Greetings from the end of the world.....literally, look up Punta Arenas, Chile on Google Maps. So, Conor gave you an overview of chile thus far...don't let his funny jokes fool you, it's still been pretty cool. Valpariso had all these interesting sinuous streets, lots of great character and good food. Our sun was short lived becuase then we took off for Punta Arenas yesterday. What we thought was a direct flight was actually direct "with two quick stops"...i.e. we landed in puerto montt, took off, landed in balcameda, took off, and then finally landed in punta arenas, not without some of the worst turbulence....everrrrrrrrrrrrr. You can imagine the cuts i left in conor's arms....my death grip even extended to the poor chilean man sitting next to me, with my bleak smiles throughout.
So we arrive at Punta Arenas...its pretty drab since it's the dead of winter here, well no, actually just starting their spring, and we immedialty hop on a bus to take us north 3 hours to Puerto Natales. This is a funky town and mainly a jumping off point for the National Park, Torres del Paine. This is really the place to see Patagonia on the Chillean border. It's pretty amazing. we got picked up from our hotel this morning, and trekked along to the park (another hour or two) making some great stops along the way at huge glacier made caves and awesome viewpoints. Picture turqoise-green lakes, snow capped mountains, and...BLUE GLACIERS. It immediately brings me back to my BC Webmail debut with Millmie! So once we reached the park and our hotel, which is SO REMOTE by the way...and alas here i am on a computer typing away on the internet, got to love globalization, we did some hiking out on the lake to see some of the glaciers. We also saw some HUGE condors, and the chillean eqivilent of llamas. Tomorrow we're going to do a longer hike to get some better views, and will possibly do some kayaking or horseback riding as well. It's just really nice to chill out a bit, even if it is freezing...plus, we're staying in an actual HOTEL!! yay! We have to go all the way to antartica to stay in a hotel...pretty sweet. (there's only 4 other people staying at this resort in the middle of the park) Well, I'm sure we'll write again soon since there's not much going on here! Feel free to post, or email....I'm dying to talk politics....now back to my free pisco sour and puma documentry.
reporting from the end of the earth,
lindsay and conor
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
El Mullet is really popular in Chile right now
So we arrived in Santiago, Chile at 2am on Wednesday morning and we've observed the following so far:
1) They don´t believe in reciprocity. We each paid a $130 reciprocity fee when we landed and we've yet to see much reciprocation. This may have something to do with the fact that we are in...
2) ...Chile, which means cold in their language. And apparently, they feel the need to live up to that definition, in every sense of the word. The weather feels like fall and the people seem to go out of their way to make you feel like you are not welcome. They don't try to speak the language or smile whenever you are dealing with them. And when they pass by you, they love to stare because they know you are tourists, or because....
3) ...they don't know what good hair looks like. (A) Most of them are either sporting rat tails or a mullet that is business in the front and we-just-arrived-at-the-cocktail-party-in-the-back. You know, it's not ''drunken after-party wild'' in the back, rather it's ''we know we just arrived somewhere where we need to be sophisticated for the first few drinks before we get wild'' in the back. (B) I don't think anyone in Chile has ever seen blond hair before. Every time we walk by someone, they stop the conversation they are having, they stare at the top half of Lindsay's head for a few seconds, and then they look at me as if to say ''are you sure you can handle that or do you need help bringing her back to the circus tent?'' But of course, even if they really felt I needed help in corralling the circus animal, they wouldn't actually let their thoughts become actions, like when I inadvertently ordered...
4) ...octopus the other day. I swore that I was ordering baked potatoes and grilled vegetables, but what I got instead were a couple of purple tentacles with suction cup thingies sprinkled all over them on a plate with a grilled carrot. Of course, being adventorous, I tried it and I tried to convince myself while I was chewing it that it tasted like chicken. About a minute and a half in, I was still chewing the same piece and that chicken felt like it had been marinated in the toxic sludge that collects in the street gutters. Now, given that I have a bleeding heart and am very cognizant of the starvation going on worldwide right now, I decided I needed to keep eating and would have to figure out different methods for getting it down as painlessly as possible. ''Chew it in the back of your mouth and let little pieces go down individually and you'll be done in no time'' I thought. After one bite, I didn't care much about starvation. However, at that point, I decided it wasn't about starvation (maybe a little), but about being a man. Men eat weird fishy things, like my uncle Tim proved and told to me at a family cookout when he was downing grilled sardines like they were Mom's chocolate chip cookies. So, now that I was in a 1 on 1 mantest with myself, I decided all I needed was a good beer to dilute the flavor and wash it down. I chose a beer called die m dunkel because it sounded potent..which it was. The beer was black as night and tasted like what i imagine the combination of tar and the bottom of a beer barrell tastes like. Anyway, I was able to finally will the octopus into my stomach, but not without a couple of those bad shudders - the ones where the feeling starts at your toes, shoots to your hips and makes them rock back and forth, continues on to your shoulders where it makes them come forward and towards each other, and then culminates in your head whipping back and forth like on a swivel. Anyway, man prevailed over beast and all was well in the world. And then I realized that despite all of these negative moments, Chile...
5) ...actually is a very interesting and cool place. Santiago is what I imagine Miami is like if in the fall, Miami had Connecticut's weather. There are lots of gorgeous and massive palm trees, the houses are constructed with beautiful spanish architecture, and all of the streets have latin names. Valparaiso, which sits on the Pacific ocean about 100km´s away, reminded us of Malaga, Spain. It is very blue collar city that is built on a mountain overlooking a bay and has some absolutely phenomenal views. Maybe a poor man's Santorini? We'll see in a month. Anyway, we really enjoyed exploring the different neighborhoods that had a lot of character and we went out to some really superb restaurants. We also took a quick train over to Vina del Mar, which is a little more opulent but reminded us more of atlantic city´s boardwalk than anything else.
Anyway, that's it for now. Tomorrow, we leave bright and early for Patagonia, where we'll be paying tribute to glaciers that might not be around that much longer if Obama is not elected this fall...
1) They don´t believe in reciprocity. We each paid a $130 reciprocity fee when we landed and we've yet to see much reciprocation. This may have something to do with the fact that we are in...
2) ...Chile, which means cold in their language. And apparently, they feel the need to live up to that definition, in every sense of the word. The weather feels like fall and the people seem to go out of their way to make you feel like you are not welcome. They don't try to speak the language or smile whenever you are dealing with them. And when they pass by you, they love to stare because they know you are tourists, or because....
3) ...they don't know what good hair looks like. (A) Most of them are either sporting rat tails or a mullet that is business in the front and we-just-arrived-at-the-cocktail-party-in-the-back. You know, it's not ''drunken after-party wild'' in the back, rather it's ''we know we just arrived somewhere where we need to be sophisticated for the first few drinks before we get wild'' in the back. (B) I don't think anyone in Chile has ever seen blond hair before. Every time we walk by someone, they stop the conversation they are having, they stare at the top half of Lindsay's head for a few seconds, and then they look at me as if to say ''are you sure you can handle that or do you need help bringing her back to the circus tent?'' But of course, even if they really felt I needed help in corralling the circus animal, they wouldn't actually let their thoughts become actions, like when I inadvertently ordered...
4) ...octopus the other day. I swore that I was ordering baked potatoes and grilled vegetables, but what I got instead were a couple of purple tentacles with suction cup thingies sprinkled all over them on a plate with a grilled carrot. Of course, being adventorous, I tried it and I tried to convince myself while I was chewing it that it tasted like chicken. About a minute and a half in, I was still chewing the same piece and that chicken felt like it had been marinated in the toxic sludge that collects in the street gutters. Now, given that I have a bleeding heart and am very cognizant of the starvation going on worldwide right now, I decided I needed to keep eating and would have to figure out different methods for getting it down as painlessly as possible. ''Chew it in the back of your mouth and let little pieces go down individually and you'll be done in no time'' I thought. After one bite, I didn't care much about starvation. However, at that point, I decided it wasn't about starvation (maybe a little), but about being a man. Men eat weird fishy things, like my uncle Tim proved and told to me at a family cookout when he was downing grilled sardines like they were Mom's chocolate chip cookies. So, now that I was in a 1 on 1 mantest with myself, I decided all I needed was a good beer to dilute the flavor and wash it down. I chose a beer called die m dunkel because it sounded potent..which it was. The beer was black as night and tasted like what i imagine the combination of tar and the bottom of a beer barrell tastes like. Anyway, I was able to finally will the octopus into my stomach, but not without a couple of those bad shudders - the ones where the feeling starts at your toes, shoots to your hips and makes them rock back and forth, continues on to your shoulders where it makes them come forward and towards each other, and then culminates in your head whipping back and forth like on a swivel. Anyway, man prevailed over beast and all was well in the world. And then I realized that despite all of these negative moments, Chile...
5) ...actually is a very interesting and cool place. Santiago is what I imagine Miami is like if in the fall, Miami had Connecticut's weather. There are lots of gorgeous and massive palm trees, the houses are constructed with beautiful spanish architecture, and all of the streets have latin names. Valparaiso, which sits on the Pacific ocean about 100km´s away, reminded us of Malaga, Spain. It is very blue collar city that is built on a mountain overlooking a bay and has some absolutely phenomenal views. Maybe a poor man's Santorini? We'll see in a month. Anyway, we really enjoyed exploring the different neighborhoods that had a lot of character and we went out to some really superb restaurants. We also took a quick train over to Vina del Mar, which is a little more opulent but reminded us more of atlantic city´s boardwalk than anything else.
Anyway, that's it for now. Tomorrow, we leave bright and early for Patagonia, where we'll be paying tribute to glaciers that might not be around that much longer if Obama is not elected this fall...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
peru pics link
might work, courtesy of andrew: http://picasaweb.google.com/murphya23/PeruIncaTrailLima
pictures peru.6
Saysaywayman Ruins with Cusco down below
Familar Faces: Shaina Morphew and Dan Guerin in Cuscopictures peru.5
FINALLY we made it, looking like hell, but still it's machu pìchu!
conor....one of the lost incaspictures peru.4
indiana jones in the Andes Mountains...pre altitude sickness
All the pretty llamas and alpacasss
pictures peru.1
Ok bear with the multiple picture posts...its the only way i could get them up here. Andrew and conor on the way down to the beach in Lima.
Enjoying a beverage at sea....
Monday, August 25, 2008
ADDITION: to last post
Conor: "You know I used to claim I was Canadian whenever I visited foreign countries, but then I thought to myself 'what has Canada ever done for the world...´ after realizing it was nothing, i decided to claim i was australian going forward.''
Canadian girl: ''well, we are the only NATO presence in blah blah blah blah blah right now.''
Conor: ''Well congratulations, no one other than you knows that''
Canadian girl sports a very sad look suddenly.
Bottom Line: Don´t make ignorant generalizations to me.
Canadian girl: ''well, we are the only NATO presence in blah blah blah blah blah right now.''
Conor: ''Well congratulations, no one other than you knows that''
Canadian girl sports a very sad look suddenly.
Bottom Line: Don´t make ignorant generalizations to me.
en la cuidad de cusco
well we haven't posted the last few days becuase everytime we're at an internet cafe we've been attempted to post photos...and its not working, frustration is mounting. So instead of graphics, here's an update in the meantime...So oringally we were supposed to leave on Saturday and head for Lake Titicaca on the border of Peru and Boliva, its the highest navigable lake in the world (13,00ft) and where the incan gods orginated, with beautiful water and scenery...but as conor's last post indicated, we got back on Friday night from Machu Pichu at 2am...dreading a long bus riding and more traveling. so we decided to stay in Cusco for the weekend...and what a good choice that was. After 4 days on the trail we needed some good food, hot showers, and rest! Maybe even a little TV. Plus, there's so much to see and do in Cusco that we've been busy. We explored the San Blas neighborhood, which is totally peruvian and really cute. Narrow cobble stone streets, with great resturants, views, shops, and of course, Andean people and their lamas all over. Saturday night we did a farewell dinner with our Irish and Aussie friends at a great resturant....the Irish crew had an 8 am flight to the jungle the next morning, but of course we stayed out til 3am...at where else, an Irish pub (the highest irish pub in the world that is). Lots of good laughs...until conor and i were accosted by a canadian that demanded to know why we voted for George Bush....and why are we all so arrogant, ignorant and stupid....that was fun....you can imagine conor's reaction. I think at one point he told her that george bush was his cousin, and that air force one flew him to Peru! Then we continued on to a peruvian night club with lots of fun dancing. Needless to say our sunday was slowwwwww. We hope the irish lads made it to the jungle.
Sunday we did some more sightseeing and exporling, and of course more delichous eating>! the food is soo good, and we're eating like kings right now....then we hiked up a 1.5 miles above the town, veryyyy steep, to the Saysaywayman ruins (read: sexy woman) that were really cool and gave an awesome view of the whole city of cusco. we were out of breath but it was fun to explore. Needless to stay we finally crashed last night.
Today we moved to a new hostel (much cheaper...trying to stay on budget) and then met Shaina Morphew and Dan Guerin who were here on a "get to know you, welcome trip" with their MBA peers from Northwestern. It was sooo great to see a familar face (plus shaina brought us vanity fair and sports illustrated magazines...sweeet), but the hilarious part is that Dan and Shaina didnt tell the rest of their group that they know each other (its part of their icebreakers...and getting to know eachother thing)...so when their MBA friends saw us touring together it got kind of weird! But we had a great lunch and visited La Catedral de Cusco and the Sun temple. Both are basically incan temples that were then transformed to catholic churches when the Spanish took over...so its pretty neat to see the totally different styles and combo of incan religion (sun worship, etc) and spanish crosses, etc. then we had a fun experience shopping for underwear at tiendas de intimas....they sell underwear in separate small shops here...its strange. Hopefully we'll figure out the pics things soon...tomorrow we have a 12 hour layover in lima before we fly to Santiago, Chile. I'm sure we'll have plenty of internet time then. we're looking forward to a new city!!
Sunday we did some more sightseeing and exporling, and of course more delichous eating>! the food is soo good, and we're eating like kings right now....then we hiked up a 1.5 miles above the town, veryyyy steep, to the Saysaywayman ruins (read: sexy woman) that were really cool and gave an awesome view of the whole city of cusco. we were out of breath but it was fun to explore. Needless to stay we finally crashed last night.
Today we moved to a new hostel (much cheaper...trying to stay on budget) and then met Shaina Morphew and Dan Guerin who were here on a "get to know you, welcome trip" with their MBA peers from Northwestern. It was sooo great to see a familar face (plus shaina brought us vanity fair and sports illustrated magazines...sweeet), but the hilarious part is that Dan and Shaina didnt tell the rest of their group that they know each other (its part of their icebreakers...and getting to know eachother thing)...so when their MBA friends saw us touring together it got kind of weird! But we had a great lunch and visited La Catedral de Cusco and the Sun temple. Both are basically incan temples that were then transformed to catholic churches when the Spanish took over...so its pretty neat to see the totally different styles and combo of incan religion (sun worship, etc) and spanish crosses, etc. then we had a fun experience shopping for underwear at tiendas de intimas....they sell underwear in separate small shops here...its strange. Hopefully we'll figure out the pics things soon...tomorrow we have a 12 hour layover in lima before we fly to Santiago, Chile. I'm sure we'll have plenty of internet time then. we're looking forward to a new city!!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
CORRECTIONS to last post:
1. drop the "p" from dead conor's pass.....it was bad
2. this trek was hard and we smell
3. this was amazing...hard to begin to describe all the amazing moutain views, experiences in the peruvian jungle, and the crazy incan ruins
4. it's good to be back en-communicado
5. pics hopefully in the next few days
6. we are out of wet ones and pepto bismal
7. send soles
8. adios mis amigas
2. this trek was hard and we smell
3. this was amazing...hard to begin to describe all the amazing moutain views, experiences in the peruvian jungle, and the crazy incan ruins
4. it's good to be back en-communicado
5. pics hopefully in the next few days
6. we are out of wet ones and pepto bismal
7. send soles
8. adios mis amigas
We made it, despite a few hiccups
Hi All,
Well, we just made it through our 4-day, 30-kilometer trek along the Inca trail that culminated at the incredibly picturesque Machu Pichu. We believe that the best way to describe our time on the trail is to provide you with a list of things we saw/experienced for the first time:
1) Porters - descendants of the Sherpa line, our 15-member tour was accompanied by 23 of these 5´2´´ mountains lions (only one of them was not 5´2´´, his name was Custina and he stood just a shade under 5, and I made sure to bond with him. He was a good man) who possessed a sixth sense that allowed them to barrel downhill over rocks at breakneck speeds with only sandals on to support the 50lbs they were carrying on their backs. We could not have done the trip without them and they definitely deserved more than having to carry our heavy bags all day and then having to share our mess tent as sleeping quarters at night. Anyway, these fine men will be remembered, if not for their great service to us, then for their putrid stench that made me want to pass out/vomit every time they passed me on the trail (seriously, I could smell them far before I could see them).
2) Scenery - there is no possible way to describe the feeling of stepping out of your tent in the morning and seeing the sun stain snow-capped mountains as far as the eye can see in every direction. If we had a penny for every time we stood in awe of what we saw before us, we would be able to send all of the porters´children to a college like BC or ND.
3) Altitude sickness - well, in our last post, we mentioned that altitued sickness was not a hoax. Well, let´s just say that since then, we´ve found out that altitude sickness can manifest itself in more than just one form. After a few near mishaps near the highest point known as Dead Woman´s Pass (4200 meters, should be renamed Dead Conor´s Pass), I began taking a pepto bismol every time I opened my mouth to eat anything. Here was yesterdays totals: 2 pepto bismol tablets, 7 antacids, and 1 prilosec.
4) Bathrooms - there were only 2 of them, the woods or a hole in a tile floor. TP was not allowed to be flushed, but had to be collected in an open waste bin nearby. And when shared with the porters, these bathrooms smelled like a donkey´s stall the morning after. Woods were always preferable.
5) Ruins - There were so many amazing ruins to go through, so I´ll let the pictures do the talking once we can find a way to get them up on this blog.
6) Dogs - like the porters, they were half of what you would consider normal size to be, didn´t look right, and they were everywhere, all the time. One of the Irish guys on our tour is making a ¨Dogs of Peru¨scrapbook that he will post on facebook when he gets back.
7) Water - you can´t drink it from the stream, so we relied on the porters to boil us water every day. They tended to boil the water in the same pot that they cooked our garlic bread in, so it was not only served hot to us, but we all had garlic breath every day, all day.
8) Stars - I´ve never seen more stars than I did the first night on the trail. It is hard to imagine anything more beautiful than being able to lay on your back and stare up at the stars for an hour before turning in for the night.
Quite a trip and quite an experience. There will definitely be more to come later, but for now, it´s time to rest our weary legs (since we´ve been up since 4am this morning - tried to see the sun rise over Machu Pichu, but the weather ruined it for us).
Well, we just made it through our 4-day, 30-kilometer trek along the Inca trail that culminated at the incredibly picturesque Machu Pichu. We believe that the best way to describe our time on the trail is to provide you with a list of things we saw/experienced for the first time:
1) Porters - descendants of the Sherpa line, our 15-member tour was accompanied by 23 of these 5´2´´ mountains lions (only one of them was not 5´2´´, his name was Custina and he stood just a shade under 5, and I made sure to bond with him. He was a good man) who possessed a sixth sense that allowed them to barrel downhill over rocks at breakneck speeds with only sandals on to support the 50lbs they were carrying on their backs. We could not have done the trip without them and they definitely deserved more than having to carry our heavy bags all day and then having to share our mess tent as sleeping quarters at night. Anyway, these fine men will be remembered, if not for their great service to us, then for their putrid stench that made me want to pass out/vomit every time they passed me on the trail (seriously, I could smell them far before I could see them).
2) Scenery - there is no possible way to describe the feeling of stepping out of your tent in the morning and seeing the sun stain snow-capped mountains as far as the eye can see in every direction. If we had a penny for every time we stood in awe of what we saw before us, we would be able to send all of the porters´children to a college like BC or ND.
3) Altitude sickness - well, in our last post, we mentioned that altitued sickness was not a hoax. Well, let´s just say that since then, we´ve found out that altitude sickness can manifest itself in more than just one form. After a few near mishaps near the highest point known as Dead Woman´s Pass (4200 meters, should be renamed Dead Conor´s Pass), I began taking a pepto bismol every time I opened my mouth to eat anything. Here was yesterdays totals: 2 pepto bismol tablets, 7 antacids, and 1 prilosec.
4) Bathrooms - there were only 2 of them, the woods or a hole in a tile floor. TP was not allowed to be flushed, but had to be collected in an open waste bin nearby. And when shared with the porters, these bathrooms smelled like a donkey´s stall the morning after. Woods were always preferable.
5) Ruins - There were so many amazing ruins to go through, so I´ll let the pictures do the talking once we can find a way to get them up on this blog.
6) Dogs - like the porters, they were half of what you would consider normal size to be, didn´t look right, and they were everywhere, all the time. One of the Irish guys on our tour is making a ¨Dogs of Peru¨scrapbook that he will post on facebook when he gets back.
7) Water - you can´t drink it from the stream, so we relied on the porters to boil us water every day. They tended to boil the water in the same pot that they cooked our garlic bread in, so it was not only served hot to us, but we all had garlic breath every day, all day.
8) Stars - I´ve never seen more stars than I did the first night on the trail. It is hard to imagine anything more beautiful than being able to lay on your back and stare up at the stars for an hour before turning in for the night.
Quite a trip and quite an experience. There will definitely be more to come later, but for now, it´s time to rest our weary legs (since we´ve been up since 4am this morning - tried to see the sun rise over Machu Pichu, but the weather ruined it for us).
Monday, August 18, 2008
Urubamba
No, it´s not a new term I came up with one night when I was staring in a bathroom mirror after a few too many...it´s a small town in the Sacred Valley in between Cusco and Machu Pichu. We just arrived here after a day of touring the Sacred Valley that included hiking some ruins and mixing it up with some of the Incas. Although the ruins are what we are supposed to be here to see, I think the most fascinating part of the trip so far has been the Incan people. We visited this one village high up in the mountains that is part of a Planeterra (sp?) program, which essentially means that the Peruvian govt has outsourced the task of elevating the socioeconomic level of this community to our trip providers, who guilted us into emptying our wallets when we stopped there. Anyway, it was fascinating to see the women who worked on hte products we bought. They were very old, weathered by years of hard work and weather, to the point where there sandals seemed to have fused to their cracked feet and the faces had wrinkled so deeply that they looked like pumpkins that had completely rotted through, teeth and all. Tough to look at, but thankfully there were plenty of freshfaced children around to lift the mood - they loved to make a scene for the cameras. Anyway, I wish we could download some pictures to show you, but we´ve yet to get to a fully functional internet cafe. Anyway, time to hike back 30 mins up the hill through the farming district to our jungle lodging (it really looks like our quarters are straight out of Swiss Family Robinson). Talk to you after Machu Pichu (Friday or Saturday I believe).
- Conor and Lindsay
- Conor and Lindsay
Sunday, August 17, 2008
hola chicas in los estados unidos
so yesterday was another interesting day in Lima...it´s all about the food...we´re thinking of opening a Peruvian resturant when we get back. Add that to the list of new career options for Conor. The Lomo Saltado (filet mignon strips, terakyi sauce, rice, pepoper, tomatoes, and....French Fries!!) Sounds strange, but it´s awwwwesome. We finally made it to downtown Lima...a little sketch, but fairly safe. Basically Lima just seems shadier becuase it has an everlasting cloud of smog and rain over the whole city. its called a ¨garua¨(domers know this as a permacloud.) So downtown we visited La catedral de san francisco that has catacombs that we went in and saw...gross bones, skulls, dead people, and marrow. Something like 75,000 people buried there. Also saw the shanty towns from a distance. All that made us desparate for our neightborhood, Miraflores, where we walked down the cliffs to the beach, Andrew and Conor dipped their toes into the Pacific for the first time and we saw a washed up dead rat. However, we topped this off with a drink out on a pier called La Rosa Nautica...it was awesome. Then we met our Inca trail group at our new hotel accomodations..much better! Our group has 8 Irish guys that are all friends on holiday, 2 cute australian girls, and a couple from the UK. It´s an awesome group that we got to know today over lunch and our plane ride (the COOLEST we´ve ever been on..over the Andes, a dessert, you name it.) The landing in Cusco, which is basically at 12,000 ft (ie the 2 mile high city..take that Denver), was insanity...don´t know how we´re going to take off... So the altitude sickness is not a hoax...generally its disorienting, dizzy, headaches, slips of the tongue, and wobbly steps. They give you tea made from Coco leaves.....they said was perfectly legal and appropriate... it definetely helped, and numbed us right up. we´re not going to ask what´s in it. We did a little more touring around the Plaza of Cusco, and prepared for our take off tommorrow!! We stop in one village tommorrow for the night (last shower) before we hit the trail......This is going to be interesting, but definetely very very exciting, espeically with such a fun group. I´m sure we´ll be overflowing with details when we get back.
lots of love,
lindsay and conor (and andrew)
ps. its cold at night, supposed to be around 30 degrees at night...oh yeah, and go phelps!
lots of love,
lindsay and conor (and andrew)
ps. its cold at night, supposed to be around 30 degrees at night...oh yeah, and go phelps!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Finally in South America
Buenos Dias,
We survived the layover from hell and are finally in South America. Holy culture shock. The scene after the baggage claim, when you go to find your taxi, was almost exactly similar to that of a trading flloor, with hundreds of taxi drivers crawling all over each other and waving pads with names on them and shouting at you. Joining the chorus were random onlookers up in the rafters belting out different chants...wow, we are not in Kansas anymore. Anywy, with a couple of hours of sleep under our belt, we are now ready to tackle the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima. Check back later to see Lindsay list of the Top Ten things she will miss.
-Conor (i´ll promise to make these posts shorter and sweeter in the future, at Lindsays urging)
We survived the layover from hell and are finally in South America. Holy culture shock. The scene after the baggage claim, when you go to find your taxi, was almost exactly similar to that of a trading flloor, with hundreds of taxi drivers crawling all over each other and waving pads with names on them and shouting at you. Joining the chorus were random onlookers up in the rafters belting out different chants...wow, we are not in Kansas anymore. Anywy, with a couple of hours of sleep under our belt, we are now ready to tackle the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima. Check back later to see Lindsay list of the Top Ten things she will miss.
-Conor (i´ll promise to make these posts shorter and sweeter in the future, at Lindsays urging)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Hotlanta
So we are in Atlanta in hour 7 of our 9 hour layover...painful. and it has also just occurred to me that I've negated my effort to look un-American, which involved growing a beard over the past week, by bringing only one ballcap, a cap that has an american flag on it. the only thing that was more painful than that realization was the realization that, despite all the hype about Atlanta, there wasn't much to see. Sorry Warner. That's all for now because I've developed carpal tunnel trying to type on this metal rent-an-internet machine. - Conor
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