Touching Down

Hi everyone!
We have finally arrived in Peru! Granted, a day late, but we are alive and well. Our trip definitely started out a little rocky, no one would argue that. Our first flight, leaving San Francisco at 6am, was canceled. After waiting in a line for 2 hours, and stressing to the staff at American Airlines that we were missing our engagement-moon, we were squeezed onto a different American Airlines flight to New York (instead of Miami) that was supposed to leave at 12:30pm, and arrive in New York around 8:30pm, giving us a 2 hour layover to switch airlines to LAN and putting us in Lima around 7 am. Well 12:30 came and sure enough, our flight was being delayed. 15 minutes became 30, 30 minutes became an hour, and by the time we were all aboard and taking off, it was an hour and a half. And, of course, to put the icing on the cake, when we arrived at JFK planes were stacked for landing, and we had to circle the airport for another 30 minutes before landing.
By this point our flight from New York to Lima was supposed to be boarding, and after fretting and a few tears and fears of yet another delay, we decided to make a run for it and do our absolute best to make it onto that flight. Now, everyone who knows Chris and I know that we are not the most in-shape people that you've ever met... Also, anyone who has ever gone through JFK knows what a terrible layout it is, and that you're forced to take stairs up and down throughout the entire airport. We sprinted through the airport, running up stairs and back down, over and over again. I would safely make the statement that there was sweat, blood, and tears. Once we got to the ticketing gate for LAN, we discovered that our flight had been delayed 3 hours... Maddening and a relief all in one. After an incredibly easy and comfortable 7.5 hour flight, we arrived in Lima, Peru, at around 11am on Wednesday. About 48 hours of travel time if you include the drive to the airport from Garberville.
We were so ecstatic to finally be here that we weren't even too upset over the fact that Chris' pack didn't show up. I have to admit, I wasn't surprised at all, and was more surprised, really, by the fact that mine did show up. We made it to our hostel in Miraflores (a fairly ritzy neighborhood of Lima on the cliffs overlooking the pacific) and were very happy with how warm and helpful the staff and other travelers were. We will definitely consider coming back to stay at The Dragonfly Hostel on the way out of Peru. We've also been blessed with incredibly beautiful weather! Its so wonderful to walk around in shorts and a tank top at all times of day and be comfortable!

We've done some exploring over the past few days, checking out the parks of Miraflores, including Parque del Amor, a great spot on the cliffs where couples go to declare their love to the world by hanging ribbons from trees with their names on them. We've been trying the local cuisine too, which is amazing! Since we've set foot in this country we haven't stopped smelling amazing food cooking all around us. If you go to the local neighborhood cafes you can have a set menu with an appetizer and an entree for between 6-8 soles (about $2.50-3.00 USD). Yesterday we had a tamalito (small tamale) and bistec encebollado (steak with onions and sauce) with rice and salad, and today we had papas huancainas (an amazing dish of boiled, sliced, potatoes slathered with a slightly spicy cheese sauce) and arroz con pollo (rice with chicken). Both of which were absolutely delicious! We also had the most heavenly churro either of us have ever consumed. Chris and I are officially addicted, and will without a doubt, be hunting them down for the remainder of the trip.
Today we went to the center of Lima to see some of the colonial Spanish architecture, including the Monastery of San Francisco, which is famous for it's catacombs beneath the church. We toured the Monastery and catacombs, but unfortunately weren't allowed to take pictures. I will tell you this, we saw thousands upon thousands of real bones. It was incredible! An archeologist's dream!
Tomorrow we head to Nazca, to fly over the famous Nazca lines! Then it's off to Arequipa to see the Cañon del Colca! We will be sure to post again soon, and hopefully get some pictures up, since the computer we are on seems to be disagreeing with us!
Missing you all, but we're having an amazing time!
We've got miles to go!

The Final Countdown

Hi everyone!
Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks it's been! My mom has returned home to Korea, and with the help of a few good friends, we managed to pack and move our entire house in 2 days! We are exhausted to say the least!
We leave for the airport in 5 days! We can hardly believe how quickly it's coming. We've got our backpacks mostly packed, aside from the classic last minute additions and subtractions.
We probably won't be writing again before we arrive in Peru, so we'll see you on the other side...(Of the equator!!!)
We've got miles to go...

Homefront Preperations

Hello friends and family! Welcome to our blog! As most of you probably know by now, we are getting ready to travel to Peru!!! Lots of things have happened since we decided to start saving in July for our 40 day vacation in January/February 2012. We made the decision to move to Phoenix, Arizona in March, which we are both very excited about.  Also, on December 28th Chris asked me to be his wife! (Pictures of the proposal below.)

With all of the changes and excitement, and my mother coming home from Korea for a 2 week visit, our trip plans seemed to get pushed to the back burner. So now, with 20 days to go before we leave for Peru, we are making a push on some final arrangements and planning. There are the little things that are definitely less fun, like planning out credit card payments in advance. There are the bigger and more important things that are still less fun, like packing our house and moving everything into a storage unit. Then there are the things that feel really exciting, like making our hostal reservations for El Virgen de la Candelaria festival in Puno, Peru, or picking out our new gear.

We will be in Peru from January 23rd-February 29th! We'll be traveling all over the southern half of the country. Some of the things we are most looking forward to doing are: Sandboarding in Huancachina, flying over the Nazca Lines, hiking the Canon de Colca and Canon de Catahuasi (the deepest canyons in the world; more than twice as deep as The Grand Canyon), celebrating El Virgen de la Candelaria festival at Lake Titicaca (the highest lake in the world), perusing the streets of Cuzco, seeing the world famous Machu Picchu at sunrise, and so much more!

  We will try to keep our blog as updated as possible with posts and photos so that everyone can experience Peru with us as we go! We can't wait to share all of our adventures with you!

We've got miles to go...