Jess and Craig:

For the last few weeks we have been visiting friends and family on the east coast. We call this the North American portion of what has turned into a truly round the world adventure.  Although the time was filled with great excitement (meeting new babies, visiting new homes, and even a bachelorette party) we decided not to blog on this time. We had a great time seeing everyone, but are really excited to have one more adventure outside the US before completely reentering the real world.

So begins the story of Peru....

The truth is we are here for a wedding that is going to happen in Cuzco on August 1st. But we decided why not expand that time and get to know Peru. We also are excited because on August 2nd we will be joined by Craig´s brother  Grant and his girlfriend Caitlin.

7/22/09 Lima

Ten years ago Craig and I came to Peru. On that trip I got very sick and in Lima I was diagnosed has having had a gallstone attack. I flew back to the states leaving Craig to continue our trip through Peru. Consequently, it is especially exciting to be back here together to get to see some of the places I missed, as well as to get to explore new parts of Peru together.

My memories of Lima from that time are of a dingy capital with beautiful architecture, but with a reputation that you will probably get robbed by your taxi driver or mugged while visiting the sites...so not good. The lasting memory made for a very pleasant surprise on our exploration of Lima this time around. I found the city beautiful and friendly. It still has a bad reputation for thievery, but I did not find it so scary (fast forward we do get robbed while in Lima..see below). We spent the day walking around the city. Visited and old cathedral with underground catacombs (complete with bones), ate some awesomely cheap Peruvian food, and even popped in to see the new Harry Potter movie (who can resist). We had a great day and headed out that night on the most comfortable bus yet to the mountain town of Huaraz. Now for the robbery. Because we were forewarned regarding the muggings of Lima we left our belongings at our hotel locked storage while we explored the town. We discovered after we arrived in Huaraz that while in storage our bags were rummaged through and our IPOD and the camera we were borrowing from Grant were stolen (we had not even been in Peru long enough to take one photo). So lesson learned, there are thieves in Peru and they don´t all drive cabs or wait around dark corners.

7/23-7/24 Huaraz

Beautiful Huaraz. This town sits at 3,100 meters at the base of Andes. Back boned by rugged snow capped peaks, it is absolutely breathtaking. If this town were in the US I think it is for sure where we would choose to live. After recovering from our night bus we spent the afternoon exploring town and making plans for the following days. In order to help with acclimatization before heading out on a trek we decided to spend the next day mountain biking near the city. We met with a guide at a place called XTreme Mountain Biking (I am not quite sure why the name of the shop did not clue me into the experience I was signing up for). After hearing about our various options we choose the one the guide described as a nice easy ride in the local hills on roads and with great views of the mountains. A 4 hour circuit.

Bright and early we headed out. Now if I thought that having already biked 3500 miles earlier on this trip would have given me some sort of athletic advantage I was dead wrong. About 10 meters into the ride my heart was pounding out of my chest and I was offering to turn back and let Craig and the guide continue on. Of course, no one would have that so I was obligated to bike/walk up hill for at least two hours. Reluctantly reassured by our guide that although it was only 9:30 in the morning we had all day, or at least until sunset at six. At the top of the hill I was promised and easy traverse across the hillside. What he meant was a technical single track with steep drop offs. As I continued to walk/bike the reassurance came again when the guide told me soon we would get to the down hill which was a "road". Clearly our definition of road is different or else Craig and my spanish is worse than we thought, because the road was a rocky sandy trail suitable for transport by a donkey but certainly not anything motorized. So, once again I continued to walk/bike/run (when bad dogs presented) my way slowly along. I managed to only take one good spill on this adventure squarelyy into a large pricker bush leaving me with cuts all over the left side of body and at least ten splinters that worked their way out over the following days. I am happy to report we did make it back in 6 hours (long before the sunset) and the views were as magnificent as reported.

After writing this whole bike story I realize I neglected Craig´s perspective. Craig thought the ride was great. He never fell. He biked over portions that even our professional guide had to climb over. He defended me from every bad dog. He carried my bike when I was too tired. And he always waited. What a guy.