Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Mannequines of Arequipa, Peru
Here are a few more beauties I picked up in Peru! I just can´t get enough!
The White City and Frog Juice
Wtih Lauren and Dave gone I was left to explore the White City on my own. Arequipa is a purdy city has been predominately constructed of a white stone that appears to sparkle in the sunlight, hence it´s nick name. It is quite refreshing to be in a place where A) there is sunlight and warmth and B) is beautiful and full of kind people, thus I found myself quite enjoying Arequipa and wanting to spend much longer than originally anticipated! My Scottish friend, Jenny and I spent several hours one afternoon visiting and photographing the beautiful Santa Catalina Monastery, a place that is so massive that it is often referred to as a walled city within a city! On another occasion when upon waking to find that my head was in somewhat of a state of disarray I allowed my friend Raul to convince me that a few sips of frog juice would make me feel good as new… at this point in the game I was certain that he couldn´t be talking about the actual juice of a frog but that it must just be a silly name for some green, fruity drink chuck full of nutrients. Raul, Jenny and I made our way to Arequipa´s marketplace where we ohhhed and ahhhed at all the interesting tidbits being sold and then eventually wondered over to the fresh juice section. Everything that happened from this point on was a blur! There I was, minding my own business petting a sweet, little frog in the hands of one of the vendors when BAM! The guy smashed the poor thing against the counter then promptly began to remove it´s skin. I stood there horrified as Raul poked me and said, ¨look, he´s taking his clothes off! mahahahaha.¨ Without a moment´s pause the vendor popped the naked little guy into a pot of boiling water then busied himself mixing various herbs and other ingredients in a blender... Still in total shock, I watched as the man dumped the now boiled carcass into the blender as if it were the final touch to his most perfect potion. A moment later he proudly presented me with the concoction all done up and fancy-like in a glass with two straws so I could kindly share with Jenny. With shaking hands I received the muddy concoction and attempted to make my face appear as though my stomach wasn´t sending emergency evacuation signals...
Arequipa, Peru & last days with Lauren and Dave
Lauren, Dave and I had yet another incredibly long day in a bus but this time we were traveling away from the frozen city of Puno to a place where the sun shines, Arequipa. We found a cute hostel where we had our own massive room with four beds. We ate dinner at a place called Fez where we stuffed our faces with delish flafel wraps then did a thorough search of the city until we found a suitable ice cream parlor for some dessert. This city is loaded with cake (torta) shops and ice cream vendors but being the typical Americans that we are we sought out one that had a mild regard for cleanliness, i.e one that didn´t re-use their sample spoons... Quick trip to the store for some wine and snacks then retired for an evening of pleasant chit-chat and a movie in English (Public Enemy) in a room that so reminded me of a comfy living room that it nearly made me teary. Great mellow night. The perfect way to say goodbye to Lauren and Dave before their LONG journey to Ecuador!
Dave and Lauren´s bus didn´t leave until the evening so that gave us a few free hours to explore the lovely city of Arequipa and even pay a visit to the acclaimed ¨Juanita, the Ice Princess,¨ the mummified remains of a child sacrificed over 500 years ago!
Dave and Lauren´s bus didn´t leave until the evening so that gave us a few free hours to explore the lovely city of Arequipa and even pay a visit to the acclaimed ¨Juanita, the Ice Princess,¨ the mummified remains of a child sacrificed over 500 years ago!
Moving on... July 17, 2010
Moving on....
After the glorious day spent at Machu Picchu I met up with my pal Ryan for a quick meal before biding her adieu. Then I returned to my hostel in hopes of getting some rest before my train would whisk me away at 5 AM. Unfortunately for me, there was the nearly obligatory yet seemingly impromptu massive fiesta complete with live band who decided to perform directly outside my bedroom window, non-stop from the hours of 9 PM until 3:30 AM. Fantastic... I was thrilled... Obviously, I had an amazing night´s sleep and was ecstatic to have to go back to Urubamba and pack up all my belongings, say goodbye to those I had grown to love in the Sacred Valley and hop on another fun filled and thoroughly relaxing bus several hours to the frigged city of Puno from there it would only be a 30 minute combi ride to the town where I was to meet up with Lauren and Dave. As luck would have it, the bus took much longer than expected and I arrived significantly later than anticipated so I was stuck searching for a vacant room in a hostel in the city of Puno (probably the coldest place on the planet and equally as friendly). I managed to locate a room with a concrete floor and one large glass window that did nothing to keep the little existing heat inside the room, at that point I would have really considered taking solace amongst the bits of cardboard in the street if it meant that I could go to sleep!
The next morning I jumped in a combi and headed the 30 minutes from the city of Puno to Chucuito where I met up with Lauren and Dave and their two friends from USC.
We spent what seemed like hours waiting for a truly sub par breakfast... ohh Peru... when will you learn the meaning of urgency? We nearly went down to the kitchen to help them prepare the meal... really, what does it take to scramble some eggs??? The one useful bit of knowledge that I took with me from this meal is to always order your hot chocolate with milk because if you do not then they will just mix it with water... yum...
That was enough of Puno for us so we headed down to Lake Titicaca to grab a boat to the Uros islands. These are the floating islands upon which the locals have created immense, amazing works of art from bundles of reeds! Even the islands themselves are incredible crafts as they have been fabricated by the hands of those who now call them home. All in all they are pretty cool as they are fully man-made from the reeds but there are rumors that the "local" Aymara people no longer actually live on them as they would like
tourists to believe... Also, there is also quite a bit if uncomfortable pressure to purchase the handicrafts sold on the islands, as if it is the tourist's responsibility to support the islanders' choice to live segregated from those dwelling on the mainland. Then they get you on this really cool reed boat that is shaped like a dragon and just before they push off they tell you that this too will cost you... Surprise, surprise... As with everything in Peru, this took much longer than anticipated but when stranded on an island all one can do is wait...
We ate dinner at fancy pizza joint, the lights went out and none of the locals seemed even bothered by it... ahahha Peru! We had so much food then back to our hotel for some silly fun drinking a bit of the Columbian rum Dave had been packing around for the past three months and playing cards then it was off to bed for we had an early morning scheduled for tomorrow as our bus was to depart at 8 AM for Arequipa.
After the glorious day spent at Machu Picchu I met up with my pal Ryan for a quick meal before biding her adieu. Then I returned to my hostel in hopes of getting some rest before my train would whisk me away at 5 AM. Unfortunately for me, there was the nearly obligatory yet seemingly impromptu massive fiesta complete with live band who decided to perform directly outside my bedroom window, non-stop from the hours of 9 PM until 3:30 AM. Fantastic... I was thrilled... Obviously, I had an amazing night´s sleep and was ecstatic to have to go back to Urubamba and pack up all my belongings, say goodbye to those I had grown to love in the Sacred Valley and hop on another fun filled and thoroughly relaxing bus several hours to the frigged city of Puno from there it would only be a 30 minute combi ride to the town where I was to meet up with Lauren and Dave. As luck would have it, the bus took much longer than expected and I arrived significantly later than anticipated so I was stuck searching for a vacant room in a hostel in the city of Puno (probably the coldest place on the planet and equally as friendly). I managed to locate a room with a concrete floor and one large glass window that did nothing to keep the little existing heat inside the room, at that point I would have really considered taking solace amongst the bits of cardboard in the street if it meant that I could go to sleep!
The next morning I jumped in a combi and headed the 30 minutes from the city of Puno to Chucuito where I met up with Lauren and Dave and their two friends from USC.
We spent what seemed like hours waiting for a truly sub par breakfast... ohh Peru... when will you learn the meaning of urgency? We nearly went down to the kitchen to help them prepare the meal... really, what does it take to scramble some eggs??? The one useful bit of knowledge that I took with me from this meal is to always order your hot chocolate with milk because if you do not then they will just mix it with water... yum...
That was enough of Puno for us so we headed down to Lake Titicaca to grab a boat to the Uros islands. These are the floating islands upon which the locals have created immense, amazing works of art from bundles of reeds! Even the islands themselves are incredible crafts as they have been fabricated by the hands of those who now call them home. All in all they are pretty cool as they are fully man-made from the reeds but there are rumors that the "local" Aymara people no longer actually live on them as they would like
tourists to believe... Also, there is also quite a bit if uncomfortable pressure to purchase the handicrafts sold on the islands, as if it is the tourist's responsibility to support the islanders' choice to live segregated from those dwelling on the mainland. Then they get you on this really cool reed boat that is shaped like a dragon and just before they push off they tell you that this too will cost you... Surprise, surprise... As with everything in Peru, this took much longer than anticipated but when stranded on an island all one can do is wait...
We ate dinner at fancy pizza joint, the lights went out and none of the locals seemed even bothered by it... ahahha Peru! We had so much food then back to our hotel for some silly fun drinking a bit of the Columbian rum Dave had been packing around for the past three months and playing cards then it was off to bed for we had an early morning scheduled for tomorrow as our bus was to depart at 8 AM for Arequipa.
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