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Published: March 13th 2006
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Bastilla Islands
Also known as the poor mans Gallopagos. Well it has only been one week in Peru.. but what a week it was... so much to tell... we arrived into lima last monday following a flight in from guatemala city via panama (got to see the canal from above... pretty cool!) Cool is not a word i will get to use much in this entry, cause it has been damn hot! Thank God i shaved the beard (for the time being anyways)... What a geographically diverse country this is...
First Lima... well it is in a word, huge... and peeps from Canada were not talking Toronto or even Lanark huge... we're talking almost 10 million people huge! The pacific ocean is on the west, and if you just turn around 180 degrees... nothing but desert... I have never really seen the desert, and for all you star wars fans out there, I can see why the hell Luke wanted to get off Tatooine! Its hot and dry...
Fortunately we were given a good tip by my sis (big props Bri!) to stay in a suburb called Miraflores... the first two nights we stayed in a very nice hotel... if you read our last entry you learned of
the two grumpy old men we managed to meet... quite an expereince indeed with them... wild men... when i need a aprty in the summer, that settles it im going to lanark lodge! We had a great time with them, and neither bingo or matlock was brought up even once!
(For those of you coming to Miraflores or Pisco. We stayed at Friends House Hostal in Miraflores and for a private room it cost us 50 soles a night, plus hot showers and great atmosphere to meet other travelers. In Pisco it cost us 70 soles for a double room for 2 nights and hot water there too!! Both can be found in the lonely planet guide and were reccomended by our little Peruvian amigo.)
On Wednesday we took the bus down the coast to a town called Pisco... a very nondescript town in itself, but it is the homeplace of one of te best and most potent beverages i have ever had the privilege of consuming...the pisco sour is like a tom collins, but throw in this potent liquor called ironically enough, pisco (kind of like a brandy or tequila)... and wow...
The next day we
Bastilla Islands
The islands were full of these cool caves. hooked up with a tour company to take us south the bastilline (spelling?) islands...(There are tons of companies that hound you once you get off the bus...do not pay more than 10 usd to go to the islands.)You jump on a speed boat and tour to these islands out on the pacific that are absoulutely covered in bird guano (for those of you who dont know that is the lovely white substance you find on your car every day in the summer)... you dont get out onto these islands but thats ok... there are plenty of other inhabitants... the wildlife was crazy! Within an hour we saw literally dozens of different bird species, penguins, dolphins, pellicans and the creature with the second biggest male genitilia of all mammals in the world ... I have the first (that joke is from Fifty First Dates Mom!).. the sea lion...
From there we headed out into what was labelled as a nature reserve just a bit further south... not bad, but the real highlight came when they showed us some truly spectacular rock formations ( for those of you who have been to australia, think great ocean road) and some tranquil beautiful
Dolphins
We managed to snap this quick photo of the dolphins, you can see the speed boats we went in in the background. beaches...
The next day we headed back to Lima aboard a bus which showed three consecutive Bruce Lee movies ( did you know he fought kareem abdul jabbar in one of them? bizarre) after laughing our way throught those we arrived back in miraflores and headed straight for a gringo sports bar... the big east tournament was on... March madness baby! And i got to watch my boys from syracuse miraculously come back from 15 down to beat georgetown...
Anyways I digress... the next day our old freind Javier ( he liked to be called Wild as a nickname)... strange thing to call an old guy... took us on another adventure... this time he took us to a beach about an hour outside of Lima... there must have been thousands of people there... and no gringos.. none... so it was like we stumbled onto Limas lil secret they keep to themselves... the view there was spectacular... and ohhh the beach wasn't bad either! oW! Amanda hit me for that one! The waves were massive (matty and Beth, the only bigger waves I have ever seen were on Manley Beach the morning I arrived rememebr?) Amanda and i both
Desert
Look one way and see the ocean turn around and see all this desert. ventured out a bit... i got mauled by a couple solid waves for sure...
Sunday morning Javier took us on a bit of a historical tour of old lima... we saw some massive buildings, old cathedrals and a couple museums... oh and then we hit Chinatown where there must have been 10 thousand people... and three China men .. wierd... all in all a good day but it certainly reiterated the fact that neither Amanda or I are city people... in fact in general we found Lima to be a bit unpleasant ... very fast and busy and the people quite rude... but hey we're Canadians.. everyone is rude compared to us, right!
Late Sunday night we caught a bus to where we are now, which is a small city called Huancayo... the bus was overcrowded (some people stoof for the entire 8 hour ride!)... it must have been 45 degrees in there for the first three hours and then as we climbed to an elevation of over 4700 metres (wow!) the temperature plummetted... told you this country was geographically diverse! We arrived at our new guesthouse at 6 this morning and met the people we will be
Supay
Supay also known as devils park. working with and saw where we will be working for the next two weeks... the people here are great...
In the mornings we will be teaching engish to 7-10 year olds, followed by an hour of spanish lessons... in the afternoons, we go to one of te several orphanages and help kids there... quite a sight today as we saw a 13 year old girl taking care of BOTH her kids at the orphanage... we're not in kansas anymore toto...
Anyways thats it for now... we need to find a good internet lab as we have a ton of good pics for everyone... they'll be up soon we promise!
Oh and by the way , one last thing... when you travel in a country you've never been you look at people and find similarities to people we both know... strange but true... so here is a compilation of people we have seen or met who must be stunt doubles of our friends at home!
Wally McNally
Rachel Persaud- McNally
Rebecca Publow-Haughian
Brody McMurtry
Colleen Madden
Erica Fillipoff
Heidi Ferguson
And the winner by far is our friend Candice who not only looks exactly like my sister, but is taking the same thing in school and has exactly the same interests! wierd! the list continues to grow!
Ok I have rambled long enough... take care and hope eeryone is well... my final 4 pics are duke, uconn, gonzaga and my sleeper is boston college.
Jeff and Amanda
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connie
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travels in South America
Hi Amanda and Jeff, Watch out for extra friendly tour guides! Keep safe. From....Connie and Neil