Nazca Video - EL MONITO!!!

Our plane ride around the Nazca Lines. In the video if you look closely you should be able to see the monkey (el monito) design. Enjoy!

Nasca

Hola from Nasca! Amy, Michelle, Rachel and I have had a fabulous couple of days here. Here are a few quick pictures from our adventures.

On our first day we were unable to go sand boarding so instead we went on a quick tour of some landmarks located slightly outside of Nasca. First stop was to see some aquaducts.

Still funcioning ancient aqueducts built by a pre-Incan society.

Michelle and Amy listening to our archeologist tour guide.

Then it was on to a cemetary that had pretty much been dug up by grave robbers. Our tour guide walked right over the bones - crunch, crunch, crunch. Hmmm...

Hair left over from the mummies burried there.

Our tour guide also had no qualms about picking things up. To each their own, I guess, but I thought it was best to let the poor little skeleton just sit there undisturbed.

Me with some human remains. Fabulous!


Rotting baby... oh boy. Luckily, our tour guide/archeologist taught us that when digging through ancient remains we should only touch bone that is white. Yellow rotty bone has bacteria. Ew.

After digging through ancient remains we headed off to the sight of a pyramid that is currently under excavasion.

But first we drove past a modern day cemetary.

Amy, Rachel, Michelle and me standing in front of the Cahuachi ruins.

Pre-Incan finger prints.

Sunset behind the ruins.

In pure Peru fashion, our van broke down on our way back into town. Lucky the engine, which was suspiciosly located under the driver´s seat, just needed to cool off for a while and then we were back on our way. By the way... deserts are FREEZING at night. Definitely not smart to wear tank tops.

Back at the hostel we met up with some British guys and went out to a cheap dinner, then back to the hostel to celebrate my besties, Amy and Michelle, coming to visit.

This picture could have been taken almost ten years ago... it looks like Michelle and I are back in the U of I dorms. Oh boy. Anyway, drinking wine out of our old water bottles. We had no glasses for our wine and you know what they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Oh yeah, we´re classy.

Day two we went up in a terrifying little prop plane... but I´ll do anything to see my Nazca lines. Amazing!

Rachel and Amy cheezing it up for the camera.

Michelle and me in the prop plane ready for take off. Thank goodness Michelle was sitting next to me to hold my hand during the flight. It was crazy! We were perpendicular to the ground so that we were able to look out the windows at the drawings below and then we would fly in tight circles around the drawing to get a look at it from all angles. Crazy!

Flying over the hummingbird figure. Most of my other photos didn´t turn out as well. Sad sad, nevertheless the experience was amazing. Once in a lifetime kind of thing. I loved it.

Soon we´re off to Arequipa just to spend the night and then onto Puno/Lake Titicaca. Until then...

Lima Part 1

Amy´s here! Oh so fabulous... and the weird thing is that is seems so natural to have her here. Forget that we´re on a different continent and it took her an entire day to get here. It´s like she just hopped on the metro to visit me.

Amy and me in the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima.

So our first day is Lima we started out at the fancy Larcomar, a mall built in to the side of a cliff along the Pacific Ocean. This is pretty much the first time I´ve seen Christmas decorations and heard Christmas music. Love it! Although, I am kind of in the twighlight zone and still stuck in July so the decorations and music do seem a bit inappropriate. Either way I celebrated with a Chai Tea Latte, my signature drink of course that I miss dearly...

Me and my starbuck. Ahh... it was so nice to get two best friends back in one day - Amy and my Chai.

After the mall we went to go see some real Peruvian culture and took a tour of pre-Incan ruins that are located in the middle of the city.

Rachel, Amy and me in front of the Huaca Pucllana ruins, which date back to 400 AD.

More ruins.

Waiting for Michelle´s flight to get in we headed over to the Barranco neighborhood. I´ve never been there before but absolutely love it. It´s super cute with tons of cafes, restaurants, bars and cobbled streets. My favorite.

Amy, me and Rach having dinner before Michelle´s flight.

Michelle got in around 11pm. We went back to our lovely hostel, slept and then got up early for our 6 to 8 hour ride to Nasca. Between the flight and the bus, poor Michelle spent the first two days of her vacation travelling. Bad planning on my part. Oops!

Amy and Michelle on our never ending bus ride to Nasca!

Next time in Nasca...

Itinerario

This is the month I have been waiting for... my girls are coming down to see me!!! That´s right, in three short days Rachel, my American roomie since October, and I will be heading into Lima to pick up my besties, Amy and Michelle, at the airport. Crazy times are sure to ensue. I can´t wait! Here are the plans:

Tuesday November 24 - Lima
Rachel and Heather head into Lima

Wednesday November 25 - Lima
Pick up Amy at the airport and celebrate her 28th birthday! Pisco Sour anyone?

Thursday November 26 - Lima
Pick up Michelle at the airport and celebrate Thanksgiving by carving potatoes into the shape of a turkey.

Friday November 27 - Lima/Nazca
Sand boarding... thank you Michelle and Dan for forcing me to break my face snow boarding maybe now I can take it up a notch and do it on sand.

Saturday November 28 - Nazca/Arequipa
Check out crazy Nazca lines (Isn´t there a drawing of a large naked man in the sand? I would like to see that please.)/Travel day

Sunday November 29 - Arequipa/Puno
Lake Titicaca... um, best name ever.

Monday November 30 - Puno
More Lake Titicaca Island Action... apparently we need to bribe locals with fruit. Bring on the oranges.

Tuesday December 1 - Puno/Cuzco

Wednesday December 2 - Cuzco

Thursday December 3 - Cuzco

Friday December 4 - Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Try not to fall off cliff.

Saturday December 5 - Machu Picchu
AMAZING!!!

Sunday December 6 - Cuzco/Lima

Monday December 7 - Lima
Michelle flies back to Chicago... Tear tear

Tuesday December 8 - Lima
Amy flies back to Chicago... Tear tear
Rachel and Heather go back to Huancayo... but only for 12 days! Sweet!

The plan is to update the blog every few days again so check back often... you know how I love those comments.

Cheers!

Weirdness in Huancayo

Have you ever seen the Sex and the City where Carrie runs out of ideas for her article and starts writing about socks?

¨Men as socks.

Some men are argyles.

Safe socks.

This column socks.¨

Yep, that´s where I am at right now. Four and a half months into my trip and I have astonishingly run out of things to say. Am I really that boring? Oh boy, I hope not...

So, in the spirit of posting something, ANYTHING, I dug through my old pictures and came up with some of the odder things I have witnessed in Huancayo. So sit back, enjoy and please laugh a little... for me.

Yum! One of the many restaurants in Huancayo that specializes in cooking up evil rodent (a.k.a. cuy). What makes this restaurant my favorite is that it claims the pungent taste of guinea pig is ¨¡El Nuevo Sabor que Une!¨ or ¨The New Flavor that Unites!¨ and then it shows a poor little cuy serving up, hot and fresh, one of his brothers just for you and me. Such sacrifice!


Peru´s other national animal (besides cuy) is the llama. In fact, llamas are so loved that someone decided to take the time to sculpt one out of a pineapple while apparently on the job at a local fruit smoothy place. Very artistic.

Rabbits though... not so much loved in Peru. If Thumper dies just put him in a black bag and throw him on the sidewalk. Someone else will take care of him.

If seeing dead bunny on the sidewalk disturbs you, you can simply go to the local movie theater and order some Porn Corn. It comes with Combos 1, 2, and 3. Luckily with Combo 4 you actually get Pop Corn although I´m really not sure what the difference is since every time I go I can´t help but order Porn Corn. It really is the best you know.

Café Obama is also a good place to go. Think this is one of those, ¨If you build it, he will come¨ kind of things?

Best comb over ever... enough said.

Multi-session polygamy??? Totally cool here...

... but creepy mannequins, so not cool. These things are all over the place. I am pretty sure they come alive at night and eat children.

Okay, so this billboard is actually in Lima not Huancayo but it´s still equally obscure and awesome. It says, ¨The cows will change the city.¨ Gotta love that... but who does Lima think they are? Chicago!?! Everyone know we have the best city changing cows in the world. Done and done.

And back to Huancayo, where we have parades nearly every day. This one showcases the dangers of driving in our fine fine city.

About a year ago a mall was built in Huancayo and for the first time many Huancainos were presented with the challenge of an escalator. So let me just put this out there: I am a mean, mean gringo. This is know. But trust me, it is somewhat entertaining to watch the Huancainos attempt to navigate the escalators. In the video above I am rooting for the woman in the blue top so keep your eye on her.

... and woman in blue top finally makes it on. See Huancainos always succeed.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

What´s not to love about Buenos Aires, Argentina? Tango (awesome). Ice cream (um... my favorite). Beef (yeah I´d like some beef). All seriously good stuff. Plus Buenos Aires, just like Santiago and Montevideo, is the misplaced offspring of Europe (Spain and Italy to be exact) so it´s super comfortable and relatively clean (a.k.a. no stray dogs running around everywhere). All in all Buenos Aires = Good Times.

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Friday October 30, 2009

So after all of my travels I´ve developed somewhat of a routine. Day one is always a walking tour of the city. I try to get my bearings. Sadly though, Chile and Uruguay left me exhausted so I wasn´t able to give Buenos Aires the love she deserved. I didn´t tour a single museum or historical landmark. Instead, I walked past what seemed to be a hundred different landmarks, thought to myself ¨oh isn´t that nice,¨ took a picture and moved on. Sad but true. So enjoy the pictures and find comfort in the fact that you´re not seeing anything less than what I saw during my trip to Argentina.

First stop on my walking tour was Plaza Libertador General San Martin (above photo), which used to be the site of past slave trade, a military fort and a bullring. It is now a lovely park and in the early 1900´s some Brits donated the Torre de los Ingleses (Big Ben replica) that can be seen in the background.


I then continued on my walking tour, peeked at Museo de Armas (who needs to see cannons and guns anyway?) and then rushed onto Galerias Pacifico, the fancy-pants mall in Buenos Aires. Oh it was beautiful. Kind of like the 900 Shops on Michigan Avenue. Anyway the mall was way too expensive for me but of all the historical sites in Buenos Aires I probably spent most my time at this mall (pathetic, I know). Anyway, I got to see Christian Dior, Hugo Boss and Lacoste. Definitely worth seeing. Above is a photo of the ceiling in the mall. See, super fancy.

So, I did buy one thing at the mall - Adidas shoes. Stupid me only brought flip flops, ballet flats, and heels on my vacation. People dress really nice in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina and I didn´t want to go around looking like some poorly dressed Gringo... so I figured sneakers could be skipped. Anyway, somewhere along the line my feet swelled to gargantuan proportions and I couldn´t wear any of the shoes that I brought. It was the weirdest/grossest thing ever. I still don´t understand it. How can a person run a marathon and only get a few blisters but then walk around for a couple days and have fat pregnant lady feet? The Adidas shoes were a lifesaver AND they´re the color of Argentina´s flag. Perfect!

Eventually I pulled myself away from the mall and began walking down Calle Florida where I ran into these rasta street performers. I´m such a sucker for stuff like this.

After watching the street performers for a while I kept marching on, passed a few museums, theaters and churches and came upon Bueno Aires´ Obelisco that was built in 1936. It only took one month to build (how is that possible!?!) and I guess it´s now where sports fans congregate to celebrate victories.

And so I made some porteños take a picture of me in front of the Obelisco.

Next stop was the Casa Rosada (Pink House), Argentina´s version of the White House, whose balconies have been occupied by both Eva Perón and Madonna. The palace´s pinkish color is rumored to have either come from a past president´s attempt to make peace between two political parties (red of the Federalists and the white of the Unitarists) or from painting with bovine (cow) blood, which was apparently common in the late 19th century.

After Casa Rosada I checked out Plaza de Mayo and Palacio del Congreso, blah, blah, blah and then found myself at Heladería Cadore. Yum ice cream! I gulped it down before heading back to my hostel to rest up a bit for my tango lesson/show later that night.

Alright! Tango! Here we go! I now know about five steps of tango but I can´t say I know them well. Watch as everyone kind of stumbles around in the video above. Too funny. Yep, that´s how my lesson went but I promise it was a ton of fun. After our lesson we were off to dinner and to watch the professionals show us how it´s really done. Below are a couple clips from the show. Unfortunately, I wasn´t able to catch the dancers while they were doing the really fancy stuff but you get the idea...

Something seems a little Michael Jackson-y, don´t you think? Maybe it´s just the outfits.

And then the women came out. Absolutely gorgeous!

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Saturday October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween! The weather changed drastically after my first day in Buenos Aires going from about 95 degrees on Friday to cold and rainy on Saturday. Anyway, I tried to suck it up and couldn´t think of a better way to spend Halloween than to go to Cementerio de la Recoleta where Evita is buried.

Some of the tombs are adorned with absolutely gorgeous/somewhat strange statues. For example, I think this angel is putting a person in a bag but the person seems more than willing to go. Hmmm... interesting.

...and Eva Perón´s tomb.

By the time I left the cemetery it was pouring outside. I really wanted to go see Buenos Aires´ Japanese garden located a couple miles south east of the cementery so despite the rain I jumped on the wonderfully efficient metro and headed towards an area of the city that has tons of parks.

I made it to just one park... and not even the Japanese park I wanted to go see. So sad! I think I was the only tourist out that day. I was trying to be tough (you kinda have to be when you only have two days to see a city and one of the days is crappy) but eventually the rain did me in. I never got to see the Japanese garden, the colorful houses in La Boca neighborhood or Santiago Calatrava´s crazy bridge in Puerto Madero. Instead, my stay in Buenos Aires ended sharing pizza with a bunch of Canadians in my hostel. Could be worse, I guess, but still I´ll have to go back one day.

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And now I am back in Huancayo... Not gonna lie, my last day in Buenos Aires was a bit sad knowing that I had to go back. But I keep reminding myself that this is the best place for me to be for my job... and only 21 days until my girls, Amy and Michele, come to visit for almost two weeks of Perú fabulousness. So, I am counting down the days. Nazca Lines, Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu - here we come! LOVE this travel thing!

I Want to Ride my Bi-cyc-le

Okay, so here´s that bike picture I was trying to download in Argentina but couldn´t. Anyway, this is what I did on my last day in Montevideo, Uruguay - rented a bike and road down the Rambla with my I-Pod singing to myself like a crazy gringo... I was in heaven.

I´m hoping to post my Argnetina pictures within the next three days or so.

Ya hablaremos! - Heathie