If anybody is checking google news everyday for tales of 2 drunken idiot tourists getting burned by looting mobs in Arequipa, I have either good or bad news for you. We escaped, and the worse injury we had to survive was sleepy eyes. Our last night in Arerquipa, while all of our hotelmates took our idea and chartered a bus to get the hell out of Dodge, we drank. Seemed like a (choose your adjective madlibs style here) idea at ther time, but maybe it was actually (opposite adjective as last). Hmmm. Pisco Sours or escaping a city on lockdown...you see [View Full Entry]

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Well...I don´t write as eloquently as Jeff, however he is busy trying to find us a Peruvian Punk Rock Show.....so your stuck with me. Anyway, our travel plans are temporarily on hold as we are unable to leave Arequipa. I don´t even know where to start the last few days have been so action packed. Lets see I´ll try to start from the begining. We left our beautiful hotel in Haucachina surrounded by 200 ft high dunes Tuesday night....we took a 12 hour overnight bus to Arequipa. We decided on the $13 bus instead of the $26 bus....let me tell you [View Full Entry]

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The daily grind of being a professional losing poker player for me and a bookkeepper for Lycia has been too much for a while. While I tossed around ideas like becoming a bank president or an astronaut, and Lycia considered the field of overpaid consulting, we sadly realized that between her skills and my lack thereof, it would mean we never would be able to work together...untill we came to Huacachina, and our future became clear as sand. Now we wanna be professional sandboarders. That would be rad. See, Huacachina is an oasis...for you non-professional sandboarders reading this, tha [View Full Entry]

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Ah, Peru...the culture, the history, the landscape, thats what some come for. Lycia and I, though, we prefer the tear gas. And what angry mob had the ancient and historic district of downtown Lima on lockdown? Why were there thousands of riot cops armed to the gills and commanding assault vehicles with angry teeth painted on them? Who else could cause such mayhem but marauding retired schoolteachers being denied their pensions. Among the 10,000 matronly maestras there were about 100 professional union thug types instigating the true madness, and luckily we found them from the very begi [View Full Entry]

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House is subletted, bills are paid (that may be a first) and I've been being mean to the cats so they won't miss us when we leave. 70 days in Peru and Bolivia coming right on up. Leaving July 4th, unbelievably bad timing. For 5 years I've been waiting to see an American take back the world championship in Hot Dog eating, and for the first time since that Japanese rascal Kobayashi ate his way into the record books, the smart money is being laid down on a hometown boy. Mark Chestnut...remember where you heard that name first. Picture a man [View Full Entry]

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