Busing to Cusco = FAIL

Dear Mom and Dad,

If you look at the time of this post, you will notice we did not make our bus to Cusco. It's time to update my Bus Station Survival Guide. If you haven't read the previous post from earlier today, please read that one first titled "Bus Station Survival Guide" and then this one.

More Tips:

1. Always ask if there is more then one private terminal stations. For example, we used "Flores" to go from Chimbote to Lima to Cusco. The average American would assume the terminal you are dropped off at would be the terminal you depart from if there is not terminal numbers at the terminal, on the tickets, no indication from signs, ticket tellers, or other bus workers to think otherwise. In reality, there could be four different terminals in a six block radius causing you to miss your departure. When this occurs, quickly procede to next series of tips.

2. Keep your cool even though you have non-refundable or exchangeable tickets, and they cost $40 apiece.

3. Talk to the security guards who helped you previously during the day with the bag-stealing incident. He will have compassion for you. It's been a long and stressful day. At this point he can sympathize with you. Tears help. These officers are actually there to help the "second class citizens" aka the Americans. They will direct you and explain your troubles to an employee who will accomodate you.

4. Be flexible. No more available trips/seats to Cusco because they have all been booked? No problem. Change your destination. We are now going to Arequipa at 8:00pm tonight. No purchase of another ticket necessary. Yes, they will make exceptions, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Keep talking to different people until someone will help aka the security guards.

5. Find the nearest place that serves beer. It's been a stressful day so far. A beer is well deserved.

6. Locate another Internet cafe. A five hour layover leaves ample amount of time to email family and friends.

Cusco will have to wait until we return from Bolivia. Pictures are scarce until we purchase a new camera. My screen is now broken and the flash doesn't work. Charlie's camera turns on and then off within 15 seconds of first hitting the power button. We will get this little kink worked out as well. Nothing can stop this pair. We are still wearing smiles on our faces.

Say a prayer for us. It's been a long day.

Love and miss you,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

Bus Station Survival Guide

Dear Mom and Dad,

We have safely arrived to Lima. Within 10 minutes of us being here, my entire bag was ALMOST stollen. I mean the bag with my passport, credit cards, debit card, clothes, etc. I can't tell you how lucky I am to have caught the jerk. We usually always use the large locks to lock our bags to our chairs even when we are sitting next to them because things get taken within a blink of an eye. I had just sat down and put my bag next to me. Charlie grabbed my attention to look at the map to get a sense of where we were located. All of a sudden I felt my foot jerk (I had my foot on top of my bag), which I thought was my bag falling off of the chair. I look up and see my blue sleeping bag walking away from me. Then I realized, THAT was MY bag. I started screaming and ran up to the guy. He was plus size in his mid-forties, so walking briskly but not running at a fast pace. I made such a commotion that he dropped my bag within 10 to 15 feet of where I was originally seated. He had a car and driver waiting outside the bus terminal and quickly made his escape before the police could get to him. Luckly my phone was stollen previously, so I have been extra cautious, but all it takes is half a second on have your attention diverted, and BAM things go missing. I think he must have spotted us from the moment we got off the bus and waited to make his move. Charlie stayed seated with his bag because for all we knew someone else would have grabbed his bag in the commotion of my bag getting stollen. This guy definitely was not working alone. Another lesson learned. Ball and chain your things to your leg, arm, waist, and any other place possible.

More survival tips for Bus Stations:

1. Clearly watch, lock, and super glue your things together.

2. Always have a deck of cards. Charlie and I love playing card games with each other. Unless he beats me really bad in Gin. Then my competative nature comes out, and I accuse him of cheating by shuffling the deck in his favor or something along those lines. I can't stand to lose even in a stupid card game.

3. Snacks. Let's face it, boredom leads to snacking. The solution is to bring your own snacks bought from a grocery store. They are cheaper in cost, and tend to be healthier then the wide chip selection the bus stations offers. My favorite so far are the Peruvian version of fruit loops. At least it's cereal?

4. Headbands. I'm currently sporting my hawkeye headband that Marilyn (MZ as I like to call her) made. She made it for a teppanyaki tailgate in Iowa City two or three years ago. Covers up the unwashed greasy hair perfectly with an added plus of looking extra fly in black and gold.

5. Hygiene products. Keep them packed near the top of your bag. Even if you won't be showering for a day or two, it's a necessity to brush my teeth and wash my face everyday. A little deoderant sure goes a long ways.

We will be boarding our bus at 2:30pm to Cusco today. We payed extra money for the "lazyboy" chairs that are supposed to recline back for comfort. Let's hope so. I could be getting cranky if things continue along this path. Sleep is a necessity, showering is not.

Love always,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

Passing the time

Dear Mom and Dad,

Three upsetting facts:

1. Just finding out Coker will NOT be playing in the bowl.

2. Still missing our whistle/compass/mirror that was stollen with our food bag. That one little device was used daily.

3. Fights will break out in line at McDonalds even in Peru. (This is not a joke. Some lady budged 15 people, shoved us aside while we were ordering, to order two cheeseburgers. To top it all off, she was actually served first. Treatment like second class citizens is apart of our daily life. What's it take to get an oreo mcflurry without hassle?)

New Fact:

1. Machu Picchu is booked for January 15th. 4 days and 4 nights with train tickets back all for $585. I think it includes food too? WHOOP WHOOP! I'm a little nervous that we did not hire a porter to carry our things. This could be problamatic. Also, it does not include sleeping bags, so once again dad, the bag purchase will save us money because we won't need to rent them. :)

So true....

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money”. – Unknown

 Love always,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

Another bus terminal stay

Dear Mom and Dad,

I hope the holidays treated you well! Charlie and I had a fabulous time in Chimbote, Peru. We bused here shortly after our stay in Trujillo. A few museum pictures to wrap up Trujilllo. These ones are taken from the Moche Museum. The first picture almost got us kicked out of the museum. There were no pictures allowed, but of course once we had a moment without the guides staring at us, Charlie snapped a quick photo. Little did we know, there were cameras (eyes in the sky) staring at us the entire time. Charlie played dumb like he didn't know how to speak Spanish (probably wasn't an act) and I explained that we were going to take a photo, but the lighting was too dim. I don't know if they believed us, or could even understand me, but they let us keep the camera and we could finish our tour. The photo is of what a typical dress piece that the emperor would wear to a special ceremony. I don't get what's the big deal because it was a replica anyways, but they probably don't want photos of their museum, so people actually have to pay to view the exhibits. Pictures were allowed to be taken in the temple.

The picture above is of the temple called "The Sun." It was used for government events. This temple is under construction and is not open to the public. The temple we visted is called "The Moon," which was used for religous events. All the works you will see are from the original temples and have not been restored but merely uncovered. I couldn't believe how bright the paint was after all of these years.

 

 The above picture is of the ancient town. We are standing on top of "La Luna" looking out. It used to be green in vegetation with hundreds of people filling the area. The photo below is where the emperor used to sit during religious ceremonies. When bad weather came, the people would give a human sacrifice to restore order. Two of the best warriors were choosen to fight each other. The winner had to knock off the other person's helmet and grab their hair. Once deemed the loser, the warrior was stripped of their clothes and beaten to death. The emperor would then drink the blood of the loser in front of the town on this pedistal and a festival was short to follow.

The last series of photos are of the outside wall of the temple. It tells the story of the sacred religious ritural. Each layer is an important aspect to the human sacrifices starting from the bottom working upwards.

Enough with the blood, here is our first scenic view from the room of our hostel. BEAUTIFUL! It was our Christmas present to ourselves, a hostel with a view, toliet seat, and hott running water. Pretty fancy.

The last two pictures are of us out celebrating Christmas. We are at a local bar with live music. It was really fun to listen to a live band, but the awkward stares were a little uncomfortable. I guess we stick out where ever we go, even a dim lit bar. Our waiter was kind enough to take a photo for us. It was probably because we were the only ones tipping. It pays to give good service. :)

Chimbote was a pleasent experience. It started off with me direly needing to use the restroom from our bus ride. I stupidly drank too much water and fresh squeezed orange juice right before boarding the bus. Those three hours seemed like a life time! I won't be making that mistake again. We quickly found a nice cheap hostal and began our "vacation," which included watching TV and drinking wine. 

One day, we decided to watch a group of locals play soccer in the streets. Before we knew it, there were 15 to 20 kids all around us sitting down and listening to us talk. I started conversing with them in Spanish and they were fascinated by us. They wanted to know everything about our lives in the United States. This was their first time talking to English speakers, and they have not met anyone with blonde hair that could speak Spanish. "What's it like? What foods are there? Do you have a car? Do you have a bike? Do you have your own room? What's your favorite color? How old are you? Do you have a mom? dad? sister? brother? pets? Are there flowers there?" Anything and everything you could think of, they asked. They touched our hair and were fascinated by Charlie's curls, light eyes, and fair skin. Charlie gave them two american dollars to share, and it was the best thing ever for them. They couldn't believe what our money looked like or that there was green grass in our yards. We told them about water skiing, and they replied they once saw a video of people doing that in school. Laptops were the coolest thing for them to talk about, and they have never used them before. Everyday they rode their bikes around our hostel just to smile and say "hi" to us. Eventually the adults in the community started saying greeting us with the phrase "Hello Barbie and Ken." I guess "Charlie and Matti" are too hard to remember? The kids were so excited about Christmas and even more excited that we celebrate Christmas the same day as they do. By far, the BEST part of my trip!

Our Christmas was very nontradicional but equally as fun. In South America towns practically shut down on Sundays, and since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we didn't think we were even going to get to eat. Finally we found a local restaurant and ate fish sticks, fries, and noodles for lunch. For dinner, the town had more options. We ate at the only restaurant that served wine, Chifa, a chinese place. Drank wine, ate wontons, and more noodles and rice followed. After dinner, we went to the cartoon movie "Puss and Boots." It was in Spanish, but very easy to follow along because it is a kids movie afterall. Facial expressions can explain all you need to know. The theater housed about 30 people, and it was cramped! A medium popcorn cost less then $2.00.  Finding seats was difficult at first because there were no lights, but a young couple held a cellphone light to direct us to the only two seats left. Thankfully they we located by each other. Unfortunately Charlie was seated next to a fatty and with no arm rests to divide seats, we got to share mine. :) 

More bus terminal stays are ahead of us. Tonight we are leaving at 11:45pm to Lima. We should arrive there around 6:30am and then take off to Cusco at 2:30pm. Our goal is to get to La Paz, Bolivia for New Years. Thanksgiving in Ecuador, Christmas in Peru, and New Years in Bolivia. Who said life after graduation isn't as fun as college? I beg to differ.

Love always,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

More Pictures...

Dear Mom and Dad,

I have more pictures! :) After we left Chan Chan we spent the rest of the day in Huachaco. It's a cute little beach town somewhat like Mancora. This first picture is of a sculpture of the fishing boats used by the Indians (still used today.) You can see on the back the fresh catch of the day...

After a long day of sightseeing..we relaxed with some appetizers and wine before heading back to Trujillo...I loved how big these wine glasses were. I am utilizing my underarmor at the beach town...it's getting colder here. I hope our next stop is much warmer.

I love the next photo with the ocean in the background.

For appetizers we had cheese rolls with guacamole, which was absolutely phenominal, and these...they were recommended to us by the waiter..

Charlie LOVED them. They were made with parmesian cheese, garlic, and oil. I tried one, not my favorite, but not terrible.

Yesterday, we visited downtown Trujillo. The Plaza De Armas is like their town square with christmas trees everywhere. Charlie and I each picked our favorite.

 Is that an angel? Oh, just a good Catholic excited for Christmas!

 Finally we grabbed a bite to eat at a "Chinese" restaurant. The soy sauce was a farce and tasted like crap. Oh and we had to open our own bottle of wine. This would NOT be acceptable at Yesterdays. Thankfully Charlie was carrying his handy pocket knife to cut  wrapper off. That knife comes in handy almost daily! Remind you of anyone mom?

It's off to "La Luna" for some more temple sight seeing...

Love and miss you,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

Picture update

Dear Mom and Dad,

Here are some pictures of our most recent activities....

The first two pictures are of Charlie and I wasting time in Mancora by drinking some white wine waiting for our bus that didn't depart until night time. It was the first time I've had white COLD wine since we left the states, and we even drank it out of real wine glasses. So much better then the plastic ones we have been using. Charlie got really artistic with the second picture...notice how it's taken from inbetween the two wine glasses...

The next two are of us waiting outside the bus stop. Trying to kill 10 hours can be tough with limited resources. I promise we really aren't that vain.

The next series of photos are of our new hostel..The first one is of Charlie relaxing in the bed with a swan made from towels provided for us. So classy. The next picture is of our beautiful view, and the last photo is of our bathroom. The bathroom is MY FAVORITE part. Look how clean and spacious it is..it's the small things in life..

This next picture is a typical meal that Charlie enjoys. How do you eat anything with an eyeball sticking out THAT far?

The next series of photos are of our Chan Chan experience. It was a cool museum with ancient ruins that covered a lot of distance. It took what seemed to be a lot of walking to view everything, but the feeling was probably due to my lack of exercise on the beach. The first photo is of us on the public bus trying to get to Chan Chan. We had no idea when or where to get off and since there are no bus stops, we needed to figure it on our own. We did. :)

The next picture is of an exhibit of the early Indian gatherers ....

We almost got caught from the security guard after that photo...I doubt hopping the security fences are acceptable...The next picture is of boats they made and currently still use today to fish. The gap in the boat is where the fishermen set their catch and they sit in the middle just before the hole. It was crazy to see the life size boats on shore and being used...

Here is a picture of both of us in one of the old Indian compunds...it was the world's largest mud compounds..(click the picture to make it bigger)

Here I am in front of several "rooms" used by the Indians. The pattern on the walls are supposed to signifiy fishing nets since that is a big part of their culture...

Here we have an archaeologist hard at work....

  These next two photos are of the fertile grass that still exists today. It's crazy because everything around is desert, but this underwater grassland still flourishes. It's located in the center of the mud compound. Ducks and other small wildlife live here.

The last Chan Chan photo is of the emperor. You were supposed to pay to take pictures of him, so what do we do? Sneak one of course...

After Chan Chan we bused to a small beach town named "Huanchaco," and spent the rest of the day enjoying the ocean breeze and sipping on wine and eating local favorites. I'll update those photos later tonight or tomorrow morning. We have already spent an hour and a half at the internet cafe uploading these photos. Time for a daquiri break. :)

Love and miss you,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

Beach vacation....over

Dear Mom and Dad,

It was time for us to make our move South. My two week beach vacation is more or less over. :( Charlie says we can visit beach towns along the way if I start to miss the sun too much. I know he's ready for some hiking. We left Mancora at 10:00pm and arrived at Trujillo around 8:00am. This was one of our better bus rides because we slept all the way through and saved money on a hostel since we rode at night. AND nothing was stollen from us. We are getting smarter in locking everything together and too us. The bathroom was gross and kind of scary, but it was sufficient.

Our hostel here is WONDERFUL! It is twice as much as our's in Mancora, but the amenities are totally worth it. We finally can take a HOT shower. I haven't had a hot shower since our last night in Montañita over a week ago. There is actually a toliet with a toliet seat, and we can walk around our room and bathroom without wearing our flip flops. Did I mention we have HBO in English? There is also an oldschool Mac computer free for the guests. (I can't upload any photos at this time because the computer is soooo old, but they will come later tonight.) The cost is about $20 a night, so don't feel too bad for Charlie having to pay twice as much. It was much needed. We also have a great view over looking a red brick building next to us. Well, I guess you can't have everything.

The town itself is actually cheaper here, so it will probably average to be about the same. All of our meals are about a dollar to two dollars cheaper. For example, yesterday for lunch I ate a lunch special that consisted of soup, white rice, fries, chicken, broccoli and other veggie stir-fry for about $2. For dinner, we each had burgers and fries for less then $2 apiece. Yes if you are wondering, the ice cream is cheaper as well. Half as expensive. Does that mean I can eat twice as much?

A few things to wrap up Mancora:
We stayed an extra night there, not that I minded, because the power was out for over twelve hours, and the town practically shut down. Maybe two stores, the bank and grocery store, had generaters, so it was impossible to buy bus tickets. Like I said, I didn't mind because you can't power off the beach! My biggest concern was whethere all the ice cream was going to melt. Don't fret yourself, it stayed in tact with some carefully placed cardboard boxes in the cooler. (I sampled an ice cream sandwich that night.)

Our ride to Mancora from Tumbes is worth mentioning. We were in a normal size seven passenger van. Our van consisted of the driver, three people sitting in the front, four people sitting in the middle section (I sat on Charlie's lap) five people sitting in the very back, and two chickens. Now that's how you make some money my utilizing a limited amount of space. I couldn't figure out of the chickens had to pay for a fare or not. The squaking was obnoxious, but we couldn't help but laugh the entire time. It was so normal to everyone. "When in Rome...." Charlie kept saying...

Not to freak you out mom, but I did see my first gun in Mancora. Our neighbors in the hostel had one, and I saw it when I casually walked by their room, not so casually peeped in their room. It was a bit frightening, but nothing came about it. I wanted to switch hostels immediately, but Charlie has a very level head. There are people in America that carry handguns that could be our neighbors. Never growing up around them, it was a little different realization for me. I had this whole scenario worked out in my head that they were going to come and rob us of everything, and then we would be screwed. Charlie's rational was "what robber is going to rob their neighbor that could be identified." Well, my rational was if we're dead, how are we going to identify them? He did make a good point in saying we have to show identification when we checked into our hostel, so either way they would be identified. Either way, that better be the last handgun I see.

I still don't like the people in Peru although it's getting better now that we have left Mancora. In Ecuador, the people stared, but there they actually come up to you and harass you to your face. In Mancora, one guy tried taking a bottle of water out of Charlie's hands because he said he didn't have enough money to buy it. Charlie had no idea what he was saying, but he knew he wasn't about to give up a full bottle of water he just paid for. I think the people of Mancora are used to praying on the tourists because it is a tourist town.

We had one guy come up to us during dinner, grab our wrists tie on two pieces of string, then told us it was a gift for Christmas. We hesitantly said thanks because we know nothing is that easy here. He then stood there for 10 minutes demanding we give him money in return for his "gift." I was on board with giving him 50 cents because he said he had nothing and only wanted a good meal for Christmas. Charlie was hesitant to give him anything, and then he says "You're American, give me money." Fat chance. I will not give you a dime because we are Americans, and you think we owe you something. He huffed and puffed away, and I don't feel bad. At times, Charlie is way more stubborn then me, which pays off. We still have a soft spot for kids and can't help but give them a few pieces of change when they come up to us. That won't change.

The people in Trujillo aren't so bad, but the taxi drivers are so annoying it gives me a heachache. They honk all the time at us, pull over, and yell "taxi, you want taxi, here taxi." No, I don't want a taxi, I didn't flag you down,  and I'm not even looking at the street. If I am looking at the street, it's to look both ways before crossing. If I wanted a taxi, I probably would have waved one of the five taxis town ahead of you. I can't even explain how bad the honking is. I taught Charlie how to say, "I have two legs that can walk," so when it gets really bad and overwhelming...that phrase comes out. I don't like being so rude, but there is literally no other option because otherwise they will drive slow next to you for a few minutes all while honking and yelling.

One more thing to note: Toliet paper. Bring it everywhere. Not a single place here has it in their "bathroom facilities."

Today we are visiting the Chan Chan ruins. I'm excited to do something since all we did yesterday was sleep and recover from our long day of traveling. I'll post lots of pictures later today or tomorrow once I'm at a computer with the technology to do so.

Love and miss you,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

PS. not having spell check or a grammar check is so frustrating. I hate making silly little errors. I don't want to take the time to proof read either since it takes so long to type on an unfamiliar keyboard with different key placements. Sometimes I feel like dad, pecking and pecking at the board. :)

Bday Party in Peru

Dear Mom and Dad,

We are spending two more nights here and then moving on to Trujillo. We are taking a bus that departs at 11:00pm at night in order to arrive in the morning. Charlie and I will be damned if anyone tries to take anythign this time. We need to get to Cusco and soon! I'm exicted to see Machu Picchu not so excited to leave the beach.

I think Charlie enjoyed his birthday here. We went out for lunch and dinner for his bday. Here are two of our dishes from lunch. I had a chicken and veggie dish, and Charlie had some shrimp curry spicy noodley dish. We ate at a "Chinese" restaurant. There are no pictures from our sushi dinner because the food was soooo delicious that we didn't even think about taking photos until we inhaled everything! The chef even gave Charlie four free Nigiri's of tuna. I'm not sure exactly what they were called, but it's raw tuna with white rice underneath. He overheard us talking and knew Charlie was craving a little. We did however get a picture of the sign to get to the sushi place because I wasn't confident enough to remember the name, and we thought we would show the taxi driver the picture, so he would know where to take us. The camara died on the spot of trying to show the driver. Oh well, we got there!

This next picture is of us riding in the taxi to the sushi place. 4 km is a LONG ways in the dark on a dirt road. I was a little scared to be going there soooo late, but it was totally worth it!

 The next series of pictures are of Charlie and I going out for his bday. We thought we were sooo cool wearing our alpaca hats in Peru. I think that was alcohol induced. We bought four beers at a restuarant for $3.75. The second we bought them and they brought them out, they shut all the doors and turned off the lights to hint that we needed to get out. Why sell us beer if you don't want to stay for us to drink them? You know what we did? Sat there and drank them of course. The last picture you can see the doors closed with a little opening for us to leave. Please, as if turning the lights off was going to stop this bday celebration....

Maybe we were a tidbit obnoxious with the pictures, but they were obnoxious to shut the doors and turn the lights off before we could even finish a beer...let alone four. We it's time to celebrate with another bday party for Charlie! He did some surfing today and is a littl bit sore. I would have pictures, but the camara is crapping out on us. I'll have to use mine tomorrow, but the flash isn't working on that one. One way or another...there will be pictures of Charlie surfing by the end of the trip.

Love and miss you all,

Matti and Charlie