Welcome to the Jungle

Jan. 27-31
We spent 5 days in the hot, humid jungle of Peru. Leaving cold Cusco and arriving in the hot Amazon was quite a shock to the body. We took a long boat to our lodge, Posada Amazona. It is jointly owned by the native community and a private company called Rainforest Expeditions. It's a beautiful lodge with in an open-air design. And when I say open-air I mean I was sharing my bathroom with the cockroaches.

As soon as we arrived we put on our rubber boots (necessary for dealing with the mud) and took the first of many walks. The schedule is basically up at 4am for your first activity, then breakfast at 7:30, on to your next activity (usually a walk), lunch, another walk, dinner and then possibly a lecture or night walk. During the five days we tooks lots of walks, had a lecture about the Macaw Project, and went to the Clay Licks to see the birds feeding on the clay cliffs on the river banks.

Things were good at the Posada but got even better when Matt and I left the rest of our tour group and headed to the Tambopata Research Centre. It is a working research centre that also has 16 guest rooms. We were lucky to be the only two guests our first night there and we had a native guide, Silverio, all to ourselves the whole time we were there. He was phenomenol at spotting wildlife and we were able to see so much more because of him, because we were 7 hours further from civilization (it was a long boat ride to get there) and because it was just the three of us. While we were at the Research Centre we saw all six types of macaws that live there, tons of parrots and parekeets, several types of monkies, capybaras, tapirs, a sloth, piranhas, bats (both in the wild and also in our room at night), butterflies, rabbits, frogs, toads, many different birds and some other rodent type things. It was awesome!

When we weren't out doing activities we played cards and napped in the hammocks. We also made friends with some of the staffs' kids who were there on their summer break. It was very peaceful and relaxing but it's probably not for everyone. I wasn't joking about the roaches. They came out every night and were especially fond of the mirror and sink area. I had to bring Matt with me to the bathroom to stand guard and chase them away. At the Research Centre the bats came every night (it was also an open air design) and flew around our room and made those crazy little bat noises. Luckily we had the mosquito net - it was keeping out more than just the mosquitos! Speaking of mosquitos, even though we used tons of bug juice and wore long sleeves I am still pretty eaten up. That said, we are really glad we went and experienced it in the way we did. Having Silverio as our personal guide was really amazing and we really enjoyed learning about the flora and fauna but also the community and their goals for the Posada and Research Centre.

This afternoon we flew from Puerto Maldonado in the jungle back to Lima. We have about a 7 hour layover here so I've been catching up on the blog. Tonight we take the red-eye back to Buenos Aires. We are really excited to have salad, huge steaks and a good bottle of wine. We're hoping to spend about 4 days in the city and two at a ranch in the country. After that we have two weeks in Chile and then back to Austin. It's hard to believe the first leg of our trip is almost over!

Sophie Update!

We miss Sophie so much! Mike sent us some really cute pictures of her playing in the snow. We knew she would love it since she is always so dang hot in Texas. Looks like she is having fun and being spoiled by Mike (do you think she will want to come home to hot Texas in July??).

More Meat, Hold the Potatoes

Jan. 21 - Evening
On our last night in Cusco before hitting the Inca Trail we went out for a nice dinner. We ate at Fallen Angel, a place my mom had recommended. Frankly, I don't know how she ended up there. It's more club than restaurant and it's very funky. The tables are cast iron bathtubs converted into fish tanks. The chairs are day beds with leopard print throw pillows and there are cherubs hanging from the ceiling. After dinner it turns into a dance club. The food was great and we had several pre-trail drinks. I mean, really, if there is a chance you might fall off the edge of a mountain you need to live it up beforehand.
Before dinner we weighed our bags to make sure we weren't overloading the porters. Our group of 15 would have 20 porters carrying our duffels, food, tents, chairs, etc. I don't know how the Incas did it but I have heard they traveled light. After one last check to make sure we had everything packed up we hit the hay. We decided to shower in the morning for an extra 12 hours of cleanliness....

Jan. 22 - Inca Trail Day 1

No hot water!!!! The hotel forgot to turn the hot water on and all we had was freezing cold water in our shower. Matt was brave but I just couldn't do it - freezing cold hair on an already cold day was not a good way to start the hike. So, that's one more day of stank for me.

We boarded the bus at 7:30am to head to Kilometer 82 where we would start hiking. On the way we stopped at a small town where we could buy water, hiking sticks and use the bathroom. I decided to buy a stick and had to shell out a whopping 66 cents for it. I had heard it would help on the downhill and I was up for any help I could get.

We started the hike at around 10am. It was cloudy but the rain was holding off. We had been told that Day 1 was pretty easy and relatively speaking, it was. There were ups and downs but most of them were pretty short. Probably no more than 20-30 minutes up in any one go. Our total distance was about 13K. We followed along the left side of the river. The real Inca trail actually followed on the right side and we really wouldn't start hiking on that until Day 2. As we walked along we took in the scenery and chatted it up. I spent about an hour walking with our assitant guide, Julio. He spoke some English and since I speak a little Spanish we communicated well. He had been a guide for only 5 months. He told me that most of the porters were farmers. Since farming doesn't provide a great income many of the men would become porters for a steady income. In February when the trail is closed they go back to their farms to work.

It was an easy hike and everyone was enjoying themselves. Porters were passing us by frequently and most of them were running. They carry a ton of stuff on their backs. Some had about 10 duffel bags, others carried the propane tanks for cooking, while others had provisions. It was amazing how much they could carry and how quickly they could move! Along the way we saw several Incan ruins, mainly tambos, or rest areas. When the Incans hiked the trail they would stop at the tambos to stay overnight and there would be blankets and firewood available for their use. Before they left they had to replenish whatever they had used.

We stopped for lunch around 12:30 and found out how great porters really are. We couldn't believe it when we got there and there was a huge tent with a long table set for all of us. We all thought we would be sitting outside eating on rocks. It got even better when we sat down and were served our first course - avocado salad. After that we had bread and asparagus soup. The main course was chicken, rice, potatoes and vegetables. So much for losing weight on the hike! The food was definitely more than anyone expected.

Before we took off for the last couple hours of hiking we had our last chance at clean toilets. Of course, we didn't know this at the time. They were hole-in-the-ground squatter types but they had river water running through them so they were ok. It was a good thing we didn't know how bad it would get on the baño front...some of us may have turned back. JK.

We arrived into the campsite at Wayllabamba around 3:30. The porters had set all of our tents up - what service! They even put buckets of warm water and soap next to our tents. We had an official order for washing in our tent - face, hands, armpits, feet. I won't name names but there were some people in our tent that had stinky feet. We had a beautiful view of the mountains. The hike had been easy so we were in good spirits and did some exploring and hanging out. The report back from the toilets was of filth and stench so I started scoping my spot out in a nearby field.

We had tea time (!) at 5pm and they served popcorn. Yum! After that everyone hung out, read, played cards and just generally relaxed. Dinner was similar to lunch - we were impressed with our chef. It was dark by 8pm and the sky had cleared. The stars were stunning. I've seen impressive skies in Belize but this was incredible. So many stars! Of course, clear skies mean cold and I froze my butt off that night. I had on long underwear, sweatpants, a long sleeve hiking shirt, a sweater, two pairs of socks, my fleece hat and my mittens and still I felt like I was laying nekid on the bare ground. Brrrrr.

Jan. 23 - Inca Trail Day 2

I survived the night...barely...and was actually happy for our 5:45am wake-up call. Day 2 is the real killer. We hiked to our highest point of 4200 meters. It would be straight up and then straight back down. We would not stop for lunch until after we finished the 11K hike for the day.

We had a good breakfast of fruit, bread, porridge and pancakes (no one could believe it when the pancakes came out after the porridge). After breakfast I ventured down to the toilets. They were atrocious, just as I had been warned. It was definitely the type where you hold your breath and hover. I had to do it though because my "field trip" the night before had ended up with me falling in a hole and my hand getting way too close to a pile of horse dung! It was dark out!

Day 2 is basically 9K of hiking straight up and then 2K down. The steps start here so the hiking is difficult over the big, uneven stairs. The changing weather conditions don't help matters either. It can go from sunny to raining in about 3 minutes and the temperature changes right along with it. We made a lot of stops to shed or put on clothes and ponchos. Although the hiking was strenuous it was also very fun. The scenery was spectacular and the vegetation really changed throughout the day. At our last rest stop before Dead Woman's Pass I passed out chocolate for everyone...it was well deserved and appreciated at that point. The last 2 hours up to Dead Woman's Pass were slow going. We were at almost 14,000 feet, heading up on stairs that were made for giants. We had to rest frquently to catch our breath. When we finally reached the top it was a great feeling. After a couple photo opps and a short rest it was straight back down and it actually turned out to be the hardest part of the day for me. The uphill really works the lungs and heart but the down is a killer on the knees and calves. On the uphill you can stop and rest and feel better within a minute. No such luck on the downhill. You have to work so hard to slow yourself down and take such big steps down that stopping is the worst thing to do. The rocks are very uneven and various sizes so you have to be careful not to trip or roll your ankle. By the time we were half-way down my legs would shake if I stopped. I decided at that point that I was going to bust a move anytime I was headed down and I was one of the first ones down the mountain that afternoon.

Our campsite at Paqaymayu was just as beautiful as the site the day before. We were instructed to rest after having lunch so Matt and I played cards for a while in the tent. We felt pretty good after the day's strenuous hike. That night I wore Matt's long undies in addition to all of the other stuff and although I was still a little cold I slept much better (the 9K uphill hike may have helped with that too.)

Jan. 24 - Inca Trail Day 3

Day 3 is the longest day of the trail - about 15K. Although they say the second day is the worst I think Day 3 is pretty tough competition. The hiking isn't harder but at this point you are getting worn down. We all decided the one thing that would keep us going was a warm shower at the end of the day's hike. There is a backpacker hostel at the campsite at Winaywayna and you can have a shower for $2, which we were all in desperate need of.

The day started with 1.5 hours staright uphill. Matt was feeling chipper and ran ahead of everyone else. It started to rain so we slowly trudged along and got drenched. It rained so hard that when we stopped for lunch we had to continuously push the water off the roof of the tent so it wouldn't collapse. After lunch we had about 6K of steps going almost straight down. Five of us decided we would jog it and it seemed a lot easier than slowing ourselves down to walk each step. Plus, we knew there was warm water and cold beers waiting at the campsite for us. That's when we decided to do a full-on run and we raced to the bottom. Yeah, I know, we should have been taking in the scenery and enjoying the surroundings. But heck, we had been doing that for three days and it had been almost 4 days since my last shower! The stairs were still pretty rough and uneven so I hoped we would all make it down in one piece. We were having a great time and laughing as we ran along and (finally!) passed a couple porters.

When we arrived at the campsite our porters didn't know where we came from. We were about 2 hours ahead of schedule. This put Nina and I at a distinct advantage...short line for the girls' shower when you're the first down the mountain! We all cleaned up in the warm (but very dirty) showers and then congregated for drinks in the hostel. Everyone was in good spirits as we only had 2 more hours of hiking the next morning.

It rained all evening and continued into the night. Our wake-up call was scheduled for 4am but the guide said if it was raining we wouldn't get up until 6am. Getting up early would allow us to be at the sun gate early enough to watch the clouds part at Machu Picchu. We crawled into our sleeping bags, popped a couple Advil (I was hoping I would be able to walk in the morning after all those steps), and crossed our fingers that the sun would be shining in the morning.

Jan. 25 - Inca Trail Day 4

Rain!! Someone was knocking at our tent at 4am even though it was raining. We didn't know why but we were told to get up despite the pouring rain. After a quick breakfast we hit the trail and after about 30 minutes the rain let up (the guides must have special powers). I was glad we only had a two hour hike because I was stiff and slow. My calves were sore and my knees were aching. Maybe Day 4 is actually the hardest?!? Darn those stairs and who came up with that dumb idea to run anyway?

When we finally arrived at the sun gate we felt....relief. It had been a wonderful trek but a very long one. As soon as the clouds parted over Machu Picchu we started snapping photos. We didn't know when the rain would start again. Most of the group raced ahead to Machu Picchu but Matt and I hung back and took our time walking down. Now that we were finally there we wanted to take our time and enjoy it.

At the entrance we met up with the two group members who had not done the hike. Our guide gave us a two hour tour of Machu Picchu. Check out the pictures for some of my commentary on that. The village and surroundings were impressive and after the tour we sat on a rock and tried to take it all in. Honestly, we were so exhausted from the hiking we really needed another day to truly appreciate it.

We took a bus to Aguas Calientes around lunchtime. We were so hungry and tired of corn soup, potatoes and rice that we splurged on a really nice buffet at a cool restaurant overlooking the thunderous river below. The food on the hike had been better than any of us expected, but you still get sick of the same thing over and over! We did a little shopping in Aguas Calientes and that evening we took the train back to Cusco. Everyone was pretty quiet on the way back...

Jan. 26

Free day! Being his adventurous self, Matt used his free day to go white-water rafting. I told Ivan he was responsible for bringing him back in one piece. I bummed around Cusco and had a fabulous massage (ouch, my legs!). Matt made it back alive although the girls on a nearby boat had flipped and freaked out. Matt's boat had to take one girl aboard and another one lost her tooth in the ordeal. Yikes! Glad I opted for the massage.

That evening we had our farewell dinner for Bronnie and Nina. They would not be joining us for the Amazon portion of the tour so it would be our last night together. Matt and I were sad to see them go as they were two of the coolest poeple on the tour.

We Survived the Inca Trail

We made it and had a great time. Not sure when I will get the post done for the four days of hiking but the pictures will be posted shortly. The rotate photo function is not working at the moment so you might get a sore neck...will have to fix those pics later.

Strike!

Jan. 20

Yesterday's bus ride ended up being 9.5 hours and it was an interesting one. We left our posada at 7am to catch the bus. The altitude had finally gotten to me so I was feeling pretty crappy and hoped to sleep on the bus. It wasn't meant to be though. We took the front two seats so we could enjoy the view. Turns out the bus driver talks with his horn so everytime I came close to sleep I would be awakened by a loud horn blast. I gave up on that and decided to just take in the scenery.

The first city we drove through was Juliaca, the place we flew into on our way to Puno. There are about 200,000 residents. Many of them use the bike rickshaws as transportation so they flood the streets. Our driver just honked at them and threatened to run them down. It's so sad to see all of the stray dogs. There are tons of them and their fur is matted and nasty. There is a tremendous amount of garbage on the sides of the road and in the rivers.

We continued on toward Pukara but had to detour to a dirt road when the highway was covered with large rocks. We wondered what was going on since the rocks were placed there - there was no hill for a rock slide to fall from. As we drove closer to the town our guide said the people in the town were on strike because the mayor wasn't doing any work and was still getting paid. Apparently he had left and gone to Puno and this had been going on for some time. We drove into the town where we were supposed to make a stop at a museum. There was a large group of people in front of the museum frowning and wagging their fingers at us. Our guide took the hint and told us we would not be stopping because the museum was "closed." Ok. So we continued on down a narrow road. There were buildings on each side and a large dump truck in front of us. There were probably vehicles behind us too but we couldn't see out of the back of the bus. We slowly made our way down the street and then stopped. We couldn't see in front of us. It was quiet. This couldn't be good. We sat there for a minute or two and then thankfully started moving again and that's when we came across the townspeople digging a ditch across the road so vehicles couldn't get through. They were using shovels and farm implements to dig. Our driver wasn't having any of this and luckily they hadn't completed the ditch. They refused to move until the bus nearly ran them over....again, it's good to be riding in large vehicles. We all breathed a sigh of relief and thought maybe that was the end of it. As we neared the highway we saw people congregated, more rocks and small brush fires burning on the road. We stopped and the bus driver got out - not a good sign. He came back and said they weren't going to let us through. Our tour guide told us they wouldn't hurt us but they might hurt the bus. We later found out that they planned to keep us there until 5pm. It was 9:30am. Ugh. We got off the bus for some fresh air and waited. After a half-hour the bus driver came back and said they would let us through in 10 minutes...apparently he knew someone. Then he wrote "Viva el paro de Pukara" on the windshield. "Viva the strike of Pukara" - putting this on the bus windshielf was a condition of our passing. And then they did let us pass. Whew! It was arond 10:15am when we got back on the road.

The rest of the trip was less eventful, although we did have a close enconter with some sheep that were being herded across the road. We made a couple more stops at touristy places where there were some ruins, churches and shopping. As we neared Cusco the scenery was very pretty with the road following alongside a river and the mountains around us.

That night we went to dinner at a fantastic local spot. We went with four of the cool kids from the tour group and had a great time. On the way there we walked into the Plaza de Armas for the first time and it was amazing. The square was all lit up and there are two beautiful churches and arcades all around it. Beyond the square twinkling lights of the houses on the hill lit up the night. It was incredible. After dinner we walked to La Bondiet, which was supposed to have the best desserts in town. Unfortunately we only had a 50% success rate but it was still a good time.

Jan. 21

Today we took a walking tour of Cusco. We went to the market where the locals do their shopping. They had just about everything there - from cheese to clothes to toothbrushes. The meat area had whole pigs hanging on hooks. We walked down the "entrails" aisle where there were livers and other organs for sale. There were also sheeps' head (used to make soup, we're told) and horses' muzzles, complete with teeth and whiskers. It was all very interesting but I'm not sure how much the locals appreciated us being there. We then walked on to the Sun Temple where we toured the church that had been built on Incan ruins. The old Incan walls were amazing - perfectly cut and shaped stones. Totally amazing.

After the walking tour we had a great lunch and then picked up some snacks and water for the Trail. We have to pack up our clothes and weigh them as we are only allowed 5 kilos for the porters to carry. Anything else we carry. I'm not too worried since I plan to be stinky and smelly and wear the same clothes the whole time. Poor Matt:-) We'll be on the Trail for four days so the next post will be after that. We're both really looking forward to the hike. Cross your fingers for sun!

Ciao!

Lake TITICACA!!!!

Jan. 16

On Monday (??? Can't keep track of days anymore) we had our first official tour meeting where we got the rundown of what we're doing and what the rules and regulations are. Pretty much the usual stuff. After the meeting Matt and I took a walk down to the beach. On our way we stopped at a really nice grocery store - Vivanda - which appeared to be the Central Market of Lima. I have a little game I like to play at grocery stores in foreign countries...it is called "could I live here?" I walk through the aisles and check out everything in order to decide if I could live in the country based on what I could buy at the grocery store. Lima passed the test. They had Raisin Bran, lots of cheese, pasta, and even Kraft Mac & Cheese (not that I need to buy this, sometimes it's just important to know it's there). They even had Gatorade so Matt would be happy.

When we arrived at the "beach" we found out it is more like a "coast." There is a 200 foot drop down to the water with a beautiful park above. The park stretches for miles along the coast of Lima. We walked for about an hour and a half but had to cab back to the hotel to meet up with out group for a city tour.

The most important thing we learned on the city tour was that there is only one road rule and this is that rules are only suggestions. Clearly in Lima size matters. We had a 15 passenger van and we definitely used that to our advantage. The driver would just go when there were cars coming at intersections and no one pays attention to stop signs. Miraculously we survived. Our tour guide was "John Smith." No joke, a Peruvian guy who must have changed his name. He was very knowledgeable and funny and we also think he has something going on with our tour guide, Paloma. After leaving Miraflores, the area we were staying in, we headed to San Isidro. The houses are big, beautiful and heavily European influenced. It is a very wealthy area. We then continued on to the area where the wall that used to be around Lima was (used to keep pirates out, I think). There were a lot of houses here in Moorish, Spanish and Islamic styles. There was one palatial house in this area that took up an entire block. The house was enormous and very ornate. We were told the American Ambassador lives there! It's nice to know our tax dollars are hard at work!

During the tour we found out that Peru once made its money in gold, silver and guano. No joke, poop. They sold poop to Europe for fertilizer until chemical fertilizer was invented. Apparently they have (had) a lot of seagulls. The collapse hurt the economy so badly they started a war over it. This is what John Smith says anyway. The city tour took us to the historic city center, where I still saw a lot of American chains. The buildings were really cool though. Lots of great old architecture and definitely more of what I was expecting to see. We toured a church and catacombs, the highlight of which was the old library with two sets of staircases up to the books. One day I hope to have a library like that! It hadn't been restored and it was cool to see it in an "untouched" state. On the way back to Miraflores we went through the a rougher area of Lima. No more American chains. It was a very poor area and was dirty and run-down. It's always important to see the whole city to get a feel for it.

Jan. 17

ANOTHER travel day. Destination: Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca which I was totally excited about. The flight there reminded me of a Southwest flight because there were so many stops it was like being on a bus. Luckily we were stop #2. Stop #1 was Cusco and it was scary as hell to fly in as there were really tall mountains everywhere. We had to fly in and snake our way through the mountains and then it was a really fast landing. Scary. After a quick refeuling we took of for Juliaca. We flew in over Lake Titicaca, the worlds highest navigable lake, and it was immense. When we arrived there was a sign reading "3800 meters above sea level." Wow - that's high, about 12,500 feet. The altitude bothered some people in the group but Matt and I were feeling ok. Also, the temperature had dropped from about 80 degrees in Lima to around 45. We had a one hour bus ride to Puno and upon arrival we checked into another cute little posada (pousada in Portuguese, as you'll remember.)

Our dinner was in another touristy place, but Matt and I both tried the Alpaca and it was really yummy. Kind of like beef with a different (but good) flavor. We all hit the hay early since we had an early start the next morning.

Jan. 18

Wednesday was the day of our homestay on Amantani Island on Lake Titicaca. To get there we had to take a very sloooow boat. There were little rickshaw type bikes waiting outside our posada in the morning to take us to the harbor to catch the slow boat. We had a race to get there and the Yanks pulled ahead in the beginning. Somehow our guy lost steam and everyone else started passing us. In the end, we came in last so Rufino, our driver, didn't get as big a tip:-) Before arriving in Amantani we had two stops. First at the reed islands (Uros) where people live on floating islands made of reeds. Their houses and boats are also made of reeds. They eat the reeds too, in addition to guinea pigs and fish and whatever they can trade or buy in Puno. It was amazing to step onto the island! A little bit of water would bubble up but it was really pretty dry. We got to take a ride on their reed boat to another island. Check out the pictures because they are super cool. All of the guys took a turn rowing so we got there slowly. Hehe.

Our slow boat turned out also to be a bad boat. On the way to our second stop, Taquile, we ran out of gas. The captain had to siphon gas with his mouth to fill it up - yuck! But, that is dedication and you can't worry too much in the hands of a captain so dedicated to his customers. Unfortunately about 5 minutes later the engine stopped working completely. Luckily we were not far from the dock at Taquile and we floated in. There are 2000 inhabitants on Taquile and their main industries are agriculture and knitting (same as Amantani). We had a nice steep hike to the town square to check out some of their knitting and have lunch. Getting used to the altitude is pretty difficult and we're glad we'll have a few more days before starting the Inca Trail hike.

After lunch we walked down to the dock and found out that we had a new boat. This was good news as we still had another hour or two to get to Amantani (6 hours in total!). The waters were a little choppy and some of the peeps on the tour were feeling sick. It was not a fun ride and everyone was happy when we arrived at the island. We divided into groups and the Canadian guy, Ivan, bunked with us. It was nice to know someone wanted to stay with the boring married people. Our "mama" for the homestay was Benita and I was really glad to have some Spanish at my disposal. On the steep hike (another one, and not the last!) I learned that she had a 3 year old daughter and 4 year old son. We were excited and surprised. Excited because we really wanted a house with kids and surprised because Benita looked older than we expected for someone with kids so young. I guess the sun can do that to a person. I also found out that there are several communities on the island and each farms something different. Benita's community farms potatoes.

When we approached the house two little kids ran toward us. They immediately tried grabbing the plastic bag I was carrying. Before leaving Puno we were told to buy gifts of food for the families we would stay with. It was obvious these kids had been through this many times before - they clearly wanted to see what was in the bags! The kids' names were Ronaldo and Janet. We later met dad and his name was Raul. Grandma and Grandpa lived in the house too. The house was very basic with no electricity. There were actually two rooms for guests but since there were three beds in one room the three of us decided to stay together. The room was clean and although it was cold there were tons of blankets on the beds. The toilet was in an outhouse. This was not my favorite part of the homestay but was definitely important to the experience.

We had brought a Polaroid camera with us so we could leave photos with the family. As a way to engage the kids we took a picture of them. It was a huge hit and they were soon demanding more. They happily showed off their pictures to the neighbor kids. Even Benita was so excited she went and dressed Janet up in her dress clothes and I took another picture of her, Janet and Ronaldo. After playing with the kids for a while we took another steep hike to the town center. There were a soccer game between the locals and the gringos so we stayed and watched until it started to rain. Shortly after we had dinner with the family. Their kitchen was in a separate building and was lit by two candles. We gave our gifts and they seemed especially excited about the fruit we brought since they don't grow any on the island. We also had colored pencils and a coloring book for the kids. They lit up when they saw that and ran off. For dinner we ate corn soup, rice, potatoes and carrots. We truly were treated as honored guests as we sat at the table and the family on the floor. Both kids fell asleep during dinner. We found out from Benita that she had been born in the house and that three generations before her father had lived there. Again, I was glad to have my basic Spanish as no one in the family spoke any English - sure did help the dinner conversation!

After dinner there was a party at the community center for all of us. Benita dressed us up in traditional clothing. My skirts were made of very thick wool and were very big. I had a belt that felt kind of like a corset and a very pretty blouse. Matt wore a big poncho - guys always have it so easy! At the party we learned some of the traditional dances. It was pretty easy to catch on to and was fun because the music got really fast at the end. Hard work in all that wool! It tired me out so we went back to the house and crashed.

Jan. 19

Altitude sickness can interrupt your sleep so it was day two with very little sleep. However, Benita made us a very nice breakfast of crepes and tea. We needed the fuel because we had another steep hike ahead of us. This time to the top of Pachu Mama, which was one of the mountain peaks on the island. Before we left Grandpa came running out asking for a photo. So he got the whole family dressed up and we took a few Polaroids for them to keep. It was cool and I think they were really excited to have pictures of themselves.

There was a special ceremony on the mountain so we hiked to the top to see that and have lunch. It was a pretty tough climb to 4300 meters at the top. That's 14,000 feet. The view of Lake Titicaca was incredible and we had nice clear weather. It had been raining the previous two days so we felt very lucky. The sun was so strong we were hot when it was out and freezing when it went behind a cloud.

After lunch we hiked back down to our houses to say goodbye to our island family. We had a great stay with them. Benita walked us down to the boat and I noticed that the outhouses on the bottom part of the island were a different color than hers. I asked about it and she said each community has a different color outhouse - who knew?!? We boarded the boat for a 3.5 hour trip back to Puno. We were all happy the lake was calm and it was sunny. Some of the dummies in the boat didn't wear sunscreen and got burned. Duh. Matt and I stayed covered up...we know better.

About 1 hour from Puno the crew started making everyone in the cockpit put on life jackets. Then we had to write our names on a sheet. We heard whispers about the Coast Guard and soon enough were being boarded. They sent us on our way quickly enough, but we soon realized there were not enough life jackets on board for everyone. Nice. It is an understatement to say the boat was old and rickety (remember boat #1??) We were glad when we could see the Reed Islands because it meant we weren't far away from Puno.

In the end, we made it back safely. We had a quick dinner and went in search of a Lake Titicaca T-shirt which I wanted badly. Unforntunately no luck so I had to settle for a cute pink Inca Kola T-shirt. And now here I sit blogging. I'm exhausted so I have to head back to the hotel soon. Tomorrow is an 8 hour bus ride to Cusco and we leave at 7am. Hope everyone is enjoying the reading. We will try to post pictures in Cusco before we hit the Trail.

Lima

Jan. 15
We had a very long travel day. After going to bed around midnight we were up at 3:30am to head to the airport for our 7am flight. We waited in line for almost 2 hours to check-in! If the flight hadn't been delayed we never would have made it. After checking in we still had to pay our exit taxes and go through immigration. We hopped on the flight as soon as we got to the gate and Matt was out cold within minutes. We hit some turbulence 15 minutes into the flight so I was wide awake. I got to watch the movie so I was pretty well entertained for half of the flight. On the flight between Iguazu and Buenos Aires the movie hadn't been in English (even though it was an American movie) so I was happy to see that this time it was.

When we arrived in Lima we saw a guy holding a sign for someone else in our tour (we recognized the tour company) so we asked if we could squeeze in for the ride to the hotel. He had space so we really lucked out and got to meet Katie, one of the Australian girls on our Peru tour.

Our first glimpse of Lima was not what I expected at all. I thought it would be a big city with tall, compact buildings and pretty run down. To my surprise, when we drove in I saw mostly 2 and three story buildings in pretty good shape and a lot of free-standing buildings. And I also saw a TON of American chains. ¡Qué horor! We had our very first Starbuck's spotting of the trip. There were McDonald's, KFC's, Chili's, TGI Friday's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's and on and on. And there is even a Payless shoe store and an Ace Hardware! I was in shock. We have only seen a small part of the city and I think we are in a pretty nice area so I'm sure (hope...there can't be these American chains everywhere, can there?) things will change a bit when we take the city tour tomorrow afternoon.

We met up with the rest of the tour group and our leader for lunch. We went to a touristy buffet with typical Peruvian dishes. I could tell it wasn't very high quality because the flan sucked. I am a flan connoisseur and you really can tell how nice a restuarant is by the quality of their flan:-) Anyway, they use a lot of potatoes in their cooking. I liked the beans a lot and I accidently ate some tongue in sweet potates. It tasted kind of like bad beef but the sweet potates were yummy. They also had stuffed red peppers which were pretty good and we were told this is a common dish. Also typical, is the pisco sour, which is a drink with lime juice, egg whites and a (of course) alcohol. We had one at the hotel bar before lunch and they weren't too bad.

So far the people on the tour seem nice and fun. Most people are around our age with a couple younger and a few older. Abot 75% are Australian, 2 Canadians, and we've heard there is one more American coming. There are 15 of us in total plus our guide, Paloma.

After our long lunch (it was about 3:30 at this point) we walked over to a park nearby. They had some live music and lots of old couples were dancing. It was super cute and we enjoyed watching them. On Saturdays and Sundays the people congregate in the park and they have all different types of music. It was fun to hang out with the locals...or at least in the same place as them. Vendors were set up with their handicrafts and paintings so we checked those out as well.

That night we had drinks and then dinner with five others from the group. It was fun to get to know them better. I think we lucked out with a pretty good group.

Clarification

After taking the trip back across the Argentinean and Brazil borders I thought I should clarify why our bus trip the first time was so painful. First of all, it's only about 10-15 miles from the airport in Brazil to our hotel in Argentina. Secondly, Matt says it took us closer to three hours to get across. And, finally, when we went back yesterday it took 30 minutes in a taxi! We both agree it was a good experience but not one we want to try again.

Jan. 12 - Evening

On Thursday evening we had a fabulous meal in Puerto Iguazu. We ate at a place called Tio Querido where they grill all of the meats outside. We had awesome tenderloin, salad, bread, dessert and a bottle of wine - all for about $30! It was fabulous. There were several cats hanging out around us...if I were a stray cat I would live next to the outdoor grill too. There were three very nice travelers at the table next to us. Two were from Canada and one was from London. We chatted for a while...in contrast to the couple sitting at that table before them. When we had briefly talked to the couple earlier they had stopped talking English and switched to some other language. OK. We get the message!

Jan. 13

We had a very long day of traveling. We left Iguazu Falls around 2pm and didn't get into Buenos Aires until 9:30pm. We connected in Sao Paulo and it was amazing to fly over the city. It is HUGE. It truly was so big that we couldn't see the end of it. The houses and buildings just went on and on forever. And so many tall buildings! When we got to our hotel in Buenos Aires we cruised around our neighborhood to get a feel for things and picked up some cash at the ATM. Then it was off to bed.

Side note: The Argentinean's are very serious about protecting their agriculture. When the buses cross over from Brazil they have to go through a disinfectant wash (basically a big puddle). On the airplane the flight attendant walked up and down the aisles spraying some sort of disinfectant spray.

Jan. 14

This morning we slept in a little and then around 10:00 had the meager breakfast at the hostel. Orange juice and toast, but for $25 a night you can't expect too much. And the OJ was pretty darn good. We took a walking tour of Puerto Madero, which is the old port that has been revitalized into a trendy area with restaurants and office buildings (and a very large Hilton). They had several informational signs along the way describing key buildings and points of interest which was very helpful. We stopped for a big lunch since it had been about 36 hours since we had a real meal. After lunch we had delicious ice cream at Freddo's, which a friend of Matt's had recommended. They had cerveza (beer) flavored ice cream, which was definitely new to me. We opted for old standards and it was good and I had to laugh as I ordered a sundae for Matt. His favorite is chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce. Well, I'm not really sure how to say "chocolate syrup" in Spanish so I whipped out a "chocolate juice." It seemed to work and he got what he was looking for.

At about 3:30 we noticed that most of the shops were closing so we decided we better hurry back. We dropped off our laundry at a place around the corner this morning and were worried it might close before we got there. That could be disaster - half of our clothes were there! Luckily they were still open and we picked up our stuff. Clean clothes are quite a treasure on this trip. Washing in the sink is such a pain. You can't beat the deal here in Buenos Aires - it cost $2 to have the laundry washed, dryed and folded! Quite a bargain compared to Brazil, where it cost $6.

We had to do some other errands today too so we spent some time in the pharmacy (like Walgreens) and the grocery store. There were security guards in both pharmacies we went to and they followed us around. Then as we were walking out of the grocery store I noticed lockers and a sign that said that bags were not allowed in the store (oops, I was carrying my backpack) so obviously they have a problem with shoplifting here.

The buildings in Buenos Aires are very beautiful. It is obvious that at one time this was a very wealthy country. Our hostel is in a very old building with 20 foot ceilings and lots of details. However, it has not been kept up and the outsides of many of the buildings are very run down. The ones that have been restored are absolutely gorgeous, with lots of complicated wrought iron and amazing rooflines. There seems to be a lot of French influence in the architecture.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Lima. We'll join our tour group and hope to meet some fun people. We are also looking forward to having experts along to help in planning our activities.

--Jen

New Pictures Posted!

Check them out!

Random Thoughts

I'm kind of a forgetful person. When it comes to certain things I have a memory like a steel trap. Other things just seem to slip away. I had all kinds of cool things to say on the blog and kept forgetting them so I bought a little notebook and have been keeping notes. Some things didn't really fit in any of my previous posts but I still wanted to write them down. Here they are, in no particular order.

Food

When we order food, especially in Brazil, we usually have no idea what we're getting because we can only understand bits and pieces of the menu. We'll know we're getting beef or chicken but have no idea what it will come with. This keeps things interesting.

Two restaurants we went to in Paraty served the balsamic vinegar in hairspray type bottles. Squirt squirt!

Churches

We kept looking for the churches and couldn't find that many. Then we realized that many were inside office and other average buildings, rather than being free-standing. At one we even saw a rock band playing!

Puntuality

Brazilians were very punctual. We thought they wouldn't be. We were wrong.

Dating

We have seen sooo many young women out on dates with old men. Like much, much older men. What's up with that?

Dogs

There are a lot of stray dogs in Brazil. It made us really sad. When we saw them we would think about Sophie. Speaking of Sophie, we hear she is doing well with Mike. She loves the cold and he has rabbits under his deck that she can chase.

Iguazu Falls

Jan. 10
Our last morning in Rio went by quickly as we had to head to the airport for our flight to Iguazu Falls pretty early. The flight was non-eventful but we were a little worried about what would happen when we arrived. Igazu Falls is on the border of Brazil and Argentina (Paraguay also shares a border nearby) and we were flying into Brazil but our hotels were in Argentina. We were a little concerned about how long and difficult the trip across the border would be.

When we landed we asked the woman working at the information kiosk what the best way to get to Argentina was. She said a taxi would take us to Brazil's border for about $15. That would only get us to the border....we still had to get into Argentina and who knows how they might gouge us on the other side. Being our frugal selves, we opted for the bus and were given some complicated instructions: take bus #1 to the town center, cross the street, find bus #2 and take that to the border, stop at Brazil for immigration, get on bus #3, go to Argentina immigration, get back on bus and take it to the Puerto Iguazu bus terminal. No problema, we can do this. Well, two hot and sweaty hours later we arrived at our hotel in Puerto Igauzu only to find out that they had given away our room because we took too long to get there from the airport! That made me grumpy, as my survival during this long ordeal had been entirely dependent on the fact that the hotel had a pool and I was going to get in it as soon as we got there.

Anyway, we got things worked out and moved to a new hotel, complete with pool. It was also our first hotel with a hairdryer(!!!). Since we would actually be staying in the park the next two nights we tooled around Puerto Iguazu that evening.

Jan. 11
What can I say, Iguazu kicks the butt of Niagara. The Falls are incredible. When we arrived at the hotel (more on that later) we checked in and immediately took off to "Garganta del Diablo", the Devil's Throat and the main attraction. We opted not to wait in line for the train that takes you to the catwalks, so we had a 30 minute hike in the hot sun. We then walked out a series of catwalks for our first view of the falls. It's worth noting that the park was revamped in 2001 and the catwalk and trail systems are very well done. There are several different circuits you can take to get views from above and below the falls. It was a little strange when we walked out to the Diablo and saw that when they had replaced the catwalks in 2001 they had just left the old ones in the river below. If they could get the new catwalks in why couldn't they take the old out? Some of the old metal pieces were starting to wash down the river.... Anyway, our first glimpse was mostly of the intense spray from the falls. The noise was astounding as the water thundered downward. The falls are immense. We stood in the spray and took it all in. Incredible. Beautiful. Loud. Green...I was suprised to see that much of the water looked green. It was a great feeling to be in such a cool place. There were a lot of people there and it was really hot so we decided to head back to the hotel for a while and cool off.

This brings me to the hotel discussion. There is one hotel in the Argentina park at Iguazu Falls. It is an exorbitantly priced Sheraton. We really debated if we should stay there or not. The pros were that it should be a good hotel and being right in the park would give us early access so that we wouldn't have to fight the crowds. The con was clearly the price. We would essentially use up 8 days of lodging budget for two nights. In the end, we decided to stay there because of the early access to the park and also the picture of the pool on the website was awesome. Since there would be a lot of poeple in the park we planned to camp out at the pool in the afternoons and do all of our hiking in the early morning and late afternoon. Upon check-in I inquired about the pool. I was told it was outside to the right. When we left for the Diablo we stopped to check it out. We passed a bunch of construction and then came to the edge of a very small, cheap looking pool. NOT the pool on the website!! It looked temporary. I looked back at the construction and I could see the edge of a beautiful circular pool...and the rest was filled in with dirt. Waaaah! So the hotel is doing major construction and didn't mention it when we booked...needless to say I am very sad about the pool and am very annoyed with the jack-hammers that are constantly pounding away. Oh well, they do have a ping pong table and we had an exciting game of that when we came back from our walk to the Diablo.

In the afternoon we hiked the upper circuit which provides a nice view of some of the smaller falls in the park. It was beautiful and we looked forward to the morning when we had planned to do the lower circuit.

Jan. 12
This morning we got up at the butt-crack of dawn and headed down to the "exquisite buffet" (as described in hotel literature) as soon as it opened. Needless to say, there were a lot of other hotel guests who had the same idea as us. It's an older crowd. We scarfed our breakfast so we could beat the old folks out to the hiking trails :-) It turns out that it is worth it to get up really early and to pay the astronomical hotel rate because the park is wonderful early in the morning. We hiked for almost three hours and saw very few people. We took a boat over to Isla Martín where there were tons of stairs to climb to reach the top. We were then level with the falls and the view was spectacular. My favorite thing was a huge rainbow that formed around several falls. It was so beautiful. The pictures just don't do it justice. I wouldn't exactly call it peaceful at the falls because they are so noisy, but it is so cool. It was awesome to see their power and to follow each flow of water. They all fall differently, some really fast and others sort of slowly make their way down.

After hiking around for a few hours we went back to the hotel to take a dip in the bathtub, oh, I mean the pool. We spent a couple hours working on our tans before having lunch and retreating to the air-conditioning. This evening we came into Puerto Iguazu to have dinner and do some blogging (do you want to pay $.66 an hour for internet in town or $4 at the hotel? I know both are small but it's the principle!).

Tomorrow we head to the airport to fly to Buenos Aires. This time we will hire a taxi to take us to the Brazil airport! We're not going the bus route again!!

Ciao,
Jen

Facing My Fears

Jan. 9

We made good time back to Rio with our speed-racer bus driver. It had taken us 4.5 hours to get to Paraty and only 4 to get back. We were crossing our fingers that the weather and winds would be good in Ri0 because this was the big day for hang-gliding.

We arrived back at 2pm and confirmed with the pilot that we were still on. He picked us up at our hotel and we drove up some more scary mountain roads (this seems to be a theme). When we arrived at the top we walked out toward the platform we would jump off. It was a straight drop down. Waaaaay down. Like forever down. Gulp. Matt was supposed to go first so he got geared up and I watched people take off. They would run down the platform, jump off, dip down a little and then pick up the wind and head up. I thought it all looked ok except for that dipping down part. What if I just kept dipping down and never went up?? While I was worrying Matt was doing his practice run and was ready to go. I had the camcorder and the camera ready as he ran off the platform (with the pilot, of course). They caught some air and I could breathe again...my husband was going to live. After about 40 minutes Matt and the pilot arrived back. My turn! I was scared and excited...mostly excited. At this point I had seen enough people take off that I thought I would probably live and I would do whatever the pilot told me too. I suited up and we prepared to take off. He told me all I needed to do was run...and don't look down. Ok, I can do this. 1, 2, 3, go! I felt like I only took about 3 steps and we were off. Flying! Soaring! It was crazy. We went back and forth in front of the ramp so Matt could take some pictures and then we soared over the beach. We flew along the coastline and out over the water. It was very peaceful. The flight lasted about 15 minutes. The landing was easy and I couldn't believe the only scary part was before the flight. It's all mental, I guess. We paid extra to have pictures taken in flight and we have the negatives for those so it will be fun to see how they turned out when we get back to the States.

I had done a good job dehydrating myself waiting in the scorching sun for my turn on the hang-glider. So we went back to the hotel to rest for a while before we headed out to dinner with Gabriela, a woman our age who had been an exchange student in Sturgeon Bay back in 1992. We lucked out with our hotel because the room we were given when we arrived was dirty. A nice guy who worked there gave us a new room and it turned out to be 3 times bigger than the old one and with a view of Copacabana!

Gabi picked us up at our hotel at 8pm and we headed to Porcao, the best BBQ place in Rio. We were excited - if a native said it was the best it must be true. And remember we had not been impressed with the other two BBQ places we had gone. The stakes were high - I had been going on about Brazilian BBQ to Matt for almost five years. When we got there we ordered the drink of Brazil - caparinhas - and they were really yummy. A good start. Then they started bringing the filet mignon around before we even hit the salad bar. The meat was so good it was like candy. I had to pry myself away to go to the salad bar. But, oh, there were sun-dried tomatoes. I was in heaven. Dinner was excellent (if you haven't noticed by now I am kind of into food) and we had so much fun talking to Gabi. She had some really funny stories about SB and we had tons of questions for her about Brazil. We laughed all night and were happy to make a new friend in Rio.

Scratching the Surface

Jan. 6-8

Finally some sunny weather! We spent three days in Paraty, which is a small beach town about 4 hours from Rio. Back in the day they used to bring gold to Paraty to put on ships to send back to Portugal. We were initially underwhelmed by Paraty...the cobblestone streets were more like multi-sized rocks strewn about (not good for a clumsy girl wearing flip flops), the beach in this so-called ¨beach paradise¨ was dirty with brown water lapping the shores and every pousada (guest house) we stopped at was expensive. However, we later learned that sometimes you just have to scratch the surface before you find out what a place is really like.

Since we didn't have a reservation our first order of business was to find a place to stay. After walking around with our heavy backpacks we finally found a quirky hotel that was nice but pricey. We checked in for one night and planned to look around that evening for a better spot. Hoping to find something near the beach we headed in that direction. That's when we learned the beach in Paraty proper was a little on the nasty side. There was a river through the city nearby which seems to be a bad sign at the beaches in Brazil...some places don't have much in the way of sewage systems, if you catch my drift. After a few hours of roaming (tripping my way through) the town we found a cute little pousada on a quiet road . We liked the guy at the front desk (and it was half the price of the hotel). He seemed cool...even though our Portuguese is limited to a few words and he didn't speak a lick of English. Sometimes you just know.

That night as we walked to dinner we could tell that Paraty was a different place at night. The streets come alive with people selling food and performers doing marionette shows. A lot of the restaurants have live music and it pours out onto the street. You really start to notice how pretty the old colonial buildings are. Each building is painted white and they all have different color trim - blue, red, purple, etc. Maybe this Paraty place isn't so bad.... The deciding factor was Margarida's. It all goes back to the sun-dried tomatoes. For some reason they are better in Brazil than anywhere else I have ever had them. I was craving them. Margarida's had the perfect salad on the menu. We got a table and the atmosphere was amazing...local live music, cool building, awesome lighting. It was just fantastic (and the food was incredible...best darn sun-dried tomatoes ever!) and was a really nice end to the day. We looked at our watches at 9:44pm and thought about how lucky we were...it was 5:44pm in Austin and we very easily could have been pounding away at Dell instead of hanging out at the beach in Brazil. Sometimes you just have to make things happen...

The following day we took an open air jeep tour to a beach about 30 minutes from Paraty and then some waterfalls. The roads through the mountains were incredible - so steep, curvy and unforgiving. The scenery is absolutely amazing. We found out that where there is gold there are pirates. Our first stop was in a town called Trinidade, which was a pirate's refuge and also a really beautiful (clean!) beach. We spent a couple hours there, had lunch and then headed north to take in some waterfalls. The highlight of the afternoon was definitely when Matt rode the waterfall. The pictures tell the story best. I was too chicken to do it but he had so much fun he had to go twice.

We had dinner at Margarida's again. I think there is a rule against this but the food was so damn good we had to go back. We even sat at the same table. Our waitress recognized us and laughed. It was so embarassing. The food was even better the second night. We talked about coming back again but decided we had to draw the line at two visits. Dessert was at an ice cream bar where you scoop your own, add toppings and then pay by weight. I think this was Matt's favorite place in Paraty.

On Sunday we took a boat trip on a schooner. This is a really popular thing to do and a friend of ours had recommended that we just head to the dock in the morning and pick out a boat rather than book ahead. This was excellent advice (thanks, Marcia!) as we were able to procure a sweet spot on a boat that held 90 but only had about 20 on-board. Everyone had cushions and pillows to fully recline on. As the schooners that had ads at the hotels pulled out we could see that they were jam-packed full of people with standing room only. Score! We motored to our first stop and were amazed at the natural beauty of Brazil. We were even happier when we stopped at a pristine beach, jumped in and were able to frolic around for almost an hour. We had three more stops that day and had more of the same experiences. We were really pleased to see that the Brazilians (and tourists) were taking care of these natural resources. We had been disappointed on a similar boat trip in Thailand where there was so much garbage and gasoline in the water we didn't want to get in. The boat trip was fun and relaxing and a great last day in Paraty. We were sad to go.

Alive and Well

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are alive and well. We've been extremely busy and the internet connection in Paraty was very slow so we haven't posted yet. We are back in Rio now and are leaving for Iguazu Falls this morning. We had 3 wonderful days in Paraty, two of which were sunny and beautiful. We had a fabulous time exploring the very charming town and gorgeous beaches and I will supply all of the details in the next few days. We got back to Rio around 1:30pm yesterday and immediately left for our hang gliding adventure. The weather was perfect - yes! - and it was so awesome.

We are having a great time.

--Jenny

Rose Bowl

Jan. 4

Last night was a big night for the Fords. No, it wasn't a crazy night out. Somehow we got lucky enough to get the Rose Bowl on ESPN in our room. This is amazing for two reasons - 1) because they aired the Rose Bowl in Brazil (it started around 11pm and ended at 3:30am) and 2) we were actually staying at a hotel with ESPN. Our nasty, expensive hostel in Rio didn't even have ventilation, let alone a TV! In Petropolis for about $37 we got to watch USC and Texas! It was priceless, really. We had just checked in and Matt noticed that we had ESPN so all day we crossed our fingers. When we turned the TV on at 11pm we practically jumped up and down. Of course, I fell asleep in the second quarter. Matt stayed up for the whole thing. I have a picture of him standing next to the TV looking very excited that I'll post in a few days.

Jan. 5

It's day five of the rain. The weather is a lot cooler in Petropolis so at least we have that going for us. Today we toured the Imperial Palace. It was the summer home of the Emperor back in the day. It's a cool building decked out in lots of fancy European furniture. It is also Brazil's most visited museum, which I thought was an interesting tidbit. We had to wear giant slippers over our shoes while we toured it so that we didn't mess up the floors. It was something like ice skating across marble floors.

Hopefully the rain lets up because tomorrow we leave for Paraty. It's a beach town so a little time at the beach would be appreciated.

New Photos Added to Rio Album!

We added pics to the Departing & Rio album. Also, we have two cameras along and can only upload from one of them....the rest will be posted when we are back in the US in February.

Rio Wrap-Up

Wow - we've been busy. Here's the scoop on what we have been up to:

Jan. 2

Down came the rain so we headed to the mall to check out what's hip in Rio. The clothes are awesome. The Brazilians have a great fashion sense. Unfortunately nothing is cheap so we are only window shoppers. It looks like Strawberry Shortcake has made a comeback in Brazil too. We were in a store called TACO (it was a cross between a Gap and a Roxy store) and there were two heavily armed guards wearing bullet proof vests. Shoplifters beware!

After the mall it was only drizzling so we hopped a bus to Leblon and Ipanema Beaches. Even though it wasn't quite what we had planned (we were supposed to work on our tans) it was still fun to take a look and people watch. Plus, I needed the exercise after all the meat at the churrascarias. We had our first "standing up" lunch. We have been spending too much on food so have instituted the occasional standing up lunch policy - everything is cheap. Overhead is low when you don't have to make space for tables.

That afternoon we hung out at the hostel and met a couple friendly guys from Australia and UK. Most of the backpackers we have met are not fans of Americans so we were actually surprised they talked to us for so long. It did come out later in the conversation that they think Americans are arrogant, that we have been making a lot of enemies as of late and that they predict our downfall in about 20 years. Well, at least they talked to us.

We had dinner (a good one, finally, yes!) in an area of Rio called Flamengo. It was cool to be in a non-touristy neighborhood that was older and had more character than Copa or Ipanema.

Jan. 3

Another rainy day but, heck, the rain kind of cools us down so it's good. Unfortunately the wind messed up our hang gliding plans for that morning. We have rescheduled for the 9th, when we are back in Rio for one day so cross your fingers and toes for us. We decided to head to the Botanical Gardens and met a nice Mormon missionary on the bus there. He is from Idaho and has been in Rio for about 18 months. He was friendly and it was interesting to learn about his mssion. No, he didn't try to convert us!

In the afternoon we headed over to the eclectic Santa Teresa neighborhood. We waited in line for a very long time to get on the tram and it was hot hot hot. So, I admit I was a little sour when I boarded the tram but as soon as we started moving those negative feelings were erased. The tram was totally old school - I doubted if it could make it up the hill! We flew along the tracks and went over a very narrow bridge that crossed the road about 50 feet below. Since I was sitting on the outside edge I figured this would either be "my time" or a really thrilling ride. We raced up the hill and people would jump on as the tram slowed. It was obiously a game for the kids as they would run along side and jump on at the last minute. Then they would kick their feet out and jump back on. It was so cool. We rode to the top and got off. It didn't feel like a very safe area so we hung out at the bar and waited for the next tram to come by. A group of kids were playing tag out in the street and it was fun to watch. Four of the kids lived in the neighborhood and were dirty and wore tattered clothes. Four others had come up on the tram with us and seemed to be from an upper-middle class family. I don't think their different backgrounds mattered for a minute - as soon as they saw each other they started the game and were laughing and shouting. It was cool.

After our trip back down on the tram we toured the Municipal Theater. It is absolutely beautiful - however, there is no A/C!! They actually cut a hole in the square outside the theater and had a tunnel that led inside. They put a giant block of ice in it so the wind would bring the cool air into the theater to cool down the patrons. We were lucky to hear this little gem since the tour was in Portuguese. While we were in line to get in we met a really nice couple, Mariana and Felipe, and they translated for us during the tour. Their English was great and they were very helpful. Felipe had lived in Houston for a few years when he was young and then was an exchange student in NY when he was in high school. They recommended that we visit an exhibit nearby with old photos of Rio so we checked that out. It was amazing to see how the city has changed since the 1800's!

Only one more night in our hot, sweaty hostel!!!

Jan. 4

Woke up early on our last day in the cave. We caught the bus to Petropolis, which is a mountain town about an hour from Rio. The bus was actually really nice and we had more leg room and recline than on the plane - now this is the way to travel! The ride was beautiful...and somewhat scary as the side rails were only about a foot high and there was a sheer drop off on the other side. The driver had the pedal to the metal and we arrived safely.

Petropolis is a medium-sized city that is primarily a summer spot. It's pretty peaceful here and there are a lot of cool old buildings. It's also big for outdoor stuff so we're hoping the rain will let up and we can go for a hike tomorrow. Today we took the walking tour of the historic district. The most amazing thing that happened was that as the rain storm blew in the clouds raced in at street level in about 1 minute. It was incredible to see the clouds rolling down the street toward us. We took some pictures so hopefully they turned out and we can post them in the next few days.

Language & Communication

In general, we have been able to get by with my Spanish skills. Portuguese is very different than Spanish but there are enough similarities that I can usually read things and I've caught on to the basics in Portuguese. Each encounter with someone is a test. Luckily when we have really needed it someone who speaks English has been around to help. We had Mariana and Felipe on the theater tour. On the tram the ticket guy tried to make us pay twice and the people next to us spoke English and helped us out. At other times we have had a lot of fun trying to work through the communication barriers. We went to a pasta place last night where you choose your pasta, your ingredients and your sauce. They had an English menu but no one there could understand it so we couldn't order off of it. It was a hoot as I translated what I could and we pointed and gave the thumbs up to get through the rest. The people working there were young and we all had a great time trying to talk to each other. We've had a lot of other little successes like that and it makes things fun, makes me feel good about my ability to communicate and definitely lights a fire in me to work on my Spanish skills again!

General Thoughts

Every time we travel we feel lucky to be from a country where people have so many opportunities, are allowed many freedoms and can choose their own path in life. At the same time we feel that there is a lot to be learned from the people we meet when we're outside of the country. We have it pretty good in the U.S. It's easy to take things like trashcans, public restrooms and handicap access for granted. As we walk around Rio we are reminded to appreciate how fortunate we are.

--Jen

PS

No spell check so pardon my typos.

First Photos Posted!

Our first few photos have been posted! Links to our photo albums will be on the right hand side of the blog under "Links." When you click on the link you will be taken to the Costco Photo Center website. If you do not already have a user ID you will need to create one - it's free and easy.

We'll add new pictures every few days so check back!

--Jen & Matt

Happy New Year!

Dec. 30
After our much needed nap we headed to Copacabana to check things out. We walked around the beach and then stopped at a bar for some drinks. The local brew is called "chopp." We ate at a churrascaria that our guide book recommended and were woefully disappointed. We were so distraught we went back to the hostel after that. We met a few people in the hostel lounge and got the skinny on the New Year's Eve festitivies then headed to bed.

Dec. 31 - New Year's Eve Day
In the morning we took the bus (yes, the bus again - we're getting good at this) to the tram station to head up to the famous statue "Christ the Redeemer." There were several guys outside claiming we would wait 2 hours for a tram and that they had a quick taxi up the mountain. We passed and luckily it was only 30 minutes 'til the next one left. The view at the top was spectacular. Going here early in the trip helped us get our bearings as we were able to get a 360 degree view of the city. The landscape is amazing, with the mountains rising up behind the beaches. We could see Flamengo beach, Botafogo (where we are staying), Copacabana and Ipanema. After our morning outing we headed to the beach. It was a cloudless day and Matt's 100 SPF suncreen broke down after about 25 minutes - it was hot! So we headed back to the hostel to get a much needed nap in before the evening festivities.

New Year's Eve
We rang in the New Year at Copacabana Beach, along with 2 million other people. Most people wear white to signify peace for the coming year. Others wear yellow if they are looking for money, and those looking for love wear red. We opted for white. At midnight, there was an awesome fireworks display. The fireworks were going off in four different places along the beach and Matt and I had somehow managed to wander into the middle of it all. It was perfect.

We had walked down to the beach with a large group from our hostel, but as soon as we arrived everyone dispersed. It was hard enough for Matt and I to stay together in the mass of people, let alone 30 of us. So we took off to take in the sights and sounds. We enjoyed the street vendors - beef on a stick, crepes, and plenty of Skol beer. Although we have been tempting fate (eating salads, drinking water with ice) even I had to hold off on the very yummy looking corn on the cob and fruity frozen drink. The last thing we needed was to be in urgent need of a bathroom...there weren't too many available. Anyway, it was a great way to ring in the New Year and the atmosphere was amazing.

Jan. 1
Since we didn't go to sleep until 3:30 or so we slept in, then got some chow and headed to Copacabana for round 2 of the SPF test. Luckily today was partly cloudy and Matt was able to last a remarkable 1.5 hours. When our beach time was over we headed to the bike rental place. On Sundays they shut down half of Atlantic Avenue along Copacabana and open it up to pedestrians and bikes. We rented what can only be called a "golf cart bike." This contraption looks like a golf cart but it operated by pedaling. Think Fred Flinstone. We had fun riding up and down the street, with Matt threatening to run people over and me ringing the bell to warn them to get the hell out of the way!! We had to give the bike back so we decided to head to the hostel to clean up. By then it was 7pm and Matt was in need of his watering and feeding (see Weather below). We had round 2 of the churrascarias and while this one was better it was still disappointing compared to what I had experienced in Porto Alegre.

The Weather
It is hot and extremely humid here. Our hostel has no a/c. See below. Matt is constantly sweating bullets. I have to water and feed him often.

Our Hostel
Our room can only be described as a cave. There is an odd sort of plaster on the walls that resembles rock. There are no exterior windows and zero ventilation. It is hot. It stinks. There is a ceiling fan that pushes the hot air around but it doesn't really help and it's loud. We shall post pictures before we leave so you can see that I don't exaggerate. And now you ask, why do we stay here?!? Rio at New Year's is ridiculously expensive. Much like at Carnaval, the prices are jacked up...and we're on a budget!