Day 49

Location: Nasca, Peru

The past two days have been eventful.  Expensive, but eventful nontheless.  After leaving Lima, I went to Pisco and there I was able to visit one of the main places that inspired me to visit Peru…the Ballestas Island, aka ¨Poor Man´s Galapagos Islands¨.  I saw Anthony Bourdain go there and wanted to come since seeing it on his show.  For the first time I got to see Penguins and sea lions in a natural setting instead of a zoo.  And might I say, penguins are freaking adorable as hell.  From there I went into the middle of the desert.  I did not even know Peru had such a desert but there I was.  Dunebuggying is the most awesome experience EVER.  It was just a means of transport to take me to my sandboarding locations but the actual buggy ride was so fraking great.  It was literally like being in a rollercoaster in the desert.  Everyone must experience that once in their life.

Afterwards I got on a bus on my way to Nasca.  I went to sleep right away and woke up one hour into the ride to experience one of the best views of mountains in my life.  I did not have my camera on hand and it was surreal the feeling of my actually getting to see such a marvelous view and the pity of knowing that everyone back at home couldn´t see such beauty.  It was at that moment looking at the slopes and hills that I was kind of grateful to be able to see such things in my life.

Sappiness aside, I took a flight over the Nasca Lines today.  To those not brushed up on archeological and international sites, it´s pretty much lines, sketched in the middle of the ground only seen from the air.  It dates back thousands of years and no one knows why or how it got there.  I´ve semi read up on the lines and actually seeing it instead of seeing pictures was a whole new matter.  All in all, concerning the experience though my happiest point was containing my breakfast.  Let me say being in such a small flying contraption that dips dramatically in altitude and continuously swayed from side to side does not help a person´s stomach settle well.  My sheer determination to not vomit and accomplishment in carrying out that will is my proudest moment this week.

Tonight I´ll be on another night bus out of here.  Inca Trail in a week´s time.  Can I just cry mercy now?

Day 46

Location: Lima, Peru

Hola, I haven´t updated for a little while.  I´m currently in Peru and I´m living the city of Lima. Colonial Lima has a lot of spanish style architecture. 

To back track.  I was in Cuenca, Ecuador and did what everyone should…buy a Panama/Ecuador hat I´ll probably never wear in the States but it´s so ÏT¨here.  Then headed into Peru via busses.  Mancora was the first stop.  It´s pretty much a local beach resort area.  Very relaxing couple of days in the sand.  Then night bused to Huanchaco.  A very small city surrounded by ruins.  I went to Chan Chan the ¨Sand City¨.  It was nice.  Did not WOW me as I had hoped.  Then night bused to my current destination. 

I´m staying at the bohemian area of Lima.  Supposedly Central LIma, where the colonial structures reside are surrounded by thieves so watch yo shit!  Tomorrow I´m off to Pisco to the Ballestas islands and we´ll see from there.

Hope everyone is having a fun time back at home.

The Amazons and Banos, Ecuador

Quick update before I leave on an 8 hour bus ride.  I was in the Amazons the other day for about 3 nights.  I was extremely awesome.  I stayed at a place called Yachana Lodge and had one of the best guides EVER name–Delphin.  We went walking around the jungle for 4 hour hikes twice, went to a medicine man´s house and practiced his methods, played jungle hunting and was a pro at the blow dart, held tucans and snakes and had awesome food.

Yesterday I spent a full day in Banos, the extreme sporting city here in Ecuador.  I crashed in one day mountain biking, bridge jumping, white water rafting, and canyoning.  It all sounds cool and would´ve been if the tour agency I used ¨Rainforest Tours¨weren´t so unprofessional and horrible.  The bike I used had the WORST seat ever and now I´m all bruised up.  The bridge jumping was nice but it wasn´t part of their agency.  White water rafting…me being a poor swimmer.  The guide constantly PUSHED me out of the raft in a level 3.  And the guides were sketchy.  Touchy feely and all the girls there.  Then we get to the horrible canyoning experience.  The agency got us back late so we had to start their canyoning late and they promised 6 waterfalls and only gave us 3.  They did not provide me with shoes because they said my sandals were enough…which weren´t because I had no traction the whole time and constantly banged into the waterfalls and rocks…hence more bruises, scraped hands and fingers, and bloody toes and feet now.  It was WAY too late when they told us to do the last waterfall and 45 meter fall.  I was black as night when I had to go and I had to tie my own rope line!  When I got down to the bottom eventually no one was there so I found myself alone in the bottom on a waterfall surrounded by sharp, slippery rocks, in pitch black.  When the driver finally came down to get me and another girl because it was so late he was just carrying his cell phone for light and I literally had to climb back up a dark unknown path that included barb wire and a dodgey wooden bridge that had NO SIDES and couldn´t carry a lot of weight.  Their excuse for the horrible day…it´s Ecuador.  What a way to disgrace your country!  Don´t blame country for your horrible company.

Quito, Ecuador pt. 2

So I´m STILL here in Quito.  I think the longest stay in one city yet.  I´ve gotten use to the altitude and no longer feel like shit.  AND plus news since we´re so high up and it´s colder here I have yet to see swarming numbers of mosquitoes.

I´ve just been dwelling and wandering as of late.  Haven´t found a way to the equator yet.  Well I have but I´m super lazy.  I´m in a major lazy stretch.  Random news…I was strolling through the tv today and found ¨Kim Sam-Soon¨in spanish!!!  Oh man what joy.  haha.  On to that, I´ve cut back on restaurant eating and my last dinners consisted of cup noodles, a can of beans and bacon, and nothing.

Also, I watched ¨Wanted¨yesterday.  The movie was a piece of shit.  I was so pissed the whole time watching it.  Like in the train…if a random guy is running through with a gun…DON´T stand up in shock.  And the conductor…way to fuck up at your job and push the breaks.  It was just a frustrating experience for me.

Also, I know I´ve strayed from talking politics for awhile.  It´s been purposeful on my part since I´m on vacation (I still did absentee oversees voting and it was kinda a bitch to get it all in so no excuse for you to avoid voting this year no matter what party!)

I´m not here to really say much on it.  You guys have read enough of my stuff before I left.  I just wanted to inform you that still out of the country it´s pretty much easily accessible to find and I keep updated everyday (or every other day).  Very interesting to watch CNN International.  Well…November 4th is around the corner…seriously.

Quito, Ecuador

So I got to Quito last night.  First thing first.  While I was in Panama I couldn´t help but notice all the massive electronic stores.  People were going crazy trying to buy them but they were totally more expensive than back in the States.  Anyway, when I arrived to Quito I made a grave realization.  I´m a HORRIBLE traveller.  As in, all possible horrible illnesses and maladies I could suffer from, I do.  In mosquito ridden areas, I´d be the girl the mosquitoes massively attack then I´ll be the one with the worst reaction to the bites.  While snorkling in Caye Caulker I realized that I do suffer from some sea sickness after I went down in the boat and my stomach went hay-wired.  Then when I just set foot down in Quito BOOM!  Altitude sickness galore.  It hit me outta nowhere.  Since the Quito Airport didn´t have those plane dockings directly connected to a terminal I had to slowly walk down a long corridor trying not to throw up.  I kept on repeating that line in Family Matters ¨3-2-1, 1-2-3, what the hell is bothering me?¨  Suffice to say, it didn´t work because I ran to a trash can and threw up.  After my hostal picked me up I was doing fine in the car.  Right when we arrived at the Inn and I stepped foot outside I literally slouched down to the grown, sat my butt on the cement and threw up everything I had.  It continued in the night when I literally had the WORST SLEEP OF MY LIFE.  The worst.  I was hallucinating thinking 3 days have gone by and how my life was a mess just to wake up and realize it was only 4:40 AM.

Now I´m all weak and still itchy.  Well…hopefully it can only go up from here.  I´m hoping to go to the equator.  I hear you can step on one side then the other.  Kinda cool.

FUCK MY LIFE!

People say there´s highs and lows while traveling for a long time.  I´m currently at a low since my whole body wants to fucking just die and be done with it.  I´m prone to mosquito bites, I know that.  But the last two days in Playa del Carmen has fucked me over and then some.  The reaction I´m getting.  It´s so swollen and those fuckers had to bite me three times on just my left knee cap.  My right thigh I just want to rip out and my calves are another story.  Imagine being steps away from a beautiful beach near beautiful people and all I want to do is lie in bed.  I can´t sleep though because at night the itching is too much.  I´ve been to over a dozen pharmacies here in Mexico and they are ALL USELESS.  Sure you can buy a morning after pill for like $9.00 but any medication for mosquito bites their hands are tied and I end up shelling out money on these useless creams and pills. 

I´m heading to South America tomorrow, luckily the altitude is much higher so I might have better chances at avoiding these bloody sucking mother fuckers.

No…I couldn´t just do the back packing through Europe and avoid these problems in general I just had to go to hotter climates where malaria and yellow fever is the scare.

Right now, I´m just majority bitchy.  I did have a drastically fun time in Central America and hopefully YEARS from now when I can no longer remember the pain, lack of sleep, and consuming itchiness my memories will all be through rose-colored glasses.

Flores, Belize

So I just arrived in Flores, Belize today with the intention of caving but just my luck there’s a tropical storm and it’s raining massively and flooding everywhere. Good news..I had an awesome bacon cheeseburger today.

It’s there’s a storm I’m not sure what my next plans are.

Quick update on other news. I went to Tikal yesterday to see the ruins. I got to climb to the top of some so that was nice.

Unfun news, I stupidly walked back to my place by myself the other day in Guatemala without my pepperspray or anything. I got lost and Antigua is not a fun place to get lost in. Everywhere is locked up and all the roads have no signs. Luckily I eventually found my way back. As I was preparing to sleep no later than 15 minutes after I got back I heard what I thought was hysterical laughing coming from outside just to is actually being a group of teenage girls crying because they were attacked in the street by some crazy man. I had to get my first aid kit and give them some alcohol wipes and bandages. So…i guess I was lucky nothing happened to me but shit I shouldn’t walk around alone in the dark anymore.

Also, a lot of things here in Central America (e.g. FOOD) cost either the same or MORE than the states.  I’ve pretty much ran out of guatemalan currency the other day and because I was going to leave to Belize I did not want to go back to the ATM and pay like $12 to take out a few bucks so somehow I survived on roughly 9 bucks for two of my last days in Guatemala.  All I ate was snickers and a cup noodle yesterday, haha.  I feel very accomplished for making it to Belize.

In Antigua, Guatemala

Quick update for yáll.  I´m currently in Guatemala.  Took a 10 hour bus ride day to get here from Mexico a couple of days back.  Let me tell you, chicken busses are NOT the biz.  And the roads in this country is kinda a huge bummer.  LIke rocks, twists, and turns everywhere.  It´s definately NOT fun.  But all that aside, I´m loving Guatemala so far.  The people here are just so nice.  I visited Lake Atitlan.  They are trying to make it one of the natural wonders of the world.  It is certainly gorgeous.  Yesterday I hiked up a volcano with live lava still flowing.  It was hard as fuck let me tell you.  There were horses around and after the first hill I was wishing I hired them.  I had to hike up a crazy hill/mountain before I went to the actual volcano.  There was this RETARDED girl in front of me who thought it´d be a good idea to hike a volcano in jeans and flip flops.  When she stepped in fresh horse shit I couldn´t help but think ¨that´s what you get¨.  Then on the way down no one was prepared to bring a flashlight but me.  I felt like a fucking camp leader with all these imbeciles in flip flops and no torches around me.  But all in all, it was a grand experience.  I have a couple of days left in Guatemala then I´m off to Belize.  I´m leaving the city tomorrow at 5 AM to get an early start though.   Until next time!

Palenque and Mayans

I went to the Palenque ruins yesterday and took a bus towards two waterfalls.  Because it has been raining though, instead of the blue I was expecting, it was murky instead.  Palenque was nice, my guide took me through the jungle to see unexcavated ruins.

Tomorrow I´ll leave for Guatemala for more Ruins and we´ll see.  Sucky thing, don´t expect Mexico to be any cheaper than the US.  Things here could cost the same but people just get paid extremely less that is why so many in the population commute to the US to work so they can survive.  Imagine everything costing the same but making only $4.50 minimum wage.

The Yucatan

So quick update…I went to Chitchen Itza yesterday.  Pretty awesome place, too bad you can´t climb the pyramids anymore.  Learned a lot about the Mayan history and heritage.  Afterwards, I took a bus to Merida because supposedly Sunday nights are the best nights of Merida.  It was very festive, food here isn´t any cheaper than the states though.

This morning I went to three Senotes (sp?).  Instead of paying the $40 at the hotel I spent only $15 bucks total by…taking a white van for an hour then taking a bicycle ¨taxi¨ to another stop then I took a cheap man´s horse cart ride through each senotes.  They´re pretty much caves with bodies of water inside people can swim in.  All were very beautiful though sketchy to climb down into.

Tomorrow I´m busing out to more ruins that I hear is mosquito infested.  They´ve been loving me so far.  Bloody itchy and humid hot all over.  That aside, I´ve been having a fun time. 

Apologies for not posting up pictures.  I went all the way to this internet cafe to just realize I brought the wrong connecting cable that doesn´t work with my camera.  Buggers. (I´ve been learning that from some Brits accompanning me.