I'M ALIVE!!!

I know there's something wrong with me, because when I thought of this thread title, I got the song of the same name stuck in my head from the classic horrible 80's Olivia Newton John movie Xanadu, lol.

With that out of the way, yes, I am still alive after hiking The Lares Trek! It was a blast, and pretty challenging for what is described as a "mediocre" challenge. I had some hardships along the way, like a snow blizzard that had me up to my ankles in snow for a couple hours on the second day. On the same day, we also had to cross a tree trunk log "bridge" due to the water in the river being too high to go over on rocks. A couple steps onto this wet tree trunk, I slipped and fell over sideways. Luckily I caught my legs around the tree trunk and was holding myself completely horizontal for about a minute until our tour guide Fredy got to me and pulled me up. It felt like a scene out of an action movie where someone is reaching over a cliff going "GRAB MY HAND!"

After two challenging days of hiking in the rain and snow, the last morning we woke up to the most beautiful sunny day:

The weather was so great that we ate breakfast outside:

Our cooks made us pancakes:
There's so much more to say, but I'm tired and feel like wrapping this up for the time being. If you're lucky, in the future you'll be able to read about more klutzy things I did after we finished the actual trek like falling into one of those street side sewer/waterways and trying to grab a bottle of water off of a shelf at a market only to have two full shelves of drinks collapse onto me. I was humiliated, but luckily the store owners thought it was hysterical.

3 more hours until we can actually check in here at the airport (I'm at a Starbucks in the Lima airport at the moment), and 7 more hours until our flight back to Miami. Then another 5 hour layover until my flight back home to Indy!

Until next time,

Ryan

Greetings from Cusco!

Once again, I can't seem to sleep (I've been up since about 3:30am), so I figure I'll give a little update. Yesterday morning, we met the 4 other people we were traveling from Lima to Cusco with. They all seemed very nice, and we got along great. This group of 4 included the only other 2 who traveling the Lares Trek with us rather than the official Inca Trail. They're a couple of girls from Scotland named Gillian and Marie, and seem like they'll be very fun to hike with.

When we arrived in Cusco, we got a small tour of the city, and were taken to a great restaurant where I tried alpaca (which was delicious). I'm having troubles uploading pictures at the moments, but a number of them are already on facebook, so check them out there!

At 4pm we met up with my buddy Adam that I went to Belize with back in 2008. He had just gotten back from the Inca Trail and said it's amazing.

On a sad note, my ipod seems on the verge of death. It was having troubles booting up, and I can hear the platters scratching. Pray for me that it last until I get back home!

I need to start getting ready for the day. This is the last time until Saturday I will have internet access, because everything goes into storage that I'm not taking on the hike. We head to the Sacred Valley/Ollantaytambo today, then start our hike Wednesday morning. I'll check back in, hopefully with tons of pictures when we get back from this amazing adventure on Saturday.

Until then,

Ryan

Been walking around Lima all day

When you've been awake for 24 hours, you're not really in the best state of mind to decide when to set your alarm for. We decided when we got to the hotel at about 5am today to set the alarm for 9am. I think I got around 2 hours of sleep as a result (our room is literally right outside the lobby, which didn't help due to the noise). Add that to 3 hours of sleep I got on the plane, and I guess it wasn't the WORST night sleep.

After lounging around for a bit and showering, Morgan and I set out to explore the city Miraflores. After exiting the hotel and walking up the street, one of the first things we see is a parade. Not speaking spanish, I had no idea what the parade was for. After actually looking at the parade for a bit, I figured it out, but I'll let the photos speak for themselves:


The entire thing was mesmerizing to say the least.

We hadn't eaten anything, and found a local supermarket, where Morgan introduced me to nutella, which we spread over freshly baked french bread, topped off with chocolate-filled croissants . We also learned the hard way how careful we need to be when buying bottled water. It is very important that the bottles say "sin gas." The ones we bought did not say this, and were actually seltzer water. Everything seems to be super-carbonated here, and my bottle fizzed over when opening it. Lesson learned :)

After this we walked around Miraflores for a good 5 hours, just exploring the main square (there was an art fair going on), and all the shops around the city. It was nice not having anything planned today, and fun just being able to walk around a new foreign city.

Around 3:30 we were hungry for a real meal, and found a small cafe where I had a cuban and a bottle of water (this time I was sure to get it sin gas!). After this we started heading back towards the hotel. We stopped at a supermarket around the corner because the hotel does not provide shampoo, so I bought a bottle. I also noticed the following sign while in the store:

Naturally the first thing I did when getting back to the hotel was pull up facebook and "like" the Vivanda supermarket :)

We had a meeting at 6pm with a representative from GAP, who filled us in on how the rest of the trip would be working. 8 people in our group are actually already in Cusco, and 8 people were supposed to be at this meeting. Only 4 of us showed up. Tomorrow our ride to the airport gets here at 7am for our flight to Cusco, so we need to make this an early night (which I doubt will be a problem for either of us).

It's around 8pm now, and we need to find some dinner. In particular, I'm looking for ceviche, which I've heard so many good things about. So, that's it for now everybody. Hope everyone is enjoying keeping up with us. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you think :)

Until next time,

Ryan

At our hotel in Lima!

I got 3 hours of sleep on the plane, but I'm running on fumes. Just a quick check in to let you know we're alive and safe. Goodnight/morning/whatever!

Until next time,

Ryan

Now boarding for Lima, Peru!

Boarding starts in about 10 minutes, so it's time for me to sign off and pack up for the plane. The next time I have internet access will likely be on the 30th, so I'll be checking in then, hopefully with pictures and stories :)

Until then,

Ryan

Miami's airport charges for wi-fi?!

So I've arrived in Miami early. So early in fact, that my connecting flight isn't even listed on the boards yet. Morgan and her mother won't be here to rescue me for a couple hours likely, so I have to occupy myself. I pop open my laptop and try connecting to the airport's wi-fi network, and they charge for it. WEAK SAUCE!!! There is an option that says "Connect free via one of our sponsors", but when you click on it, all it does is say "Coming Soon." SURE it is :( Since I'm going to be here for a while, I sucked it up and paid for the internet (if you couldn't tell by me posting on my blog, lol).

Other than the wi-fi internet rant, there's not much to report. Actually, I do have one good story. Apparently I was such an unimportant customer flying on AA to Miami that they never called my section number to board. All the important #1's were called to board. Then they continued and said the #2's could board. I was a #3, so I continued to wait patiently for my section to be called. Rather than calling my section, the lady at the gate got on the intercom and paged me personally, saying this was my final chance to board the plane (does that make me more important since I was called by name?). I had been sitting there the entire time, and would have gladly boarded earlier if they had given me permission. Oh well.

This post has been too negative. I'm leaving for an amazing vacation and am still very excited about it. I think I'll wrap this up and play on the internet for a bit (I paid for it, so I'd better use it as much as possible, hehe) until I hear from Morgan.

Until next time,

Ryan

Can't sleep (clown will eat me)

While I have no fear of clowns (the title of this post is from the classic Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word"), it is true that I can't sleep.



Today is finally the day I leave for Peru, and needless to say, I'm a bit anxious, and VERY excited! Unfortunately, that leads to me not being able to sleep, even though I could for another two hours easily (my ride to the airport is getting here at 10:50am).

Other than the netbook I'm typing this blog post on and my razor, I finished packing last night night. I was freaking out a bit with everything laying on my bed, and then it just kind of all fit into my bags without much trouble, which was a nice surprise.

Since I'm up so early, I think I'll go watch last night's episode of Eureka. The adventure is about to begin, but why not squeeze in one more nerdy pleasure before leaving? :)

I'm sure there will be more updates to come from the Indy and Miami airports today when I'm bored and have nothing to do :) Plus, there will be plenty of updates to come once we land in Peru!

Until then,

Ryan