Friday, November 20, 2009

Salkantay to Machu Picchu Hike

Yo,
Sorry I´ve been mostly absent. Been pretty busy, tired, and in the mountains. Until I get inspired, I´ve started uploading pictures on Photobucket of the 5-day hike to Machu Picchu. . It´s amazing because you leave from a town about 8000 feet up in a dryish, grassy area, then up into the snowy-ass mountains to Salkantay Pass at 14,000 feet, then into the forest/jungley area at the valley floor. The Inka Trail doesn´t give you that variety.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Colca Canyon Trek!

Hello, I´ve started uploading pictures to Flickr, if you want to check them out. What you don´t get from these pictures is the scale. The day I left for this trip, we drove, hiked past, or saw 11 mountains as big as or bigger than Rainier. Sorry that some are kind of dark. More later!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/screaminrat

Monday, November 2, 2009

Worst. Day. Ever.

When travelling with someone, it´s unavoidable that you´ll learn some things about them that you didn´t know before. Sometimes it will be their sleeping habits, or driving habits, or what they like to eat first thing in the morning. And sometimes when you share a room with someone, you learn what they are like when both of you get food poisoning. I don´t bring this up as some sort of hypothetical. No, after eating at this one restaurant whose name I forget, Kyle and I both decided to become quite ill. We´ve really been laying into the terlet (actually, maybe this is projecting onto the toilet. For all I know, being puked into is a nice change of pace). The 2 main things that we´ve learned from this experience are that 1) I come down with the sickness much sooner than Kyle, and 2) Kyle is a champion puker.

Here are some important statistics to note:

Incubation period:
Justin- 2 hrs
Kyle- 8 hrs

Total Times Puked:
Justin- 4
Kyle- 2

VLF (Vomiting Loudness Factor):
Justin- 7.1
Kyle- 9.2

Total Chunks Blown:
Justin- unknown
Kyle- unknown

As you can clearly see, we have learned that Kyle is a more effective puker. Don´t wager anything beyond a light snack in a puking contest with this guy.

My main concern at this point is that I can still eat potatoes after a night of spewing them into a terlet. One of Arequipa´s most well-known dishes is called Ocopa Arequipeña, which is similar to Papa ala Huancaina, which we described earlier in this blog. The big difference is that Ocopa has delicious peanuts in the sauce, and almost everyone who knows me knows how I feel about peanuts and their butter. And maybe are even aware of the extra pouch of peanut butter I keep around my midsection.

There are no pictures for this entry.