Halloween

There has been an absence in the travel report latly but it was for a good cause. That cause being HALLOWEEN, and halloween recovery.

The build up for the Halloween party this year resembled in many ways the precaustions NASA takes before a shuttle launch. Much elbow greese and help from family and friends.

But WHY? well unknow to many people, there was a secret experiment in ther early 70's that determined that Halloween was the "bestest holiday EVER." O.K. so this is just my opinion but it is a great holiday to get dressed up set a creepy mood and make spooky theamed food dishes.

I see that every year there is more and more Halloween crap on sale and I could not be more happy about it. I think they should start making Halloween fireworks. Something that explodes in the shape of a pumpkin, a screeming witch cone, or maybe a flaming bottle of petrol being thrown at a car (God knows that would scare me).

Anyway, the party got started and we had a haunted house this year. We had a good turn out with a lot of fun people showing up and some scaredy cats who would not even go in the haunted house. But, far be it from me to judge. I heard on the radio this morning that Bush had petitioned to be alowed to run again in 2008 becasue he was not officially "elected" in 2000 (the supreme court appointed him during the re-count fiasco, strike three for democracy) And since the Republicans do not have very strong canidates this year, Bush was actually considering running AGAIN. This new story was played straight but of course it turned out to be a joke. Non the less, for a second it scared me more than a marathon of slasher movies ever could, or for that matter, it was more scarry that a REAL slasher attacking me. In all fairness Cheney is the really creepy guy. Be honest, no matter what your political view, if you came home, went to put your coat away and Dick Cheney came jumping out of the closet your heart would stop, O.K. his might stop too, but just the thought brrrrrrr.
Oppp's too much coffee this morning back to Halloween. Halloween started as a Gaelic holiday celebrating the havest.

They thought on Oct 31st the border between the living and the dead was weakend and they dead would come back an destroy crops and livstock so they did what they could to stop this: They got drunk and had a party, why can't we come up with solutions like this for our modern day problems? OH wait we DO it's called: The WEEKEND.
Halloween is of course the shortening of "all-hallow-even" celebrated by those wacky European Pagens until Pope Gregory the III changed it to "all-saints-day" There was a short period when instead of Halloween they called it "Saintsween" but many sacreligious jokes were made and even the Pope could not say it without a holy giggle so the chuch gave into Halloween.

It turns out that Trick-or-treating did not start until the 1950's in the U.S. Before this time children simply sat at home eating sugar cubes in funny looking costumes. The first forays into Trick-or-Treating were pioneered by the sons of mobster who would ask for booze and cash "OR ELSE" this slowly sofened into our moderen day Trick-Or-treating tradition.
No matter how it started it reigns as a really fun holiday now which I fully suport and enjoy, hopfully next year we can start decorating for Haloween the day after the 4th of July.
The party was a big hit and we even had some government officials there. Mayor McCheese and his wife came out, although I think it was just a political nessesity that forced him to show up and try and rebuild his reputation in the face of his recent scandel.

In case you do not know, the Mayor was recently involved in a controvery where he might have been soliciting sex in a McDonalds bathroom stall. While the Mayor had no comment a witness at the scene was asked if he could be sure it was Mayor McCheese and responded "Um he has an enormous burger head, Yhea I'm pretty sure it was him".

We also had some Cosmos come out and party down with us. What are Cosmos? Well, you should know by now but if not, they are members of Cosmopolitan International a group that raises money to help fight childrens diabeties. It is a great group that I am a member of so go out right now and give some money to them. Unless of course you have something against CHILDREN WITH DIABITIES. But, it is that time of the year to give a little so even if it is not for Cosmos at least help out the comunity or donate some food.



Ohhhh creepy creepy, hope everyone had a good time, until next year
Boo!

The Bluffs Are Alive With the Sound of Music

A new event going on in Omaha is "Art In The Dark" where people gather at night and a movie is shown on the side of a building/museum. It was a fun event and this week was "The Sound of Music" I love the sound of music and have fond memories of watching it yearly with my family when I was growing up. We watched it on T.V., you know, when there were only four channels, and the VCR was not even invented yet. Oh my GOD I am becoming on of those old people who can remember when daily used technology was not even invented yet. I like to think this means that the world is just moving faster, NOT that I am getting older. Anyway, "The Sound of Music" is a wonderful musical movie that is historically misleading. When I was young I use to be soooooo happy that the Von Trap family made it into neutral Switzerland, peaceful, NEUTRAL Switzerland. A man can be SAFE in Switzerland, because once you cross that boarder NO ONE can get you in Switzerland. Craven, evil Nazis just run after you and once they hit the boarder of Switzerland they throw down their Luger's in disgust, raise their tiny fist toward the heavens and yell out "I'll GET YOU VON TRAP FAMILY SINGERS, If only you weren't in Neutral, neutral Switzerland!" Only years later did I learn (NOT at my worthless high school where the history teacher doubled as the football coach, OR more accurately the Football coach doubled as the history teacher) that Switzerland was not really the bastion of neutrality that the "Sound of Music" made it out to be. Uhhh got a little sidetracked there. Point is, with catchy songs I'm sure the Von Trap family could have ended the whole world war peacefully as soldiers from all sides laid down their weapons to join in a rousing variation of "Do-Ra-Mi".
So here I am years later watching "Sound Of Music" again and it really is a great movie although I have to ask "How many times does a man really need to sing "Edelweiss"? By the way the answer has been scientifically proven as: NONE.
Here is a photo of a friend who came along and had a hand puppet that would sing "Lonely Goatherd" it was the coolest puppet ever.

Even if it sometimes did not work as well as she wanted it too.

And on a last note, because it is always ascetically pleasing
Two Swedes in a field

Bolivia Bound

As a continued public service, for your video pleasure I will shoot out some more videos from South America. We had just left Peru and entered Bolivia. No more of that guinea pig eating, no sir, down here in Bolivia we rise to a higher standard. So if you have just bought a house in Bolivia get yourself to the market and buy a dried baby llama fetus or DBLF if you will. Then bury it in your back yard for good luck. I have to admit that every time I have buried a DBLF in my back yard I have had good luck for a week, makes me consider opening the first DBLF store in Nebraska.
Onto road construction. I have not figured this one out yet. Bolivia is a pretty conservative country. For the most part women do not have hold regular jobs, except selling food or goods in the market. We ran across these women doing road construction, maybe the traditional part is that they have to do it in their dresses. Martha Stewart can make some dandy Halloween crafts but I'd like to see her construct a road, or at least pour some concrete.


After LaPaz our next stop in Bolivia was Sucre. Sucre is the political center of Bolivia. This means that for a long time it was the capital and in theory it still is but in reality the capital is LaPaz because that is where all of the government is and where most commerce is taking place. Sucre is a college town for the most part and has some wonderful whit washed buildings and many of the trapping of a college town anywhere on earth, like many coffee houses, hip bars, good art scene and of course torch wielding protesters who march on city hall and are surrounded by riot police.

Their main complaint is that the seat of the government is in LaPaz and they want it to be moved back to Sucre and I personally can think of no better enticement than throwing flaming torches at city hall.
If government were that girl that wouldn't go out with you in high school and you were a rioting mob, than throwing torches is the equivalent to sobbing and blubbering out "but I really love you, why don't you like me?". It's all going to end in heart ache for Sucre believe me you.
Anyhoo, that is it for now next time I think might be the mines that we went into in Potosi but Halloween is coming up here so it might be a Scarry update. take care until next time.

Sweden Is Coming, Sweden Is Coming

Friends from Sweden came into town this week. Mostly they came to Omaha to see the well touristed interstate I-80, a legend in it's own time. Omaha has become the number one tourist destination for the Swedish people. Oh, and they are good friends with my wife but I do not think that had much to do with it.
So, my wife is stuck in the corporate world and working during the week while I have taken the road of self employment. This means that I was able to play the role of tour guide this week which ties in neatly to this blog. So where does one take a newly arrived Swede in Nebraska? Why, the General Crook House of course. "The What?..In where?" you might say. Or that is what I said before I did a little research and found out a little about our friend General Crook.

The General Crook House is a restored home on the Metro Campus in North Omaha. General Crook himself, went to the United States Military Academy where he graduated near the bottom of his class. He is the lowest ranked graduate ever, to rise to the rank of general. To me this says A: He did not fit in the academic structure and could only really fulfill his potential when applied to the realities of field command. or B: Slacker/First Hippie ever.
Once he graduated he served in Oregon and California fighting Native American tribes and started to gain a reputation as a "great Indian fighter"
He served under Ulysses S Grant in the civil war in West Virginia, where for several years in a row he won the prestigious "Most Crazy beard in The Union Award", and that is really saying something considering the beard growth at the time.

After the war he was sent to the Arizona territory to fight the Sioux, and then to Omaha in 1875 where he spoke out for Native American rights specifically for the Ponca tribe. He gained a reputation among the Native Americans as always keeping his word which was an easy reputation for him to dominate, as he was the only one to do so. He later went on to fight the Apaches in Arizona but ended up spending the rest of his days speaking out against the unjust treatment of the people he had been fighting against his whole life.
An interesting man and I am glad he had a cool house built right here in Omaha. Some fast facts: He did not like to wear his full uniform and the only time he was said to have put the whole thing on was at his funeral. He loved moccasins and wore them a lot because they were comfortable.
But onto the house. A photo of a Swede always makes an image look better.

The house itself was very nice as one might imagine. It is unusual to think of the wild frontier outside and this fancy house on the inside. Something that I found very stylish that I am thinking of putting in my own home? The Buffalo horn chair.

Nothing screams "COOL" more than a chair made out of buffalo horns. There was also a buffalo horn table and I think given time a man could make a buffalo horn candle obera, and a buffalo horn bath tub, although I will admit that water retention a pointy horns on naked skin could be the downfall of that latter.
There must have been a lot of "hanging out" back in the day, hanging out in full formal clothes. There was a reading room with some chair not made out of horns.

There was also a very pleasant garden outside.

I will conclude that the General Crook House was well worth the effort and a good chance to see a well restored home from 1875. A pleasant garden and an interesting man, just be sure to take someone from Sweden with you.

Peru Video

O.K. back to our semi-regular feature of videos from South America. After much gasping and praying to God we reach the top of the highest part of the Inca trail called "Dead woman's Pass" How high? oh, just about 13,500 feet. Not unlike the first time you fall in love or 2000 presidential election: it took my breath away.


All of the porters on the Inca trail chewed Coca leaves. The history of coca chewing dates back at least to the sixth century. Coca leaves have been used in ceremonies, as offerings to the Gods and has practical applications as well. What are those? First they are full of vitamins and protein, they alleviate hunger, and give a boost to energy, not unlike a cup of coffee would. Coca can also help relive altitude sickness, it was used as an anaesthetic for operations during Inca times and when chewed long enough starts to numb the mouth exactly like Novocaine. Everyone knows about the history of Coca-Cola and Cocaine BUT did you know that Coke still imports tons of coca leaves to use as "a taste enhancer" in their peppy little soda.
Cocaine is NOT coca, the process to make cocaine is long and involved. Cocaine has only been around since 1860 when Albert Niemann made some in his lab. After discovering cocaine, later that night he painted his house, did some push-ups, and bought a Lamborghini. Cocaine is, crystalline tropane alkaloid. Cocaine sulfate is produced by macerating coca leaves along with water that has been acidulated with sulfuric acid, or an aromatic-based solvent, like kerosene or benzene. This is often accomplished by placing the ingredients into a vat and stomping on it, in a manner similar to the traditional method for crushing grapes.
I only point all of this out to make the distinction between how the natives use coca leaves and how coca is perceived in the U.S. The er ratification policy forced on Bolivia is seen as a personal attack by the natives by people who do not understand/care about their culture. I do not this destroying the coca crops is the answer, I think the question we must answer is why does the U.S.A. use so much cocaine in the first place and how can we cut down on demand. The U.S. accounts for 50% of ALL cocaine consumption worldwide.
WOW, I really started to rant about that coca leaf thing, must have had too much coffee. Anyhoo, the real question is how do the coca leaves taste? I think my wife can answer that question.


So, after the Inca trail we took a train down to Puno. On the train as we slept a group of Peruvians snuck in. Very quietly they moved through the train and came to a stop next to where we were seated and then.........



And then they wanted a tip, instead I gave them a demand "Give me back my hearing!"
Now a view from the train of a typical Peruvian town

And I will end up with a parade that was going on out side, kids parading around town very cute.


Tune in next time for a trip around Omaha

Colorado, That place with big hills

Over the labor day weekend me and the wife took a trip out to Fort Collins Colorado, but first we had to get there. This entails a drive across the great state of Nebraska. Nebraska, "The Good Life" being the state motto should of course be changed to Nebraska, "Wow, I-80 sure is a long road to drive on through this state with not a whole lot to look at, Oh and the good life" I realize that the cost of making the signs bigger would break the budget, but since when has that stopped this state.

Me and the wife have friends in Colorado so we have made the trek several times but this time we found a way to make the trip fairly easy. We stopped half way. Yes, taking the night to sleep is a good idea on a trip though the grass lands. We ended up staying in North Platte and I have to give a thumbs up to the place we stayed at, Americas Best Value Inn was a friendly, clean place to stay on the cheap, about 45 bucks. I really like the name too, it gives me faith that all of those sushi places have not named their restaurant incorrectly but this is some sort of world wide advertising idea the places value on just throwing out a jumble of happy words at you. An example being I have seen sushi places called "Happy Number One Sushi", and "Sushi Number One Enjoy", and my favorite "Go Happy Number One Sushi" and yes, they ALL seem to be number one which begs the question "How sad it is to be Number Two Sushi?" OR they might be called "Very Sorry Unhappy Number Two Sushi"

Anyway, major sidebars aside, Americas Best Value "Happy Number One" Inn, may be just that so if you are rolling by North Platte give it a shot.

My other shout out to a place that surprise me on the way is Sterling, Colorado with a historic downtown and pleasant Northeastern Junior College campus we stopped by for breakfast at the J&L Cafe. We try to stop at local places as we go. It is the whole "avoid big chains and try to support local biz thing" This kind of philosophy can be trick as the quality of local places can vary wildly but that day we hit the jackpot. A small town feel with great service and non-greasy food (crazy but true.) I wish there was a place like this very close to me, like right outside my house. I also must say I am a sucker for any place that has a chef chasing a cow, pig AND a LOBSTER around with a cleaver. How Awesome is that, and that cow looks a little tired, tired enough to be dinner, HA.

So, back in the car and to Greeley Colorado our first stop before Fort Collins. Greeley is a nice town with a good downtown too, but the best thing and this gos for most of Colorado I would say, is the beer selection. I am a beer snob from way back, the smaller the micro brew, the more idiosyncratic the label, or the more pricey the beer the bigger sucker I am. Colorado is a heaven for this kind is indulgence. Sure they have bush, and old style but they put them in a corner where they are regularly beaten with sticks and made to clean the bathrooms. No, the real word of the day is "micro" in all of it's glory. New Belgium, Odell, Fort Collins Brewing, Big Horn Brewing, and so many more that Colorado is ranked third in the county for number of breweries, and brewpubs. Not only that but the selection of imported Belgian Ales is amazing, I love those ales, they are wonderful, they are great. I know this is not good writing but I am trying to make a point about the yummieness factor of Belgian ales. So, we bought some beer while in Colorado. The down side of beer is that sometimes it will make you do things like.....

In all fairness this friend of mine was NOT drunk or even drinking when he preformed the "Corn Dance" so it is up to you to decide if that is worse or not.

After a fun night in Greeley we headed up to Fort Collins, or the fifth most populous city in Colorado, that is their city tag line Fort Collins "The Fifth Most Populous City in Colorado, and the Good Life Also" it is a little belabored but at least factual.

In light of our recent South America trip, Fort Collins small 5000 feet was nothing although still enough to set off my ear non-popping issue that I brought back with me (thanks a lot for that South America!) Fort Collins turned out to be a great town with yet another cool downtown/old town area, beer, and trees all over the place. So, go there already and visit those big hills to the west I hear they are nice too. Next week Peru Videos.

I got to wear some big sunglasses too.

Back in the U.S.

We are back!

Most people already know we are back but I thought I would blog it anyway. Back in Nebraska and while I love traveling there are a few things that I like about being back. 1. Traffic lights. Oh how I have not appreciated you for so long. Yes, part of the adventure of going to Peru and Bolivia is simply crossing the road but a person can grow tired of such advent re. Having a place to cross and being secure that no one will ignore the red light is something we should all appreciate.
2. Roads. I love roads, mostly paved ones, that do not have pot holes in them the size of Texas. 3.Bathrooms. I neglected to take a photo of a bathroom back here in the states but just go to ANY of them some time today and realize it is wonderful. I could live with the hole in the ground toilet that was provided throughout Bolivia but I came to hate the toilet, minus the seat. Why, What kind of leg muscles is a person suppose to have to use one of these things?4. My cat. I have, over the last few years slowly become a cat person. I thought I was a dog person but my cat has become the best pet EVER. I am not ashamed to say I missed my cat and was glad to see it when I got back

One of the top things that annoyed me when I got back

MY CAT! how she loves to claw everything and sit on anything I happen to be reading. ah the love/hate relationship. Bad kitty

Some of the many things that we both miss from the trip are: Everything. We would still be traveling if we could. It is great to touch home base but the thrill of traveling is wonderful. New places and things to see every day. Having a meal is an adventure and the next thing you experience has a one in three chance of being the coolest thing you have seen in your whole life. All that being said I have another thing that we seem to only have in Nebraska. It is a main feature of the state that no matter where I go I have not seen anywhere else in the world: The Weather.
Sure there are places in the world that get colder and places that get hotter, or more rain or more snow, BUT could all that happen in one month anywhere BUT Nebraska I think not. I personally give Nebraska the strangest weather award. To give evidence I show this photo.

There was a huge lightning storm, it rained all day, then in the evening the sky turned orange (why not). It may sound strange but I really do not thing anyone gets as varied weather as we do right here. Now I'm going home to wait for the hot lava tornado

O.K. There is one last thing that is just great about being back and that is the heat. Boy how I love the heat. 105 degrees out side. No problem just get out and try to keep cool and here is the best way to keep cool in heat like that.

Get yourself a damn slip'n'slid.

Well, that is it, next week we will have more videos from Peru and a home brewed travel log. We went all the way to Colorado over labor day weekend, I even got to go to the hospital, be sure to click back in.

Videoramma

O.K. it only took me like two weeks but I have figured out how to put up some videos on the blog. As it takes more time then I thought it would i will not put up the twenty or so that I thought I was going to, but I will start out small with five or six and have this be a regular feature that breaks up the normal blogs with some videos until I run out of videos which should be right after peace is achieved in the middle east.
So, the first video comes from Cuzco, our first city in Peru. There were sidewalks.....sort of, but the cars ALWAYS have the right of way, OR you could pretend the cars do not have the right of way and wind up as a statistic. Sometimes the cars would lay claim to the narrow sidewalks as the video shows.


Next up is the Guinea Pig cook off. I have some video but for actual photos you have to back to that chapter in the blog, I have some photos of the baked guinea pig and they all look like they are screaming, ah the silence of the guinea pig.


That was the before and here is the after


One day while walking around town we just ran smack dab into a huge festival that lasted all day long. Here is just one of the "events" that was going on.



And that lasted for HOURS. In that order, 1. whip each other 2. some guy throws a bag at them and then jumps on one or both guys 3. both guys go up to the other guy in a pink dress, bow and walk away. 4. repeat for four hours.
I would also like to note that when they jump on each other and fall all over the place they are falling on STONE "Ouch".

Dressed up and carrying a saint back to his church.


And that is it for now. Next blog is all about coming back to the States and what I find good and bad about that.
Since I did not send out the link on the last e-mail I will this time but this is the last one, so be sure to save kitties from mars to you favorites. then check in about every two weeks I WILL update, do or die. Also check out the other blogs that I put in the Best of the Best spot, well worth the time.
Join us next time for "Readjustment".

Fun In the Sun

We last left out intrepid adventures flying back to LaPaz. After flying up to the airport (the airport is the highest in the world so smaller airplanes are almost flying UP to land)we headed back to the city and spent a day watching a parade. The different universities in La Paz were having a... umm dance off? I don't know but that is what I am calling it. The students from different majors would dress up with themed costumes and dances and then be rated by judges. there were over sixty entries. We just stumbled upon this little celebration that took over the whole city for the entire day and well into the night. It was sooooo cool. I would recommend to anyone doing some traveling to look up what kind of festivals are going on and try to coordinate your travel time with said festival. I mention this because we just lucked out in hitting some party/holiday/let's-all-just-get-drunk-and-dance-because,-hey-it's-Wednesday-Right!, sort of occasions, and every one of these we witnessed was amazing. It is a great time because the locals are just having fun and are more likely to include YOU in the fun because you made an effort to be there. Plus it is a nice break from the local boys coming up to you in ski masks and offering/demanding to shine your shoes. They were the ski masks because shoe shiner does not command the respect of say... trash collector, social stigma and all. There is also the added effect of scaring the hell out of people by popping up and saying "SHOE SHINE" right in their face.
Buying medicine from Inca Pharm, where I acted out my illness and then they gave me drugs

While in the jungle I picked up a nice souvenir from a fellow traveler. A horrible hacking cough, which a few weeks later, because I am considerate and I care, I gave to my wife. For our one day in LaPaz it got a little worse, then we took the bus to Arequipa, a fantastic coastal town that is some two thousand meters below LaPaz. Can you say "pressure change", Yes for nine fun filled hours on the bus my ears refused to pop, not that the pressure didn't build up and make my head want to explode. Luckily, everyone had their own private misery on this bus, one of the few tourist buses we took. It had a bathroom on the bus, a good thing right! no, bathroom bad!! because the whole bus smelled like bathroom, and not like bathroom soap or bathroom cleaner, but you know, the BAD bathroom smell. Lotta had her traditional motion sickness that kept her in a good mood and Jason had gone out the night before to a bar, been offered a super-hero costume and danced at a disco until four A.M. dressed at the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.(no we don't have photos yet, but we may get some) What we learned from that is: Spider-Man's worst foe is not Doc Ock, The Sandman, or the Goblin. His worst enemy, the nebulous Excessive Booze combined with his partner Long Bus Ride. Anyway we all lived albeit groaning and moaning. Another travel tip, lots of snacks and water for long bus rides, our "breakfast" on the bus was a hard roll thrown at our heads by "I have a chip on my shoulder bus guy" and "lunch" was a mythical creature that only existed on the paper we read when we bought the ticket. Snacks saved the day.
So back to Peru in the form of the city of Arequipa, a wonderful town, we ate delightful food there, while being a bit more touristy than our average stop it was none the less enjoyable. Once there we booked a two day tour of the colca canyon, the DEEPEST CANYON IN THE WORLD you have to say that with a booming voice. On our way to the canyon we saw some more alpaca, llamas and vicunas Oh My!

Lotta made a personal friend with a pushy Llama

Some more of that pretty landscape stuff.

That night we went to a traditional Pena, a bar where they preform live folk music, and dance.

The dancing part is fun, the women dance around and act out little dramas and then they pull people from the audience, it was touristy but really very fun too.

There are condors there too, rare, big condors. Hundreds of people flock (sorry) to see the condors because they only come out at certain times of the day but when they do come out and if you are really quite (hundreds of people really quiet-right) they will come in really close and circle around over head. We were told that this behavior is meant to kill us. It works like this: The condor sees a cow or alpaca or something walking up the mountain. the condor is HUGE, so it circle very close to the animal. The animal looks up, follows the condor with its head moving in a circle's, gets dizzy, confused, and falls down the mountain and dies. The condor zips down and eats his fill of yummy tenderized cow.

Now you would have to at least as stupid as a cow to fall for this right? Our guide told us several times "don't get near the edge and watch the condor because people have fallen" so much for my theory of human superiority over cows.
The Condors really were worth it, I did not know that something that big could be so graceful and cool. simply mesmerizing to watch.

The first night we were on our tour we went to a hot springs, a hot spring that turned out to be how many drunk tourists can you fit in a pool? The tour we opted for turned out to follow the road most traveled. Every tour bus on earth stop ed at the same place, our quiet little hot spring was packed to say the least. None the less we relaxed in the curative powers of the natural hot spring water, spilled beer, and children's pee.
While I have been trying to take photos of the local people in their traditional clothing on this trip I had rarely considered what it would be like to be on the other side of that. I got my chance at the hot springs. Two Peruvian tourists, a mother and daughter asked Jason and me, while we were in our bathing trunks if she could take a photo of us. Why? because my natural color is not white, it is amazingly vivid, shockingly, super-nova white, and Jason is not far behind. I got this a little bit in south-east Asia but this was the first time in South America. We agreed, and the mother stood in between two sticks of human chalk while her daughter took a photo.
The stop take a photo now get back in the van tour was nice at this time because I was pretty sick anyway. It was a nice way to see things without making too much effort.


Once back in Arequipa we started to eat again right away, who kn owes when you will eat this well of so cheap. We spent our last day in a monastery.
A
huge monastery that takes up and entire city block, bright colors, maze like, and fascinating. It was a photographers dream, a man could drop his camera have it go off by accident and still get a great shot.
These nuns were the Martha Stewart of nunnery, but sometimes at penance they would wear barbed wire underwear, now is the right time to say "Ouch" in a high pitched voice.
A stop at the crepe factory, to stuff ourselves and back on the bus to Ica, once stop away from Lima.



A town with a lagoon in amidst sand dunes. We took a dune buggy which was driven straight up and straight down sand dunes to the delight of everyone on board.

Pure fun, then we were let off to go sand boarding down the dunes. Fairly hard to do without falling, which we all did a lot except Lotta who still fell sometimes but looked cool doing it.

Back to the hotel and cleared sand out of parts of the body that can not be talked about on this blog, we chilled out for a day and headed to Lima.
We had heard nothing but bad things about Lima, but once we got there we did not find it dangerous at all in fact it was worse than dangerous it was kind of dull. It could be that we were both sick by now, or that this time of year Lima is covered in a constant fog, or it was the last days of our trip and we got a bit melancholy but the small part of Lima we saw did not inspire us. Some last day hanging out. and then it was back on a plane to the U.S.
O.K. well, it is back to Omaha now. This is the last Blog I will send out to everyone, BUT the adventures continue at the same blog time (about every two weeks) and same blog channel (kittiesfrommars.blogspot.com) so for the love of Pete put this Blog on your favorites, there is more to come albeit more domestic and better like spelled and stuff. Next up is a "Video Ramma" as I figure out U-Tube and give a best of out short 10-30 second video clips from the trip, then I suppose a blog on how freaky it is to be back in the states. Don't miss it.

Last but on least, for those of you who are blog junkies, you should check out cliffedout.blogspot.com a brand spanking new blog. Moving is always tough and interesting you can read how moving from New York to the Midwest is. Well written and heart felt.
Also eatingthepavement.blogspot.com gives you the best of the week and a some fun tips on what is hip, cool, or just a little strange.
And the last one if you really like well written, funny, and insightful check out kappanohe.blogspot.com a Midwest girl who moved to Japan 10 years ago and give her perspective on Japan. very funny with photos!

Anyhoo, it has been fun and I hope everyone enjoyed the blog
Check back in for videos, they are short and easy to watch, just like reality T.V.

Welcome To The Jungle, We Have Fun And Games

Many people like to wax romantic about the jungle, an amazing place with vast amounts of different and unique animals and plants, a place that seems to be mystical in appearance and feel. A place where one can feel connected to the earth as they breath in the oxygen abundant air. I like to call it "The Most Itchy Place On Earth."
We based ourselves out of a town deep in the jungle called Rurrenbeque. Deep in the jungle but not so deep that we could not get a slice of pizza or shots of booze with 'funny' names like 'Dengue Fever'. Our first trip into the wilderness was actually into the Pampas, a water logged area where a person can walk around in the 'dry' season. To get there we first had to take a four hour jeep ride. This is the 'dry' season road.

During our ride the jeep broke down, but in a move that would make McGuiver proud, our driver fixed it, and I am not kidding, with a flip flop and a hammer which are now a permanent part of the jeep.

While we were waiting, we all got a chance to take in the local farm house we were stuck at and observed the "baby pig feeding hour", that put everyone who witnessed it off bacon.

Back into the jeep and a slightly bumpy ride to the river where we transferred all of our gear and waited a bit for our guide to be ready, this was to be our last pit stop for a few days. As we stood around waiting looking at the river wonder what animal we might see I noticed that there was an alligator on the river bank. I backed away from the water and wondered how long it would take for the alligator to eat me.

What I did not know yet was he was only one of the hundreds of alligators and camin we would see in the next few days. They lined the river banks on both sides, sometimes floating in the water, usually just board with us as we passed by.
Here we are in the boat

The amazing thing about Bolivia is the amount of diversity there. In all of the U.S. AND Canada there are 700 bird species, in the Maddied park in Bolivia, with one tenth of one percent of the land of the u.S. and Canada there are 1000 different bird species.

With that fact in hand I thought our trip would be a lot like an old Hitchcock movie with birds flying at us from all directions. This was not the case, we saw plenty of birds but the camin and alligators had to outnumber them 20 to 1.

We hung around the Pampus and it rained hard and heavy for a day, then we went swimming with dolphins. Yes, there are dolphins in the river, that crazy pampus. Pink river dolphins, apparently they keep the alligators away so it is O.K. to swim.
Here is a photo of the largest rodent in the world, they would hang out sometimes on the river banks also, but not in the numbers of the alligators.

I can not even start to think of how big the mouse trap would have to be in your kitchen if you found out your house was infested with these things. We thought they were wombats, but I am not sure if anyone knows, please let us know.
Here is a photo of the Alligator that came into our camp. He just wondered up from the river and hung out in front of the kitchen area and waited to be fed scraps from lunch.

He was pretty old and did not have a lot of teeth left but still, it was a little disheartening to look out side from lunch and see this.

On the last day we went for a walk into the Pampus, we were issued rubber boots that cam up to our knees, which was great until we walked through water that came up to our butts.

The water looked like the water from the first Star Wars film, you know the part where Luke, and Han and everyone are trapped in the Death Stars trash compacter, remember what that water looked like, well that was exactly the kind of water that was filling our boots, I just waited for someone to get dragged under by some outer space one-eyed monster. Not that the real life bugs and snakes were not creepy enough.

Here is a photo of Lotta, while we were Piranha fishing.

O.K. so out of the Pampus and back to town, then right into the jungle. The jungle really lived up to the hype, in that it was very much like a jungle. There were not nearly the number of bugs that I thought would be out there but the ones that WERE there could bite though a bullet poof vest. We took a boat out again, and here is a photo of our great captain, a wonderful man who jumped out and PULLED the boat forward a few times.

This is a photo of the caterpillar of whom our guide told us "Do not touch, if you touch you WILL go to the hospital."

The same could be said of the fire ants, the fire ants only stay on a specific tree. They live on that tree and the tree gives the ants some sort of sap that they live on, in return the fire ants attack anything that touches the tree for more than a half a second. Our guide told us that a long time ago, i.e. last week, jungle villages would tie men who stole or women who cheated on their husbands to the tree for fives minutes as punishment. I asked if men who cheated were also tied to the tree? "ha ha you are so funny gringo" he said. well he did not actually say that, but he did chuckle when he said "no".
A good rule to follow in the jungle, as well as an expensive pottery store or leper colony is: DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING.
A nice photo of the river and jungle.

The girls showing off their jewelry they made out of jungle seeds and the such.

I think the women would have been happy to just to make stuff for the whole trip. A good word for any man out there looking for love, show a woman how to make jewelry out of jungle seeds and you will own her heart.
Another cool thing in the jungle are leaf-cutter ants. They cut off part of a leaf and then take it back to home base on their backs. They form amazingly long lines from their tree to the ant hill. It looks a lot like leafs moving through the jungle, but after four days we had to go back into town. The town we would be stuck in for a bit. While the 17 hour bus ride was a lot of fun we decided to take a plane back to LaPaz, the plane ride is only one hour. Unless of course it rains because no planes can take off in the rain or even shortly after the rain because they have to wait for the runway to dry because the runway is grass. I am not a big fan of flying anyway so the 18 seat, grass runway thing made me a little nuts.
But we did not have to take off for some time because of the rain, we were lucky in that we were stuck with some good friends we made on our trip

and another dog wearing a sweater

After a day or two of Bolivian paperwork and weather we were off and it was a wonderful view that made it worth while.
Well, it is coming down to the wire, only a week of travel time left and it is feeling very short indeed. Next we head back to Peru, up the coast, to Lima and back home. I think we may be in for a case of reverse culture shock, as in cars will stop for red lights and stuff.