Skip to main content

Motoventure Day 9: The Plot Thickens

Supposedly as of yesterday everyone in Group 1 and Group 2 has been off except for one team. At least two of those teams returned Thursday due to problems, and apparently one team lost a mototaxi after hitting a pothole and rolling it down the side of a mountain into a river (not sure on the details here, but apparently it almost rolled over a girl but everyone is all right).


Mototaxi update: We are supposed to find out around noon to 2PM today how many will be ready to go Saturday morning, currently expecting 8 to be ready out of the 22 left. The rest may have to wait until Tuesday. We are now looking at shipping the remaining ones to Cuzco and having a launch from there, so the rest of us may fly over there in order to do some exploration while waiting until Tuesday (Macchu Picchu and all that). I will update this afternoon.

torretorre4

I spent most of the afternoon with Scott and Nate from team Hombre Lobo (who are sadly almost definitely dropping out now due to the delay) and we finally did go exploring outside town, and spent some pretty cool time at Torre Torre. Getting there was an adventure – the cab driver got stuck on a closed road and let us off early and we sorta wandered up the side of a mountain until we found some kids who offered to give us a tour of the place for about $.20 (at the end we gave them s/10 or ~$3 and totally made their day). It looked underwhelming from the road but it was actually quite cool.

torretorre1

It's basically a small canyon with lots of areas to climb around, some fantastic views of the city, and overall just a wonderful place to chill. I was hoping I might find a spot or two to try out some parkour, but it was all fairly steep and gravelly and quite dangerous in places. Closest I got was a few precision jumps that were quite fun. At one point I did a fast run up the side of one hill towards the top only to almost go flying over a ledge and down a 30-40 foot fall because I thought there was something at the top – instead it was maybe a 12 inch ridge followed by a big drop!


P1040134

After climbing around for awhile and generally having a great time relaxing and exercising, we turned around for home. We decided to walk it since we could see the main plaza from the mountainside, even though we knew it would be a few hours. It turned into quite the experience, walking through the poor area that was clearly being worked on (interesting that in the US the hillside around a city would be filled with rich homes). We randomly stumbled across some strange buildings and some sort of zoo, and at some point Scott was accosted by a group of school girls who I think wanted to take him home…




P1040303You see, Scott is pretty tall (I dunno, maybe 6'3"?), medium length blond hair and shiny blue eyes. He's like a little god down here, and these school girls didn't want to let him leave. They forced him to take pictures with them one by one until everyone had a go, it was quite adorable. (for the record I think they were quite interested in Nate as well, while I hid behind my big floppy hat and glasses).



P1040312 On the way home we ended up walking past Plaza Vea (the big mall) and I decided I was in need of comfort food. We checked out the food court and although they did not have Chipotle, they did have a Burger King! I ended up paying s/16 for a Whopper combo meal (~$5 – later that night, Rob, Will and I all had burgers for s/17 at a local place) and Scott and Nate grabbed KFC. The BK wasn't that good but it was nice to pretend for a moment that I was grabbing a late night snack around the corner from my place.


Overall a very de-stressing day, so really thanks to Andy for letting us know about this place! More pictures on my flickr, of course!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Days 94-98: The Struggle for Beauty

In which Pete nearly loses Red and gives up once again, before crossing an ice field to spend the night with the Bolivian army at Laguna Colorada and returning to Uyuni for supplies.

Jury Duty: Not Like TV (or: Longest Post EVER)

Prepare yourself for by far the longest blog post ever – if you’re at all curious about real life jury duty or enjoy all those cop & lawyer shows then give it a go - this recount of the trial and details given for evidence will blow your mind, make you think twice about the effectiveness of our police officers and the impartiality of our juries… Shortly before leaving on my trip in January, I was summoned for DC Grand Jury Duty .  I was able to have it rescheduled to begin on June 7 and made it back to the US only a few days before it was due to start.  After thinking about it I really felt that I would not be comfortable spending 27 days of 8:30AM to 5PM in an “office” for $30 a day, especially with the changes to the economy going on right now – I’d rather enjoy that time. Upon arriving at the courtroom for Grand Jury Duty, I quickly noted that there were over 40 people in the room, considerably more than the number required for the Grand Jury.  Once we were checked in, the c

Goodbye, India

I felt it fitting to arrive at IGI in Delhi in the familiar comfort of an auto-rickshaw as I prepare to leave India behind me.  I am ready to leave – in fact, I feel somewhat as if I overstayed myself here, even with two days in Delhi doing nearly nothing. I have mixed feelings about India.  The dust, dirt, and heat of the dry season do not bother me (aside from my allergies).  The frequent squalor, open sewers, trash strewn streets, and clear signs of overpopulation and overcrowding do not phase me at all – if anything, they remind me of my youth in the Philippines and bring a certain nostalgia.  I love the food and breads, and while I’m not a fan of the excess of deep fried street food, it’s enjoyable in moderation.  The fact that I’ve had only one small piece of chicken and no other meat for nearly a month bothers me not at all, since the alternatives are quite a pleasure (mmm, paneer!). In fact, aside from a few things, I have quite enjoyed India.  The people who are clearly i