Chasing Aphroditie

Santo Rico performing at CLG Salsa party

2009-02-24T19:51:00.001-08:00

I have never seen anything like this before . . . the choreography deserves its own god.

Santo Rico performs Gangsta at SR Showcase

2009-02-24T19:44:00.001-08:00

Salsa at its absolute best . . .

5 Friends Uncensored

2009-01-09T19:10:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, just don't do it . . .unless you care enough.

Old Woman And The Mercedes-Benz

2008-10-04T21:55:00.001-07:00

Nice . ..

Back To Ica And Huacachina

2007-11-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know it seems like its been years. It was long. About 2 months since our last entry. Many reasons, many excuses. But the main one being laziness of course. Sorry. But we're Back and ready to tell all. So here it goes...

We jumped on the "Flores Bus" (our company of choice, cheap) down to Ica. As you may not be be aware, Ica and the surrounding area was devasted by the earthquake just about a month before. So while most of the structures had little damage done upon them, there was still much rubble on the streets sweeped up in giant piles by the curbs, lots of dust in the air, people walking around with those little white masks over the nose and mouth and tents set up along the highways to house the newly homeless. It sucks. Unlike in the land of the free, there's no disaster relief. Not even bad relief that comes weeks later. People are just stranded, left to survive and make their way again. But most don't cry and dwell on their misfortune. In the morning, they get up and try to go out to support the family. Its a rough life.

It left a guilty feeling about being here on vacation. But in a way, we were helping by just being here, buying fruit and chicken and a bottle of the local wine (which was not very good by the way, not a big fan of sweet wine) and of course, we came here for the dunes. Our place was in a little oasis, Huacachina. Litterally an oasis set in the midst of giant sand dunes with a lake in the middle of it. I can't make this stuff up. Peru's diversity is so incredible with the Amazon jungle, towering mountains, beaches, ancient ruins, and now this... sand dunes. Wow! We relaxed by the pool with our attention seeking women. Can't live without them. The mornings began with either mom or Rich knocking on our door and waking us up. So everyday, we were forced to wake up at like 8 or 9 am. Can you believe it? After quick showers, we would walk to our breakfast spot and fill up on fruit, eggs, pancakes and coffee and converstion, jokes and laughter. Beautiful! And on our 2nd day, we set off on the buggy. The dune buggy that is. The awesome thing about the parents is that they still get down and sandy. Without hesitation, mom and Rich jumped on the boards and flew down the dunes.

Life is beautiful! in so many ways...

It was 2 hours of fun, being thrown from side to side in the buggy as we climbed and jumped dunes, sand boarded them, tumbled down them, and then with sand stuck within our cavities, we laughed and then tumbled some more.

Our time there was short. So that same day, we packed our stuff and went to the bus station for our 8 pm overnight bus to Arequipa. OK, what a surprise, the bus was late. 3 hours later it still wasn't, so we had some drinks and laughed about it. The bus got there eventually. But the night wasn't over until mom had to fight for our rightful seats with the bus attendant.

Finally frutrated and broken down by my mom, he gave in and gave us the sweet seats on the bottom of the bus where we finally fell asleep to wake up the following morning in "White City", Arequipa.Stay tuned.

Update Time! 10/28/07

2007-10-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! We have not posted blogs in a while, but it isn´t because we don´t love you! It´s because we´re lazy! No, really, since Lima . . . a lot has happened and we´ll get to it, promise. Since Lima, we had visited Arequipa and Chivay in Peru; Compacabana, La Paz, Coroico, and of course, the Salt Flat desert of Uyuni in Bolivia; and Corobá and Buenos Aires in Argentina. And it´s a little overwhelming to catch up with all of that right at this moment.

You see, since we have arrived in Buenos Aires in mid-October, Mishka has left to surprise his sister in Costa Rica and his parents in the US, and I have remained behind primarily to study Argentine Tango and eat more steak. (Not always at the same time) And both were gooooooooood.

As of today, Mishka is back home, bought a car, looking for work and taking a trip to Moscow with his sister for Christmas, and I . . . well I´m still here. I´m up north at Puerto Iquazu about to see the famous Iquazu Waterfalls that border Argentina and Brazil. Then I head back south via an interesting route or cross over to BRAZIL. It´s funny that I´m only 20 hours away from Rio, where we basically started out trip almost 11 months ago. Crazy! Next month, I fly out to Puerto Rico to see my mom and my sister, and finally return home (but not for long, I suspect.)
I know it sound all glorious and crazy, and it is, but that is just plain ol´ travelling . . . something all the kids we meet around here are doing as well. So next to them, we´re not so glorious and crazy, but just one of the bunch . . . the vagabonding bunch.

Stay tuned! This program will return to its usual schedule after the . . . .

Lima And The Coming Of Mom And Z 09/08/07 to 09/12/07

2007-10-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, we got to Lima, the capital of Peru, a city of 8 million people and a lot of trash. It sucks that wherever there is poverty, there is pollution. Both things are bad (obviously), but there is definitely a relation between the two. I guess you can't blame people for having the biggest worry of putting food on the table and pushing the rest of the problems to the side. But anyway, Lima, ¨The City of Kings¨ was founded shortly after the quick elimination of the Incas by the Spanish and became Spain's capital in the New World. You go Francisco Pizarro and your murderous gang of conquestadors!As the story goes, once the Americas were discovered, 2 of the world's most richest countries wanted a piece of the action. So the problem settled it's way on to the desk of the most powerful man, the Pope. He pointed his finger on to a spot of the unfinished map and basically to the east belonged to Portuguese and to the west of that finger was now Spanish territory. Funny, huh? Of course, frontiers were constantly redrawn, and then again and again. But that's how the story goes.

Lima is a sad city. Not only because of the economic troubles, but also because of it's sky which is covered with clouds for 9 months of the year. Depressing and cold! Yes, cold even while Lima is just about 600 miles south of the equator. Well, we stayed in the historic center of the city in which still remain many beautiful examples of Spanish architecture.
Anyway, we were here for Mom & Rich, so we got to work on finding a place. While looking for a cup of coffee, we found this guy...
A cool, older gentleman who took us from hostal to hostal until we found Hostal España, a beautiful little place with the best neighbors:
That day was anxiously anticipated since the parents were coming that night. So after the preparations were made, we headed to the airport.
The drivers who crowded around us as they were holding signs of their own were astounded by the beauty of ours, laughed and whispered. Yeah Baby, Mom and Z are a comin'!! Finally, after dozens of people came out, it was impossible to not notice the smile of mama and the lost look of Richie as they strolled out of those doors. They made it!

After hugs and kisses, we packed them into a combi, a minivan which seats about 10, but holds triple the amount of people, and headed for the hostal. Not until the bus broke down on the way and after a few bangs on the side of the truck, it was back on its way again. After a little settling in, we finished the night with wine and fruit as deserving of the greatness of our guests... and of course conversation. The following morning, we hit the streets. We visited Iglesia San Francisco and its catacombs that supposedly stretch for miles underneath the city connecting it to various important buildings in the area and also being home to over a 100,000 bodies of people who were buried there.

Spookily standing over a pit of nicely arranged skulls and bones, never afraid!

"Rich looook...NO LOOOK!" Yes mom is here. Amazed at everything, looking at the world as through the eyes of a baby. And that is so beautiful! The church is beautiful as well with wood carved ceilings that took 40 years to make, paintings, reliefs, Portuguese tile, and a lot of priceless Jesuses everywhere. It is incredible to imagine, the money, time and lives that goes into these places of God, while so many people starve and die of sicknesses and slavery. At least the first 2 apply to almost any religion. Hey, this is the stuff that runs through my mind sometimes. Am I a cynic? Hey look at that! A solid cast iron sink over 200 years old! I wanted to swipe the grated drain in the middle of the sink for my boss, but then thought better of it. Yes, I may be crazy to be taking pictures of stuff like this, but think about it. How long did it take to make? How many hands and things were washed in it? What had this sink seen that you and I can never imagine?
We just did a lot of walking around the city, from small markets to parks, to just watching Peruvians going about their business. And of course, most Peruvians are nice, even the ones guarding the Presidential Palace.
The guys are so obliging that they even let me hold the machine gun. Mom! Look what I can do!

We strolled the city streets looking at old buildings, laughing and eating fried chicken ( a Peruvian specialty). Yes, chicken and fries is the most popular dish in Peru. Also found this antique plane. Richie loves planes and mom loves Richie.
The nest day we checked out Museo de Oro. The Museum of Gold is the pride of Lima. Its a private museum that is owned by the family of this guy who spent his life collecting gold artifacts from Peru's archaelogical cites and guns. So many guns, swords, daggers and other weapons that would make your head spin. A lot of guns, Russian guns, French guns, German guns, American guns and so on. You get the point. Here are some pics of guns and swords:

Samurai swords and armor galore. I love samurais! Of course picture taking is not allowed, but we're rebels. Walking around the museum makes you wander at all the art and work going into these weapons. Priceless materials going into them like ivory, gold, extict woods. All of that to kill people. A piece of our history nevertheless.

Here is my princess teaching a knight a thing or two. Then we descended into the vaulted basement of gold. Here are Richie's favorite pieces:
Those pieces were obviously the best, and there were others which were really cool as well:
Mom and mummy! And with that, we put Lima behind us as we descended south towards Ica and its giant sand dunes. Stay tuned...

Ica & Huacachina:The oasis and Sandboarding!!!

2007-10-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

As you may have heard, this part of the world experienced an enormous earthquake only weeks before, so of course, on the drive through Pisco and Ica, we saw a lot of people living in broken down houses and tents, surviving off the generosity of fellow neighbors. Kids running after the bus for a coin or two, lots of dust seeping through the windows, and collapsed houses and buildings.

Arriving at Ica, one can tell that there has been a lot of devastation, yet somehow, the city bustled with life . . . salsa music at every corner, ladies selling bread and cheese, and couples and families roaming through the plaza for the weekend walk.

Upon arrival, we headed toward the famous oasis five minutes away -- yes, you heard me right, an oasis. A first for us as well.
We arrived minutes later and the scenery transformed from dusty streets and broken houses to sand dunes, sand dunes, sand dunes! I have never seen anything like this before, this whole little place was in the desert, literally, subtropical climate with a little lake smack in the middle. And to make things even better, our hostel had a beautiful in ground pool . . . all this without breaking the bank account! And after all this cold weather and mountain air, a hot afternoon by the pool is exactly what we needed!! So sand boarding is the biggest attraction here, and it being still afternoon, we figured we would give it a go and walk up the sand dune ourselves! Who needs a buggy?! We can do this! (or so we thought)

Ladies and gentlemen, it is tough!! Let me tell you! It may look easy, but oh no!

Yes, we made it to the top. Yes, we tumbled all the way down. (Here´s a little sneak peak at Mishka´s first run.)

And yes, we had a really hard time getting back up.Well so what, it was a great little experience with the sand anyway. Two steps up, three steps down, sand in our teeth

. . . and butt-cracks.

A great end to our first day of sand boarding.

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The next day, you better believe we paid for a buggy to take us up and it was way more than we expected. First, they ride around a whole desert you didn´t think was really there! Endless and endless horizons with beautiful dunes all around you, having a blast till the sun went down. They drive pretty crazy too, as if you´re on a roller coaster . . .

uuuuuuuuuuuuuup!

dooooooooooooooowwwwn!

sideways!

jumping over the bumps!

just really crazy and wild . . . and our driver was pretty cool too and had awesome energy (even though he denies knowing what the words on his shirt really meant.)

We got to sand board plenty . . . some on our feet, some on our tummies, some just rolling down not knowing which way is up and which is down! But it was a lot of fun and yes, totally different from snowboarding. First of all, they give you a pretty beat up board that you have to wax with a candle every time you want to sand board (and if you don´t, you might get stuck on a steep drop for no reason.) Second, the straps on the board are held on by mesh, so there you go! And you´ll be lucky if you don´t rip your straps at least once. And finally, it´s sand! So the fall is a piece of cake . . . no bruises, no freezing fingers and toes . . . just total recovery.

And as a side note, we were talking to the owner a bit and he told us that people stopped coming to Huacachina after the earthquake. Out of fear is all. Except the oasis is fine and they´re in desperate need of tourists, so please, if you´re in the area, GO!!!
It´s totally safe and wonderful, except maybe an overprices dinner or beer here and there.

Upon our departure, we figured it would be a great idea that Mishka´s parents, Rich and Liza, should definitely come here on their visit in the upcoming week. And it sure was a great idea . . . Stay tuned!

Aguas Calientes and Machu Pichu

2007-09-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

OK, no more suspense. We have finally made it here. I will start with complaining. The 2 hour train to Aguas Calientes, the little town below Machu Pichu, was 57 dollars round trip. To give you something to compare it too, the 19 hour bus trip from Lima to Cuzco cost us a little under 20 bucks. The Peruvians pay 6 bucks to get to Aguas Calientes. Yes, I know they can't afford it and if the money went to the community it would be ok, but it doesn't, it goes to the Chilean company that owns the train. Those Chilean bastards!!! After much whining, we bought the tickets. Only a train goes there. Aguas Calientes also does its part to exploit the tourists, naturally. And there are more of us gringos in the town than Peruvians. This part of Peru, seems to be another land, the land of MONEY! And I am going to stop the complaining part of the blog here.
We bummed around the little town for the day and visited their hot springs, which give the town its name, Aguas Calientes ( Hot Waters for you gringos). We bathed in the curative waters and then headed further away from the town to a waterfall, where the incident with Matty's sandal occurred, watch the thrilling video:

The sandal was saved. The waterfall was great since besides it's beauty, we didn't have to buy a ticket to see it. You know? Because I don't, why is it that all of these places that tourists come to lose their innocence? It's not the tourists' fault. We want to see, that's all. I guess its the capitalists. We all have a bit of capitalism in us, I guess. From every street in this little town to the hot springs, I see stores, and overpriced lunches, can't smoke in the luke warm hot springs, all of these rules. I hate rules! But this little waterfall above the hot springs, which no one goes to is innocent, no rules, no vendors, just us being us, rescuing sandals, being silly. I can't stop my opinions. Sorry if it bothers you.

Anyway, we were here for Machu Pichu and after recovering a little from our illnesses (colds, which we were passing around back and forth) we set out for the legendary lost city. It started at 4 in the morning since we were determined to watch the sunrise over Machu Pichu. We started out in pitch black with only my new and cheap headlight to guide our path. It was a dangerous undertaking, but we set our minds to succeed. Yes, we started our trek. It was hard as hell. It started raining and the trail to Machu Pichu was thousands of steps from the misty jungle to the top of the mountain. We huffed and puffed our way slowly to the top.

But soon we began to see the end of our treacherous path, the top where we paid a whopping 40 bucks to enter the site. I wanted to protest, but the trail was cleverly designed to break down our bodies and our will to fight. And the sunrise did not happen because of the clouds and the rain. But the view was incredible. This place totally surprised us, after visiting a lot of ruins all over Peru, we figured that this place was totally hyped up. It was not ladies and gentlemen. Machu Pichu is really awesome. This was our sunrise...

Machu Pichu is a mystery. Experts say that it was built right before the Spanish arrived as a summer home for the Inca elites. But experts are experts at guessing, since all we have are guesses about this place. What we do know is that Machu Pichu was abandoned. No one knows why. It was rediscovered in 1911 and ever since then, after digging and more digging we come up with more questions. We all wonder what this place is about, but no one contests that it is breathtaking...

We couldn't immediately take the famous picture, but our "sunrise" was awesome with the mysterious fog. Man, there was so much fog that we constantly had no idea of where we were, but it made exploring a lot more interesting. When the sun finally cleared up, we went to the top to take our version of the Machu Pichu pic...

The mountain behind the city is shaped like a face looking upward. Makes you wander about the Incas picking this place. Machu Pichu is grand, the whole place gives this feeling of power. At the time when the Spanish arrived, the size of the Inca Empire was greater than any on earth. Another fun fact. They were also intelligent in their conquering, they only "took out" the people in power when they invaded, the rest of the people were allowed to live as they had. By using these means they were able to take and use the best skills and knowledge from the conquered. Their masonry skills were without match. For instance, the building below is made out of perfectly cut stones, so precise that mortar or filler was not needed. Standing in front of these walls makes me wonder how long it took for each one to be carved and what if someone made a mistake after all that painstaking work, huh...

These places bring us back to a not so far past childhood, we run around, hide in the passageways, make silly poses for pics and let our imaginations run wild. Isn't it supposed to be like that? Of course Machu Pichu has a lot of rules, a lot. So throughout the day the whistle was blown at us many a time. But we didn't let that get us down. Another thrilling video coming up (probably not for the eyes of Matty's parents). All the risk to take a picture... watch

And here is Mr. Cool himself.

Here is my very corny video about Machu Pichu:

That's Matty's favorite pic above and the "Team" below.

Guys, I feel that I can't give Machu Pichu justice in the blog. We were there from ¨sunrise¨ to sundown and were pretty much, the last ones to leave. We forgot about the capitalism and the hundreds of other tourists who were trespassing on ¨our¨ site. It inspired so many wonders in our minds. Wow! It simply has to be seen.

Matty was cracking up in our hostal, I don't remember about what, but it must have been really funny:

Matty the giant amongst all Peruvians and beloved by the Peruanas stands in for a photo with them.
Oh look, who did we find crawling the back alleys of Aguas Calientes? Peruvian, rugged Softka.

We got back to Cuzco a couple of hours before Matty's flight took off. Had some breakfast at the airport and shared heartfelt good byes. We think Matty was changed. At least he took Peru by storm. Our hearts and our memories go out to you...

Machu Pichu was the last place on Matty's itinerary. At least, so he thought. He ended up being stuck in Lima for a couple of days longer because the airline bumped him off his flight. And he was sick. That sucks. But faithful readers don't worry. Matty is alive and well and now resides in the upscale part of Ridgewood. He also resumed working part time for the Devil a.k.a. J.T. O'Brien Plumbing and goes to DeVry for electrical engineering. Thumbs up to you Matty!

Happy "Coming-to-America"!!! 09/27/07

2007-09-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today, my family and I celebrate our arrival into the ol´U.S. of A. Yup, 18 years ago, we left Ukraine (Russia at the time) and headed for the "Land of Gold" where money was laying on the streets and the weather was always perfect and warm. We landed in JFK airport with a hundred dollars and two suitcases . . . who needs warm clothes, right!?? It wasn´t an easy start and sure took a lot of getting used to . . . but we were a happy bunch, and overcame the impossible year after year.Most of the compliments go to my parents of course, who had to deal with a totally different kind of pressure . . . children! Finding a job, a place to live, learning English, affording food, and clothes, and on and on and on . . . and then you add two little kids to the equation. But they were total survivors, warriors really, and their strength and courage will impress me and inspire me forever. I don´t think that I can say it enough really, or find the right words, but I am so proud to be part of this family. I am just so proud. Thank you. I love you. Congratulations!

Cuzco and Pisac Ruins

2007-09-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

OK! We finally made it here. 19 hour bus ride to cuzco. Badly needed rest, see above. But anyway, the land of Machu Pichu!!! Guys, do you know how many times I stared at the cover of my 8th grade social studies book with the small picture of Machu Pichu on it. A lot! I barely opened that book up that year. I wasn't the best of students, but that picture used to steal my mind for so many minutes. So, like 12 or 13 years have past and we are finally here. Well, not yet. First, we had to go through Cuzco, which actually was the capital of the Inca Empire. Well nowadays, though not the capital of the Incas anymore, it is the capital of tourists and their money. After travelling through Peru for the last almost 3 months, Cuzco was a shocker. Everything is double or triple the price and the poor exterminated Incas are staring at you through every other store front window of souvenir shops and restaurants. But other than that, it is a beautiful colonial city with it's windy cobble stone streets, the old Spanish churches and of course the thrill of seeing the ruins of cities and fortresses of an ancient civilization. But here is the man who really started it all. Some say he was the son of the sun, some that he was just a really handsome stranger. But no matter what it was, he is the man to whom Cuzco will always be in debt for its economy. The first Inca: We all arrived here a little sick, so we set off quietly walking the streets, buying some cool gifts, and spending our nights either dancing and drinking or laughing in our room over some wine. Yes, drinking was involved, but not too much. It was the awesome company that called for it. Whatever we did, whether it was complaining to each other by how much we were getting ripped off or staring at something really, really cool, it was all good since we had the most awesomest (I don't know if that's a real word) company. We started with going to Pisac which is an old Incan ruin just north of Cuzco. Thanks Franco for the recommendation. Franco, our friend from Chachapoyas, told us to go. So we went. First, I must say this. Ruins are awesome, but what is necessary is for you to be alone or almost alone without a lot of tourists like us running around talking. At least that's the case for me. I sit on an ancient wall and meditate on how many men it took to build it. I try to hear the voices and the noise that were here a long time ago rustling around me. Once, there was a mountain and then there was a fortress built here. People lived, cried, ate, had dinner with their families, worshiped their gods, fought, had children, died. And now I am sitting on this wall, alone trying to see it all. I also kind of went crazy with the black and white feature of my camera. It seems to really fit here.

It is amazing as well as beautiful, the agricultural terraces are strictly Incan. I guess after a while, the Incas realized that farming on the sides of steep mountains was a pain in the ass and also made the fields prone to mudslides, hence they created the terraces. Now, they are not used, but at least make the view more spectacular.

And of course, here is the happy couple. Eeey!!

As for Matty... well, he was gone. The man discovered climbing and climbed all over the damn ruins instead of taking the paths. What can we say? He found his element among a lot of other elements. We also found snakes, the last remaining residents of Pisac. Little guys though...

Back in Cuzco, we resumed making fools out of ourselves. Its not easy, mind you, but when there are 2 fools it makes it possible.

The cool faces!

See you guys in Machu Pichu... coming soon...

Nazca -- As real as it could be . . . 9/4/07 - 9/5/07

2007-09-20T21:18:00.001-07:00

Some are just lines- crisscrossing, random, and yet, completely linear - stretching for many kilometers into the distance. Roads? Never seen roads that head straight across mountain ranges without deviation. Many times, converging to a single point. Many form geometric figures, waves, or even spirals. They are formed by lifting the tough sand bed, exposing the lighter shade for contrast, hence a sort of rough painting on gravel. Talk about art, eh? (Perhaps by walking in religious ceremonies. A lot of this area is covered with pottery bits, and even mummified bodies of the Nazca themselves.)

SOME of these lines aren´t simply lines at all, but outlined shapes of animals, pictures of plants and flowers, and stranger figures like deformed animals, an astronaut or the cone-shaped headed man, even E.T?!. A whale (even though this valley is 400 km. from the coast,) a monkey (even though this valley is a sandy dessert and really, had to be for the lines to even be formed,) a pelican (the largest of them all.) A humming bird, a spider, "a weird being with two enormous hands, one normal and the other with only four fingers."
And on top of all that, these mystic lines were made 1500 years ago, mysteriously abandoned 500 years later, and were only noticed recently because the only way that one could see them, was from above . . . yes, the only way that they could be appreciated or merely noticed was by flying over them! Ah yes, the mystery of the Nazca line . . . some of us know a lot about these things but most folks I know - don´t, including myself. Most of us had briefly heard about these "types" of things and sort of categorized them as little fairy tales, or better yet, mysterious wonders of the world . . . whispered about, pondered about, and then shrugged away as just another ìnteresting bit of knowledge. But well, we do believe in what we see. And so, Nazca - as real as it could be.
We rolled into the dusty town in the weeeheee hours of the morning, glued eye-lids and funky-lookin´hair. . . wanting nothing . . . maybe a comfortable bed to sit on to reflect upon and recoup from the long journey. Instead, (and this is all before coffee), we find ourselves talking to a local pilot about a possible flight over "the lines", a sort of luxury but necessity here at Nasca, wouldn´t you think?

So let me stop sounding like a commercial. Most of this stuff we didn´t even know. The cool but somewhat tedious part of the packaged flight over the Nazca lines is an educational video everyone watches before going up, and it´s a good thing. Maybe to teach you a thing or two, maybe to just deflate your expectations a bit . . . . after all, they are just lines !? Right?!

( NASA Satellite image )Some info the video offered:The Nazca lines are located in the Pampa Valley of Peru, the province of Nazca and yet, were not "discovered" until commercial airlines started flying over the 450 sq. km valley back in 1920´s. People started noticing "primitive landing - strips" and other shapes, and so the chase to understand these lines began. Many scientists walked these "paths" for years, finding Nazca remains (or better known as treasures) such as bones, pottery, textiles. Theories were thrown from left and right- Maybe they were landing strips for U.F.O.´s. Maybe these shapes formed the Nazca calendar. Maybe it was a religious ceremony and offering. And on that note, maybe these drawings were an offering to "water," as many lines point to mountains that provided water to this valley via streams and rivers. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

So we arrive at this local airport only a few hours later (this part is after coffee, of course) and find 4-to-6 person carriers filtering the lot. Watch the video, get up feeling like we know all there is to know about the Nazca lines (Do you really think we can learn more by flying over it?), strap in, and take off . . . We cover a bit of dessert range and mountain terrain with beautiful horizons, and then . . . you see them. You see them and yes, they are just lines, but all of a sudden, it no longer remains a little fairy tail . . . to ponder about and shrug away. It´s real. And that´s when you really start asking "How?" and for god´s sake, "Why?"
--------------------------------
Mind you, our pilot was a little crazy, or maybe, just inexperienced with flying "novices." He had no problem tilting the plane 90 degrees for the left side of the plan to get the perfect view and picture of the lines . . . and then, just as fast, letting the right side having a similar view. Whooo! My stomach was in my chest, my chest was in my head, and my head was just trying to focus on one focal point to stop the damn spinning. Mishka was worse!
"Are you alright?" I said. Pausing to let his head drop a little ", I think I´m going to throw up," he replies, grabbing for a strategically placed plastic bag. Guess this has happened before, what a surprise. So what do I do, I take a picture. That´s my baby right there. Good thing we were heading back already, 10 minutes early, but who´se complaining?!

In any case, to this day, the Nazca lines remain to be " the most outstanding group of geoglyphs in the world, supposedly ranking above those of Chile, Bolivia, United States, Egypt, etc, etc.

And so, after man invented the plane and put a highway though this valley (cutting the enormous 180 m. lizard in half), were these lines finally "discovered," or after all this time, simply just noticed. It is amazing how a part of history, a part of this specie´s Story can be erased like it never happened. And it IS quite remarkable and truly invigorating to just sit there, and ponder, "How?" and for god´s sake "Why?" -------------------------------------------------------
The small city of Nazca offers a few museums and festivals to enjoy, maybe catching a live performance from a local dance group or singer in the Plaza de Armas. On our second day, we headed over to a small restaurant and talked for four hours to a fellow traveler Bob (didn´t think we would remember your name, did you??)

Bob, a gentleman of hearts, is filled with great stories and contagious laughter. He is a "lone warrior" in every way. Follows his own strides and passions; grows very few, but memorable, roots along the way. A sort of bird that flies south for the winter. (He is retired and lives half a year in Canada and half in Peru! May we all learn a bit from Bob.) Anyway, Bob told us some great war stories of his travels and gave us some great advice about Arequipa and the beauty and mystery of the Colca Canyon, our future destination . . .

I have a feeling we will see each other again, just a hunch:)

Huaraz -- Huantar de Chavin 8/21/07 - 8/22/07

2007-09-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

In between tourist sites and changing hostels (hot water was our guide), we escaped into a few local bars and eateries, finding some time to relax and unwind. Really relax . . . and really unwind . . . this crazy dude totally deserves this spotlight. A great Brazilian couple from our hostel joined us for some overpriced drinks, foozball, and a bunch of laughs at a local bar "popular with international tourists." (As LP would say it.) They definitely added a lot of color to the night along with nostalgia . . . because Brazil is definitely missed!

Our next stop was the Huantar de Chavin ruins. We booked another bus tour and were on our way. We weren´t in the best shape of course, coughing and sneezing alike, but for a small fee, you can buy a "remedy" from the locals containing all kinds of goodies.

"Hmmm, is there liquor in this? It tastes like cachaça!?" Well yes, there is! A bit of sugarcane rum will get your going in the morning, for sure!!! And we drank it up like champions.

First, we headed to Lake Querococha high in the mountains. A breathtaking view of surrounding ice-capped mountains and endless valleys . . . But windy as all hell, no swimming yet for this one. . . sorrrrry.

Then we stopped briefly at the town of Huantar to see the Plaza and take a romantic shot of the new lovebirds.

Finally, we headed into the most famous ruins of the Chavin era. Just to give you an idea of its grandeur, here is what the Spanish discoverers wrote back in 1616. Chavin was an earlier civilization believed to be developed around 900 B.C. and ended in about 200 B.C. This ruin site is one of the most preserved ruins in existence, surviving earthquake after earthquake . . . and the credit has to go to the absolutely amazing craftsmanship.

The rocks were so perfectly placed, at exactly 90 degree angles, that they didn´t even use mortar in a lot of the construction.

The Chavin culture represents the first widely recognized artistic form in the Andes, depicting their pagan deities such as the the snake, the jaguar and the eagle or hawk . . .

and their use of the cacti San Pedro as a hallucinogen for sacred rituals. Here´s a current representation . . .

The ruins were a vast collection of court yards, sacred halls, and ritual temples . . .

. . . and a lot of what we saw was underground in intricate maze-like hallways and chambers. We had a lot of fun running around and exploring the numerous underground hallways and rooms

and to our surprise, they were all well ventilated thanks to the thousands of air-vents in the walls leading to the outside fresh air. Smart, wouldn´t you say?! And speaking of the outside . . .
It was a glorious day and you know I had to have my moment with my llamas, and here´s a video for all of you who love these beautiful animals as much as me . . .

These pictures are of us clowns posing with the famous Chavin heads . . .

Pondering Head

Happy-Ignorant Head

Business-Oriented Head
You can´t buy that kind of advertisement J.T.!! I think Matty deserves a raise!
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Alright Y´all!! Unfortunatley, that´s it for Huaraz and Huantar.

Cusco and the land of Machu Picchu here we come!!

Huaraz 8/18/07 - 8/20/07

2007-09-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

We took the over-night bus to the central Andes of Peru, to a town called Huaraz. What is another 14 hour bus ride through Peru like, in a "few" words? crazy bus driver racing cars on the highway, crazy bus rider racing death on the mountain´s edge, Sasha cursing crazy bus driver as she is hurdled into the 2 square foot bathroom wall for the 5th time as she tries to take her 7th piss of the trip . . . and finally, Sasha finding her special nook and lets Misha sleep for a few hours.

Huaraz has had its share of disasters, the most memorable being the earthquake of 1970 that measured 7.7 on the Richter scale and killed 70,000 people from central Peru (30,000 of them being from Huaraz.) How does an earthquake do that exactly?? Well, when you´re up in the mountains, an earthquake can cause water to cascade down to the valleys below creating a combination of avalanche, waterfall, and landslide!

But what a place! In the mountains, it is common to chew coca leaves or drink coca tea to help with the elevation.

No, it doesn´t get you high (you dope fiend!) Yes, it really helps!

---------------------------------------------------------------
Upon arriving in Huaraz, we just happened to look out the window of our hostel and noticed ICE CAPPED MOUNTAINS!!

A first for some of us! We immediately decided to do a trek through the mountains, but eventually decided against it since all of us were getting pretty sick at this point. But that doesn´t mean that we can´t have fun! Matty and I left Misha to recuperate while we went on a bus tour through Parque Nacional Huascarán, enjoying distant views of Cordillera Blanca and Negra.

Bus tours are a funny thing, since they shuffle a bunch of people in and out of the bus for about 7 hours, to take pictures and such. . .yet it is a great way to see a bunch of places if you have a time restraint. Most of the guides speak only Spanish so no, you won´t understand much and sure it´s touristy, but you really have to take these things with a grain of salt, and ENJOY . . . you ARE in Peru for crying out loud.

First, the bus shuffled us out in front of a beautiful lake (the lake of seven colors) which had bubbling mineral water . . . explains all those colors! We were shuffled back in until we came upon a valley of the largest flowers in the whole world...

Puya Raimondii. This is one of the most ancient plant species in existence and can only be found in some parts of the Andes of Peru and Bolivia. The plant takes about 100 years to grow (about 10 meters high)at which point it blooms over 20,000 flowers for three months, at which point it comes to its tragic end and dies .Obviously, we missed the months of its magnificence. . . so I had to help it out. Ah, what a sight!

The bus briefly stopped at some cave drawings where I was lucky enough to snap a picture (only the right side of the bus got this privilege!)

(and its reproduction for better view)

Finally, the bus tour let us off near a walkway by some breathtaking views of Nevado Pastoruri, where Matty and I jumped on some donkeys and began the climb to see some glaciers! Matty´s six-legged donkey had a good climb up

Hahaha!!! What! He´s tall as hell!

We enjoyed climbing in, out, and about the glacier. . . even though we weren´t allowed to enter it at all (what a surprise!)

I have to say, Matty was a total natural on the snow . . . hopping to and fro like a gazel, venturing out past the "Danger" signs, enjoying his new found freedom to the maximum. Salut!

Here are some highlights:

You know I had to have a taste! Hmmm, a taste of childhood, yum! I just had to give it a big hug for old times sakes . . .

On the way back, Matty´s donkey got startled and started galloping away! Tiny Peruvians dashing left and right while Matty is almost thrown off . . . you had to laugh! And snap a picture for memories of course . . .

I ventured off into the nearby valley to enjoy some overlooked treasures.
All in all, a wonderful day, a lovely trip, and great memories.

Happy Birthday Misha!!! 09/12/07

2007-09-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

The day has come!! The celebration begins! Even Misha´s parents are here in Peru to make it a memorable event and it will be a birthday to remember!! A lot of you have sent in personal e-mails and stuff like that but hey, twice never hurt . . . so leave a nice comment and wish Misha a wonderful year filled with love, luck, and laughter.

Happy Birthday Baby!!!!

Chiclayo 8/14/07 - 8/18/07

2007-08-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

We caught the 7am early morning from Cajamarca to our next destination, Chiclayo. Our crew was intact with me, Sasha, and the newest addition to the team, Matty. It was a beautiful 6 hour ride as we descended from the towering Andes into the coastal desert of Peru, which runs through the whole coast of Peru.

The desert is how you would imagine it . . . lonesome, dry and empty except for the giant piles of garbage which create their own "havens" and break the peace of the desert. And it seems like it goes on forever. Little rivers snake through it, run around little "dams" made by farmers and feed their fields. Outside of the small green squares which grow rice, corn and the like, the desert is waiting with the patience only it has waiting to swallow up the green fields at first sign of drought. We however, drove past this lonely scene as we made our way to the coast.

Chiclayo is said to be a modern city, the commercial center of northern Peru. Really it's just another almost big city with its street markets, it's Plaza de Armas, the church looking over it, the bodegas, the crippled begging on the sidewalks, the rotisserie chicken joints on every corner, tiny combis (little buses which pack too many people in them) with guys screaming out destinations onto us, and the Peruvians going about their business.

We stepped off the bus ready to be courted by the local taxi drivers. Probably about 90% of the cars are taxis, all fighting over you. And all the taxis have their own personalities. Some with zebra designed seat covers, some with leopard ones. Some with neon lights inside and of course outside of the car. In fact some of the decorations would make you feel like being in a rap video. All I felt I needed was a bottle of Crystal and a feather in my hat. Pimpin' ain't easy!

Finally after travelling for what seems like ages, we have reached the pacific coast in a small town called Pimentel.

And of course there was a welcoming committee waiting for us...

The coast was not how I imagined it. Cold, windy, and empty just like the town. It felt like a plague came through here before us and took everyone except for the dogs, the little kids selling keychains and the angry Argentinian bum who cursed at me and Matty with every bad English word he had in his vocabulary. But here we are finally across the continent. It means a lot because almost the whole way for months, we took boats, smelly overpacked buses and horses to get here. Wow!
Really, Chiclayo is most famous for a recently found Moche Tomb of The Lord of Sipan. You see, back in 1987 there was an unusual amount of gold and other cool artifacts on the local black market. I personally couldn't find this market. It sounds like it would have a lot of cool stuff for sale. But no, no sign of it. Well, through some investigative work, the authorities discovered new tombs that we're getting robbed. Needless to say they stopped that, dug everything up and put it into a state of the art museum.

We checked it out of course. It was an amazing museum with lifelike wax figures of warriors and jewelry on display. We weren't allowed to bring any cameras, but me and Matty being rebels and all brought ours in. Here are some pics before I got caught with my camera and got escorted out:

Yeah, I didn't get to the good stuff yet. After, we checked out Tucume's valley of the pyramids. This guy came to meet us.Its an area of about 50 broken down pyramids which look more like big sand bumps in the ground. Those ridges below are the pyramids. Peru is so rich with archaeological sites that very little work is being done at this place. The grounds are littered with broken pieces of pottery, human bones, etc. Of course this is in places that tourists are not allowed to enter, but we helped ourselves there. I don't intend to make us sound like a bunch of misfits, but our curiosity gotten the best of us. We were like little kids filled with adventure stories wandering around the site.
We climbed the mountain in the middle of the ruins and got to enjoy the incredible view.

Also after all of our adventures, we found an awesome little taco place in Chiclayo. Sorry, no pics.
Anyway guys, I'll talk to you later. Gotta get back to the video game on the computer. Peace!
Oh, I will leave you with Matty rockin' out his Spanish with the taxi driver before the guy tries to rip him off...

Cajamarca 8/6/07 - 8/14/06

2007-08-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

Cajamarca is best known as the city where the Incan Emperor Atahuallpa was imprisoned, held for ransom, and then killed by Spanish Conquistadors led by Pizarro back in 1532, drawing an end to the all powerful Incan Empire. The small Spanish troop of 170 "conquistadors" outsmarted and defeated an army of 80,000 (by promising a peace ceremony in order to lure Atahuallpa and then using guns and horses against people who have never seen either-- the Incas had no chance.)

Atahuallpa was held for ransom . . . which he delivered in the hopes of saving his life-- a room full of gold and twice of silver, as tall as the level of his out raised arm. This room is the only remaining Incan structure remaining in Cajamarca and is known as El Cuarto del Rescate, or "The Ransom Room." No you can´t go inside, no you can´t touch the wall, but you can stand outside and admire! Finally, of course, the Spanish killed Atahuallpa anyway. They spared him the death of burning at the stake to a more deserving one of strangulation with a garrote, once he miraculously decided to be baptized as a Christian! (Actually, the Incas believed that the soul could not have an afterlife if the body was burned. So there you have it.)

The city of Cajamarca is like any other large city . . . it has its bars, restaurants, churches (not in that order) and it has its markets.
Upon arriving, we ran into our friends from Celendín hot baths . . . Hector and Denis (they happened to be wearing clothes this time) and they helped us find a cheap hostel in the area . . . sure there was no hot water available for most of the day AND the mattress felt like a box-spring! But it was cheap . . . and just what we were looking for.

Mishka had to travel to Lima to pick up Matty, an incoming visitor from the good ol´U. S. of A. And of course we made a sign to welcome him

Which he loved! And promises to frame when he got home.
I decided to stick around and relax a bit, go the the hot baths and maybe dancing.The famous Baños del Incas where sort of disappointing . . . especially after being spoiled by the wonderful and natural springs in Celendín. For example . . .

Baños del Incas

(don´t touch the water, don´t cross the walkway, don´t try anything other than taking a pic!)

Older Baños (same rules apply)

And finally, my Baño where I was allowed to take a bath . . . Looks like a little tile closet don´t it? At least the water was medicinal . . . otherwise, it would have been like taking a bath at home!

Next day I went out dancing to a local bar before heading out to a festival in a nearby town. Needless to say, we never made it to the festival . . .Why fix it if it ain´t broken??Thank you Remac Crew, especially Denis and Hector!

Mishka returned with Matty from Lima and we hit the streets of Cajamarca. . . Ransom Chamber, Historical District, and other local delights. My favorite? Locking Misha up in a display case! Talk about fun!
Before heading for the coast, we decided to check out the Ventana´s of Otuzco (burial grounds in the mountains). Armed with sandwiches and strawberries, we had a picnic while reading "The Alchemist" aloud and pondering the afterlife.
Word to the wise: Peruvians love to plant cacti around their territories...so if you decide to climb over, be very careful! The cactus poison can hurt for days, in you joints! Very painful! Wink wink

Adios for now!

From Mishka and his two girlfriends:) Aren´t we pretty?

Celendín 7/31/07 - 8/6/07

2007-08-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

The entrance to Celendín was quit rewarding after a 14 hour bumpy ride up and down the unpaved mountain road . . . quiet frankly, my ass really hurt and I needed a beer!

Luckily, a warm welcome got me just that. . . and I couldn't be happier.Celendín is a small city in the Northern Andes of Peru, in the department of Cajamarca. The market was a noisy little place with people haggling on every corner and bargains being made every few steps. We found a lot of people here, called compesinos, wearing the traditional clothing topped with a handmade sombrero . . .. . . locally made of course, an old tradition of Celendín. The main plaza called -wait, can you guess- Plaza de Armas and the surrounding streets is inhabited by most of the city´s 15,000 people and is uniquely colored baby-blue!

Baby-blue church, baby-blue city hall, baby-blue windows and doors, baby-blue borders . . . everything! Baby-blue! (I heard it has something to do with purity, and clean air)

And on every tree in the plaza (palm tree for example), there is a sign in Spanish that says "Hello, how are you? My name is palm tree. My scientific name is . . .yadayadayada. I was born in 1971. Take care of Nature." Hmmm, pretty interesting right?!

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We arrived in hopes of catching the festivities . . . mainly the bullfights! Matadors from Venezuela, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Peru! How exciting! Our good friend Franco assured us that they didn´t kill the bull around here . . . and being totally uninformed, we believed him of course.

We arrived at the over-packed man-made arena which was in a frenzy as more and more people scaled the wooden beams, looking for the perfect spot to watch the spectacle. (I hope this picture gives you an idea)

We were in for a show of course before the big event. Everywhere you looked, people in costumes, beautiful dresses, crazy dragon heads . . . kids and adults alike.

This performance was by far my favorite! Those boys might be stomping up a storm but those ladies! They´re working out there! It was a hot day, just so you know, and those girls worked it out there!

Three performances, 4 sweet peanut bags, one band, 5 mangoes, 4 personal-stove prizes, and a cow-named-Rosy raffle later, the show began.

Toro: El NoreñoMatador: Andes Ruiz
and his colorful possie . . . of incompetent fools!I mean really, how many people does it take to take down a bull . . . because yes, they KILL the bull! This poor bull didn´t have a chance! I mean first, they play around a bit -- fooling the bull to follow their pink capes. They start jabbing him with these colorful peppermint-candy looking daggers that hang off of his back, tearing at his flesh. Then, when they feel like he is losing his energy and enough blood . . . that is when they surround the bleeding bull, all 3 or 4 matadors flashing their pink, making the bull dizzy and distorted. Then some really brave ol´chap goes in for the kill with a sword . . . and FINITO! They carry the bull off by the horns after giving him a final blow to the skull with a knife. A valiant death . . . just marvelous don´t you think?!

Actually, we left before the actual killing because I just didn´t have the heart to see it. (But don´t think we didn´t catch the nonstop reruns on the local networks! This town is a little obsessed if you know what I mean.)

What I was really hoping for was this (at least the first 5 seconds)
Yeah!! Wouldn´t that have been something! Now that´s what I call entertainment!

On the bright side, a really great guy Francisco who happened to be our hostel owner helped us explore the local delicacies . . .
Like CEVICHE (uncooked fish in lemon juice with corn crackers)

- - yeah, I look scared for a reason . . . haven´t tried it yet! But it turned out to be great! whew . . and of course there´s

CUY (guinea-pig)

I know, I know . . .guinea big! I´m sorry mom! I´m sorry sis! But what´s done is done . A little chewy for my taste. And the sight of that little paw, oh well, not for me.

Before leaving Celendín, we ventured out to the local hot and mud baths. A spectacular place in the middle of a mountain range where boiling hot sulfur water and the cold river flow side by side until they join into one, making for a really great time! And mud! What a great thing eh? So much fun!! And great for your skin . . . who could ask for more?! Let us introduce our tribe . . .

I was a little squeamish as this family started applying warm, gooey mud all over my body . . . but I got into it! Both of us did! Check us out . . . ROOOOAAAR!

Preccccccccccccccccccious . . . my precious . . . yesssssssssssssssss

We´ll leave you here . . . with a kiss

and see you later " in Cajamarca, our next adventure.

The Road To Cocabamba July 22-25

2007-08-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it started like this. One night we were at La Casita, a discoteca in Chachapoyas, and we ran into a great couple. The guy, I didn't remember his name at that point, threatened to kill me if I didn't go and visit Kuelap. I held on to my life since I have been there a couple of days before. Thank God! But they were great, we shared beers and had a great time. A week later, we ran into them again, only on my turf, The San Jose bakery. We talked and they invited us to go on a horse trip to some place where Janet had to go to work. . . the name of which could not remember for the life of us when our friends asked. We jumped at the idea.

It was 4am on Sunday. We dragged ourselves into the cold dark street and played Backgammon as we waited for the car of our new friends to pick us up. I am embarrassed to say that at that point I neither knew the names of our new friends or the place where they were taking us. But all jokes aside we threw the idea of "Don't Talk To Strangers" out a long time ago. So when the car pulled up we exchanged smiling faces and "Holas" and jumped in. A few minutes later, Sasha and I were out.

We woke up in a dark room tied up and with bags over our heads. No, just kidding. Ha-ha!

Let me start again. We woke up in Maria, a small town, just outside of Kuelap. And it was freezing! I guess me and Sasha didn't really understand when we were told, dress warm. But our compadres, Pedro and Janet prepared for us. They gave us extra pants, sweatshirts, hats and whatever we needed; we happily, but reluctantly accepted, had a cup of coffee and hit the trail on our horses.

I of course, was a born rider. Sasha was... uhmm, she was my princess.
Pedro and his princess were great as well.

And before we knew it, we were in the clouds, literally . . .

The views were incredible. The weather changed from hot to cold in a matter of minutes. And we had an 11 hour ride ahead of us. But there was a price behind all this beauty and fun... pain. Pain in the groin, pain in the back, pain pretty much everywhere.

But we persevered. And made it. It was dark, we were tired and hungry. The whole ride there, I was planning to take a car back because I didn't want to face another long trip like that. Unfortunately, that was the road and it turned out that Cocabamba is not accessible by car. OK. When we arrived, Janet and Pedro immediately offered us their room and we were greeted by the town. Yes! As a mater of fact, we had the mayor and all important government people come and visit us and drink beer in our little room that night. It turned out that we were the first non-Peruvian tourists EVER to come and visit this little town! Wow!

We were fed every day, shown around town, and were treated with the greatest hospitality possible. We spent our first day recovering from our groin pain. We walked around the town meeting practically EVERYONE! It was a small town, dirt roads, one plaza where locals came to play cards and schoolkids were gathered to practice marching for the upcoming celebration. The town was located on a hill so everything was basically uphill ALL THE TIME! There was a river next to the town and its a good thing because electricity was practically free for the town. But above all, the best thing was the people of Cocabamba-- so kind to us and so generous. On one such excursion, every person we saw offered something to take as a gift. . . By the time we came to our room, we were loaded with avocados, yellow bananas, red bananas, fresh beans, and eggs (of course Mishka managed to drop one)! How can you beat that!While getting to know the town, we walked by "The Animal Jail" where animals were put if they were wondering around without their owner. Animals beware! Go to Jail!Just kidding about the kitties, I couldn't help taking a picture.

And of course the little waterfall/pool we visited was both refreshing and lots of fun!

The following day, we felt our groins could take a little beating so all of us ventured into the mountains after a "local" ruin.

Thank god we had Inca Man to guide us!! Long live Pedro. . . the INCA MAN!

Three hour ride by horse, and then a three hour climb up a mountain. Here are some great shots:It was the first time for us to visit an untouched ruin . . . skulls, ribs, ropes, teeth . . . even the skull of an eagle! The ruin was obviously a burial ground and located in a very hard-to-reach place. Here are the highlights:

The ruin was absolutely remarkable! The most amazing peace of history we´ve ever seen . . . partially because we were the only people there, we don´t even think it was touched by archaeologists!

The following day, Mishka and I had to go back to Chachapoyas and so we parted with Pedro and Janet, who are forever in our hearts . . . .

and began the long way back. . . OUCH! Next stop . . . Chachapoyas for my birthday and then Celendín. . . where we will see our first bullfight, a Spanish tradition, to honor Peru´s Independence from Spain . . . hmmm?!

Our friends!

2007-07-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

You know? We are the luckiest travelers around. Everywhere we go, we meet the coolest, most hospitable, and really fun and interesting people! And Chachapoyas is no exception. Really, I think that is what gives places their personality. We arrived by bus with only our guide book in hand just like we have in every place before. Sorry, also our smiles and our laughter.
And the most incredible people come into our path...

Lucia, a really cool, but fierce Peruana.

Franco, a laid back Italian play writer, director, artist, language teacher and Backgammon master. Franco is a very special man and here is a clip of him talking ( sorry that its sideways):

If you're wondeing about the wheelchairs, Lucia had an episode with hurting her middle finger while she got into a small "tiff" with a bouncer at a club when some of our jackets mysteriously disappeared. She's OK.

We spent countless nights in Lucia's small apartment singing songs, acting, dancing as if we had invented dance, laughing and loving each other. Of course with a bottle of wine at hand. We can never forget. Here's a clip:

On the way to the freezing pool that Lucia swore was warm.

Fidel saying sweet words to Venessa on her birthday. Fidel runs a language school in town that we sharpened our Spanish skills at. Also a really funny guy as well.

Backgammon! My new obsession.

Janet (on the left) and (Pedro on the right). Two beautiful people we met who took us on a painful but amazing trip to Cocobamba. (Our next blog, stay tuned.)

And of course me and a local plumber.

Below is the last entry about Kuelap, the ancient city of the Chachapoyas. If there's a little Indiana Jones in you, read on...

Chachapoyas and a sidetrip to Kuelap

2007-07-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Kuelap!... I guess the reason Chachapoyas is on the tourist map. A fortress on top of a lonely mountain that is hard to notice unless you know it's there. Before the Incas and the Spanish Conquistadors put Peru on the map, the Chachapoyans built Kuelap do defend themselves against other warring tribes, over 1200 years ago. There it is on top of a desolate mountain. (It looks like a submarine, sort of.) Kuelap is a 3 hour bumpy ride south of Chachapoyas (the city that was named after the long gone civilization that lived here.) The ride itself is breathtaking as the van scales the mountains on roads that feel like they're out of place. Valley after valley, mountain after mountain, and tombs after tombs that are built into the faces of the mountains like the ones below. Chachapoyans had "balls"... Those round things above are bases for tombs or houses. "Why?", I asked myself. Imagine going to the bathroom at night. Dangerous. As a matter of fact, this whole region is filled with remnants of buildings stuck into unreachable places. But first, we had to find it...Some hike here, we drove. Much easier than the 6 hour, 3 kilometer hike up the steep mountain. The "city" is a marvel. One of the fun facts is that it took a lot more bricks to build the walls than the largest Egyptian pyramid. Really, there is very little known about it, since real digging only started about 3 years ago. Our guide was filled with assumptions about the story of these people and their life. Nobody really knows because these people disappeared before anyone could ask them any questions. We brooded around the walls and then went inside.The llamas are actually brought here for the tourists. They are not naturally here. Funny.

Me and my butterfly!

Honestly, we got a little screwed. The guiding company that we hired claimed to have an English speaking guide for us and was supposed to give us a discount. Ha-ha. Luckily, one of our fellow touristas spoke English and translated for us. Note to self: be careful with tourist trapping crooks! There she is. Pegonia was super awesome. I hope I spelled her name right.But it was incredible anyway. The overgrown buildings, stones that have been here for eons made me feel like I was Indiana Jones.A lot of this ancient city is under construction. The walls are being taken apart and re-mortared. It's difficult to describe this place. What can I say about it? It was awesome, inspiring, beautiful... and full of mysteries that we are just beginning to tap. The solution is all of you have to come and see it for yourselves!

We returned late at night and took Pegonia out for drinks. You would also be glad to know that the following day I became the right hand of justice and after much threatening, I got some money back. Yes!

Here are some more pics of Kuelap...

Sash n' J.

JULY 29th!!!! It has come!!!

2007-07-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Who´s the Birthday Girl???!!!???Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
Yeah, it´s my birthday!!! I´m the birthday girl!!!

Me, Me, Me!!

I accept all kinds of virtual gifts, not to worry:)

(Did you know that Peru celebrates its independence this weekend?!? I think everyone just wants to celebrate my birthday with me! Guess I´m in for a good time one way or another!!)

Of course, a birthday is never the same without your home, your family. Here´s a little something that always reminds me of home, for all of us to enjoy:

(Ukrainian Lyrics - Courtesy of Orysia T.)Tam v haiu, pry Dunaiu, solovi shchebeche (2)Vin svoiu ptashynochku do hnizdechka klyche.Tam v haiu, pry Dunaiu, tam muzyka hraie (2)Bas hude, skrypka plache, molodets' huliaie.Tam v haiu, pry Dunaiu, khodzhu samotoiu (2)I plachu, i rydaiu myla/mylyi za toboiu.

(English Translation - Courtesy of Richard Handal)In the forest near the Danube river,there is a nightingale singing,he sings to gather everyone from his family. In the forest near the Danube river,there is a bass vibrating and a fiddle crying,I think of a place where my lovely one is strolling now. In the forest near the Danube river,I am sick with my loneliness,crying, I want to fly like a bird,to where my lovely one is now.(Anonymous / Traditional Ukrainian Folk Song)
Milla Jovovich In A Glade lyrics

Chachapoyas and a sidetrip to Huancas 7/10/07 - 7/11/07

2007-07-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

One 9 hour bus ride (check!), on flat tire in the middle of the highway (check!), one 3 hour road block (check!), one 2 hour taxi ride (check!), and of course, a side excursion to a nearby river (and check!)

and we were in "Tha Nofen Hailans" (The Northern Highlands) of Peru!

Chachapoyas is a city in northern mountains of Peru and alrough it has changed its location several times due to climate, disease and a lack of defenses against rebelling local groups, it now stands at an elevation of 2,234 meters (7,657 feet), with a population of approximately 20 thousand people.

Until recently built highways, Chachapoyas was fairly isolated from the rest of Peru and so the tradition of local food, drinks, and dress have remained throughout the generations. The women wear skirts, even in the cold mountain climates, bright sweaters, Cajamarca hats or large scarfs, babies tied to their backs by handwoven blankets, ponchos, military hats, you name it . . . and horses are still a main way of travel through the mountains to "nearby" towns and villages."

We took a side-trip down this dirt road which smelled of all kinds of flowers and trees

and ended up in Huancas, a local district known for its pottery, hand woven garments, and mountain views

Here are some great little glimpses we caught on camera . . .

And of course . . . THE VIEW!
We took a stroll around the town and then along the mountain for some close-up actionand spent hours enjoying the mountain´s fresh air and little treats.

Flowers and other goodies for Sasha . . .

Bugs for Mishka (of course):

uhm, many beetles! In fact, Mishka became The Beetle Man

even a stickopelis bugagpolis!

It was hard to tear the man away from the bushes and every few minutes, "Babe! Look another beetle" . . .

which inspired us to make a little treat to our fans back home.

Sit back and enjoy . . .

Hehe, on the way back, a kind woman taught me a little about making thread
And it is NOT easy! First they collect the wool, then they spin it around a small stick into small thread, then they die it all kinds of colors, and finally weave it into rugs, shawls, blankets, etc. A lot of work! Makes you appreciate the way people live here.
And of course, we can´t forget Softka´s evil step-brother Brutis who resides in Huancas.

Don´t worry Softka, he doesn´t know where you are!

Happy Birthday Richie!

2007-07-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday!!!

To a man who loves with his whole heart and gives the finger to veggies (as they rightfully deserve)! Rich, you enhance the lives of everyone around you and that's not " bushit". You are the man! Thanks for being there for all of us!

We love you with all our hearts!

Sauce 7/4/07 - 7/10/07

2007-07-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

Leaving Sauce, in order to bring our bags from Tarapoto, was a very interesting "combi" ride at four in the morning, the cheaper means of transportation that the locals use. Basically, an old torn-up van, over-packed with bags and people, bouncing down the mountain! It´s a good thing most Peruvians are short and can fit into small spaces . . . Mishka and I on the other hand are biggerStill, it´s worth saving almost HALF of the travel expenses and you get to enjoy the beautiful sunrise on the ferry The hostal we found was splendid: rooms surrounding a little forest filled with flowers, orange trees, and all kinds of sweet smells and colors.
The people of Sauce are very sincere, hospitable, and kind. Walking down the dusty streets, all the locals smile and say hello to you in Spanish while the kids yell out "Hello", "Hello mister"or other coin english phrases, then giggle and run away.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing like hitching a ride on the back of a truck to establish yourself in a small town!Right Misha!? ( xutpiú takoú)
We ate at the local eateries and swam in Lago Azul (the lake bordering the town), which will forever be known as Sauce Coche to the locals (name for "lake" in the native language of that area - Quechua)
(and this special video was made for the viewers´ entertainment)

. . . on occasion enjoying a cool refreshing Brahma-yes, we found it girls!

Mishka is a master pourer just so you know but I´m afraid being a bartender is out of the question!
Turns out that Sauce is filled with natural attractions . . . and we decided to hike to another lake 2 hours awayIt was a beautiful hike through many green fields filled with horses, cows, and goats grazing in the sunshine. We also passed small villages and even a dormant volcano on the horizon . . .
The trek took longer than we thought because of all the wonderful distractions
Butterflies for me . . . so amazing! Neon blue, light green, organge, hot pink, yellow, forest green . . . you name it! They were flittering around like rainbow-colored snowflakes . . . guiding my way through the forest.
For Mishka, cow shit happened to be a big distraction.
But hey, to each his own. Right?!? Hahaha

The lake was definitely beautiful and refreshing at the end of our 4 hour hike

And we swam across the lake to rent some kayaks so we could explore some more.Catching a boat ride back to Sauce with some people made this whole trip wonderful and also free!
Jeeeeeeeeeeew-Ish!

We finished our week at Sauce with a trip to the local sulfur hot baths. A little smelly. Sulfur does smell like eggs . . . but nothing a little shower can´t handle.
We bathed in the hot and cold bathes for almost 8 hours.
(Hey, no hot water for 2 months can do that to you!) And great views of course!
A calm, peaceful, and relaxing end to our Sauce trip. . .
and our "authentic" ride back

Next stop -- Chachapoyas!

Tarapoto and Finding Sanctuary 6/29/07 - 7/2/07

2007-07-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

Tarapoto turned out to be a pretty big city with a lot of noise, great nightlife, and superb rotisserie chicken. This city was in between two mountain ranges but offered none of the fresh air that mountains usually promise.Our hostel room offered cable though! And even though both of us are against it all, we did watch quiet a bit and actually caught the finale of American Idol. I know, I know! But I´m glad I got to see how the "artists" of today, although very talented, are selling their individuality and future career to a company that will write (wait, they basically only cover), organize, produce, direct, and publicize their music for them. . . let´s just say I have quiet a bit to say about it. We´ll leave it at that for now.

Anyhow, we spent our time getting serious stuff done . . . like cleaning up!We also bought some warm clothes that we would be using in the colder mountain climates (happy Mamas?). . . and it´s a good thing we did because they came to be very useful indeed. I wish I had a picture of us eating chicken but you´ll have to use your imagination . . . it was definitely a lot!

Our friend Migdonio (whose farm we wanted to visit) was stuck out-of-town for a while so I guess our future profession of milking cows and making cheese will have to be put on hold for a while. Damn! I was really hoping.

Instead, we decided to leave the pollution of Tarapoto and head out for a day trip to a nearby village called Sauce (Sa-ucé) that promised swimming and relaxation (because we really needed it you know!)

Driving up the bumpy road of the mountain to Sauce involved crossing two rivers, one by ferry. I want to mention that this ferry used free energy only- the current. Very interesting design actually, I think we have a lot to learn from that.

As we drove higher and higher into the mountain, the atmosphere changed completely and the air . . . oh the air. . . was heaven. So piercing, cool and refreshing (I sound like grandma, I know.) We passed rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys (and MANY butterflies!!).
What we found on the other side of this passage . . .

was a little paradise . . .

It was simply- beautiful.

We spent the day eating delicious food (amazing fresh fish meals for less than $2!), swimming, reading, and taking pictures of all the amazing things we saw. Here are a few highlights . . .

We were Hooked! We decided to come back as soon as possible. But not before another dip!

See you soon Sauce

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And of course, a little entertainment for all you folks at home:

Boat and Road From Iquitos to Tarapoto 6/26/07 - 6/29/07

2007-07-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, we hit that dusty river once more and possibly for the last time during these here travels. It was a familiar scene with hundreds of hammocks swinging away as the boat set sail. As seasoned vagabonders that we are, we stocked up on snacks and left our family in Iquitos. The days passed quicker and almost at our stop, we began to see mountains in the distance. I felt like a sailor from days of old, finally seeing birds after months of sailing in the open sea. Wow, could that be the Andes? It was more like the foothills of the Andes, but hey, they were mountains nonetheless. Counting those final days . . . we have been on a boat up the Amazon for a total of 12 days and nights! (Eat that Zhenia with your 8 days on the Trans Siberian Railway. That was a joke. Sorry.)

Unfortunately, there is a lot of animal trade in the jungles of Peru. On many of the numerous stops, local kids would come into the boat and sell baby monkeys, parrots, and turtles besides the fruit and food. What can I say? Poor animals. Peru is a poor country and I can't judge the locals for doing anything to get by, but many animals are stripped of their habitat as they are sold to people who think they're cute and fun to play with. As a traveller, I can only be an observer and learn for myself. Just my opinion.

Doesn't he look like "dedushka"?
Well, this bird had a temper like him and he and his crew attacked a poor turtle who was minding his own business...

While floating up the Amazon, we had a chance to see beautiful sceneries as well as the way people live by the grand river. We have seen countless sunsets and sunrises that surpass any imagination . . .

And it has been an amazing ride.

It might have been almost two weeks but it sure beats taking a flight.

As we got off the boat in Yurimaguas, we were surrounded by moto-taxi guys. All willing to sweep us away from the dusty port and deliver us to our destination. We though, were moving on to Tarapoto 120 kilometers away. The moto-taxis, I must say so you faithful readers would know, are more like rickshaws ( I hope I spelled that right), but half motorcycle and half carriage. Very romantic and the cheap means of transportation that we've seen so far in Peru. As we barrelled down the rough streets, we watched our driver make arrangements to Tarapoto with another guy who was driving next to us. Really fun to watch.We got off and jumped into a car as we begun our supposedly 2 hour journey to Tarapoto. But we didn't exactly leave town until we watched our driver make suspicious pick-ups. Shady? Possibly.
We passed beautiful countryside until we ran into a roadblock which lasted 5 hours. "No problema!" Can't let a little roadblock slow you down.

Well, maybe just 5 hours!

But what´s five hours when you´re in Peru?

We played cards, danced, talked and laughed with our stranded conpadres. Where ever Sasha goes, good times follow...

(Sasha´s yellow Havayana bracelet has a new home now. . . Isn´t she cute?Ah!)

And when Sasha gets tired, she needs flowers to recoup...

Sometimes, she gets really tired...

And I. Well, I take pictures of plumbing every chance I get. Yes, its a urinal, but its made with tiles. Isn't that great? Isn't it? Anybody?

Anyway,the road to Tarapoto used to be a rough dirt road and travel was somewhat dangerous because the road crosses mountains. Now... yeah, its still kind of dangerous. Even though much of it has been paved, the mountainous part almost hasn't been touched and the construction company isn't in a rush because of it's 25 year contract to build the road. C´est la vie!
Next Stop . . . Tarapoto!

Peru . . . Interesting Bits We´ve Noticed

2007-07-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

There are a few interesting things that we have noticed in the good ol´Peru that we want to share with the rest of the world, though some of them might me just South American traditions I´m sure:

1. Do not attempt to eat Pizza or order fancy Chinese dishes . . . Peru is not exactly famous for this! So trust the Peruvians in making Peruvian food and if you want Chinese food, just order chicken, veggies, and chaufa.

2. Prices are never listed! Ask how much it is before you get it . . . whether it´s a drink, food, a ride, whatever. It´s a lesson we keep on learning over and over again.

3. Peruvians like to hack (loudly cough in repeated spasms) and spit. Do not get offended or vocally disgusted . . . just nod and smile.

4. Peruvians LOVE to honk their horns. There´s no particular reason for it?! Maybe it is to warn other people, scare a dog or for some personal acknowledgement . . . I don´t know but they love it.

5. Bring toilet paper everywhere you go. You never know when you´re going to be done with your #1,#2, or #1.5 and there is no paper around and the water is not running in the sink.

6. Water! Not always on! There are times of the day when you have it, and then there are times in the day when you don´t. It´s alright but plan ahead.

7. Hot showers? Not likely. You better shower before the sun sets like everybody else does and besides, a cold shower does a body good.

8. (For the girls) When getting a wax, ask if they´ve done that before. . . because that can get messy if you know what I mean.

9. There really aren´t any rules about how many people can be in a vehicle. Realistically, if you have a van designed for 11 people, you can get away with at least 16 easy.

10. And for the big finale . . . Peruvians love to cover things! Cover all things with pretty little fabric embroidered around the edges. If it´s covered, then it´s orderly and clean. For example, a display of our last hostess Loyda´s obsession:

Blender Cover

Stove-top Cover

Rice-Maker Cover

Orange Juice Squeezer Cover and Mixer Cover

Toaster Cover

Heater Cover

But wait, it gets better . . .

Small-Plastic-Bags Holder Cover

Large and Medium-Bags Holder Cover

Match-Box Holder Cover (disguised as a chicken!)

AND MY OLD TIME FAVORITE . . .

Small-Cup Cover

Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did :)

You gotta love her.

Iquitos: Part II and the Peruvian Goodbye

2007-07-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Iquitos! A magical place! Why you ask? Well it is . . .

A place with a Chinese restaurant on every corner . . .

...and someone selling the Peruvian "Juanes" on every other corner-- a mixture of rice, chicken, an egg, and an olive all wrapped in banana leaves . . . hmmmhmmm good.A place where you find a "Saucy" picture on every paper. . .

(and great articles I´m sure)

A Place where you can get anything on the planet! You Want it, they Got it at at the local markets! From cinnamon to diabetes remedies to home made insect repellant and even local hallucenogens . . . they got it all!!

(even a box full of feathers for me!! Hmmm, fun!)

A place where part of the city is floating on water!

Yes, Belen, or commonly referred to as The Venice of Peru, has a river running through it and it is partially under water during the rainy season.

But most of all, Iquitos has been our "home" for more than three weeks and has always left us in wonder at the sweetness and hospitality of strangers. Thank you Iquitos!

For your warmth. . .

For your kindness . . .

For taking us under your wing and making us feel like home . . .

when we needed it most.

So . . . how do you say goodbye to a place like this?? You go out with a Bang!

There happened to be a festival, THE Festival of Iquitos on the weekend before we were leavinng, so we figured it was perfect! The annual festival of Dos Rios and San Juan is a "religious" festival that starts off with a soccer game and finishes with alot of drinking and dancing. How could we resist ?

We headed over to the free game in the early afternoon and guess who is playing?? United States vs. Peru (Iquitos) . . . how perfect!

Mind you, this happens to be the first football game for the both of us!! That´s right sport fans . . . Sasha and Misha experience the magic for the first time! Misha cheering for United States, Sasha cheering for Peru . . .

In the End, World Peace won as the players left the field scoring 0-0 (although I think the Peruvian team was way better...shhhh...).

And the people rushed the field for the music concert that spun the festival into action. . . nuts!

And thanks to Cuba Libre (coke, rum and lime) and good spirits, the party kept going . . .

and going . . . (go cowboy go)

and going. . .

and going!

The next day, everyone went out to the next town San Juan to celebrate the saint´s holiday.

People of all ages walking through the streets, on the highways, dancing, singing, drinking, eating, and so on and so on and so on . . . these people invented "celebrating."

I guess when you wake up the next day and your blanket is wrapped around your neck, it´s possible that you had a good time?! Haha . . .that´s my hairy little beast of a man . . .
A very special "thank you" goes out to Nicolas . . . the Sauce Man!
Fried chicken. . . $2

Grilled wings and beef hearts . . . $3

Having the AMAZING Nicolas Vinagrette smeared all over your meat and poured on your salad . . .
PRICELESS!
(For the recipe, we accept-- check, visa, MasterCard, cash, and of course, favors are welcome)
AND THAT´S ALL FOLKS

Here to play us a farewell song, our very own, Manuelle Juanito . . .

MUCHAS GRACIAS IQUITOS . . . THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES.

Iquitos-The Strike, The Chavezes, And A Lot of Beautiful "Coincidences" 6/03/07 - Present

2007-06-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

Iquitos... Iquitos is a "small" big city in the Peruvian Amazon. While being a home to somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million people (depends on who you ask),it remains a safe, friendly place. As a matter of fact, it is the world's largest city not connected by road to anywhere. Giggling kids say "Buenos dias" or "Hello" (to practice their English) as you walk down the street. Old women nod as they look on you from their windows. Partying locals graciously invite you to dance as they celebrate little girls' birthdays. My heart is at ease. Locals merrily engage us in a conversation as I practice my broken Spanish. And Peruvians are proud to be Peruvians. And of course you will hear, "Peruvians are not friendly!", as we've heard some travelers say. Don't listen to them. That has been our running joke for the last 2 weeks. We arrived in Iquitos a day before the strike. Strikes are almost an everyday thing in Peru. For many reasons, the main one being that the government is screwing the people of course, Peruvians go on strike all the time. The unique part about it is that they shut down everything in the city. EVERYTHING! And through a string of "coincidences" we were introduced to a family which allowed us to stay in their home for 4 days to sit out the upcoming strike before we jumped on the next boat out of town to continue our journey. We stocked up on food and watched the strike begin: By the end of the 3rd day all the streets were littered with cut down branches, broken glass bottles, and ash. It was disappointing to see a beautiful city get so vandalized, but on the eve after the strike, the whole community got together and cleaned everything up. Everyone from little kids to old people were sweeping the streets, clearing the branches and all. It was beautiful.Of course, while the grown ups are marching, the kids are playing football, chasing each other, jump-roping, and having a grand old time in the deserted streets.

Naturally, we got in on some of the action...

Our hosts Alfredo and Loyda were more hospitable than we could ever expect. Alfredo, who has been in tourism for over 35 years, speaks impeccable English. And Loyda, while barely being able to speak any English, had absolutely no problem in making herself understood. Though barely being able to clear 5 feet in height, she is an imposing figure. I could not bring myself to challenge the location of the pots or anything in the house for that matter. She would repeat any Spanish word until I understood. And both of them have so much love inside them. As a matter of fact, when the street money changers ripped me of, she had no problem retrieving my money from those bastards in mere minutes. Really! I wish that I could take Loyda with me throughout South America.To thank our hosts and their friends for their hospitality, we whipped up a great dinner, which at first, they were kind of afraid to try. But they loved it. Gringos can cook.

After dinner, laughing, and trying to understand each other, we partook in an old Peruvian tradition... karaoke. Here the ladies sing "Cielito Lindo", which is also the name of Alfredo's boat.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. One of the friends of the family is a D.J. at a local radio station and one day gave us a shout out on the radio and played some of our favorite songs. Can you ask for more?

Ever watch Fear Factor?

Alfredo is also a shaman in an Indian Ayahuasca Ceremony. Which we took part of. An amazing and cleansing experience. We'll tell you the details if you ask. Here he is with the two other shamans, exhausted from a full nights work:

The beautiful Cielito Lindo, Alfredo's boat.

If my Princess is not eating fruit, she is smelling flowers.

Ahh... I am so lucky!

Where have all the Beetles gone? South America!

Sasha holding my hand. I'm a hairy little beast.

A Special Birthday Wish . . . 6/21/07

2007-06-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

This is a very special birthday wish to my sister, one of the founders of vagabonding, at least in our lives. We love and appreciate you . . . and wish you the greatest birthday celebration . . . who´s the birthday girl??

Sasha´s Production 2007

LOVE, Sasha & Misha

Brazil, Colombia, Peru!? Where the hell are we! 5/27/07 - 6/3/07

2007-06-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Tabatinga, Brazil on a sunny afternoon in the end of May, excited by our proximity to Peru (one minute boat ride across the water) and Colombia (a twenty minute walk.)Yet we were still nervous about leaving the comforts of our Portuguese-speaking home of the last four months and the tasty Guarana drinks we were oh so used to . . . we knew that it was time for Spanish and Inca Cola . . . the neon -yellow "gaseosa" (soda) of Peru.
It even glows in the dark!

In about 3 days, we visited Colombia (mostly on foot) about 5 times, mostly for their fast Internet and their great sandwiches! Peru´s frontier city was this little island called Santa Rose right across the water! Makes you think how stupid borders are . . . how silly it all really is when you think of the big picture. For instance, here´s a picture of me standing in Peru and pointing at Brazil (on the left) and Colombia (on the right.)

Food for thought!?

When we finally managed to get our exit stamp out of Brazil, and still haven´t quite entered Peru "officially", we were "unacceptable" for two whole days . . . neither here nor there . . .just like Sofka´s dirty cousin . . . Blofka!!

Lucky as we are, we met some cool people from the area, shared some beers, and some laughs . . (and it is to no surprise, that when we arrived to Iquitos 3 days later, a warm smile was waiting for us to help us find accommodations . . . a brother of one of our new friends.) Joel helped us get our passport stamps, find a local salsa joint, and wished us a proper farewell with some crazy Peruvian rum concoction . . .Thanks Joel, that was just what I needed to knock out on the boat! Couldn't have done it without you buddy.

Speaking of sleep, it was good! Our handy dandy little hammock is living up to its reputation!

(what chainsaw massacre?)

Peruvian boats aren´t as glamorous a Brazilian boats (and they stopped about 200 times in 3 days to pick up or drop off,) but who cares when you have a working bathroom!! Makes me happy!!

Along with great company to talk to (and learn Spanish with)

new people to meet

flowers to smell (always)and great views to see

. . . all in all, another splendid good time!

While on the boat, we had an unfortunate event take place . . . on one of the many stops, an ant-eater was caught . . . The curiosity of seeing an animal you´ve never seen wears off very quickly when you realize that this animal will never know freedom again . . . that it will be sold to a local zoo for a good price and it will soon forget that it was ever free at one point. The ant-eater gave such a good effort to break free, to run away, to escape . . . but it was no use.

People have a way of destroying beautiful things . . . yet I know we have the ability to create beautiful things as well.Hopefully one day, we will learn to do more of the latter. (More food for thought.)

And so, the journey continues through South America.

Peru, here we come . . .

Manaus to the Triple Frontier by Boat 5/22/07 - 5/27/07

2007-05-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, the six day boat trip from Manaus . . . Well the journey left us with a lot of time on our hands to think about life´s mysteries and such...But really, the boat ride was SLOW and should have taken only three days if we were travelling downstream BUT travelling upstream has its benefits . . . its much more scenic since you travel by the river´s bank (to avoid the current.)
Actually, I got to drive the huge boat all by myself for a few minutes! And what did I do when I received this enormous responsibility? I immediately called the Brazilian Water Patrol (BWP)

and threw that damn Mishka straight off the boat...that lil´bastard.
Later, I decided to give that lil´punk another chance.

I guess I really love him, huh?
--------------------------------------------------

So what do you do on a boat for six days (besides eating and sleeping of course)??

You PLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

You can play CARDS

DOMINOS

CHESSAnd then there´s reading of course . . .

Basically, you become a nerd for a while -- but it sure beats watching TV the whole time!!All in all, a splendid good time! Destination: The Triple Frontier!!!! Where the borders of Peru, Brazil, and Colombia meet.

In Between Locations . . . 6/1/07 - 6/4/07

2007-05-30T14:42:00.000-07:00

Quickly letting you all know that we are heading on another boat trip to Iquitos . . . our first real landmark in Peru!! From there, we are thinking about going Northeast into the mountains to visit an awesome guy we met on our last boat, Migdonio.He has a farm there where hopefully, we will finally learn how to milk cows and make cheese!!!

Note: WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WRITE OR CALL until then . . . just making sure that nobody worries. Love you all,

Misha and Sasha

Manaus and Our Amazon Adventure 5/13/07 - 5/17/07

2007-05-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hello again. We arrived in Manaus one day at 2 in the morning. After getting much needed sleep on the airport floor, we hit the streets hard. Manaus is a bustling city of 1.6 million and is the largest city for about 1000 miles in any direction. Its in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, though if you're standing in the city, you will never know it. As a matter of fact, Manaus is pretty dirty. On the other hand Manaus has a pretty interesting history and is one of Brazil's largest manufacturing cities. Due to a falling economy in the late 1960's, Brazil's government declared Manaus something like a tax-free zone as an incentive for companies to move here. Now, Manaus is home to plants that manufacture everything from motorcycles to cars to TVs and so on. The streets in Centro (downtown) are overflowing with street vendors who sell everything from nail clippers and remote controls to everything you've always wanted but were afraid to buy. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to avoid people trying to sell stuff or get something out of you since you're an evident gringo. That's Manaus below:So as not to leave you without any history of the city, here's some knowledge. Just under 150 years ago, Manaus was just a small trading post named after the Manaos Indians who resided in the area. Then happened the rubber boom. If you didn't know, rubber comes from sap, "latex", of a tree that grows in the Amazon. Brazil was the only place where the rubber tree grew and they were making a lot of money from it. Manaus grew into Brazil's 2nd richest city behind Rio. And so, everything was going great until the Brits stole some rubber seedlings and started growing their own thus breaking up Brazil's monopoly. So, after that everyone was dead broke again. Now, Manaus is very similar to just about any big city, but with the lure of the Amazon. The Amazon! The reason we were here in the first place.
So after being accosted by a lot of jungle tour operators who would bad mouth about their competitors, we chose one who didn't and who was in fact an awesome salesman, Rafael. We were sold and we embarked upon our jungle tour...
Our first morning, we met our guide and jumped on a boat to cross the Amazon and see "The Meeting of the Rivers". Right now I will have to go on a tangent. During our travels around Brazil, almost every city or town we would visit would have the main square or side walk tiled in a very cool pattern of black and white. Most of the time in some form of wavy lines creating beautiful flowing designs. All that time, while we admired the streets, it never dawned on us that the design was an interpretation of "The Meeting of the Rivers", The Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes. Both of the rivers meet in Manaus and create the Rio Amazonas that flows for another 1000 miles or so before it empties into the Atlantic. And the meeting is beautiful. The Negro is black while the Solimoes is a brown sandy color, and when the meet, they run together for about 10 miles before mixing at all because of the different densities of the waters. Really cool! After some more traveling we arrived at our Jungle Lodge, which really is nothing more than a house on the shore of one of the Amazon's tributaries. There, we met Chico, a little monkey who after playing with us, shit on my shoulder. But he was a cool monkey nonetheless.

Everyday, we went out on numerous boat trips through the jungle to watch wildlife. You see, for about half the year the Amazon is flooded and the only way to get around is by boat, so we would pass through flooded forests where the trees are accustomed to being submerged for a long time. Like this one here:

Fishing for piranhas was fun though we couldn't catch none unlike our guides. As a matter of fact, there was all kinds of fishing going on with spears and bows and arrows. It was amazing to watch our local guide, Romero, hunt for fish. That's him with a piranha he caught.
And that's me with a sardine that accidentally jumped into the boat just in time for me to spear it through the heart. That was the only fish I caught.

Have you ever looked into mouth of a piranha and lived to tell about it? We did.

So gun-ho I was that it earned me nicknames like Jungle Boy, Crocodile Dundee, Cowboy, and many others. I remember this one time I caught a live alligator with my bare hands...
He looked me right in the eye and said, "You won, Jungle Boy!" After that I couldn't help but let him go. And so did my honey, the jungle queen, Sasha.
Here is the Jungle Queen in all of her glory...

Here is Moiya Lesnaya Feya with a sloth. They are so amazing, the slowest moving creatures I have ever seen. And they always smile. Really.
Our final whole day and we spent hiking through the jungle after camping in hammocks the night before. The rain forest is so incredible. It seemed like every other tree, leaf, shrub, or piece of twig had some kind of medicinal quality. A bark of one tree would prevent Malaria, burning a termite nest would deter mosquitoes, eating a leaf of another tree would create more milk in nursing mothers. "How did the Indians discover these medicines?", I asked my guide. "The forest told them", was the answer. Sounds crazy, right? But on the other hand, it doesn't. Some of these plants have to go through numerous processes before they become medicines. I wondered, did an Indian who just got bitten by a snake start to frantically run around the forest smoking unknown leaves, biting the bark off trees to coincidentally find some cure or was there something else? And why is it unthinkable to have a spiritual connection with your environment? At the same time, so much of the forest has been cut down to create farmland for cattle and crops. Its sad.

We spent 5 days in the jungle and got back to Manaus. The trip was cool even though there was a pre-packaged feel to it. And my imagination was a little disappointed since somewhere in the back of my mind, I expected to be racing through the jungle, dodging poison darts, and saving some treasured artifact from evil mercenaries set on using the power of the artifact for their own dark purpose. Maybe to rule the world. I don't know what I expected. But after coming back, I've learned that it is possible to have really unique trips to see Indians almost untouched by our "great" civilization and go into parts of the jungle that few white men have seen before, but it takes a lot of time and a lot of money. The only thing is . . . you can cause a lot of harm by doing that. There are many cases of Indians dying from being exposed to curious travellers' diseases like the common cold! These are very healthy people who have lived one with nature (unlike us). I'm sure you've read about biological warfare like blankets with small pox given to the American Indians. Right? So lets leave them alone...please. Hey, the Amazon is incredible without seeing those guys anyway!

I caught a huge spider. Go Jungle Boy! That's our guide, Elso, caught peeing off the side of the boat. He-he.

Oh. And I sort of managed to sink the boat. Don't worry, I'm OK!

Quick Update

2007-05-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, Sasha and I are alive and well, though I've got some kind of rash goin' on. I think it might be Chicken Pox. But I'm not worried about it. Love heals all. Tomorrow we are embarking on a 6 day "ghetto" cruise on Rio Solimoes to Tabatinga. Rio Solimoes with Rio Negro make up the Amazon River (if you didn't know). So were sailing west towards the already mentioned town which lies on the border right before Peru and Columbia. On the boat our accommodations will be this beautiful piece of hammock below:

I have also bought my first real Brazilian souvenir, a Flamingos Futbol Jersey:Did you know how seriously Brasileros take their soccer? Very, very seriously. If a Brazilian likes one team, he or she hates all the others as if they were the devil. Really! Since I've purchased this jersey, I have gotten thumbs up on the street or the sad look of disappointment in the eyes of our young hotel clerk. When I walked in to the local pharmacy to ask what the above mentioned rash was about, the pharmacist proceeded to tell me that my Flamingos jersey has caused the whole thing. Yup!

Below is the Lençois Part 2 blog and "Our Amazonian Adventure". We love you all!

Chapada Diamantina ~ Lençois, Capao, Vale do Pati, Andarai . . . Part 2

2007-05-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

We participated in two separate 3 day treks to some nearby waterfalls and Vale do Pati, along with a one day excursion where we enjoyed a mountain climb, some caverns, and zip-line into a lake. In total, walking more than 90 kilometers, we regretted not having proper hiking shoes as we had to hike over long, rocky, and many times, muddy terrain. Equipped with nothing but our Havayanas (beach sandals)
and some old sneakers, we managed to do the job none-the-less. We ran into none other than "THE BOYZ" the day of our return, and enjoyed a one-day trip to some great treasures of the area. Just bonding with The Boyz, don't get any ideas...

Us holding Marcus like a baby?Sasha was in love with this little guy...
Evolution of men!?
A long walk through an old cavern and some interesting finds . . .

A view of the park Chapada Diamantina.

2nd Trek: This trek started with a great visit to Capao, a nearby village where people live very simply.mostly in communes, surviving off the fruit of their labor. This small village happened to have a Regional Forro (a great Brazilian dance) Party on the night we arrived where we danced the night away with some really happy people from the region. The next day, we started with a 25 kilometer hike through a gorgeous valley . . . whew.

The views were indescribable. During the hike, sometimes it rained lightly and sometimes it didn't, but the wind howled over the treeless valley...and at times I just had to stop and inhale this place. It was so amazing. We stayed at people's homes at night and had delicious home cookin'. In the mornings, we packed up and hit the road...

I think Sasha has a fruit addiction and desperately needs help. She can't be stopped...

"You're not eatin' that, are ya?

Gimme that fruit!"

This time, sleeping at peoples homes along the trek, we saw a side of the Chapada that many do not have a chance to encounter . . . untouched, uninhabited, and completely breathtaking. This trek ended in another small village, known for its diamond mining, where we regained our strength, ate a lot of great home-made ice-cream, and headed back to Lençois. Is was hard to leave a place where we knew most of the local faces and rhythms, but the Amazon was calling, and our time in Brazil was running out. And look what we have here . . .
A Brazilian take on wearing protection, interesting. Til' we meet again in the next blog...

Chapada Diamantina ~ Lencois . . . Part 1

2007-05-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

I apologise for all the videos . . . I couldn´t help myself . . . so deal with it!

What started out as a brief side-trip before heading over to the Amazon ended up being a wonderful three-week excursion into the glorious heart of the National Park of Chapada Diamantina. (If you look close enough, you´ll see the both of us.)

The area was used for diamond-mining for many years until new settlers in the area demanded change. They pleaded with the government in order to preserve the many treasures the area had to offer and now you can visit and find peace in the endless mountain ranges, waterfalls, caverns, valleys, and rivers. (It is also important to mention that the water runs dark brown in the rivers by Lencois because of the vegetation as well as the kind of minerals found in the rocks, yet it is safe to drink and bathe in. . . and Mishka went head first!) We arrived in the early hours and luckily found a wonderful little place with the best hostess and cook of the best breakfast we've ever had in Brazil -- Lourdina. The best, most amazing, glorious laugh ever possessed of a human being lives in this warm, kind, plump woman, who was also the mother of our trek guide, Washington. Here is the view from our window (pretty sweet eh?)...Here are some highlights from Lencois, a magical little town surrounding one large square where many wonderful moments happened when we were just sitting around, eyes open in amazement, hearts open to life's little pleasures:

(For example . . . Mishka found a life-size chess board!!! You can´t imagine the excitement!)

You can walk out in search of the many local waterfalls surrounding the little town.
. . . or find some fellow travelers to share a war story or two . . . (This picture goes out to my sister´s blog . . . we should start a collection!)
At our small 'pousada', we met a man on vacation from Sao Paolo by the name of Marcus who proved to be a great spirit, a great guitar player, and an energizer bunny who seemed to never get tired.

This is a video of this great local kid knicknamed Dodo whistling with all his fingers. . . after which . . . Mishka responds.

Later on we happened to see his skills when his school performed capoeira in the main square... best capoeira show I have ever seen! Men, women, boys, girls . . . everyone performing their art in a great circle of respect, unity, and complete love.

As I mentioned earlier, Mishka and I spent about 3 days in a little café reading a book we came across by pure destiny. I read . . . he listened . . . and it was the most amazing few days we could have possibly had. . . sigh . . . Actually, I wrote the author a few days later, expressing my gratitude and respect for his work . . . he wrote back and thanked me for my kind words.-------------------------------------------------
1st Trek: This trek was supposed to go to Mixilla Waterfall, a cachoeira that had been available for tourists for only a year. This is a video of what all all-terrain-vehicles dream of :

Because of all the rain the area had experienced earlier, we were blocked by a raging river from our final destination . . . yet we enjoyed a lot of other waterfalls and sights while camping in a nearby cave during the night-time. . . falling asleep to Marcus playing some Brazilian and American tunes.
This was the first waterfall we saw and I have to say . . . for the first time in my life I saw two rainbows, one inside the other. I also saw the ENTIRE rainbow . . . the full circle. It was so amazing I couldn´t believe it!

Mishka´s response:

The second waterfall was loads of fun . . .

. . . and hidden treasures as well . . .
Mishka responds:

We had some great little sightings, a poisonous snake, a poisonous plant named ``rat´s tail´´, and two HUGE grasshoppers on top of each other . . . DON´T WORRY, I let Mishka play with the latter of the three ONLY.

All in all, good all wholesome fun, eh!?

On our last day, we saw this waterfall . . .

Mishka had no comment! No response! . . . but I did:)

. . . and that was the end of the mysterious Mixilla waterfall adventure. We went home . . .

Almost . . . on the way back, we had to cross a river and found a little suprise . . .

What a great time! And it was only the beginning . . .

A Special Mother's Day Hello from the Amazon

2007-05-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

To Our Most Favorite (and only) Moms -- Mama Liza and Mama RayaMay you all understand where the sense of humor comes from!

Ladies, we have made a special little video for the both of you. Fact is, we're heading into the jungle for 4-5 days starting Sunday (don't worry Liza, I'm not going to let Misha play with the large friendly animals.) We couldn't be around to call but we figured we could still make you guys smile.
Watch, laugh, and enjoy. Have a wonderful day . . . we love you more than words can say . . . we promise to be there next year :)

(Also . . . look out for some extra mail heading your way!)

not so QUICK UPDATE ON THE CURRENT PAST (by the less efficient Mishka)

2007-05-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

We are in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil. Do you know how long I have dreamed of seeing the Amazon River? A lot! Ever since I have been a weak, geeky kid reading books about Indians and white explorers crashing on the shore, with all the sailors dead, the one survivor befriending the Indians and learning their ways. I get flustered just thinking about it.
Just a quick update though. We said our goodbyes and gave our farewells in Lençois. It was hard to leave. The last 3 weeks there seemed magical. We've met the most kindest and interesting people there. Its funny how just being open and friendly puts you in the most interesting and rewarding situations. We sat on the bus and fell asleep. We arrived in Salvador in the morning and spent the next 24 hours either being in the airport or on a plane (which was not at all as bad as it sounds, it was actually great). And finally we arrived in Manaus.
We are in the wildest and possibly most undiscovered forest on Earth. Did you know that Brazilians have just 30 years ago, discovered an unknown Indian tribe? Yeah, they did. The sad thing is that about 14% of the forest has already been destroyed. We all heard about how incredible this place is: pink dolphins swimming next to "jammed up" flesh eating Pirhannas, and the medicinal qualities of the plants growing here. You know, they say if there's a cure for Cancer, it will be found here.
A new adventure begins...

Food for Thought . . .Why 143.5???

2007-05-04T07:26:00.000-07:00

Interesting passage:

``I went to a train station today and learned that the distance between railway tracks is always 143.5 centimeters, or 4 feet 8 1/2 inches. Why this absurd measurement? ...well, when they build the first train carriages, they used the same tools as they had for building horse-drawn carriages. And why that distance between the wheels on carriages? Because that was the width of the old roads along which the carriages had to travel. And who decides that roads whould be that width?

Well, suddently, we are plunged back into the distant past. It was the Romans, the first great road builders, who decided to make their roads that width . And why? Because their war chariots were pulled by two horses, and when placed side by side, the horses they used at the time took up 143.5 centimeters.....so the distance between the tracks I saw today, used by our state-of-the-art high-speed trains, was determined by the Romans.

When people went to the United tates and started builing railways there, it didn´t occur to them to change the width and so it stayed as it was. This even affected the building of space shuttles. American engineers thought the fuel tanks should be wider, but the tanks were built in Utah and had to be transported by train to the Space Center in Florida, and the tunnels couldn´t take anything wider than guess what . . . 143.5 centimeters. And so they had to accept the measurent that the Romans had decided was the ideal. ´´

``Blessed are those who are not afraid to admit that they don´t know something.´´

2007-04-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

One morning, a farmer knocked loudly on the door of a monastery. When Brother Porter opened the door, the farmer held out to him a magnificent bunch of grapes. ``Dear Brother Porter, these are the finest grapes from my vineyard. Please accept them as a gift from me.´´
``Why thank you! I´ll take them straight to the Abbot, who will be thrilled with such a gift.´´

``No, no. I brought them for you.´´
``For me? But I don´t deserve such a beautiful gift from nature.´´
``Whenever I knocked on the door, you opened it. When the harvest had been ruined by drought, you gave me a piece of bread and a glass of wine every day. I want this bunch of grapes to bring you a little of the sun´s love, the rain´s beauty, and God´s miraculous power.´´

Brother Porter put the grapes down where he could see them and spend the whole morning admiring them: they really were lovely. Because of this, he decided to give the present to the Abbot, whose words of wisdom had always been such a boon to him.

The Abbot was very pleased with the grapes, but then he remembered that one of the other monks was ill and thought: ``I´ll give him the grapes. Who knows, they might bring a little joy into his life.´´

But the grapes did not remain for very long in the room of the ailing monk, for he in turn thought: ``Brother Cook has taken such good care of me, giving me only the very best food to eat. I´m sure these grapes will bring him great happiness.´´ And when Brother Cook brought him his lunch, the monk gave him the grapes. ``These are for you. You are in close touch with the gifts natures gives us and will know what to do with this, God´s produce.´´

Brother Cook was amazed at the beauty of the grapes and drew his assistant´s attention to their perfection. They were so perfect that no one could possibly appreciate them more than Brother Sacristan, who had charge of the Holy Sacrament, and whom many in the monastery considered to be a truly saintly man.

Brother Sacristan, in turn, gave the grapes to the youngest of the novices in order to help him understand that God´s work is to be found in the smallest details of the Creation. When the novice received them, his heart was filled with the Glory of God, because he had never before seen such a beautiful bunch of grapes. At the same time, he remembered the day he had arrived at the monastery and the person who had opened the door to him; that gesture of opening the door had allowed him to be there now in that community of people who knew the value of miracles.

Shortly before dark, he took the bunch of grapes to Brother Porter. ``Eat and enjoy. You spend most of your time here all alone, and these grapes will do you good.´´

Brother Porter understood then that the gift really was intended for him; he savored every grape and went to sleep a happy man. In this way, the circle was closed; the circle of happiness and joy which always wraps around those who are in contact with the energy of love.´´

quote and passage from The Zahir

(Pictures by Heidikel Elivo)

North of Porto Seguro . . . Ilheus 4/9/07--4/14/07

2007-04-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ilheus is a small city and is famous only for being the birthplace of Jorge Amado (the most famous Brazilian novelist). In Fact, their airport is named after the famous writer.

On our first night there, I met this pretty cool man Vesuvio. . .

He was quiet serious but a good laugh none the less.

Actually, Ilheus holds a very special part in our hearts. Even though we came here to handle business (yellow fever shots, visa extension, cavities, etc.), this is our first travelling experience ALONE. We have officially parted with the group and have no one to rely on but ourselveds......aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

At first, we were scared and worried about how everything was going to turn out . . .

Then we realized that we were going to be just FINE . . . and we plan to reunite with the group in Peru or Venezuela:)We also celebrated our 1st Year Anniversary!!! We want to thank everyone who set us up, held us up, hinted, left us alone, and did whatever you all did to make this possible . . . Mama Raya, Mama Leza, Rrrittta!, Yulia, and Zhenia (of course, without whom we would have missed paths for another few years.)

Doesn´t this picture look like one of those Russian photographs against a fake screen?! Well, we thought it was pretty funny . . .

For our One Year Anniversay, we set in a little square overlooking a beautiful church, listening to a man singing with his guitar, overlooking the beach next to the square, admiring the beautiful stars, drinking beer, eating Doritos and hot dogs, laughing our butts off, and having the BEST time of our lives!!!

North of Porto Seguro . . . Itacaré 4/5/07--4/9/07

2007-04-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

Porto Seguro felt more fun the second time around! We even enjoyed a lambada party, what the city is famous for in the first place! Our time restraint did not allow us to stay long and we made it to Itacaré for Ivie´s party . . . just in time . . . whew! Ivie threw a wicked rave party in the center of Itacaré, after which Mishka and I went swimming in the sewage water nearby without knowing, and saw an amazing sunrise at that! (Pictures to come)

Itacaré is an extremely touristy area filled with surfers, jewelry makers, and hippies . . . but to get out and really enjoy Itacaré, all you have to do is walk 3 blocks out of the main streets!! Or you get yourself a local guide and check out some deserted beaches around the area and maybe even a cachoiera!

Sometimes, I get really hungry and if there´s no food around! I go crazy!!

Mishka quickly found me a fruit to nibble on in fear for his own life. :)
Just so you know, this is a cocoa fruit plant, from which chocolate is made from. .. and it´s white!! What came first, white chocolate or dark??? Please let a girl know . . .

Mishka hated coconut until (like a MAN) he found his own in the jungle, tore off the hard skin, broke it open with his bare hands, and. . . the rest is history folks.
Itacaré is a hard place to leave, almost as if the laziness can overtake your body and keep you for months! Mishka and I packed out bags and escaped to a nearby city, Ilheus.

South of Porto Seguro . . . Trancoso and then . . .

2007-04-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

The trip to Porto Seguro took about 30 hours although it should have been a much shorter ride thanks to our layover in Victoria, tons of laying around eating salgados, playing video games, and of course chess.
Porto Seguro was supposed to be our midpoint between Rio and a few wonderful places suggested to us by a local, but the cheap Internet, great all-you-can-eat-for-$4-spot , the beautiful coast of Arrial-dÁjuda across the bay, the beautiful artistry, the All Great Shopping District, and promise of dancing through the night kept us around for a few more days and nights than planned.

A two hour bus ride south would bring us to Trancoso, where we were supposed to meet Hidekel. With our luck, we walked into her the next morning . . . what a small world. Reunited and in full glory, Trancoso was a very tranquil hippie fishing town

where you can eat some fresh pineapple on the beach wheeled around by a donkey

or sit in and watch the sun come up over the Atlantic

The village of Trancoso was probably hit with heavy tourism in the last few years, still maintaining the rustic feel while acquiring a few expensive venues. All roads definitely lead to the church in the center of the car-less quadrado to this amazing little church overlooking the ocean

which proved to be an amazing place to see the sunrise...In fact, there where so many great pictures taken in Trancoso, that I had a hard time picking them out...so here are a few:

Trancoso also happened to be my sister´s last marker in Brazil, and her last night happened to fall on the local moon party!! With a fire to warm us up . . .
Live music on a stage you can lie down upon, cheap drinks, hammocks, and some great energy

we bid Zhenia a great farewell and a `´see you soon``

as she took a piece of the light with her and walked off in peace.
With the pressure of time upon us, we departed on our last venture south to a place I am not allowed to name . . . a small fishing village with no electricity nor tourists, which gave us a proper welcome.

If only we could have stayed longer and enjoyed the peaceful hikes around the coast and the energetic strumming of the locals by night some more . . . it will still be there for us . . . hopefully it will not change. . . for no other reason than fear, the name of this place will remain a secret.

Oh, and what do we have here? Sofka's dirtbag brother is down in Brazil. Figured he's worth a mention.

Peace!

Trindade

2007-04-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

So, as per recommendations of "The Boys", we headed south to a small town named Trindade. One of those special places that your average guide book does not mention. Trindade is a tiny fishing town with beautiful beaches, laid back atmosphere, and really nice people. Unfortunately, we spent only a few days there, but as usual, Sasha and I were able to squeeze in some interesting adventures while we were there.

We stayed at this beautiful Sea and Forest Hostel, just out of the main part of town, which was owned by a Brazilian/Canadian couple. Great people! And as soon as we dropped our bags, we went exploring. Walking down "Main St." and the beach was nice, but though unaware of it, we were looking for something a little more EXTREME. The rocky and wooded peninsula reaching out into the ocean looked pretty interesting and so Sasha and I embarked on a little hike around it out of curiosity. The view and the excitement of exploration beckoned us to go further.

Sasha is an avid collector of sand and sea shells and we even found a small beach made entirely out of sea shells.

Every rock had a story to tell. We of course had photo shoots on many of them.

It was wonderful. At least we thought so...

The rocks became steeper and harder to climb. But with our feet sore, we pushed on. On that day we learned that we shared something that we didn't know we both had. We don't like to turn around. A point came when we had to go inland into the jungle because the rocks were unclimbable. We had to continue barefoot since our sandals couldn't handle the terrain and because of that we met these interesting things on the forest floor. We named them Spiky MotherF*%$ers. Pardon my French, but our feet were covered in them. Oh, and my camera fell into the water after bouncing off half a dozen rocks. Below is the last pic taken with it.

Guys, I don't want to bore you with a long story, so I'll shorten it. After being stuck on the peninsula for 6 hours, night came. Since we were surrounded by hard to climb rocks and Spiky MotherF*%$ers we reluctantly decided to spend the night on the rocks. Then to add to the misery, it started to rain. After a few more hours, we went toward the dreaded Spiky MotherF*%$ers into the jungle in our search for home. In pitch black and with only my flashlight to guide us, we finally found a trail and some spray-painted rocks which led us back into town. What did we learn? Spiky MotherF*%$ers hurt! A lot! And that me and Sash supported each other the whole way, never giving up, and working as a team. We ate and slept.

If you're a regular traveler and are not looking to get lost or stranded, Trindade also has something to offer for you. From beautiful empty beaches and good fish, etc.

There's us below at a natural pool doing what we do best...

Over and out.

Paraty

2007-04-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

"Oh! God, if there were a paradise on earth, it wouldn't be very far from here!"

Amerigo Vespucci

I must admit that I was not looking at the same scene as "old" Amerigo, above, when we arrived by bus into the tiny small-town terminal. There was the usual crowd: hustlers trying to make you go to their hostels, a couple of bums here and there, and a bunch of people with somewhere to go. Not crazy at all, but definitely not a paradise either. At least not the paradise that you read about in Lonely Planet, but quite awesome in so many ways.

Paraty is part of "Costa Verde", Green Coast, which is the beautiful coastline from Rio's west and all the way to Sao Paolo. The area was settled in the 16th century, but not until the end of the 17th century did Paraty's golden age begin. It was the discovery of gold in the more northern state of Minas Gerais (the name actually means grand mines, or something like that) that made Paraty an obligatory stop for the gold trade since the Serra do Mar mountain range could only be crossed there. And so for a while, Paraty was an important port town... but as is the case with the history of almost any rich place in Brazil, the riches didn't last long. An easier road was found. The small town was forgotten, so to speak, until the 19th century coffee boom where the slaves made some more money for the rich land owners. And so that is the history in a few short words. Paraty now thrives on tourism from Brasileros and Gringos alike.

If you asked me to tell you one awesome thing from here, it would be the "cachoeiras", waterfalls. But not the waterfalls that you are picturing in your mind, but awesome fun ones.
And here's me below:

After a few tries, I should be fine.Really though, there are so many beautiful rivers, waterfalls, wildlife and you can even spot a fairy in the jungle. If you're lucky...

There are so many beautiful things you can do here like swim and rope swing into rivers without lifeguards. And slide down treacherous looking, but friendly rocks without the fear of getting a ticket for it. Its ironic or food for thought. But comparing Brazil to any place is a bad idea. Its interesting how comparing thoughts creep into your brain when you're in an unfamiliar place. The best thing to do is to "shhooo" them away because you lose the sense of the place. It took me a long time to become easy. Hard to describe a state of mind, isn't it? Talking and thinking about travels and places I saw makes me realize that I probably will never be able to really describe them. Pictures, words don't really give it justice. Its the freedom that I feel when I'm laying on the beach or a bus bench for 10 hours. Everything becomes beautiful. Sorry, no more monologue. Here's more pics: That's the cachoeira crew above.

If you know me, the helmet does not need any explanation. The look in my baby's eye says it all.

My honey in an all you can taste cachaca place. And the girls below:

The nights were usually spent in or around Che-Bar. A cool place with a great crowd. There's Benjamin, The English Lovah, macking it to a bunch of "22"year-old Argentinian girls.

This man below put on the greatest performance that I have ever seen. You would never imagine that a street-magician could bring out so much emotion and feeling out of his spectators. I simply had to hug the man after he was done. Incredible!

If a beach is worth going to, its worth the hike. Because there usually is one. And yeah, I squint! You got a problem with that?

And returning home after rain and thunder and lightning all wet on the bus laughing and taking great pictures...PRICELESS!

And I'll leave you guys with this weird statue...Peace and love to everyone and if you read our blogs, may good fortune come to you!

Rio de Janeiro City & Ilha Grande 2/29/07-3/7/07

2007-04-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

At first site, the Baia de Guanabara looked more like a river than a bay, and hence claimed the name Rio de Janeiro or ``January River`` by Gaspar de Lemos in January 1502. The Tamoio people lived in this bay and chose alliance with the French in 1555 over the cruel Portuguese, only to be expelled by the victors a little more than a decade later.
Rio de Janeiro City is the capital of Rio de Janeiro State, and previously the capital of Brazil, until the government was moved to Brasilia in 1960. The city is surrounded by beaches and mountains along with skyscrapers and favelas or shantytowns, where poverty, crime, and violence rule the neighborhood and no one from the outside dares to enter.

The section of Rio where we stayed was called the Ipanema Beach (Name that Tune!!)

And just as deserving was the Girl from Ipanema, our hostel, where the Nagorny´s reunited. We walked around Rio quiet alot instead of taking any tours and had a blast . . .botanical garden, walk around the Rio Lake, etc.

The visit to Rio served the sole purpose of meeting up with the Nagorny crew, acquaint the newcomers to a little of the speed of life here, and head for Ilha Grande...an island nearby. Jumping on the ferry as it was just released from the dock was a moment for smiles, exhales of relief...

and wonder . . .The island´s history is a unique one: first it was a pirates´ lair, then a leper colony, and finally a prison for political as well as extremely violent prisoners. We took advantage of the many trails to hike to some amazing beaches including Lopez Mendes(not many pics before Mishka dropped his camera into the water . . . story to come later) and Dos Rios, along with some quaint waterfalls and natural pools along the way.

All of us wore the smallest bikinis we had of course ( although ``small`` WAS a word originally invented in Brazil ) and explored the lands . . .

These are some of our highlights:

There were some amazing flowers and plants. . . the colors man!

Us taking a little break on a bamboo bench on top of the hill . . .
A little shrine on the way to Dos Rios
What a fish might see if very unlucky!?!

Mishka´s and my version of a Corona commercial......
Beach by day, dancing by night, sunrise by morning.... I have to give Seryoshka, my cousin, mad props for the glorious entertainment. He definitely knows how to have a good time and smile the entire time!!! As for my sister, the home girl never slept and never missed a sunrise...This is Mishka and I on one of our longs hikes. Hikes lasted for more than 2 hours uphill at times but we were like machines, unstoppable!! Together . . . we WILL rule the world...

Dos Rios was a beach surrounded by two rivers (aha!) and the town where it was located felt like a dead place...like in the movies...where the zombies come out of dark alleys and wheezle their way toward you...
This is a photo of an abandoned building by the beach...a tree is growing right through it. Makes you wonder ...

And the prison is located right next to the beach as well. It looked as if God (herself) placed her finger in the middle of the prison and pushed down. Totally caved in and destroyed. We recently learned that the prisoners of this prison (political brains and crazy loonies combined) formed the most feared gang in Rio´s favelas...more powerful than the Federal Police itself!!

In fact, we were startled by a ghost of one of these prisoners and ran away!

Salvador to Iracambi, Minas Gerais, BRAZIL 2/28/07 -- 2/29/07

2007-03-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

It was a last minute decision to travel to Mishka and made a lot of sense at the time. Thirty hours into our trip across Brazil by bus and we were hurting, hungry, and tired...yet our spirits prevailed and the idea of Mishka´s smile kept pushing me forward.

These are some of the highlights that I could not leave out of the wonderful time we had at Iracambi. The morning hike to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise was ``magnifique``
and left a lot of scratches on our gringo legs....

Our ´´new´´Pumas

Then after the sunrise, we hiked some more through the jungle until we hit a clearing. Talia and I decided to greet the mountains properly...so we went...
GET READY....
GET SET...
GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Here´s a little video of the top view... credit goes to Lucy for the beautiful melody and the rest for the great back-up singing.

Hmmm . . . everything just looks so much better when kissed by the sun.

Goodbye Iracambi...Hello Whatever's Next

2007-03-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

Once again, hello our faithful readers! Where do I start? My love and I are reunited and I am so happy. I must tell you the story. My mom loves stories. On one of my last days in Iracambi, I was chatting with my honey on Google Chat. (For those who are less familiar with the internet, chatting is typing with someone on the computer in real time, more convenient than e-mail.) And so we made a date for the same evening to talk again on the computer, me still being in Iracambi and Sasha in Salvador about 900 miles north. Very normal, but that day, the internet was down in Centro, the place in Iracambi where I live. And so that morning when I was chatting with Sasha, I was about 2 miles away in Casa do Barro, where the director of the program lives. Naturally, I was going to have to come back there for our evening date at 6pm.
Communication is very intermittent in the jungle so by the time I came back to Centro, our internet was up. And I was relieved because that would save me a 4 mile round-trip walk. But interestingly enough at 5:50pm our internet went down positively. So I started running back up to Casa do Barro. Praying that my love was patient and still online. I knew that I would be late and if you know me by now, you know that I am a Nazi with being on time. And being without someone you love also puts a strain on your mind and heart. Really... at least for me. I ran up and down hills, crossed the river, jumped into mud with my sneakers and I finally got there. Pulled my dirty sneakers off...i was late. I walked in and said, "Hello?". You have to at least say that when you walk into someones house. The house was dark, and then from behind an old piano, a sweet voice said, "Hello". I looked at the beautiful silhouette. It was her, my baby. My love, who has travelled so far to see me. To surprise me. This woman must love me so much.Didn't have the pic from that exact moment, but just take off the wetness and add a gaping mouth to my face if you could imagine. So we were together. Sasha and Talia both traveled for over 30 hours by bus to come and surprise me. That evening and the following day, I showed them Iracambi and the wonderful people there. We hiked the dawn trail and caught the beautiful sunrise. I was pretty happy in that pic. Hiked for most of the morning, then I made pancakes for my girls: Then, after packing up my clothes and saying our goodbyes, we left my way of the waterfall. You can't just leave without jumping into the amazing spring water. Besides, as good Russian Jews, we can't pass up 100% clean waters without jumping in. You know how our Russian mothers swear by the medicinal benefits of rubbing magnetic balls on your temples or putting some horrible smelling cream on your chest and lets not forget the mustard patches that they glue to your back and it feels like they are burning a hole through your spine. So keeping that in mind we jumped in (I know I may be exaggerating a little bit, but that is also the Russian way!):

We finally said goodbye to Iracambi. A place that I would most certainly recommend to anyone either wanting to get their feet wet in Brazil, do some good for the environment, etc. It is filled with awesome people, beautiful views, hiking, waterfalls, and not to mention spiders (big ones) and mosquitoes. Awesome experience.

Here are some memorable pics of Iracambi:

Picking off spiders off my possessions before I go to sleep...
Chasing Lucy with creepy crawlers once in a while... Winning and losing arm-wrestling matches for beers at the local bar (above- me right before a loss)... Finding beauty everywhere. It is so abundant here!

Before we left to continue on our travels, I of course had to see Pedro and finally introduce him to the gang. We went Pedro's favorite sandwich spot: I of course easily defeated my opponents in our sandwich eating competition, but we all thoroughly enjoyed our sandwiches. They are heavenly... yes, they are!With our bellies full, we said goodbye...hopefully to see each other again. I genuinely hope that I could be as good of a host to him as he was to me. Wait a minute! Is that Sofka on the roof?For you Julie :)

Carnaval 2007!!!! Salvador da Bahia 2/15/07 -- 2/22/07

2007-03-08T08:41:00.000-08:00

Carnaval in Salvador, Bahia is famous for being a large street party attracting millions of people to drink, dance, and celebrate happiness. Spanning a distance of 7 km over 6 days, carnaval is a festival leading up to Lent yet seems to continue for weeks on end. As compared to the flashy costumes and stadium venue of Rio, carnaval in Bahia is best describe by the quote from Carlinhos Brown, a Bahian superstar, who says, "We play, not for money, but to celebrate happiness. Our carnival is a street carnival. It is for everyone, not just for those with money."
So we put on our best makeup....

...which kept getting more creative as the days went on (even Mishka got into his groove thang)Flexed out lean-mean-fighting machinges muscles. . .
and hit the streets HARD!
During carnaval, each day starts in the afternoon, at the beach,with drums in the background, a skol in your hand, and some locals clapping out a wicked beat....ahhhhhhhh! And each day ends with some cracked out smiles, peeled makeup, exhausted bodies . . . and finally rest, it doesn´t matter how. . . as long as the eyes are closed!If anyone has ever read the ``Dangers and Annoyances`` section of the Lonely Planet, or if you have any kind of common sense at all, you don´t:
1. wear skirts
2. wear anything that can be pulled off
3. wear jewelry that costs more than 2 dollars
4. give too much attention any one man for over 2 minutes seconds. Remember, first it´s a dance, then they want a kiss, then it´s a staucker situation on the loose.
5. carry any money in your pockets. The whole night you will be sticking your hand in your pockets and pulling arms out.
6. carry a camera of course, which is why there is a lack of pictures of the actual carnaval!!! Lots of props to Ivie, Anna, and Erika for supplying the little bit that I have....

Here are some highlights:

Props go out to the man himself...the amazing Greyson Products!!!! Amazin´Greyson!!

This is B´Ni, the coolest man on this planet!! A lover of life, and man of the people!

Also, my baby vistited me during carnaval which made me a very happy woman:) Thank you darling for being an amazing man and marvelous boyfriend!
After the commotion of Carnaval, Talia and I decided to visit Praia de Forte. It was a bit touristy but the beach did have a reserve for turtles...which we had more pictures, but this is all we could muster. Huge turtles, little baby turtles, fish, sharks, and a beautiful beach to boot. And as a wonderful side note...I was sitting on the beach enjoying the nice breeze when two guys on horseback offered to give me a free ride down to some natural lagoons a few miles down the beach. There I was, a true damsel, bouncing up and down the beach on a glorious white mare...ahh, life is good to me!!!

Project: Replace Water Storage Tank for Centro

2007-02-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hey you plumbing fanatics. I know you're out there...are you? Well I will at least pretend that you are.

First, I have to say that Brazilian plumbing is very primitive compared to the good old U.S. of A. It's kind of like it was back in the old days before such things as codes were put in place because people started getting sick. Out here in the rainforest we don't have things like pumps, pipes having to be straight or glued for that matter, etc. What we do here is run a hose up a mountain stream, make sure it is higher than the house and the water storage tank and we have potable water (sort of). It kind of looks like this-my job today:

The tank is above the house, hence water will come out of the sink, shower, toilet, etc. by gravity. The hose leading up to the top of the tank comes from the mountain stream that we talked about and all those zig-zagging pipes all over the place feed the fixtures. Pretty simple, though I don't think the Clifton plumbing inspector would be as happy as I am about the job. Everything looks pretty simple and maybe even easy, but trust me my dear friends, it is everything but. First my tools and supplies were a little lacking... take a look:

Richie Z, thanks for the leatherman. And to top it off I even had a helper:Yeah... I know what you're thinking, but he certainly wasn't my first choice.

The supply department in Iracambi wasn't too good either, but we made do with fittings with holes in 'em, and so on. My biggest tool though was my good old fashioned American ingenuity, which helped me create, invent, and improvize things to kind of work. After much toil and frustration-WE GOT 'ER DONE! (I love you baby!)

Also if you're curious, here is our sewage treatment facility- beautiful, huh?:In addition, it is also a lot of fun from swimming to relaxing on the shore to jumping in from rocks!

I am also in the process of installing a solar water heating system, which you will have to wait for in the upcoming blogs. Till we meet again my good friends.

Salvador da Bahia, BRAZIL (Pelourinho, Barra) 2/7/07 - 2/14/07

2007-02-14T03:36:00.000-08:00

Our arrival to Brazil was somewhat rocky due to the loss of Talia´s wallet on the plane and my inability to use Brazilian banks. With a few delays and unexpected transfers, what seemed to be an endless voyage came to an end outside the airport of Salvador da Bahia, BRAZIL. A beautiful taxi ride later, we were facing the entrance of the beloved Albergue Sao Jorge Hostel in Pelourinho, Salvdor where the wonderful Andre and his crew took great care of us for the second year in a row.

Being in the history capital of BRAZIL deserved a history lesson . . . so here it is:

BRAZIL was already inhibitted by 1000 indigenous tribes for a period of as many as 50,000 years when the Portuguese first arrived in AD 1500 (of which only 200 remain today) and it was called Pindorama. Since then, Brazil has been renamed seven times and is actually the fifth largest democracy in the world today. Brazil consists of 26 states (one for each star on the flag, united into the single star above), one of them being Bahia. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after Sao Paolo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size.

According to the legend, Salvador da Bahia was named Baia de Todos os Santos after the day it was ``discovered´´-- All Saints´ Day. Salvador remained the capital for more than 200 years (before giving the throne to Rio and Brazila) and was the second most important city in the Portugues Empire.

The Portuguese landed in Salvador on Praia Porto da Barra (a beach we visit often and the passing sight of a Carnaval.) They built a city on top of a cliff to defend themselves against the Indians. On top of this cliff, also known as Cidade Alta (Upper City), stands Pelourinho, a city of cobblestones overgrown with 17th and 18th century buildings and churches. Actually, Pelourinho has the largest collection of Baroque Colonial architecture in Latin America and has been declared a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE.

Connecting Cixade Alto and Cidade Baixa (Lower City) is an elevator. Yes! An elevator. Since it was errected in 1610 as a rope and pulley system, it has been modernized into an electical system elevator which transports over 50,000 people a day.

Unfortunately, the glory of colonial Brazil was smeared with the blood and sweat of African slaves brought over in 1538 to help cultivate a fertile sugarcane, tobacco, and later cattle ranching industry. Legend says that some buildings are haunted by the ghosts of slaves.

The dark period of slavery continued for over 200 years; eventually, the number of black people constituted half of the population in Salvador. The Largo de Pelourinho, a square into which all the streets feed into was the historic sight of the pelourigno (whipping post) where slaves where publicly tortured and auctioned. On a lighter note, the buildings used for the import and sale of slaves have been converted to tourist shops, ice cream parlors, and cute restaurants (But who knows what came of the underground network of tunnels beneath Pelourinho, connecting all the churches in the historic center to the port!?!)

Today, Salvador is known as the African Soul of Brazil thanks to the ancestors of African slaves who perserved food, religion, music, dance, and martical art traditions throughout the years.

Salvador also gained the reputation of being a fun place if you know what I mean . . . so much that it won the nickname Baia de Todos os Santos e de Quase Todos os Pecados (Bay of All Saints and of Nearly All Sins)!

(I love you baby!)

... the people are super friendly, always wanting to help out, always smiling, always being very hospitable (exception: if they´re trying to rob you, they´re not so nice) Yes, we got mugged already but we´re alright and are becoming more aware of our surroundings.

Anyhow, for all of you that are a little bored by the history lesson, why don´t you shove it and take the time to learn something. For the rest, it is impossible to summarize 500 years of history in a single blog, so I will keep the research going for the future.

On a side note, we happened to escape the good food and great beaches to go to some local islands (Ilha de Itaparica and Ilha dos Frades) for some more good food and great beaches...hehe.

This is me without a tan and just so you know, Talia and I are like two highlighters walking around here. We glow like the sun, we´re so damn white!! But we´re working on it.

This is a video of some capoeira that we saw on the beach. Capoeira was invented by enslaved Africans in the 16 th century and instead of talking about it, check it out:

And now, after much waiting, my baby is getting on the bus for a 25 hour bus ride to come see me. . . isn´t that wonderful?!? Being without my prince has been tough, really tough. But that will soon be over. . . so excited. . . like a little schoolgirl I tell you.

So the next stop is . . . Carnaval 2007 Bahia!!!! Yeah baby!

(For more pics, go to:http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=48371396110.808139640110.1171551514594&conn_speed=1)