miércoles, 19 de septiembre de 2012

Llama Jesus eating guinea pigs

When the Spanish missionaries first came to Peru, they tried really hard to make Jesus appeal to the indigenous Peruvians....so they made Jesus´s neck long like a llama´s. Also, if you look closely, the plates on every last supper representation are filled with cooked guinea pig. haha!

domingo, 16 de septiembre de 2012

Hola Amigos!

So far we´ve been having an amazing time in Peru! We arrived in Lima on 11th. The flight was pretty uneventful except for the yummy food (chicken and tomato sauce) they served on the plane (no, for real Justina is obsessed!!). Once in the airport in Lima, we were asaulted by all the taxi drivers that swarm around all the lost looking tourists (aka us...haha). Surprisingly, we managed to get a fairly good price to our hostel (Kaminu hostel). This hostel was really nice, and pretty cheap compared to our previous hostel experiences. We decided to go for the 18 person room but most of the time it was only us two!!

 The first thing we did was visit the town with some of the guys at the hostel. We went to visit the cathedral and its catacombs and walked around the town. Our other highlights from Lima were the barbecue at the hostel and the magical fountain park.  The barbecue was nice we made a lettuce and tomato salad and had it with chorizo, pork loin, bread and cheese.

The magical fountain park was also sweet! It was a water and light show that we went to see before leaving for Cuzco. The craziest part of that experience was running through this one fountain and getting completely soaked (and this was in pretty cold weather in the first place...) Pretty crazy cuz we´re both ridiculously sick but totally worth it!


womp womp. sick.

Also, the taxi drivers in Peru are soooo bad! We always feel like they are trying to take advantage of us :( Boo on them!

Now we are in Cuzco! We ate guinea pig and alpaca meat. The guinea pig was terrible, barely any meat, too salty, and too many bones. They make better pets than meals.




sábado, 15 de septiembre de 2012

Peru!

Going to Machu Picchu tomorrow :)

We spontaneously went to a Juanes concert last night, just cuz he happened to be in Peru with us. A sign! We were so sick, feverish and congested, but it was bloody brilliant!!! Juanes sang my fever away!!!




Reflections on Argentina

I didn´t realize how much I liked Bsas...until I left! Porteños are pretty unpopular in other areas, and I surprised myself by how offended and defensive I would get every time someone insulted bsas. lol!

CULTURE
If  Spain and Italy had a baby, its name would be Argentina.


First off: the greeting cheek kiss. Ughhh omg I can´t handle it because I´m so gunshy ever since my first (FAIL) attempt, when I turned my head too much and accidentally kissed the other person on the lips T__T uyyy.  So imagine my terror at having to do it every day, multiple times, for a month and a half!

Sarcasm: So a stereotype of Americans is that we´re over-exuberant and too easily over-exciteable...and wow I never actually thought of myself that way, until I came here and I was the only one saying WOOOT or showing excitement. Porteños express themselves a lot more through sarcasm, and they´re really great and creative at it.

Bad service: Once a waitress was cleaning the table and brushed all the crumbs into Sarah´s lap, and didn´t apologize!

10 pm dinners

Very inviting: I can´t believe how many bday parties of people I don´t know that I´ve crashed. Moreover, almost everyone would always ask us, when are you coming back to Bsas? And they´d also tell us, Let me know when you´re back so we can hang out!

Know how to have a great time: the nightlife is really great (if not for the machisto men). It usually starts at 2am and could end at 10 am..yikes! We went to a show called Bomba del Tiempo, which was a drum show, and it was so awesome, highly recommended.



FOOD

Ok, the food isn´t that great in our opinion, because Sarah and I really like vegetables and aren´t used to that   much meat. But we looooove the ice cream, the pizza, and the chorizo. SO GOOD! They eat a lot of dulce de leche, asado, alfajores, empanadas, pasta, medialunas, milanesa...Sarah and I couldn´t believe you can order ANYTHING delivery, like ice cream and McDonalds.
Guerrin

Alfajor

empanadas

Dulce de Leche

Asado...my first time eating kidney, intestine and blood sausage!



Args also drink mate allllllll the time. It´s a tea made of super strong herbs (runs through ya like a thousand rushing waterfalls!). Even while driving, they can carry the hot thermos of water in one arm nook and the mate cup in the other. Impressive.

Sarah is craaazy about chocotorta, a really simple cake made of dulce de leche and chocolate. The owner of our last hostel taught us how to make it.


Random note...Why are these pants in style now?!

photo album link again

:)
photo album

miércoles, 12 de septiembre de 2012

almost robbed...TWICE

Our second last day in Bsas (buen día from Peru!) we both almost got pickpocketed.

Justina:
In the morning, we were walking in the subway, when all of a sudden I felt my bag move a little bit, so I looked down...and saw a hand in my purse! AHH!! My mind suddenly went blank with panic, and luckily some inner ninja in me took over, because my instant reaction was to grab his wrist in a vice-like grip and yell-scream ¨HEY!!!!¨ The pick-pocket was so surprised. He showed me that his hands were empty, tried to say he was actually closing my purse for me since it was unzipped, and well...there was nothing I could do so I let him go. But whew that was a super close one!

Sarah:
Later that same day, we got on the Subte and I was standing in the corner by the door. This big guy comes over to me with a large black shopping bag. He gets uncomfortably close so I move back a little. Then this other guy comes over to my other side and starts `throwing up`, trying to distract me while the first guy reaches for my bag. Luckily I felt the first guy pull on my bag and grabbed it and escaped before it was too late.



When we told our friend our stories later that night, she high-fived us and said YES, now you are truly Argentinians! haha.

Waterfalls in Iguazuuu

 new friends at the hostel :), from Buenos Aires, Holland, and Italy
 Coatie...the Iguazu equivalent of squirrels...but cuter!
hermosas!!
butterflies everywhere! and it looks like they have numbers on their wings.





  we took a boat ride that took us partially under a fall...we were SO SOAKED and COLD



wild guinea pigs?! yes please!