Huaraz = Amazing

If I were to move to Peru, this would be my home. It´s absolutely gorgeous here. There are several glaciated peaks towering over the town. It took a couple days longer to get here, but the wait was definitely worth it. Once again the bus ride had me reviewing my life. If you ever travel down here I suggest you bring lots of dramamine and get all your life in order because you never know if the next curve in the road might be your last (this might be an over exageration, due to my paranoia of dying). The ride was definitely worth it! Being the starting point of many mountaineering treks, Huaraz provides a great place to relax and plan the next move. This morning we ate at a delicious little cafe called Cafe Andino which provided the best coffee and beautiful views of the white jagged mountain tops. Their banana pancake was delicious too. It was a little pricier than I would have liked, due to to it´s touristy nature, but what´s a few soles more for a taste of home?
Well we´re going to do a little planning today. Hopefully a small trek will come to fruition. See you back home around the 7th or 8th (if all the standby flights go as planned).

There are some pictures up!!

Slowly but surely pictures are being uploaded here's the website, http://lorenzo.smugmug.com/Joshi's/553594

We're in Trujillo resting until tomorrow when we plan on leaving for the mountains of Huaraz. Hopefully we'll be able to fit in a trek if our bank accounts allow. Now that were a week away from flying home I'm getting sad that it's coming to an end. What an amazing few weeks! I'll remember them always. This last week will definitely only add to the memories.

There are a couple things I'm excited for when I return:

• The concert series will be in full effect
• Bike riding
• Sunlight past 6pm
• Girl friends... not that I don't love Trent, Brad and Nyles.
• Not worrying about swallowing water in the shower... really! (SATC was spot on)
• Veggies... never figured I'd miss them
• My car- buses and taxis down here just don't cut it
• Hailey
• Stephanee's magical garden
• My bed and couch
• there are probably a few other things... I'll add them as they come to mind.

Things I will miss:

• Peru... yup... that's it... I could go into detail and say the beaches, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, ruins, jungle, people, food, and prices... but all in all it's great down here.

Kuelap- Hanging out with the people of the clouds

Yesterday was amazing! I don´t think I´ve fretted for my life quite as much as during the car ride up to Kuelap. Teetering on a dirt road who knows how many hundreds of feet above the river we climbed up to a ruin perched on top of a mountain. At one point the driver pointed to the ruin across the valley and thousands of feet above us... I didn´t /couldn´t believe that we were going to make it up to the top of that mountain. But, we did about an hour later. Kuelap is a ruin built by the Chachapoyan people before the Incas. They were able to make the structure blend perfectly into the surrounding landscape. Little is known about the people of the clouds because around 1500 the Chachapoyans were overtaken by the Incas. The ruins are still being unearthed today. It was truly amazing to see where these people lived. As usual I can´t wait to post pictures. Here´s a link to more information about the ruins, http://www.kuelap.org/kuelap/ .
Feistas Patrias is in a couple days on the 28th. It´s the country´s independence day. Hopefully we won´t be stuck in a bus during the festivities. We are heading to Chiclayo tomorrow then hope to catch a bus to Trujillo or maybe Cajamarca. A visit to Huaraz is in the works before we start our travels back home.

Lions and tigers and bears!! Oh my!

Well... not really. Although I did see some lions and tigers in the back of a truck (think circus) while on our way into Tarapoto. We´ve been here for a couple days enjoying the humidity... well not exactly enjoying it more tolorating it. Yesterday was great, we went rafting on the Rio Mayo. It was similar to the Moab daily, but hey... now I get to say I´ve rafted south of the equator! I´ve of course got pictures.. but you´ll have to wait to see them. There are also pictures of the waterfall we went to in the jungle!
Nyles is on a plane on his way home... I hope (crossing my fingers). It will be sad not having him around to make me laugh. Guess that Trent and Brad will have to kick it up a notch.
We´ve met some great people during our travels. There´s a girl we met on the river named Caitlin that we´re meeting up with for some grub in a few minutes, so I´d better get going. I promise I´ll try to update this more often with more detail... until then I´ll take as many pictures as possible so that you and I can enjoy this vacation of mine for weeks to come :D

It's a jungle out there

... or so I hear. We're heading out to Tarapoto which is in the north eastern part of Peru. It's the furthest into the jungle without flying or floating. Although, we hope to do some floating of the river rafting variety when we get there.
It's been pretty relaxing for the last day or two. Trent was a little under the weather with some funky stomach bug. He's better now... thankfully.
We'll be in Tarapoto for a couple days, it's supposedly a pretty large city so I may or may not be able to update this in the next couple of days. We're about to get onto a 20 hour bus ride... catch you on the flip side. Here are the pictures http://www.lorenzo.smugmug.com/Joshi´s until then.

A wonderful surprise!

While writing the last blog at the internet cafe last night a plot was being put into action. I had no idea what to expect. The boys had something up their sleeve that I was completely oblivious to. While in my computer inflicted state I thought Trent and Brad were back at the hotel emptying their bladders and other fun stuff... well I was wrong. Nyles was given the assignment to keep me away from the hotel for a while, not too hard when I´m placed in front of a computer :) When I returned back to the hotel lovely Claudia had set up the lobby with a plethora of tasty appetizers. In the center of the table was a ¨rico torta¨with ¨feliz cumpleaños Joshi¨written across the top. They boys got me. I was in total shock... actually still am. It was a great way to bring in another year.
We´re in Mancora until tomorrow... thought we´d enjoy the place for another day. Maybe we´ll be able to fit in the mud baths before leaving, but that´s okay if we don´t. Ciao!

AHHHHHHHHH!!! How wonderful life can be! I´ve been hanging out in Mancora for the last two days, we´re planning on heading back to Trujillo tomorrow night. It´s been great! For my birthday, today, I went for a horseback ride along the beach (suprisingly it was only $5 for a half-hour). Who would have thunk it!?! It was delightful. Tomorrow we´re planning on soaking in some mud baths that are about 30 minutes away. So far it´s not quite what I expected of the trip, but that´s okay with me. Everything is very new and exciting. Last night we watched the sunset over the Pacific (pictures to come when I get back to Trujillo to upload them). When we got back to the hotel we had a couple drinks with the owner, Claudia. She´s a sweet woman with two adorable kids. I spent a good amount of time while drawing with them trying to teach her son, Ruben, the names of colors in English. He´s definitely got it that ´amarillo´is ´yellow´. Claudia stayed up until after midnight to wish me a happy birthday. Then it was off to the club for one celebratory drink... then another :P Let´s just say, I wasn´t feeling 100% this morning.
This town is very ¨hippie-esque¨ with tons of little vendors selling their wares along the sidewalk and every 4th person with dreads. It´s easy to forget about life´s worries... do I have any? Hmmm... nope, not that I can recall :D Oh... I can think of one, mosquitoes. Better get going to put some repelent on. Damn buggers!
Thanks for the warm birthday wishes! Wish you could all be down here too!

Off to the beach

We're just getting ready to go up to Mancora, a beach town on the northern coast. The bus ride there is 9 hours... should be exciting.
Up until now we've been hanging out in Trujillo at Brad's place enjoying the local cuisine and getting used to the culture. Something about the place reminds me a lot of Japan. When I have more time I'll try to write more about it... until then check out the pics through the link in the last post.
Hope summer up north is treating you well!
-Yosh

Pictures

So I've started uploading pictures! It's going to be a while, but here's the link :D

Peru 2008 - 7/8/08

We've made it!! I am in Trujillo and am chilling at Brad's place. Think we're going to take a nap, go grab some breakfast and check out the town. This place is crazy. We flew into Lima on Sunday and took the night bus from there to here and arrived about an hour ago. The plane ride was great, although we did have one missing passport scare from Nyles while in Panama. Our bus ride was non-climactic other than a pissed-off suicidal taxi driver who stopped his little cab in front of the moving bus. When the bus attempted to move around the taxi driver would swerve in front of it. We could see all that was going on because we were sitting in the top front rows of a double decker luxery bus (pics to come). It's weird that an 8 hour luxery bus ride only costs 70 Soles, that's the equivilant to about $19.60. From our vantage point you could see the sprawling abodes made out of plaster and brick. The poverty in the country is sad to see. There is a perpensity for people to take advantage of the "gringos". I feel super safe having the four of us together though. Don't think I'd ever think of traveling down here alone, unless my Spanish were better. Everyone automatically starts speaking to me in Spanish, so it's slowly coming back to me.
The past couple days really have been a blur. There have been many other travelers around until we arrived here in Trujillo. Since I'm more of a visual person I've been taking a lot of pictures to document the trip. I'll be posting those when I am able. They will probably remind me of other stories to tell.
Hope all is well with you and that you can make sense of my writings. The hours of traveling have definitely cut into my normal sleep... for those of you that know me well, normal and restful is at least 8 hours... think I'm going off of 5 hours of sleep while on the bus. That nap is sounding really good right now.

What a day!

I'm sitting here waiting for the last of my work to be done. For the last two years I've been working on the production of a 4 disc set. Today I finished the fourth disc!! (well there's a little tiny bit to do when I get back) I'm SSOOOOO excited! For those of you who have been concerned about my stress level, thank you. I should be fine now :D But getting to this point has been crazy. Just today has had it's insane moments. This morning I went to take Trent to work, I was planning on running a few work related errands afterwards. Well on the way there my pants croaked on me! Yes, they decided it would be the perfect time to wither away while I was still in them. A large rip on my backside was no laughing matter... at the time. I was stuck in my car until my dairy air was covered again... taking about and hour our of my most craziest of days. Starting off the day like that wasn't the best but it looks like my day will end on the highest of notes, on an airplane headed to Peru! (Well the flight leaves at 5 in the morning.. but there's still plenty of packing and cleaning to do) When I return I'll investigate and remedy the cause of the disintegrating pants.

Now we're talking hours

With only 3 days until our flight leaves, hopefully with us on board, I'm switching units of measurement. 58 hours til departure. Within those 58 hours we have to:

• pack a months worth of travel gear
• clean a house
• finish all work related projects
  
• figure out who will take us to the airport
• find a place to stay in Miami for Friday and Saturday night
  
• get miscellaneous items to friends (presents, plants, borrowed things)
• buy items needed travel items (quick dry pants, power adapter, etc.)
• calm Hailey's nerves and move her to Trent's parents
• reroute mail
• oh and did I mention pack....

Hmmm... well I'd better get on it! I promise there will be more entertaining posts to come. Oh, and if you notice there's something I'm missing, please call and let me know... seriously!