventful (and late, as per usual, even though it was the first flight of the day), and we arrived here and split a taxi with two Israelis into town. It´s a cool city, there looks like there lots of cool buildings and such. We haven´t done much exploring yet, we napped for 5 hours or so and are now here trying to figure out Machu Picchu and such. I´m just glad that we have a few days off till
the 2 day bus ride to Iguasa Falls.
Oh, and if you are reading this Donovan don´t tell mom and dad about my injury, it will just worry them. I´ll tell them upon my return.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Last of Quito
The futbol game yesterday was good fuckin´ times. It wasn´t international, two teams from Ecuador played, but people still went ape-shit and screamed and jumped up and down for hours and such. We drank big beers for $1.50 (bit different than stadiums in the states). We had to use ice because they were warm but that´s kinda the program in Ecuador, they like their beers and sodas and such warm. Whatever, we´ve managed.
We took a 25 cent bus ride back to our area (the cab ride out was $8, slight savings) and ate some pizza and drank more beers and chilled. Another determined child set his sights upon us, and gazed at us longingly while we ate pizza, this time it was me that broke, and gave him a piece. He was kind of a loser for taking off the tomato and the green olives and the jalapeños but whatever, I´ll let it slide I guess. He was after all like 11.
We then attempted to try and find an internet cafe but Quito SUCKS for the internet. Absolutely sucks. Everything we found was either closed or didn´t have headphones for skype or the headphones they had didn´t work, and considering that was the reason we needed the internet it was no good. We are working on changing our tickets and figuring out when we´re coming back and all this shit and it´s a big pile of chaos. Woo.
So we went back to the hotel and watched movies and Anton drank aguar diente. You, me and Dupree was amusing..though bad...but good in that amusing way that bad movies are.
Today we awoke and got all our shit together and left our bags at the hotel and came to the internet (about the 5th one we tried, as per usual). Now we´re trying to get everything figured out before we embark on our 30 hour bus ride to Lima.
I am SO frickin excited for Peru, Machu Picchu is going to totally kick my ass.
We took a 25 cent bus ride back to our area (the cab ride out was $8, slight savings) and ate some pizza and drank more beers and chilled. Another determined child set his sights upon us, and gazed at us longingly while we ate pizza, this time it was me that broke, and gave him a piece. He was kind of a loser for taking off the tomato and the green olives and the jalapeños but whatever, I´ll let it slide I guess. He was after all like 11.
We then attempted to try and find an internet cafe but Quito SUCKS for the internet. Absolutely sucks. Everything we found was either closed or didn´t have headphones for skype or the headphones they had didn´t work, and considering that was the reason we needed the internet it was no good. We are working on changing our tickets and figuring out when we´re coming back and all this shit and it´s a big pile of chaos. Woo.
So we went back to the hotel and watched movies and Anton drank aguar diente. You, me and Dupree was amusing..though bad...but good in that amusing way that bad movies are.
Today we awoke and got all our shit together and left our bags at the hotel and came to the internet (about the 5th one we tried, as per usual). Now we´re trying to get everything figured out before we embark on our 30 hour bus ride to Lima.
I am SO frickin excited for Peru, Machu Picchu is going to totally kick my ass.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Mas Quito, Ecuador
Man, Quito kicks some serious ass. It is a city that is basically surrounded by mountains, and there are some WILD fucking views that aren´t hard to get to at all. Plus I woke up this morning and wasn´t sick, which also ruled. Not even a little lingering sick, totally A okay.
*Noteworthy: Anton and I have discovered where all the Sacagawea coins have gone. They are all here. Every last one of them. We haven´t gotten single dollar bills for change ONCE. It´s so fucking annoying. We just keep imagining what would happen in the states if you paid for a $1 item with a 5 and got 4 fucking Sacagawea coins back. Sometimes it´s even worse, like 3 Sacajawea coins and two 50 cent pieces. Or like 2 Sacajawea coins, two 50 cent pieces, 3 quarters, and like 5 nickels. Seriously. 20 cents in change? Expect at least 4 coins. So hilarious.
So today we went up another cable car which was awesome but annoying because we had to buy express lane (shan´t stand in long line like common peasants! bufaw!) and it was $7 each instead of $4 but whatever it would have taken an additional two hours or so I figgerrrr. It was also pretty chilly up there and we had to hoof it up a little hill and the elevation here is a bit intense so I was out of breathe and feeling pathetic with our short journey. But whatever, I was sick yesterday...yes...that´s it....I´m not out of shape at all.
Here is a cool panoramic of the city:
After that we went to another hill that was slightly lower and was almost more cool because it was super cheap (just had to pay for a taxi) and you could see everything a lot clearer. There was also a museum that had some weapons and paintings and army uniforms and shit.
Then we went to a massive statue of an angel, I forgot what it´s called. It was pretty real. Here it is:
THENNN we went to see this AWESOME old church. It was really awkward because as we were walking around inside there´s like people praying and other tourists and shit but Anton´s shoes were squeaking SO FUCKING LOUD with every step and I couldn´t stop giggling and then we had to leave.
Here that is:
Then we walked and walked and walked and walked miles and miles and went to a market where we purchased souveniers for ridiculously low prices ($1 fancy pen, $2 beanies, $1.50 statue thing...etc.) At the market we also encountered the most persistant child peddling candy that we´ve ever seen. It was ridiculous. She would stand right in front of Anton as he was trying to walk and keep trying to put the candy in his hands or balance on top of his book (this went on for like 5 minutes) and then we went in this store and she waited outside, after not exiting promptly, she came inside and started poking him and handing him the candy and finally he broke. 50 cents later, we got rid of her and got some little banana chewys that are kinda like laffy taffys. Whatever.
At this other nearby market there were like 3 tattoo and piercing shops and they had a picture on the wall of someone with their fucking FINGER pierced which was gross but we were going to buy bigger guages until...until the chic pulled out the drawer of all the different sizes and it was just a clusterfuck of a million pieces and she was just digging through it with her bare hands. Mad sanitary bro? There we also saw this lady that couldn´t have been more than 4 feet tall and Anton asked to take a picture with her (She was like half his size) and she said no. It was so awkward. I just ran.
She also had no teeth.
But that´s the style here, it seems.
After all that excitement we hoofed it and hoofed it and hoofed it and are now here.
Tomorrow we´re going to go get drunk and watch FUTBOL. It´s two teams from Ecuador...should be real. I´m going to yell drunkenly in Spanish and not understand what´s going on.
That´s been just about every other day on this trip, so it should work out nicely.
*Noteworthy: Anton and I have discovered where all the Sacagawea coins have gone. They are all here. Every last one of them. We haven´t gotten single dollar bills for change ONCE. It´s so fucking annoying. We just keep imagining what would happen in the states if you paid for a $1 item with a 5 and got 4 fucking Sacagawea coins back. Sometimes it´s even worse, like 3 Sacajawea coins and two 50 cent pieces. Or like 2 Sacajawea coins, two 50 cent pieces, 3 quarters, and like 5 nickels. Seriously. 20 cents in change? Expect at least 4 coins. So hilarious.
So today we went up another cable car which was awesome but annoying because we had to buy express lane (shan´t stand in long line like common peasants! bufaw!) and it was $7 each instead of $4 but whatever it would have taken an additional two hours or so I figgerrrr. It was also pretty chilly up there and we had to hoof it up a little hill and the elevation here is a bit intense so I was out of breathe and feeling pathetic with our short journey. But whatever, I was sick yesterday...yes...that´s it....I´m not out of shape at all.
Here is a cool panoramic of the city:
After that we went to another hill that was slightly lower and was almost more cool because it was super cheap (just had to pay for a taxi) and you could see everything a lot clearer. There was also a museum that had some weapons and paintings and army uniforms and shit.
Then we went to a massive statue of an angel, I forgot what it´s called. It was pretty real. Here it is:
THENNN we went to see this AWESOME old church. It was really awkward because as we were walking around inside there´s like people praying and other tourists and shit but Anton´s shoes were squeaking SO FUCKING LOUD with every step and I couldn´t stop giggling and then we had to leave.
Here that is:
Then we walked and walked and walked and walked miles and miles and went to a market where we purchased souveniers for ridiculously low prices ($1 fancy pen, $2 beanies, $1.50 statue thing...etc.) At the market we also encountered the most persistant child peddling candy that we´ve ever seen. It was ridiculous. She would stand right in front of Anton as he was trying to walk and keep trying to put the candy in his hands or balance on top of his book (this went on for like 5 minutes) and then we went in this store and she waited outside, after not exiting promptly, she came inside and started poking him and handing him the candy and finally he broke. 50 cents later, we got rid of her and got some little banana chewys that are kinda like laffy taffys. Whatever.
At this other nearby market there were like 3 tattoo and piercing shops and they had a picture on the wall of someone with their fucking FINGER pierced which was gross but we were going to buy bigger guages until...until the chic pulled out the drawer of all the different sizes and it was just a clusterfuck of a million pieces and she was just digging through it with her bare hands. Mad sanitary bro? There we also saw this lady that couldn´t have been more than 4 feet tall and Anton asked to take a picture with her (She was like half his size) and she said no. It was so awkward. I just ran.
She also had no teeth.
But that´s the style here, it seems.
After all that excitement we hoofed it and hoofed it and hoofed it and are now here.
Tomorrow we´re going to go get drunk and watch FUTBOL. It´s two teams from Ecuador...should be real. I´m going to yell drunkenly in Spanish and not understand what´s going on.
That´s been just about every other day on this trip, so it should work out nicely.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Quito, Ecuador
Quito is a cool city, lots of creepy old churches and colonial esqu architecture. Also lots of wild statues...it´s also INCREDIBLY cheap, especially since we just left Colombia which was mad expensive. Anton went to the pharmacy today and spent $15 on a bunch of shit, it would have been at least $80 in the states and probably at least $55 in Colombia. Viva Ecuador! Plus their official currency is the dollar, which makes our lives a lot easier. Converting in the thousands in Colombia was getting old...I still miss it already though. Te quiero, Colombia. Te quiero.
I had a bad fever last night and haven´t felt too great all day, but I´m starting to feel better. Needless to say we didn´t do too much today...I slept 14 hours last night and fell asleep this afternoon for another 3. Anton has been taking very good care of me with gobs of vitamins and drugs and water. I´m on heavy doses of anti-malaria medicine (just in case) so I should have some pretty hallucinatory dreams tonight. Hopefully they are good ones about Crooky bear.
The one thing we did do today was go to get lunch...Here is the list of Anton´s consumptions:
-2 Large pieces of sea bass
-Fried Rice
-Mixed Seafood Ceviche
-Beverage made from beer, raw egg, and sugar blended together. (Cerveza de Peru)
-Menudo (Stomach Lining) soup with chunks of liver, kidney, stomach lining, artery, other chunks he was unsure of, blood sausage, and potato.
I had a small bowl of chicken broth with potato and a blackberry juice. Hahahaha. I got nauseated watching him eat the menudo, it was far from ginger friendly.
Our hotel last night was super shitty, the shower faded back and forth between scalding hot and freezing cold, the room was dirty, non functioning tv, and there was a dog and small child and dude using AIM with the bling sound on full blast till fucking late and the sink (Anton´s urinal) was leaking and yeah...it was only $10 but still. Today we found one for $13 that has a good full sized shower (the other one was like a third of a normal size) that is nice and warm and it´s really clean and has a nice firm bed with lots of blankets and also has cable tv. It´s amazing what $3 gets you.
We´re going to do lots of sight seeing tomorrow, and Sunday we´re going to go to a big market. Tomorrow we´re also gonna look for a cockfight, I guess they are big here. Alecia of a year ago would be very disappointed.
I had a bad fever last night and haven´t felt too great all day, but I´m starting to feel better. Needless to say we didn´t do too much today...I slept 14 hours last night and fell asleep this afternoon for another 3. Anton has been taking very good care of me with gobs of vitamins and drugs and water. I´m on heavy doses of anti-malaria medicine (just in case) so I should have some pretty hallucinatory dreams tonight. Hopefully they are good ones about Crooky bear.
The one thing we did do today was go to get lunch...Here is the list of Anton´s consumptions:
-2 Large pieces of sea bass
-Fried Rice
-Mixed Seafood Ceviche
-Beverage made from beer, raw egg, and sugar blended together. (Cerveza de Peru)
-Menudo (Stomach Lining) soup with chunks of liver, kidney, stomach lining, artery, other chunks he was unsure of, blood sausage, and potato.
I had a small bowl of chicken broth with potato and a blackberry juice. Hahahaha. I got nauseated watching him eat the menudo, it was far from ginger friendly.
Our hotel last night was super shitty, the shower faded back and forth between scalding hot and freezing cold, the room was dirty, non functioning tv, and there was a dog and small child and dude using AIM with the bling sound on full blast till fucking late and the sink (Anton´s urinal) was leaking and yeah...it was only $10 but still. Today we found one for $13 that has a good full sized shower (the other one was like a third of a normal size) that is nice and warm and it´s really clean and has a nice firm bed with lots of blankets and also has cable tv. It´s amazing what $3 gets you.
We´re going to do lots of sight seeing tomorrow, and Sunday we´re going to go to a big market. Tomorrow we´re also gonna look for a cockfight, I guess they are big here. Alecia of a year ago would be very disappointed.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
More Cali
Anton made another great insight moments ago, "No one really picks their noses here (in Colombia), everywhere else they were..." (As he picks his nose)
We are in the bus terminal in Cali waiting for our 10 o´clock bus (it is now 6:30) so we have some time to kill. We found the worlds smallest internet cafe (it´s like a narrow hallway about 4 feet across that´s jammed with four computers) and are rocking it here.
Yesterday while walking a homeless crackhead looking lady walked by and made kissy noises at Anton and exclaimed "You are BEAUTIFUL!". Very amusing.After the mad hoofing it we went back to the hotel and cooled off and showered again and took a sweet nap. Then we got ready and decided to go exploring. Anton wanted to drink and I wanted to watch and take Tramadol and it worked perfectly. We found one dive bar that had Costeña but Brava is the better beer (brava is 5.5% and Costeña, along with Aguila, Pilsen, and Club Colombia are all 4% though FAR easier to find) so we went searching for Brava. Before we left we tried some stand food of Empanadas which are like fat potato wedges with carne in them. It was tasty, they had a variety of sauces and such to accompany.
We found the next bar which wasn´t so much a bar as it was a liquor store with chairs and tables out front (they are VERY common here, I don´t even know how many different laws they´d be breaking in the states) and it had brava in cans for $1500 which is like 80 cents or so and Anton drank like 10 beers and I had like 4 waters and a soda called "Pony" that was malty and good. We met up with a guy in a Hewlett Packard t-shirt that spoke Ok english and a few of his friends that didn´t speak English and just stared at me while Anton and HP gabbed. It was very amusing.
At one point the HP and one of his guys (this dumb seeming guy from Ecuador) and Anton split a bottle of Agua Diente. After it was brought back to the table the HP guy was on the phone and Anton grabbed the bottle of liquor from the table and RAN into the street screaming and knocking over his chair and the Ecuador guy was staring all terrified thinking he wasn´t coming back and I laughed so hard I cried.There were so many people pestering us to buy crap like weird twirly light things that would be GREAT on E but worthless here and those white pipe things that hold your shampoo in the shower and roses and gum and one guy was pushing COLORED PENCILS and it was just retarded. An old dude that was trying to sell peanuts to us didn´t respond to Anton´s replies (lies) of being allergic (he was just like oh whatever eat they good!) and then Anton tried to kiss him and the guy freaked out and tried to get away so then Anton chased him and the old guy was fucking FAST and they ran down the street and around the corner and he finally cornered the old guy and gave him kisses. Then ran back. Then the old guy reappeared demanding "Uno Mil" for the kisses, which he did not receive.
Another smarter guy that spoke perfect English joined a little later and kept telling me "Your boyfriend is CRAZY!" and it´s more funny because it´s like the 5th time this trip I´ve heard it. He also asked me which asylum I picked him up in. And it´s fuuunnnnnnyy.
We went home and I finished City of Joy (fucking Amaaaazing book) and slept till like 11:30 and it was time for the zoo! We hoofed it the 2.5 miles or so over there (stopping at Subway on the way, the only Subway we´ve seen in Colombia) and the zoo was only $4 and SO COOL! There were flamingo´s, bears, zebra´s, lions, a HUGE tiger that was laying right next to the glass so we were like 5 inches away from him, a bunch of turtles and birds and other furry creatures...lots and lots of monkeys...it was great. One monkey was so cute and kept swinging on his rope towards the glass and slapping the glass in front of our face. I think it was actually a mean monkey, but it was hilarious so we took it as him joking around.
We hoofed it BACK, stopping at a restaurant called, I kid you not, "Mario Bros" (same logo and characters and everything) that had an extensive list of hot dogs. We had, what we both agreed, was the best hot dog ever. I can´t really claim that too confidently considering I never ate a hot dog before this trip really, but Anton saying that means something. It had Papitas (little fried potato chip thingys), swiss cheese, grilled sausage thing, ham, bacon, ketchup, mayo, some pink sauce that was good, hot sauce...and yeah. It was retarded.
Now we´re here. We´ll probably be arriving in Quito around 1 or 2 in the afternoon tomorrow...then it´s mountains and mad mad party till the 30 hour bus ride to Lima.
We are in the bus terminal in Cali waiting for our 10 o´clock bus (it is now 6:30) so we have some time to kill. We found the worlds smallest internet cafe (it´s like a narrow hallway about 4 feet across that´s jammed with four computers) and are rocking it here.
Yesterday while walking a homeless crackhead looking lady walked by and made kissy noises at Anton and exclaimed "You are BEAUTIFUL!". Very amusing.After the mad hoofing it we went back to the hotel and cooled off and showered again and took a sweet nap. Then we got ready and decided to go exploring. Anton wanted to drink and I wanted to watch and take Tramadol and it worked perfectly. We found one dive bar that had Costeña but Brava is the better beer (brava is 5.5% and Costeña, along with Aguila, Pilsen, and Club Colombia are all 4% though FAR easier to find) so we went searching for Brava. Before we left we tried some stand food of Empanadas which are like fat potato wedges with carne in them. It was tasty, they had a variety of sauces and such to accompany.
We found the next bar which wasn´t so much a bar as it was a liquor store with chairs and tables out front (they are VERY common here, I don´t even know how many different laws they´d be breaking in the states) and it had brava in cans for $1500 which is like 80 cents or so and Anton drank like 10 beers and I had like 4 waters and a soda called "Pony" that was malty and good. We met up with a guy in a Hewlett Packard t-shirt that spoke Ok english and a few of his friends that didn´t speak English and just stared at me while Anton and HP gabbed. It was very amusing.
At one point the HP and one of his guys (this dumb seeming guy from Ecuador) and Anton split a bottle of Agua Diente. After it was brought back to the table the HP guy was on the phone and Anton grabbed the bottle of liquor from the table and RAN into the street screaming and knocking over his chair and the Ecuador guy was staring all terrified thinking he wasn´t coming back and I laughed so hard I cried.There were so many people pestering us to buy crap like weird twirly light things that would be GREAT on E but worthless here and those white pipe things that hold your shampoo in the shower and roses and gum and one guy was pushing COLORED PENCILS and it was just retarded. An old dude that was trying to sell peanuts to us didn´t respond to Anton´s replies (lies) of being allergic (he was just like oh whatever eat they good!) and then Anton tried to kiss him and the guy freaked out and tried to get away so then Anton chased him and the old guy was fucking FAST and they ran down the street and around the corner and he finally cornered the old guy and gave him kisses. Then ran back. Then the old guy reappeared demanding "Uno Mil" for the kisses, which he did not receive.
Another smarter guy that spoke perfect English joined a little later and kept telling me "Your boyfriend is CRAZY!" and it´s more funny because it´s like the 5th time this trip I´ve heard it. He also asked me which asylum I picked him up in. And it´s fuuunnnnnnyy.
We went home and I finished City of Joy (fucking Amaaaazing book) and slept till like 11:30 and it was time for the zoo! We hoofed it the 2.5 miles or so over there (stopping at Subway on the way, the only Subway we´ve seen in Colombia) and the zoo was only $4 and SO COOL! There were flamingo´s, bears, zebra´s, lions, a HUGE tiger that was laying right next to the glass so we were like 5 inches away from him, a bunch of turtles and birds and other furry creatures...lots and lots of monkeys...it was great. One monkey was so cute and kept swinging on his rope towards the glass and slapping the glass in front of our face. I think it was actually a mean monkey, but it was hilarious so we took it as him joking around.
We hoofed it BACK, stopping at a restaurant called, I kid you not, "Mario Bros" (same logo and characters and everything) that had an extensive list of hot dogs. We had, what we both agreed, was the best hot dog ever. I can´t really claim that too confidently considering I never ate a hot dog before this trip really, but Anton saying that means something. It had Papitas (little fried potato chip thingys), swiss cheese, grilled sausage thing, ham, bacon, ketchup, mayo, some pink sauce that was good, hot sauce...and yeah. It was retarded.
Now we´re here. We´ll probably be arriving in Quito around 1 or 2 in the afternoon tomorrow...then it´s mountains and mad mad party till the 30 hour bus ride to Lima.
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