We actually arrived in Cusco on July 16th and found a hostel that was pretty close to the Plaza. The altitude here is 3300m so we decided to rest a few days before starting our Machu Picchu adventure. Cheryl was pretty much out of commission for our entire stay in Cusco. It could have been the altitude pills or the altitude itself that was bothering her. What really got her was the combo of the altitude pills and Pepto. We didn’t know until it was too late that those two are not supposed to be combined and Cheryl became very sick. After a couple of days passed by, we were finally able to explore the town and booked a Machu Picchu trek as well as a city tour. We decided to go with the Inka Jungle ... read more

Arequipa is the place to get stranded at when your hostel manager screws up your reservation for your bus out of the city. It's definitely the best place we've stopped at in Peru so far. Great night life, great pastries, great prices, great gringos, great views, great everything. Of course, there are still sketch areas and people, but every city has those. As soon as we were dropped off at the bus station in Arequipa from Ica, we found a nice man offering us maps and information about the city. He even offered us a free ride to the Plaza and suggested a hostel that had everything we needed at a reasonable price. It turned out that he was the manager of the hostel he brought us to-- shocking. The place included breakfast, wi-fi, hot showers, ... read more

We left Huacachina on the 6th to head for Arequipa. When we arrived back in Ica to book our bus ticket for that night, the bus had already sold out. So we were going to be stuck in Ica for the rest of the day and most of the next, as it is an overnight bus to Arequipa. So we found a hostel off Tacna that had the water pressure of a leaky faucet and gave me the creeps because I was pretty sure we were the only people staying there... Still pretty sure we were. Our initial plan was to head down to the Plaza de Armas and walk around looking for a hostel but our cabbie informed us that if we don't drop our bags first, we will be robbed. So after dropping our ... read more

Today was all about being in the right place at the right time. This morning we headed back to Parque Kennedy area to find some breakfast. On our way, the catholic church was just letting out and gathering outside to start a procession. We hung out and observed as the priest hopped on a truck covered in flowers that drove the streets around the park with a ton of people walking around it. We heard someone say that it doesn't happen very often, so we were happy to catch a glimpse of it. After breakfast, we grabbed a taxi to Central Lima. The city center was different than Miraflores and was jam packed with people. The Plaza de Armas was beautiful surrounded by many old buildings including the Government Palace, Lima Cathedral, and the Archbishop's Palace. ... read more

Since we have returned to China we have been keeping very busy. After a couple of days of relaxing and doing nothing back in Shenzhen we decided to check out another touristy thing. Splendid China and the China Folk Center were next on the list. Splendid China was just like Window of the World only it pertained only to significant places in China. We spent a couple of hours checking out most of the models before moving onto the Folk Center. The Folk Center contained traditional style dwellings from different villages in China and gave some insight into how people lived in different conditions. This place was kind of disappointing as most of the attractions inside had closed for the day already. At the end of the day we were lucky to catch two shows with ... read more