http://picasaweb.google.com.au
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Finally some pictures
You can see our selection of non blurry photos (about 10%) at the link below.
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/meriboots/PeruAndUSA/
http://picasaweb.google.com.au
Ride the Deuce
Las Vegas was the final stop on our American adventure. It was supposed to be gentle relax by the pool, but because the rest of the our trip had been all go go go, it was hard to switch to that mindset, so we had to do something, anything! Not being great gamblers (as in really bad), we were content with a bit more shopping!
Obviously you don't shop on the strip, that is far too expensive. Luckily there are outlet malls at both ends. The bad part is that although they are not far away the strip bus (the Deuce) takes forever because the traffic is mental and the stupid thing stops at every casino. If it wasn't 40C outside then it would be quicker to walk. When you get on the recorded voice over commends you to "ride the deuce", before it tells you what the next stop is. Maybe Meredith has a problem with the American accent, but she thought it was saying "ride the douche". Perhaps this is one those things that happen in Vegas and stay there.
Our accommodation was sufficiently lux being the 5 star Bellagio. It was quite classy, which is a hard thing to do in the garish desert paradise that is Vegas. The room had a totally marble bathroom, and the hotel has like six pools. Plus, there was somebody getting married in the chapel that looked like they had actually planned it before hand, and wasn't the result of too many vodka cruisers. Unfortunatly, we couldn't stay there the whole time because the weekend rate was double the weekday rate we got, so for the last night we had to stay in the 1 star less lux planet hollywood. It was ok, but the pools were much crappier and the inside was proliferated with time share hawkers which the classier joints do without.
We did do a little bit of gambling, but Matt was too afraid to play at the table so we tried the machine black jack instead. Suffice to say, it cheated and stole our money.
So in conclusion, things to do in Vegas:
Obviously you don't shop on the strip, that is far too expensive. Luckily there are outlet malls at both ends. The bad part is that although they are not far away the strip bus (the Deuce) takes forever because the traffic is mental and the stupid thing stops at every casino. If it wasn't 40C outside then it would be quicker to walk. When you get on the recorded voice over commends you to "ride the deuce", before it tells you what the next stop is. Maybe Meredith has a problem with the American accent, but she thought it was saying "ride the douche". Perhaps this is one those things that happen in Vegas and stay there.
Our accommodation was sufficiently lux being the 5 star Bellagio. It was quite classy, which is a hard thing to do in the garish desert paradise that is Vegas. The room had a totally marble bathroom, and the hotel has like six pools. Plus, there was somebody getting married in the chapel that looked like they had actually planned it before hand, and wasn't the result of too many vodka cruisers. Unfortunatly, we couldn't stay there the whole time because the weekend rate was double the weekday rate we got, so for the last night we had to stay in the 1 star less lux planet hollywood. It was ok, but the pools were much crappier and the inside was proliferated with time share hawkers which the classier joints do without.
We did do a little bit of gambling, but Matt was too afraid to play at the table so we tried the machine black jack instead. Suffice to say, it cheated and stole our money.
So in conclusion, things to do in Vegas:
- See the Bellagio fountain show, it's better than half the shows you pay for.
- Go to the north strip and see the roof light show, aka. the Freemont St experience.
- Have breakfast at the spice market buffet (in Planet Hollywood) and don't eat for the rest of the day.
- Circus circus, it sounds like fun, but is actually filth.
- Mexicans flicking cards with call girl numbers at you, cos the girls don't look like the ones on the cards (i have heard).
- Timeshare hawkers, unless you are too cheap to pay for a show yourself (they'll give you free tickets) and have the fortitude to withstand the withering sales attack they will mount on you.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Hello Again
Phew, we finally made it home again and Biddy totally remembered us which is a great relief. This is just a quick note to let you know that we made it back safely. Our final stop on in the US was in Las Vegas, and we will have update to let you know our thoughts about that destination shortly.
Everyone we have talked to that have been really love Vegas, and i will admit that it has a certain sleezy charm, but be aware that if you visit you may encounter a somewhat less sophisticated demographic.
Everyone we have talked to that have been really love Vegas, and i will admit that it has a certain sleezy charm, but be aware that if you visit you may encounter a somewhat less sophisticated demographic.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The District of Columbia
After returning from the concrete jungle of NY, Washington comes off as a very pleasant change. It has wide roads, plenty of trees, and the traffic isn't too fierce; much like Canberra. Unlike Canberra however, it is great to visit, has heaps to see and has a decent public transport system.
Walking around town it is hard to believe that it used to be the murder capital of the world (might still be no.1 in the US). Apparently there have been 150 homicides to date this year, but we didn't get shot once, so we should celebrate i guess. So although the city and many of the suburbs are quite pleasant it is a good idea not to go too far into the outskirts.
Anyway, the good bits we saw were many and varied. The museum sector (the Smithsonians) has plenty to see, although we did think that some of the museums needed a bit of updating and were not as good as the equivalent museums on London. For example, from the exhibits in the digital aviation section of the air and space museum looked to have been developed in the late 80s. The Zoo was pretty good and free, but after you have a wild monkey jump on your head, animals in cages seem kind of passe.
The Holocaust museum is a must see. Very depressing to be sure, but it fleshes out many of the historical aspects of the events surrounding the rise of Nazism, WW2 and the events themselves that you might not be aware of. It is also a stark reminder of the inhumanity that can be wrought by men with the wrong motivations.
The really good bits were the cultural sites like Arlington cemetary, the Lincoln memorial and the National Cathedral which reminds you of all the good things America has done in the past so you can kind of get past all the bad things George Bush has done. It gave us hope that the next president might be able to put some of it right anyway.
All in all we enjoyed visiting DC very much and heartily recommend it to fellow travellers.
Also a big thanks to Jenna and Jay for letting us stay. You guys are top hosts and it was great to catch up!
Walking around town it is hard to believe that it used to be the murder capital of the world (might still be no.1 in the US). Apparently there have been 150 homicides to date this year, but we didn't get shot once, so we should celebrate i guess. So although the city and many of the suburbs are quite pleasant it is a good idea not to go too far into the outskirts.
Anyway, the good bits we saw were many and varied. The museum sector (the Smithsonians) has plenty to see, although we did think that some of the museums needed a bit of updating and were not as good as the equivalent museums on London. For example, from the exhibits in the digital aviation section of the air and space museum looked to have been developed in the late 80s. The Zoo was pretty good and free, but after you have a wild monkey jump on your head, animals in cages seem kind of passe.
The Holocaust museum is a must see. Very depressing to be sure, but it fleshes out many of the historical aspects of the events surrounding the rise of Nazism, WW2 and the events themselves that you might not be aware of. It is also a stark reminder of the inhumanity that can be wrought by men with the wrong motivations.
The really good bits were the cultural sites like Arlington cemetary, the Lincoln memorial and the National Cathedral which reminds you of all the good things America has done in the past so you can kind of get past all the bad things George Bush has done. It gave us hope that the next president might be able to put some of it right anyway.
All in all we enjoyed visiting DC very much and heartily recommend it to fellow travellers.
Also a big thanks to Jenna and Jay for letting us stay. You guys are top hosts and it was great to catch up!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
I want to be a part of it........
We have finally left Peru to start our US leg. After a quick stop in Washington DC to say hello to Jenna and Jay, we caught the bus out to New York. We had been warned off catching commuter buses in the US, but at the less than half the price of the train we thought we would take a punt. Strangely after having ridden public buses in Peru it didn't phase us at all. The bus and fellow passengers were actually quite pleasant, the only problem being the we didn't get to sit together because we got on at the second stop and there were no adjacent seats left.
Almost as soon as we arrived in NY Matthew was able to tick off one of his life goals. We had investigated getting tickets to one of Matt's favourite shows, The Late Show with David Letterman, before we left Australia. You had to put in your details online, what time you would be in New York and just hope for the best. It looked like your chances would be slim so we didn't bother. Little did we know that on any given day, apparently they need to fill up some empty seats, and they give those out on the street! We just happened upon someone giving them out on our way to the hotel. We couldn't believe it, but two hours later we were watching the show. The set looks a lot bigger on the TV, but i think that is true for all TV shows. The show is filmed at 3.30pm so isn't shown live, but is certainly taped live. They do everything to the minute including all ad breaks, and is shown as is without editing. The guests on that day were Danny Divito, Larry David and Avril Lavign (Danny and Avril are very small in real life).
Almost right after that we went down to get tickets to a Broadway show. We just can't help ourselves when it comes to musicals after all. After a bit of debate we decided to see Wicked, which is based on the book about the secret lives of the Witches of Oz. Matt quite liked it, but Meredith had her critics hat on that night and could only give it three stars.
The next day we climbed the Empire State building, which is well worth it because from there you can see the entirety of Manhatten island. We grabbed the audio tour which is quite handy for identifying all of the neighbourhoods which just melt into one another. From up there the city looks quite compact like you could walk from one end to the other without much difficulty. Hmm, not true. We discovered this after making the brilliant decision to take a quick walk down to china town to get Yum Cha for lunch. 8 hours later (seemed like) , 4 sore feet and 2 moody diners later we were sitting down to chicken's feet and beef balls. Let's just say the selection in Haymarket is far superior.
Needless to say we caught the subway the rest of the way down to the dock area. From there we caught the Ellis island ferry out to the statue of Liberty and Ellis island, but we were so stuffed we took the obligatory tourist shots and slunk back in the stalls and just enjoyed the breeze in our hair.
The 'Pod Hotel' where we had checked in the previous night had well and truly lived up to its namesake (funky, but no room to swing a cat here people) so that evening we decided to grab tickets to another show. This time it was a production called 'Avenue Q' which has an ensemble cast of actors and puppets. It started as an off-broadway number a few years ago and has gone on to win a Tony award for best musical and a spot on the main boulevard. It was very tongue in cheek and was poking fun at all the Seasame St truisms that we learnt as little people in the 80's. Think Big Bird meets the cast of Rent. It was a good laugh and we slid into our 'Pod' that night buggered, but toe-tapping at the same time.
The next day we had a long stroll through central park before the bus home. It is quite amazing how bushy it feels considering it is packed into the middle of one of the densest cities on earth. While we were there we saw some people with official amazing race clues running by. We asked what they were doing. They said it was just a game, but we think they were secretly trying out for the show.
Almost as soon as we arrived in NY Matthew was able to tick off one of his life goals. We had investigated getting tickets to one of Matt's favourite shows, The Late Show with David Letterman, before we left Australia. You had to put in your details online, what time you would be in New York and just hope for the best. It looked like your chances would be slim so we didn't bother. Little did we know that on any given day, apparently they need to fill up some empty seats, and they give those out on the street! We just happened upon someone giving them out on our way to the hotel. We couldn't believe it, but two hours later we were watching the show. The set looks a lot bigger on the TV, but i think that is true for all TV shows. The show is filmed at 3.30pm so isn't shown live, but is certainly taped live. They do everything to the minute including all ad breaks, and is shown as is without editing. The guests on that day were Danny Divito, Larry David and Avril Lavign (Danny and Avril are very small in real life).
Almost right after that we went down to get tickets to a Broadway show. We just can't help ourselves when it comes to musicals after all. After a bit of debate we decided to see Wicked, which is based on the book about the secret lives of the Witches of Oz. Matt quite liked it, but Meredith had her critics hat on that night and could only give it three stars.
The next day we climbed the Empire State building, which is well worth it because from there you can see the entirety of Manhatten island. We grabbed the audio tour which is quite handy for identifying all of the neighbourhoods which just melt into one another. From up there the city looks quite compact like you could walk from one end to the other without much difficulty. Hmm, not true. We discovered this after making the brilliant decision to take a quick walk down to china town to get Yum Cha for lunch. 8 hours later (seemed like) , 4 sore feet and 2 moody diners later we were sitting down to chicken's feet and beef balls. Let's just say the selection in Haymarket is far superior.
Needless to say we caught the subway the rest of the way down to the dock area. From there we caught the Ellis island ferry out to the statue of Liberty and Ellis island, but we were so stuffed we took the obligatory tourist shots and slunk back in the stalls and just enjoyed the breeze in our hair.
The 'Pod Hotel' where we had checked in the previous night had well and truly lived up to its namesake (funky, but no room to swing a cat here people) so that evening we decided to grab tickets to another show. This time it was a production called 'Avenue Q' which has an ensemble cast of actors and puppets. It started as an off-broadway number a few years ago and has gone on to win a Tony award for best musical and a spot on the main boulevard. It was very tongue in cheek and was poking fun at all the Seasame St truisms that we learnt as little people in the 80's. Think Big Bird meets the cast of Rent. It was a good laugh and we slid into our 'Pod' that night buggered, but toe-tapping at the same time.
The next day we had a long stroll through central park before the bus home. It is quite amazing how bushy it feels considering it is packed into the middle of one of the densest cities on earth. While we were there we saw some people with official amazing race clues running by. We asked what they were doing. They said it was just a game, but we think they were secretly trying out for the show.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
The Secret of Monkey Island
Arriving in the Jungle was a welcome relief after quite some time at altitude. The was thicker, but also much hotter and humid, so maybe not so much better as more like home.
We had to take a trip up stream for justy over an hour to reach our eco lodge. The eco part being that they didn't have mains electricity or heated the eco-pool (seriously that's what they called it). the river we travelled up was huge; by my estimation more than 100m wide in places. It was technically not the Amazon river, but fed into it. You can see from the plane when you fly in and out that the river snakes up and down, but on the boat it is so vast that you can't tell.
Arriving at the lodge we were greeted by the resident tapir, Karina. She was quite domesticated and was happy to have people around. Meredith even gave her a pat while she was taking a nap.
From the lodge our first excursion was a trip over to Monkey Island, which was on the other side fo the river. We have seen plenty of monkeys in zoos but never this close in natural habitat. Meredith goes "Hey I'll stand over here next to this four fingered spider monkey (one on a lower branch) and you take a picture to show how close we got". The monkey proceeded to launch on to her head. How close we got indeed!
It was a bit of a scary moment because neither of us have had rabies shots, but we are happy to report that she received no bites or scratches and the guide was able to 'coax' her away with a large stick. It also had really soft hands, like it moisturised its four fingers every day!
The next day we had a longer more involved trip deeper into the jungle. After travelling further up the river on our motor canoe, We grabbed paddles and peeled off into an inlet to the Lost Lagoon to look for wildlife. We saw quite a few tortoise families and a few caimen aligators. They were mostly juniors so not really big. The guide said they can grow up to 6-7 metres... Yawn, let us know when they are 17 metres and they can eat a buffalo whole like the boys back home and we might be interested!
On the way back the guide was able to coax a tarantula out of its hole which was cool, they are big hairy suckers, though mostly non-lethal to humans.
Here is a list of the other fauna we saw:
We had to take a trip up stream for justy over an hour to reach our eco lodge. The eco part being that they didn't have mains electricity or heated the eco-pool (seriously that's what they called it). the river we travelled up was huge; by my estimation more than 100m wide in places. It was technically not the Amazon river, but fed into it. You can see from the plane when you fly in and out that the river snakes up and down, but on the boat it is so vast that you can't tell.
Arriving at the lodge we were greeted by the resident tapir, Karina. She was quite domesticated and was happy to have people around. Meredith even gave her a pat while she was taking a nap.
From the lodge our first excursion was a trip over to Monkey Island, which was on the other side fo the river. We have seen plenty of monkeys in zoos but never this close in natural habitat. Meredith goes "Hey I'll stand over here next to this four fingered spider monkey (one on a lower branch) and you take a picture to show how close we got". The monkey proceeded to launch on to her head. How close we got indeed!
It was a bit of a scary moment because neither of us have had rabies shots, but we are happy to report that she received no bites or scratches and the guide was able to 'coax' her away with a large stick. It also had really soft hands, like it moisturised its four fingers every day!
The next day we had a longer more involved trip deeper into the jungle. After travelling further up the river on our motor canoe, We grabbed paddles and peeled off into an inlet to the Lost Lagoon to look for wildlife. We saw quite a few tortoise families and a few caimen aligators. They were mostly juniors so not really big. The guide said they can grow up to 6-7 metres... Yawn, let us know when they are 17 metres and they can eat a buffalo whole like the boys back home and we might be interested!
On the way back the guide was able to coax a tarantula out of its hole which was cool, they are big hairy suckers, though mostly non-lethal to humans.
Here is a list of the other fauna we saw:
- giant guinea pig
- tucans and macaws
- anaconda (ok, so we only got to see a tiny bit of its body because it was hiding in the swamp, but it was still cool).
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Trekkers return!
The main focus of the second half of our tour in Peru was our trek to Lares through the Sacred Valley.
The Trek was as hard as we expected but met our expectation in every way. The adventure was was 44km over 3 days. The most challenging part was on day 2 when we had two mountain passess to cover at an altitude of over 4800 mtrs! As it turned out we crossed the first pass through a snow shower!
We can't complain though because helping us through the whole trek were two horseman to carry our gear (Illias and Ubung) as well as our chef Phillippe, his helper Hector and our local guide Julian. We felt really spoilt because this crew weren't servicing a group of 12 people—oh no—they were there solely for senoritos Matthew and Meredith! We were the only people on this particular trek because all the other gringos were doing the more famous Inca Trail.
You wouldn't believe the set up on these trips. The meals were as good as you would be served in any restaurant and we felt as though we never stopped eating. On the first day for example, lunch consisted of an avocado entree with thousand island dressing, quinoa soup, pasta with two different kinds of sauce and fruit salad! On our last morning, we were even served a decorated, freshly baked cake!!! We still have no idea how they pulled that one off!
Along the way we saw all sorts of great animals and landscapes including beautiful lakes and waterfalls, small hamlets with houses made from stone and mountain grass, llamas and alpacas, all sorts of birdlife and even some chinchillas! We also made friends with local kids along the way and even had a successful game of hopscotch with some keen beans.
Meeting all the kids was a real highlight of the trip for us both. On one day we met a little boy who was walking to school. When we met him he had already been walking for an hour and he still had some way to travel. So he was happy we think to walk along holding Meredith's hand for a while before he went on his merry way. We discovered afterwards that he was only 6 years old!
We crossed several sections of raods with sheer cliffs, but the only hairy event occurred after we had crossed the second mountain pass and thought the worst of it was behind us. We still had to desend another 1000m to reach our camp, and Meredith had more trouble going down than going up. On one of the last sections before nightfall Meredith had a slip and started rolling down the hill towards a sharp drop. Luckily our brilliant guide heard her slip, spun around and dived down the hill after her, securing her after a couple of rotations. Fortunately the only injury she sustained was to her dignity and we all had a good belly laugh after the event.
After conquering the hairy bits, our third and final day culminated in a visit to some hot springs which proved to be a great remedy for aching muscles and weary knees. Meanwhile all our helpers were loading the gear onto the horses and getting ready to turnaround and walk another 40kms back to where they live— in their sandals!
It was certainly a great experience for us to complete the trek and we're proud to say we didn't need the services of the "emergency horse". We're pretty sure the the emergency horse was equally relieved having sized us up against your average Peruvian!!
The Trek was as hard as we expected but met our expectation in every way. The adventure was was 44km over 3 days. The most challenging part was on day 2 when we had two mountain passess to cover at an altitude of over 4800 mtrs! As it turned out we crossed the first pass through a snow shower!
We can't complain though because helping us through the whole trek were two horseman to carry our gear (Illias and Ubung) as well as our chef Phillippe, his helper Hector and our local guide Julian. We felt really spoilt because this crew weren't servicing a group of 12 people—oh no—they were there solely for senoritos Matthew and Meredith! We were the only people on this particular trek because all the other gringos were doing the more famous Inca Trail.
You wouldn't believe the set up on these trips. The meals were as good as you would be served in any restaurant and we felt as though we never stopped eating. On the first day for example, lunch consisted of an avocado entree with thousand island dressing, quinoa soup, pasta with two different kinds of sauce and fruit salad! On our last morning, we were even served a decorated, freshly baked cake!!! We still have no idea how they pulled that one off!
Along the way we saw all sorts of great animals and landscapes including beautiful lakes and waterfalls, small hamlets with houses made from stone and mountain grass, llamas and alpacas, all sorts of birdlife and even some chinchillas! We also made friends with local kids along the way and even had a successful game of hopscotch with some keen beans.
Meeting all the kids was a real highlight of the trip for us both. On one day we met a little boy who was walking to school. When we met him he had already been walking for an hour and he still had some way to travel. So he was happy we think to walk along holding Meredith's hand for a while before he went on his merry way. We discovered afterwards that he was only 6 years old!
We crossed several sections of raods with sheer cliffs, but the only hairy event occurred after we had crossed the second mountain pass and thought the worst of it was behind us. We still had to desend another 1000m to reach our camp, and Meredith had more trouble going down than going up. On one of the last sections before nightfall Meredith had a slip and started rolling down the hill towards a sharp drop. Luckily our brilliant guide heard her slip, spun around and dived down the hill after her, securing her after a couple of rotations. Fortunately the only injury she sustained was to her dignity and we all had a good belly laugh after the event.
After conquering the hairy bits, our third and final day culminated in a visit to some hot springs which proved to be a great remedy for aching muscles and weary knees. Meanwhile all our helpers were loading the gear onto the horses and getting ready to turnaround and walk another 40kms back to where they live— in their sandals!
It was certainly a great experience for us to complete the trek and we're proud to say we didn't need the services of the "emergency horse". We're pretty sure the the emergency horse was equally relieved having sized us up against your average Peruvian!!
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