¨i´m having the time of my life, cause i never felt this way before

We returned safely to Quillabamba from ONE BIG wiiild GOOSE CHASE. Marie´s parents have a neighbor in the coffee business that put us in contact with a coffee cooperative called CAPACY based out of Quillabamba, Peru.

We went pretty deep into the jungle with an engineer named Carlos who works with a cooperative of coffee farmers to improve their crops. All we knew was that we were going to visit coffee farms, possibly be in danger while visiting the natives, but that we were ´´going to come out with our lives.´´

Two nights with Carlos leading us on a crazy adventure was enough for us so we made our way back after we tried to complete a mission we were unsure of in the first place. We have so much to share so we decided to make a list entitled
´´You know you´re in the JUNGLE when...´´


YOU KNOW YOU´RE IN THE JUNGLE WHEN...

1. you have NO idea what your mission is...´´ ummm he said something about a coffee farm´´-hannah translating to marie
2. you´re 5´´7 and the biggest one on the bus
3. it takes about half an hour to find a cold beer
4. when you wake up you´re not sure if it´s sweat down there OR you peed your pants
5. you find out your guide is actually an agro-engineer and has NO experience WHAT SO EVER with the following:
-basic human interaction
-basic knowledge of transportation and hitchhiking skills
-learned english from kenny loggin´s ´´FOOTLOSE´´. also his answer to what´s your favortie song...
6. cuys y pollo (guinea pigs and chicken) live in and around the kitchen
7. the only running water is a waterfall
8. the main course of every meal is Yuca
9. man´s best friend is his Machete
10. there´s a baby sleeping between the onions and the sacks of rice in the back of the pick-up truck
11. the driver, of the ride you just hitched, stops to shower
12. you need a notarized document from the man with the typwriter to present to the natives, along with gifts of bread, mangos and candy, so they won´t kill you when you enter their territory
13. to enter the natives territory you have to zipline in a basket across the river
14. spanish is a second language for most people
15. the senora at the farm you´re staying at has to fight off a giant porcupine in the middle of the night...there were spikes and blood everywhere
16. the ´´highway´´ everyone kept referring to was actually just a one lane muddy road
17. the only sign you see on the road is ´´PELIGRO´´ (DANGER)
18. Papayas are bigger than you´re head


19. you fiddle the entire day away in search of aguas calientes
20. you´re the only senorita in the back of the pick-up truck, with standing room only, surrounded by the butts of construction workers and farmers
21. when you tell people you´re going into the jungle for a week they look at you like you must be a crazy-psycho-moran with a funny face that says ´´why would you wanna do that?´´
22. when you ask ´´¿tienes uno bano?´´ and the reply is ´´¿solo para orinar?´´
23. when the bano at the restaurant is a drain behind a tarp and to get to it you have to step over a grill full of cuy
24. you wake up to the engineer saying something about ´´yell my name if you hear a car coming...´´
25. the engineer says something about ´´Wait at this contruction site for 15 minutes. I´m going to go bathe myself in the river.´´
26. your taxi driver takes a pit stop to pray...get out your candle stix!
27. the only other person in a 6 hour radius with a full set of teeth is the gringa sitting next to you
28. the people ´´in town´´ tell you there´s no post office
29. your house is built out of wooden planks, tarp and corrogated steel, but you still have a satelite dish
30. chickens and ducks are pecking at your feet while you´re eating a meal
31. the engineer keeps asking you if you ´´have your plastics?´´ (he´s referring to your rain gear and yes carlos, we ALWAYS have it.)
32. you don´t even need to think about wearing a watch...the rooster will wake you up, your stomach will tell you when to eat and you should know where you´re sleeping before the sunsets
33. the engineer tells you the scientific names of cucumbers, tomatos and potatos to impress you
34. when you keep asking yourself ´´¿donde esta ERNESTO?´´
35. you witness a hog vs. dog fight while you´re waiting to hitchhike on the next passing pick-up truck
36.you can see where your morning cup of cofee was grown

all in all it was a crazy adventure that we´ll never forget. it ended with going out last night with carlos, another engineer, secretary and el presidente to celebrate marie´s birthday. we ate chicken, ordered by the body part, and then headed to a karaoke bar where we chose songs from a shotty song list ´´rock en ingles´´. everybody got RICK rolled! "NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP NEVER GONNA LET YOU YOU DOWN, NEVER GONNA TURN AROUND AND DESERT YOU..."

AGROMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

¿¡¿¡¿¡¿¡why arent we llamas and why dont we live in machu picchu?!?!?!?!

Entonces...we are recovering in Ollantaytambo from all the hiking we´ve done in the past week. More so our hiking at MACHU flippin´PICCHU yesterday!!! WOW we are still in shock, seriously how did they build that city in the cloud forest on the side of a mountain?

Before we went to Machu Picchu, we went to the ruins in Moray, Salinas y Ollantaytambo. You should really just google all these places because they are very interesting, espically Moray which is an ancient incan agriculutrual experimentation center.

It looks like a crazy alien crop circle. Salineras was nearby and was also mind blowing. It consists of pools of evaporated salt terraces fed by a salt-rich hot thermal spring. It´s insane, just google it. The next day we beeboped around Ollantaytambo and checked out the ruins here. The town is built around the ruins, cobble-stone and very narrow cute alleyways. The ruin was the location of a crazy battle between the incas and the conquistadors. Basically, a watchtower and military base and one of the best preserved example of amazing incan urban planning.

Entonces...we took a train to Aguas Calientes that night. Total money suckage to get there and to experience Machu Picchu, but worth it. We woke up at 4 am and waited in line for the bus to come at 5.30 AM. It was insanely mind blowing to get off the bus and wander in to see the epic postcard shot of the ruins. Machu Picchu is one of the craziest, most surreal, beautiful, natural, intelligent, view we´ve ever seen. It´s so spread out on the side of the mountain, we never felt encroached upon by the invaders a.k.a tours of old people and other tourists. Pictures don´t do this wonder of the world justice, yet we took plenty and check ém out.
Wuanupicchu was the most insane hike of our young lives...totally worth it. BOOM!

Tomorrow we embark on a journey to Quillabamba to meet ERNESTO and go to the coffee farm. a.k.a welcome to the jungle!!! Hannah busted out her spanish to make the phonecall to Ernesto to find out details about the farm. Que RICO

we´ll be without internetz for about a week. we´re excited about another adventure don´t worry, we´ll be keepin´ it rural...

OPERATION PANFLUTE

Hey Amigos, just a quick update today because we need to catch a colectivo bound for the ruins in Moray.

Yesterday was our favorite travelling day! we did so much DIY exploring and touring. We visited the ruins around Cuzco: Saqsayhuaman, Q'enqo, Puka Pukara, and Tambomachay. We had cheese sandwiches in the ruins and also met a gypsy shaman man who insisted that we meditate with him in a Sacred Incan Tunnel. It was pretty bizarre and involved a lot of heavy breathing and he sang some sweet songs about Pachamama and wished us good energy. The whole experience was topped off when he copped a feel on Marie while saying goodbye. Hahaha, a little sexual assault from a shaman never hurt anyone, right??!?!?!


After the ruins we had some Falafel Sandwiches and then headed to a Hookah Bar. There was a band playing and the Guitarist and the Drummer chatted with us for a while and invited us to their show at another bar that night. We went with them. The guitarist escorted us there and bought us some chocolate bars. He also had the sweeeeetest gypsy/homemade fannypack ever. It was a fanny belt with 2 pouches that rested on the hips. It was leather and all be-jewelled.

At the second club we visited we decided to try some Mojitos and just when we LEAST expected it our old friend Antonio walks in the club. Now -- Antonio wanted to take us to Machu Picchu (but hes totally creepy and really hard to understand, but nice enough, i guess so we gave him our number in Huacachina just to be friendly). Since we arrived back in Lima from Nazca he's been calling us pretty frequently, but we've ignored. Then, when the day came that we told him we'd be in Cuzco he started calling us like 7 times a day. He's totally gold digging though -- he just wants to escort us and then ask for a bunch of money. Anyways, Marie and I decided to be on the lookout for him in Cuzco -- when we saw him it was "Operation Panflute" and we needed to BAIL! But, yeah -- he walks into this bar as we are waiting for our mojitos so we had to talk to him. It was pretty okay -- we just told him our phone was stolen in Lima and we had already been to Machu Picchu. Seriously -- he was a bit of a leech. But all in all, it went rather well.


Okay, we need to get on the road now. We're heading to some more ruins in Moray. We have the next few days planned out and we're getting more concrete plans made with the Coffee Farm.

Ciao Amigos. Hasta Luego.

South America -- Land of Delays and Cancellations

SOooOOooOO! We had some trouble leaving Lima. In a nutshell, there were "problems with the road" and our previously booked bus tickets (non-refundable) were only good to take us on a detour to Arequipa and then book ANOTHER ticket from Arequipa to Cuzco. That's what we did. We had a day to explore Arequipa and get a taste for what is there for when we return to do hiking and camping with Megan. We went to a museum to see "Juanita" the Ice Mummy. Whoa -- a 14 year old Inca girl sacrificed at the top of Mount Ampato. Because of the icy climate she was mummified and later exposed because of a volcantic erruption. She's crazily well preserved. You should definitely google it and check out some facts. They had her on display in a glass freezer. WHoa. BLEW. MY. MIND.

We also had coffee on a balcony over looking the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa, played waaay too many rounds of HangMan, but had fun, all in all. Actually, we went to this park that has an aerial view of the city and a view of Mount Misti and at the park they had singing rocks playing wackadoodle versions of Cat Stevens tunes.

BUT, after one night sleeping on Megans floor (muchas gracias megan), and 2 nights sleeping in busses, we're pretty beat. We arrived in Cusco between 5 and 6am and once we got done with the taxi and hostel haggling, we were ready for a sleep in a bed. Now, we're just taking it easy today. Planning our next move in Cuzco. Machu Picchu is soooo close!

IN OTHER NEWS: We have some fanny updates. So far we've seen a fanny with a mesh pouch, a camoflouge fanny, grade schoolers with fannies, and Marie even had a DREAM about fannies.

Also, we've seen some pretty killer Starter jackets about town. Father/Son duo actually, with Bulls and Miami Dolphin jackets. Also, Manuel from Huacachina had a starter jacket -- if i didn´t already mention that.

SIDE NOTE -- We have given REFRESCO many chances, but seriously -- we're just not into it. Its like this Kool-Aide drink that comes with your Menu meal. Sometimes its orange, yellow, brownish (which was by far the worst, it tasted like SHOE POLISH or cleaning solution), or sometimes its purple. Actually, in Arequipa at lunch yesterday we saw the TRASH CAN full of Refresco that they were serving everyone out of, YEs: trash barrel. Then, on our way out of town in our Taxi I spotted people selling refresco on the street out of buckets. Whats the deal with that?? I can´t really describe the drink more than its like really sweet like bubblegum, slippery texture, and freaking everywhere.

El Enano y Michael Jackson y something about Charlies Angels....

ENTONCES....we have been enjoying our stay in Lima todovia. We finally went outside our upperclass Miraflores neighborhood for some more adventures. We went to Mercado de Inca. It was our first solo mission without Megan. We ended up taking the bus too far, but we only had to backtrack like 8 blocks. The shops were neat -- pretty standard bazaar stuff: Peru earflap hats, Alpaca sweaters, Llama sweaters, bags, earrings, touristy t-shirts, rugs, coasters...basically lots of souvenier type stuff. We were on a mission to find Megan a Fanny because shes come to realize from our example how awesome and useful fannies are. Infact, the fanny is pretty popular here. There's the business fanny, party fanny, gay fanny, designer fanny, casual fanny, nu skool fanny, taz fanny, and the list goes on.... so yeah, fanny in castellano is Kanguru. Go figure. Megan actually found 2 awesome fannies. Marie got cutie earrings and Hannah bought a pouch decorated with farm scenes.

After the market, we couldn´t help ourselves -- we got dinner at El Enano again! Its so good. We wanted to introduce Megan too because they make delicious vegetarian food. That night we went out with Paul and his friend Raffo (ps, this dude had super slicked back hair. think phantom of the opera) to Baranco. A club called El Sargento Pimiento. They were playing a wide variety of music: Garage, Green Day, the Strokes, Blind Melon, Elvis Presley, Bowie, Stones, and a lot of Depeche. you get the idea.

The next day, Friday, we slept in and ate El Enano AGAIN. The juice is just so good, you guys. I cant explain it. Smoothie heaven. Then we went to Lima Centro to check out some sights. We got a sweet s/.5 (thats 5 nuevo soles, or like $2.30) tour around Lima Antiguo and up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal where there is this huge cross and you get a view of all of Lima. The sun was setting so that was cool, but it was kinda hard to see the total city because of all the smog.


But, the BEST part was when we got dropped off at this feria-fiesta in Lima Centro and this guy was doing a Michael Jackson impersonation performance. He was lip syncing really poorly, but he had MOOOOVES. And he kept trying to pump up the crowd saying "i love you" and he kept saying "security" for some reason.

For dinner we grabbed hot dog covered in waffle on a stick in Barrio Chino. Then, we came back to the hostel, caught some music videos on the tube including Dancing in the Streets (how prefect! i bet the peruanos would have recognized us) then went back to the Mercado neighborhood for one of Megan's friends b-day party. It was pretty chill, there was one really really really creepy guy there...but also some sweet dogs.

i love you so much aka i cant understand you because you have no teeth

Hey Amigos. So we´ve been staying at this Hostel since Sunday night. We got a sweet matrimonial suite with private bathroom and shower. And a TV. also, the hostel has free internet, breadfast included, and an awesome patio with a pool table.

ALSO, the guy who works at the desk is this short tiny little man who has no front teeth and who´s age we can´t even begin to estimate. His face is un poco froggish and he wears this shirt that says "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH". but like.....i can't understand a single word this guys says because....he has no teeth. I think even if I did speak a ton of spanish, i would still have problemas. so, why this cutie family that owns this place hired him as the customer relations man, i will never know.

Yesterday we had our breadfast and then walked to the coast and down the crazy hill (probably should have stayed on the path because we ended up in RAT HAVEN, it was gross. Luckily, we could just HEAR them and not SEE them). But the coast was awesome. We touched the Pacifico and collected some rocks. There were some surfer dudes that we watched for a while. The water seems a little cold for me.

Last night we played Doubles in Pool last night with Megan and Paul vs. Hannah and Marie. Frog man watched and tried to help us line up shots -- but it was kinda weird. THen it appeared that the washingmachine exploded and so he had to sweep up a bunch of water. Marie and Hannah totally won -- thanks to Marie's awesome shot at the 8 ball. Apparently Peruanos don´t play stripes and solids but something else having to do with ZONAS?? I duno.

Today, despues de desayuno -- we went to Huaca Pucllana -- these Lima culture ruins right in the middle of Miraflores. They uncovered lots of sacrificed womans...the tour guide said "the womans were fed die alcohol or halluciones and danced and were maybe buried alive in a circle." so yeah.

Then we had the BEST lunch we've had so far on the trip. Tacos with chicken and chorizo with a little salad on the side with a bunch of fresh avocado, pickled cabbage, and black beans. AAAND this place specialized in fresh smoothies. We shared one with peaches, strawberries, papaya and orange. QUE RICO!!!

fanny-to-fanny

We have returned to Lima after a CRAZY, EPIC, 4 day weekend adventure with Megan. The itinerary was: Lima to Ica. Ica to Huacachina (2 nights). Huacachina to Nazca (one night). Nazca to Lima. The HIGHLIGHTS were the dune buggies in the Cerito in Huacachina. Imagine being on a crazy rollercoaster, except there is no SET path and you have a LOCO car driver choosing what hills you go down. It was pretty awesome. We actually got one FREE ride in a dune buggy because these guys were going on a rescue mission to TOW another buggy, but they took us on a free ride out there, so we got a taste of what was to come on our real buggy tour. We had 2 argentinians and a peruano on our buggy. Everybody was screaming the whole time. We also did SANDBOARDING. which is kinda like snowboarding or sledding -- depending on how you use the board. We all did the lay on the stomach method. But whoa -- we went down GIGANTIC hills. They were like 4-5 stories high -- no joke. It was super scary, but once you got to the bottom it was all adrenaline and fun. A couple of the girls got bad sandburn, but mostly we just had sand EVERYWHERE. And we still do...

The first night in Huacachina we stayed at a hostel with a pool and a crazy cavern looking bar. We decided to stay up and drink our wine and mingle with other travelers and locals in the bar. When we got inside the bar was playing weirdo regaetone and soon we made some friends...they were really just a group of peruvian lawyers who kept bringing us more cervesa. One of the lawyers told us we can call him PEPE and he was 32, but honestly he looked 40. PEPE is now a codeword for us for an old creeper with glasses.

The next morning we woke up, went swimming in the pool and then ate some bread and had coffee. Later, we found out how many scoops (of coffee) it takes to poop. 1-2 scoops really...We wandered around Huacachina which was really beautiful since it´s an Oasis--lagoon surrounded by giant sandunes, palm trees, etc. We met some open-hearted travelers who were peruvian artisans named FERNANDO y MANUEL. Oh and ANTONIO, but he had a crazy look in his eyes...Immediately FERNANDO y MANUEL started asking us the basics about where we were from and where we were going. Then FERNANDO made us some metal-wire rings for the three of us. Now we are the TRES AMIGAS!

WE eneded up staying another night in Huacachina because there was no bus going to Nazca that late at night. SOOOOOO we stayed and partied with FERNANDO y MANUEL y ANTONIO...ALL NIGHT. We treked up this sand dune and MANEUL played guitar and ANTONIO busted out his panflute and jammed to traditional andean o peruano musica como EL CONDOR PASA. Then MANUEL eased into some bob marley and the following: knock knock knockin´ on heaven´s door, living on the edge, 4 non blondes, crazy by aerosmith, and many other great 80s ballads. It was awesome!!!!!


After staying up til sunrise, we got some sleep and then woke up, ate a delicious egg sandwich and bought a ticket to Nazca. In Nazca we found a hostel and Megan did an amazing job of haggling to get the right price for a tour of the mummies, flying over the nazca lines and freeeeee drinks all night with Luis y Eduardo, who worked at the hostel. We learned that you SHOULD NOT consume Pisco the night before you have to wake up to someone banging on the door at 10 a.m. and then hop in an airplane to fly. Seriously though, the lines were amazing. Harder to see than you think, but totally worth it...even though Megan puked! AHHH! Hannah rode co-pilot and Megan and Marie rode together in a different plane. The Nazca people were one of the most religous y suspersticious cultures in Peru. Everyone was mummified and the average length of hair was two meters (you could see the dreads on the mummies) and the average lifespan was 35 years. The desert doesn´t offer much vegetation for humans to live off of. Researchers believe that the Nazca people made the lines because they lived there and similar images were used in their pottery, etc. Pretty crazy stuff.

Things we learned on this adventure: they check you bus ticket like about 20 times per hour the bus until you get off. Lots of people use FANNIES, for example when paying for your bus ticket or your hostel, you know it will be a "fanny-to-fanny" transaction. Haggling is key. Also -- knowing Spanish is KEY. So WE are re-learning everything and really need to step it up for when we go off without Megan to Cuzco.

We´re planning on staying the week and weekend in Lima to see everything and then perhaps Sunday or Monday taking a bus to Cuzco.

Besos.

Day 2

So, we just woke up this morning to enjoy the breakfast at the hostel. Mmmmmmmm BREAD! Oh and tea tambien. Last night was very lovely. After meeting up with Megan we went to this middle eastern place and ate some really great humnmus and falafal sandwiches. Then, we went to this amazing water fountain park.

The fountains were in all shapes and sizes and of course there was a lazer fountain show complete with music. MAGNIFICO! Later, we met up with Megan´s friend Paul. We walked around for a while, chilled at a park and tried to brush up on our spanish muy rapido. We drank and talked for a while and then took a taxi to miraflores, where our hostel is.

So today at 2 o´clock we will meet megan and go a weekend trip to Ica y Nazca y Paracas.

"i think this room will be amazing for you"

HOLA! Marie and Hannah made the journey via aire to Lima. Megan and her friend Paul picked us up at the airport. We made a "friend" at the airport - this scrubby hippy dude who asked us "do you know where to GO here?". So he shared our taxi and walked around with us the first night. His name was Matteo, from Canada. I guess he has tons of money because he said hes just travelling all over the place, looking for "open hearted travellers". He was very strange - either way he said he needed to FLEE Lima and head for the mountains. He was gone by morning, left us a "Bon Voyage" note. So, today we woke up very late -- like 2:30pm. Marie is feeling 85% better. Just getting those "buckets of yuck" outta her lungs. We had coffee and now we´re waiting to meet up with Megan to do some evening time exploring. Spanish is coming back to Hannah quickly - thank goodness. We're thinking this weekend we'll be going on a trip to Ica and Nazca to see the Nazca lines. Having fun. It´s very clean here and there are a bunch of Indian men staying at our hostel that are very nice.

Good Day.