Planning a Road Trip Down Pacific Coast Highway

In July I went on a road trip with my parents down Highway 1. In preparing for this trip I did a number of things for research. I Googled ideas and agendas, I used Google Maps to figure out the distances between places, I read blogs and I read articles.

National Geographic Road Trip: California's Pacific Coast Highway

ArchitectLINK Blog

The Google searching was a good start. However, I planned a loose agenda by using the book, Road Trip USA: Pacific Coast Highway by Jamie Jensen, to help us have an idea of where to go, what to do and where to be each day. We decided before we began this adventure that we would not book any hotels; we would just see where we ended up each day and find a hotel there. This made it possible that we could stay as long or as little in each town.

The greatest tool we found for this trip was the Mile by Mile Guide to Hwy 101 for Oregon. I would highly recommend grabbing one of these to help you get the best out of the Pacific Coast Highway; they're free and at every tourist stop you can think of. It has all the information about everything you can see and do along the Oregon coast and mile by mile steps on how to get there. The only bummer is that this is only for Oregon; after that we reverted back to the Road Trip USA book.

The Mile By Mile Guide's website now offers a guide for your cell phone. Check it out: Oregon Coast

From a Fellow Traveler

I have a relative who, when she was 25, quit her job and planned a six month trip around the world. I recently ask her of all the places she has traveled, which was her favorite. I really liked her response and thought she had some great advice and wanted to share it with you.

"Hmmm... my favorite place? So many people have asked that and I have to say I don't have one particular place. Each place is SUPER unique and offers up such a variety of things. I LOVED India because of how different it is. Same holds true for Vietnam. I think while you're young you should try out the exotic places. As we get older, we tend to want more from our travels and are less patient with the third world country annoyances. So save Europe and higher end travels for later in life. If that makes sense? But, every place I've been to I've LOVED for what it was."

Peru: Odds and Ends 2013

This was our last photo in Cuzco before starting our long trek home.

Cuzco to Lima to Dallas to Salt Lake City

Lima Magic Water Circuit
We had a 5 hour layover in Lima and so we decided to take a taxi to these Lima Fountains. We didn't plan to spend any real time in Lima because we had read many warnings that Lima wasn't safe right now for American tourists but we thought we would at least take advantage of some extra time at the airport. We had wanted to take a bus city tour of Lima but our flight got into Lima too late for it so we just picked the one main thing we wanted to see. (We had heard from several people along the way that they had loved the Hop On Hop Off bus tours they had done in Lima.)

We had kind of a funny experience with our cab driver from the airport to the fountains and back. We found a taxi driver who was willing to drive us to the water park, wait for us and then bring us back to the airport. As we were driving to the water park he and Krista were chatting in Spanish and all of a sudden their conversation started to get heated; turns out he was trying to change the price of what we had agreed on. Luckily we got it all straightened out, though he kept trying to add to the drive by saying he would take us to more places if we gave him more money and we kept telling him no, we want to pay you what we agreed on and we want to only go to the water park.

As we arrived at the water park he pulled in to pay for his parking and for our entrance tickets. He only paid for two entrance tickets and the parking. We all (we went to the park with some other girls we met on the plane who had the same layover) protested and said that he should have paid for all of us but he waved us off and said that nobody actually checks for you to have tickets; turns out he was right but that’s beside the point. When we got out of the car, Krista told him she didn’t like what he just did.

Taxi driver, “What do you mean?”

Krista, “I don’t like that you didn’t pay for all of us, that wasn’t honest, I was taught by my parents to always be honest.”
TD, "This means a lot to you."
K, "Yes."

Our taxi driver was shocked and later when he dropped us off at the airport he told Krista that he has never met someone with such integrity and he truly felt bad for his action. He told her that moment really made him think about his life the remainder of the night.

When we got back to the airport our flight had been delayed 5 hours. Whaaaaaat?! Here's to sleeping in the freezing airport. Later, as we were boarding our flight one of the attendant said to me, “Did you make sure to re-check your bags?” I looked at her completely confused and thinking to myself, “did I hear her right?” She repeated the question and I finally said, “Well no, because I was flying within the country.” She immediately looked at my like I was an idiot and said I was supposed to have rechecked my bags. Still confused at what I am hearing, keep in mind sleep deprived as well, I looked over to Krista as she was checking in with another attendant and I said, “Did you know we were supposed to recheck our bags?” She had the same reaction I did. Turns out that in Lima, you have to always recheck your bags. The attendants were not kind or sympathetic in any way. They just said that there was nothing we could do, we should have asked someone (ask someone?! We didn’t even know there was something to ask about) and that we would just have to file a claim for our bags when we got to our final destination. Well this made for a mixture of emotions; anxiety, sadness, anger, confusion, etc. Long story short... we got our bags back a week after we had been home. Hooray!

When we got to Dallas we had missed our connecting flight because of the delay in Lima. Krista's response: "I've never wanted to live in Dallas until today." We hadn't showered in 4 days and the last two nights had been very unrestful sleeps. We were ready to be home. We were rebooked for the last flight of the day to Salt Lake. Luckily we went to the gate of an earlier flight home with our airline and got on the standby list. We made it on to the flight! We were the last two on and we basically buckled our seats as the plane was taking off. We were so happy we cheered and high-fived each other.

This picture is of us on that flight.

Odds and Ends
Staying at Hostels: For this trip we stayed in Hostals the entire time (except for the Ninos Hotel). This was my first time staying in hostals and I wasn't sure what to expect. I've heard of some people loving them and some people hating them. It's obviously not the Ritz BUT it had the bare essentials of what was needed: a warm bed, toilet, sink and shower. Yes I had to provide my own towel, sometimes toilet paper, and soap but that was ok. We only had two hostals that we shared with other people, other than that we had private rooms (something I didn't realize you could do). I would stay in them again. For a 3 week trip, it was a great money saver.

Not something you would see in the U.S.

Some of the things I missed from home but also made me grateful for the simple things I have: Drinking water. Being able to brush my teeth with tap water. Not having to worry if people will accept your cash if it had a small rip in it or a crease. Heated Buildings. Not having to worry about having exact change to pay for things. Being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet. WARM SHOWERS!

If you are thinking about visiting Peru... DO IT! I feel very lucky to have been able to go on this trip. I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of incredible things but I also was reminded by all of the many things I have in my life and how blessed that I am.

Doors
I know it is a girly thing to do but while we were Peru I tried to take pictures of cool doors I saw. I thought it was neat to see these doors with such character. Sometimes these doors were attached to a well kept building while others were very run down.

Peru Posts:
Overview
Cuzco
Amazon
Machu Picchu
Lake Titicaca
Arequipa

Peru: Arequipa 2013

Arequipa
Arequipa was our last stop on this big adventure. By the time we got here we were getting a little tired so we spent a lot of time at the main plaza reading, writing in our travel journals and people watching. Honestly, I'm glad we did it that way. We did make sure to go on at least one adventure and visit some museums as well.

There were pigeons everywhere in the main plaza and it was hilarious to watch all of the little kids feeding the birds (ok, who just started singing Marry Poppins right there?) and chasing after them. We even watched one little girl grab a pigeon and hold on to it as it tried to fly away. The perimeter of the plaza was lined with benches and they were filled with locals just sitting and enjoying their day. People selling birdseed, popcorn and ice cream would walk around the plaza and there were artists sketching as well.

Another area of the main plaza

These peaks around Arequipa are the pride and joy of the Peruvians in Arequipa. Anytime we would talk to people they would always be sure to ask if we had seen the peaks.

Santa Catalina Monastery
The Santa Catalina was a monastery for nuns built in the about 1580. The nuns that resided here came from the highest classes of families in Spain. It was a very "ritzy" monastery. Today it is mostly a museum but there are still sections of the monastery where nuns still reside and live. Krista and I loved visiting this Monastery; the colors were vibrant and the decor was quaint. We felt as if we were in Europe while walking through it. The monastery was amazing because it was it's own small city within its walls. It had streets and courtyards and the rooms were like small loft apartments.

Walking through the monastery

The streets

A well in one of the many kitchens.

One of the rooms

River Rafting!
We went river rafting on a river, Rio Chili, near Arequipa. We were a little nervous about doing this because a week before we had met people, who had been in Arequipa, and they told us that it had snowed while they were there. Our reaction... "Whaaaat?!" As we were driving to the river one of the guides told me that the river's name was Rio Chili and then he said that Chili means cold and I thought to myself, "Yeah, it means cold in english too!" It ended up being a really warm day and we wore wet suits on the trip. This was a blast and we were both really glad we did it. We booked the trip through PeruAdventuersTours.

Just going down the river: I'm in the back on the left.

High Fives

Did I say how much fun this was... because it was!

Our Group

Cliff Jumping halfway down the river

Colca Canyon
Our last day in Arequipa we went to Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; about double the "deepness" of the Grand Canyon. We had to get up at 2am for this tour... ouch. We didn't get to see the deepest part of the canyon, which we were really bummed about (I mean that was our purpose in going there), so I guess we'll have to go back again and make sure to get a tour that takes you to the deepest part of the canyon.

This was the opening of the canyon.

A church in Colca Canyon

The biggest attraction in Colca Canyon is the "Flight of the Condors." (I kept saying the Flight of the Conchords) This is where large condors fly around the canyon but the cool thing is that they catch the wind and in a large circular motion they just float down into the canyon.

Krista just taking a break in the Canyon

We stopped to take a picture with these Alpacas. A few minutes before this picture a man had his picture taken next to them and the mom alpaca spit on him. When Krista walked over to them to take a picture they started to walk towards her and, not wanting to get spit on, she started to run away... this was the picture she got.

These were some Vicunas (I talked about them in the Puno/Lake Titicaca post) at a national reserve on our way back from Colca Canyon.

We found this is Colca Canyon and I got really excited. Anyone who has traveled with me knows that we're looking for restrooms quite frequently.

Food on this trip

This is what we called our "poor man's" lunch while in Peru. Whenever we had to pack a lunch for the day we would buy bread rolls and peach juice.

This was super cheap meal in Peru but it was very filling and delicious. It was your choice of meat, veggies, rice and french fries stir fried together.

Ok, I was obsessed with these bread rolls in Peru. They were generally pretty fresh and SUPER cheap. I could buy 4 of these for the equivalent of 30 US cents. Each day I would buy a bundle... but as the trip went on I would increase how many I bought. I think buy the time we got to Arequipa I was up to at least 8 rolls a day.

Friends
While we were traveling in Peru we made a friend every day. Here are a few we made in Arequipa OR who we had met earlier in the trip and caught up to us in Arequipa.

Ted the Dog!

Ted made our top three friends we made while in Peru (The first being Elaine in the Amazon and Wellington in Aguas Calientes). There are stray dogs everywhere in Peru, though there usually are in 3rd world countries. I always avoid them because they're dirty and have fleas and I'm sure other deseases. Well Ted found us hanging out in a town square and he just came over and started staring at me. I told him no and tried to shoo him away but he just laid down at my feet, as you can see in the picture above, and stayed there (if you look closely in the picture, you'll see that I'm not too sure how I feel about this.). We started to joke about Ted and named him (obviously) and started to take a liking to him. For the remainder of that day he followed us around everywhere we went (I felt like we had a little guard dog). When we would go into a store or a restaurant he would just wait patiently outside for us. I actually was really sad we had to leave him at the end of the night.

Ted and Krista in the Main Plaza

Lori and Larry

We met Lori and Larry on the train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) and we kept running into them everywhere we went on our trip after that. They were a couple from California who have moved to Ecuador for their retirement. This was the last time we saw them it was when we decided to better get a picture with them.

Mike from Northern California

We met Mike on the Inca Express Bus from Cuzco to Puno and pretty much saw him everyday of our trip after that. We started to meet up at the end of our days for dinner.

Getting Back to Cuzco
We took a "red-eye" bus from Arequipa back to Cuzco. In this picture we were really excited about the bus because it had reclining seats with a foot rest and comfy blankets. When we made it to Cuzco we were ready to get off that bus. All night long the air conditioning and heater would alternate like crazy. We spent the entire night going through hot and cold flashes (magnified by a billion).