BEARS ON THE ROAD

State number 46 was MINNESOTA, but not really, we were just driving through to get to real state number 46 WISCONSIN! State of cheese! In Wisconsin we went to St. Croix National Scenic River. It was extremely scenic with a colorful array of wildflowers. I did the Junior Ranger program and we explored the river a bit - not enough. We really needed to bring our own canoe or kayaks and spend a few days, but there were mosquitoes the size of mini-coopers! It was so bad that layers and layers of mosquito repellant couldn't hold them off and we are still scratching! Wisconsin, beautiful, but itchy. State number 47 was MINNESOTA! Really this time (I am not allowed to say I have been somewhere unless I have actually gotten out of the car and done something special or unique to the place - my mom's rule). We went to the International Wolf Center, in Ely. It was superbly, supremely the best thing ever! I adopted a wolf and am now the proud sponsor of Maya, the only female ambassador wolf...

Camp Half Blood was so specatacularly awesome there really isn't a word for it. Take the words: Spectacularly awesome. Now multiply those words by 10,000,000,000. You still won't even be close to how awesome camp was. OK, so I got there, which goes without saying. I met my couns-eler Kelsey. I was in... Apollo. I was TOTALLY not expecting that. Athena-maybe. Poseidon-likely. Not Apollo. I HATE the sun. Oh well. So, when camp began, I met the sword master, Master Thomas. We learned our marching commands, and practiced.Then we went inside. After this, we played capture the flag. My team lost three times and won twice. After that, we went inside and had snack. Gany did not have a very good insult. Gany's full name is Ganymede. He likes insulting the campers. He is hiding in our radio at camp. Once or twice he intercepts an enemy transmission. Our enemy is called the League of Monsters and Machines. A word about the League: they are all children of Hephaestus. They SAY,"Su...

We came to Trujillo on "Cruz del Sur!" "El placer en viajar en bus!" I think that means, The pleasure of travelling by bus! We had the pleasure of travelling by bus for 2 days! Now, to the casual observer, noticing that Cruz del Sur has reclining seats, pillows, and blankets, you'd think I could sleep well. WRONG! 3 reasons why. 1. there are movies playing 24/7. 2. there are horrible movies playing 24/7. 3.there are movies so fantasticly horrible playing people think they are going to die if they are not rescued immediately 24/7. Finally we got there, took a taxi to our hotel, and did the coolest thing ever. WE...slept. We got in our bedclothes, ran to the beds, and slept. When we woke up the next morning, we ate breakfast and then took a tour with the owner of the hotel, Senora Clara. She took us to Tucume, and then we went to the El Museo Tumbes Reales de Sipan, where they have all the magnificent treasures from the grave of the Lord of Sipan. First, Tucume is...

Today was the main highlight of our trip. Machu Picchu. We took a train straight to Aguas Calientes. We might have had to take a bus to Ollantaytambo, but we got lucky and the landslide had been cleared from the tracks so we could take the train. My mom was taking pictures before we even got there! The train provided food and drinks lots of views of livestock! As we drove past the landslide area we saw tons of engineers standing beside the tracks and watching the train go by. The train went VERY slowly through here, and as the train moved little bits of sand, dirt and rocks fell from the cliffside onto to the train. Very exciting! As we got closer we started to see huge mountains and then bits of Inca terracing and ruins. When we got to Aguas Calientes we had to walk through a giant market to get to the bus that would take us up to Machu Picchu. We saw the starting point of the Inca Trail and sometimes saw hikers at different places close to the ruins. We wanted to do that, but it take...

We arrived in Cuzco at 5am! After we checked in to our hotel, we took a walking tour of the city. There was some sort of parade going on and flags hanging from many of the buildings. Cuzco is very beautiful. Around the city, people were in traditional dress, offering you pictures of their llamas, alpacas, and various other farm animals. Children were having to work all day, offering various sundry items, such as: hats, dolls, bracelets, pictures of goats, sheep, alpacas, llamas, and many other things. At least 20 people on one street were opening menus and advertising restaurants. Imagine, you've just eaten, and then 10 more people advertise different restaurants to you. At least 50 people have offered the same massage place to me. Would you like a massage? How about now? What about now? It's like, Geez, I said no to her and all those other people, so why would I say yes to you? Your throat gets sore from saying no gracias. After all this, we went to Sacsaywaman.(Sack-say-wah-m...

A phrase which here means: "how are your llamas". Today we went to the Incalpaca and Michell factory stores. They make clothes from llama, alpaca and vicuna hair. Both had little camelid zoos. At the Michell , you can actually pet alpacas and llamas, but at Incalpaca they had all 4 camelids, but no petting. After pestering the camelids enough, we went shopping. I bought a bag, a t shirt, and 2 balls of alpaca wool yarn. Later, from a shop we passed I bought a reversible chullo hat with llamas on it made from alpaca and a matching scarf and gloves. Along the way we saw the world's coolest walk/ don't walk light. I'll post the video here. Finally we went to Touristic Restaurant on the Top.

I spent the better part of the morning puking everywhere. I guess I wasn't sufficiently respectful in my last post about ancient Pre-Incan football players - my mom told me not to post that or maybe it was because I ate nothing except a few bites of dessert yesterday despite my parents' repeated threats and warnings. Anyhow, thanks to my steady diet of water cracker bites and sips of electrolite replacer, I am much better now! We got to Arequipa yesterday and checked into the Casa de Tintin - which I picked out. It is a great hotel with really nice gardens. The first thing we went to see was Juanita, "The Princess of the Ices". She was very interesting because unlike other mummies found here she was frozen immediately at death and not dehydrated, so she was very well preserved and scientists have been able to do lots of tissue studies they can't do on other child sacrifices. She was probably chosen at birth to be a sacrifice to the mountain gods and raised special...

Today we went to the Cauchilla Cemetary. It is a pre-Incan burial ground. It was destroyed by grave robbers 60 years ago and reconstructed by archaeologists. These mummies are originally 1400 years old. The first picture is of a mummified foot. Gruesome! The second one is of an ancient football player. Wonder how many touchdowns he scored! They are wrapped in the fetal position so they will be reborn. They all face the east because that's where the sun rises. Many were buried with severed human heads because these people thought that heads were seeds. Tonight we are taking the bus to Arequipa and the alpacas. Check below for the Nazca photos I promised.

7.1.2010 Houston to Lima The trip began for me on a high note. The airport hotel had a Sonic right next door! The next Morning we had to be up soooo early for our flight to Toronto. I slept the whole way there. When we arrived it was time for lunch. Unfortunately the only place with decent vegetarian options was Coyote Jack's. We ate gardenburgers and their "howlin' good fries". The burger however was "howlin' bad". When we finally boarded the plane I stayed up for some time watching movies. Finally, in the middle of Percy Jackson, my parents interrupted and made me try to sleep. I soon regretted not sleeping when I could because our plane landed at midnight. We had to go through customs and immigration and then got a taxi to the bus station for our 4am bus. When we got to the bus station we discovered that it was closed until 3:45. Fortunately our kindly taxi driver found us a gas station to hang out in for 2 hours until the bus place openned. My dad an...