Peru Culture

Alright, so here is a list of some random things we have noticed about the culture in Peru.

1. There are a lot of stray dogs, but the funniest is that you frequently see dogs on roofs. I think matt has a picture on his blog.

2. Restaurants - No matter how many people you have at the table, they only ever give you one menu, which makes it very interesting for ordering. Then once you finally eat, it becomes difficult to get the bill. A very relaxed place indeed where time is irrelevant. Oh, and you do not tip, and if you do, they dont generally like it, because it is basically an insult.

3. People of all ages have been spotted peeing on the street, or in gardens, wherever, clearly there is no shame. Matt tried this one night and had a bit of a run in with the police. he might have something on his blog....

4. Gross - Toilet paper can´t go into the toilet, so yeah there is a little gargage can beside each toilet for ..... well you know what.

5. Driving - I would not want to drive a car here. It is absolutely insane. lanes are irrelevant, and basically the bigger vehicle has the right of way, or who honks more. ..... and let me tell you, people use thery horn like every 5 seconds, I have no clue what they are honking at half the time. Although driving is chaos, and car travel within inches of eachother, it is somehow safe in the sense that they are very aware of their surroundings.

6. Gringo - ahhhhhhh the gringo. For those of you who dont know. A gringo is basically a foreigner, supposedly with money, and doesn´t speak much spanish... hence me minus the money. Being a gringo is great though. We get into the bars for free and skip line-ups. then we get lots of free drinks, leave, and go to the next bar. This works the same for restaurants. We just have to go the main square, and restaurants will fight over us, and then we choose which one will give us the best deal. Its fantastic.

7. Food - The food here has been really good, especially the chicken. It is also super cheap. For example, the typical burger, fries, and drink cost us less than $2 and the proportions are pretty good. However, Guinea Pig is popular here, and is expensive. We have to try this, but maybe one day. The worst part about it, is that you are literally fed the whole guinea pig, feet head teeth and all...... so maybe not.

8. Music - For the most part the music is great and ver cultural. I dont what they are saying half the time, but it is enjoyable. However, at the bars when they play gringo or american music, the 90´s come back in full force, and believe or not Bryan Adams is popular again. I cant stress how much bryan adams we have heard. it is hilarious.


WEll... that is all i have for now about the culture. I am off to the Amazon for a month leaving tomorrow, so im sure i will have some great pics and stories upon my return. bye for now....

Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

Hey Hey ..... The past 4 days I have been hiking and camping along the Inca Trail. It was absolutely incredible, and yet pretty hard. Day 1 was an 11 km hike in the rain, and was over some prett rough terrain. Due to the rain, and lack of being prepared, most of my stuff was soaked... leading to a cold nights sleep. Day 2 was by far the hardest. We hiked 12 km, and 10 km was uphill a distance of 1200 metres. It was pretty intense, and by the end my legs were feeling the pain, but it was such an accomplishment.... and now I feel like im in really good shape from this hike. Day 3 was the best for hiking. We travelled 16 km, but was not difficult and saw 5 inca sites, went through some extreme rain forrest paths, and it was an awesome hike. Day 4 was fantastic. We woke up at 3:50 am and hiked to Machu Picchu. we got here at 7 and this ancient ruin was phenomenal. Far better than looking at pictures on the internet. On the internet when you see pics of machu picchu there is a large mountain in the background. We climbed this extremely steep mountain and had an awesome view of Macchu picchu. The climb up was tough, the path was narrow, and most of the way you had to use a rope so that you didnt fall of the cliff........ here are some pics. Great Times....

Huachachina (Dunes), Aeraquipa

Aeraquipa, Peru

For the last couple days we stayed in Aeraquipa. It was pretty chill for the most part. We went out most nights, but didnt have time to do any of the treks or tours, as we are now in Cuzco. Aeraquipa was a beautiful city, known as the white city by peruvians as most of the buildings are built with white volcanic rock. I have some great pics which i will try to post soon. The funniest part of Aeraquipa was the amount of dogs we saw on the roofs of houses. apparently dogs dont do back yards in peru. I will be posting a blog at some point about peruvian culture norms, and it should be pretty funny. hopefully some pictures soon.

Huacachina

Hey peeps.... i spent the last day in the a deset oasis (Huacachina). I really want to put some pictures up, but this computer does not have access to the USB port. Anyways, it was awesome. We were surrounded by sand dunes which would have been around 15-20 stories high. we decided to climb these one day and go sand boarding. climbing the dune took about 45 mins, and was probably the hardest thing i have ever done. There was sand blowing in my face, it was crazy hot out, and let me tell you, if took a big 2 foot step, it would end up being like 5 inches, cuz you sink into the sand. But nonetheless, we made it to top, strap a board on our feet, just like a snowboard, and ripped down the dune. It was pretty hard, and falling didnt hurt all that much. Now im in Aeraquipa, and probably back to the relax all day, party all night type scene. More pics to come hopefully, I have some good ones. Oh wow, i almost forget. Out hostel in huacachina had a monkey and two tortoise. The turtles were humping like for an hour when we got there. anyone who has ever seen this will appreciate the humor of their shells hitting during the thrust. and the monkey was so cute and friendly. He really like matt camera and was playing with it. thats all for now.

PHOTO´S !!!!

Here are a couple photo´s from near the hostel, and central lima...

Central Lima Tour ......


Today was pretty sweet. A group of us from the hostel went into central lima today. The main attraction was an old monestary from the 1600´s and there was a lot of cool paintings, the architecture was amazing, and best of all was the catacombs. Under the church was the tombs essentially, and we went here, and there were literally thousands of human bones piled all over the place. the guy said it was roughly 25,000 people. i was not allowed to take picures, but i will bring home some brochures maybe, or grad some post cards. Last night we went to a fancy bar. The absolutely love us and treat us so well. We went with the spanish girls who work at the hostel. basically because we are white, we were given a lot of free drinks, and had VIP access. The VIP area was so nice. it was higher up in the bar, and overlooked the dance floor. lot of cool people everywhere. Still having a good time, and i will attempt to get a picture up soon.

Ok, so I arrived safely in lima. The cab ride from the airport was what i expected. I believe we ran 20 red lights, nearly got in 3 accidents (minor), and were speeding all over the place. but, it was a sweet ride along the cost like 20 feet from the pacific ocean. Our hostel is really nice, and the people here are really cool. the food so far as been good, and no problems yet with the bathroom. Today we explored barranca and mirafloures. these are neighbourhoods or lima that are high-end or rich. They both are up on the mountains over looking the pacific. it is absolutely beautiful, but strange things have happened along our walk. First, I saw a girl peeing on a tree out in the open. very weird. then we asked by bunch of people to buy drugs and come party with there girls. we choose not to do this, but the guy was very nice about it. the driving here is insane. constant use of the horn, and no respect on the road. if there is a gap, cars go for it. we saw a minor accident... bus hit SUV thing. Anyways, im having a blast. I bought sandals, which turned out to be a great purchase. they cost 10 soles, which really is like $4 canadian. awesome deal.... and I did without speaking any spanish..... something i have to work on. alright, thats all for today. when i figure how to do pics on this computer i will see what i can do. Were to eat at a pub, and come back for happy hour at the hostel. must the peeps here are british and very cool to talk to. bye for now

GIDDY UP ........ South America Bound Jan 10. We arrive in Lima, Peru at 1:00 am. I will post something when i find internet somewhere. Hopefully I can set something to make it easy for viewing pictures.