music – The Blue Van – Overland Travels

Flights and things

Jack — Sat, 11 May 2013 17:47:11 +0000

I got to fly on a jet plane again! We flew form Santiago, Chile, to Lima, Peru. The plane we flew on had the coolest chairs ever because the seat in front of you had a screen on the back designed entirely for your entertainment. You could choose between watching movies, TV shows, or music. One of the most exciting things though, was the meal that came with the flight. Airplane food is pretty cool because you get to eat it on your little, fold out, food holder and it comes with forks and spoons and things. I got to eat this nasty sandwich and drink orange juice. I watched 500 Days of Summer on the flight to Lima, I also watched the first thirty minutes of District 9 but then I realized that that was bad flying etiquette due to the gore and myself sitting in an aisle seat. 500 Days of Summer was kind of a depressing movie but that was okay because the flight made me happy. We got to fly during the sun rise which was pretty cool because the sun rose. It took forever to leave the airport due to paper work with the dogs. We rented a driver who drove us to our beach flat. Our beach flat is kind of far outside of Lima so driving back and forth takes forever. Mom, Ryan, and I stayed for a little bit before we left again for the airport to fly to La Paz. I slept through our flight to La Paz so I didn’t get to eat my airplane food or drink my airplane drink. When we landed we had a person from the hotel waiting to drive us there. The drive took a while and since the car was amazingly tiny, my ear was sticking out of the window and semi froze. Our hotel was pretty nice, there were internet problems but other than that it was great. La Paz was built in a canyon with the richer, older section at the bottom of the canyon and the poorer and newer section at the top. There was a really beautiful music instrument museum that had instruments from all over the place. The Andean people liked to combine their instruments with different ones; they had double guitars and pan flute charangos. I got to take a charango lesson there where I learned a few chords and stuff. I actually got to buy a charango while in La Paz which was pretty cool. I got to go out for sushi in La Paz. Every day, there was a massive market outside out hotel that sold lots of sewing things and stuff like that. There were stores all over the tourist section that sold cool old things, like Bolivian currency that isn’t worth anything now and swords. Like lots of cities down here, La Paz’s streets were a lot more intense than San Francisco’s. Our flight to and from La Paz didn’t have anything special like our other one. I can’t think of much else to say. Good bye.

Puno, we cannot leave you!

admin — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:40:30 +0000

March 13 was the scheduled departure from Puno.

The night before, we had a sad goodbye with the Grifo folks. Ryan helped them with an English lesson CD on their computer for awhile and we looked through our hard drive of music and listened to Whitney Houston and Madonna (their choice).

We woke up early, secured the camper for travel and ventured into town one last time to pick up some last minute supplies – also Annabelle, Sylvia and Max wanted to climb to the top of the Mirador. The Mirador sits on a hill above Puno, a 1,027 foot ascent up steep streets to a staircase of 622 steps. Half of us had already climbed so Mark took the kids while Jack, Ryan and I ran to the mercado. Jennah stayed in the camper. The plan was to meet up at noon and have lunch and then leave for Chile.

Sylvia’s Stair Climbing Outfit

We split up and Ryan, Jack & I headed for Scotia Bank (yes, there is a Canadian bank here) to withdraw money. When we got to the ATM, I didn’t have the card. I have the only card as Mark lost his wallet at the gas station with the sodium cyanide trucks. I guard the ATM card – where could it be? I think you all know the answer this already. We began the ascent of the Mirador but I was certain Mark didn’t have the card, we had stopped to buy something on the way into town and he didn’t seem to have the card. We texted Jennah but she couldn’t find the card so we grabbed a taxi and returned to the camper where the card was not found. We hopped a combi and returned to wait for Mark.

And guess what. Mark had the card.

We still had shopping to do and lunch so we decided to just postpone leaving. Because we like Puno. We spent a wonderful last day shopping and talking with Puno friends. Ryan and Jack got interviewed and video taped by a team of high school students who had a project for their English class.

Ryan & Jack get interviewed and video taped for a school project

School here is all boys or all girls and everyone wears a uniform. Sylvia LOVES the uniforms. She asked me if there were any schools in Fairbanks she could go to wear she could wear a uniform – and I said home school requires a uniform! So she is most excited to buy one, they sell them everywhere. There were some things I wanted to buy anyway. They sell these things I would call knitted sock tights. They are thickly knitted footless tights and they are $2.40 USD a pair so I bought Sylvia two more pairs. So warm for winter! Annie didn’t think they were very stylish. Ryan got his hair cut ($1.60 USD) and the daily lightning and thunderstorm rolled over the lake so we headed to the van to wait out the rain (we hardly ever drive the van, we usually take a combi but we had a lot of groceries to buy so we left Trek inside to guard the van). We got to the van, hung out with Trek, dropped off our bags and waited out the storm. Once it passed, we headed to the music store so Jack could buy a mamaquena. He has been wanting one since before we arrived.

Jack, Jennah and Ryan headed to dinner and the rest of us went to the mercado. We had to do the last vegetable and fruit shopping trip. We returned to the van to drop off the bags and the mamaquena before heading to Plaza Vea, the hyper mercado, for water.

Mark went to open the back of the van but the lock had been smashed in! The door was unlocked! We do not keep the generator in the car but all of Mark’s tools are there and I left my smartphone in the car because of the rain. It appears that someone tried to break in and then Trek kept them out. We gave Trek a lot of love and praise! Mark decided to run to Plaza Vea while we stayed in the van as the back door no longer locked. Its a quick trip, we were a block away. Max, Annie, Sylvie and I were sitting in the car when the bad guy returned! Outside there is very loud music playing all the time (at this time, it was Jump!) so he must not have even thought to look for people in the car. Trek growled and I looked toward the back and the guy was trying to open the back door! I told the kids to STAY THERE and jumped out of the van with my keys in attack mode but the door opening made the guy run away faster than I could catch him – and really what would I have done if I had caught him? It was very exciting.

Mark returned with water and there were 4 excited different versions of the story. We returned to the grifo where the folks there were incredulous that this had happened to us twice! In the morning, Mark took the smashed lock out and headed to a shop where they are repairing it so we will be able to lock the door. We are waiting for his return to leave Puno. The Grifo folks came and got Ryan to fix their printer and then wanted him to go to Sillustani to pick avocados in the avocado field but its a 3 hour trip so he stayed here. Or else we would never leave Puno.

Our home at Grifo Salcedo! The dump truck bed is where they raise the guinea pigs. Can’t see the sheep in the photo, usually 5 sheep right around our door.

Another view of home

Like everything else in Peru, the lock was carefully saved and rebuilt where in America it would have been thrown away and a new one ordered. It cost $18 to rebuild the lock. While the lock was being rebuilt, Jack & Ryan hopped a combi into town to pick up a few guinea pigs as farewell presents for the Grifo family and some seeds for the garden in Alaska.

Buying cuys (guinea pigs) at the market

Two cuys and an unknown rodent

We are heading to the Atacama having decided to skip Bolivia. 24 days on the shores of Lake Titicaca has been enough like Bolivia that we decided we didn’t want the hassle right now. We may change our mind later but at this time, begging for gas sounds pretty awful. Bolivia is even poorer than Peru and that is hard, too. Other overlanders have told us that we should bring rice to give people as gifts. Also it is the rainy season and the salt flats are muddy. Bolivia is officially on hold.

We said another goodbye to the Grifo people.

Vancouver – Jack

Jack — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:45:22 +0000

We made it through Canada yesterday. Before we crossed the the border we went to the city of Vancouver. My mom and dad let Ryan leave and take the sky train into the city while I was stuck with the family as usual. It ended up being a very nice trip into Vancouver though because my family and I went into this art district island place that was built under a bridge covered with ivy. I was allowed to go exploring so I did so and found the most wonderful music shop. This store had pretty much every instrument I have ever wanted to learn, the only disappointing part was that every instrument was roughly $1,000. After I left the music shop I headed across the street to a market called The Public Market where I got lost and called my daddy. In the end I was able to find my family then we went and ate fatty Canadian food in downtown Vancouver.

The next day I had to walk a dog or two and I discovered a park that had a stream running through the center. Salmon were spawning in the stream which was pretty cool. When I got back Ryan and I went to tour SFU. Almost the entire campus was covered and the architecture gave it a scary look. The dorm rooms were singles and seamed a decent size, also the floors were coed. The campus seemed really nice actually. All in all Vancouver is a very fabulous place with interesting places.
~Jack

Jack’s Posting Time #2

Jack — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:38:44 +0000

I’ve been surviving entirely on tea and angst-y music. Now that we’re in America and cities are closer together I’m hoping to be more urban and stuff.
~Jack

Music

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:18:28 +0000

Music is a very important part of our trip and we spent considerable time getting music on a new hard drive dedicated to music. Our awesome stereo (it has a color changing LED!) has a broken preamp for the aux in jack so we bought a new stereo in Fairbanks and Mark is installing it here, in Beaver Creek, in the closed Westmark hotel parking lot, in the snow.

We have Billboards Top 100 for 1971 – 2004 (3500 songs) and we intend to listen to each year. We also are going alphabetically through the artists. So today, on the new (but sadly not color changing) stereo we will be listening to 1971 and Aaron Neville.Home school music lesson #1.

Picking out music in the camper at Beaver Creek