St. Petersburg by the numbers

St. Petersburg, by the numbers (in honor of Ms. Hutchinson who always writes the best blogs):

(We don't talk about this church, St. Nicholas, but we liked the photo)

2 - the number of times it took us to try to get to Tsarskye Selo in Puskhin. After the trains were down and our problematic map reading (who knew Moscovsky and Moscovskaya Stations weren't the same!?!), we abandoned this day trip and opted for a relaxing day in St. Petersburg and decided to try again the next day to find the metro station and bus out to this quint town. The Tsarskye Selo, or Tsar's grand palace, was built for Catherine the Great as a summer home. It's over a half mile long and was restored recently so the facade and indoor rooms are just as stunning as they were 200 years ago. The Great Hall was our favorite - 9000 sq. foot room lined on each side with gold mirrors and tall windows overlooking the majestic gardens, this would be quite the ballroom. Also, I forgot to mention the amazing amber room - floor to ceiling of mosaic amber panels that words cannot describe (and we weren't allowed to take photos).

 

4 - number of golden-winged griffons, sculpted by Pavel Sokolov, on the famous Bank Bridge. We stumbled upon this small pedestrian bridge over the Griboedov (Catherine's) Canal on our way home from Nevsky Prospkt one afternoon.

5 - number of pink limousines we saw on Nevsky Prospkt, the main shopping street. Many of the hummer-type limos were filled with teenagers and we saw one pull up to the McDonald's even with a photographer in tow! Weird.

29 - number of years to restore the unbelievable mosaics in the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. From floor to ceiling, 1cm x 1cm tiles were replaced after the Soviet's neglected this amazing and colorful church.

 

 

40 - the number of years it took to build St. Isaac's Cathedral (from 1818-48). It was fully restored after a period of neglect during the Soviet era and is quite impressive not only inside, but when you climb up along the dome and get a panoramic view of the whole city on a sunny, although quite chilly, day.

 

 

 

47 - the street address to the Nabakov Museum (which was across from our hotel), where Vladimir Nabakov (author of "Lolita" and other excellent literary works) grew up in St. Petersburg before fleeing to Europe at the beginning of the revolution.

60 - miles per hour the taxi driver drove in the middle of the city. Despite not having any freeways in town, the drivers here often reach blazing fast speeds when the light turns green, as if there is a race to get to the next light.

96 - the number of columns in the Kazan Cathedral. This Cathedral resembles the Vatican's St. Peter's on the outside but it awkwardly situated in the middle of fashion and shopping area on Nevsky Prospkt.

2.5 million - the number of annual visitors to the Hermitage Museum. With nearly 3 million items in the collection, this is definitely a place that we'll need to visit again! Despite spending an entire 8 hour day wandering the rooms and going on two guided tours of the Diamond and Gold rooms, the Hermitage's six buildings (four of which we were allowed to visit - Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage and New Hermitage) comprise about 120 rooms that were filled with archeological artifacts, art work from the 13th-20th centuries, and many gifts to the Russian tsars (or looted during the war from the Germans). In part, because this museum was the Winter Palace of the tsars, the ornate decorations made it the most impressive museum I have ever been to. It was the equivalent of the Vatican Museum, British Museum, and more in one! I was overwhelmed and extremely impressed to say the least. Next week we are headed to the Musee D'Orsay and Louvre which will be impressive as well but I doubt they will surpass the Hermitage.
A foreigner invited to one extravagant event in the Winter Palace in 1778 wrote: "The wealth and opulence of the Russian court exceed the most fanciful description… The sumptuous brilliance of the court apparel and the abundance of precious stones leave the magnificence of other European courts behind".

 

Joensuu and the North Karelia Project

Joensuu
The city of Joensuu (pronounced "youn-soo") is a modest town of 75,000 people in the region of North Karelia.

The Non-Communicable Disease Seminar participants, Seth, and I traveled by train for five hours (440 km) north through large pines forests and fresh white snow to North Karelia. One could easily confuse this place for a town in northern Minnesota and I suppose that's why the Finns and Swedes settled in Minnesota - they were good lumberjacks, they could survive the cold winters, and they love to ski!
The first day in Joensuu, we visited the headquarters of the newspaper, Karjalainen. They are the largest daily newspaper and reach over 80% of the population in the area everyday. "How can that be?" you might ask, well the Finns not only consume the most coffee per capita, but they read print newspapers the most too - 34 minutes daily per person! They have 32 daily newspapers and 166 non-daily in a country of only 5.4 million people. They told us about the partnership that they have with the North Karelia Center for Health to promote healthy behaviors and develop a "reality" show of 8 people trying to be healthier - quitting smoking, exercising more, and eating more fruits and veggies. They use journalistic flavor to appeal to the readers and promote healthy lifestyles.

(Katie standing outside the Joensuu City Hall where our international crowd met the Mayor and Regional Council members.)

Hospital visit
Next we visited a primary health center which was very nice but only had 10 clinicians for 150 beds and none who worked the night shift. Not sure I'd ever want to get seen there but alas, they assured us that nurses take on a lot more responsibility here and manage most of the chronic disease management and screening visits and that most of the beds are long-term beds, aka nursing home type, and have six-month waiting lists. A doctor is available by phone and all emergencies are transfered to the Central Hospital in the next town where specialists were covering 24/7. Nurses and doctors are civil servants here, like teachers and politicians, and are not compensated well. Most doctors in this area work in private practice.

Taxes
The Finns spend 46% of their income on taxes! However, they spend half as much as we do ($2331 vs. $5401 per capita) on healthcare per capita. Nearly 100% of babies are born in hospitals and their infant mortality rate is the second lowest in the world to Norway. Healthcare is mostly free in Finland ($12 per visit and minor medication fees). The school system is amazing! They are one of the most literate countries in the world and their schools include a free home-made balanced lunch for all students up to grade 9, free transportation if you live over 3 miles away, and free university tuition. All of their teachers must have a Masters in Education.

Folk singing
That night, the Finnish Heart Association invited us to a special meeting in the next town over. While we were on the bus, I got a phone call from my Dad who had attended my Match Day Ceremony where I found out that I matched at the University of Washington - Seattle for Internal Medicine. I was giddy waiting for the call and nearly in tears when we found out because we were so happy!! When we arrived at the meeting, we were greeted by a choir and soloist who sang "songs about the heart" they said. There were speeches in Finnish by the president of the association, our hero in cardiovascular disease prevention, Pekka Puska, and the town leaders. Then, we had to stand in front of everyone and introduce ourselves and afterwards a few people came up to us but did not speak any English so we had to pull over one of the Finnish participants to translate. It was a great evening and Seth and I celebrated with our new Australian, Nigerian, Bahranian, and Finnish friends over dinner and wine in the hotel afterwards!

(Photos will be posted later)

Back in Helsinki

Helsinki is the northernmost urban area of a population over 1 million, and there is much to do and see in terms of it's design business and history, starting with the centrally located Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral. The master of the Finnish Art Nouveau was Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950), whose architectural masterpiece was the Helsinki central railway station and the city hall in Joensuu (photo from above).

If it's too cold, you could always spend a day getting lost while shopping in the eight-floor department store, Stockmann's!

St. Petersburg

Seth did not mention how wonderful the styles of the women is here - furs, furs, black tights and boots! Men are dressed in less stylish but still warm fur hats and wool coats, and some even carry leather purses. It's wonderful and cracks me up every time we leave the hotel. More blogs to follow about the Hermitage who's director once said "We can't say we are the #1 art museum in the world, but we aren't #2." We plan on spending all day there tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

St. Petersburg to Petrograd to Leningrad to St. Petersburg

We have traveled to all of those cities the past day and a half! However, that is simply due to the fact that those names all represent the same city, present day St. Petersburg. The name changed over time due to the prevailing political winds.

(Katie in front of a frozen canal and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood - an amazing church which deserves its own blog post)

This will be just a quick blog post of our early impressions of the city.

Economics - Thankfully things here are cheaper than Finland. The cultural sites are slightly cheaper than American standards, but the rest (clothes and food) largely seem to fall along what we would expect to pay in America.

Fashion - This is one fashionable city, especially as seen along its main shopping drag Nevsky Prospekt, where the people, largely the women, come dressed to impressed. Currently in style are boots (preferably knee high), fur, and bangs.

Architecture - this is an amazing place that many call the Venice of the north due to its many canals and waterways; although it may more closely resemble Amesterdam. The buildings are large, colorful, and ornately trimmed. It seems like you could constantly be taking pictures of the architecture. One downside to traveling at this time of the year is that the canals are still frozen solid - we are in awe of this city so far and we could only imagine how much more amazing it would be in the summer.

Smoking - Russians love to smoke, and can do it cheaply. Apparently a pack of Marlboros only sets you back the equivalent of a $1.50. It is hard to get used to as smoking is permissible in restaurants here, but thankfully the ones we have chosen so far haven't been too smokey. Also a blast from the past is the option of the smoking or no-smoking section. Doesn't it seems like ages ago when we were last asked that question?

We skipped an update in our blog about our trip to the northern Finland town of Joensuu for Katie's seminar. She will provide that update in a few days and this weekend we will update you on the rest of our time here in Russia.

Helsinki

Appropriately, I sit in a café with a cup of coffee writing this, my first*, blog post. I say appropriately as the Finns consume more coffee per capita than any other nation in the world (Katie’s colleague opined that it must be due to self-medication to deal with the long dark winters). Our trip began last week with the shortest 9 hour flight I have ever taken – it went by quickly and before we knew it, we were in Paris waiting for our connecting flight to Helsinki. (One side benefit of having to follow my wife around the world was earning status on Delta. The status has allowed me to book exit row seating – which was a godsend for my long legs.) We arrived in Helsinki on Friday afternoon and Katie and I explored the city that weekend before her training started.

Helsinki is a small compact city which made the site seeing quite easy – what has not made the site seeing so easy are the layers of ice and water on the sidewalks. For some reason most buildings do not remove that from their sidewalks, and the city’s solution is to throw down small rocks to help you gain traction. It was a bit odd at first, but after a fall free weekend that must be some reason to that madness.

Katie and I packed in a lot in those days going to museums, visiting markets, exploring the City on self-guided walking tours, and taking the ferry to Suomenlinna – the City’s Maritime Fortress. Helsinki is a great starting point for our trip as English is widely spoken, the City is small and intimate, and we can get our “traveling to foreign land” legs under us. In addition, we learned a lot about the history of the region, a history I was very ignorant of before coming here. For example, did you know that Helsinki was considered Axis-Lite? While they didn’t fight alongside the Nazis, they did receive arms for allowing the Nazis to move through Finland to occupy Norway. Due to this assistance, as war reparations Finland lost a large portion of Karelia to Russia.

(notice all the ice in the bay)

(KTP keeping her eye out for the pesky Russians)

One downside to this trip is traveling during the tourist offseason. Time and time again I have been thwarted as many museums, parks, and tourist sites are closed for repairs or to change exhibitions. This has been frustrating, and hopefully we don’t run into that issue in such a major way again.

We are off this afternoon to Joensuu as part of Katie’s training. The trip is about 440 kilometers and about halfway from Helsinki to the Arctic Circle. By looking at maps, I am guessing that it will look a lot like northern Minnesota - plentiful lakes amid the pine/spruce trees. We come back on Friday, and then head to St. Petersburg on Saturday.

* As this is my first post, there are still some blogger.com nuances I need to figure out. One are pictures and possibly appropriate sizing - so please bear with me.

Making the healthy choice the easy choice

*Seth will be giving you an update on Helsinki tomorrow, this is just a quick update on my seminar.

The Non-communicable Disease Training Seminar in Helsinki, Finland is fantastic! I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in public health and population-based interventions for chronic diseases. It is based on the North Karelia Project that took a truly population-based approach to treat cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a population of lumberjacks and farmers that were dying at a young age of CVD. They were the folks who claimed, "Veggies are for rabbits" and said "I'll have some bread with my chunk of butter, kiitos (thank you)" who consumed 40 pounds of butter per year! Therefore, their diet (and tobacco use) contributed to their high cholesterol, blood pressure and mortality rates in the 1970s. Simple interventions - smoke-free workplace campaigns, margarine for butter, substituting skim milk for whole milk in schools, increased vegetable subsidies and consumption, and increased physical activity - made a dramatic difference for this community.

Who are we?
I am one of two people from the USA attending the seminar, which thankfully is held in English. There are 24 of us who come from all over he globe: Tanzania, Ethiopia, Thailand, Iran, Finland, Japan, UK, Australia, Bahrain, and the USA. The goal of the seminar is to discuss theories and share ideas for us to bring back to our countries or institutions in order to promote prevention. Specifically, the World Health Organization has emphasized four factors: tobacco, diet, exercise, and alcohol use. I've said it before, but let me re-emphasize, the global burden of cardiovascular disease is HUGE! Eighty percent of all CVD is in developing countries. The costs of pain and suffering from both chronic and infectious diseases are disproportionately affecting the poor. Many of the deaths from these causes are avertable - either preventable or treatable. Building cath labs is not going to solve this problem. Prevention is the only sustainable, affordable, and feasible public health intervention that has been shown to decrease this epidemic and decrease other chronic disease as well as delay or post-pone mortality so that people can live more healthy, productive lives and contribute to development and decreasing poverty in their countries. Often, the factors that contribute to disease are outside of the control of the individual and are deeply rooted in society (socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors).
Get Healthy Before Wealthy
Some argue that helping get people out of poverty - for example, providing clean water, sanitation, and education - would improve their health so why bother with chronic disease management? Well, the truth is development is slow to decrease poverty and not real effective for improving health. If we help strengthen the health systems and make people healthier now, they in turn will do more to help improve development and decrease poverty.
In a nutshell
How to start a prevention program? First, involve the stakeholders, policymakers, and community as managers and directors of programs from the beginning. Then, use working groups to try to understand all the health and non-health existing resources and challenges in the community. Then, target the primordial, primary and secondary interventions using medical and social behavioral methods. Examples include individual behavorial changes like quitting smoking to lifestyle changes in the community, like smoke-free campaigns. Improving nutrition, encouraging physical activity, and improving medication adherence for treatment of disease are also important interventions. Finally, building infrastructure to treat the high risk people in the community.
"Make the healthy lifestyle the easy one."
Successful programs are those that are multi-dimensional, target the whole population, complement initiatives in place, are sustainable, and have adequate time and funding to complete the intervention(s). In all cases, making the healthy lifestyle or behavior the easier choice is key for a sustainable and effective intervention program. If only we could do this in the US too!
"Only those who see the invisible can do the impossible."

Mr. and Mrs. Benziger!

Oh what a night!

We had a wonderful time with 90 of our closest friends and family over the past 12 days in Costa Rica. It was wonderful to have so many people join us in paradise for a little bit of everything: hiking, zip lining, and hot springs in Arenal to salsa dancing, surfing, and sailing at sunset in Tamarindo.

Thursday started with a group catamaran sailing trip on the Marlin del Rey. It was the best and biggest sail boat ride ever! We knew everyone on the boat (which made it so much more fun) and we were dancing, sunbathing, swimming and keeping the bartenders busy for 5 hours.

On Friday, Seth's parents hosted a delicious groom's birthday dinner at Dragonfly in Tamarindo - arguably the best restaurant in all of Costa Rica - fresh tuna fillets, salmon and tempura tuna sushi, linguini and raviolis, mashed potatoes and veggies and cake. The bar was busy there, too! After dinner, the owner surprised us with a live band and so everyone went outside and danced barefoot in the sand until our feet hurt and the place closed down. It was awesome!

Katie with the Peruvians who made the trip "Up North" for the wedding!

But the highlight for me was definitely saying our "I do's" on Saturday evening on the Tamarindo beach and then being serenaded by the latino trio singing "Besame." The wedding was fantastic - 1,000 times more perfect than I had planned! Everything from the orchids in my bouquet to the playlist we threw together to the birds of paradise centerpieces to the buffet and lactose-free cake - it was all perfect! At the end of the night, just about everyone got thrown or jumped in the pool (the groom was thrown in first and broke his glasses). Even my mom and I jumped in, hand in hand and in our dresses.

The ceremony at El Diria in Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Walking into the reception as Mr. and Mrs. Benziger

Katie and JoAnn right before jumping in the pool!

The following week was R&R. We were able to lounge around the pools. Waking up and going out our sunset/ocean view porch to feel the Pacific ocean breeze calling our names. We spent the mornings surfing, boogie boarding or just jumping in the waves. Then we'd walk a mile or more along the beach and watch the slugs and crabs in the tide pools while the pelicans would fly up and dart down into the waves to catch their prey. We'd grab lunch at the swim-up poolside bar and then watch European soccer games all afternoon while basking in the sun. The best part was that every where we went, we'd run into our best friends or family! One day (when we were sick of running into our friends and family) we escaped to the Los Alto de Eros Spa for a couple's massage and romantic dinner. It was the best massage ever and much needed after all the stress of planning a vacation for 90 people and a wedding! After our massage, we were left alone to go in the jacuzzi and watch sunset but we were son interrupted by a dozen HUGE frogs and a few Howler monkeys (and we even saw an armadillo on the drive home). It was amazing!

It was hard to go home yesterday to the 10 degrees F and 18+ inches of fresh snow but it will be a trip that we will never forget and I'm sure we'll go back again soon!
Love,
Katie and Seth
P.S. More wedding photos to follow when I get the originals from our photographer! Here are some from my sister, Anne's Picasa album (click on the photo to see all of them):


Click the photo to see A LOT of great wedding photos by Seth's buddy Chris.

pura vida

Click the photo to see my brother Dan's Picasa photos.


Click the photo below to see lots of photos from my bridal showers and some wedding photos from my mother, JoAnn:

Costa Rica - here we come!

We're going to the beach and we're gonna get married! I can't believe we leave in only two days for Costa Rica! We are so lucky to have amazing friends and family who are joining us for our destination wedding. I'm excited to get out of the -25 degree tundra in Minne-snow-ta and relax on the beach in Tamarindo and go ziplining through the rainforest at Arenal. I can't wait to spend time with some of my bestest friends and family and Seth's bestest friends and family too. When we return, we will be packing up our apartment and moving our stuff back to my parent's house (one last time hopefully) before heading to Europe for seven weeks. I will finish my medical school rotations in Sweden and we will travel to Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Trier, and Paris to visit the sights and some old friends. We will try to upload photos and blog along the way so stay tuned!
Pura vida! Costa Rica, here we come!
Love,
Katie and Seth


Our engagement weekend in Lima, Peru, after swimming with the sea lions.

Atop sugarloaf in Rio de Janeiro last New Year's.

Riding the water taxi in Chicago with Seth's parents condo in the background. We have been fortunate to have many wonderful adventures together and look forward to many many more!

Despedida

Despedida
Kartik, Sarah, Dan, Beto, Kiran, Miranda, Leora, Dani, Callae and me at my despedida at Pescados Capitales.


Despedida in Spanish means farewell and is usually associated with a party. Well the last five days have been one big despedida leading up to today - my very last day in Lima, Peru. First, my cleaning lady came over and made some amazing ceviche for Miranda and I on Thursday. I gave her two bags of stuff (clothes, shoes, toiletries, games and pens for her nephew - she love it!)

On Friday, I bought a chocolate cake and had a little party with my co-workers at Cayetano University.

On Saturday, all my gringo friends (and Beto) came to Pescados Capitales for a delicious dinner and my waiter friend, Alex, even gave us a tour of the kitchen and wanted to add me to the VIP wall where they learn about what their regular customers like. (You know you have a good life when one of the fanciest restaurants wants to put you on their VIP wall.)

Congrats Dan on your graduation!
On Sunday, my friend Leora hosted a wonderful despedida brunch where we drank mimosas, cooked pancakes and french toast, and at lots of tropical fruits. Sunday night, my brother and I went to the Arambulo's to introduce him to my Peruvian family and also say one last goodbye. I teared up saying goodbye to Luis, who insists that I will always be his hija (daughter) even if I'm a rubia (blond).

Last night, our "chicken mama" Dr. Silvia Montana, took our Fogarty group to dinner at Jose Antonio's for a delicious traditional Peruvian meal, complete with picarones and Pisco sours.

"How are you feeling?"

"A life rich with emotions is a rich life," so they say, which means I basically just won the Powerball! I wish! I'm all over the place with emotions: sad to leave my friends, my life, my new family in Peru; happy to see my novio (finace) and my family and future in-laws (who are so kindly picking me up in Chicago); anxious about adjusting to the way of life in the US (like being on time and how to greet people - the Peruvian kiss is not very acceptable in the US); stressed about getting my papers submitted and poster made before my upcoming trip to China; excited to go to some of my closest friend's weddings and see friends from home; nervous about actually throwing toilet paper in the toilet; anxious about having to drive a car; assured that my brother will get along fine without me; grateful for all Peruvians (and gringos) who made me feel at home here; overwhelmed by all the unfinished work I have to do; concerned that I might not eat ceviche for another year; but most of all, I'm happy.

Me, Dan, Luis and Miranda on my last night out on the town. Why isn't Luis smiling?

Happy that I had this amazing opportunity, happy that I spent time getting to know some awesome people, happy with the work that I've done, happy with the adventures I've had this year, happy that I finished packing last night and can enjoy my last day, happy to see Seth, happy to give my mom a big hug and tell her I love her, happy to go running with my dad, happy to ride my Fuji Roubaix (my bike) again, happy to eat a cheeseburger, happy for it to be summer, happy that nothing major happened to me, happy to plan our wedding, happy to apply for residency, and just generally happy to be back home.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you Beto and the Arambulo's for being my family and taking me in as your daughter. Thank you Romina and Bruno for showing us your city and making us feel at home. Thank you to the gringas (you know who you are) for being such a great support group and showing me how to work hard, eat well and always have a good time. Thank you Pierina for being the best Spanish teacher. Thank you Omar for driving me and all my visitors around Lima. Thank you Jaime, Antonio, Sanja, Julio, Joe, Bob, German, Jennifer, and Cesar for helping me with all my projects. Thank you to my family for keeping me company on skype all the time. Thank you friends and family who came to visit so I could show off my new home and this amazing country. Thank you Miranda for being my best friend in Lima and putting up with me and making your way into all my wonderful memories even though you weren't there all the time. And last, but not least, thank you Seth for being my rock this year and coming down to visit three times when I didn't go home once. Thank you for letting me have this incredible opportunity to move abroad and I promise I'll never leave you behind again. I love you!

Thanks for reading. I am delighted that I have had so many followers on my blog this year. I hope to update it now and again but you should follow my brother Dan's blog.
Until my next adventure, "Ya me despido. Muchas gracias por todo, que te cuides y hasta luego!" (It's time to say goodbye, thank you for everything, take care and I'll see you later). Besos (kisses)!

Love,
Katie

Four blondes take Peru

By Cara
For more photos, please click on Cara's Picasa album:


Life is hectic. We all work long hours and have a million other things going on, but for me, I can always slow it down to go visit an awesome new place. And particularly if it involves hanging out with a couple of my best friends--Katie, Jackie (my roommate from when I lived in London) and Annie, i.e. All-American Annie, my freshman soccer buddy at Macalester College. Jackie, Annie and I went to visit Katie during the last week of April and had an awesome time. I'm positive we were a handful, but I think Katie enjoyed herself just fine and hopefully she's now fully recovered... let me begin.

Lima
Jackie and I arrived on a Saturday night, and true to form, demanded Pisco Sours before we did anything else. Literally, less than 2 hours after landing we had the famous Pervuian drink - in both hands. We spent our first evening hanging out with Katie's friends in what we thought was a typical Peruvian restaurant (turned out to be Mexican, details...).

The next day, after a couple hours of reading bridal magazines in our underwear, we made our way over to the Arambulo residence to have lunch with Katie's "host family"-- Luis, Charo, Beto, and Jorge. Katie knows how lucky she is to have found these people who have essentially taken her in as their American daughter, but let me reiterate. Our afternoon exploring a market, hanging out, and cooking with the Arambulo family was definitely my favorite of the trip! They are truly wonderful people who were excited to invite me and Jackie into their home and get to know us. Jackie spent the remainder of the trip scouring menus looking for "arroz con pollo" because she loved Charo's version so much. Dan (Katie's brother who is about to live with them for a few months) should buy his sister an extra birthday present this year for forging a relationship with these wonderful people! Note to Arambulos: if you're ever in DC, call me up!

Luis and Katie enjoying Pisco SoursJackie and Beto sitting on the patio drinking Pisco sours while Katie and Charo and Jorge slaved away in the kitchen.
Katie, Cara, and Jackie dressed like real Peruvian chefs


After lunch Beto drove us to central Lima where we walked around the Plaza de Armas, by the Rio Rimac, and into a locked enclosure under a bridge to see an antique Spanish cannon (still not sure what this was about but apparently it's worth big bucks).

Jackie, Katie and Beto in El Centro, Lima
Jackie and Cara


We then went to the Lima City Ballet's "rendering" of Swan Lake. Though extremely amusing thanks to one pair of particularly tight, white/see through spandex, but the New York Ballet they were definitely not. Issues included staying on point, dancing in-sync and occasionally dropping ballerinas - it was quite laughable. After ballet we went to do karaoke and discovered that singing in Spanish is actually hard and we really don't know the words to our favorite Juanes song, "A dios le pido."

Dani and Katie singing/yelling karaoke


The next day we took a walk around Miraflores and San Isidro and made Katie try on every white dress we saw (don't worry JoAnn - she didn't find any she loved).


That night we went out to an amazing ceviche dinner with Beto and his friend, Sebastian (who happens to love blond American girls). Wasn't he in heaven.. yes. Pisco sours number 11-19 were consumed here.
Beto, Katie, Cara, Jackie and Sebastain at arguably the best ceviche restaurant in Lima, Pescados Capitales.



Cusco
The next morning Jackie and I took off for Cusco and spent most of the day walking around the old city, taking pictures of creepy mannequins, and buying things for $5 or less. We were concerned when the first question from our hotel was "Would you like to rent a heater for $6 a night for your room?" and looking back on it, we probably should have, though we do love cuddling.





The next day we had to find a way to get to Piscacucho, where our train to Machu Picchu was leaving from, so we hired Juan Carlos the taxi driver (JC!!!!) to drive us around the Sacred Valley for the day. It was a really cool trip. JC stopped at beautiful overlooks along the way, for awhile it was nearly every 60 seconds ("Other photo, si???" "Uhhh okay...")



Then to an animal rescue farm where Jackie fell in love with the ugliest dog known to man - a Peruvian hairless dog.



Then to the ruins at Pisac (highly recommended!!)



and Ollytantambo (not too bad if you like stairs).



We made it to the train station and took the train with all the other gringos to Aguas Calientes, a really lame tourist trap of a city where everyone goes to bed at 8pm. Jackie and I spent an hour or so looking for a bar, restaurant, really anywhere that had people we could talk to, and then resigned ourselves to hanging out with ourselves, and drinking pisco (are you catching on to the theme here?).
Jackie doing what she does best.
Cara doing what she does best (notice how much more of a light weight Cara is...).


Machu Picchu
The next morning I had Jackie out of bed at 5am and ready to go up to Machu Picchu. Everyone we spoke with told us to get there early if we wanted to climb up Waynapicchu, the super steep mountain in the background of every classic Machu photo, as they only allow the first 300 hikers of the day up. We ended up being numbers 30 and 31 and slogged our way to the top of the mountain in record time (think 45 minutes of stair-master with slippery rock stairs), expecting the world's greatest view of Machu Picchu. Instead we saw abyss.
Cara "slightly" pissed about the view.
Jackie LOVING the view!


In fact we saw nothing but abyss for the next 3 hours, but then got really lucky when the clouds finally parted, and we got an amazing view.



For anyone planning a trip to Machu Picchu: ignore the warnings to get up there at 5am. Sleep in, eat brunch, get a pedicure, go up around 11am. Seriously.

Jack and I couldn't wait to get out of Aguas Calientes, and made it back to Cusco that evening. We made up for being lame the night before and found a party full of Dutch people celebrating the Queen's birthday. We were definitely the only Americans in the bar as evidenced by the fact that nobody else was "beating the beat" if you know what I mean. I definitely wish we had a Queen...



Puerto Maldonado
Finally done with Cusco and the altitude we boarded a plane the next morning for the Amazon! The first clue that something was amiss was when we met up with Katie and Annie who were dressed like explorers, while Jackie and I had brought jean skirts, tank tops, flip flops, and eyeliner ("What do you mean you didn't bring pants???" she said.) However, Jackie came to the rescue with two pairs of hot, black yoga spandex, which we paired with sweet rubber boots.

The "Wilderness Explorers," Annie and Katie, and the "Beauty Queens," Cara and Jackie, sporting our new rubber boots.


For a much better play by play of the jungle you should definitely read Katie's description in her blog. I will say that we saw a lot of ants, a really sweet frog, poisonous spiders, we had to get up at 4am one morning, I chewed on a leaf that made my mouth go numb, and the night hike was the most terrifying thing I've done in awhile (there are jaguars in this jungle!!!).




The night before we left was my buddy Annie's 25th birthday (she's getting so big!!), and we managed to celebrate in style with a 350 sole tab ($130) (this is impressive for a Peruvian bar in the middle of the jungle). Annie was a great sport, letting us relive the days when she was a freshman, by helping her make bad decisions all evening long. We got dancing lessons from a few of the guides, and to top the night off, went running into the jungle to continue celebrations (I wasn't nearly as nervous for this night hike!) The night ended up better for some (I had a great time!) than others (poor Johan), but was definitely an experience we'll never forget.







Lima
Back to Lima and we capped off our awesome week with $5 pedicures, more shopping, more friends, and lots more pisco (why hasn't anyone introduced me to this before?).





All in all, Peru is an amazing country and I would encourage everyone to visit at some point. Though we felt like we saw a lot in our short time, there are so many other places to visit-- Puno, Arequipa, beaches, Katie could probably name like 10 more-- and I'd definitely come back. Machu Picchu is incredible, the Sacred Valley was gorgeous, and the jungle was definitely an experience; however, by far my favorite part of the trip was seeing Katie and living her life for a few days-- seeing her apartment, walking around her neighborhood, and meeting her friends. She has carved out a pretty great existence for herself in Lima and that's impressive for just living there nine months.

So I'll finish with this: Katie, thank you thank you thank you for such an AMAZING week! It was wonderful to be able to see your life in Peru, and understand what you've been up to for the last year. I know you are sad to leave and it's going to be hard, but we are so excited to have you back!

Viva las gringas!



Cara's full picasa album: