The Las Aguas Mantra Lives On...

... the side of a Mexican can of soda. Looks like Cristal y Alpina may need to head to Mexico sometime soon for a firsthand look.

VIVA!

alpina

Our clocks are ticking...it's time to elbow someone in the face

What do most 32-year old ladies do when they hear their clocks ticking?

A) Find a husband, FAST.
B) Find a handsome, intelligent sperm donor
C) Join a down and dirty Muay Thai gym* to get tough

CORRECT LAS AGUAS ANSWER: C
After leaving our jobs to travel in Latin America for 6-months, we've returned to a plethora of new adorable babies that hatched while we were away. To quell any frustration caused by our pounding ovaries, we decided (after 7-years of not training) to return to our favorite martial art: Muay Thai... where we can kick, elbow and knee to our hearts content. And where Bunkerd, our sagely world-champion Thai trainer, pushes us to channel our "SUPERPOWA!"

So no strollers yet, just boxing gloves. They're soft and cuddly, as long as they're not hitting you in the face.

Viva!

Cristal y Alpina

* http://www.fightandfitness.com/

What's next, Las Aguas Baghdad?

Las Aguas reunites New Year's Eve in San Francisco to harass our favorite CNN Baghdad-based producer.

Viva!

- Cristal y Alpina

Las Aguas-onomics: Toronto

It appears selling one school supply at a time is the key to a strong dollar. (Someone should tell Bush.)

- Nanook & Beaver, Las Aquas Canada

The other Las Aguas has so many rules.

A heart-stopping promotion. Literally.

Potato chips that come with a free pack of mayo. What a novel marketing idea.

Who could resist this healthy pairing?

Viva!

- Cristal

Monster Feeding Area?

My first road rash

displayed prominently in the foreground.

And, the beautiful salt pans of Moras, Peru in the background.

Viva!

- Cristal

In Peru, the earth shook over a month ago.

Just over a month has passed since a devastating 8.0 magnitude earthquake hit the central coast of Peru, killing up to 500 and leaving up to 60,000 thousand without basic shelter. Having made Peru home for the last 3 months, this crisis has stayed top of mind for me as the news media has long since moved on.

There's an incredible organization, Architecture for Humanity, that remains on the scene long after initial relief efforts are winding up in crisis areas to implement long term sustainable design and reconstruction efforts. Check out how AFH has coordinated projects from New Orleans to Pakistan... and then support their "Peru Earthquake Reconstruction Appeal" if you can.

While actual design and construction may not begin for a 3-6 months, Architecture for Humanity welcomes you to donate today to help provide funds for the upcoming long term rebuilding.

Gracias... and Viva!

- Cristal

Here's brief update about the Peru Earthquake Reconstruction Appeal from the AFH September newsletter.
Looks like they've raised about $1000 since the quake and are looking to raise $10,000.

Las Aguas Rule #3: Always Carry a Machete, it makes you look dangerous.

Who would've thought this rule would ever really apply.

Volunteering for 2-weeks at the Picaflor conservation station 8-hours up the Rio Tambopata (in the southern Peruvian amazon) i was never without my trusty big knife.

Viva! - Cristal

How much is ad space here*?

*Bus shelter on the Inca Jungle Trail, somewhere between Santa Teresa and Aguas Calientes, Peru.

No aliens with big black hands.

Meet the chef: The Sun

In the Elqui Valley, just east of La Serena, Chile, I ate a yummy solar-cooked lunch.
The Sun cooks up a mean El Cabrito (that's goat).

Green sure is everywhere these days.

Viva! - Cristal

Salar de Uyuni...enough beauty to further my existential crisis.

Where am I?
Who am I?
What is a Las Aguas?

Viva!

- Cristal

"I give up," said the old cactus.

This old guy lives on the Isla Incahuasi, better known as the Isla del Pescado, or in English: Island of Fish because fish fossils were discovered on this lone-standing-cactus-covered island smack dab in the middle of the largest salt flat in the world... the incredible Salar de Uyuni of Bolivia. Viva! - Cristal

Welcome to Bolivia!

I'm safe in Buenos Aires.

As many of you know, demonstrated by the onslaught of worried emails, the Pacific coast of Peru was hit two days ago by a strong earthquake that registered an estimated 7.9 on the Richter scale and has killed upwards of 400 people and injured scores more.

I wanted friends and family to know that I'm currently safe in Buenos Aires... lucky that I made the decision a couple weeks back to travel south from Arequipa, Peru through to Bolivia, Chile and Argentina versus heading up the Peruvian coast.

Please help the people of Peru, who've been devastated by this natural disaster, by making a donation to the relief effort through an organization of your choosing.

- Cristal

Where have all Cristal's best friends gone?

Where should I sit?

Viva! - Cristal

Top 3 reasons I didn't become a nun.

1) Boys can't join.
2) I'm not Christian.
3) There's nothing for me to rearrange.

After visiting the Santa Catalina Monastario in Arequipa
it all became so clear.

viva!

- Cristal

Where is the other Agua?

Flying with Jesus*

*Jesus is actually Richard, a handsome paragliding pilot in Cusco, who strangely resembles a certain religious figure we've all heard of.

He took me on a tandem paragliding flight above Chinchero which is close to an hour's drive from Cusco. The highlight of the flight was going from 3200m to 4800m by catching a fantastic thermal (i feel bad-ass just using the term). According to Richard, we could've made it back to Cusco which would've lengthened our 45-minute flight to 2-hours, but unluckily for me he had another client to take up.

I did land with a slightly wheezy stomach. Luckily for me, I didn't have to title this post "Barfing on Jesus".

Viva!

- Cristal

Sad News: Las Aguas is now a lonely La Agua

Alpina has returned home to the land of milk and money to pursue her life-long goal of opening a salon that specializes in perms for tiny-old-asian women and beard sculpting for midgets.

Cristal will remain somwhere in South America to further the Las Aguas dream of being able to "hablar espanol" and to continue fostering our now sad-low-burning flame... until who knows when.

- A sad La Agua

Climbing The Incan Ruins

* Click on the postcard to enlarge (unlike our buns).

We tried to buy our way to happiness but then we ran out of money.

Renting a car for a week-long surf trip seemed like a great idea, and it would have been, had we not decided to keep the car for an entire month. Upon returning our surf-board-carrying-off-roader, affectionately named 'Terry'* we discovered that thanks to a myriad of hidden charges, the “actual” cost of the car was about 2x as much as we thought it would be. We argued with Oscar, and his tough-guy posse, at the U-Save rental return for close to an hour, ultimately losing every argument, and begrudgingly paying the full (undisclosed) amount.

Defeated and forlorn, we boarded the U-Save mini shuttle and silently made our way to the Managua Airport, where we discovered, in addition to being broke, we had missed our flight to Peru.

Although tempted to spend the next 24 hours filled with U-Save rage, we instead decided to relax, enjoy the Managuan suburbs and work on something more productive: the anti-Terry t-shirt. (just click on the shirts to see 'em up close.)

VIVA!

-Las Aguas

*Terry: the logical name for a Daihatsu Terios

La guerra en la ducha. Translation: The war in the shower.

Below is a short personality assessment we put together after an “incident” last Sunday morning outside our hotel in San Juan del Sur. After taking the following quiz, your score will determine whether you are more like Alpina (and visiting boyfriend, Senor Mucha Fiesta) or Cristal (and visiting amigo, El Cabrito aka the little goat).

THE QUIZ:

1. You hear loud, ongoing, gunfire noises outside of the hotel, in the wee hours of the morning. Do you:

A. Feel bummed that something woke you up and go back to sleep, immediately.

B. After a brief discussion with roommate, hunker down in the shower of your hotel room, assuming guerrillas have stormed the town and are probably armed and ready to break past the guard to the hotel, the iron gate, through the locked door to the room and locked bathroom door only to look behind the curtain to (hooray) find a couple of hostages.

2: It’s 5 am in Nicaragua and distant, festive music is heard outside the hotel window. You:

A. Fumble around for some earplugs while cursing the ‘idiots' who are making so much noise.

B. Hold your breath and don’t let those music-playing revolutionaries know you are inside.

3: The first time you exit your hotel room on Sunday morning, you:

A. Head straight for the coffee and wonder what’s for breakfast.

B. Send your roommate out in his boxers to make a fool of himself as he mimes gunfire to the confused cook. (You stay behind the shower curtain, safe from the rebels.)

THE RESULTS:

If you answered mostly A’s, like Alpina, revolutions are something to worry about, but only after a full 8 hours of sleep.

If you answered mostly B’s, like Cristal, you have an over active imagination that becomes more evident when you learn that the sounds of violence were not a “guerra” but actually a “fiesta,” at the church up the street. Turns out, Nicaraguan Catholics celebrate the day of the Virgin Mary with 4 am gunshots (blanks) and a parade (revolutionary music). Who knew? Unlike our Catholics, these guys sure know how to party.

VIVA!

-Las Aguas

Happiness, Visualized

Earlier today, Las Aguas was discussing how we had somehow reached total travel perfection and were trying to figure out why. Is it having AC in our room? Or being able to have (rudimentary) conversations in Spanish? Or being 10 minutes away from an amazing surf beach? Since we’ve spent our entire careers translating ideas into visuals, we thought we’d try to explain why we are so happy in a couple of different ways.





Click on the chart to see it at full-size. Booyah!!!! - Las Aguas

For Sale: E. Coli Farm

LOCATION:
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

PROPERTY TYPE:
Stomach

DETAILS:
Well fed, hospital tested, E. Coli farm
Prime beachfront location with view
12" by 6" (not including colon)

Must sell fast! Serious inquiries only.

-Las Aguas

Why we love the PB&J

Freshly grilled fish, ceviche, ice cold beers? No thanks. After 7 days of fighting a stomach invader, (today’s visit to the hospital confirmed the dreaded culprit: E. Coli, most likely from "El Stinko") Cristal and I went to a local market to pick up supplies for PB&J’s plus a big pack of saltines. A few days of this new diet is like hitting the restart button on Las Aguas Latin America, and we expect good things to follow.

We also decided to spend the next week in the San Juan del Sur, a beach town in southern Nicaragua. We have a comfy room, a private pool and a wireless connection accessible from bed...

Viva!

Alpina

Our latest T-shirt: El Salvador Kicked My Ass

You can't tell because Alpina's sprawled out on the bed feeling wonderful, but she's wearing our latest T-shirt, or she should be, as she battles a lovely case of amoebas she picked up during our short stay at Playa El Tunco, El Salvador.

Three days ago, Las Aguas quickly escaped the garbage-strewn beaches of El Salvador, where our hostel overlooked a charming, putrid-smelling river we lovingly nicknamed "El Stinko" to find our way via private shuttle bus, airplane and rental car to a charming recently restored spanish colonial bed & breakfast with AC and gorgeous swimming pool in Granada, Nicaragua. It's been a cozy recovery room for the ladies. Granada is a beautiful, former spanish colonial center that is currently experiencing a revival of it's buildings and culture as it becomes a hub for tourists to explore the surrounding lakes, volcanos and surfing beaches.

Las Aguas will depart today for the pacific coast to give the surfing another shot. Hopefully this time we'll leave with a few less war wounds.

Viva Nica!

- Cristal