To say apartheid was segregation is an understatement. A state-sponsored policy until 1994, apartheid impacted the lives of every South African, black, white or colored. Yes, I said colored. What is a derogatory word, and unpleasant reminder of our past in the United States, is actually a socially accepted means of categorizing people of mixed racial background in South Africa.
Standing in the Apartheid museum in Johannesburg reflecting on the differences between our separate but equal policies and the policies of apartheid I was struck with how significant the impact of apartheid is today in South Africa versus my impressions of segregation’s ongoing impact in the United States. Segregation in America had been over for over 15 years when I was born …

After saying goodbye to Lima we arrived in Arequipa early in the morning looking to do two things, hike in a canyon and eat some great food. As eating great food has never been a problem in Peru we quickly got to work seeing all the things this “white” city had to offer us before heading to the canyon.
And that was mummies, lots of them.
It seems the dry desert air combined with the frigid temperatures at high altitudes make a great environment for preserving mummies. We began with a small archaeological history museum in the center where we saw our first set of mummies and it was there that we decided that we didn’t want to take any …

So while in Lima we got some visas (Bolivia and Brazil) and cooked for ourselves for once. We slept in the same beautiful apartment for more than 3 nights in a row and even showed a couple of friends from from our Huaraz trek around for a day. Mostly though, we did our best to meet up with difference couchsurfers in different parts of town. (If you´re new to this blog and don´t know what Couchsurfing is, click here)
So we wrote a personal ad.
Well, not quite. Since we didn´t need a place to stay we posted on the Lima message boards looking for anyone who might want to meet us or practice their English. We …

Well we’ve made it to middle earth, well sort of. We made officially made it to the Southern Hemisphere crossing mitad del mundo (the middle of the earth) or as its more widely known, the equator. Determined by a French expedition in 1736, the true equator lies about 200m from the monument and “official” equator marking. Needless to say we did the “official” equator nonsense before moving on to the GPS determined real equator. In what can only be described as Equitorial Disney World, the “official” equator monument lies in a theme park of sorts. They even had the Polaroid people there to take your picture in front of the monument for $10. A park and leisure area with pavilions …