5 Down, 3 to Go...

Just got my official rejection from NYU. It was a very polite, professional e-mail which is more than I can say for the jokers at SMU. I am obsessively checking both my e-mail and my regular mail to find out about the last three. AAAAAAAAAAAH

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 Six

This day we sailed on Lake Titicaca to these little artificial reed islands. People have been living there for centuries now on these teeny tiny islands made of reeds, in huts made of reeds, sleeping on mattresses made of reeds, sailing in boats made of reeds, and sometimes even eating - you guessed it - reeds. We got to try some. It didn't taste like much.

The weird thing is, these people have to sail to some other part of the lake to use the bathroom, but when we went inside one of the huts, they had a TV that ran on solar power. So weird. Armando, one of the people who lived in the hut, was a student at the university. He commuted to the mainland every day for class, and he was studying tourism. "Why do you live here?" we asked. "Because it's our tradition. My family lives here, and I want to live with my family," he answered. Wow. That's a pretty good answer.

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 Three

This is the day we went to Machu Picchu. We have some amazing pictures of it, but of course they are on our camera's memory card which we don't have a way to access right now. So, I am just going to include a picture that someone took of us walking around inside it. Disappointing, I know. This is the only day on the entire trip that it rained, and as soon as we left Machu Picchu, it stopped raining! Ah, well, it actually made the day seem like more of an adventure. As Jonathan said, "The rainforest is actually rainy!"

Peru - Day Two

On the second day of our trip, we flew to Cuzco which was a very pretty city, but very geared for tourists: lots of street vendors, beggars, and overpriced restaurants. But the scenery was impeccable! The afternoon that we got there, we took a tour of some ancient Incan and pre-Incan sites and stopped by a shop where they sold items that were guaranteed to be made of 100% alpaca. Apparently, the street vendors will tell you it's 100% alpaca when it's not. Go figure.