NCAA on the road

While we were travleing in South America I remembered that the NCAA March Madness Tournament was about to begin. We began watching the first round of the games in Buenos Aires, Argentina in our hostel on my Dad´s iPad. We were lucky that we could watch the game thanks to a new app for apple products called NCAA March Madness on Demand. It was hard to hear and watch the games beacuse there was alot of noisy young adults at the hostel. Another reason it was hard to watch the game was, alot of people were useing the free WiFi wich was causing slow internet for everyone in the hostel. Most of the time we managed to just get the scores and not able to watch the game. Nearing the end of the tournament we were in Cusco, Peru in another hostel. That was where the sad thing happened, Duke lost to Arizona by 12 points. On the other hand Butler, and the WiFi, was doing alot better.

Happily watching the game.

After a few days in Cusco we watched the Final Four in Ayacucho, Peru at our friends the Woods. Luckily they had a projector wich hooked up to the computer to watch the games. We were so excited! The first games were VCU vs. Butler and UK vs.UConn, we dicided to watch VCU vs. Butler. We had a great conection and we could see and hear the game very well.

Another game day.

Two more days went by and the final game was UConn vs. Butler. I was so eager to set up the game. I got everything out that I knew we needed to watch the game. Then our friend Mr.Wood helped me plug in all the cables and we were ready to go. Again the game had a great singnal and good sound. We weren´t happy with how the game turned out, Butler lost, but we were happy with the projector, good sound, and good conection.

The motherboard.

I am glad next year we don't have to watch the games on a tiny iPad screen because we will be home.

At the Wood's house, just like home.

Strange Ayacucho Aparatment

We are spending three weeks in Ayacucho Peru in an old and strange apartment with dogs that pee and poop everywhere, bucket flushing and a shower that can electrocute you, sounds strange huh?

The apartment has three dogs and four puppies. Two of the dogs pee and poop at the bottom of the stair. They can not get up the stairs because a metal sheeting blocks the way. The other dog is nice and proper. Every day when we come back from doing stuff out and about two of the dogs are outside the gate on the sidewalk and the proper one is inside. The dogs outside of the gate always bark at us and then step back because Ryan scares them away. At night when we come back and the dogs are back inside the gate because the owner lets them in for the night, we find poop or pee at the bottom of the stairs that we have to step around.

One of the puppies

The toilet in the apartment is very unusual. If it doesn't flush the first time try bucket-flushing. To do this you take a bucket, fill it with water and quickly dump it into the toilet. This flushes the toilet water away because gravity pulls it down. There is a sign above the toilet that tells you how to bucket-flush.

Our instructions.

The shower is dangerous but also popular around Peru. The name of this murdering shower is called the Widow Maker. It's a small instant hot water heater installed on top of the shower head. The wires are not in the wall like in the U.S. but instead they are stapled onto the wall. They hook up with switch to turn it on. Before you get into the shower you turn on the switch. When you do this the bathroom light dims because the widow maker uses some of the power to heat the water. Then you get in the shower and turn the water on and hope you don't fry yourself.

The Widow Maker hot water heater.
Notice the electrical tape connecting the wires.

The switch we had to turn on before we got into the shower.

Even though it was a bit strange it was a good place to stay for three weeks.

Macchu Picchu

View from the Sun Gate looking down on the ruins.
We hiked to the top of the peak in the background - Hauyna Picchu.

Machu Picchu was one of the Inka's many lost cities. It Rivals Ankor Wat, the Great Wall, Petra and the Greek ruins. And has the same status of El Durado, the city of gold. The Inkas built many temples and universities but Machu Picchu tops them all.

In the early fifteen-hundreds the Inkas started to build a huge city in the middle of the jungles. It was to be the finest university in all of the Inkan Empire, and one of the greatest cidadels in the known world of the Inkas. There was to be two parts, the agriculture section and the living/industrial section. The Inkans were excellent farmers and scientists.

the Living Section

They would thach terraces into the side of the mountain so that they could grow a variety of crops at one time. As the people built up the mountain they ran into a problem, altitude. To conquer this the Inkas built a giant area that look like a terraced colleseum. They would plant one plant at a time and cover all of the area with that one plant. Then they would watch it and see at which elevation that particular plant would grow the best. Then they did this with all sorts of crops and then took that information and planted different plants at that specific elevation, all the way to the top of the mountain peak at Machu Picchu.

The Inkas were also very good stone-masons. At Machu Picchu the masons built temples to the condor, the sun, and the puma all out of huge monoliths with no mortar.

They did this by cracking the stones into smaller ones. Once the stones were cracked they would stick dry limbs of trees into the cracks and then fill it with water. After a few hours the water would soak in and the limbs would expand and break the rock into the prescice length, hight, and width they wanted. They were so good at masonry that they could carve animals into the rock and make fountains that came out of the stones. A good example of this is at a site called Sacsayhuaman outside Cusco (sounds link of like "sexy woman" according to the German tourists we met) where they built a labrinth using only the stone that was already there.

Sacsayhuaman stone work

At Machu Picchu they did the same thing but used different methods. At the entrance to climb Hauyna Picchu there is a huge stone that looks like a mountain and a little one in front of it. When you back up a bit you realize that is is an image of the same mountain behind it! Another example of architecture is the university itself. The Inkas were very spiritual and built cities in forms of sacred animals and Machu Picchu is in a shape of a condor. Many cities were built this way, Old Cuzco is in the shape of a puma, Pisac, a snake, and Ollantaytambo(oi-an-tay-taam-bo) an alpaca.

When the Spainsh Conquistadors came to South America the Inkas were still building Machu Picchu.

Macchu Picchu

News of the Spanish spread like wildfire all the way to Cusco, the Inkan Captiol. The Inkas had an excellent commuication line that was composed of very fast runners. From Cuzco a Quechua messenger would run from to Machu Picchu in seven hours and relay the message to the scollars in the cidadel. Immedtaly everyone left Machu Picchu, in fear of the Spanish and wanting to distract them away from Machu Picchu in hopes they would not discover it, and fled into the jungles, seven different ways. They took all of their relics and idols with them and scattered them in the jungles. They burnt their Alpaca, Llama, and Vicunya clothing because they thought the clothing was more valuble than gold and silver.

An Alpaca. The mountain behind me is shaped like a face if you look at it sideways.

The Spanish took the gold and silver and made them into coins for the empire. Today that gold and silver is still floating around the world. Although the Spainsh never found Machu Picchu it was forgotten about until the early 1900's. when it was redescovered.

The local Quechua people had still known about the ancient city of the Inkas, but it wasn't until Hiram Bingham discovered it in the 1911. Bingham was a Proffesor at Yale and was searching for the City of Gold (El Dorado) when he came about Machu Picchu. It was then that the myth became truth and spread around the word at lightning speed and is now celebrating it's 100th anniversary of rediscovery. Today it is one of the seven wonders of the world and I had an excellent time there.
 

The view a the end of our day.

Argentinian Buses

When we were in Bueno Aires or the city of good air we set out with our bags to go to the bus station to catch a bus to Mendoza. Instead of taking a taxi like we usually do we decided to take the sub way because it was more convenient. Each ticket on the subway only cost $.25 per person.

Because it was rush hour a lot of people were squeezing in and out of the subway car. Our bodies were all squished together while we were watching one another's backpacks for theives. We rode the line all the way to the end of and walked to the bus station. We didn't know where our bus was so we decided to ask the information desk. We approached the small kiosk and my Mom asked "Where is the Andesmar bus that leaves for Mendoza at 19:10?" The lady said "Go to the end of the bus station and the bus should be at terminal 38." So we walked all the way to the end and looked for the terminal 38.

We found our bus and hoped on. The bus was quite luxurious. It had two decks and we were on the second deck. After we were on the road for about an hour and everybody was settled, the bus steward, kind of like a flight attendant, said it was time to play Bingo! He handed out a small square piece of paper with sixteen numbers and a toothpick to punch out the numbers.

Because he was talking in Spanish my family and I couldn't understand what he was saying but I assumed that he said "This is the prize for the winner of bingo when he showed a bottle of wine. He began reading the numbers off and then my Mom said "Bingo." He walked over to check her card and said in Spanish that you have to black out the whole card to win the game but my Mom figured it out. We continued to play until a man in the back said in a quiet voice "Bingo." Once I heard these words I was disappointed because I only had two more numbers to go.

The bus steward walked down the isle, checked his card, and gave him the bottle of wine. Once we finished this fun game the bus stewad put on a movie about Michael Jackson's music videos. My brothers and I made fun of the movie. I fell asleep at the end of the movie. I slept all through the night and by the bright sunrise I awoke.

Right after I woke up the bus steward brought everybody breakfast. The breakfast was just ok and bland. Before I knew it we were in Mendoza, Argentina. The bus pulled up into a small parking space at the small bus station. We got off and unloaded our luggage. The town was beautiful with lots of trees and vineyards everywhere. We took two small taxis to our hostel because we are five people with ten bags and we don't fit into one taxi.

Over all I really liked the over night bus and our time in Mendoza. Here are a few photos of our trip to Mendoza.

Riding the Subway to the bus station.

Oak barrels at our wine tour.

Olive trees

Inka Bridge and old hotel

Aconcagua Mountain, tallest in South America, 22,841 ft.

An Afternoon at the Park - Sao Paulo

Did you read Taylor's post about Sao Paulo and how he didn't like it's dirty, graffiti, beggar offerings? His description of Brazil's biggest city is spot on. It was none of our favorites and we would probably categorize it as one of our least favorites.
However there were a few redeeming things of our time in Sao Paulo. First, Robert returned to us safely from two weeks back in Alaska. Second, the staff and owner of the hostel were so lovely, helpful and accommodating. At times I felt like I was hanging out in a friends kitchen rather than a hostel. Third, we spent one semi-sunny afternoon enjoying a downtown park - Parque Trianon.
This park is tucked away right in the center of the main commercial and shopping area. The guide books call Avenida Paulista "Sao Paulo's principal promenade" and is home to some of the most expensive real estate in all of South America. Although from the looks of things as we walked this avenue before finding the park I don't understand the real estate attraction. The buildings are old, dirty and almost every building has an Eiffel tower looking radio antenna on its top. Not attractive at all!
Anyway, we walked though the park and came upon a playground. The boys ran over to play on the equipment and Robert and I sat down on the park bench and participated in nostalgia watching our boys play like they were pre-schoolers. They only have each other to play with so to hear laughing and encouragement instead of fighting and name calling was almost too much to handle.
They took turns pushing each other on the swing seeing who could jump off and land the farthest. Here are a few photos of that sweet, sweet afternoon that for me will make me remember Sao Paulo with a smile.

Enjoy the sequence of Cameron's jump.

Sao Paulo Bazil

View of Sao Paulo from the tallest building.

Sao Paulo is one of the biggest cities in Brazil. If you include the suburbs it is a whopping 25 million people, that rivals Beijing! It is also one of the dirtiest cities that I have been to.

The streets of Sao Paulo

We were in Sao Paulo for five days, the first day we got there it was the end of Carnival so we thought we would go and see the town in full swing. Oh no, we were so wrong. When we stepped out of the subway it was utterly quite. We walked for two blocks to find a place to eat and saw only 15 people! We learned later that the end of Carnival is one of the quietest days in Sao Paulo because everyone drank to much the night before!

When we sat down to eat at one of Sao Paulo's many famous diners, immediately two people came up to us and asked us for money for beer in Portuguese. At first we could not figure out what he was saying, but when he started to point to the beer bottle we said "no comprendo" and then he finally walked away. In all of our travels we saw more drunks and beggars than ever before.

The rest of the days it was the same way, beggars would come up to us, we would be walking in trash and there would be a huge line of police cars screaming down the road. We also saw that all of the buildings had graffiti almost all the way up, and most of the old 18th century buildings were decrepit and were in shambles. Even on the super fancy side of town the buildings had graffiti and old radio towers that make it look like a Communist city from the sixties. It is really sad to see all of the buildings, old and new in shambles and about ready to fall down. I really wish that the government would pay the money to fix the old buildings and save a piece of history (that is what Beunos Aries is doing).

Over all I didn't care for Sao Paulo. I mostly didn't like it because of the dirtiness. Every day we would walk down the street and step in something. I am sure that the rest of Brazil is nice, but for Sao Paulo, it will never be my favorite place.

Praca de Se and the Cathedral of Sao Paulo.
Here we saw many everyday citizens attract a crowd to listen to their preaching.

The back side of the Cathedral.

Lake Nakaru Safari - Kenya

We went to lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya to go on a safari. On our first day we saw beautiful small birds which looked like violet green swallows. We also saw flamingos and pelicans at the lake. The pelicans would glide so gracefully above the water and land like a float plane.

After the birds we drove to look for other animals. We saw tons of zebras, warthogs and  impalas.

Then we saw the great rhinos. The rhino and her baby were only eating and not doing much of anything else so we didn't stay too long.

By that time we wanted to see lions. Sure enough we saw two lions lying down in the grass, Taylor was the first one to spot the big cats. We followed the lions in our safari vehicle for twenty minutes until they got tired and went into the forest.

After we saw all these animals we decided to go back to the hotel. When we were on our second day in the park we saw started out looking for animals again. The first animal spotting of the day was a warthog but with four little babies. They were running about in a little patch of grass in the middle of two dirt roads. About two hours later we saw a giraffe. The giraffe was hard to see and blended into the trees very well.

Once we were done looking at the giraffe we had a picnic lunch, it was very good. After we finished lunch we were driving back to the entrance and we saw a baboon running with thing a thing dangling from its mouth. We drove closer to the baboon and realized it was a dead baby impala. An impala is a deer looking animal with razor-sharp horns on the males, females and babies have no horns, They are quick on their feet and have a good sense of smell.

Impala luch.

Another hungry baboon unsuccessfully trying to get some lunch.

We saw the baboon ripping it apart. Pieces of the dead animal were dropping from the extremely thorny Acia tree. Then another baboon tried to take the body and head of the impala but the baboon who was eating it chased him off the tree. Once the baboon was done with the body it moved on to eat the brains. More baboons tried to get the meat but they were also chased off except for one. The hungry baboon was viciously trying to get at all the meat. His his girlfriend also tried to get some of meat. This made him angry and he chased her off the tree and far away leaving the almost entirely eaten impala behind. Guess he was full. This gave another baboon a chance to pick up the carcass and finish off the rest.

Still enjoying the kill.

Saved the best part for last.

From there we drove two minutes to watch another baboon clan play around. The little baboons were scratching, playing, and wrestling. One little baboon was chased off and hurt by another nasty baboon.
I thought the safari was great and I'd like to do it again. It is cool to see other animals in their natural surroundings besides the ones I usually see in Alaska.

Lake Nakaru