Friday, May 04, 2001

So far we haven´t gotten out too much except to research packages but we are planning to hit some places today and tomorrow, then we should be off to Ica, Nazca (the Nazca Lines o las lineas de Nazca), and then to Paracas where we will head out to the Islas Ballestas to see the Foquitos (seals- I think that´s the correct spelling) and birds. After that we are going to get a bus ticket to Cusco to see Machu Pichu. I can´t wait to get on the road and start taking some nifty pictures. It´s looking kinda of dim on the Lima to Brazil front. It is very difficult to get in and it takes several days to get you Visa here. It is also very expensive. The cheapest price we found roundtrip is $470 on some airline that is owned by continental. The prices range from that into the thousands. I think I might have to plan a trip with my friend Vanesa (hint, hint if you are reading) to go back. We´ll see how it goes...I´m keeping the dream alive.

Yesterday we went over to the cliffs and watched the sunset over the ocean, it´s so cool because the sun sets in a totally different part of the sky (Al was the first to point this out). In San Diego, the sun will set almost straight ahead or a little South of were your looking and in Lima it sets in the North and its lunar counterpart pulls up the opposite end of the sky. It´s just one of those things you usually take for granted.

The other thing I really like about Lima, Miraflores to be exact, are the buildings. There are these two houses that I pass by everyday that I love! One is painted canary yellow with a midnight blue gate in front and in between the gate and the house there is this bronzed sculpture of a horse. It is so pretty. The other house is interestingly striking because it is so simple. It is almost a khaki-clay color with one single deep green cactus out front. It´s the way the colors play off one another that make it so beautiful. I´ll try to take a picture of it soon. I also need to get a picture up of the Parque del Amor. It is also beautiful with its Park Guëll-esque seating (In Barcelona created by Anotonio Gaudi one of my most favorite architects/artists). The parque also has a gigantic concrete sculpture of a man and women embracing as they sit in the park only they are raised high above the ground as if to symbolize some higher level of emotion that seperates them from what is grounded and real. I think Ollie would dig this especially. I´ll grab a pic of that in the morning as well...making a list now.

We are staying in a new hostal now called the Imperial Inn. I like it once again because of the colors. I think when I go home I am going to paint. I have this urge to paint what I have seen and hang it on my walls to create a sort of Peruvian story. Last night was our first night there and I have to admit it was difficult. The room was fine it was just situated in the worst area of the building. We basically unwittingly walked in and asked for the worst room in the place and then paid them for it. The problem was that the rooms are not very insulated which is fine because it keeps it nice in cool, but the flip-side is that you can hear and smell everything. We were in a front room right on the street, let me re-phrase, right on a very busy street. What you need to understand about Peru and from my experience really any latin/spanish-speaking community is that they break for no one. They drive aggressively and are very vocal by way of their horns. So, when the buses, cars y motocicletas would pass by their engines when roar loudly, their thick exhaust would crawl through our windows and the horns would be singing a song of urgency. Needless to say I don´t get a wink of sleep until I whipped out my Continental Airlines earplugs that we were given on the plane. The only other time I woke up, save for the alarm, was when Al had some weird nightmare and his hand pounced on my arm and his fingers did am itsy bitsy spider on coke trek up to my neck. At his hands' arrival I let out a little shriek and he woke up scared and I was scared because I had no idea what was going on. We then realized it had been a nightmare or something and we went back to sleep. Apparently he had dreamed that we were argueing. Kinda spooky but I guess that teaches me to never put GHB in his drink again. (solomente un chiste)

We switched rooms this morning to un habitación in the back. Not as nice of a view but it is bigger and we shouldn´t be breathing anymore exhaust. Also the other room was a cool $7.50 USD a piece, this one will be $10.00, oh well it´s very much worth it.

I am going to try to get Al to go sight-seeing with me in a bit. I think he is posting too. Until tomorrow or the next day. ¡Hasta Luego!

Friday, May 04, 2001

Last night we caught a beautiful sunset over the ocean. It was positively dripping light, like celestial wax running down through the sky. I was standing on the edge of a cliff taking it all in when behind me I hear a muffled "al." There were six hombres checking us out so Lisa wanted to take a walk...sure enough, as soon as we started walking down the path two of them started following us. Despite a few nervous moments, we made it out of the park ok and headed back to the hostal. That night, we ended the day with drinks at the local bar and I had my first peruvian beer. I tried Cuquenta and Cilatro. Both are very light beers...kind of like Sols in the U.S.

Our passage into Brazil is looking sketchier and sketchier by the moment. The consuldad has made it very clear that we need to prove we're leaving the country at some point, and all of the flights into Brazil are outside our budget. There is a bus (autobus) that is only $55 U.S. but it takes 5 days...that's 5 straight days on the bus...120 hours. So now we're looking for cheap flights into Brazil...perhaps by way of an airpass, but no luck. One thing I have had luck with is finally finding a hat! While strolling through the Artesanias MiraFlores, I found two colorful peruvian hats...probably the kind only gringos where but no matter. My hair has been out of control and needed to be hid from public display.

The internet cafe we frequent has a net2phone booth...like a phone booth, except it's a computer running net2phone (net2phone is the overly hyped voice over IP program that allows you to turn your computer into a phone, with AM equivalent quality). Having no other way to call 1-800 numbers here (except maybe burning up Soles by the second for a phone card), I decided to try using it. What a disaster! I ended up screaming at a lady in english with the whole place looking at me like I was mad. I was calling about a mercosur airpass but it ended up being an exercize in futility as the lady couldn't hear me, I couldn't hear her, we were talking over one another, and only faint electronic echoes filled our ears. The only thing that did come through crystal clear was the Visa commercial I had to listen to before each call. After she hung up on me twice and then didn't answer the phone the third time I called, I tried other numbers...all with worse results. Lesson: The internet may be many things but it is not a substitute for the phone...not by any stretch of the imagination.

Another lesson I'm learning is that I should have things slightly better planned when I travel to other countries. What I thought would be a simple problem of finding our way to various points is turning into a fiasco. I'm ready to move out of Lima and start seeing other sites, but the Brazillian thing is holding us up. Until we find passage to Brazil and use that to procure our Visa, we're stuck in Lima...unless we decide to forsake Brazil and travel to other places...perhaps down the coast of Chile. Till then, Vaya con Dios.