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Published: August 19th 2008
Santa Catalina Convent
With the best carrot cake of my lifeOur next stop, Arequipa, in Southern Peru. Arequipa may have had our favorite food of the entire trip. We feasted on Turkish, Arabic, and Mexican food all day long, and filled the rest of our time seeing the major sites of the city. For example, the Santa Catalina Convent, a "city within the city" where hundreds of nuns used to live in total seclusion from the outside world. The pictures really don't capture it. One of the other great sites near Arequipa is Colca Canyon, the world's deepest (depending on which guidebook you read) canyon in the world. Over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. We spent two days seeing the canyon, the nearby towns, and the freakishly large condors that fly along the canyon walls.
After Arequipa it was off to Huacachina, the desert oasis near the coastal city of Ica. There were only two reasons we chose to visit this town. Dune buggies and sandboarding. The dune buggy drivers were even crazier than I'd hoped. Borderline suicidal. Muy bien.
Next stop, Trujillo, on the Northern coast. Trujillo was a bit gray and dreary, so we amused ourselves with the local movie theater and basically ate our
House of the Rising Nun
I know...classic rock humor...lame body weight in apples and cheese. While in the North, we visited Huanchaco, the little surf town famous for its reed fishing boats. Our surf plans dashed by weak waves, we enjoyed ourselves regardless, enjoying huge, cheap food portions, the "boardwalk", and our newly obtained books.
Our last city in Peru was Huaraz. We thought we'd experienced the last of our high-elevation days back in Cusco, but no. Back up to 14,000 feet we go. Amanda found a great lodge located an additional 1000 feet above the town, so we spent the majority of our time up there. This place was, simply put, amazing. We had access to meals all day long, a sauna, a volleyball court, a climbing wall, and trails leading into the mountains every which way. And we got our final opportunity to camp. Not bad for $5 each per day! As the pictures show, we basically spent these days walking and playing increasingly heated games of Connect Four in the lodge. Huaraz was a definite favorite.
At last it was time to fly out of Lima. Amanda headed back to Seattle and I flew out for San Jose, Costa Rica, where I was to
meet Teeny (my mom) for 10 days.
Teeny was a different kind of traveling companion. Quite different. Her "Spanish" basically consisted of "si" and a bunch of mispronounced French words strewn together. A never-ending source of laughs. We started our travels in La Fortuna, followed by Monteverde. After seeing much of these central highlands of Costa Rica, we hit Samara, a beautiful beach out on the Nicoya Peninsula. Here we spent several days, surfing, eating, and reading "Battle Royale", a crazy Japanese book with an absolutely ludicrous plot that holds your attention for all 400+ pages. Teeny and I both gave it two thumbs up. Alas, our time in Costa Rica finally came to an end.
On the way home, whom should I spot boarding our red-eye from Guatemala City to LA, but Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore? Thinking a picture with them (complete with my ridiculous, sun-bleached Hitler mustache) would be the highlight of all highlights to cap off the blog, I stole up to First Class the second the flight attendants were all out of my way. Unfortunately, my request fell on deaf ears as Ashton informed me that he'd "rather not right now" and Demi
added that they were "a little pictured out". Holding my camera in my hands, I contemplated diving across their laps as they sat in their seats and snapping a lightning fast picture of us all, but then I remembered that Teeny and I needed to be on this plane to make our connection in LA. Getting booted off wouldn't be worth it, even for such a picture. We'll meet again, Ashton and Demi, we'll meet again.
Well, that wraps up the blog. Sorry if it got boring at times. Improvements will be made for the next one. At least the pictures are pretty. Thanks to all friends and family that cared enough to follow along! Until the next trip, take care everybody!
James
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