murdles’ rantings

today i felt like santa’s little helper.  having a car is just really really convenient because it helped facilitate the completion of our x-mas shopping.

this year, i decided to just buy gifts for family and make gifts for friends.  usually, i bake cookies.  this year, to save my friends from devouring each of my rock hard cookies, i will making something useful.  i hope.

in the middle of my errands, i actually filled my car up with gas for the first time.  yes, i figured out how to open my gas tank.

i also found a cd that i actually like listening to while i drive. i’ve been placing all these different cds in my car in hopes that i would actually listen to them.  but i found a cd today that tops them all (and i bought it while i was running my errands!). 

it’s the new fergie (from the black eyed peas) cd.  she really has it all…jazzy, r&b, rap, pop, reggae, and even hard rock…i heard a bit of mariah carey, alana davis, ivana santilli, christina aguilera, hole, and bob marley style come out of her!  she covers all these genres that makes the cd likeable because it provides enough variety that i don’t get bored of it.  it’s definitely worth paying for.

okay…early day tomorrow…i’m pooped.  the holidays just get so busy…so many people are coming home…i’m quite excited.

no time to add my photos to my webpage yet, but i will for sure once the holidays are over…

we’ve been back for a couple of days now.  am i happy to be back home?  in a way, yes.  i can get back into my routine i once had.  i like my home.  i like my new car *grin*.  i have been avoiding entering my last journal entry because it seems to final.  my vacation is over.  until next year. and when will that be?  who knows.

so we spent our final week in miami.  i had attempted to enter a short blog at a miami library (i have a miami-dade library card! i can’t take out books though.) but my stomach got the better of me and the connection was really slow.

miami was nice.  nothing like csi: miami makes it out to be.  but i did manage to pass by the “miami ink” store.  i didn’t have the guts to go in, but then again it was 7am and it wasn’t open (i had just remembered about it on the day we left).

we had a rental, so we drove around a lot.  we went to south beach, drove down to key west, and ended in coconut grove.

it was just awkward in miami after having been to peru.  i felt almost guilty staying in the hotels we did, eating the foods we did.  i felt like everything was so excessive in miami.  our little chevrolet cobalt seemed a little underdressed in miami.  everyone had an escalade, hummer, beamers, infiniti-es, lexus-es, porches…the fancy cars seemed endless.

i had a bought of diarrhea on the final night of miami.  i didn’t sleep all night.  but hey, i started my trip with vomiting…it was a nice way to “end” it with diarrhea.  ha!

so we´re in the lima airport and we have 7 hours until our flight to miami departs. so i thought i would add a blog.

i have never been so tired in my life. i mean, i have been tired before, but never like this. after seeing a couple of stairs, my legs go wobbly, my heart skips a beat, and my head starts pounding. i have discovered a new found dislike of stairs. i will also never want to see another rock / stone / inca trail for a while. i told nellie that i did not want to hear the word “hike” for another 10 years (did i say that already?).

i did learn a lot. i learned that:

• it takes 10, 000 kg of coca leaves to make 10 kg of cocaine and it is not cocaine until you heat it with diesel
• two years ago (this is not in the guide books yet) they discovered another ruin site that is much bigger than machu picchu and they are in the process of going through it now so that it may be available to the public in another 10 years
• the incans never used to greet each other with “hello,” rather they would say “do not lie, do not be lazy, and do not steal”
• that peru has over 4000 different species of potatoes
• you cannot get high on cocoa tea (which was delicious with hot chocolate!)
• even i can hike for 4 days (i kept telling everyone on day 1 that i would probably drop out by day 2)
• merrell makes amazing shoes. my shoes kept my feet dry even during the most torrential rainstorms. and the only part of my body that was not in pain during my hike were my feet!
• i can take a lot of pictures (i have about 600 right now)
• nellie likes pisco sour (made of pisco, lemon juice, egg white and sugar…it has a 45% alcohol content!)
• chee cha beer (corn beer) is delicious especially when it is made with strawberry juice (it is only has a 3% alcohol content without the strawberry juice)
• after two weeks of vacation, i can forget a lot…like what car i had bought!
• i really appreciate my life a bit more
• i can get really emotional when I make an achievement…when I got to the top of dead woman´s pass at 4200 feet, i bawled my eyes out
• alpaca is not the same as a llama (they have shorter necks)
• alpaca wool is soooo soft
• we can spend a lot on food
• 3.20 soles = 1 usd
• peruvians really like their chocolate…they had all kinds!
• altitude sickness really exists (each of us has been struck with diarrhea and I with vomitting at some point during the two weeks)
• gap adventure tours is the way to go to see a new country. i enjoy the maximum 12 people because you really get to know people. we knew who ate what and who couldn´t eat what, we got to know everyone´s strengths and weaknesses…i think we´ll keep in touch with a few people. you really get attached to them. it was kind of sad to part ways.
• it is possible that nellie spend less time on the computer!

this was an amazing trip. we had such a good time. i think even nellie had a good time despite all the pitfalls we experienced. but it just made us stronger!

i cannot wait to put up my pictures to share with you guys!

if i do not post in miami, i will definitely do so when i get home!