The Wandering TD

Back in Peru! Currently in Arequipa, and going for dinner very soon, so I'll put in the highlights later! Lima - Missed briefing, but called Elard when we got to the hotel. Everyone at the airport was wearing masks. Same hotel, 3rd floor, very nice. Walked around and bought some cheese, crackers, chips, and vanilla yoghurt drink for dinner. Showed Marna the chess table I danced on. Pisco- turned out to be paracas, they've rebuilt quite a bit, and it's very nice and touristy now. Lots of dogs in the streets, nice beach with a view of the very colourful fishing boats. Dinner on the boardwalk. Cockfights across the street from the hotel. Didn't do the Ballestas Islands though. Ica - Sandboarding & dune buggies, did that, was very fun. Videos for all things, but tried ... read more

¡Hola! I am writing this without the benefits of my notes, so please forgive me if I have to add stuff later. Day 8 we got up and had breakfast at the hotel (in the place that I can't remember the actual name of) including some coca tea (once you get into the highlands, coca leaves are pretty much set at the tables in the hotels like salt and pepper). We hopped back on the bus with George and Erica, and headed back through Chivay, where we dropped Erica off. We travelled for about 5 hours, through the highlands. We watched two movies, and I slept the rest of the way to Puno. I did look out the window a few times, but it was pretty much the same as before, lots of hilly, rocky, barren ... read more

¡Hola! I am writing this in an internet cafe in Puno, the alt-gr key is broken, so I cannot use apostrophes at all. Or the "at" key. Grrr. I last left you waiting to go for dinner in Arequipa. We went to a really nice restaurant, which we were all very impressed with. I think the fixed menu was S/.27 and it was totally worth it. I had the Alpaca Carapaccio to start, followed by the stuffed chicken and steamed vegetables, with chocolate pancakes with ice cream for dessert. It was all fantastic, but the alpaca stood out as the best dish of the evening. Sometime during the evening we all decided that we could have spend another day in Arequipa, the city had grown on us over the course of the day there. We got ... read more

Hey all, sorry for being cut short yesterday, I turned around and my entire group was at the dinner table being served! I can´t remember where I left off, but I´ll try to hit the highlights again. Breakfast is being served, so I´ll keep it short. After the first morning, we drove to Pisco (details about the crazy bus rides later), and got to our hotel there (which was quite nice, and as it turns out, Ï´m gonna have a room to myself for the whole trip... I´m person #15. :-) Pisco had an earthquake last august/september, 2000 people died, including the entire congregation attending the church. Apparently the priest told them it was going to be okay and to stay inside. Then the roof collapsed. The destruction is pretty incredible, buildings are just gone. Our ... read more

Okay, I've posted all my videos from France, I apologize for the somewhat fuzzy quality but they were take with my phone! I highly recommend you check out the Hava Nagila video from day...4 I think. They are all pretty good, but that one is my favourite! I still have to upload the photos from my phone, I'll try to get to it tomorrow! Also... in case you wanted to take a better look at my photos, I've uploaded the whole lot to flickr in full resolution. Click here to go to the page. I've been back at work for a few days now, and it seems like I should still have a week until I leave for Peru, but it's actually less than 48 hours! *Panics!* I'm really excited about going, but I wish I ... read more