Guinea pigs, Condors, Pisco, Labor Strikes & Ken

After a nice refreshing time in the states, I thrusted myself back into the world. This time with my brother Ken.

Thanks to all who put me up and took care of me. I love you guys.

So here is the update so far. My last night in the states I spent quality time with some amigos. I barely made it to my 11 am flight due to my extreme hangover. Why do I always do that to myself right before I have to fly. The guy on the plane next to me couldn't look me in the eyes. Not only due to the smell of booze permeating through my pours, but the threat that I may projectile vomit on his recently purchased precious $10 airplane turkey wrap was real.

I couldn't eat anything till 10 pm that night in Miami. I am disgusting.

Got to Lima, Peru at 5 am where I met up with Ken who was waiting for me at a hotel. I caught 2 hrs of sleep before going back to the airport where we both flew to Arequipa to hang out and acclimate.

We stayed in the town center which had a really cool colonial vibe. We ate some guinea pig which is a specialty out here, which tastes like dark turkey meat, but you litterally have to gnaw on the thing like a guinea pig in order to get any of the meat off. We drank a bottle of Pisco, Peruvian booze, which tastes like ass, but once you get down to the last 1 tenth of the bottle you start to warm up to it. We saw a 500 yr old mummy found atop the nearby volcano, apparently the beatiful daughter of some weathy Incan family, which despite all the decay, was still kinda hot, and we explored the largest monastery we had both ever been to.

After feeling no ill affects of the altitude, we booked a trip to the nearby Colca Canyon, the second tallest canyon in the world. Woke up at 2:30 to catch the 3am bus, but waited and watched a drunk Peruvian guy stumble and swagger back and fourth in the same spot for a full hour before we were picked up. It is important to stay patient and not feel threatened by local drunks while traveling. You will inevitably have to deal with both.

Before diving 4000 ft into the canyon, we stopped along this ridge where we watched enormous condors fly in the crease of the canyon. We listened to Simon & Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa" while we absorbed our impressive and truly awesome surroundings. Forever the song will remind me of that experience. Really cool!

The hike itself was a 2 day trek into the canyon basin. 4000 ft up. 4000 ft down. As is the Inca tradition, we chewed coca leaves to help prevent altitude sickness and to give us energy. The leaves tasted like crap. Like a we just chewed on a bunch of cud. However mixed with hot water the tea is quite pleasant. We stayed the night down below and then hiked back up at 5 the next morning. My legs are still sore.

Next we went to Puno, a town on Lake Titicaca. The town is whatever, but we did go to the floating reed islands on the lake. Really unique. Apparently a local tribe escaped the neighboring warrior tribes and Spanish by building floating islands on the lake made out out reeds. They travel in Vikingesk boats and take shits in little ceramic pots that they laid out for us to see. Enjoy the photos of that :)

We were going to hang out for one more night in Puno before leaving for Cusco (the base of machu picchu) but there was a huge labor strike that is currently affecting the whole region. They put up road blocks on the roads and organized huge protests while the cops stood by with riot gear and tear gas, just waiting for the shit to go down. We literally got the last bus out of Puno before being trapped. Kinda sketchy, but it was fun being displaced by uncontrolled events and forced to the town of Juliaca, which all the guide books label as "the most dangerous city in Peru."

ken and i made it out alive and are relaxing in Cusco right now. Taking a ciesta. when we awake, we'll drink a bottle of Pisco and go out on the town. He has a couple more days here before returning to reality and then i am off on my own.

it feels good to be back on the road again. more to come. enjoy the pics.