Oasis

Yo yo!

Here we are in the middle of the desert in Huacacina! We are here for one night (una noche)! Took us a good four hours to get here from Lima on a double decker coach bus. The bus station was in Miraflores, which is hella nicer than the area we are staying at in central Lima. :p The houses there look like they are made by Ikea, all colourful and geometric.

At the bus station, we noticed a group of Japanese tourists. We were looking at them the same way everyone else looks at us. Asian people! OMG.

The others are currently sunbathing (naked), so I decided I would hide out in the hotel. Not because I am bashful (who does not love nakednes?), but more because of the fact that I am a nice shade of red on my shoulders. I am not used to showing skin, and my skin is not used to Peruvian sun. This swanky hotel we are currently staying at has free internet! And a hair dryer! And cups! Yay. Sadly, the pool is under construction. (Heh, I don´t actually care.) It has been one day, but it feels more like 20 since it seems like so much has happened.

Part 2 of day 1 included a 20 minute pay phone incident and an unpleasant drunken hotel employee.

Currently, Brenda´s stomach is... on the fritz. I will leave the memorable quote up to her. :p Have not touched the ceviche yet, but we have been drinking a lot of warm Coke. No ice!

We are going to go sandboarding at 5 today con dune buggy. In some of the places, they just have ghetto looking snowboards (boots and bindings too).

The Chinese food was not bad. The restaurant was listed in Brenda´s Frommers book. Quite edible, but the Shanghai fried noodles with beef lacked colour, and we were hoping to lean on Chinese to get around there, but as was said before: no chinos in Chinatown, not even the restaurant employees.
The Legoman (Alejandro = formerly known as Jorge) is a spaceman. And he is also having a blast. :)

I´m going to go pass out on a bed now before sandboarding. Seems necessary. :p
Take care and thanks for reading!

UPDATE:
Sandboarding was okay. I tried once standing upright, and me and the girl from Germany both agreed that it was not possible, so the rest of the times was on my belly. Eat sand! The dune buggy ride was awesome!! They drive you up a hill from the oasis, and all you can see are sand dunes. Then our man, Jesus (hey zeus), drove like a maniac on very hilly land. It was like a rollercoaster without the tracks. Unfortunately, they stuck some old lady with heart problems on our buggy who complained, and he had to slow down so she would not have a heart attack. But Jesus was nice enough to drop her off at one of the stops and take us for a little youthful fun at one point. Yes yes, we tipped him.

Finally tried ceviche! It was salty goodness. Like citrus sashimi. :p I know AliceT was staring at my dinner the whole time. I pick the good stuff.

Ran into some fellow Canadians! We were so excited to meet people who didn`t immediately peg us as ¨chinas¨. Really, really excited. :p I like nice Canadians. :D And the nice Israeli tourists as well, who let us take their cab.

We should have a count of how many times we say ¨diarrhea¨... seems like Brenda had the most rational fear. :p And how! I can make a list of all her sayings already and it is only day two. Wow.

Pictures to come soon. Er... not of diarrhea. Oh, and toilets without seats are scary, apparently.

Las chinas llegan en Lima!

Day 1
It´s hot and humid here. I´ve never been stared at so much in my life. ¨Japonese! Kanichiwah! Chinas! Pretty woman! Bonita! Bonita chinas! (little boy stares, dad says¨chinas¨)¨ We´re still unsure whether the honking of the taxis are for us or they just like honking.
We felt like Asian celebrities as we came out of the airport to what seemed like a hundred taxi drivers waving with signs with names on them. Our drive to our hotel was somewhat sketch, through abandoned neighbourhoods and ghetto streets. We thought our hotel was safe but below our standards but the metal bars at the front of the doors took it to a whole new level. Our rooms smelled and we placed a bed in front of the door for the night for peace of mind. We discovered that each of us are uniquely paranoid about something.
Brenda = diarrhea
AliceL = getting raped
AliceT = getting robbed
Adrienne = everything
I personally believe my paranoia is the most realistic. AliceT raises her eyebrows at this comment.
Today we spent a good half hour looking for a bank that turned out to be across the street from our hotel. In fact, there were two across the street and then we spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to use the machines, thank you officer lima. We also watched changing of the guards at the Plaza de Armas, but really Adrienne was watching the snipers on the roof while AliceT thought the guards were literally going to change their clothes in front of us. How very disappointed she ended up being. We then cabbed to Chinatown which had no chinese people, not even in Wah Lok restaurant. Then at Mercado Central we bargained for fruit, AliceT managed to slash a whole 10%, but really 30 cents Peruvian centavos, off a sour sop, which is about 10 cents Cdn. We tried unsuccessfully to bargain for pouches on our way to look at a pile of dirt with a cross on top. And Jorge pinched a lot of asses, horses´ asses. Finally, because of our paranoia, we had dinner in our hotel room that we bought from a very clean grocery store. Alcohol here is dirt cheap but we were have to wake up at 5am tomorrow to go sandboarding in the desert which is going to cost us an arm and a leg in Peruvian standards. Can´t wait to show you the pictures of us sunbathing in an oasis, or rather snowsuits in AliceL´s case. Adios.

¡Viaje último!

Less than 24 hours now! I can taste the arroz con frijoles now. :D

I'm going to bring a hacky sack. And this dirty bag of beads is going to make us some friends. These friends are going to help carry our obese backpacks. That is what will happen. 

YAY! Suramérica!

Time to cram in some quickie Spanish lessons. One semester of Spanish is great, but what happens when my name isn't Mike? 0_o

Weeeeeeeeeee!!!

AL reporting for duty

I've decided to leave my mark on this page now that I have a break in between exams. I was at the farm in UW park yesterday and saw the new baby llama there. It's so adorable, but too bad it's brown...I like the white ones more. Soon we'll get to see hoards of them in their natural habitat! I sure hope they smell better. That's all for now...

Adios amigos (no, I haven't figured out how to do accents and am too lazy and likely never will)

P.S. Thanks to the confused voter who voted for me and put me temporarily in second place :P

Know your camelids!

How funny would it be if an alpaca spat on one of our faces?

So Excited, I can Feel It in My Stomach

¡Excitada!

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm muy excitada, so little pre-trip ramble (a.k.a. procrastination) before we amble along the exotic landscapes of South America:

I should be reading about UMVUEs and how to find them, but my in my mind, I'm already having stomach problems from delicious ceviche (someone needs to add this word to blogger's dictionary; red underlines are annoying when I know I'm right). If you can believe it, I can feel the stomach problems now. ¡Delicioso!

Malaria pills are a check. 

Scary looking expedition bag is a check. (Manpower to carry said bag is still a no go.)

I'm missing a couple of things... if only I could remember what they were...

I've been thinking about snowboarding on a volcano in Chile, but this looks like it'd require less gear (snowpants, gloves, everything a good Canadian should have):

Sandboarding!

I have high hopes, but I'd be happy just to not be studying or working for once.

Adiós for now!

HOLA!