…days there: 89

…countries I visited: 3

…cities I spent at least one night in: 14

…days my stomach wanted to jump out of my body: 2

…times I used a laundry place: around 9

…bridges I jumped off: 1

…nights I drank alcohol: 65

…posts I wrote for this blog: 70

…nights spent camping: 0

…haircuts: 4

…times I got robbed: 0

…longest continuous bus ride: 17 hours

…fights I’ve seen between at least two South American men: 4

…car/motorcycles crashes I saw: 3

…times I rode on the back of a motorcycle: 3

…Beaches I swam at: 3

…hospitals I’ve stepped foot in: 0

…drug or vaccine injections: 0

…times I was awaken by dorm-mates having sex: 2

…girls I met that I’d consider dating long term: 1

…pairs of glasses I broke: 2

…books I read: 3

…times I thought I may not make it out of South America alive: 3

…South American countries I have visited: 5

…hostel room in a small Cusco, Peru: $4

…hostel room in a small Sao Paulo, Brazil: $25

…hostel room in a small Bogota, Colombia: $7.50

…Highest city visited: 10,800 ft.

…Islands visited: 2

…money spent calling the United States: $17.00

…money I spent in South America: $8,500.00

…money I earned in South America: $6,500.00

…money I would have spent had I gone now with so many economies in the shitter: $6,000.00

…price of my plane ticket from Philadelphia – Atlanta – Bogotá – Lima – Sao Paulo – Atlanta – Philadelphia: $1025

…regrets: 0

Is this a gay (rainbow flag) memorial for a famous dead rapper?

(Yea yea I know he was an Incan emporer and its just a local flag (non gay)

Who decided it would be smart to name a street, “Street of Divorce?”

I grudgingly walk back to my hostel at 3am in Bogota, Colombia, after an amazing last night out where I met a beautiful girl met that night and would absolutely meet up with her again had I not been leaving in a few hours. Still, its a good way to leave on a high note like that. I grab my bags, call a taxi, and exchange goodbyes with friends.

The taxi driver is delusional, blasting poppy techno all the way to El Dorado while banging his head back and forth for laughs. Like always, I make it to the airport with lots of time to spare. My jeans reek of spilled beer and my hair is greasy from a long day. I look out of place amongst the South Americans with clean clothes, not reeking of beer and cologne.

I step off the plane in Lima, Peru, around 9am and follow the yellow path that is built like a maze into the actual airport.

I quickly leave the place to go exploring.

Some kind of gambling

Street vendors cooking rice, beans, stews, etc.

They even named a street after 2Pac

I am here in Cusco at just the right time as festivities begin at night. The Inti Raymi festival is the second largest festival in South America. Hundreds of thousands of people converge on Cuzco from other parts of the nation, South America and the world for a week long celebration marking the beginning of a new year, the Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun.

Just around the main plaza are a bunch of rather expensive restaurants. But most of these restaurants have balcony seating and I manage to get a table overlooking the parade. I manage to spend a few hours at Baghdad Cafe only spending $7 on a small appetizer.

The parade.

Later in the night I join in on the festivities and drink wildly with local families dressed in the typical traditional clothing. It’s a sight to see short, toothless men dressed in rainbow colored ponchos stumbling around with a bottle of wine in their hands. Or women carrying their baby in a sack, dancing while forcing down dixie cups of beer. The place is packed and maneuvering through the crowd is not working.

I wake up rather late the next morning in a shivering state. It’s freezing in this city when the sun is hiding behind the clouds. A cold shower is even worse.

I casually stroll back to the main plaza expecting to see the festivities. I am absolutely unaware that they take place at the ruins a nice hike up away from town. I am honestly the only person in the entire city who made this mistake.

I climb a massive hill in order to watch the Inti Raymi parade, celebrating the Incas. As i begin my climb a group of police rush down the steps past me.

Old women walking llamas and alpacas effortlessly pass me and other tourists on the way up.

I pass local vendors cooking up cuy (guinea pig) and other tasty meat as I continue uphill for a solid hour.

Everyone gathers on these massive rocks to watch the procession down below. I never experienced so many people in the same place at once until I reached Brazil. It was packed. The rocks are slippery and people constantly fall, knocking down others in their path.

My favorite stereotypical ugly tourist

I wake up the early at 4am to catch a train to the Machu Pichu! While many people opt to hike the Inca trail, I cannot be bothered to do that as I am on vacation. I know what it is like to go trekking at high altitudes and while worthwhile, it is not easy. I told myself I would never do it again after trekking in the Bolivian andes a few year back.

The train ride is freezing as I opted for a third class ticket on the “Backpacker” train. The train only takes passengers to a town close to the Machu Pichu at Aguas Caliente.

From there I board a bus full of Japanese package tourists up to the ruins.

Towards the end of the day I wander alone into one small hut and jump back as two alpacas are just chilling. The three of us spend the next hour staring at each other as we escaped the heat.

I board the bus back to Aguas Caliente with a bunch of old British package tourists this time,
and board the train back to Cusco. I board the second class train this time as the other is sold out. A long and deep conversation with a middle aged American tour agency owner is interrupted by a fashion show performed by to lovely train attendants.

I wandered a bunch walking all around Cusco each day. But the next day was solely that.

I wake up late after a long day at the Machu Picchu and wander into a market for lunch.

I buy a bag of coca leaves and force the woman to explain how to properly use them. My cluelessness is rather absurd because she and everyone she knows has been chewing them their whole life. Stupid Gringo. Chewing is done softly, trying not to crush them totally, only enough to break the cell membranes and then let them dissolve slowly in the saliva. When the half crushed leaves are sufficiently dampened (10-15 minutes), the chewer adds the llijta or any other alkaline agent (such as sodium bicarbonate).

A few minutes later, there is an intense anesthetic effect in the cheeks, throat and tongue. It is certain that the ingestion of the juice exerts an anesthetic effect on the lower intestinal tract and at the systemic level. This would explain the custom in Andean countries to chew coca leaves or take coca infusion to alleviate pain over a wide range: headaches, toothaches, intestinal cramps, etc. Its use is frequent as a dressing topically applied on the painful areas, for instance in the area of a broken bone or arthritis.

The absorption of alkaloids is rapid and the elimination of fatigue, a feeling of euphoria or antidepressant action is felt within 15 to 20 minutes, with the appearance of an increase of psychomotor action, a state of tension typical of alertness, there is an increase in activity or the desire to do something. Sensorial functions become more intense. The higher intellectual activities are faster, there is a slight feeling of consciousness expansion (which could explain its use during religious rituals). In the emotional area, the effect is stimulating, the individual feels euphoric, happy, optimistic, and willing to undertake action. Corporal needs, such as hunger, sleepiness, and restful are postponed by the energetic impulse of the time.

Just as I pop the first leaves in my mouth I run into a friend I met a month back in Colombia. Turns out he is shopping for the San Pedro Cactus to create a traditional hallucinogenic drink.

As I continue on wandering through Cusco I see a sign advertising bungee jumping. I make an impulse decision to go for it, and costing only $60, was a bargain.

[url]http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=oH3B_I83qPw[/url]

At this point I had enough with my hostel and managed to move up in the waiting list and secure a bed at a proper hostel with wooden floors and hot showers. A bunch of us (Europeans and Australians) pound a few $5 bottles of rum and walk to Cusco’s most popular discotec, Mama Africa’s.

It is almost a tourist attraction in itself because it always came up in conversation when I was traveling in other countries like Colombia or Ecuador.

I taxi it back to the airport in Cusco for my third flight that week for another day in Lima. My bargaining skills fast improve as I instead opt to walk completely away from the airport and hail a cab off the street, where I pay only 25 soles compared to 40 last time.

Lima is actually a city worth spending more days then people seem to recommend.

I begin my day with a visit to the Catacombs at a church, which served as the first official Catholic cemetery in Lima, at a time when the dead were laid to rest in catacombs beneath the church. I visit the catacombs and view the hundreds of centuries-old bones and scores of skulls as part of the guided tour.

Next stop is a black market.

I eat a big plate of fish ceviche for lunch.

I return back to downtown Lima to have a walk around the area.

I end up in Miraflores for stroll through the park and catch a free concert.

I return to my hostel just in time to join in on the festivities.

Overall I enjoyed my time in Peru. Like any country in the world, visiting for only 1 week meant I only scratched the surface of what Peru has to offer.

This is the first of many more updates to come in the following weeks. I am taking us far back to the end of June when I spent a quick week in Peru.

I really cannot say that bungee jumping is a highlight of my trip because nearly every day of the three months I spent in South America are highlights, even the bad days. But this video of me bungee jumping is hilarious.

Click to play the video!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Still, I have done things that I find far more frightening, like riding on the back of a motorcycle without a helmet…and even more scary; approaching women that I like…in a language I barely speak!

Oh, and please excuse my language in the video, I was bungee jumping!

I started my week in Peru flying from Bogota to Lima at 5 am. But before i flew to Lima I heard about the Inti Raymi festival, the biggest celebration in Cusco. Despite an expensive domestic flight to Cusco, being able to participate in the festival and a chance to visit the Machu Pichu made the decision worth it.
I slept most of the day and woke up just in time to see a little bit of Lima before my second red eye flight in a row to Cusco, a city situated about 11,000 feet high.
I arrived in Cusco and was denied space in the hostel because of the festival and had to settle for a $4 a night hostel where i met two Australians i would hang out with for the next few days.

After a bit of Coca tea and pancakes i began my wandering in Cusco.

The train tracks to the Machu Pichu

I found this indoor market and bought a bag of coca leaves. Coca leaves are used to make cocaine. But indigenous people also chew them as a mild stimulent and for a few days, so did i. Chewing the leaves basically numbs your mouth and is supposed to help with the altitude and stop hunger.

The next day I woke up pnçy to climb a massive hill in order to watch the Inti Raymi parade, celebrating the Incas.

On the way people were cooking cuy, also known as guinea pig in english.

These steps probably look steep and they were, but not nearly as tiring as the rest of the way up.

This was a view from just the first few minutes of climbing the hill to the Sexy Woman ruins where the parade was held.

However, the night before the entire city was out celebrating the start of the festival. Traditional looking Peruvians, tourists, modern looking peruvians, etc. were all partying, drinking, dancing, etc.

Each town nearby or neighboorhood would march through the streets in their costumes.

I did not drink because the next morning, at 4:30, i would wake up to get the train to the Machu Pichu.

The Incans built this incredible city and inside one of the buildings i found an Alpaca. Alpacas look like Llamas and are known for having the highest quality fur.

On the train ride back i hd an interesting conversation about life with a woman who started traveling at 17….she´s probably in her 50´s now. She owns a company that organizes a conference for the leaders in travel (the one´s that basically design tours, promote destinations….representatives of the tourism for various countries). Yeah, she got to see the Machu Pichu for work!

The Machu Pichu was excellent but from all of the walking I did, my awful bed, and a lack of sleep, i felt sick the next day and stayed in bed.

Feeling refreshed the next morning i took a walk mid day and passed many travel agencies advertising bunjee jumping. It only took a minute of consideration before i was paying a nice english speaking guide the $65.00 to go bungee jumping an hour later. We got in a taxi and 20 minutes later after driving further up in the mountains we arrived at an adventure park with paint
ball, bungee jumping, etc.

The guys working there strapped me into my harness and raised the platform where a minute later i listening to the words, 3……..2………1………and i jumped…………then screamed!

I am really glad i did it.

I went out that night with some new Irish friends from the hostel who i played cards with for most of the night, to Mama Africa, one of the local nightclubs.

But at 8:30, i taxied it to the airport for my 3rd flight in a week to return to Lima.

In Lima I toured the city, starting with a church that had underground catacombs that they buried over 25,000 people in. No pictures were allowed so i can´t show the thousands of bones scattered throughout them.

But afterwards i visited the city´s biggest black market to go shopping for dvd, clothes, etc.

I finished up in the city center with a movie, the end of days i think. The center was beautiful at night with its lights and churches.

When I returned to the hostel i met a group of Peruvians friends who were here for the party the hostel was throwing. We went out to another club and had a really fun time.

I woke up rather late the next day to eat one of the best lunches yet, fried fish! The restaurant was literally one block from the ocean so it figures.

Later in the day i took another taxi to the airport in order to board my flight to Sao Paulo, Brasil. And that´s where I have been the past 2 days.

I got weighed for the first time a few days ago when they fitted my harness to go bunjee jumping.

I already knew i lost some weight as evidenced by moving down three belt sizes but i did not know how much. It turns out I have lost over 15 pounds in my 6 weeks of travel.

I am skinny again!

How did this happen you may ask. I walk for hours most days, eat my first meal at 3 or 5 pm, sometimes a second at 8 or 9 pm, and never eat snacks or desert. The only reason this works for me is because i am so active doing stuff all day that i don´t even notice i am hungry! The only problem is i am likely going to gain all of this weight back when i get home back to my lifestyle of sitting around all day.