Estoy en Cuzco!

¡Hola mis amigos!

I am now in Cuzco, a beautiful colonial city situated at 10,500 feet in Southern Peru. I was more than happy to leave Lima, a city of 10 million people with nothing to do, on Saturday and took an overnight bus to Cuzco. Everyone I have met took the plane (1 hour flight) to Cuzco, but I thought since I had the time I would take the scenic bus. The 22 hour journey was more than memorable and I am now a master at peeing standing up on a slippery floor (it was water on the floor, right?) going around sharp corners. Ahhhh the joys of traveling. Anyways, now I am settled in Cuzso at Amauta Spanish school and have been taking 4 hours of Spanish classes everyday. There are lots of other students here (strangely mostly Dutch) and I have been going on lots of long walks. Cuzco reminds me a lot of Italy with its cobbled streets, red roofs, and narrow pedestrian streets. Next week I am going to take classes (and live) in a small town called Tarray, which is about an hour from Cuzco. I am looking forward to being in a more local, rural town and getting out on some hikes.

Lastly, if you are ever in Cuzco DO NOT eat the lasagna at the restaurant Kindergarten unless you want 24 hours of constant diarrehea and vomiting. Thank goodness my room is right across from the bathroom!

Much love,
Adios,
Kate

Tetons

Hey Everyone,
Since this wasn't the first trip that we've been on this summer, and I'm sitting at home while Kate gets to travel, I decided that I would show you some of the pictures from our trip to Jackson Hole. We began our trip by driving through the hot central valley, and pushing through the deserts known as 'Nevadaandutah' during the night. We ended up driving until 5am the next morning where we promptly collapsed from exhaustion near the Utah/Wyoming border. Upon finally reaching Jackson the next day, we met up with our fabulous host Christina in her amazing condo. After wandering around Jackson during the first day we were itching to get up into the mountains, so Kate called her friend Tom and we wandered up to Death Canyon for a day hike. Little did I know it, but we would be taking these "hikes" everyday for the first 5 days that we were in Jackson. This high altitude conditioning continued with a 3 day backpacking trip into the Teton's from the Westside of the park in the Targhee National forest. Neither Kate, Christina, nor I had been over on 'the other side' before, and it turned out to be amazingly different. The forest felt more lush and green and the valleys and hillsides followed the gradient of the uplifted rock layers rather than the steep canyons and cliffs of the East side. The first day we backpacked for 7 miles up a valley into an area called Alaska Basin that boasts lakes, streams, beautiful views, and of course mosquitos (I think that this last aspect is the main reason for the name).
I tried my hand at fly fishing up there, and although the fish were literally jumping out of the lake into the air, the comedy of errors that I call fishing had me looking into the lake for the pieces of my rod that had fallen off more often than not. At least it was beautiful...


The next day Kate and I took off for a day hike to see what we could see, and 3 miles later we ended up on a pass, looking at the Tetons from the backside (scandalous, I know).
And then, after another failed fishing attempt the second night, I was actually able to land one early the third morning. Of course neither Kate nor Christina were on hand to backup my victorious moment. I swear it was "THIS BIG"...
Later in the morning, Christina was also able to snag one and we decided to call the fishing trip succesful (don't worry, no fish were harmed in this little exercise). The hike back down was as beautiful as the hike up, as we followed one of the rocky shelves that bordered the valley down to the car.
For the 4th of July, we car camped on a bluff overlooking the Tetons and the town of Jackson with Tom and some of his friends. We had a great show from both the fireworks over Jackson, and the amazing sunset that mother nature put on:

Later that week, we were lucky enough to get on the Snake river for some kayaking. It's a great river, with some nice and fluffy wavetrains, a couple of nice jumping rocks, and some of the largest bald eagles that I've ever seen.
As thanks for her hospitality, Kate and I decided to cook Christina and her friends and family a nice big BBQ later that week, and although them were some good eats, we can't thank her enough.
After that we spent our time with Christina's extended family, crushing the oposition at wiffle ball, roasting some amazing smores (complete with melted chocolate), and doing one last hike up the Snow King hill behind Christina's house. All and all, I wish I had it to do all over again...
-shawn

LIMA!

Phew, I made it. It´s midnight in Peru and I am surprisingly not sleepy. After a somewhat hair-raising taxi ride from the airport I arrived at my hostal in the trendy neighborhood of Miraflores to find the whole place asleep. Along the way I used all of the three Spanish phrases I know ¨Me llamo Kate, anyone?¨ and quickly realized how much I have to learn.

Tomorrow I´m hoping to rent a board and surf some Peruvian waves!

Things I´m already missing: american key ñ´ç,.- boards and tap water.

Buenos Noches.

Kate is off to Peru...

Kate's about to fly away on a jet plane for the lovely city of Lima, Peru.