bwb's blog » Travel

Peru: Cusco, Sacsayhuaman, and Pisac

bwb — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:00:18 +0000

Flying from the humid coastal jungles of Panama to the high altitude and cold of Cuso Peru was a bit of a shock for my system. Cusco is located at ~11,500 feet altitude and there are 40% fewer oxygen molecules per breathe. So for the first few days I didn’t do much beyond slowly walk around the city, drink copious amounts of water and coco tea, and wonder what the hell ancient people were thinking when they decided to live here. Seriously!!! I like jogging up the stairs or jumping around, but not when it feels like my heart is going to explode and I can’t talk because I’m so winded. Did you know this is the continent’s oldest continuously inhabited city? Maybe it was just super defensible because half the attacking army coming up from the valleys would die during the march or not be able to swing a sword or throw a spear due to lack of oxygen. I can’t believe the Spanish were able to conquer this place.

Rose and Steve made it into town last week and we went up to the ruins above Cusco (Sacsayhuaman), we didn’t go in as the tourist tickets are way too expensive (we didn’t have enough cash). Peru is gouging the crap out of people. It was $28 USD just to go in plus it included 3 other places that you might go too, or you pay ~$60 bucks for a ticket to a lot of places. But the shitty thing is it is only good for 2 or 10 days, and some places you can’t even buy a solo ticket if you wanted too.

Yesterday we did a big trip to Pisac to go to the market and do a big hike above the city. Most of the pictures are of the amazing ruins there. It was a pretty tough climb but worth it. Once again the ticket was ridiculous and they wouldn’t take our slightly old student cards. In Peru you are only a student if you are under 25… We ended up bribing the guard $28 USD to let the 3 of us in, instead of the listed price of $28 USD each…

Things not to do when you are living at ~12,000 feet:

1. Get your hair buzzed, then wear a visor with no top. It results in a bad sun burn on the top of your head despite thick hair.
2. Move quickly, your heart/lungs might explode.
3. Hangovers are 100x worse, don’t get one.
4. Try to play any type of instrument involving air. Peruvian kids trying to sell flutes at the top of mountains need to move their marketing to the bottom of the mountain. Or carry mini oxygen cans around.

Things to do when you are living at ~12,000 feet:

1. Drink, my drinking efficiency is equal to a small asian woman. I have a couple Pisco Sours and I can’t walk straight, it’s fantastic.
2. Eat lots of carbs, it helps with the altitude so I’m eating my weight in bread daily.
3. Eat fruit and veggies. I’ve had the best avocados, mangos, and oranges I’ve ever had in my life. They beat hawaii, florida, thailand, egypt, etc. Plus they are huge!

I’m taking Spanish lessons too which have actually gone pretty well. I’m terrible at languages but so far I seem to be picking up a few things here and there. For example I can recognize that everyone keeps saying I’m tall (alto!).

What else?
- I haven’t been able to run yet because of altitude/cold, but that is probably good as there are a ton of dogs around. Looking forward to sea level!
- Peruvians are super nice and chill. This is a huge tourist town but they are not too pushy and pretty respectful. Really digging it.
- Internet is a bit slow, I can do voice and all my work but sometimes voice isn’t perfect. And it went down once late at night for a few hours, as well as my backup 3g connection. At which point I went into shock.

I think that it for now!

Plans For The Next 18 Months…

Panama!

bwb — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:22:23 +0000

So I finally uploaded some pictures from Panama! I spent Dec 15th through early January in Panama and I had a great time! I spent Christmas with my dad, stepmom, and their friends in Volcan. Volcan is at about 3,500 feet altitude and an amazing place. The weather is perfect, no bugs, and beautiful views. Plus the beach is only 45 minutes to 2 hours away.

After that I headed back to Panama City for New Years with Sara who is in Panama for Peace Corp and Rose/Steve who are traveling in the area. Post New Years we all went to Sara’s site out in the Jungle which was fun. I only stayed for one night due to work and I’m super impressed with what Sara has done out there. The pictures are a mixture of Volcan, the apartment we were at staying, the city and skyline, etc. There are a few with some crazy colors, the sky was intense and my camera went crazy trying to capture it.

There is a really great one of the Rose/Steve cooking process too :)

Plans For The Next 18 Months…

bwb — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:49:01 +0000

So, in short here are my plans for the next 18 months:

Jan – Month in Cusco, Peru (at 11,000+ feet)
Feb, March, April – Buenos Aires, Argentina.
May – Santiago, Chile.

I scored apartments with internet in each place and hopefully going to visit Brazil from Argentina quite a few times. I’ve got plenty of space at most places so hopefully some friends will come visit!

Still working down ideas of what I’ll do while I’m in each place, but the general idea is Mayan ruins, old churches, museums, food, steak, wine, vineyards, lots of fun work (webpub/wwwh), wine, beach, patagonia, etc. May 30th I fly off to Australia, still waiting to figure out that stuff, but I’ll be there for a year! And hopefully quite a few trips to Asia and surrounding regions.

Panama + Start Of Some Travels!

bwb — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:41:06 +0000

I flew out of DC Dec 15th after a hectic last week of errands and some hard goodbyes! I’m on the road and ill do a big post with more details soon! Right now i’m hanging out with my dad and stepmom in Panama (Volcan) for Christmas! A few pictures below…

Good Vacation!

bwb — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:21:39 +0000

I had a great vacation on St. Maartin, it was the first time in maybe 6 or 7 years I’ve gone a long period with no internet (10 days). It wasn’t hard at all which was surprising too.

I went snorkeling every day, swam for hours, and just read under a nice awning right on the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen (mostly because I think the water is an amazing color). Plus enjoyed some rum, got a zillion new freckles, rented a jeep for a few days and drove all around the island to try other beaches, sampled a lot of french bakeries, ate a lot of fish, etc. And I read 21 books while on break, so I’ve hit my goal for this year with having read 124 books so far!

Ben -> Vacation Town

bwb — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:14:21 +0000

I will be on a much needed vacation after a vicious burn out cycle the last month. It reminds me how important it is to take a long break every year or else you just hit a emotional and physical wall of terribleness. Especially when working 24/7 on multiple projects. I have a box of Christmas presents I still haven’t sent out after 10 months because every moment of downtime I’m trying to recover from uptime (I’m going to try to work that into a web hosting joke one day).

Anyway, i’ll be on an island (St. Maartin) with no internet for 10 days!

While I’m gone please take the time to enjoy the following hilarious jokes: Best Chuck Norris Jokes, Top 50 Chuck Norris Facts, And more CN jokes…, and 100 funniest jokes of all time!

Guess who turned 30!

bwb — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:20:48 +0000

It doesn’t feel so bad, I’m probably in better shape then any other point of my life, even with death sitting on my shoulder ;). Plus just imagine how awesome my mid life crisis is going to be considering I buy night vision goggles and python skinned cowboy boots in my teens and twenties. Certainty something to look forward too.

I also made some plans for the next couple years. I’ve been wanting to travel some more and spend another year abroad. So in late December or January I’m going to head down to Nicaragua for a while to visit Joel and Laura. And then travel around Central and South America until late May. I will spend at least a month in both Argentina and Brazil, and I’m still working on other locations (probably Uruguay/Chile, and hopefully Panama to visit a friend). Then in May/June I’m heading to Australia for a year as I got my visa to go there! I haven’t done any reading yet but I believe they have nothing poisonous or deadly on the entire continent, just cuddly little koala bears.

Why I Love Germany (One of many reasons)…

bwb — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:52:57 +0000

So I got to Frankfurt Germany yesterday and made it to Europa Park by about 2pm. Yes, the work conference is at a theme park. And of course with it being Sunday there was no food easily accessible. So being super tired and jet lagged I crashed with no food. I slept around 10 hours and read for a while before departing for German breakfast…

So why do I love Germany so much? German breakfast is fucking awesome. And what is even more awesome, they literally were serving the same breakfast rolls I had when I was in high school on a trip to Berlin and my host mom served breakfast (which I love (they are so good)). Here is what I ate for breakfast:

Coffee (rare for me but jet lag)
1 Breakfast Roll
1 Wheat Breakfast Roll
1 Whole Wheat or something slice of German Bread
1 Piece Bacon
1 Piece Wurst
1 Piece Random Pig Something
1 Egg
1 Random thinly sliced pig something.
1 Another random thinly sliced pig something (also delicious)
1 piece Swiss cheese.
1 glob of 3 fruit jam.
1 glob of real butter.
2 pieces of Bree cheese.
Apricot Yogurt
Raisins
Fruit Salad that had MANGOs!!!!
And, 1 of the most delicious cinnamon bread hunks I’ve ever had.

I can’t wait for breakfast tomorrow, because there is even more to try.

So after I ate this awesome breakfast I accidentally invaded Poland, I just couldn’t help it, I had so much energy and I just accidentally took it over. Oh well. If anything the Versailles treaty should have limited the awesomeness of the German breakfast, no way would WW2 have started.

And later I ran 15 miles, longest yet! Awesome trails through this area and got to see a lot of the surrounding country side. And made it to some small town that had a cool church.

Miami, Burn Out, and Running/Reading.

bwb — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 03:50:18 +0000

I spent Thursday to Sunday in Miami on South Beach and had a great time, the conference was well done and they had some great speakers! I was also impressed with South Beach, although not that I could ever live there. Unless I get an operation that infuses me with three popped collars, hair gel, fist pumping, non stop base thumping, and general douchery. I should note it did have great beaches and lots of normal people.

It also made me realize I am super burned out and need a vacation to let my mind rest. I ended up skipping the conference parties just because I needed too and catching up on reading and just nothingness. The weather was amazing, a solid 80 degrees and a gorgeous boardwalk to run on. I ran on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I did my longest run in a while with 12 miles. I’m doing a marathon training schedule Apey gave me, and going to see about a marathon later this summer I think.

Oh and Cuban food and coffee is awesome. I already knew this from my time living in Boca Raton, but I really miss cheap delicious Cuban food…

I read 4 books and I highly recommend this book that talks about factory girls in China and was just an amazing story (and very well written). Talk about hustlers, I can’t wait to see what those girls do over the next 40 years with their kids and careers. I can’t imagine leaving town at 16 to get a job and navigate such a crazy world, what an adventure!

Please pardon any spelling mistakes, I’m super tired. I’ve actually been getting up while I was there at 7am or 8am to run in the mornings or for the conference.

Holy Shit! When did it turn February? And Happy Chinese New Year!

bwb — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:59:23 +0000

Wow what a jam packed January! Work has been insanely busy and slowly our new business project is coming together. Just have to keep mumbling to myself that slow and steady wins the race :).

This last weekend I went to NY and had a blast with friends, although I’m feeling the effects as I spent the last 24 hours getting over a cold. I’m hoping to go again in the next few months and actually see a play and the insides of a few museums. Somehow managed to run 10 miles through central park which was great! I can’t wait to run outside again once spring comes!

Upcoming Travel
February – SuperConf in Miami
March – SXSW in Austin and WHD in Germany + Short Vacation
April – Paga Ultimate Tournament Italy + Short Vacation
May – Fayetteville for Jasmine’s Graduation.

Possibles
June – WHD Conf in Thailand
August – San Fran WordCamp and Fayetteville for a wedding.
November – PubCon Vegas
October – Octoberfest maybe?

Book Review: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong…

bwb — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 05:28:16 +0000

I don’t often post book recommendations on the blog, in fact I’ve only written two full blog posts on books this year, the rest just get a small blurb on the big list. So keep that in mind as the title of this book I’m about to recommend should scare you away, the title is Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French.

So the title sounds a bit retarded but the book is absolutely amazing! I’ve visited France three or four times over the last couple years and I’ve been trying to learn more about french culture and history and this book is the answer, it is as if someone forced a book on french history, french politics, and french business outlook to have menage a trois and this book is the baby. The book is well written, well researched, and well laid out.

And a quick example, I’ve been involved with computers for a long time and I’ve never heard of the Minitel yet after a chapter of reading about it in this book I was stunned. This was basically a very successful precursor to the internet that launched in 1982, a mere year after I was born. This little networked device could do online dating, message boards, buy airline or train tickets, order stuff, porn, etc. Crazy that I’ve never heard of it.

So go buy this book if you want to learn how France works. It is great to learn more about another democracy that continually chooses a different path then the USA. And hopefully we can pull some ways to change our system out of the mistakes they have made, and the things they are doing very well.

And…

The other book I strongly recommended this year is War (Click Here to learn more about it). A documentary is also going to come out about the author and the soldiers he wrote about.

St. Maartin, Florida, DC, Etc…

bwb — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 03:48:15 +0000

St. Maartin was beautiful (as expected) and I had a great trip. The plane had a small bit of trouble landing and we had to spend the first day in Puerto Rico before the high winds died down. But after that all was good. I read a ton of books, tried a lot of different rums, and didn’t work too much. It also reminded me why the south got nothing done prior to the invention of air conditioning, it is impossible to work a job where you sit for more then a few hours in hot humidity. I walked around ~1/8th of the island and made it to the French side, the entire coast was amazing, and some of the houses are insane. And somehow I managed not to get sun burn.

Florida is getting hit way worse then Denver or Arkansas or other places in the USA I’ve visited lately. I’m guessing because the real estate market had so much further to crash… I was pretty stunned. Washington DC was awesome as usual, played in a beach tournament which was a blast and had a great time visiting friends! Looking forward to moving there late this year.

Great trip!

And btw if anything on my blog is misspelled, or the grammar makes you wince, just suck it up. I usually write these pretty fast and I’m only half as bad when I slow down.

Camping And New Desk…

bwb — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:13:21 +0000

The last few months have been crazy busy but I managed to find time to go camping the last two weekends.

I’m not sure where we camped last weekend but it was next to a stream and pretty, I spent most of the day building a dam to try to show up the beavers next door. And the next day we climbed Grays and Torres (two 14,000 foot mountains). Which only reinforced my belief that air at sea level deserves an award. And I also got to setup my new tent for the first time, super comfortable even for a tall person.

And this weekend Joel, Laura, and I drove up to Crested Butte for a one day hat tournament. Crested Butte and surrounding area is the most beautiful I’ve seen in Colorado and so much nicer then Frisco/Breck/Etc. I couldn’t play the tournament as my ankle is still swollen but I did go for a nice 14 mile run/hike. And the next day we did another short hike, relaxed, and hung out with Chappe and Liz in Aspen at their new place (which is awesome). Great weekend and had a great time!

And I spent tonight setting up my new desk, it moves up and down so I can work standing up and sitting down. Pretty excited as it is a lot easier for me to get things done when I’m standing up.

30 Day Travel Bonanza!

bwb — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:56:17 +0000

JetBlue is selling a All You Can Jet pass where you can fly as much as you want from September 7th to October 6th so I bought the pass for $699 (meaning I can travel any day of the week during that period)!

It is good for any domestic locations and international only has taxes and fees that you have to pay. I won’t be able to plan things out until they let you book on August 23rd but I’m pretty excited. This will get me to regionals in California, a trip to Florida to visit my Grandma, and hopefully a few more. If international is cheap enough I might try to bounce around the Caribbean. Especially as I really want to go see Tobago as that is where they filmed Swiss Family Robinsons. And if I can make it too Barbados it is only $89 round trip to get to Tobago. And I’d love to go back to St. Lucia.

Here is a map of all the places JetBlue flies for this deal! Basically from Denver I can go to anywhere in Texas, California, East Coast and maybe even all the way to Bogota.

PS. I also found out I can spell bonanza without looking it up on google which I’m proud of.

Lion Head Moutain – Conquered!

bwb — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:06:12 +0000

I’ve been a bit under the weather the last few days, but rallied today and ran and climbed Lion’s Head. Long steep climb but pretty fun and awesome view from the top.

We are going to Gordon’s beach tomorrow, no games for a few days. We have one game left, a quarter final in cape town! We saw Spain versus Portugal Tuesday and it was clear Spain was far better. Fantastic ref too for not calling fouls on any of their sissy diving shit (the 9th circle of hell is reserved for divers according to my interpretation of Dante’s work).

South African Beach!

bwb — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:33:49 +0000

The weather has been perfect thus far. So today we woke up and rode the metro for 45 min to one of the “warmer” beaches, but just our luck you can’t see 30 feet through fog… So we eat some lunch, we read, and drink warm beverages, still nothing and it is 2pm. So we walk along the beach and it finally starts to lift and warm up, we change into our swim suits and I swear in a matter of about 10 minutes heavier thicker foggier fog rolls in… We will be back as it looks like a great beach to learn to surf and boogie board. And we feel very safe given their flag system to warn us when great white sharks are nearby and you should get out of the water…

To see the crazy fog just take a look at the below photos, one is taken during the short window where the sun was out and the fog starting to lift, the others as soon as it came back, you literally couldn’t see people surfing just 30 feet out.

Click below for an awesome panoramic too!

First World Cup Game!

bwb — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:49:54 +0000

We survived our first game which was Cameroon versus the Netherlands. We pre gamed a little too hard but were none the worst for wear. And I will say in our defense it is a long walk to the stadium and really really fun to walk all the way with tons of cheering fans moving from bar to crazy dance thing to bar to live music on the street to bar. And apart from getting pretty lost leaving the stadium it was an awesome experience! Our next game is pretty far away and requires a 12 hour bus ride, but we got really lucky and are seeing England versus Germany which hopefully is one of the most brutal soccer games seen yet. And hopefully the USA beats Ghana so we can party with everyone once they get to the semis!

Click the first image as its a big panoramic of the stadium and really really cool to see what a monster it is. I was really impressed as you have a great view of the players and everything from everywhere!

USA Advances In World Cup!

bwb — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:11:55 +0000

What a great game with so many chances and in the end the USA finally scored to win their pool (they got robbed by a ref again and some bad finishes)!!!! Awesome game and great fan base here in Cape Town to cheer them on!

I almost wish they had gotten second in our pool as I’m going to see that game live! So instead I’ll see England and some other team, hopefully Germany. I will be cheering for whoever is playing England, I usually cheer for England but I just watched some English fucker try to pick a fight with some Americans for no reason down on the street. So fuck them, they should be used to coming in second place.

“I bought a cactus. A week later it died. And I got depressed, because I thought, Damn. I am less nurturing than a desert.”
– Demetri Martin

South Africa Day 1

bwb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:53:27 +0000

The apartment is fantastic which you can see below, and watched two games in a local bar today and had a great time. The weird food item is a “Russian Dog” which was actually quite good, and I haven’t tried the blueberry energy drink but will report on my findings shortly. South African wine is also quite good.

Missoula Montana Trip

bwb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:04:15 +0000

I’ve never seen any of the USA above Denver (besides Seattle) so while I was homeless the last few weeks I drove up to Missoula Montana and went through Grand Teton national park and Yellowstone on the way up, and highway all the way down through Wyoming. It was a a great road trip with some awesome landscapes that change quite a bit over the drive. It is always nice to know how quickly you can drive to Canada and Mexico if the need presents itself.

Yellowstone was an odd place with water bubbling up and just looked like what you would imagine biblical drawings of hell to look like, plus it smelled of sulfur. I read a Bill Bryson book a few months ago and he had a great story about some of the employees tat Yellowstone, it seems that some of the hot ponds are about as warm as a hot tub and even though it is not allowed some employees go to them at night, one night they jumped into the wrong one after drinking and it was way way too hot and boiled them alive. Crazy.

I really liked Missoula, it reminds me of Fayetteville in a lot of ways. They even have bumper stickers that say “Keep Missoula Weird” which is the slogan Fayetteville uses as well (I think we all stole it from Austin Texas). They had awesome running trails and since I was not at high altitude I had some really nice long runs. The third day I headed out on their trails and had gone about 4 miles out when this giant giant wind started going through the trees, at first it was pretty but then it didn’t stop and kept getting louder and louder, I actually had to jump off the trail behind a sturdy tree as branches started flying off the trees and a few trees actually fell over! I thought I was about to get sucked up into a vortex of wind, some type of flash tornado or something when it finally settled down only to start raining cold splats of water, I took off sprinting back to town but still ended up getting soaked and luckily there wasn’t any lightening or I would have gotten very cold cowering in a ditch covered in icy water. Bad planning on my part but a fun adventure, and at least I didn’t get chased/eaten by a bear.

I don’t think there are daytime speed limits on highways in Montana is another reason to visit.

If you are in Missoula I highly recommend the running trails (even if you walk them), Indulge Bakery as it was delicious and I learned what huckle berries are their constant struggle to collect them while fighting against the bear army, and Kettle House Brewery as I actually liked their Cold Smoke Scotch Ale.

bwb's blog » Travel

Peru: Cusco, Sacsayhuaman, and Pisac

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Panama!

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Plans For The Next 18 Months…

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