Brazil Preparations - Communication

In my efforts to prepare for Brazil I purchased a new netbook laptop. I did this so I can take it with me when I travel all over the country to continue to update the blog and chat with friends and family. So far I really like it! It is small and the keyboard and screen take some getting used to. I will admit that working on a larger screen is nice, but it can do everything I need it to do. It is a darling blue Asus Eee PC.

I also set up my Skype account and bought an on-line phone number so my friends can call me directly without paying crazy international fees! Also, I will have my current cell number forward to my online number so I can receive all my normal calls too! I've got to look into receiving text messages though.... not sure how that will work. I also have a voice mail account so anyone can leave me messages if I miss you! Lastly I also bought a subscription to make calls to the US for a full year. Thus, I can call my friends on their phones just as easily as they can call me. I'm pretty happy with the set up and it seems to work well!

Don't forget that there is also Facebook and GChat/GTalk in addition to Skype and my blog. I'm trying to be as connected as I can to stay in touch with as many people as I can!

In other news, I found Inca Kola in a grocery store in Manhatten.... I was not pleased....

New Year's Resolutions!

At the beginning of the year I set down 3 New Year's Resolutions for myself. They were:

1a. To complete a century (100 mile) bike ride, and to spend more time on my bike in general
1b. Learn more bike maintenance
2. Travel south of the equator (Peru!)
3. Improve my extremely deplorable Spanish language skills (thank you Kathryn, and Peru anyone??)

I thought it was timely to give an update as we are already more than halfway through the year. I am VERY proud to say that I have accomplished all three of these goals!

1a. I completed the Montauk Century Ride on May 16th with my good friend Gavin. By mile 88 I wasn't sure I was going to make it and I was pretty close to just getting off my bike and crying. But I finished in just over 7 hours averaging about 14mph. That means I have a lot of opportunity to improve - however, I finished and that in itself was an amazing feeling.
1b. This piece I probably haven't accomplished as much as I should have. I learned how to lube my chain though, so I guess it technically counts. But I think I'll keep this one for the rest of the year.

2. Another good friend of mine (Katie!!) and I traveled to Peru at the end of May getting me into the southern hemispher. This also knocked off another continent from the total - 5 down, two to go! Can you even get to Antartica though without being a part of a research team???

3. My deplorable Spanish skills remain deplorable. However, I have taken up Portuguese to prepare myself for my pending move to Brazil Thus, I assume the real heart of the resolution was less about learning Spanish and more focused on becoming bilingual or increasing my abilities to communicate with others. In that sense - I speak about as much Portuguese as a 3 year old, but that is significantly more than I did before!

So I think it is time to reset my resolutions for the next 6 months:

1a. To continue bike riding while in Brazil (assuming my bike makes the trip safely)
1b. To improve my bike maintenance skills

2. Pick up something uniquely Brazilian as a hobby. May capoeira, maybe learn to make caperinhas, or something completely new that I don't know about now!

3. To stay connected to my family and friends while I am off on a new adventure in life. It is easy to loose track of people and I don't have the best track record of this. It breaks my heart thinking about the people I've let slip from my life and I don't want that to happen while I am in Brazil.

Hopefully I can report equally strong results on these new resolutions as I can with the first three!

How is everyone else doing with their resolutions? Maybe now is a good time to revisit and recommit if you've slipped up a bit!

Happy June everyone *hugs*

Sacred Valley

Our trip is winding down to an end. Katie and I have done the ´Chu and today we spent the entire day exploring the rest of the Sacred Valley. A few more photos for viewing enjoyment are posted below. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our adventure back to the States. We fly from Cusco to Lima in the late morning, then kill about 6 hours in Lima before getting on an airplane at 11:55PM heading for JFK to land at 8:45AM on Saturday. It´s been an awesome trip and I am so lucky to have such a great friend to travel with. Katie - thanks for making this yet another unforgettable experience!

Katie and I on a cute little pub balcony watching the Corpis Christi parade go by. I have no idea what the parade was about but I think the entire town showed up for it!

At one of the ruins in the Sacred Valley... Pesac I think...

Hangin´in the ruins

Katie enjoying the Ollytatambo ruins. I think these were my favorite ruins of the day, even though it was another stair master event like Machu Picchu. I´ve decided the Incas were really really fit people.

The Sacred Valley - I can understand why a place this beautiful is so revered and special!

The ´double door jam´that indicates a doorway into someplace sacred or religiously significant. I didn´t know what a double door jam was until Katie explained.

Three women showing us the traditional technique of dying yarn for weaving. Grean on the far left, red in the middle, and yellow on the right. Pretty interesting actually because they use all natural dyes. The red dye is actually made from insects!!

Do the ´CHU

So going to Machu Picchu was one of the best decisions I think Katie or I could have made. It is epically beautiful and pictures simply do not do it justice. The adventure up to Aguas Calientes and then on to MP went well enough (although the ´walk´up is really more like an 8km stair master event). The return trip was a bit more memorable for less than great reasons, but we won´t dwell. The point is... Katie and I Did the ´CHU! (oh and we are making T-shirts that say Do the ´Chu. We are thinking of trademarking and selling them in a stall near MP... we´ll make millions we´re sure of it!)

Here is our journey in photos - the best way to share!

On the train... just waiting to get to Aguas Calientes where we stayed the night to get up at 3:45 to walk up to MP

The beginning of the walk up... this was actually taken on our way down, seeing as at 5:00am there is no sun out...

The BEAUTIFUL river and mountains... the pictures really don´t cut it..

Taking a breather... this climb was a bit more difficult than I had planned for.. Katie seemed to soar up the freakin´mountain!

But it was totally worth it when this is the view that greets you at the top.
Standard postcard photo

Soooo beautiful!

The ´care takers hut´where you can look out across all of the ruins. The typical ´postcard photo is always taken at this point.

Katie and I just chillin´at the ruins!

Nothing like sitting on the walls of Inca ruins!

On the hike back down... once again the photos do not do this scenery justice...


Do the ´Chu. Did the ´Chu. Done the ´CHU!!!