...cause we are heading to america del sur for a few weeks! specifically, peru...home of the andes mountains, lake titicaca (it's true, this is a real lake!), the famed inca trail to machu picchu, amazon rainforest and of course our blog's namesake, the llama!
officially our unofficial mascot!
we are really excited for this trip for many reasons, so here they are in no particular order:
A: we are going around the time of our 1 year anniversary of marriage, so it's time to celebrate a truly awesome year for us! i cannot believe we are no longer 'newlyweds' soon, time flies. this makes me sad...
B: ...but this makes me happy ----> we are travelling to a completely different place than the other two trips we have taken together! don't get me wrong, thailand and indonesia were awesome, but we are def. ready for a major change of scenery and culture... and no more rice! Bring on the potatoes! The last time we both were in South America (separately) was around 7 years ago so we are long overdue.
C: as long as we have a trip on the 'books' we don't have to settle in and make babies like everyone wants us to do! so we have bought ourselves a bit more time. do you know how many times i hear something to the tune of, "kelli you are 32, when are you having a baby?" eek. i will just put it out there now...we have a european adventure on the 'books' for next yr so that should answer any-and-all questions about a new addition to the walker household. besides, my sister has filled that kiddie void for me recently (welcome ella!) and my brother will be doing the same while we are away (see you soon hadley!). so a special shout-out to josh & linds for taking the heat off us for a bit :P
D: we both get to showcase our amazing spanish skills! and when i say amazing i mean terrible...at least in my case. i regretfully took zero spanish in college (how is this possible?) and while living in brazil i developed this sort of hybrid portuguese-spanish language deal and this is all i have to offer to these peruvians. jimmy should fare ok since he lived in barcelona for some time. i am at least hoping he can haggle me some good prices on alpaca sweaters at the mercados.
E: lastly, we both get to live out some longtime travel dreams of ours by trekking the inca trail for 4 days to machu picchu and marvel at the massive andes mountain range. jimmy will get to try another one of his culinary oddities and munch on some nice crispy cuy, otherwise known as guinea pig! (if you read our last blog you might remember how devastated he was with his babi guling in bali, so i am hoping this little rodent will not dissapoint). and finally, i am hoping my vision of dressing up in traditional peruvian womans garb while hugging an alpaca will surely come true. fingers crossed.
we catch a flight to the capital city of lima early next week, so like the last blog we will try to update as frequently as the sluggish 3rd world internet connections will allow. so this may or may not be the only post, we shall see!
*disclaimer- for those scholarly individuals out there i thought i should note that i do know that llamas are slightly different than the alpacas which dominate the peruvian landscape, but that is neither here nor there in my opinion. i couldn't think of a catchy blog title using 'alpaca' so llama was my next best option. i consider them as one in the same since according to wikipedia they are both 'camelids' from south america. anywho, enough about that...if you wanna find out more about llamas, check out this great site!
http://joseph-meyer.com/llamas
http://joseph-meyer.com/llamas
