k*spot: Peru and Chile 2004

back in sea-town - missing peru and friends

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 19:04:06 GMT

ok, i've been back for a couple days now, but i've been in shock trying to adjust to being back in north america and being at work. really its the being back at work part ;)

though it was just a short trip, it was absolutely amazing and just the vacation I needed (well, I could have used a couple more months to bum around). It was sad to say goodbye to everyone as we all went our seperate ways - inca trail with friends was definitely the highlight of my trip.

Our last night in cuzco all together was pretty fun even though i was feeling pretty nauseous and really tired. Dinner (with a group that ended being 11 with Henry and Dan). We went to Plaza Des Arms afterwards to watch them swarm to the huge group of gringos. Free drink tickets! Huddle! Break! Off to mama africas, mythology (way to burn it down there, mel! ha ha), and mama amerikas.

Arriving back in seattle i was a little bit in shock...from the cold weather on my flip-flop wearing feet...and the christmas carols playing in the airport terminal. Whoa whoa. It's Christmas already? How did that happen? Sure, there was that navitiy scene in the plaza with llamas, but I didn't realize that its less than two weeks to Christmas!!

Anyway, caught Arcade fire that night at Neumos. Pretty entertaining band to watch...

as heard on the inca trail

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:12:10 GMT

[From Mel and Karen's greatest inca trail hits]
"We built this city on rocks and stones!"
"Machu machu picchu!" (congo line down to the ruins)

[in the Ralph voice from the simpsons]
“I ate my crayons"– not to be confused with “I ate my free drink ticket” for when we were in cusco.

[playing cards with the porters on the third night]
Freddy: "Katherine! I love you! You're the one for me!
[Fred leans over and whispers: Uhh...her name is Karen]
Freddy: "Karen! I'll never forget your name! I love you!"

Freddy: "Freddy says, All the cards for me!"

[Walking through the jungle, day 4]
Karen: Ugh, it like totally smells
Mel: Yeah, ew, it smells like nature!

[Every day, at least 5 times each]
Taxi-burro!
Where's the elevator?
Are we there yet?
Weren’t the incas really short people? Why are these steps so steep?

Inca Trail - Day 4, Machu Picchu!

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 19:20:16 GMT

Ok, post-writing entries is difficult! It was only last week but its already fading from my memory! Must be getting old :(

Day 4 is supposed to be an easy day - only two hours of walking and its *mostly* downhill. Except for the part where it was uphill. And really steep. And Ruben, our guide, was in a bad mood and like sprinting through the trail. I wasn't feeling oh-so-great that day...a little bit nauseous in addition to getting an awful night of sleep (not to mention getting punched
while sleeping by Steve. Jackass.)

Getting to the sun gate and seeing the sun on Machu Picchu was awesome! We were FINALLY there! Machu Picchu is absolutely beautiful - its unlike anything I've ever seen before this trip. The four day trek was definitely worth it, I wouldn't have seen it any other way (ie. the cop out train ride) - seeing it with friends made the experience that much more amazing.

Mel, Steve, Ylva and I decided not to take the 'optional' hike up the mountain. Like really, my knees were already hurting enough, I'm not sick enough to take an 'optional' hike. Thats what Brian and his camera are for!

Anyway, I've thrown some of the pics into an album...I'll be adding more once I get some others from Melly and Brian.

Inca Trail - Day 3. The ladies of the inca trail fight back

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 23:04:30 GMT

Day three was pretty uneventful in the morning. We got up ass early again, walked, listened to Ruben babble about something about the ruins (no discos or corn beer lectures this time). Me and mel, despite getting very little sleep (damn coca leaves really disrupt your body – but we couldn’t get enough) kept up with the pack instead of goofing off as usual. Ruben misjudged me and Mel’s ability and ended up having to sprint up the mountain to get to camp. Ha ha. Lunch was super yum as usual and we sang happy birthday to Guido (ok, its more like Gido but I call him Guido) our cook before heading out for the afternoon.

Ruben, who we decided at this point was a sexist pig, split us up into two groups: The boys to take the hard trail, and the girls to take the easy normal trail. We were pretty frickin’ pissed, especially when Omar (who had been so nice and sweet the whole time) bailed on us too. Jackass. With two lesbians in the group, and Julia and Aideen who are in fairly good shape and wanted to do the hard trail, and me and mel who just don’t take shit like that to begin with, we were NOT impressed.

Eventually the group of us took our own pace and me, mel and aideen ended up walking together, fuming. As we walked, we composed a factious letter to keep ourselves amused (playing who would you screw when there are limited choices quickly becomes a very boring repetitious game). Our letter got pretty out of hand and soon we were giggling so much it was hard to keep on walking with all the gasping for air between laughs. I don’t remember all of it now but it went something like this.

Dear Sir or Madam,

We participated on a trek beginning on December 5th in a group of nine. We returned as a group of three, five days late as a result of being abandoned on the third day of walking by our guide. As there are a number of international clients that participate in the treks, we would have expected more professionalism and sensitivity towards political and cultural correctedness from your guides. We were sent to walk the easy trail on our own and got lost along the way.

We walked for days, lost in the mountains, sustaining ourselves on nothing but coca leaves. This had an unfortunate effect on us as none of us were able to sleep for days and were terribly hyper. Additionally, being separated from the group, we had no palta for our facial masks or cucumbers to soothe the bags under our eyes. It was terrible! We expect to be compensated for this horrible ordeal we had to endure.

Sincerely,

The ladies of the inca trail.

By the time we reached the fork in the road, we were walking at a fast determined rate. Omar spotted us but we ignored him until he tried to steer us down the easy path to camp rather than going to see the terraces. We decided to go to the terraces but since we had no guide...we made up our own tour...

K: Welcome to Intapatu, elevation 2840m. This terrace site was commonly used for inca activities, such as, but not limited to, this and that.

M: These are 80% original inca walls, the rest being destroyed by vegetation. Below is the amazon river. Also, this is a fern.

A: Man! You guys took all the things I was going to say……Refresco? [hands out candies]

Honestly, I was pretty pissed off at Ruben, but I had one of the funniest afternoons with Mel and Aideen just wandering around and being silly. So glad to have good friends on the trail!

Inca Trail - Day 2, pt. 2

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 20:43:24 GMT

Well the rest of the day turned out to not be that bad…after finally getting to the top of dead woman’s pass (aka Luen – think of Luen’s cold weather problem) it was actually quite enjoyable. It was super cold at the peak but after descending the mountain was a lot warmer as we moved into a more tropical region. The walk down the mountain was actually a lot of fun. Well not so fun on the knees, but Mel and I definitely entertained ourselves all the way back to camp for lunch…there’s nothing like singing songs (Mel and Karen's greatest Inca Trail hits. Sorry no CODs) and giggling to keep your mind off the fact that you woke up at like 5am to walk 14km and climb 2000m when you’re already gasping for air at 3000m+.

Or, it could have been that we were completely hopped up on coca leaves. coca tea. coca candy. coca coca coca! We'd like to think that we were giddy because of the lack of oxygen in the high altitudes...but maybe it was the coca. (Coca leaves are used to make cocaine)

Back at camp, everyone else seemed exhausted and bailed shortly after lunch for naps. Mel and I had so much energy (hmmm, coca again maybe?) that we decided to play Mancala. We ended up teaching some of the porters to play (Julio was my student, Jose was mel's) and by the time the afternoon was over, the Canadian dominance was lost to Peru and we could no longer win at our own game.

ps. Omar is my knight in shining armor. he popped out of nowhere to catch me when I tripped.

Inca Trail - Day 2, pt. 1

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 20:53:20 GMT

Day 2 was by far the WORST day of hiking...I was lucky and got a reasonable night of sleep, while others in the group didnt fare so well. I am glad i brought clif bars to eat for brekkie because they served a lot of eggs for breakfast on the trip (though I have to admit i did indulge in the pancakes with dulce de leche a couple times). We said goodbye to the llama chicken (quite possibly the hairiest chicken i have ever seen in my life, it had feathers everywhere, even his feet had features all over them).

Anyway, we left camp ass early and started walking...up hill....and more up hill....it was by far one of the most painful days of walking I have ever experienced. Part of it was physical but primarily its the mental factor. The altitude made walking really hard because the air was so thin, but being able to see how much higher you have to climb and then looking down and your feet making baby steps is by far one of the most frustrating things. No matter how long you trudged on, progress was so slow with the steep incline and your body just not wanting to go any faster or take any bigger steps. Mel and I walked together, and by the time were close to the morning break (which was at maybe 10am) we had already felt like we had been walking for an eternity. There was one point when we stopped to sit on a rock and we saw
our guide Ruben following up behind us (he started a lot later than us to follow the rear of the pack). We tried to hide but he saw us (and by hide we mean we covered our faces because we were too tired to move from sitting on the rock to behind a tree). He said camp was only 15 more minutes up, so we walked on (mel timed us) and we FINALLY made it to break camp. At this point we were only a third of the way done and I thought i was going to barf. We were tired, covered in sweat, but at least there was fruit salad and refrescos!

anyway, I will have to continue this later, I gotta meet the crew at 4pm.

Inca Trail - Day 1

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 20:36:07 GMT

so i am at an internet cafe and i cant figure out where all the punctuation keys are - even though they are marked on the keyboard they dont actually SHOW up when you hit the key. Kinda frustrating. Anyway...

We started off the trail on the 5th of December. We headed out on a bus to Ollayantambo with our group - the 6 of us (me, steve, mel, julía, aideen and brian) and were joined by frederick, giovanna and ylva. Pretty small group which was good. The first day of the hike is supposed to be easy - only 14km I think, and at around 3300m elevation and pretty gradual in terms of the amount you have to climb - not terribly bad. SAS runs a tight ship, and at each of the stopping points there was the food tent set up and a guy with a refresco waiting for you. Badass. I think I ate better on the trek than I did the rest of my trip.

After the first day of hiking, it was clear who was hardcore, who was in shape and who was just there to have fun. Mel and I fell into the latter group. Whats the fun of racing through the trek anyway? How glad were we that we hired porters to carry the rest of our stuff?

Our guide Ruben was a little on the nuts side - like spastic nuts. At one of the inca ruins on the way he was babbling on about stuff, but I was only half listening. Partially because I was trying to catch my breath and partially because its just so phenomenally beautiful to be in the middle of no where surrounded by lush trees and beautiful mountains. All I caught was
something about how if you are in cuzco if some dude comes up to you at a disco and says he is an inca, he is lying...and that partying and drinking and discos are bad, and llama poo is good for fuel. Pretty random, I know but that really is pretty much all i caught. We also learned later that night at dinner that corn beer is good for men, if you know what i mean.

We got into camp pretty early that day so the bunch of us set up camp (ok, thats a lie, more like we identified our bags and put them into the tents that were already set up) and played cards for the rest of the evening. we were all dreading day 2 of the hike which is supposed to be the worst day....

inca ruins

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 21:33:20 GMT

the six of us piled into a cab this morning and headed up to see some of the local inca ruins around cuzco...we figured it was a good way to get our bodies used to moving around in the higher altitudes as well as seeing some of the local sites at our own pace rather than having some tour...we hired a cab to take us up to the top most site, and we walked the 8km back stopping at the other sites....we started off at tambomachay, pukapukara, Qénqo and then saqsaywaman (which sounds a lot like sexy woman)...it was a great day to go for a walk, though I think I got sunburned again. Geezus, you think i would learn now? I always forget to put sunscreen on my shoulders. Oh well. Lu - we saw so many llamas, they made me and mel think of you!

the walk didn´t take us all that long, but by the time we were done, we were all starving. We opted for another 3 sol lunch (which is less than 1 USD) and then went our seperate ways. A couple of shops into our shopping it started to rain really really hard. Me and Mel are now killing some time waiting for the rain to stop.

last night we hit up the artisan market...since cuzco is my last city before heading home, I plan to do some mad shopping after the trek (so I dont have to worry about storage of my things while I´m away). Yay for shopping! (Ingi, its not the same without you ala chatuchak... 5 baht and a high five?)

checkin´up & mel has landed

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 22:33:33 GMT

ok, i´m a dork, this is the second time today i´ve logged onto the internet....I blame mel (who got here this morning) who needed to check her mail, so you know, since i´m here I might as well too. Really, I was curious how Spaces is doing. :)

anyway, the next couple of days are gonna be chill before the trek. We´re going to the crafts market tonight to test out our bargaining skills, check out some inca ruins tomorrow and I dont know about the day after. Mel and I just spent the afternoon looking for some non-ugly shoes (because you know its very important to look cute on the trail! - or because all of mel´s gear was stolen in La Paz)

Quotes of the day (and no, it wasn´t me):

¨Do they have electricity on the trail¨
¨Can I get my porter to carry me?¨

the best brekkie ever

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 15:28:24 GMT

oh, and in addition to all the inca trail stuff falling into place (which is a huge load off my shoulders since it was something i really wanted to do and we skipped going to puno/lake titicaca to get here earlier to sort things out) I had the best brekkie ever. Apple pie and a REAL cup of coffee. The breakfast selection has been pretty dismal for me since i dont like eggs and all they ever want to serve you is omlettes.

anyway, its going to be a great day - brian and aideen got in this morning, melly flies in this afternoon, its sunny outside (though its pretty cool here in cuzco and i´m going to go search for some alpaca socks) and i´ve got nothing planned today except for chillng out. I´m a happy girl :)

oh and another random...this morning at breakfast i met another traveller
from my home town of Richmond Hill!! Its such a small world.

lata skatas! gleam on!

the trek is on!

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 15:27:38 GMT

after talking with the SAS folks a ton, running back and forth between their office and the internet cafe hoping that our friends in arequipa would check mail and do all their paper work, it looks like everything is a go! they ended up setting up a new tour for us - so its me, steve, aideen, brian, mel and her friend julia (and some random italian girls apparently). Yay! It was
a little stressful at first sine we hadn´t booked ahead and missed the registration for the 4th (when we had hoped to go). Now we´re set for the 5th, returning the evening of the 8th, leaving one day on the 9th to shop before we have to fly out on the 10th to lima to catch our flight back home.

whee! I´m so excited! yay!

ps. congrats on spaces! yay! we shipped! we rule!

and half an hour later, we were in cuzco

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:18:21 GMT

The drive back from colca canyon was gross and bumpy...gross because there is nothing but dust dust and more dust, and bumpy because the road isnt paved. a lovely ride indeed!

we met up with aideen and brian for dinner - with all the alpaca, ostrich and quinua we´d been eating, we decided to have some italian instead. mmmm pizza! turns out it was aideen´s 26th birthday and the peruvian version of ray charles on the accordian was there to celebrate with us. To continue with the non-peruvian-ness, we went to alliance francaise for crepes. We were pretty beat, but we had to find melly, so Brian and Aideen went back to Reyna, and we went to Deja Vu. When Mel didn´t show, we weren´t suprised because her bus was ´supposed´to arrive at 10pm but the bus tends to stop at every little town even when its supposed to be direct. We decided to run by reyna to see if she had arrived and as we walked towards the hostel we saw a pack of backpackers. amidst the huge backpacks was mel! we said our hellos and since we had decided to not go to puno, decided to talk more in the morning.

in the morning, steve and i decided to check out plane fares to cuzco. the prospect of sitting on a bus for 12 hours on a unpaved road (basically a similar route to colca canyon) didn´t sound all so hot. the first travel agency we went to said we missed the *only* flight out at 10am...oh well, we thought. On the way back to our hostel we spotted another agency and decided to stop in. They had a flight on the same airline at 11:35, and so we booked that...we left notes at reyna for mel and brian/aideen, and went to the airport...and half an hour later...we were in cuzco! SO much nicer than sitting on a bus for 12 hours. Its cheating I suppose, *real* backpackers wouldnt have done that, but screw it!

anyway, we have run into some snags with booking the inca trail bit...looks like we might go on the 5th after all if we dont hear back from everyone in arequipa. we´ll see i guess...

anyway, i´m starving and my head sorta hurts from being at 3500m. Need to get used to the altitude or the trek is going to be painful.

colca canyon is special and important

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:01:04 GMT

ok, sorry for yesterdays completely retarded entry. We had been truckin around all day, and were extremely tired - they wanted us to go to the hot springs, but aideen and i couldnt be bothered to change into our bathing suits, and ian and brian didnt care, so we decided that we would walk back to town. WHY we chose to walk in the dark in the freezing cold instead of soaking in 38C water is beyond me, but we walked for half an hour, and when we got back to town i realized that Steve (who had stayed back at the
hotsprings) had the key to our room, so i went next door with ian to check mail and my fingers were completely numb.

anyway, we spent today in colca canyon, driving around and looking for condors. i got ridiculously burnt again, that blazing sun and high elevation (3600m) will get you every time! we had to get up ass early again (5am) so i'm pretty beat. by the time lunch time rolled around, i felt like i had been awake for like ever and we were all dazed while we ate at chivay. there's this fruit pipento¿ i dunno, that is my new fave fruit! its like half melon, half plum or something. they brought in the folk music again...it was nice the first couple times, but its so loud you cant talk. And its also not so good when they block the door and you cant get out of the restaurant.

Overall, colca canyon was cool but it was the peeps and the experience that made it special and important. ha ha. Our guide was so informative and sweet, but really, everything was special and important. the vicunas are special and important because they are light brown, but not to be confused with the llamas and alpacas which can be brown, or black which are also
special and important. And those factories over there that make cement are special and important. We all got a good laugh out of that.

anyway, dinner time is soon, so i should go. lata skatas

planning stinks

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:34:32 GMT

this trip has been all about playing it by ear, but we've actually got to plan this thing if we want to do the inca trek.

it looks frickin ridiculous on the second day but i'm pretty psyched about it. check it out. http://www.sastravelperu.com/english/inkatrail.html

in chivay, frickin freezing.

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 23:55:25 GMT

in chivay...my hands are so cold, we just finished trekking and walking back from the hot springs. its frickin cold up here and the air is so thin its hard to breathe. i can barely type.

had an awesome dinner last night, ostrich is my new fave thing!! hung out w. some kids from colorado and our irish friends...anyway its too cold to blog coherent thoughts. once the sun goes down its miserably cold.

randoms

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 23:53:04 GMT

i had the greatest shower ever at el reyna in arequipa. its a sad thing when you get all excited that 1. you actually get to shower. 2. the shower actually has hot water for more than two minutes. there is nothing sadder than taking a shower in icy cold water.

the man in the tacna bus station cracks me up. AREQUIPA! (x 1000)

everything in arequipna is special and important as our guide has told us. (x1000)

into peru in a buick

Sun, 28 Nov 2004 21:10:40 GMT

we left arica with adi and brian, these irish kids we met on the bus into arica a couple days earlier. we didn´t really know what we were doing, but wandering in a group is more fun so thats what we did. We got to the bus station and were immediately swarmed by collectivo drivers. We settled on one guy who led us to his late 70´s buick. no joke. a boat. and so we crossed the border in a beat up old buick - it has to be one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, being crammed in a buick for an hour and crossing the border in a car that isnt yours with a driver tht doesnt speak english who you dont know but you just gave him your passport. the driver helped us through the border crossing (his actions, since he didn´t speak english, resembled an ewok). He dropped us off in tacna, a southern town just on the border in peru, where we watched some football before jumping on a bus to arequipa.

buses are a funny thing - you play bingo (except i´m not very good at n umbers) and you watch lots of movies (some in spanish, some subtitled) and listen to really bad 80´s music and sometimes kenny g.

we arrived in arequipa that evening, found a place to stay and headed out to find some food. Arequipa seemed somewhat unfriendly when we drove in, but we walked around the central area and its a pretty lively city. We´re trying to get used to the altitude (its about 2400 m here) so that when we get to cuzco (which is over 3500m) we wont get sick. hopefully.

the four of us have been wandering around arequipa, checking out the monestario santa catalina, the plaza des arms, la mercado and the catherdral...we´ll prolly call it an early night tonight since we´re getting up early tomorrow to go to canyon de colca for the next two days...then its hopefully meeting melly, then going to puno and then cuzco!

the last coupla days

Fri, 26 Nov 2004 23:40:02 GMT

today´s entry will have to be brief since the clock on my net access is ticking and i need to write some emails still!!!

san pedro was a lot of fun and absolutely beautiful - on our last day there, we went to el tatio geysers at frickin 4am! the bus driver INSISTED on driving NOT on the road (which was really just levelled dirt at best) so it was a little unnerving since its in the middle of nowhere with no lights.

we got there a little before the sunrise, and to put it nicely, it was FUCKING cold. geezus. -9 C. anyway, the altitude was kinda getting to me so I was somewhat out of commission for a bit of the morning.

anyway, we got dropped off in calama so that we could catch a bus to arica. we had some time to kill so the driver and guide (who was a dead ringer for antonio banderas, no joke) dropped us off at the mall to kill some time. Calama is a mining town, so you have to understand there was no alternative, but yes, we hung out in the food court. ha ha. like teenagers.

we´re now in arica, and spent the day bumming around after our overnight bus up here. we went to the beach and got ridiculously sunburned - steve more than me - but i´m starting to get freckles and i dont like it! we´re off to arequipa in peru tomorrow to get used to the altitude before going up to cuzco for the inca trail. The next two and a half weeks will be at over 3000+ meters high! crazy.

oh yeah...

Thu, 25 Nov 2004 22:42:09 GMT

there are SO many dogs around here! they´re so cute, i want to take one home with me (but i doubt it will fit in my backpack)

the mysterious mustached man of san pedro

Thu, 25 Nov 2004 22:30:01 GMT

so i forgot to mention the other entry that there´s this mysterious man that keeps on popping up in san pedro. sure, san pedro is a small town, but there´s something about this guy that makes him stand out...he has this mysterious look in his eye, is always wearing a green fedora like hat, and has a pointy moustache...

we first spotted him on the bus from calama to san pedro - it was us and some other tourists and then this family of local chileans. They didn´t talk the whole ride, and i didn´t really even notice him until he switched from sitting in the front passenger, to sitting in the main cabin of the mini-bus after the ¨mom and dad¨looking couple got off. we had asked the driver to take us to check out some hostels when he started driving into the middle of nowhere into the back village. We said (in english) its too far out, we´ll never find our way back to the main part of town. Out of nowhere, the man, spoke in perfect english, ¨this is where i live, its far away from the tourist areas¨. We were all a little shocked that the whole time he had probably been listening to us talk...

later that evening, we went out for dinner, and as a large rowdy party of gringos was leaving, we turned around and who did we see? the man in the hat. he tipped his hat at us as he left and gave us a knowing look.

the next day, we were leaving for our trip to valle de la luna, and through the window of the minibus, who did we see? the man with the hat, walking down the street right beside our window...

and yesterday at lunch, steve and i decided to pick a small restaurant to grab some lunch, and who pulls up in a red pick up truck right infront of the restaurant and talks to the proprietor? the man in the hat...

I´m so curious to find out what his deal is...why we see him everywhere, and what he´s all about...alas...we´ve since left san pedro so we´ll never know....there´s something about the look in his eye - like he knows a secret about you but wont tell you what he knows or why he knows it.....

in the middle of nowhere and loving it.

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:57:11 GMT

the greatest thing about backpacking is never having to actually plan anything, and the ability to just jump on a plane (if you can afford it) or a bus at any given time and go somewhere completely different.

steve and i decided to jump on a plane to calama to get to San Pedro. We got here monday night and met up with some backpackers from Holland to find a place to stay that wasnt a complete hole in the wall and wasnt out of our price range. How nice it is to take a quasi-hot shower after a long day of travelling! Fleur, Stephen, Steve and I ended up eating dinner together and sharing stories of our travels before heading out for some drinks. Chilean wine is super yum, and pisco sours are deadly.

I've been spending my mornings sleeping in and reading in the sun, this is definitely the vacation i needed! We decided yesterday late in the afternoon to go take a tour of the valle de la luna - the driest desert in the world (but as Nick says, he's heard that three times already around the world so there must be a lot of really dry deserts). i feel sorry for some of the older folks on the tour who werent warned that there'd be a bunch of hiking/trekking. What an amazing feeling to be at the top of a massive sand dune and get to run/slide down it? Or watch the sun set from the top of a mountain? I wish i wasnt on the ghetto-est of ghetto computers or I'd post some for you all to see.

Today we're checking out the salt flats, and tomorrow we're getting our asses out of bed at 4am to go to see the geysers. Geezus. After that, its back to Calama, then to arica for a couple days.

I've already finished reading my first book, the passion (a prezzie from mr. chair - so thougtful!)...great book but really made me think a lot...and as we all know, thinking is not a good thing. anyway....off to find me some lunch and some snacks for this afternoon.

later!

Today we're heading

off to the north

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 15:13:37 GMT

ok, we finally made a decision - we´re flying to calama this afternoon. where calama is? uhhh i dont really know. i think its in the north? and from there we´ll go to san pedro. this is how vacations go for me, its all sort of play it by ear. Since we dont have a lot of time here in chile, we decided we´d rather spend more time in one area of chile rather than trying to fly around like mad up and down the country. i guess i´ll just have to come back another time :)

anyway, the plan is to meet up with melly on the 30th in arequipa...in between then...who knows where we´ll be...

santiago and no prime minister

Sun, 21 Nov 2004 21:39:32 GMT

well, i´m in santiago in an internet cafe typing on the stickiest keyboard ever. gross. anyway, the flight over wasn´t that bad since the flight wasn´t full. We arrived all of 5 hours ago and i´m already on email. pathetic.

we´re staying at the casa roja for the time being until we decide where we want to go - this whole vacation is pretty much about playing it by ear.

we had read somewhere that the prime minister of canada was hosting a grey cup party that was supposed to be open to all canadians in the area, but alas, no dice...we´re some what stinkier than the rest of the guests, and we´re also missing invitations. boo-urns. anyway...i´m glad to be on vacation. wheee!! more later

my poor poor back

Sat, 20 Nov 2004 01:45:54 GMT

ugh! i hurt my back somehow and now i can barely move!

how am i supposed to carry a backpack for three weeks?

vay-kay!

Wed, 10 Nov 2004 02:43:31 GMT

i am so frickin' excited! i booked my plane tickets today for my vacation...

wheee!

i'm flying into Santiago, Chile and making my way over to Lima, Peru over three weeks. My plan is to meet up with ms. melly who is already down there vay-kay-ing it up.

yayyyyy! wheeee! hoorayyyy!

see you later suckers! i mean. i'll send postcards :)