Peru - Cusco - Day 2

On my recent trip to Peru, we did a lot of traveling.  While I only had 2 main places that I wanted to visit (Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca), we still had to travel somewhere new every day and stay in a different hostel almost every night.

Our itinerary:

Day 1

Fly into Lima. Spend the night in Lima.

Day 2

Fly to Cusco. Spend the night in Cusco.

Day 3.

Train to Aguas Calientes. Spend the night in Aguas Calientes.

Day 4

Bus to Machu Picchu. See Machu Picchu. Bus to Aguas Calientes. Train to Cusco. Spend the night in Cusco.

Day 5

Bus tour to Puno. Spend the night in Puno.

Day 6

Half day tour of Lake Titicaca. Traumatizing bus ride to Cusco. Spend the night in Cusco.

Day 7

Free day in Cusco. Spend the night in Cusco.

Day 8

Fly to Lima. Overnight flight to USA.

--------Itinerary malfunction----Hurricane Irene cancels flight to home to Boston-----

Day 9 

Flight arrives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  The second leg of our journey, a flight to Boston, is cancelled. Rent car and drive 4 hours to fiancee's Mom's house.

Day 9-14

Stay with fiancé's Mom while awaiting earliest flight home to Boston.  (I can't work, as I didn't have my stamping supplies, so I research wedding crap the whole time and answer any messages I get from customers.)

Day 14

FINALLY - Arrive home in Boston!

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Let the journey begin!

As Lima was scary* and we only stayed there for 9 hours to sleep before flying to Cusco, I will skip Lima and start sharing our trip from when we left Lima and flew to Cusco on Day 2.

*We arrived in Lima at night and someone from our hostel met us at the airport and drove us to the hostel.  Just from the car ride, I am going to say I don't like Lima.  While my feelings probably aren't justified, the little bit of the city I saw wasn't pretty and the traffic/driving was scary.

CUSCO/CUZCO  DAY 2

After checking into our hostel, we went out to explore the nearby Plaza de Armas in Cusco.  It was a Sunday afternoon and some kind of children's dance competition was going on as walked up.  

Please note: I am so not a videographer.

Each group performing had their own unique outfits and danced to traditional "Peruvian flute band" music. :)

We had lunch at Cafe Bagdad, which had a nice balcony overlooking the festivities below.

Coca tea: coca leaves stuffed in a cup of hot water.  This tea is supposed to help with altitude sickness, so I drank it at most meals.  It tasted ok, but I don't know how much it helped me as I still had constant headaches the first few days in Peru.

 Enjoying the lovely view in Cusco.

 Plaza de Armas church.

All over Peru we saw mountains decorated like behind me.  At first I thought it was created with rocks, but I've read elsewhere it was "carved" into the mountain.  Either way, it's pretty neat.

 Peruvian currency: Nuevos soles.

 Call me immature, but this picture was in EVERY hostal that we stayed at. ><

 View from our hostel,  Hostal Amaru.  It kind of sucked because I only booked this place for 1 night, and it was by far the nicest place we stayed our entire trip.  It was a let down going to all the other hostels later in the trip, because none of them were as awesome as this place.

Hostal Amaru was gorgeous and was less than $50/night.  When we drive from Boston to Atlanta to visit family, and stay in crappy motels off the highway so we can sleep during the night, we pay at least $60.  So, I thought the value for the price of this hostel was pretty awesome.  The whole place smelled wonderfully of wood, was super clean, and had wonderful staff that helped us book other parts of our trip and find good foods for dinner.

At the hostel, taking advantage of their free coca tea station in the courtyard.

I was surprised to find that most of the hostels that we stayed at had internet.  This little computer nook area offered lovely views of the flowers in the courtyard below.

My first alpaca petting of the trip!  The lady called me over to take a photo, so I thought - Wow! People are are so friendly and nice here!  Then she asked for money...1 sol, which is about $.30.

These other ladies saw me getting my picture taken, so when it was my better half's turn to get his picture taken, they swarmed him to get in the picture.  This photo cost 10 sols or about $3.25.  (Yes, it should have been 3 sols, but all we had was a 10 sol bill and they practically snatched it away from us when we asked for change. Hey, it was our first day...we didn't know the ropes yet. ALSO - I believe that cute little critter in that lady's satchel thing is a goat.  At first I thought it was a baby alpaca or llama, but after looking at baby goat pictures, I think it's a goat...Still cute though.)

At the suggestion of the hostel staff, we went to Pacha Papa for dinner.  It was in a neat open air, enclosed restaurant place where we could see the twinkling lights of the houses on the mountains behind us.

I had alpaca for dinner (with more coca tea).  It was delicious!

 Then we finished the meal with this tasty pastry dish.

Sorry, crappy nighttime photo.  From the hostel we could see the pretty lights of the homes on the mountain. 

I hate to end this post with such a horrible picture, so instead I'll leave you with a little preview of the next post documenting our trip to Peru - Day 3:

View from the train heading to Aguas Calientes, north of Cusco.

Thoughts to Ponder

Before I get caught up in posting Peru pictures, I want to clear out some of the backlog of photos of recent custom orders that are quickly sinking away into the dark recesses of my photo folder.  Below are some large "tag-sized" key chains featuring some unique quotes.  As a former interior design student, I find the third key chain perfectly describes my college career.

I Am Returned.

Wow. So Peru was...interesting. I'm glad I went, but I've discovered that I may not be the "roughing it" kind of traveler that I hoped that I could be. Oh well. In bigger news, my better half presented me with a lovely piece of jewelry during a long layover in a Florida airport as we were making our journey to Peru.

Good stuff, huh? Yeah, I was quite pleased. :)  It is the first/only piece of jewelry that he has ever given me, but I guess I don't have any reason to complain after getting this guy. ;)

Some might ask, why the airport?  Why not Machu Picchu or somewhere else pretty in Peru?  Well, a while back I had informed my better half that my favorite TV/movie/fictional proposal was Jim's from The Office. (Jim and his girlfriend meet up at a gas station in the pouring rain, and Jim drops to one knee and proposes to Pam, right outside this random gas station.  It wasn't expected and was just totally out of the blue.)  So, as we are sitting in this airport gate during an 8 hour layover (which came to be common during the trip), Matt asks me where I want to go on our next trip.  I named off a few places and then ended with, "You know, I really don't care. Anywhere is fine with me. I just want to see something new.  Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to go?"  Knowing that I'd ask his thoughts on the subject, he responds with, "It doesn't matter as long as I am with you," and pops open the ring box.  My response: "Are you sh*tting me?" Classy - That's me! He pressed on, "Will you?" until I gave him a more...lady-like response of "Ya!"

So!  Here we are, finished with our Peru trip and back in the US (YAY!!).  With all the excitement in trying to plan a wedding for next year, I haven't had too much time to look through/edit the 1500 pictures we took in Peru.  In fact, I've spent every free second investigating all things "wedding" and annoying the crap out of my now-fiancé.

"Hey! What do you think of this invitation.  I like the vintage detail.  Do you prefer this font or that font?  Do you think this looks stupid? Oh my god - what if my dress was this poofy [points to magazine]? Holy crap, letterpress is so freaking expensive! And yet pretty. Should we get letterpress Save the Dates? Are you going to wear a tux or a suit.  You should probably just wear a suit as this isn't going to be a super formal affair.  Please buy new shoes.  Oooh!! I want to get a Lord of the Rings wedding band!! Can we do that?"

My conversations at him (because they really are one sided conversation at this point, me just yaking away at him) go something like the above, every single day.  I kind of feel bad about it now that I am reflecting on it. Oh well...

As I am sure that no one wants to see ALL of the entire mountain of photos we took in Peru, I will resort to only showing a hill's worth spread out over the coming weeks in once-a-week posts.

Machu Picchu, Peru, August 23, 2011

Nothing Can Substitute Experience.

I recently made the above leather tag for a customer, and I believe it is perhaps my favorite quote I've ever stamped.  It really sums up how I'm feeling at this point in my life. Go! DO something! Experience something completely new as often as possible.

And so, I am off to Peru - to pet alpacas, roam around Machu Picchu, and zoom across the waters of Lake Titicaca.

A Little NY Side Trip

Two weeks ago I attended a wedding in Western New York with my better half and some friends.  It was delightful! Before the wedding, however, we did a little exploring around the suburbs of Niagara Falls, and then visited Niagara Falls itself.

 I included this image because my left leg looks like the backward-legged aliens in the movie, The Arrival. 

I don't think my leg actually looks like that in real life (jeans malfunction?), but perhaps it does and just no one has had the heart to tell me...

Niagara Falls: Tourist Overload

Catty VS Jeans

It is not wise to disrobe and deposit your pants within paw's reach of an evil catty.

 Well, it is not wise if you value the mental well-being of your pants.

Catty will dominate the pants and abandon them in a heap - ashamed and empty.

A Special Gift From Georgia

This summer is the first summer that I have not spent in Georgia.  Sadly, that means that this is also the first summer that I am to miss out on smelling the heavenly scented gardenia's of my grandparent's backyard.  Or so I thought.

A week ago my mother overnighted me the first gardenia blooms of the season.  I put one of the lovely gardenia blooms in a glass ginger ale bottle that is currently sitting on my desk.  The other bloom, I stuffed in the air vent in our bedroom.  It has been a wonderful olfactory experience this past week. :)

Wrapping Things Up

Next Saturday I leave for Peru.  While I will only be gone for 9 days, I feel like I'm preparing to leave for a month.  I've decided that leaving my store open while I am gone is not an option.  I run my shop completely by myself.  I am solely responsible for creating the products, packing them up, visiting the Post Office each day, communicating with customers, etc.  I think the idea of coming home from a trip after 9 days to have orders piled up (that are already possibly 9 nine days old) is not ideal.  So, as of today I am no longer taking custom orders until I return from my trip on August 28th.  That gives me plenty of time to finish up all pending orders and have everything shipped off before I leave.  Also, that way when I return from Peru I'll be able to start fresh, and customers will be able to order custom items with a relatively short processing time.  It was the best solution I could come up with to fit the situation. ><

 

My little backpack for the trip.  I plan on bringing only 1 change of clothes, some toiletries, and a few cameras.  Hopefully that will leave a little extra room for things I pick up along the journey.

I am also excited because my mother* is coming up next Wednesday and I haven't seen my Mim in 9 months!  As my cat is a weirdo, we can't leave him alone in the apartment while we are gone - not even with someone stopping by once a day to check on him.  He is annoyingly social and I fear he would be forever traumatized if he was left all by his lonesome for 9 days.  So!  My mom will be staying at our apartment, tending to the crack baby, while we are in Peru.  She's flying up from Georgia a few days before we leave so I can give her some type of tour of Boston before we abandon her in a new city.

*I don't call my mother "Mom."  As a young child, my kickass mother allowed my younger brother and I to begin watching South Park (and took us to see Bigger, Longer and Uncut when we were about 8 and 9), so the name I use to refer to her most often is "Miiiiiiiiiim" (a la Eric Cartman) or "Mim" for short. Or Mimson. Or Mimmish the Lemmish.

The other name that I call her pretty frequently is "Mam".  I read/watched Angela's Ashes in middle school and became fascinated with the McCourt family.  I read all the books I could find that were authored by the McCourt brothers.  This Irish-American family referred to their mother as Mam, and so that's where that came from. That's probably the name I use more often in public...

I am not leaving until August 20th, so I will still be available to answer messages through August 19th.  From August 20th - August 27th I will not have internet access, so I won't be able to respond to inquiries placed during this time until I return on August 28th.  The amount of times that I normally check my email each day may be considered unhealthy, so it is going to be odd to not even look at a computer screen for 9 days...

Catty VS Chair

My cat sucks at using his claws.  Well, he's good at having them extended, he just doesn't know how to properly retract them.  Often times he gets his "thumb" claw stuck on/in something, and his solution is just to pull until it comes loose.  Instead, if he simply pushed his arm forward this claw would be freed and he could be spared some struggling.  But, this doesn't happen and I am relegated to rescuing him before he rips off his claw (or I fear that he will).

Below is a heartbreaking event that I was witness to the other day.  My catty, Rasputin, got one of his "thumb" claws stuck in my computer chair.  This happens a lot.  He flopped around for a while before I freed him. (Does it make me a bad person that I let him squirm around, and took pictures of it, before unhooking him from the chair?)

I wonder how he used to survive on his own all day when I didn't work from home...

Ok, so I only let him suffer just long enough to take pictures.  Then, I helped him unhook his little claw (which took a few minutes as he had twisted his paw in such a way that I couldn't tell which way I should be manipulating his paw to free him from the grasp of the chair.)

My work station can get a little messy.  You probably can't tell, but I am using two dining room chairs placed on either side of my desk as additional "work surface."  Totally chic, modern, and classy - I know.

Aw, my poor little demon baby!  (Luckily, he's my mom's problem while we are in Peru. ::evil laugh::)

Sweet Devotions

Here is a short sampling of some recent custom leather tags.  These are the sweetest of sweet. ><

 Happily Ever After

 My Pulse, My Heart in Gaelic.

Our Love and Adventures

Hodgson Mill Brownies

On my quest to eat healthier, I came across some brownie mix by Hodgson Mill that is quite delicious.  Made from whole wheat flour and milled flax seeds, these brownies are the healthiest brownie mix I've tried so far.  This all natural brownie mix is cholesterol free and each serving has 450 mg of Omega-3 oils.

While this wasn't the cheapest brownie mix on the shelf, at about $3 this mix is totally worth it.  I like to keep a few boxes in stock to satisfy my daily requirement for a bedtime dessert.  (Before discovering these brownies, I would usually have a giant stack of oreos and milk for my daily dessert.)

At first the texture of the flax seed was a little weird, but after making a few batches of these brownies, I've come to really enjoy the texture.  If I had to pick between the chocolatiest (sp?), fudgiest (sp?) normal brand of brownies and these "healthy" brownies, I would choose the "healthy" brownies every time.  Yums!  Also yums: a dollap (of Daisy! No. That would be gross.) of whipped cream on top.

I'll Go Anywhere

After spending the first 23 years of my life in Georgia, I am happy to finally be branching out and starting to see the world.  A year ago I moved to Boston with my boyfriend and catty.  Since moving here we've taken a handful of mini weekend trips that have allowed us to visit a lot of inspiring places throughout New England.

Now is the time that we really get to experience something new.  Soon after starting our life together, my boyfriend and I decided that our goal was to take at least 1 domestic trip and 1 international trip each year.  The "big" domestic trip each year is visiting our families for Christmas (they all live over 1,000 miles away).  Luckily, the international trips are free game and we can go wherever we want to.

Initially, the goal for our international travels was to be as cheap as possible, 'cause - holy crap! - plane tickets to another continent are expensive!  So, for our first trip we picked Peru, because it's an inexpensive country to visit right?  Also, my vote for Peru was heavily influenced by the movie, Diarios de Motocicleta. As I am the one who has the greater interest in traveling, our first international trip has been completely planned by me.  So far, I am a horrible planner because this trip is costing me waaaaay more than I had planned.

I booked the trip for the dates that I could get the cheapest plane tickets to Peru. Like a complete idiot, I didn't factor in all the other transportation costs.  While in Peru we want to visit 2 places: Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca.  Here is an exaggerated logistical scenario that is similar to how our trip will go: You want to visit New Orleans and NYC, but you are flying into LAX from out of the country.  You only have 1 week to see the sights. So, for most of our Peru trip we will be traveling on planes, trains, buses, and boats just to see these 2 places.

Anyway! We leave for Peru in almost 2 weeks and hopefully all goes well, we have a good time, blah, blah, blah.

Peru = Our 2011 International trip.

My boyfriend is planning next year's trip to Japan. The dates he's chosen coincide with the 2012 Tanteidan Origami Convention in Japan (since origami is his thang).

This leaves me to plan 2013's international trip.  For the past year I was set on India (Taj Mahal), but I have begun to reevaluate my options.  While I'd love to visit Bora Bora, I'm not yet willing to go turn tricks on the streets to pay for it, so I am currently looking at less expensive locales.  Below are the top contendors for 2013:

-Road trip along the coast of southern Ireland (the Motherland!)

-New Zealand* (Lord of the Rings Tour!)

-Beaches of Thailand

-Italy (Venice)

-Germany* (Bavarian Alps)


*Requires me to be making/saving a crapload more money, but still possibly doable if I rape my happiness for a full year and avoid buying crap I don't need like nice booze and organic shampoo.  :(


I'm really not that picky on where I'd like to go.  I simply want to see/experience something new. Even if it ends up totally sucking, at least I'd have tried it and know that I never want to go there or do that again.  At this point in my life, I'm willing to go anywhere.*

*save Africa. Modern film has totally eradicated any desire I ever had for visiting that continent.  Perhaps I'm easily persuaded and/or a horrible person.  However, I'd rather not risk it. ><

I have over a year before I should have it narrowed down, so I have plenty of time to make sadistically thorough spreadsheets of comparison between all the possible locations for 2013's trip. I am SO open to suggestions if anyone knows a neat place to visit outside the USA.

Art Equals Happy

I will admit that I am not much of a blog reader.  While I find them fascinating, I just simply haven't the time to browse too often. :(  Recently I came across the blog Art Equals Happy.  The layout is absolutely exciting and there's so many places to explore!  It was hard for me to stop reading and go and do something actually productive. ><

 

The author is an Illustration major in London, and their aptitude in that field is definitely apparent throughout site.  If you need to pass the time, I highly recommend you check out this inspiring blog.

Vertical Tags, No?

 Horizontally oriented custom leather tag.

Currently in my shop, tags stamped horizontally are way more popular than tags stamped vertically.  This is probably due to the fact that for the first year or so of selling tags, horizontally was the only way I was asked to stamp the tags, and so my sample photos reflected this.  However, the popularity of tags that are stamped vertical in orientation is on the rise!  Below are a few recent vertically-stamped tags that perhaps challenge the notion that horizontal is the way to go.

VitaKitty Cat Treats

About a month ago I began a quest to improve the crap I was eating.  This new diet focuses on organic, unprocessed, raw foods.  Since moving to Boston a year ago from Atlanta, I've grown accustomed to frequenting Stop & Shop and Shaw's for all my sustenance needs.  However, when I decided I wanted to eat healthier, I deemed it necessary to go to Whole Foods to get this awesome new food.  

After wandering around the foreign (to me) Whole Foods for over an hour just to find everything I needed, I came across the pet section.  Since I wanted to eat better, I developed an urge to force my new beliefs on my catty.  So I got him some VitaKitty cat treats.  Essentially chicken breast jerky, these cat treats are made from happy, free-roaming chickens that have no added hormones or antibiotics or any other crap like that.  I was so excited to plop a few of these treats down in front of Rasputin!

 

Upon do so, a weird thing happened.  My catty didn't eat the treats.  He lazily stared at them from his cat bed, and then started batting them around.  Assuming he was being a moron and just didn't understand what was going on, I shoved a few in his face so he could smell the chickeness.  He didn't seem interested.  So I grabbed a clean one and started gnawing on it myself.  I had such high hopes for these cat treats!!  Sadly, they tasted like hard plastic with a slight hint of chicken flavoring.  Maybe they taste different for cats, and my cat was just one of the few that didn't find the taste appetizing...He also doesn't like cat nip, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

Luckily my mom is coming up for a visit in a few weeks, so she can bring these cat treats home to try out on her cats.  >^..^<