Wow.
To sum up the last couple days would be difficult.
It was good to get to Portland. I miss getting up and hopping on my bike every morning. It was nice to have a routine. However my new challenge of deciphering Spanish and navigating Lima will prove to be more difficult than cycling 100 km each day. I´m picking it up slowly. More on that later.
Being with Katy was great. It was much harder to part ways in the aiport the other than I had expected. I love her and it´s going to be hard not seeing her for 6 weeks or so.
Rest days in Portland included going out to Tillamook and soaking in that delicious ice cream. Thank heaven for the cows, because that cheese and ice cream is baller. Unfortunately, I think my body doesn´t particularly mesh with dairy products, so I try (not too well) to limit these items in my daily routine. Then we hung out at the beach with a while. It was great spending some time with Charlie. Love that little kid. Hope he dóesn´t grow up while I am away.
Fast forward to tonight and I am sitting in the Hitchiker´s Hostel in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. (Some of these details are more for me than for you). When I got off the plane a guy was standing there with a nice little whiteboard with my name on it, Clayton Pratt. I assumed it was for the Hostel that I confirmed my reservation with. Nope, one other one I sent an email to but never heard back from. I guess the early bird gets the worm. Thoughts on the airport: calm and orderly. It was like my classroom the second year, if Haití or India´s airport were my classroom the first year. Quiet friendly people making sure I was ok. Having my first couple trips in India and Haiti makes the rest of the traveling world seem so tame.
Hostel is pretty nice, $10 a night. Dm room on the second floor. In my room are a couple new friends, Nataliya, Thomas (both from France) and Ryan is down the hall (Australia). Nataliya is here studying, Thomas works as a chiropractor (he´s been traveling/working for the past 4 years trying to find a place in the world he´d like to live, much more exciting than the typical Mormon kids dilemna: Salt Lake City? yea or nea) and Ryan worked in Canada for a bit doing construction then is on a 3 month shoot through South America. He speaks about as much Spanish as I do. Language is a strange bag. The four of us had dinner the other night and it was a large concoction of my awful French, worse Spanish and a little bit of English for everyone.
Today I got up the courage to test out my Spanish and not worry about publicly humiliating myself. I did the tour at Huaca Pucllana, a temple site right in Lima that was used from 500-700 AD. The walls were built in a bookshelf manner, see pics, which ended up carrying significant antiseismic properties, which is why it is still standing today. Fun fact I learned, it never rains in Lima. Well a little, 7 mm a year. In fact, they have to wash the streets here with a huge water truck because rain never comes to wash away the grime. Not much compared to the Hoh Rain Forest´s 142 inches. I noticed this diference when I took the public bus (try to imagine me navigating public buses with a couple phrases of Spanish under my belt) to Pachacamac. It is another temple/city ruin 30 km southwest of Lima. It´s a total desert out there. Pretty cool archeology here in Peru. Those Inca´s were builders. It was also an interesting contrast to see 500 year old houses/temples with the shanty towns of poor rural Peru in the background. Likely those homes won´t be standing in 500 years. Public bus back into town, walked around for awhile, gelato and pan con jamon por cena. Hablo un poco espanol. Quisiera el menu, por favor. Gracias. Donde esta el autobus por el city centro?
Just booked bus tickets to Huaraz. Eli comes in tomorrow night, and Saturday morning we´re off to the mountains. 5000 meters here I come.
To sum up the last couple days would be difficult.
It was good to get to Portland. I miss getting up and hopping on my bike every morning. It was nice to have a routine. However my new challenge of deciphering Spanish and navigating Lima will prove to be more difficult than cycling 100 km each day. I´m picking it up slowly. More on that later.
Being with Katy was great. It was much harder to part ways in the aiport the other than I had expected. I love her and it´s going to be hard not seeing her for 6 weeks or so.
Rest days in Portland included going out to Tillamook and soaking in that delicious ice cream. Thank heaven for the cows, because that cheese and ice cream is baller. Unfortunately, I think my body doesn´t particularly mesh with dairy products, so I try (not too well) to limit these items in my daily routine. Then we hung out at the beach with a while. It was great spending some time with Charlie. Love that little kid. Hope he dóesn´t grow up while I am away.
Fast forward to tonight and I am sitting in the Hitchiker´s Hostel in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. (Some of these details are more for me than for you). When I got off the plane a guy was standing there with a nice little whiteboard with my name on it, Clayton Pratt. I assumed it was for the Hostel that I confirmed my reservation with. Nope, one other one I sent an email to but never heard back from. I guess the early bird gets the worm. Thoughts on the airport: calm and orderly. It was like my classroom the second year, if Haití or India´s airport were my classroom the first year. Quiet friendly people making sure I was ok. Having my first couple trips in India and Haiti makes the rest of the traveling world seem so tame.
Hostel is pretty nice, $10 a night. Dm room on the second floor. In my room are a couple new friends, Nataliya, Thomas (both from France) and Ryan is down the hall (Australia). Nataliya is here studying, Thomas works as a chiropractor (he´s been traveling/working for the past 4 years trying to find a place in the world he´d like to live, much more exciting than the typical Mormon kids dilemna: Salt Lake City? yea or nea) and Ryan worked in Canada for a bit doing construction then is on a 3 month shoot through South America. He speaks about as much Spanish as I do. Language is a strange bag. The four of us had dinner the other night and it was a large concoction of my awful French, worse Spanish and a little bit of English for everyone.
Today I got up the courage to test out my Spanish and not worry about publicly humiliating myself. I did the tour at Huaca Pucllana, a temple site right in Lima that was used from 500-700 AD. The walls were built in a bookshelf manner, see pics, which ended up carrying significant antiseismic properties, which is why it is still standing today. Fun fact I learned, it never rains in Lima. Well a little, 7 mm a year. In fact, they have to wash the streets here with a huge water truck because rain never comes to wash away the grime. Not much compared to the Hoh Rain Forest´s 142 inches. I noticed this diference when I took the public bus (try to imagine me navigating public buses with a couple phrases of Spanish under my belt) to Pachacamac. It is another temple/city ruin 30 km southwest of Lima. It´s a total desert out there. Pretty cool archeology here in Peru. Those Inca´s were builders. It was also an interesting contrast to see 500 year old houses/temples with the shanty towns of poor rural Peru in the background. Likely those homes won´t be standing in 500 years. Public bus back into town, walked around for awhile, gelato and pan con jamon por cena. Hablo un poco espanol. Quisiera el menu, por favor. Gracias. Donde esta el autobus por el city centro?
Just booked bus tickets to Huaraz. Eli comes in tomorrow night, and Saturday morning we´re off to the mountains. 5000 meters here I come.
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| Ruinas de Pachacamac. El Templo del Sol on the far right. Built in the 1400s. Outside Lima is quite the desert. |
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| Circuitos de Playas. Miraflores, Peru. |
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| The bookshelf and antiseismic technology of the Huaca Pucllana temple. |
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| Mi esposa y yo. |
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| The old world meets the new one. |
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| Plaza de San Martin. |
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| The stunning view outside my hostel window. It costs a bit to get views like this. |
Miss you too! Peru looks like a great adventure. Bet you are wishing you had used that Spanish book you bought a few months ago :) Went to Top of the Park tonight with the Fullers and ran I into the Shapiros. Ann Arbor is an awesome place.
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