Here we are in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We’ve been traveling frantically it feels like since Florida. Florida seems like a long time ago. Houston Space Center was well worth the $20 plus ticket. We saw the Saturn rocket, space gadgets, and the first control room. They used it through 1990 or so and then restored back to 1969 technology. After eating a delicious Vietnamese sandwich at Thien An restaurant downtown we moved on to Austin. We… Read the rest
5/27/2015 Houston Texas USA
We are in Houston staying with some kind couch hosts for the night. They have 3 cats and 3 dogs. We have one cat at the foot of the bed tonight. We visited the USS Texas today then came here and have been chatting with our hosts ever since. Tomorrow we go to the space center and Austin. Yesterday we stayed in Ocean Spring and bought a Trac phone.… Read the rest
5/20/2015 Pine Island, Florida, USA
The Manatee Rehab Center in Iquitos was amazing. I got to feed baby manatees that were being prepared for release back into the Amazon. They also had a bunch of monkeys and a few Macaws. We went back to Lima the next day. I meant to put up something about our time in Lima. We explored more of the Barranco neighborhood and visited the largest fountain park in the world by the national stadium.… Read the rest
5/13/2015 Iquitos, Peru
This is Iquitos. The internet stinks. Jill and I are raring to jump back to the U.S. but Peru continues to surprise us. Iquitos is a dirty, loud, pushy city on the doorstep of the largest river in the world and the largest rainforest in the world. Iquitos has a few pockets of charm though. It’s river walk is full of it.… Read the rest
5/3/2015 El Chaco, Peru
We took a bus from Ica to Pisco yesterday. Then we jumped in a Combi van to El Chaco. The Combi takes you past some fish factories. You’re lucky if the diesel exhaust outweighs the sour fish smell. El Chaco was a small fishing village that has become gentrified. There is a sidewalk along the water for a couple miles. It starts in the town’s restaurants and souvenir shops and wanders into a few nice resorts with green lawns.… Read the rest
4/30/2015 Huacachina, Peru
Today we are in Haucachina. This is an Oasis outside Ica. There is a lagoon in the middle which may have curative properties and was a sanitarium of sorts. It’s been taken over by sand boarding kids on holiday. We may be a bit old for this place.
We arrived in Ica by bus from Nazca Yesterday afternoon wishing to stay there.
… Read the rest 4/24/2015 Tacna, Peru
We came to Tacna Yesterday. Today we went to Arica, Chile. They are a little over an hour apart. Between the two and pretty much everywhere around Tacna is a desert. It’s all empty adobe colored earth. No people or structures exist in the wastes. Tacna is some mish mash of border town and tourist trap for Chileans looking for a favorable exchange rate.… Read the rest
4/17/2015 Arequipa
Yesterday we went for the Arequipa free walking tour. It was great. Saw some Camelids again but at a much nicer wool store/museum than the bus tour. We saw the volcanoes and had some chocolate, Pisco, and Chicha. After we went to the Santa Catalina Monastery and walked around at dusk. The twilight was great for pictures of that stunning place.… Read the rest
4/16/2015 Arequipa, Peru
We’ve been in Arequipa for a week. I was sick for a couple days. The weather here is beautiful now. We must’ve arrived for the last day of the rainy season. We arrived at our hostel in the evening to a large welcoming committee. Julianne and Junior had organized some Uno in the kitchen. Jill and I were rather exhausted from a 10 hour bus ride that should’ve been 8.… Read the rest
4/10/2015 Cusco Peru
4/10/2015 Cusco Peru
We’ve been moving fast with little down time. We left Lima behind and traveled by bus to Cusco. It took 21 hours and Jill was under the weather most of the time. We got here at 3 pm and found our way to the hostel in the rain. We spent 2.5 days wandering around Cusco. It rained and was a little on the chilly side.
… Read the rest