Los Aventuras de Edmundo y Linda

Seattle, WA (Jul 25-27)

esaunger — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:27:57 +0000

It was 8 hour drive from Valley of the Rogue to Seattle. The car broke down on the side of the highway but we were luckily able to fix it after 2 hours. We arrivedManage to Joe’s place in Seattle and set up our tent in his apartment to dry. We met up with some of Joe’s friends and went out for some beers.

We went to Easy Street Records for an awesome breakfast and then we went to The Capital Hill Block Party. The block party was sweet! Bands like Girl Talk, Vampire Weekend, and Chromeo were there!!!! We got lots of free food and other stuff. Woot woot!!!

The Valley of the Rogue, Oregon (Jul 24-25)

esaunger — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:10:49 +0000

Woke up at 5:45am and drove for 12 hours along the I-5. We made it about 1 hour into Oregon and stayed at a state camp ground in the Valley of the Rogue. We did a short and uninteresting walk by a river and then crashed in our tent for a relaxing night with the sound of semi-trucks and cars driving by on the extremely nearby highway.

Arcadia (LA), USA (Jul 10-24)

esaunger — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:06:54 +0000

Left San Carlos super early. We were very happy to get to the states and no longer have to pay for the highways at the frequent Mexican toll stations. Mexico also has tons of military check-points and check-points to search your car for fruit. The US did have some military checkpoints when we were driving close to the Mexican border and we could see the border patrol setting up barricades and huge lights to monitor the border at night. We arrived in Arcadia at 1am Mexican time and 11pm Arcadia time after 17 hours of travelling. Sylvie and Rosaline met us out in the hallway at the hotel and we were so happy to all be together that we all group hugged and danced around cheering quietly so not to wake up Paul who had to wake up early for work the next morning!

Throughout our two weeks at the hotel in Arcadia with Linda’s family we did a lot of relaxing by the pool and hotel. We did a hike through Santa Anita canyon to a waterfall, walked around Old Pasadena, visited Huntington Beach and saw the US Open Surf Competition (with dolphins swimming with the surfers and planes writing cool advertisements in the sky), went to Tapanga Beach, saw Val Kilmer with his little surfer son and then checked out the Tapanga lookout, Santa Monica beach and city (and saw the pier with the roller coasters and Zephyr’s skate shop from Dog Town), there was a huge lineup for the iPhone at the Apple Store, saw Wall-e (awesome!), walked around Arcadia, killed bed bugs in the hotel, met up with Jim and his friends at a comedy club in Manhattan Beach and then went out to a few bars and his backyard for some beers, and of course spent many hours in insane traffic on the freeways. All in all, we had an awesome time and wish we could hang out with Linda’s family longer.

San Carlos, Mexico (Jul 9-10)

esaunger — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:46:43 +0000

Left Mazatlan early in the morning and drove for about 10 hours to San Carlos. We arrived early enough to go hang out at the beach and check out some cool lookout points. The San Carlos area is beautiful and the water is super warm! There was a huge grass hopper in the kitchen of our hotel room!

Mazatlan, Mexico (Jul 8-9)

esaunger — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:37:41 +0000

Left Luis’s just before noon and drove for 6 hours to Mazatlan. We found a cheap hotel on the main strip next to the ocean in Mazatlan and went out for some great tacos! Didn’t do much else.

Guadalajara, Mexico (Jul 4-8)

esaunger — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:32:39 +0000

After over 12 hours in planes and airports it was amazing to get to Mexico and hang out with friendly people, warm weather, and great food! We spent a couple nights at Nacho´s house and a couple at Luis´s. Thanks guys! They took really good care of us. We went and visited some cool ruins, some tasty taco stands, and some cool pubs. Our friend Poncho just got back from England so we had a reunion party! The car is making some strange sounds and there is a little smoke coming out of the engine but we´re feeling positive and are planning to drive to LA in 3 or 4 days.

La Paz, Bolivia (Jul 2-4)

esaunger — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:04:00 +0000

We took a beautiful bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz. There were amazing views of Lake Titicaca and the city of La Paz. At one point we all had to get out of the bus and take a boat across part of Lake Titicaca and the bus got on a separate boat (check out the picture). We then took a cab to Patty´s house, one of the friendliest, most hospital people we have ever met. We met Patty´s son in Cusco, Peru and were invited by him. Patty spoiled us rotten for the two wonderful days we spent there. It was very relaxing and was just what we needed. Thanks Patty!

Copacabana & Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Jun 30-Jul 2)

esaunger — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:26:21 +0000

Took an early bus to Puno, Peru from Arequipa. The bus turned out to be a big piece of junk. The driver was a maniac and drove most of the trip in the wrong lane while passing semis around blind corners on the highway. After somehow surviving that bus ride we hopped on another substancially nicer and calmer bus accross the border to Copacabana, Bolivia. Checked into a nice hotel right on Lake Titicaca. We got a private room with a private bathroom (and 24 hours water) on the 5th floor for $11.50/night! Man, Bolivia is really cheap!

Had some more free breakfast at the hostel. Getting free breakfast is sweet but we have been eating bread, butter, jam, and tea every monring for the past 2 weeks and its getting a little old. We did a hike up a hill above the town. Beautiful views of the town and lake but the hike was extremely tiring due to the altitude. Took a boat ride to the Isla del Sol, which is where the Incas believe their civilization started. The boat took 1.5 hours each way because there was about 50 people on the boat and just a tiny outboard engine. We did a rushed hike up some Inca stairs to nearly the top of a huge hill on the island. The views of the lake and snow capped mountains were spectacular! We sped-walked back to the boat and then stopped at another part of the island to see some Inca ruins.

Arequipa & Colca Canyon, Peru (Jun 27-30)

esaunger — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:16:05 +0000

Took a 10 hour bus ride to Arequipa and arrived at 5:30am. We didn´t sleep much on the bus because the heat was on full blast and we were sweating like crazy. The whole bus stunk because of the sweaty, discusting people. Had a free breakfast at the hostel. Met Kealy & Nico, a cool Austrialian/Argentinian couple. Slept for many hours on the hammocks on the roof and did some city exploring.

Left the hostel at 8am to Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world. The bus ride to the canyon took us over 5000m above sea level. Everyone on the bus had altitude sickness and had to drink coca tea and chew coca leaves or take pills. One man even had to take a ride back to Arequipa because he was having problems with his heart. We saw lots of cool lamas and alpacas, man are they cool and cute! We ate some that night and they were really tasty! Did a hike up to some pre-Inca tombs and lookout over the valley and then went to some hotsprings. Stayed overnight in a town called Chivay.

Left our hostel in Chivay at 6am and did a hike through part of Colca Canyon. The canyon was about 3500m deep at the point we visited but gets to over 4000m in some places. We saw tons of HUGE condors flying around the canyon. There wing span is about 2.8m! Took the bus back to Arequipa and sang along with the sweet 90s tunes the driver was playing. Said bye to Nico and Kealy… thanks for the book!

Cusco, Peru (Jun 21-26)

esaunger — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:10:02 +0000

We enjoyed the fantastic view from our hostel, while eating free breakfast, which Edmundo thinks is awesome because he writes it down in our journal everytime. The hostel is really cool, it has been converted from an old farm. We spent most of the day walking around the main square (Plaza de Armas). We also looked for warm clothes since our bags got stolen in Huacachina, Peru. During the night we enjoyed an awesome meal, even though Edmundo was still a sicko.

We went to a few stores to replenish our gifts and did many walks back and forth to the hostel. The Plaza de Armas was full of people today, because of the Festival del Sol celebrations. We checked out the parade and festivities. We decided to cook our own meals and went to the supermarket. It´s cheaper and we are also way over budget. We also stopped at a delicious bakery on our way back to the hostel.

Woke up at 6am. We both didn´t sleep much because Linda was coughing all night. We met some friends at the Plaza de Armas at 7am. We grabbed a small bite to eat and then walked to get a seat on a dirt hill overlooking the festival area. We arrived about 6 hours early and it wasn´t even that good. Peruvians were throwing rocks at other people standing up and blocking their view and thousands broke through police barricades to sit on the ruins to see the festivities. Later that night we meet some Brazilians, French and Americans and all had a mini fiesta at the hostel.

We decided to walk around town very slowly, because were waiting for our bus to Arequipa, Peru. We were so hot cause we left our long underwear on all day. Edmundo thinks its so funny that the propane companies deliver tanks chained to the delivery mans motorbike. The rest of the day we hung out around the hostel and admired the view.