San Francisco Church (Tuesday)

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 Hey Everybody,

This is what we did Tuesday. We went down the street from our house to the San Francisco church (pic 1). We when there. There is a lot to tell about this place, but first i have to tell you about the little man who was our guide. He is the cutest little old man (pic 2&3) and he gave the best tour and knows so much.

So now about the church. It was built by the Spaniards who came to Peru. The building is built from stones made by the Incas. The Spaniards paid the Incas for the stones that they laid, this is why all over the floor are these makings that are the names of the Incans who laid them. The Incas didn't know how to write so the just made symbols but there was one Incan who did and he carved his name "Lorenzo" in his stones. Our Guide also told us about when the Spaniards came over they were converting the Incas, this means that most of the churches here are built on the sacred grounds of the Incas but was destroyed to make the Church. This is also why the Jesus on the cross here sometimes wear skirts because the Incas were trying to relate to the new religion.. You can see it everywhere in the church Jesus wearing a skirt.

In this museum we also saw the phenomenon where one person stands in the corner and the other in the opposite and if they whisper it can be heard like the person was standing right next to you. It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This Church was filled with some of the most beautiful religious art work and also the biggest oil painting in South America (pic 4). This picture is the original  9X20 meters in total it has hundreds of faces. It is a family tree of the Franciscan family. It took the painters family 10 years to paint it him and his son finished it after he died.

There isn't enough great things to say about the church, all the intricate details that went in to all the ceiling tiles that were made by ceder trees that used to cover Cusco and now are not here and in all the churches.

Rose

Cuzco

Hey Everyone,

We got to Cuzco yesterday at about noon from riding a bus on a windy road for 14 hours. Not much fun.
But on a brighter note we went up in a tiny airplane to look at the Nazca lines. This is just a picture from the internet because we are at an internet cafe. The wifi at Hotel  Frankenstein is down.
We started school this morning and I like my teacher the other girl in my class is 17 she is from oklahoma and in Cuzco alone . My teachers name is Magda and she is very nice. Tomorrow we aree going to the market.
Nothing super exciting has happened yet... but I´ll keep you posted when I can.

Love Rose

Lima Art Museum

Italian Art Museum that we visited

Downtown Lima traffic is crazy to newcomers!

Lima has a lot of beautiful old buildings downtown and we are enjoying the architecture.  We spent the morning walking around more of downtown Lima.  Protests continue with lots of police presence.  The people here have been very nice and respectful.  Rose is glad she brought Lissy's big coat, because it sure is cold here.  It may be 70, but with the humidity...it feels more like 50.  Just like every other country we've been to, we spend a lot of time waiting and a lot of time waiting in lines.  We are in Pisco tonight waiting to go on some tours tomorrow.  We are staying in the hotel at the bus station because we are tired of walking.   So far we have had two Peruvians mention to us that it is our independence day today...how's that for being educated!  Happy Birthday Nate!
-Michele

Houston We Have A Problem

Houston we have a problem… your airport is disgusting. But other than Houston’s airport our trip went fine. Our first flight was at 10:02 (don’t forget the 2 minutes) from Denver to Houston that was only about a 3 hr flight. Then at 3:50pm we got on the plane from Houston to Lima which was 5 hrs and 56min. YAH FLYING!!!!!!!!! But the second flight was so cool it has I-pads in the headrests!!!! It was sweeeeeeet!!!!!!

           

Then we got to the Hotel Espana at 12:30, it is amazing they have artwork every where. This morning we went up to the 3^rd floor and had breakfast, mom almost stepped on a turtle and then we started looking around and saw a boy and a girl peacock and 2 parrots that are very loud. We went up to the 4^th floor to see the baby turtle but we couldn't find him. All in all it was a good first day! :)

~Rosie

Plaza de Armas - Lima, Peru

 

Today was our first day sightseeing in Lima, the capital.  Downtown was very interesting today.  When we got close to the Plaza de Armas (only a block from our hotel) there were lines of police with their clear plexiglass riot gear in hand blocking the street.  They had the whole city main square closed down because they were having some kind of protest which we could hear once we were in the square.  They gladly let us in, but there were hundreds of police in the square milling around looking a little tense.  The square was closed to traffic, and they weren't letting anyone hang around so there were just a few tourists, locals and tons of police because they wouldn't let anyone else in.  We toured two churches (one of which had catacombs underneath with the bones from 25,000 people all organized in pits by bone type and the other had the bones of Saint Rose in it!) and went to the central market.  We also toured a museum about food in Perú. We also watched the changing of the guard in front of the National Palace. All in all, my feet are tired.  Tomorrow we are going to spend the morning in Lima and head to Pisco to go to Las Islas Ballestras (called the poor man's Galapagos Islands).                  -Michele

Peru - July 2013

Rose and I will be traveling to Peru from July 2nd to July 30 in search of Machu Picchu!  We will be spending 3 weeks doing Spanish language school in Cusco and volunteering for a youth program there.  We are also going to see the Nazca lines and the floating cities in Lake Titicaca.  Rose is super excited to get out of Central America, I think!  Because Peru is in the southern hemisphere, it is winter there and Cusco will have highs of 70 and lows of about 35 because it's elevation is about 11000 feet above sea level (double that of Denver).  We are getting our backpacks ready right now!

Chocolate, Chocolate and More Chocolate!

Hello All---
Today we went on a tour of a chocolate tour that was very interesting.  The chocolate was more gritty than Hershey's.  They showed us all how the machines worked and how they packaged them and how they shelled the cocoa beans---all in Spanish and of course we went to school. 
Tomorrow we are off to Managua to do shopping and to buy bus tickets to CR.  Then we are going to visit the island of Ometepe the next day.  Things are going to be busy....we still have school tomorrow in the AM and then a bus to Managua.
Rose is looking forward to seeing Jasmine....(and everyone else!).  Me too.
Talk to you later,
Michele & Rose

Honduras Electric Company

Thought I'd share this for all the electricians around.  This is the wiring throughout the capital city of Tegucigalpa Honduras.  About every 1/2 block or so there was one of these, sometimes right off next to someone's balcony.  I'm thinking the residents just string up lines themselves and take it for free, either that or they just have terrible planning.  Wow!!

Rose has found Heaven (or her version of it!)

Hello All--
We are staying at a hostel called La Buena Onda in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.  Rose is loving it because she found $7 Hollister and Abercrombie T-shirts!! They also have a pet rabbit at our new place and that sealed the deal.  Don't tell Jasmine that Rose is cheating on her.  She has been feeding it Ritz crackers all day and petting it.  We enrolled in school and are starting tomorrow at 8am.  Today we shopped til we dropped. 
Michele and Rose

Traveling,Traveling, Traveling

Hello Everyone,


We are on the move again. Today we got up and went to see a dolphin show and then packed your bags to get on the ferry (not so much vomit this time but we had better spots on the boat but the lady behind me puked any way :( nasty!!! ) The we rode on a bus for 2 1/2 hr Central America time, So it actually took 5 hr. Now we are in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

Tomorrow we are getting up at 4 and getting on the tica bus for hopefully 12 hr (not 14 like last time) to get to Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

Rose (Mom too!!!)

Roatan

Hey Y'all

We are in Roatan Honduras right now by the beach. Very very very very hot and humid. I am looking at the TV and theres a geco on it Funny right. We are thinking about staying here for about a week. We wount be able to check e mail or blog very often because we dont have wifi. So we will try our best to do so. thinking about going snorkaling tomoro.

Getting here was horrible. We to a bus from Granada at 3 am to Managua to get on the bus at 5 am to go to San Pedro Sula. It took 14 hrs on that bus aut 15 hr total that day. Then next day we got up at 4am and went to the bus station to get on the bus at 5am to go to the port. It took 3 1/2 hrs to get there.Then we to the fairy for 1 1/2 hrs. There was people puking it was sooooooo ruff. Back and forth side to side for a hr omg it was horrible. Every time it got realy bad it was like a vomit fest. Luckly we did not vomit, barff, puke, throw up, spew or any other way you can say.


Sendin all my love home,
Rose  (Mom too)

Forgive the spelling -Rose

Off to Honduras!

Hello All--
Today it rained most of the day but that didn't stop us from going to Laguna de Apoyo to see it and go swimming.  The lake was so clear we could see our feet when the water was chest high for us.  We took pictures of our feet to prove it.  We went kayaking for a while and sat in some inner tubes, all in the rain!
Tomorrow we are off to San Pedro Sula in Honduras to get to Roatan Island there.  It's a 12 hour bus ride there and then another 3 hour bus ride and a 2 hour ferry the next day.  Uf!  We have to get up at 3am to catch a taxi to the bus in Managua so we better get packed.
Michele and Rose

                         This is us today canoeing.(sorry about the spelling) Our arms will hurt tomorrow!!!! :)

        This is the Magic flower. It looks like a long skinny fruit and when you shake it, it opens into a flower.

We went to the Masaya Volcano Crater and 5 other volcanoes in another really old giant one. So a long time ago there was a big huge volcano that blew up. Now in the middle is 5 other craters inside it that blew up. That's the best I can describe it.

So the plan for tomorrow is to go to this lake named Apoyo and go swimming there!!! Sounds like lots of fun!! :)

- Rosie (and Mom!)

San Jose

We are back in San Jose at Hostel Pangea and I am watching Rose and Grandma play pool while I blog.  Today we went to the Insect World Exhibit and the Orchid Place.  Rose is turning into a bug lover and we had to use magnifying glasses to see some of the orchids they were so small.  Some of them even smelled like chocolate (much better than the stinkbugs at Insect World).  We are pretty tired after our 4 1/2 hour bus ride.  It has been raining pretty hard since about noon today and we are all damp and cold.  Tomorrow we are planning on hitting a museum and going shopping before Grandma gets a shuttle to the airport on Monday. 

Michele

Hello Everyone, 

Yesterday we went to the Monteverde Cloud Forest and Rose found a puppy and he was so lovey.  She held him while we looked at the butterfly gallery.  They had some feeders set up and there were tons of hummingbirds fighting for space.  The owner eventually came to take the dog away.

We went tot he frog pond at night and saw lots of frogs.  This is a red eyed tree frog, but we also saw poison dart frogs, but these were pretty cool too.

We hiked a trail by ourselves.  This is Mom and Rose at the lookout at the farthest point. 

We spotted a black guan and her baby all by ourselves.  Then we had to watch them until we had the perfect shot.

The hummingbird gallery had probably about 100 hummingbirds flitting around.  It was a challenge trying to get them on camera, but they were so cool that we stayed a long time.

At the butterfly tent, Grandma was well liked in her Estes Park shirt.  She had 2 or three different ones land on her shirt and on her head.

We are all so tired!  We have been walking non-stop since we arrived in Monteverde there is so much to do.  We have seen so many animals.  We walked in the forest at night with flashlights (and a guide) and saw a couple of sloths, a pit viper, a tarantula the size of a small dinner plate and lots of bugs, spiders, etc.  Tomorrow we are heading back to San Jose on the 2:30 bus from Monteverde.  I think Grandma is ready to come home and missing Gpa.  We went on a coffee tour and a cheese factory tour too.

Michele, Rose & Grandma

Zip Line

Hello Everyone,

Rose sailing into the last stop

Grandma ziplining down to the next platform.

Grandma did the Tarzan Swing and here she is at the very top of the arc

Yeah!  We made it intact!

Yesterday we went ziplining in the canopy outside of la Fortuna, closer to the Arenal Volcano.  There were about 15 lines that we went on and a Tarzan Swing close to the end.  Everyone did the swing and even Grandma (and mom) did the Tarzan Swing.  Mom injured a tree on the way into one of the platforms, but we are pretty sure that the tree will recover.  Braking is more difficult that it looks.  In the afternoon we went to the local river for a swim, but it started raining and we had to walk back about 30 minutes in the rain.  At about 4 we went to Baldi Hot Springs, which is heated by the Volcano, for a buffet and a soak in their many hot pools of all different temperatures.  There were waterfalls and it was a great night.  We stayed until about 8:30pm.  Rose said it was fun and make sure to do the Tarzan Swing.

Mom, Grandma & Mom