I'm going to write up a real post but this is too good

A few Days of Planning

Now that we are here and situated, planning has become the task at hand. We've already become used to the fact that leaving the house for an extended period of time before about 4pm is a bad idea. It's pretty much always 80+ and sunny in Lima (except today - it's oddly foggy) and that equator sun cooks like Jack Dejohnette. So we've spent a lot of time planning, sitting on hold with the slowest customer service agents on earth, and watching Arrested Development in Spanish.

Groceries have been the name of the game, as we have been drinking too much beer to save much on eating out. Don't be concerned, the drinking is to keep down body temperature... yeah. Anyway... the grocery store. Honestly I wanted to write a post consisting only of a grocery list, but decided there is no need to brag. Maybe just a little bragging. We been eating cheap! Bread might as well be free here, and fresh veggies are about the same.  This leads to the obvious result of fresh guacamole with eggs, bread, and homemade hot sauce every day. Though my hot sauce recipe needs a lot of work.

Homemade queso fresco taquenos, guacamole, and hot sauce. And a Mango. 

Onward! To things other than food.

More tidbits about Lima
- Most houses and apartments are gated with some sort of doorman or security guard. Pretty cool
- The doorman spend much of their day talking to the thousands of city security (not police), street cleaners, and ice cream venders that roll by. It's interesting how many people are employed solely to keep Lima nice. Yes I am including ice cream venders in the group, even though I assume they are not employed by the city. Like I said - it's hot!
- Trash is picked up multiple times per day, so most people throw out only small amount at a time. Very convenient considering toilet paper can not go in the toilet.
- Lima's second ever artisanal beer fest was yesterday, which consisted of 11 breweries and maybe 100 people packed into what would be used as a broom closet at any beer fest in America. Many beers were good, some were bad, and all were Peruvian. A very good time at what appears to be the spores of an excellent beer scene
- Pisco is an interesting beverage. I expected aromatic vodka, what we got was more akin to tequila with white grape undertones. It is more or less a white brandy. Goes great with Peruvian citrus drink.

The cheap stuff

Santa Semana, the week leading up to Easter, is coming, so we are attempting to make our way to Arequipa for the festivities. Arequipa is a city about 13 hours southeast of Lima. We had plane tickets, then we didn't, then we did, now we don't, but might be getting them still! Never fly Avianca! Travel is the one thing that is not much cheaper here. Although those plane tickets were a REALLY good deal, I'm talking $45 per ticket, they seem to be an anomaly that lead us to customer service hotline hell. I'm about ready to buy a car, as our options are dwindling. If you want us to get a nice car, send your donations! Or your cars! While you are writing the checks, please excuse me so I can make some breakfast.

I Like This Place

Mark this March 22. I'm having some trouble with pictures and formatting. Please bear with me and check out the 'pictures' link for more.

 

This post was supposed to be about my terrible morning at the airport, but there's been too much good since then to consider complaining anymore. Let's just say drinking several glasses of whiskey and sleeping for three hours before waking up to go to the airport is a bad idea. No matter how good the rye is. Onward, then.

 

After landing, I checked in to the hostel in the Miraflores district of Lima, which is near the beach, and went to meet my convenient tour guide Russell, who is a friend of VJ's. Good dude. Big help. We roamed, ate, drank some beer, and discussed possible courses of action. Now I have a big list of things to do. 

 

Thing I've learned about Lima thus far:

 

It's hot.

It's crowded

The size - holy lord is it big

The noise - Currently I can hear, among the passing cars and their incessant honking, some sort of woodwind instrument, continuous beeping from god knows where, a bird (maybe? Maybe a lamb?) people shouting, a baby crying, and a circular saw.

The drivers - are insane.

There are a lot of bananas
And finally, earning a whole rambling paragraph,
 

The food - is my new favorite. Honestly I'm afraid this is going to quickly turn into a food blog because it might be the most amazing thing about this place. I know the people are friendly, as are they beautiful, the climate is lovely, and the beaches are yada yada yada… none of it matters. FOOD! Only the food matters. Arroz con Pollo, frijoles, guacamole, chicarròn, lucuma, lucuma ice cream, taqueñas, can't get enough of dat hot sauce… there will be no way for me to truly convey the freshness of the fruit and the perfect spiciness of the chicken and pork, and turkey, and beef, mmm. I haven't even started on the seafood. Tomorrow I plan on hitting up a recommended ceviche spot. Other things I am looking forward to include pisco, chicha, peruvian chinese food called chifa, and beef neck. I knew the word for the beef neck last night, but now I forget. Lo siento.

 

VJ gets in tonight. We are staying at Russ's place in the Surco district, which is a relatively nice spot, but there is not much to do. I think we'll end up back in Miraflores tomorrow. Hostel is possible. Not sure. Will update. Bye.
 

4:57 to Lima

Revamp time!

Though I provided exactly zero updates between leaving Vail and this exact moment, I can assure everyone that the Washington, Montana, and San Francisco leg of the trip was a great time. My excuse for failing to update is easy - I finally had some real, live humans to interact with. It was very distracting. I will admit that people exist in Colorado as well (and have photographic evidence to prove it), so maybe my excuse should be that I got lazy. My faulty memory laments the lack of posts, and I may write about them eventually, but let's forget about those wonderful places and times for now in order to focus on the present...

It is Saturday March 21. I am at the Fort Lauderdale airport awaiting my flight to Lima, Peru. This is an unbounded trip with no solidified plans and no ticket home (technically, I'll explain later) - my kind of journey. Join your favorite travel blogger (me) and everyone's good friend VJ for such adventures as: wandering aimlessly in Lima, drinking too much Pisco in Pisco, and celebrating Easter like a Catholic. In other news, stay tuned for my upcoming rant about my morning at the airport. ¡Salud!

 



As I do not yet have any pictures from the trip, enjoy this painting by my great-grahmaw Roberts

BerryPicker, Hanging Lake, and a Hike with Dad

A few days in Jess and I hiked up Berrypicker trail to the summit of Vail Mountain. We were the only people headed up, it seemed. A crisp 3000ft elevation increase over about 3mi. Moving again felt good. I did not take pictures at the summit due to the fact that the summit of Vail mountain is covered in buildings and lifts. I did, however, take pictures of the journey up, which only lasted 2 hours. It was a joyous time.

This summer has been an unusually wet one in Vail. Rainstorms rolled through for roughly half of the three weeks I spent in the valley, though only a couple days were completely rained out. The storms combined with our lack of a car made traveling a bit rough. Biking and hiking were our sole modes of transport. Luckily the area is full of bike trails and hiking opportunities are literally everywhere.

The second hike of note is the notorious Hanging Lake, which is a short hike (~2mi) up what is basically a staircase. I think the vertical was near 1500ft. The heavily traveled path is well-worn and full of hikers. It is overall a simple hike which leads to a confusingly beautiful location.

Dad flew into Denver two weeks after I got to Vail. Another joyous experience. Jess and I joined him on a hike to Booth Lake, which is north of Vail. The trail head itself is just across the highway from the resort, but due to a crowded parking lot we were forced to park about a mile down the highway and bushwhack our way in. Though we didn't make it all the way to the lake, it was worth the effort. Most activities out there seem to be worth the effort.

So we hiked up a ravine onto a ridge, followed the ridge to it's end, and more or less slid down a slope to the actual trail head. From there we hiked about halfway to our destination before turning around. I have some pictures from there that I can't upload yet. Later.

Overall the Vail Valley is a great place. I will be back. Today I am seated in Denver International Airport on my way to Seattle and Bellingham, WA before heading into the Montana wilderness.

Leaving Vail

Today we leave Vail to check out Denver and the plains. Tomorrow I hop on a plane to Seattle. The Vail recap is just a draft now, and will be finished on the plane.

A Formal Apology for My Lethargy!

I feel bad about not posting so much anymore. By this point I assume no one would be checking, but I must push on! I need to get a blurb about the road trip out then I'll move on.  It was nice, but overall uneventful. An 8-hour trip turned into 9.5 when I decided Nebraska was boring me. I turned west into Wyoming. There were no regrets.

Colorado is a pretty cool place. Almost as wonderful a place as they make it out to be. The mountains begin west of Denver. Until then the land is very much the same as what I was familiar with - rolling, endless plains. The Rockies change the scenery rather abruptly. Obviously. From a distance they look like gray clouds. As you approach, the enormous rocks jutting out of the landscape become a bit more intimidating, and then you enter the valley. Towering mountains and cliffs of red, grey, and green surround the valley. The roads are on bridges and mountainsides with steep grades and everyone drives 90mph.

I arrived in perfect time to sit through the closing rush at the shop Jess works at.
Since arriving I have done a lot of relaxing, thus the lack of posts.  The past couple weeks have been spent eating, sleeping, drinking, riding around Vail, and hiking. Also hanging out with Jessy and Eric.

My next post will be about some of the hikes around here. Maybe some day to day too. Who knows. As for now I have bike ride to get out of the way before a hike to Booth Lake.