Two Beers and a Pretzel

I got on Air New Zealand Flight NZ1 at 10:15 PM in LA on Thursday, flew for 12 hours, and arrived at Auckland, New Zealand at sunrise (7:30 AM) on Saturday.

I got to the Hostel around 9:30 AM and promptly fell asleep for 24 hours - thus waking up Sunday morning.  I’m currently about 17 hours ahead of Ohio time (same as Lima, Peru), so I’m really jet lagged from where I was 4 days ago…

It’s about 70 fahrenheight and clear today, and I have some exploring to do.

Well, I’ve been in LA for 2 days now…  I just booked a flight to New Zealand for $629 including all taxes and everything…  So I’m looking at about $1300 and a few days of relaxing to get there versus the $2500-$3000 if I had flown direct from Lima.  Fiji is out because it’s the end of the rainy season - I already tried that game in Roatan…  I’ll stick to places where I know the weather is good…

It was pretty nice hanging with my cousin, Asa and his girlfriend, Kristin in LA LA land.  I attended their acting class - which was kind of funny because they had a casting director as a guest.  He gave scripts to pairs of people and the last 2 were one reasonably cute, but disheveled looking girl and me.  She turns around, grabs my leg and says “How exciting, we’ll be acting together.”  It’s amazing how everyone becomes instant best friends in this town.

I replied “Not really, because I’m not an actor - but sometimes I pretend to be one.”

The poor girl looked horrified.  Why hadn’t the director given her a script, and who was this jerk who didn’t care about acting??

She ended up getting a monologue where she plays a crazy, depressed woman… that seemed kind of fitting to me.

Note to self - never date an actress.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Other than that episode, I confirmed that I have lost 45 pounds total since quitting my job (now 233 - was 278).  I also worked to undo that weight loss by having a great hamburger, some pizza with real mozzarella, and chicken nachos for my last 3 meals.  It was also a nice treat when Katrina - the bartender at the Pig & Whistle poured me a glass of Knob Creek Bourbon after noticing me eyeing the whiskey.  It was really nice having some smooth Kentucky nectar after months where the best whiskey anywhere was Jonnie Walker Red.

There was some kind of communication breakdown with the girlfriend, so I spent one night on Asa’s couch, and last night at the Hollywood Blvd Motel 6 ($66/night).  I was going to stay a bit longer, but after my food and lodging expenses for a week in Peru were $150, I can’t see ponying up $130 for 2 more nights in a bland hotel - sans food.

My only remaining tasks in LA are to mail some stuff home, and to get a picture of the traveling bunny at the Walk of Fame star of Bugs Bunny.

I am totally out of money.  Oh, there’s plenty in the bank - they just won’t let me get it.  In Cusco I took out a bit more than my daily maximum, and the bank system must have flagged my account.  I had to borrow 300 Peruvian Soles from Ronan (a guy we met in Cusco on St. Paddy’s Day).  I tried Skyping the bank today, but they couldn’t hear me - even though I had no trouble talking to Ingrid back in Holland earlier that day.  I’ll call them tomorrow morning from Miami.

Yesterday Darryl, myself and Ronan all went to a Futbol game in the Peru Premier League.  Alianza Lima versus Universitario.  Picked up some front row tickets from a scalper for about $25 each.  It gave me flashbacks of the Boca - San Lorenzo game 3 months ago.  This wasn’t as good of a game, and Alianza lost 1-0.

A little later tonight I’ll be catching a flight to Miami, then tomorrow morning a connection to LA.  I can’t believe I’m finally leaving America del Sur.

My top 5 in Latin America:

1) The absolue highlight so far was Machu Picchu…  no question - but don’t just go there by bus, you need to hike the trail to make you feel like you really deserve it.

2) Iguasu Falls with Rafa.

3) Costa Rica with Ingrid and Erin - especially the Arenal Volcano and the Tabacon Spa. (I know, all the guys want to see another pic of Ingrid…  well scroll back about 80 posts…)

4) Spending time with my uncle and his family in Brazil…  Hi Julia!!!

5) The near mugging in Buenos Aires - my best story to share.

This is far from a comprehensive list, as there are simply too many experiences to rank, so if anyone is reading this and feels leftout, go ahead and leave a comment…

I’ll try to tally up my spending to give people an idea of what it takes to spend 4 months turing Central and South America.  My first guess is that it was close to $8500 including flights.

I´m in a crappy internet cafe in Nazca, Peru.  Aside from the famous geo-glyphs and lines, there´s really no reason for there to be a city here.  I can not upload pics here, so I´ll try to update this post tomorrow with images.

I booked a pretty standard small plane sightseeing trip over the lines with a very cute Dutch girl, a Brazilian guy, and another guy.  It was $70 per person including airport tax fees and taxi transfer to and from the airport.

There are a number of tour companies here, and they all sell you trhe same trips.  You fly over the most popular geo-glyphs and the pilot points the wing down at it and spirals around so you can get good pics.  Then he does it for the people on the other side of the 4 passenger plane.  Multiply by ten.  If you get motion sick, skip Nazca.

I loved it and got some great pics and video.

Flying over the lines….

The Astronaut….

The Monkey…

The Tree and Hands near the road…

The Spider…

The Condor…

The Hummingbird…

———————————————————————————

Erich Von Däniken -vs- Sean Danekind

If you´ve ever watched any of those alien conspiracy shows, they always quote Erich Von Däniken … a crazy old Swede who is always linking everything to alien domination in relatively recent human history.  His surname sounds close enough to mine (unrelated) that I figured I should clear up a few things…  He believes that the Nazca lines were runways for alien spacecraft.

After seeing the geo-glyphs and lines, I´m pretty convinced that they are ancient gang signs related to the Pre-Inca cocaine trade and meant to relay the dominant clan to whomever the current favorite diety of the day happened to be.  Either that, or there really are aliens and the Earth is the only place in the universe for good drugs - so it´s intergalactic alien drug gangs marking their territory in the geological equivalent of spray paint and street art.

Oddly, my guide back in the Copan Ruins in Honduras had mentioned that old Erich Von D had been touring the Mayan ruins only days before I was there.  He must be researching the fact that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, and many loony conspiracy whack-jobs are predicting the end of the Earth around then.

My personal theory is that 2012 is the Mayan equivalent of the Y2K bug (Y2K12).  Imagine the peak of the Mayan Empire over 1000 years ago… The guy making the calendar was sitting around telling Emperor 18Rabbit that it will cost 10,000 goats to plan the calendar past 2012, but it´s OK because some future calendar maker will figure it all out and make a new calendar when they need it for a much cheaper price and it´s not really our problem.  …But the empire collapsed and they never made a new calendar.  Now every alien conspiracy nut decides to believe that since the Mayan calendar was not planned past 2012 that the world is obviously goin to end…  Idiots…

On the brighter side, I found a cheap flight from Lima - Miami - LA, and will be there for a few days starting on the 24th before heading to Fiji and New Zealand.

After a comfortable nights sleep, everyone from the trek decided to meet fof lunch at noon, go to the Irish Pub for a while, then negotiate a group rate for deep tissue massages.  I also stopped and got a shave at a barber shop.  Then we all met back at the Pub around 7 PM to continue the St. Patty’s Day festivities where I met a surprising number of Irish girls - considering it’s Peru.

I can’t believe I found 2 cute brunette Irish girls - Caitriona and Anna Marie

Some half Irish girls - J’nae and Alexis (who I first met in Puerto Madryn like 6 weeks ago)

Anna Marie was ditched by her friends as they’d been drinking since 11:30 AM.  Their original plan was to complete 12 hours of partying, but around 10:30 PM, she’d had enough and could barely stand up.  I walked her back to her hostel - which was an event in itself since she couldn’t remember where it was.  Considering the fact that she was a bit too drunk, I was a gentleman and left after getting a nice goodbye kiss

I got back to the Pub just in time to find Gavin, J-nae and Alexis and make our way to the most popular club in Cusco, Mama Africa.  This place is a dingy, smoke filled, hook-up joint with bad dance music - but it kind of has a captive audience, as everyone from Loki gets in free.  I opted out at 2:30 AM as the smoke was too thick and the music was really bad.

- - - - - - - - -

Then on the 18th, I visited the Cathedral here in Cusco.  Unfortunately, they did not allow photography, but the complex contains the most religious treasures in South America.

This was J’nae’s last day in Cusco, so we ‘had’ to go out again to Mama Africa.  It was a bit better as the crowd was not as heavy, and Alexis was fennageling free drink tickets since she’s currently working at Loki.

- - - - - - - - -

On the 19th, Gavin and I visited the Saqsaywaman (literally pronounced ‘Sexy Woman”) archeological site.  We must have drank a bit too much last night. because we had successfully negotiated the Inca Trail, but this place was killing us.  This was an Inca temple that was pillaged for stones to build the Spanish cathedrals.  Some of the remaining stones are as big as a truck.

The former fortress is atop a hill overlooking Cusco - next to the white Christo statute that is illuminated at night, giving the the affectionale nickname - “Neon Jesus”.

The view of the town is pretty good from his perspective.

I’m probably taking a bus to Nazca to see the lines, then another to Lima, so it may be a while before I can post again…

I’ve been researching flights to New Zealand, and they’re running $2500 to $3000.  However, Lima to LA is $1100, flights from LA to Fiji are about $700, and Fiji to Auckland runs $200.  Most of the expensive flights go thru LAX anyway, but without the relaxing pace that I’ll attempt.  I’ll save some cash, pick up and international driver’s license (so I can rent a car in NZ) and a few new Lonely Planet books, see my cousin in LA, then hit a beach in Fiji for a few days before flying to NZ.  We’ll see what happens…