Spring Break: Deep Creek, MD

Today we woke up and went on a hike in Deep Creek, Maryland. The hike was hard, but a nice outing and it was nice to spend some time outdoors. When we got home, we spent some time in the hot tub and then relaxed for a while!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving (socially distanced of course)! We went to G-G’s today to drop off and pick up some fixins for dinner. We got back and just ate dinner soon we are gonna call the Perese’s and then zoom with the Gallagher’s!

Happy Quarantine!

Happy Quarantine! This is day 59 of Quarantine! There has been a lot of screens lately. The kids are allowed to have as much screen time as they want. 😏 There has also been a lot of jumping on the trampoline and watching Marvel movies! I think that we are all getting tired of spending so much time together, but we will survive.

Beach trip 2019 with GG

We hit Cape May with GG this week and had a really sweet visit. 

The sweet view from our kitchen at The Jetty motel.

GG holding on to the umbrella for dear life on a super windy day at the beach.

Ian dug a hole for protection from the wind.

Eleanor took a brief break from romping in the waves for Cheetos.


An evening on the boardwalk in Wildwood.

Go-kart experience with aggressive drivers.

GG rocked the mini-golf competition, coming in #2!

Unreal.

This is the first time the kids have been able to explore on their own at the shore, by bike (which were kept locked on the fence near our room).

Now it’s back to school...

Things he likes (@ 11 years)

1. Cracklin' Oat Bran
2. Granola bars with hummus
3. Watching Company C
4. Doing push-ups
5. Having LONG hair
6. Making origami
7. Reading Rick Riordan books
8. Playing with friends
9. Doing flips on the trampoline
10. Doing magic tricks
11. Making up tunes on the piano
12. Asking "Can I have a turn on the computer?"
13. Flossing (the dance)
14. Singing camp songs
15. Hiking
16. Playing the Pink Panther theme song on the piano
17. Swimming (esp. freestyle)
18. Sleeping in Eleanor's room
19. Playing ukulele
20. Sketching

Things she likes (@ 11 years)

1. Bananas
2. Goldfish
3. Smoothies
4. Making slime
5. Watching videos of other people making slime
6. Gymnastics
7. Soccer
8. Swimming (esp. breast stroke)
9. Watching Just Add Magic
10. Reading Harry Potter (over and over)
11. Playing with friends
12. Baking with friends
13. Saying "Gucci"
14. Making homemade mac & cheese
15. Playing ukulele
16. Flossing (the dance move)
17. Playing Disney tunes on the piano
18. Asking "Can I have a turn on the Kindle?"
19. Sleeping in Ian's room
20. Writing and receiving letters to and from camp friends
21. Singing camp songs

(Photo credit goes to Ian)

Day 23: Huaraz

Hey all. We are chillin’ at the Lazy Dog Inn outside of Huaraz. We are taking it super slow because poor Eleanor has been feeling under the weather. We had the “opportunity” to visit a Peruvian emergency room, where she was seen by a doctor almost immediately and the whole family worked together to communicate with the doc about her symptoms and the proposed course of treatment. That was a challenge. She is on the upswing now, which we are relieved about. 

Yesterday:

Today:

Horseback riding pictures forthcoming...

Day 20-21: Iquitos to Lima to Huaraz

Yesterday we woke up in the Amazon, flew to Lima, traveled across the city by cab, and caught an overnight bus to Huaraz where we arrived at 6:30 this morning. Huaraz is a small city in the Cordilleras Blancas, north of Lima. We are back at high altitude, which we are getting used to (again). 

We are staying at a lovely inn run by a couple of Canadians. There are several French speaking families here right now. Nice to have kids around but there is a bit of a language barrier.

Unfortunately, Eleanor has come down with some type of infection. She is running a fever and has some swollen tonsils and a sore throat. We are treating her with ibuprofen and the antibiotic that we were prescribed for travelers diarrhea (even though we don’t think this is exactly that). We are keeping a close eye on her and will reach out to her doc if she doesn’t improve. She’s taking it easy. Sleeping, eating, playing on her kindle, that kind of thing.

I haven’t taken many photos here yet, but I did take this one (note the horses and snow capped mountains in the background):

Day 19: Ceiba Tops back to Iquitos

We had our last half-day at Ceiba Tops today. After a nice breakfast, we went on a tour of our guide's hometown (Abelardo, Indiana). 

Relative to the primitive village along the Amazon we visited yesterday (Yagua village), this was a "transitional" village along the Peruvian Amazon. Abelardo told us that Indiana was the second largest town in the Loreto region of Peru. (Pop. of approx. 400, 40 years ago; pop. of approx. 5,000 today.)

It was fascinating to walk along the side walks, which were used by mototaxis as well as pedestrians, and to see the mix of shanty housing and new schools and electricity and a few houses with televisions as well.

He took us into his high school and we spent some time with a class of 5th graders (kids in their final year of high school.) And then he took us by his parents house and we met his father. (In that conversation I made one of my bigger conversation faux pas: Eleanor chastised me afterwards for smiling and nodding along when, after I'd asked about how many children he had, Abelardo's father told us that one of his daughters had died. I felt pretty terrible about that...)

After leaving the luxury of Ceiba Tops, we took a boat back to Iquitos, and saw Charlie, our Spanish-speaking guide from a from a few days ago. It was like we had a local friend!

Once we settled into our room, I dropped our clothes at a lavanderia down the street, which will hopefully (🙏🏽) have them all washed before we have to catch our flight back to Lima tomorrow morning. (I had quite a time trying to negotiate the pickup time!)

After that, we walked down to the malecon, popped into a cultural museum, got a rapid-fire guided tour of the museum by an enthusiastic guide named Jorge (his colleague called him "George Bush,") along with the only American tourist we've met so far (Joey, from upstate New York). 

Then we wandered further down the malecon (boardwalk) until it ended, got a little accosted by a short, barefooted, talkative (fast Spanish, por supuesto) fella with orange nail polish, who made us all feel rather uncomfortable. It was getting to be dusk, and there was a another guy setting up a slackline to walk maybe 10 yards across a double staircase in a park, about 20' in the air.

We were all a bit disappointed to not get to watch him, but we were sketched out by orange fingernail guy, kids in the park were starting to smoke some pot, and we were a bit lost in trying to find the port where we needed to be to catch a boat to where we were heading for dinner.

We walked further along some busy streets, and even walked through a few "barber shops" (people getting their hair cut in very tight quarters along the side walk). 

We eventually asked for help with directions from a woman coming out of her home and made it to our destination (but not without some stressful "conversations" on the street, first).

Anyway, it was a big day.

Finally, we had a fancyish dinner at a restaurant out on the river (not the Amazon, technically, but some tributary I don't know the name of). The restaurant had a pool. Afterward, we enjoyed probably our last mototaxi ride for a while back to our hotel.

Tomorrow will likely be our hardest travel day.

We have to:

- eat breakfast

- pick up laundry

- get busride to airport

- fly to Lima

- kill 7 hours in the city with all our luggage

- get an hour+ taxi ride from the airport to the bus station

- take an overnight bus from Lima to Huaraz (9:30pm -  6:30am),

- then, finally, catch another taxi from Huaraz to our last destination (Lazy Dog Inn)

Wish us luck!! 

Day 16-18: Rios Amazonas

It’s as though we took a vacation from our Peruvian (highland) vacation to visit the Peruvian Amazon. It feels like another world because of the climate, landscape, food, tourist culture, modes of transportation, and wildlife. It feels more like Southeast Asia here than any other place I’ve been (other than Southeast Asia, which felt very much like itself).

Highlights here so far:

1. Monkeys

2. Sloths

3. Cynthia, the resident tapir at Ceiba Tops ecolodge

4. The macaws (at Ceiba Tops ecolodge)

5. Flowers

6. Hammocks (at Ceiba Tops ecolodge)

7. The pool

8. Piranha (which Kevin caught while fishing today)

9. Moto taxis!

10. The kinkajou that Eleanor held (which Kevin has a picture of)

So many surprises and wonders here! We are here for another day or so and then we travel back to Lima to launch the last leg of our trip, to the mountainous Huaraz region.

Days: 16 to 18

On the 16th we had a tour of Iquitos all in Spanish for the first tima on this vacation! We met to some of the poorest parts of Iquitos! Then we went to a very large market and there were lots of fish! Then we went to a place called monkey island! Thee were so many adorable monkeys! They climbed on our shoulders and jumped onto our heads! They pulled Ian's hair! Then we went back to our hotel and the next day we went to place called Ceiba Tops! The first day we just walked around and explored Cieba Tops! Then, 

Day 16: The Mighty Amazon

Just a quick note before bed to say that we traveled the mighty Amazon river today in a little 8-seat power boat. The river was super wide, had lots of tributaries, and was surrounded on both sides by the flattest land I’ve seen in Peru so far.

Day 15: Cusco to Iquitos

We woke up to cold rain and fog in Cusco, about 50 degrees F. We zipped up our bags and had one last breakfast in the Ninos restaurant, next to the toasty fireplace.

Our taxi picked us up at 7am for our 8:17 flight. We arrived at the airport, and after a bit of confusion we checked in and got tags to check our bags. It was right around this time that we learned that the airport was closed due to rain and fog, so we spent the next 5 hours waiting for it to reopen and hoping that our flight to Iquitos would not be canceled. At 2pm, we boarded our flight and had an uneventful 2 hour flight to Iquitos, the largest Peruvian city on the Amazon river. This is what we could see as we started to land (snaking rivers):

When we disembarked, it was steaming hot and sunny. What a difference from Cusco!

And the differences don’t stop there. I felt like we were in a completely different country as we observed the activity along the road between the airport and downtown. Here, the primary modes of transportation are pedicabs and motorcycles, much like Southeast Asia. We will post some images in the coming days.

We ate in the hotel restaurant and the kids took a dip in the pool afterward, under the moon.

Day 14: Cusco

Last day in Cusco! We are having a relaxing morning and we are going to the Amazon tomorrow! Sadly we have to start taking some pills.☹️ We were in Macchu Picchu yesterday! 


We also saw a very interesting dog a were told that it was very common to se them in Peru!
It’s not very cute!

Day 12: Cusco to Machu Picchu

Today we woke up at 4:00 Am! We then got on a bus and then had breakfast at a restaurant! Then we got on a train! We got off and started the path. It was very tiring! Then it started POURING rain! It was in the cloud forest! We walked in the rain and it slowly stopped. Everything was slippery. We got to Macchu Picchu and took pictures then we got on a bus and went to our hotel! E also saw a adorable little puppy!

Day 13: Machu Pichu

I ate a guinea pig (cuy) for lunch yesterday!

Before:

After:

Tasted like the darkest dark meat on a chicken. And the skin was rather crispy like some KFC.

But eating it also reminded me of eating crabs in that the ratio of work-to-calories was fairly high.

We were told that in some parts of Peru, kids got a guinea pig as their birthday treat, instead of a birthday cake. Not sure how true that is, though...

Obviously that wasn't the most impressive part of the Machu Picchu experience, but just an easy one to quickly write about. The other parts were just so mind-blowing that a blog post (written on my phone) seems nearly impossible to pull off.

Day 11: Cusco

We are doing a tour today by ourselves! We have been having fun getting ourselves lost in Cusco! We are having lunch at a Irish place called Paddy’s Pub. We went to a little market place and we took some pictures with llamas! We also saw some archeologists working!

Dads giving the llama bunny ears!

Incan-era walls

Archeologists working