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Published: December 20th 2009
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This blog is dedicated to mine and Kara’s 6 week adventure in South America. There are multiple purposes for this blog, but first and foremost we want to keep our friends and families updated on our progress. Also, we are hoping to do our fellow travellers a solid by giving information on what to do, prices, travel times, etc. So here we go…
Lima:
After about 14 hours of travel, in which I ran into some old friends on the first leg of the trip on their way to Mexico (Chessa, Max and Liffy Osburn), we arrived in Peru around midnight. After grabbing our bags and making it through security with two green lights for Kara and me, we were picked up by a taxi driver hired by the hostel we were staying at and we were off. The night life in Lima is amazing, while it was after 12am on a Thursday night / Friday morning, there were still tons of people out. We checked into the Kokopelle in Miraflores, got changed and headed out for some drinks. While it was really late, we were running on adrenaline and so felt the need for a drink to calm us down.
After sitting down with a beer and a yummy pizza, we headed back to Kokopelle for a sleep. The next morning we were up around 10am and off to enjoy a very nice breakfast, free with the night at the hostel. We then headed back to the hostel to book our trip to Arequipa. After finding out that the bus ride would be 14 hours and that there were protests on the highway on the way down the previous few days that were holding up traffic, we decided to splurge and take the $100 USD flight special to Arequipa the next day. We then headed out for a look around Miraflores. We wandered around the town, window shopping the small shops in the area, grabbed some money from the bank and ran into some locals, one of which was a “poco loco” as someone else said to us after we walked away. What I would come to realize later that day, however, was that I had left my bank card in the ATM when we got money out. The issue that I think messed me up is that I am so used to bank machines in Canada that give you
your card first, then your money and the receipt. In Peru, it is opposite. I think I was also distracted by the sights and sounds, namely the multiple security guards standing around packing side arms, just in case. While we tried to recover the card the next day, we had very little time between the bank opening and our flight and since the ATM receipt didn’t have the address on it and we weren’t exactly sure where the bank was, we weren’t able to find it. So it will be all about relying on Kara and my VISA for the rest of the trip. Not too bad, losing something that important on my first full day in the country… Sigh. Kara decided that, in order to keep ourselves organized, after we hike Macchu Pichu we should ask one of the porters to stay on with us. This is something that we have dubbed “life porters” and we think that it will really catch on.
So, back to the afternoon. We went for a wander through Miraflores and ended up on a cliff above an amazing looking beach. There appeared to be a trail that took us down the hill and
some locals looked like they were using it, so there we were in our skirts and flip flops wandering down a fairly sketchy trail. Finally making it down the hill we realized that we were in Barranco - an upscale artsy area of Lima. We took a wander around there before heading back up the hill. When we got back to the hostel we found out that they were throwing a big going away party for a German girl, Carolina, who had been living at the hostel for the past 5 months. Kara and I quickly stepped out for some dinner and then headed back to get ready to party (the rules of the party were that everyone needs to wear a hat and the finger puppets that we were given upon arrival). I also spoke to the staff of Kokopelle about the lost ATM card and they were awesome about helping me try to get in touch with the bank, letting me make a free long distance call to my bank to cancel the card and helping me with options on how to retrieve it. With all of that along with the clean rooms and the hot, well-pressured showers, Kokopelle is definitely a great place to stay if you find yourself in Lima. That being said, because there isn’t a lot to do in Lima, if you are headed there I would suggest that you don’t stay for a long sojourn as there seems to be a lot more elsewhere in Peru than what Lima has to offer.
The party in the bar lasted until about 5am, but because we had to get to the airport in the morning, we only stayed out until about 3. We did meet some cool Peruvian guys who taught us some Spanish as a trade for us teaching them some French. The next day we headed south to Arequipa (altitude of about 7,000 ft) which is where I write this from. Next up: trekking in Colca Canyon and then off to Cusco for Christmas!
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Dad
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Awesome!
Great to hear from the lost Xmas guest. We are looking forward to more word and pictures. Love - Mom and Dad