Thank you Augusto!

            I went on the Internet to unravel a great surprise! I found a couch through Couchsurfing! Augusto is going to host us and he seams really cool from what his profile looked liked! I'll tell you what, it was hard finding a couch! I got lucky because I e-mailed tons of couch surfing hosts while me and Frankie were waiting for the flight out of L.A. What I did was wrote one letter and mass e-mailed tons of people the same letter. Frankie told me to stop because I was making too many requests and I told her “let me do one more.” The only who could offer us a place to crash at the time was Augusto! Hell yea! The reason why it was so hard was because I gave all of them a day notice when I should have asked for help at least a week in advance, out of respect, so I understand why people couldn’t help us.

            Augusto was nice enough to offer us a ride from the hostel to his house because it’s cheaper that way and he was just being a nice guy. It was kind of cool because Augusto’s dad’s personal chofer picked us up with Augusto. Augusto lives with his parents and goes to college for movie production or some think like that. His house is badass and they have a Housekeeper who is a fantastic cook and a wonderful person! All of them are very sweet and kind.   

            The first day Augusto was real excited to introduce us to ceveche, a dish that is true Peruvian! It was so Good! What is it? It’s raw fish that is marinated in a lemon sauce with onions and a little hot pepper and what the lemon does is kind of cook it. It is real good and if you are a fan of sushi, you would love this dish! On top of that Augusto introduced us to a Peru drink called chicha morada, which is a purple corn drink. You might think weird! Well I did too, but when I tried it, it gave me a huge smile across the face! What it is, is purple corn that is boiled for a while and they added seasoning/spices like cloves, bay leaves and such. Yummm Yummm!

            We stayed with Augusto for about 3 days and the final day Augusto took Frankie to the dentist because her teeth was hurting for a good week and a half from her last visit with the dentist. Frankie went to the dentist just before she left for Peru to get a couple of cavities drilled,  and had pain ever since! I think teeth pain sucks big time! So any ways, Frankie went to the dentist to get her teeth ex-rayed to see what was the deal. It was a little stress full because we had to catch the bus to go to Cusco at about 2pm and her dentist appointment was at noon!

            After all was done Frankie got her top tooth re-drilled because it was the only way to check if the last dentist did a good job or not. They filled her teeth with a fake filling to see if the pain would remain after a week. By the time Frankie was done we had only 45 minutes to get to the bus station, but first we had to go back to Augusto’s house to get out stuff.

            Frankie wasn’t even packed and we had only a minute to get ready! Frankie was all stressed out and I was to, but we were lucky because Augusto let us keep most of our stuff at his house till we came back. We were only going to be gone for a week, so it was no problem. The reason why we were going to Cusco was because my real good friend RainaDay was going to be there and I wanted to see her and let Frankie meet her as well. Also I wanted to go to Machu Picchu! I have wanted to go to Machu Picchu for a very long time now! Now I get the chance!  Wahoooo!

            After all the worries about missing the bus and loosing our money because we paid in advance, we made it right on time and the stress is gone! The buses are very nice, big, and cheep! I am so excited because our trip so far has been wonderful, meeting wonderful people, and it is not so bad here at all! Well, I must get going because it is late now and until the next time, Cheers!

            Next stop Cusco!!!!            

Welcome to Lima Peru

            I tell you what, When I was just above Lima Peru in the plane I thought, “what the hell is this place! This is a dusty desert hell bucket!” I had pictured that Lima had some vegetation, but from the looks of it that was not the case at all! I am not fond of the desert… I like at least some green life. But….. oh well I am hear now at the airport and what ever is in store for me will be good!

            But before I tell you about the air port and a little bit about Lima, I will have to tell you what this man and lady said to us on the plane about Lima.  So there was this man next to me on the plane and we talked a little about where we were from and he talked a little bit about where he was from, you know small talk. Me and Frankie was looking at a book that we bought that described about the land, people, places to visit, Hostels, Hotels, and mostly sight seeing adventurous things to do.  So we asked the man next to me what areas of Lima was best for Hostels and he said South was better because it was touristy and the North was not so good. But what is good and bad? Some people are just chicken shit because it is a little more rough then other places in that town, so they don’t know how to act in those areas. I don’t know but I asked him about a certain area and he said it was ok but you have to watch out. To me that’s good info! Frankie and me do not know a jack in the wall about Lima and we want to know at least an idea about if we should camp in certain areas or not. So, I went to the bathroom and when I came out this Lady pulled on my shirt and sat me down next to her and she said do not listen to that man. She said, “Those place/s where that man said was ok is not ok at all!”  She also said that when we are just about to enter the exit area after the gates in the airport, there are going to be people that will bum rush you to take there taxi and rip you off. She said use your instinct and don’t take anything that comes in front of you. I was happy because she gave me real good advice! She seemed real sincere so we will see how good her advice is!

            She was right! Right when we exited the gates in the airport, a company rushed us to take there cab and they said they were going to call the hostel we wanted to book a reservation, so Frankie took the bait because they seemed so nice! We need to get money because we had to pay first and then get the ride. While we were looking for the right ATM that would take our card, I remembered that the lady on the plan said, “do not pay first and don’t trust companies that say you pay first because they will tell you have to pay again when you arrive at the destination.” I told Frankie what I just remembered and told Frankie that we were going to get ripped off. Mean while all kinds of people were asking us for us to take their taxi service, what a headache! So we got some Soles (the name of their currency) and we told the man working for the taxicab company to take off. So after tons of taxi bum rushes we met a man and for some reason we decided to take his order and follow him to his car for a ride to the hostel and gave us a better price then the other drivers.

            While we were driving the taxi driver told us that he knows a better, and cheaper hostel than the one we wanted to go to which was called the Flying Dog (I heard that it was a great place). We took up on his offer because he seemed as though he knew what he was talking about and we just wanted to take a shower and rest after the flight, so we didn’t fuss about anything.

            The hostel was a good experience and the people were very friendly which was niceJ Frankie and me walked around to get a feel of the new place we were at, and found a great gem store! They were so cheep! They had some badass gems! I bought a few gems for healing and their names are Azurite, Red Jasper, Fluorite, and Drusa de Dioplasa! The Drusa de Dioplasa is such a beautiful stone that is in a shape of an egg, blue and green like the Hawaiian ocean, and it has crystals on the inside! What eye watering gems they had! After that wonderful experience we went down the street where we came across this little restaurant to get some energy and found their food to be cheep! It was like 1-2 soles per sandwich! It is 3.00 to there 1.00 (sole.) It came out to be like .75 cents for a good sandwich!

            So that was fun and now it is a little late and I am very tiered because of the flight and it was just a long day and it is time to retire. Well, I hope you liked this chapter and I hope you like the chapters to come.

Talk to you soon.

ATTENTION

Hello every one! I will soon have some posts up about our Peru adventure! I am slowly catching up!
Just as a reminder (if you know how to run around web sites then this doesn´t apply to you)... If you would like to leave a comment about each story or post, you have to click on the title of each post and it will walk you through it. Also if you want to be my follower and I hope you do you will have to sign up with google, and it is real easy to do so. You will have to go to www.google.com, once you are on the page, look at the top left and it will have (WEB. Images. News. Groups. Books. Gmail. and More).... Click on the Gmail tab and it will bring you to anouther page and then click the Create an Account tab and go from there! Everything is for free so don´t you worry now! After you have the account you can click Follow on my blog site and all you have to do is put in your pass word that you made for Gmail! If you have any questions please e'mail me at (balancedlifeforever@gmail.com)

Surfing in Hollywood

Since nothing really exciting happened on the train, I am not going to talk too much about it because I have so much to write and catch up on about the journey we are having in Peru. But I will mention that my mom is the one who bought our train ticket from Eugene Oregon to LA California! THANK YOU MOM! I am so glad we did have a train ride because I was so tired of hitch hiking, being wet, and I just wanted to relax and sit for a while! Thank Mom!

OH yea! We are now in LA and we are going to meet Maja a lady who is going to pick us up at a gas station, she’s going to host us for tonight, and bring us to the air port! WOW what service! How did we meet? Well let me tell you! We met her on a web site called Couchsurfing and if you would like to know about couch surfing, I have a link you can click on that’s on the right side of this post, check it out!

So here we are in the Hollywood district were Maja lives and I loved the area where she lives! She lives in a very cute area and it has a very cozy feeling to it, I know you would love it! It’s about 9pm and Maja is so nice to cook us a little snack! I am so ready to go to sleep, take a shower, and drink some relaxing teaJ MMMMmmm. So, just before bed Maja invites us to go to her Yoga class where she teaches it at 7am. Which means I had to wake up at about six and at that time I really didn’t think I could get you to do all that because I was beat as all hell! Well see.

Well, while me and Frankie is on the air mattress it decides to deflate on us in the middle of the night, so Frankie goes on the couch and I am so tiered I decided to stay on the thing and deal with it because to me it was better than sleeping on a chair when I was on the train, and I told my self “hell no! I am not waking up to do yoga at 6 in the morning!” So I think.
All of a sudden I here Frankie rattling around early in the morning getting ready to go to yoga, and I’m like shit should I go or shouldn’t I go, well I should get up and do this because I am in a stranger in this house and It’s respectful but dreadful for me to go. Oh well, I guess I can take a nap when I get back? Or not….

I’m back and alive! Yoga was a great thing after all and it woke me up! I love yoga but early in the morning can be hard to do anything, especially after a 20 hr train ride. Maja is a great yoga instructor! She helped us one by one when we were having troubles with our yoga pose, stretching, and relaxing. I’m glad I went!

Afterwards we went home and ate breakfast and while eating me and Frankie decided to clean Majas windows because A- they were dirty, and B- it is nice to return the favor to people who take you into there house to sleep and eat when you are a stranger. Maja was very excited because now she had a bit more tome to do her work at home stuff. Maja is a movie producer and she won some great prizes for producer contest or independent film shows! I really wanted to see some films but didn’t have time; maybe in the future I will get the pleasure to partake in watching some movies or documentaries she created!

So, we finished the windows, packed up our stuff to get ready to go to the air port, but the plane doesn’t take off till 2am and it is about 3pm now so we have a little time to have lunch and play around town. So the plan that Maja came up for us was for her to take us out for lunch and then drop us Venice Beach because Maja had some prior engagements with some friends. So the plan was for her to pick us up around 10:30 and then off to the beach. We picked Venice because it was semi close to the airport and close to where Maja was going to be. Hell yea I was very excited to go to Venice Beach because I have been wanting to go to that beach for a while now! It’s like everything that Portland Oregon has to offer as far as the weird and cool stuff goes, Venice contains all of that and then some, in one long strip!

The lunch we had was very good and surprisingly cheep! Let me tell you the strip was freakencool!! I just wished that we had more time at Venice Beach because we got there right when the sun was going down, but I’m not complaining because it was sweet! We came across a store that had so many hats and styles of hats! They said it was the biggest hat store in the U.S! Frankie flipped out because she loves hats and we were in the store for like an hour or more! There was a street parallel to Venice beach that we walked on and found a good Mexican restaurant that was not cheap but affordable. I was craving chi tea and found a spot that was open and decided to check it out, I about ran and laughed my self out of the building because they wanted like 6.00 for a 14oz.! Fuck that! I don’t need a chi tea that bad, even though I might not get a chance to have one in a year or so. OH well.

It’s time to head to the airport now! How exciting! We just have to be in the airport for like 3 hr but that’s fine I guess! Well, this is it for now, but I have tons of stories to tell you about Peru, the people, places, and what ever comes up!

Next stop Peru, Lima (capital of Peru)

Harmonious Suprise Around The corner!

This day turned out to be a very harmonious day, especially after last night! A very sweet couple offered us a ride to Eugene while we were just about done with packing up our stuff job.
We finished up our wonderful invitation from Leo, the man who had the coolest bus and I am so happy I met him because he was a sweet old man and I know you would love his jolly smile and charming character! So, we are now climbing into the van with Mark, Jacque, and their sweet dogs named Anna Bell and Lucy! Anna bell slept on my lap during the D-molding ride to Eugene. It was so beautiful out side! The sun was out finally and so was our smile… we are so happy to get a ride so fast because we would have had to walk a ways and then put our thumbs out into the unknown hitch hiking sky….
I cannot believe the luck we had minus the weathered old lady encounter because Mark and Jacque asked me and Frankie if we would like to sleep in their spare room? WOW! People usually don’t offer a room to strangers, but I guess after an hour ride to Eugene we gave them a real good impression. But, I think it takes a trusting caring soul/s to invite us to their humble home.
Mark and Jacque welcomed us like we were a part of their family and it was so great to be there! They have been living in their house for about 25 years I think and the house is very cute! Right when we walked in it the house it felt as though we were at home! They have a very cute green house and a wonderful garden that Jacque takes so much care of. I think ferries could live there because it was so enchanting!
Frankie and me ended up cooking a curry Indian dinner for them because we felt that we had to give back if you know what I mean. They loved the dinner very much and not 30 minutes later they had their friends and family over for some fresh apple pie that Mark had made and it was instantly insanely good!
Its kind of cool because while we were all talking up a storm in the van while on the way to Eugene, Mark an Jacque told us a great story about how their son met his partner in crime! Henry and Liz is their name and the little short story starts with Henry meeting Liz on the Internet. Henry was 16 and Liz was 15… little by little they became close enough to start to talk to each other on the phone and all of a sudden they couldn’t get off the phone with each other. For some reason I can’t recall where she and her family was living at the time but she they lived in like Pittsburg or some thing, but anyways at the age of 15 or 16 Liz got to get her parents to go to Oregon for vacation to visit Henry, and after that she got her parents to move to Oregon! Crazy! My parents would say hell no, you crazy? Henry and Liz are still together and going to college and they are as happy as can be
So, anyways the family and friends whom came over for apple pie was Liz and her family as well as Emma (Mark and Jacques daughter.) It was very fun night! Frankie and me slept like babies and woke up to some fresh dank pancakes and turkey bacon!! And when we were finished we got ready for the long 27 hr train ride. But not so fast because while we were eating breakfast Mark and Liz invited us to a hike in a cool park before we catch the train at 5pm
Hell yea I have wanted to go on a hike for a long time and that time has come! They brought us to a crazy cool park that they go to all the time especially in spring when all the flowers are awakening from the winter dream. Their dogs loved running and frolicking in the long grass and in the water! Mark and Jacque are very interested in all the plant species! What a wonderful day we had before the long train ride!
The time has come and gone for now in Oregon and it is time to leave! Oh how I kind of dread the train but love it at the same tone because the scenery is very cool and the people on the train are cool as well. Time to go but will tell you how it all is in LA and how the train ride is… next stop L.A!!!!! :)

Time to Hitch Hike

I am so glad that Frankies dad decided to drive us a little more south to a camp spot to start off me and Frankie's hitch hike trip! We originally decided to go from Tillamook from Banks, but we decided to go further south to Lincoln City! That saved us a whole lot of road time, thank God!
So, here we are in Lincoln city and we just woke up in a very nice camp ground, and we are hungery! I made some hot cereal (steal cut oats) and had hot tea, the steal cut oats took about a half an hour, but it was still nice to have a nice hot meal at a camp ground:) Lincoln City is a very cute cozzy town and we decided to just stretch out our legs and go for a walk around a little bit before we take off on the road... it was nice....It´s kind of funny because right when we started to hitch hike it started to rain cats and dogs, and the wind picked up! It took a while to get a ride and we just kept walking till we came to the edge of town, and at the edge of town we came across a statue of Buddha that was about 4ft. tall.
We rubbed his happy belly and took some moss out of his mouth, and 3min after we did that we finnally got ride from a very nice couple, we got their seats wet! It took two rides that cost four hours which is not bad at all to get to Florence from Lincoln City! With some help from a couple of local folks we found a camp spot in Florence...yeay.....
All in all we met some cool people who picked us up, had some bad luck and some good luck, but everthing turned out great when ruck shacking to Florence.

The Camp Spot That Gave us a Frown but Turned it Upside Down in the End

I was so happy to find a camp spot in Florence and it seemed real cool because there was lots of grass in a certain spot that was in a shape of a bowl, and the rest of the park was for RV´s only. Me, Frankie, and a kind man who brought us to the spot looked at the camp map and saw a tent ledgend that pointed us to the grassy spot, so we thought it was cool. Right?
Well, when we started to pop up our tent it started to rain cats and dogs again! Shit! We put up the tent in 3 minutes flat/with a ghetto tarp that we just baught! The thing is is that I was going to bring the tent I baught in Portland, but it was way to heavy so Frankie decided to get a much lighter tent and it was a good idea, but to come to find out that the fly that covers the tent kind of sucked! So we baught a tarp that would do a better job. Cool!!
Any ways, we did a good job putting up the tent and finding a way to cover up the tent with the tarp too! By now we want a real meal, not snack type stuff, so we adventured off into the little town of Florence. We found a great meal and a wonderful place and I can´t remember what the name of the place was but it was good! I had a swiss mushroom burger with a salad, yum!

So now we get back to the camp spot and we see the tarp off due to the wind, but we thought that some one jacked our stuff at first and it was a little crazy. I am so tiered by now and just want to sleep so bad! Found my sleeping bag all wet! Shit! I just want to SLEEP! Luckly there was a laundry room at the camp spot! I know... weired! But any ways it was like 9:30pm and the laundry room closes at 10pm so I had Frankie look out after my stuff so I can prepare for bed and brush my teeth.
When I get back to the laundry room there was this little old lady talking to Frankie and right away Frankie said to the lady "repeat to Raysun what you told me." This lady said we had to move our tent in the dark and in the rain to a different spot because we can´t be there! What? I thought it was a joke because we all saw the tent ledgend on the map, right? This lady said NO! What? Frankie was pissed off I tell ya, almost burst into tears! So I faught the old lady and she said she would call the cops if we didn´t move our tent because that was for reserved tenters only, we would have to reserve a spot and that wouldn´t work because it had to be a group thing ( Five tents in a group.) I was like where the hell are we supposed to move the tent? She said "in a RV spot." Boy I was Pissed OFF! Trust me I argued and even told here that there was a fine line between customer service and doing your job " I hope you are happy with your self lady!" We were the only ones on this spot and it was like a small soccer field, not to mention that there was no bookings for that day or the next day! Frankie was so pissed she wanted to leave, but it was to late in the night to pack up our shit and find another spot. This lady wanted us to pay 24.00 for an RV spot! Do you know what this means? We took only a little tiny spot compared to what an RV would take up, and we didn´t use electricity and water that the RV gangsta campers got to get! Frankie is crying and I told here to go to the laundry room where it was warm and I will move the tent and all our goods!
We finnally went to bed and got some sleep, I was still pissed when I woke up. I got up and made hot food and hot tea, made me feel much better! I ran into some young guys who worked at the spot and they said what happened to hus was compleat bull shit! They were very nice and I felt even better because I got out all the political bull shit out of my system:)
We now are packing up our stuff and while doing so we ran into this old gentalman who lives in this real cool bus! he invited us inn for a bit, and I even took a picture of all of us in his unique bus ( I will put all the pictures I have in my blog very soon.) At the same time we were asked if we were hitch hiking by a very nice couple! They were going to Eugene and that is exactly where we need to go because that is where we will catch the train to LA! Hell yea! The sun came out and our frown turned upside down big time!