Peru - Last Day

We actually got to sleep in! Before we went to the airport, we visited a pre-Incan burial site that was in a beautiful valley near a small lake. It was nice to be outside for a while although it was quite a hike! We left straight from there to go to the airport and come home.

Peru - Day Five

I am taking a break from my marathon of thesis writing (polishing, really, at this point) to blog. Can you believe it?


So, the next day we got up at some ungodly hour of the morning, like 5:30 or something (which is SUPER-early when you are on vacation) to catch a bus to the city of Puno. Now, I knew we were going to be taking a bus. And I figured it wasn't going to be the local kind of bus with chickens on top of it or whatever, so I was pleased that it was, in fact, a first-class motor coach. However, no one had told us exactly how long the bus trip would be. I thought 2-3 hours, tops. Imagine my surprise when our tour guide said (as we were starting to drive away, mind you), "It is a 9 hour drive to Puno." WHAAAAAAAT?!? Seriously, a nine-hour bus ride.


However, it was not as bad as it sounds. We stopped in five different places to do a little sightseeing, so that broke it up a little bit and gave us some time to stretch. We had a very pleasant lunch, although our guide did not speak English very well, and there was some confusion about which drinks were and were not included. "Cold drinks are included, but you have to pay." What? So, wait, cold drinks are NOT included? "That's what I said, cold drinks are included." Aaaaaah!

Anyway, the scenery was unbelievable. Peru is now in my top three of beautiful countries. It has the kind of landscape that just makes you want to walk all over it. So green and lush with little stone walls and running brooks. It's a pastoral heaven. Unfortunately I had serious altitude sickness that day, so I missed most of it. Every hour or so I would open my bleary eyes, though, and I was greeted with the stunning beauty of the Peruvian countryside.

Peru - Day Four

Our train didn't leave until 5:00, so we were stuck in the little tourist town that only exists because it's close to Machu Picchu. We spent the day shopping for souvenirs and eating a 3-hour lunch.

One of the funniest things that happened was that on the train trip, there were 4 Japanese guys who all pulled out their Nintendo DSs and started playing Mario Kart together. Jonathan then proceeded to whip his DS out and play with them. Bonding through video games!

Peru - Day One

So, we got a bunch of digital pictures from folks who spent a lot of time on the trip with us. Once our camera broke, they were so kind and took pictures of us with their cameras and e-mailed them to us. So, now I am ready to share.

We spent the first day in Lima. We started out in the most tourist-y place you can imagine because it was kind of close to our hotel. It was also close to the beach:

The place was called Larcomar, and it was basically a huge kitschy shopping mall. We got out of there as soon as possible and took a taxi to the Plaza de Armas in the center of town.

We ate lunch at a cute little cafe right off the main square, and unlike in Paris where you would pay almost twice as much for a meal by say, Notre Dame, than you would anywhere else in the city, this meal was just about the cheapest one we ate the whole time we were in Peru. We were also pretty much the only white tourists walking around.

We had heard before we went that Lima is a terrible city and we should leave as soon as we could. Our experience of it was completely different. I thought it was great! So, it's not incredibly tourist-y. People don't really speak English there. There are bad parts of town. That doesn't make it a horrible city! I don't know what people are talking about! We had a great day there!

And We're Back!

We got in yesterday after several flight delays and over 24 hours of sitting either on planes or in airports. We are lucky to have gotten back yesterday at all since DFW had been closed and everyone was trying to make up for their missed flights. American Airlines took really good care of us, so I don't really have much to complain about.

Our trip was great. We won't have pictures to show for a little while because a guy we asked to take our picture dropped our camera and broke it. Brand new camera finito. We are going to take it to a shop and see if they can repair it, but I think we will probably have to buy a new one. We'll see. We bought a disposable camera after that, and some people who ended up in almost every place we were in offered to take pictures and e-mail them. We took them up on it, but I don't know how long it will be before we hear from them.

All in all, Peru is just gorgeous. So lush and green, and the people we met were very friendly and happy we wanted to see their country. I would go back someday.

In grad school news, I got into UT Arlington. Yay! I actually got in somewhere. I don't know about financial packages yet. I'll keep you posted.

On Vacation

I couldn't resist checking my e-mail and finding that NYU sent me a letter. Result: wait list. At least it's not a rejection.

We are having a great time so far. Spent all day yesterday with a Peruvian cab driver in Lima, and we were pretty impressed at how well we communicated with him. We totally fooled our driver this morning into thinking we SPOKE SPANISH. Very fun.

Now we are in Cusco, which is a very pretty city. We are suffering from some mild altitude sickness, though, as it we are completely winded after climbing only two little flights of stairs to get to our room. Jonathan ordered guinea pig for dinner, and it came whole with its head - tiny fangs and all. Crazy. It tasted like duck.

Tomorrow we are off to Macchu Picchu. No strikes, so I guess we are going to get to see it! I am so excited.