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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 Sours
Jackie 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:
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