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June 03, 2008

Peru Day 14 - Atlata, Cleveland, Aftermath.... : Jared as Artist

We landed in Atlanta and cleared customs without any troubles.

The only trouble we did have is that after we boarded he plane to Cleveland they kept us on the ground for 1.5 hours trying to fix it before we took off.

Finally we made it home. My wife met us at the airport and all the luggage made it - none of the presents broke!

We dropped Tim off and then headed to Cosco.

Finally tally 83 rolls of regular film, 2 rolls of 3D film, and about 500 digital shots.

They called Monday night to let me know that the film is ready and I'm heading to Cosco this am to pick up all 2600 prints!

Thanks for reading - hope you enjoyed.

Jared

Peru Trip Closed!

Posted by jeb2 at 09:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Peru Day 13 - Lima : Jared as Artist

So its 7am and we made it back to Lima. The problem is - our flight doesn't leave until 12:30 am. So how do you kill 17 hours in Lima.

Well first you find a hotel. We figured that the best thing to do was get a room just to shower and pack from so we could be decent on the flight back home.

We also found an amazing museum - The Rafael Larco Herrera Museum in Lima which houses the largest private collection of pre-Columbian art: 45,000 pieces! So we had the taxi take us to a hotel near it and we took a nap before venturing out.

The museum was gorgeous. Very well organized and very educational. The storage is open so you can see literally all 45,000 works just stacked on shelves - it was just crazy!

They also had a very fancy restaurant which we ate at and a really good gift shop so Tim finally got the reproductions he needed for teaching purposes. Lastly, the erotic pottery was very well... explicit.

After spending the day there we headed back to the hotel. Along the way we stopped to get money since we were told we would need $30us as an exit tax to leave the county.

The taxi to the airport was very scary. He took a lot of side roads and Tim and I both thought we were being kidnapped! But eventually we made it.

The airport experience was great. Peru officials hand checked my film (thats right 4 airports - 0 xrays!) and they separated me and Tim to give us more room. They showed "The Bucket List" on the flight again but I just slept into Atlanta.

Posted by jeb2 at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Peru Day 12 - Arequipa : Jared as Artist

On Friday we woke up knowing two things - we had to be at the bus station at 4:30pm for Lima and that we couldn't leave our bags for the day at the hostel.

We got up and took a taxi (with our bags) to the town square - where I recalled from the night before there being a 4 star hotel. They let us keep our bags there for the day (very nice thank you).

As Tim and I wandered around the square with a few hours to kill we decided to split up and meet back at 4pm. Arequipa, is a big city and it was nice to get a feel for it. The Spanish architecture is everywhere and seeing a colonial town made for a nice comparison.

I went to a music store, a couple of churches, a craft market, it was a slow but nice day. I met a match salesman - he just sold books of matches on the street corner.

I went back to the square and loved seeing the snow capped mountains in the distance. As I tried to take a photo of the mountain and a church a policeman stopped me and told me not to photograph the church. I thought this was weird as its not a government building or anything and then he explained himself. He told me not to photograph the church from the square but told me a building that would let me up and give me an even better vantage point!

Very nice guy.

Tim showed up on time at 4pm and we headed for the bus station.
At the station we were amazed as ever at the myriad of little convenience store like stands that all sell the exact same thing!

We boarded the bus (first class) and found that it was just me and Tim on the 14 hour ride back to Lima (at least in first class).

They played some music and some Spanish Karaoke and then the dog of a movie "The sound of thunder" which you shouldn't see and I've seen like 4 times (thank you HBO).

At about 1am first class filled up but it was a nice ride that actually arrived in Lima early! So there we are last day in Lima at the bus station at its 6:45am....

Posted by jeb2 at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 02, 2008

Peru Day 11 - Puno : Jared as Artist

[So technically its Monday and I'm back in Cleveland, but I figured some of you wanted to hear how the story turned out.]

So on Thursday Tim and I got up and found that our bus tickets to Ariquipa were still not there yet but the hotel guy promised they would be there by the afternoon.

They were still trying to sell us on a 'tour' of Titicaca and we almost went for it - instead we took the taxi to the dock and charted a boat for the day. They told us to take pencils or candy with us for the children so I got a pack of pencils. If I would have known I would have brought more. So there we are me, Tim, and 3 Peruvians on a 5 hour boat ride on the highest lake on the planet.

Instead of heading to the tourist island they took us deep into the lake and to a very small island that only 5 families lived on. After about 1.5 hours we found ourselves in water so murky with seaweed that they had to pole the boat. A small rowboat full of children came out to our boat and then rowed us back to this little floating island. The island which is really floating reeds was very flimsy and we found ourselves getting wet just walking on it. I gave out my pencils quickly and Tim and I saw a living hut and a cooking hut. We gave money to their parents and then after about 15 minutes left the island for the boat. It was devastatingly poor there and Tim felt really bad that the little kids were rowing us and tried to take over. He wished he had food to give and not just money.

We went back to our slow boat across the lake and Tim asked them to go a little faster when the boat stalled out for like 15 minutes (which I thought was funny). We finally came back to the more touristy islands that were selling crafts and had restaurants and even a place to 'stay' and have the experience. To be honest everything was overpriced and nothing they were selling were they actually making. We did have a nice fish lunch and then headed back.

All and all it was about a 5.5 hour cruise and very nice.

We then headed back to the hotel to find that the travel agent sent us really cheap bus tickets at a later bus and then was nowhere to be contacted.

I was angry (still am) so instead of accepting the late bus we just headed to the bus station and tried to find something sooner. I found something an hour earlier (that was supposed to get in at midnight) and Tim pawned off our old tickers for 3/4 their value.

The bus was a local and very slow and cramped (and cold) and got in at 1am instead of midnight.

We got a taxi and Tim found a cheap hotel (in fact a hostel) and pretty much passed out at 2am in Arequipa.

Posted by jeb2 at 04:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack