Sunday, September 25, 2005
DAY 19: Brazil
To start off, we hear your requests for pictures but are having some technical issues (i.e., we forgot the USB cord) so we´ll try to put some on in the future.
Well, our time in Sao Paulo can be summed up in one word: sickness. After exploring Sao Paulo the day we landed, we realized that while hand gestures had gotten us through Peru, the Brazilian people just weren´t picking it up(right, we´ll blame them). So we purchased a Portugese phrasebook and a Letś Go Brazil to prepare us for the upcoming days - we should have spent that $60 on a nicer hotel. We both ended up getting pretty sick (for those of you assuming I drank the water out of convenience - I didn´t) and spending the vast majority of our time lying on our beds, searching for English cable stations. We are now quite up to date on world happenings (thank you CNN) and watched more made-for-TV Hallmark movies than I will ever admit... to anyone. I guess ¨the plague¨, which we lovingly refer to it as, hit at a decent time since Sao Paulo is really a large city, with museums and shopping, but no sights which we were dying to see. The two highlights of Sao Paulo (read: two things we did) were the Institute Buhtantha and the Museum of Modern Art. The Institute is a leading researcher and pŕoducer of snake and spider anti-venoms and had a collection of scary looking animals - made me glad we didn´t go to the Amazon. The Art Museum was nothing to write home about, but on the walk there we did witness a Brazillian criminal run past us, with a policeman chasing him, gun out, about 30 yards behind. The memorable scene was when the police officer tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, falling face first on the ground, gun thrown from his arm (still attached by a cord though. I guess this happens to him every now and again). But justice was served and minutes later we saw the man in the back of a cop car.
The plane trip to Rio de Janeiro brought health back to us, as well as cleaner air. Rio is definitely a big city, and with the beaches and the Tijuica Forest, it has many sites that we can´t wait to see. Thankfully, Rio is also full of international tourists so we have had fewer problems with communication. To the benefit of the locals (and at the request of many) Meridith has given up on attempting Portugese and I think the phrasebook may be retired.
Being back near 90% health (Mer may still be hovering around 70%), and after doing little to nothing in Sao Paulo, we´re definitely planning full days here. So far, we´ve been to a samba club (Brazilians don´t know the term for personal space), papparazzied the monkeys at the Jardin Botanique (Botanical Gardins), perused the Hippie Market (our first shipment back to the US should be happening in the next few days), avoided the numerous displays of public urination (Brazil is a drunk guy's
paradise), and sipped coconut water on the sidewalk at Copacabana Beach. Our future plans include catching a ¨football¨ game, being at the feet of Christ the Redeemer, hang gliding from some large rock we´re going to hike up (you can tell which part of that I´m interested in) and staying away from the local water, fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats and anything else that makes my stomach say ¨What?¨
Friday, September 16, 2005
DAY 10: Peru
Ok, so its my turn to update the blog (Meridith) and boy what an update it will be. To say the least, it´s been a very exciting past few days. For those weak of heart... you have been warned.
First of all, we should be in the air on the way to Sao Paulo, Brazil right now, but seeing as how Leslie and I were unaware of the fact that having a ¨confirmed¨ ticket for a flight does not actually equate with having a seat, we instead are being put up in a very nice hotel back in Lima and will be trying our luck at actually sitting in our ¨confirmed¨ seats on the plane again tomorrow. I can´t really complain however, seeing as how we just had a three-course lunch and are using the internet for free...
Well, to go back from where we left off... We arrived in Lima a few days ago to realize that Leslie´s friend Lauren has the most amazing ex-pat set-up here in Lima. On the top floor of a highrise overlooking the beach, Lauren and her two roommates had an unbelieveable apartment (Leslie did make a reference to ¨Cribs¨ while describing it). Their balcony, consisting of half the entire roof, had awesome views of the coast and the city of Lima, definitely picture-worthy.
The next day, Leslie, John, and I set out on a day trip for Huacachina, a desert oasis, about four hours outside of Lima by bus. We caught the bus at 7am (so we could return in time to spend the evening with Lauren back in Lima) and were on our merry way, anticipating the dune buggy tours and sandboarding experiences that awaited us there. About two hours into the trip we stopped for a rest stop on the side of the road. An hour later, wondering why this appeared to be the longest rest stop in recorded history, I asked my Peruvian neighbor when we would be continuing on. (I just knew that as soon as I stepped off, the bus would continue on without me.) After much of his gesturing and my broken Spanish and a little field trip off the bus, I learned that there was actually a protest going on. Local construction workers who had been laid off were blocking off a section of the road and had thus stopped all traffic, apparently starting with the bus in front of ours. A few hours later, we were still stranded, Leslie was getting more desperate to find a not totally-disgusting bathroom, and people were becoming more disgruntled. When Leslie finally got the nerve up to continue the search for a public restroom, people watching the protest suddenly turned and started running back to the buses. Good news... we were going to be moving! Leslie came running back (her toilet attempts unsuccessful) and we piled back onto the bus. But still, the bus just sat there.
Apparently it had not been good news, because the protest suddenly turned into a riot. Yes, a full-fledged riot. Black smoke, police in riot gear, tear gas, people throwing rocks and chasing others with sticks, the whole shabang. Meanwhile, we are watching the ebb and flow of protestors (depending on which direction the police were shooting in) from the stuffiness of our own, hopefully-airtight bus. Had the people on our own bus not been entertained by it all, calling friends on the phone, laughing as people were being dragged out of the fray, it might have caused heart palpatations of the more life-threatening variety. The tone changed a bit though, when the protestors started throwing rocks at the buses, ours included, making me reevaluate the desire to have a window seat and causing my Peruvian neighbor to call into a radio station on his cellphone to have me go on the radio to play the damsel in distress to summon more police. (I politely declined.)
Luckily for us, it eventually died down and after waiting for a semi to be moved from the middle of the road (the protestors last ditch effort to continue to block traffic), we were on our way... for another half hour until we were again stopped by protestors, having moved the demonstration down the road. This time, we were happily not as close to the action, Leslie was able to find a debateably-cleaner bathroom, and it only lasted an hour. When we finally made it to Huacachina (yes, we made it), it was almost 6:00 pm (11 hours later!) and we were in no way going to make it back to Lima that night.
To make the best of the situation, we stayed at a very sketchy hostal minus all our stuff(flashbacks to the bedbug encounter of 2000), finally got to eat (John has learned that hungry women don´t make for very good company), and met some locals (the self-proclaimed Hispanic Usher) and fellow travelers.
The next morning, it was all made worth-while with a tour of the beautiful sand dunes by buggy (yes, once again somewhat death-defying) and the mental image of Leslie trying to sit on the sandboard and go down the dune on her butt. Picture just a cloud of sand speeding down with Leslie trying desperately to crane her neck out of it. (I haven´t laughed that hard in years.) She´s still finding sand in different places.
We made it back to Lima that day in the actual 4 hours that it takes. And will now hopefully be on our way to Brazil tomorrow.
Hasta la vista...
First of all, we should be in the air on the way to Sao Paulo, Brazil right now, but seeing as how Leslie and I were unaware of the fact that having a ¨confirmed¨ ticket for a flight does not actually equate with having a seat, we instead are being put up in a very nice hotel back in Lima and will be trying our luck at actually sitting in our ¨confirmed¨ seats on the plane again tomorrow. I can´t really complain however, seeing as how we just had a three-course lunch and are using the internet for free...
Well, to go back from where we left off... We arrived in Lima a few days ago to realize that Leslie´s friend Lauren has the most amazing ex-pat set-up here in Lima. On the top floor of a highrise overlooking the beach, Lauren and her two roommates had an unbelieveable apartment (Leslie did make a reference to ¨Cribs¨ while describing it). Their balcony, consisting of half the entire roof, had awesome views of the coast and the city of Lima, definitely picture-worthy.
The next day, Leslie, John, and I set out on a day trip for Huacachina, a desert oasis, about four hours outside of Lima by bus. We caught the bus at 7am (so we could return in time to spend the evening with Lauren back in Lima) and were on our merry way, anticipating the dune buggy tours and sandboarding experiences that awaited us there. About two hours into the trip we stopped for a rest stop on the side of the road. An hour later, wondering why this appeared to be the longest rest stop in recorded history, I asked my Peruvian neighbor when we would be continuing on. (I just knew that as soon as I stepped off, the bus would continue on without me.) After much of his gesturing and my broken Spanish and a little field trip off the bus, I learned that there was actually a protest going on. Local construction workers who had been laid off were blocking off a section of the road and had thus stopped all traffic, apparently starting with the bus in front of ours. A few hours later, we were still stranded, Leslie was getting more desperate to find a not totally-disgusting bathroom, and people were becoming more disgruntled. When Leslie finally got the nerve up to continue the search for a public restroom, people watching the protest suddenly turned and started running back to the buses. Good news... we were going to be moving! Leslie came running back (her toilet attempts unsuccessful) and we piled back onto the bus. But still, the bus just sat there.
Apparently it had not been good news, because the protest suddenly turned into a riot. Yes, a full-fledged riot. Black smoke, police in riot gear, tear gas, people throwing rocks and chasing others with sticks, the whole shabang. Meanwhile, we are watching the ebb and flow of protestors (depending on which direction the police were shooting in) from the stuffiness of our own, hopefully-airtight bus. Had the people on our own bus not been entertained by it all, calling friends on the phone, laughing as people were being dragged out of the fray, it might have caused heart palpatations of the more life-threatening variety. The tone changed a bit though, when the protestors started throwing rocks at the buses, ours included, making me reevaluate the desire to have a window seat and causing my Peruvian neighbor to call into a radio station on his cellphone to have me go on the radio to play the damsel in distress to summon more police. (I politely declined.)
Luckily for us, it eventually died down and after waiting for a semi to be moved from the middle of the road (the protestors last ditch effort to continue to block traffic), we were on our way... for another half hour until we were again stopped by protestors, having moved the demonstration down the road. This time, we were happily not as close to the action, Leslie was able to find a debateably-cleaner bathroom, and it only lasted an hour. When we finally made it to Huacachina (yes, we made it), it was almost 6:00 pm (11 hours later!) and we were in no way going to make it back to Lima that night.
To make the best of the situation, we stayed at a very sketchy hostal minus all our stuff(flashbacks to the bedbug encounter of 2000), finally got to eat (John has learned that hungry women don´t make for very good company), and met some locals (the self-proclaimed Hispanic Usher) and fellow travelers.
The next morning, it was all made worth-while with a tour of the beautiful sand dunes by buggy (yes, once again somewhat death-defying) and the mental image of Leslie trying to sit on the sandboard and go down the dune on her butt. Picture just a cloud of sand speeding down with Leslie trying desperately to crane her neck out of it. (I haven´t laughed that hard in years.) She´s still finding sand in different places.
We made it back to Lima that day in the actual 4 hours that it takes. And will now hopefully be on our way to Brazil tomorrow.
Hasta la vista...
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
DAY 7: Toronto and Peru
Well it´s day 7 and I´m writing the second blog update... that´s a pretty decent timeframe, if I do say so myself.
We flew into Toronto last Wenesday and to our surprise, found out that the International Film Festival was there - supposedly it is ¨second only to Cannes¨. So while we walked around what felt like all of Toronto and the surrounding area, and visited the Casa Loma (a castle-like estate built in the early 1900´s) we spent the majority of our time at the film festival, aka. celebrity stalking. We went to three red carpets premieres, including the American films ¨Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang¨ and ¨Thank You for Smoking¨ AND got to see Val Kilmer, Robert Downey Jr, William H Macy and Adam Brody. I realized that being a paparazzi is not a career for me, when tons of teenage girls, screaming for the OC star, elbowed me out of prime location and left me with some ¨creative¨ shots of him. But we also took in some culture and saw a Tiawanese film, ¨Three Times¨. While it will probably not be coming ot the local AMC theatre, it was pretty interesting, and definitely made us a part of the film community:)
We came to Peru on an overnight flight with under 5 hours of sleep combined and flew to Cusco to meet my friend John. Sleep was not in John´s itinerary as he had planned a 4 hour tour of the city for us, while he conveniently napped from the night before. But the tour was amazing and we were introduced to the Incan culture after visiting a few temples, churches, and Saxsewama (pronounce it ¨sexy woman¨), very impressive Incan ruins. Eddie, our tour guide (my guess is that isn´t his birth name), had a strong grasp of the English language and definitely taught us a lot, even with the sleep deprivation. We decided to make our first day count and tried the local specialty ¨cuy¨- or guinea pig. None of us would recommend it - think no meat, skin as hard as a rock and the meat you could find was pretty oilly like duck. We decided guinea pigs are definitely better as pets (yeah - kinda gross that we ate our first pet - but it´s ¨the culture¨). The next day, we again woke up early to take a tour of the Sacred Valley (with John in tow this time) and visited a few cities and markets. We then had our first face with death when we took a cab ride out to Moray, some concentric circles of farming land groomed by the Incas - this was our first location that basically had no other tourists around and it was really amazing.
Racing at 100 KMH through hilly turns while you're in the wrong lane is quite exhillerating, as is narrowly, and I mean narrowly, missing dogs and CHILDREN in the city streets. But we survived the ride (as did the innocent townspeople and dogs) and ended up on a train to Aguas Calientes, our starting point for MachuPicchu.
After attempting an early night's sleep, we woke up at 4:30, ate a hearty breakfast and set out to hike up the 1000 feet to the top of MachPicchu. Now, my original thought was ït´s supposed to be a 90 minute hike up, how hard can it be?¨. At the 500th stair (I had told Meridith and John to leave me on like the 59th), when I saw that I was only about 1/4 of the way up, I realized this was going to be "an experience". While still making it up in the average 90 minutes, I think I have experienced the feelings of a heart attack. On top of the mountain, MachuPicchu was amazing. An entire city built on a hill, that is not viewable from the ground, and still here after 700 years.
We snapped some good pics then headed up Waynapicchu - I think it translates to ¨more steps and death-defying hiking¨. There were definitely some hairy moments and when the sign stated ¨not for the weak of heart¨, it should have included ¨or those with common sense¨. After probably 1000 more steps, more similar to a ladder than a staircase, we were at the top and viewed all of MachuPicchu and the amazing scenery surrounding it. We explored Waynapicchu, including wedging ourselves between rocks and crawling through ridiculously small spaces (if only I hadn´t been laughing so hard at John´s attempt, there would have been a very good picture) to get the perfect pictures. We definitely got the money shots, as well as a few ¨we could fall at any minute shots¨for our mom - which also scared the bejesus out of John as a secondary benefit. Once we hiked down Waynapicchu (much more terrifying than the walk up), I manipulated both John and Mer´s sense of competition and we set up on an additional climb to the Temple of the Moon or the Great Cave (I think it was called both, otherwise we only saw one of them). The cave at the end was relatively exciting but the hike, which led us below MachuPicchu (only of course to have to climb back up to it), only served to use up the energy I had reserved for breathing. Meridith´s motivation to make it back was the burning need to take off her right hiking boot, as well as documenting the hysterical picture commentary she had come up with for our futile attempt at on the Natural Stairmaster from Hell. With our legs like rubber, or Mexican jumping beans for Mer and John, we decided to take the bus back down (I know, pathetic) and nurse our bodies with food and drinks before we headed back to Cusco. And with another, and even more life-threatening cab ride, we made it to our hotel. So today we are off to Lima to visit my friend and see what else this adventure has in store for us.
As a final sign-off note, it is day 7 and Meridith and I are on speaking terms and have amazingly not even fought once. Thanks to John for starting us off on the right foot. I mean you can´t kill your sister with a friend in the room, right?
We flew into Toronto last Wenesday and to our surprise, found out that the International Film Festival was there - supposedly it is ¨second only to Cannes¨. So while we walked around what felt like all of Toronto and the surrounding area, and visited the Casa Loma (a castle-like estate built in the early 1900´s) we spent the majority of our time at the film festival, aka. celebrity stalking. We went to three red carpets premieres, including the American films ¨Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang¨ and ¨Thank You for Smoking¨ AND got to see Val Kilmer, Robert Downey Jr, William H Macy and Adam Brody. I realized that being a paparazzi is not a career for me, when tons of teenage girls, screaming for the OC star, elbowed me out of prime location and left me with some ¨creative¨ shots of him. But we also took in some culture and saw a Tiawanese film, ¨Three Times¨. While it will probably not be coming ot the local AMC theatre, it was pretty interesting, and definitely made us a part of the film community:)
We came to Peru on an overnight flight with under 5 hours of sleep combined and flew to Cusco to meet my friend John. Sleep was not in John´s itinerary as he had planned a 4 hour tour of the city for us, while he conveniently napped from the night before. But the tour was amazing and we were introduced to the Incan culture after visiting a few temples, churches, and Saxsewama (pronounce it ¨sexy woman¨), very impressive Incan ruins. Eddie, our tour guide (my guess is that isn´t his birth name), had a strong grasp of the English language and definitely taught us a lot, even with the sleep deprivation. We decided to make our first day count and tried the local specialty ¨cuy¨- or guinea pig. None of us would recommend it - think no meat, skin as hard as a rock and the meat you could find was pretty oilly like duck. We decided guinea pigs are definitely better as pets (yeah - kinda gross that we ate our first pet - but it´s ¨the culture¨). The next day, we again woke up early to take a tour of the Sacred Valley (with John in tow this time) and visited a few cities and markets. We then had our first face with death when we took a cab ride out to Moray, some concentric circles of farming land groomed by the Incas - this was our first location that basically had no other tourists around and it was really amazing.
Racing at 100 KMH through hilly turns while you're in the wrong lane is quite exhillerating, as is narrowly, and I mean narrowly, missing dogs and CHILDREN in the city streets. But we survived the ride (as did the innocent townspeople and dogs) and ended up on a train to Aguas Calientes, our starting point for MachuPicchu.
After attempting an early night's sleep, we woke up at 4:30, ate a hearty breakfast and set out to hike up the 1000 feet to the top of MachPicchu. Now, my original thought was ït´s supposed to be a 90 minute hike up, how hard can it be?¨. At the 500th stair (I had told Meridith and John to leave me on like the 59th), when I saw that I was only about 1/4 of the way up, I realized this was going to be "an experience". While still making it up in the average 90 minutes, I think I have experienced the feelings of a heart attack. On top of the mountain, MachuPicchu was amazing. An entire city built on a hill, that is not viewable from the ground, and still here after 700 years.
We snapped some good pics then headed up Waynapicchu - I think it translates to ¨more steps and death-defying hiking¨. There were definitely some hairy moments and when the sign stated ¨not for the weak of heart¨, it should have included ¨or those with common sense¨. After probably 1000 more steps, more similar to a ladder than a staircase, we were at the top and viewed all of MachuPicchu and the amazing scenery surrounding it. We explored Waynapicchu, including wedging ourselves between rocks and crawling through ridiculously small spaces (if only I hadn´t been laughing so hard at John´s attempt, there would have been a very good picture) to get the perfect pictures. We definitely got the money shots, as well as a few ¨we could fall at any minute shots¨for our mom - which also scared the bejesus out of John as a secondary benefit. Once we hiked down Waynapicchu (much more terrifying than the walk up), I manipulated both John and Mer´s sense of competition and we set up on an additional climb to the Temple of the Moon or the Great Cave (I think it was called both, otherwise we only saw one of them). The cave at the end was relatively exciting but the hike, which led us below MachuPicchu (only of course to have to climb back up to it), only served to use up the energy I had reserved for breathing. Meridith´s motivation to make it back was the burning need to take off her right hiking boot, as well as documenting the hysterical picture commentary she had come up with for our futile attempt at on the Natural Stairmaster from Hell. With our legs like rubber, or Mexican jumping beans for Mer and John, we decided to take the bus back down (I know, pathetic) and nurse our bodies with food and drinks before we headed back to Cusco. And with another, and even more life-threatening cab ride, we made it to our hotel. So today we are off to Lima to visit my friend and see what else this adventure has in store for us.
As a final sign-off note, it is day 7 and Meridith and I are on speaking terms and have amazingly not even fought once. Thanks to John for starting us off on the right foot. I mean you can´t kill your sister with a friend in the room, right?
Monday, September 05, 2005
The Big Itinerary
So it is 1:30 AM and we're catching a flight in literally, four and a half hours. Obviously I have just finished packing, am watching Mer finish her packing and creating this lovely blog. Since email isn't my strong suit - ehh - I am going to try to keep everyone updated via this site. We'll see how it goes.
Since we're pressed for time (sleep would be very nice right now), I'll keep this short. Here's our itinerary for the trip. If anyone feels like taking an exotic vacation, let us know and we would love for you to meet us. We promise to be on our best behavior :) and stay safe. We would love to hear how all of you are doing so please let us know.
And so the adventure begins...
Toronto, Canada
Lima, Peru
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Cairo, Egypt
Israel
Delhi, India
Bangkok, Thailand
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Beijing, China
Seoul, Korea
Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
Sydney, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Hawaii, USA
