Two Caveats.
1. We have been without a camera. Please forgive the lack of photos!
2. This blog was written on a keyboard that does not believe in a variety of different punctuation marks, numbers, etc... Please indulge our poorly written post! If you are brave and patient enough for reading, by all means continue!
- Pedestrians have the right of way! This crazy idea is not adhered to in either Peru or Ecuador. In fact, whilst crossing the street in Lima, we had an awkward exchange with a car in which he yelled at us for walking across the street when the light was green...and we yelled at him from driving when the little man was green. We exchanged pleasantries and I finished with a real zinger...something like, It is hard for foreigners to understand your culture...where we come from you go when things are green. I am nearly certain that this was a real life changing moment for this Liman. But seriously, in Chile the drivers practically pull over, get out of the car, hold their hands up to stop oncoming traffic, hold your hand and give you a personal escort accross the street! Increible! Or for those of you who do not hablo espanol, Incredible!
- Wine. Five dollars or less buys a primo bottle of wine. We all know that wine helps the heart. So Brigittes personal goal here is to drink a bottle a day between us. I told her that is crazy and it needs to be more in moderation...but she seems really determined.
- Toilet seats...at least so far. Fun little fact about Peru and Ecuador is that often times the bathrooms are clean and great except for one small inconvenience...the absence of a toilet seat. A toilet seat is one of those things i think that we take for granted. And making things happen in the bathroom sans toilet seat can be a challenge. Almost to the point where i would prefer a squatty potty or a hole in the ground to a seatless toilet. My dad had a good idea though. He said one person should hold the extended arms of the user of the bathroom while they lean back over the toilet. Great idea. Wish we had learned of during Peru or Ecuador. Its like trust excercise meets intimate marriage. That kind of wisdom is why they made my dad a preacher. Did you now that? Time Bucher is now a preacher. Far out! You can here him Sundays at the Valparaiso Apostolic Christian Church at 1030 and 1230, I think. There is also a free lunch, which my mother often prepares. So get to highway 49 just south of Valpo this weekend!
- We were so blessed that Brigittes family came to see us! David and Cindy joined for Christmas. After two days of flying and making connections we greeted them on Christmas Eve with hugs...helped them with their bags and gave them a glass or two of coca tea...and then we did not stop for the next week! From Machu Pichu to hot springs to a million sets of ruins, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. A highlight for me was when we had our post Machu Pichu pizza meal in Cusco, feasting on things we know..pizza, salad, micro brews...so fun! We miss you guys!
- A day and a half after David and Cindy left us, our buddy Reb joined us! With Reb we conquered canyons, befriended Swedes, crossed borders, and drank wine. It was incredibly fun to spend time with Cap Hill Small group memeber. She even took us to a very nice dinner where we tagged teamed teaching how to use a credit card to technologically challenged Chilean! We said goodbye to Reb this morning..we already miss you Reb!
- Not sure if we ever shared this information via this forum, but we lost our camera when we left Ecuador. It was in the move. It could have fallen out of a pocket. It could have remained in the back seat of a taxi. Not sure. It was sad but we bounced back alright. Brigittes mom picked up a new camera and personally flew it to us, she also went to Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca with us! It was so nice to have a new camera! We took photos...photos of people...of lamas...of Machu Pichu...all kinds of really cool stuff! But guess what happened next? We lost it! Or better said...I lost it! I was taking photos of Lake Titicaca from the roof of a boat snapping some Cavalari esque shots of the Peruvian flag with a sunset meets storm in the distance. I had mini fantasies of winning a national geographic photo of the year award...shaking hands with the president...my family crying and hugging me for my cultural contributions...all this was happening in my head when I went back down to the bottom of the boat. There are two options for what happened to our camera then. Either I left it on the top and when we docked it gently kerplunked into the bottom of the lake...or a nefarious tourist took it! Not sure which. But the discovery of the loss was probably worse than the loss itself. I still was not aware that I had lost camera number two. We were sitting in the boat waiting for an opportune time to disembark because it had started raining. We waited 5 to 10, then began filing out of the boat. We had to hop from boat to boat until we reached the dock. As soon as my foot hit the dock I turned to Brigitte and said, Wheres the camera! We became frantic, panting like desert dogs. Just as we opened our backpack to search through it, the sprinkles changed to latter day judgement hail that pelted our heads and sopped the inside of our backpack and the contents. We were screaming at each other attempting to communicate. I decided to run back to the boat and look for the camera. I ran back down the dock. Hopped boats. Looked on top of seats and under seats. No camera. Forgot all my Spanish and tried to mime losing a camera to the captain. He said no camera. I left the boat hoping that Brigitte had found the camera in her bag. She had not. And our bus was gone with her parents. We discussed camera finding strategy in the hail and rain. My pants were now completely wet. Jump in a pool in your pants wet. I decided to go look one more time in the boat. They had to move the boat to a more hoppable location. I waited wetly on a neighboring boat. When it got close enough boarded, looked again, and came up empty again. I left the boat and found Brigitte taking refuge on a nearby boat. We sulked our way down the dock where we tossed our soaked bodie into a taxi and returned to our hostel...camera less.
- Flash forward a week and a half and I got out of a taxi. But my kindle did not. This story I will keep brief. Kindle down.
- For those keeping track at home, that is now 2 cameras, 1 kindle, 1 panama hat, and a few articles of clothing...and a bracelet that we have donated to the continent of South America. Good news though. We found the bracelet!
- Brigittes eye was puffy and gunky. Then we met our friend Reb. Her eye was gunky and puffy. Guess whos eye is now puffy and gunky?
