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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Machu Picchu Bound

Tomorrow morning Chris and I set out for our four day hike to Machu Picchu. We'll be knee deep in high altitude hiking and ruins and nature. Hopefully it goes OK and hopefully its not a waste of money. We've heard some horror stories but our tour operator Chaska seems like a decent company. After that, we fly out on Thursday for Lima and then we'll catch a bus to Mancora on the north coast of Peru. I required some beach time for my birthday... which is June 7th, by the way.

Hopefully some day soon we can upload our photos and get you caught up on that end. Check back later in the week for the Machu Picchu recap.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

one more thing...

Since we've been denied the ability to post pictures for weeks, I thought I'd put up a link to some pictures from my friend Liz. It was super excellent that Liz took the time to fly to Cusco and spend some time with us, it is yet another reason she is, and always will be, my hetero-life mate. So enjoy some Lizzie pics here!

Lake Titicaca

When I was little, I really liked a Disney cartoon where Donald Duck visited Lake Titicaca. I don’t remember much except it was some sort of educational travel themed thing. Anyway, the only reason I wanted to come to Lake Titicaca was because of that cartoon, kind of like the only reason I want to go to Cartagena is because of Romancing the Stone (even though they filmed it in Mexico). So yay, I just did Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.

Chris and I signed up for a two day tour through our hostel Los Pinos. For about $20 each, we toured three different islands, were fed, and stayed overnight with a host family. Our first sets of islands were the floating islands of Uros. People decided it would be a good idea to build islands out of reeds. They anchor each island to the bottom of the lake (it’s pretty shallow) and each week have to add reeds to the top of the island because it’s constantly broken down by the water. They build their homes and boats out of the reeds as well. I thought the whole thing seemed pretty staged and touristy and we were asked to give little bits of money for everything from a tour of their homes, to paying some kid that sang songs, and paying to ride a traditional boat across the river.

After Uros, we had a long boat ride (we found out later the engine on the boat was a car engine and the only speed was slllllloooooooooooow) to the island of Amantani. This is an actual island (not a reed island) and we stayed the night with a host family. Our host family were potato and vegetable farmers. The husband was 32 and his wife was 36 (but we both guessed her age to be somewhere around 50… but not out loud) and they had three little kids. Grandma and Grandpa lived there as well but we were never introduced. They spoke Quechua at home and Spanish to us so there was never much chance to bond. It was interesting, again, to see how flippin spoiled we are in the States. When I am in situations like this, I just feel like such an asshole. They had no indoor plumbing, no TV, electricity was scarce, the kitchen stove was a fire, no toothbrushes that I could see, and no heating. Everyone wears open toed rubber sandals (causing the most disgusting feet I have ever seen) and have no trouble bounding up large mountains in very high altitudes. There are no cars on the island and everyone exists through farming and tourism. The food served was in small portions and there was lots of soup, but it was good and fresh and homegrown. Meat is scarce so we had lots of potatoes and quinoa and tea with small branches stuck in the cup for flavor (it’s called muna and it’s a kind of mint).

That night the dad dressed us up in their traditional clothes and took us to a little tourist dance at the community center. It was dumb but nice they made the effort. There is no electricity throughout the island at night so flashlights are a must and I have seriously never seen so many stars in my life. The Milky Way was very milky.

The next day we headed to the boat for another island called Taquile. We left our host family our trip snacks and they were super pumped for avocados, bread, tomatoes, and oranges and. Taquile is a communist society, and everyone exists off the same amount of money and resources. All of the prices on the knit goods are fixed and every restaurant charges the same thing and serves the exact same dish… every single day. Boring. The views were excellent and we had plenty of time to make friends with everyone in our tourist group.

I’m sorry we don’t have any photos up from Cusco or Lake Titicaca. We usually upload our photos through Chris’ laptop with a wireless signal. We’ve gone crazy through Puno trying to find a place with WiFi and everyone looks at us like we’re retarded and making up some new word. So hopefully they have fixed the signal at our hostel in Cusco (we’ll be back there on Thursday) and we can get our stuff up then.

So it’s Cusco on Thursday and on Sunday we start our four day hike on the Inca Trail for Machu Picchu. After that, we fly to Lima and then bus it north for the beaches near the Ecuador border and my 29th birthday. Super. Right now, we’re just killing time in Puno… a town you need about half a day to see, we’re stuck in for about four. Good times.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Cusco and Puno

Chris wrote the following blog but his computer at the internet cafe is special and will not accept our flash drive, mine seems to be fine with it, so here is Chris and his thoughts...

We arrived in Cusco from Nazca via yet another stinky bus ride. We had to sit next to the toilet for 14 hours. The only time it didn’t smell like a bus toilet was when someone was smoking in there. Then it smelled like an Amsterdam coffee shop. Either nobody else noticed or nobody cared. It wasn’t my business and I was happy that it didn’t smell like a dirty toilet for five minutes.

We got to Cusco on time even though the bus was about an hour late leaving, which was nice. Cusco is by far the most touristy town we have been to on this trip. When you walk around near the main plaza, you are constantly bombarded with requests to find out more about someone’s tour package to Macchu Pichu, to eat at their restaurant or to buy their various arts and crafts. I understand that most of these people are very poor and that there is a lot of competition for the tourist dollar, but it gets old after a while.

Aside from being hassled constantly to buy things, we did have a good time in Cusco. Stefani’s friend Liz and her friend Matt came out to visit. I’m sure Stef will have more to write about that. We all went on a city tour arranged by our hostel that turned out to be pretty lame. The best part was probably when we got away from the group to enjoy a happy hour drink while watching all the people in the plaza. We saw a few archeological sites of interest on the tour, but we were pretty much rushed through them. We were supposed to take another tour the next day through some ruins in the Sacred Valley, but we cancelled it and just hired a taxi driver to drive us around all day. This cost half as much as the tour would have and we didn’t have to ride around with a bunch of people on a tour bus. We also got to make our own schedule, which made things a lot more enjoyable.

Cusco is quite a bit more expensive than other places we’ve been in Peru, but we still managed to find some good places to eat for pretty cheap. There are lots of places recommended by the guide books, but once a place gets in there they usually jack up their prices. We found a great burrito place across the street from a great pizza place and had dinner twice one night. I’m sure both these places will wind up in the guide books soon enough, so I’m glad I got to go there before the word got out.

We are now in Puno on the coast of Lake Titicaca. The altitude here is around 3800 meters or 12,500 feet. It is the highest navigable lake in the world and home of many indigenous people of Peru that live on various islands on the Lake. We will be visiting some of these islands over the next few days. I am looking forward to this, but it comes at a great price to me. This Sunday is the Indy 500. Since 1984, I have missed this event only once in 1990 and I listened to it on the radio that year. We also missed the opening of the new Indiana Jones movie, as Cusco has no movie theater. Eventually we will be in a town that has one, though, and will get to see it. The Race, however, is a completely different story. I don’t think I would be able to find it at any of the bars in Puno and it doesn’t matter anyways, because we will be in the middle of Lake Titicaca on some island that doesn’t even have electricity. Oh well, I’ll be back next year. And to all of my friends in Indy…Have fun at the Race and have a beer or two for me.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Sandboarding and Alien Landings

Today finds us in Nazca, Peru and happily disease free. Chris ended up feeling pretty bad in Chachapoyas as well so he took some of the same antibiotics prescribed to me. We’ve both finished the course of pills and are feeling much better and ready to tackle all things tourist.

Yesterday we went sandboarding. And what a giant pile of suck that turned out to be. If you ask Chris, it was awesome. We were on the highest sand dune in the world and had the thing completely to ourselves. It was a 2 hour hike to reach the top, a long decent on the boards for about 30 minutes, and a 1 hour hike back. He loved the desert, the dune, being alone with nature, blah blah blah. If you ask me, the hike was hard, the desert is dry and hot and sandy, and I am so miserable at sandboarding it made me want to cry. It was basically, my typical response to all things nature.

Today, we went to see the Nazca Lines. Chris paid extra and flew over the lines, as this is the best way to see them. I get airsick (I sound really lame in this post) and wanted to save some money, so I had a guide take me to some of the lines by car. The Nazca and Inca people created these lines and pictures in the sand. No one really knows why, but some of the lines follow the faults caused by earthquakes, some follow the flow of water from underground aqueducts, some follow the path of the sun in winter and summer months, and some are just big giant pictures of plants and animals and people. Theories include a big giant calendar, landing strips for aliens, and rituals and offerings for the gods. It was all very interesting. Chris has the better photos and you can see them on our photo page.

Tonight we are taking the bus to Cusco where we will eventually see Macchu Picchu. But this time through, we’re seeing my best friend Liz who is flying there to visit from Nebraska. Cusco is apparently the gringo capitol of Peru, so I expect for things to cost a lot more and to get hassled a bit more too. But my Lizzie is coming and needs to see Macchu Picchu and this worked out the best for everyone. Now I just need for Chris to somehow see the Indy 500 next weekend and everyone will be happy.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Salmonella City

My friend Kelly Petska invited me over for dinner one night when we both lived in Phoenix and it was delicious, except for some freakishly dry chicken. I didn’t say anything, but Kelly was quick to point out that she always overcooks her chicken after getting hit with salmonella on a trip to Africa. Well, I have now joined the Salmonella Club, and Kelly, I totally understand your obsession over dry chicken. Holy cow, this is one brutal sickness.

As Chris mentioned in the last blog, we had to cut our four day hiking trip short halfway through day one due to my mystery illness. I was feverish, cold, shaking uncontrollably, and sooooooo tired. We got back to the hostel Friday night and on Saturday, in addition to those symptoms, I was greeted with some awesome diarrhoea and horrific stomach cramps. I didn’t want to eat, couldn’t get out of bed, and was just generally miserable. Chris was nice and stayed with me all day Saturday but I asked him to leave to go back out on the hike on Sunday because a person should only have to tolerate so much diarrhea from their girlfriend and I felt he’d more than met his quota. I finally got myself to a doctor today (after getting out the Spanish dictionary and writing out all my symptoms) and he told me I have salmonella. He prescribed me some antibiotics, pain relievers, and some sort of anti-bloating pills. The doctor visit cost less than $20US and the drugs were less than $10US. Getting sick in Peru is very economical.

Chris will get back from his hike later today and will be able to regale us with his adventures, as my adventures currently involve sweating profusely and being bloaty and sitting in an internet café listening to C&C Music Factory and Ace of Base. The biggest bummer is that we are in a truly wonderful place.

Back in 1999 (I sound old); I went to Prague and Budapest with two other Americans that I was going to school with in Northern Ireland. I loved those cities and had so much fun, but everyone kept telling us we were about five years too late. According to most people we ran into, Eastern Europe was so much better then. Everything was cheaper, cooler, and there were less tourists. When I went to Rio in 2003 and Croatia in 2005, I heard the same story. When we go down to Macchu Picchu next week, we’re picking up what the guidebooks and locals call The Gringo Trail. I always feel like I’m a few years too late. Granted, I always still have fun and I think the people that tell me I missed the good party are usually losers, but part of me still wants to be the smug person that says, “Oh, you really shouldn’t even bother with (insert new cool place here), it’s so overrun with tourists now, and it isn’t even worth it.” Then I will snort disapprovingly in their general direction.

And now that we’re in Chachapoyas, I could totally snort disapprovingly. Part of me wants to tell everyone how bad this place sucks so I can keep it to myself (then I realized only 20 people actually read this things so I think I’m safe). This is the place that rivals Macchu Picchu and no one comes here. Well, according to one of our guides, about 20 tourists per day come to the town of Chachapoyas… in the high season. When we hike to Macchu Picchu, there will be 500 people on the trail with us, in addition to the 1500 others that started the days before us.

The sites here include entire pre-Incan cities discovered only three years ago. They just got the word out about their giant waterfall two years ago. There is a perfect river for rafting, but no one has thought to use it. Currently, they are paving the only road that grants access to many of the small villages and tourist sites. I am afraid that when the road is completed, more and more people will start to come. And that’s really good for the economy but I know things will get ruined.

Before the death illness took me over, we stopped in a small village to get lunch. The local kids surrounded us and wanted us to take their pictures with out digital cameras, just to see themselves. That’s the first time I’ve seen that on this trip. When death illness did take me over, and the road was closed to get back to Chachapoyas, our taxi driver took us to his home for me to rest. He lives in a one room home with a rock floor and was nice enough to offer us food and drinks and take Chris to the fruit stand in town.

Anyway, the point is, this place is really nice and there is a lot to see and I’m too sick to see most of it! Today Chris is at Kuelap, a giant pre-Incan city built on top of a mountain. I wanted to see it so bad, but right now, I’m having issues walking up one flight of stairs. I really want to come back here soon so if this sounds like a good place to you, let’s start planning the next trip.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Happy Mother´s Day from Chachapoyas

We are in Chachapoyas now and have been away from the internet for a while. This is just a quick update to let our mom´s know we are not captive in the Peruvian jungle somewhere.

We arrived in Chachapoyas Wednesday night and took a short cab ride to a hostel that was in our guide book. We had only planned on staying for a day or two and trying to find our way out to Kuelap. The guy that runs our hostel also runs a tour guide service and we signed up to do a couple hikes this week.

At 5:30 am the day after we arrived via a 23 hour bus ride, we set out for Catarata Gocta. This is the third tallest waterfall in the world. It was "discovered" some time in 2006, but the people that live in this area had known about it for a long time. The locals just didn´t have the means of telling the rest of the world to come here and spend money to see it. It was a pretty impressive sight after a few hours of walking along the side of a mountain and through the jungle. (Pictures will probably have to wait until we get back to Lima because the Internet connection is pretty slow here.) There were only six people in our group including the guide and we saw no other people on the whole trek. We did see a snake and a lizard in the jungle, but no monkeys or bears. We got back to San Pablo, the town we started at, and ate lunch. We finished lunch at 2:30 and were ready to head back to Chachapoyas. Unfortunately, the road between San Pablo and Chachapoyas is closed from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm while construction is done. We misunderstood and thought that the road was closed at night. This makes more sense to someone from the states, but I guess it is easier and cheaper for them to work on the somewhat remote road during the day than to have to get all the equipment necessary to light up the work area at night. So we slept for a couple of hours in the taxi while we waited for the road to open.

Our next hike was supposed to be a four day hike through the Chachapoyas area that would end at Kuelap and take us through several other significant archeological sites on the way. Unfortunately Stefani started feeling pretty sick and only made it about halfway through the first day. We had a driver that took our group to the starting point of the trek and he took Stef and I back after getting the others to their destination. Again, the road was closed until the evening and poor Stef had to wait quite a while to get to some medicine and a warm bed. We eventually got back and she is feeling better now, but still too weak to hike over mountains and through jungles. Tomorrow, I will rejoin the group we set off with and finish with them at Kuelap. Hopefully after another day of rest, Stef will be able to meet us all to see Kuelap, which is supposed to be quite spectacular.

To our moms and grandmothers we would like to say Happy Mother´s Day! We probably won´t be able to talk to you until Monday or maybe even Wednesday when we get back to Lima because of our lack of Internet access here, but we did not forget. So, have a great day and we will be in touch soon.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Bienvenidos a Peru

My new love is flying South American airlines. Yesterday, we flew LAN from Buenos Aires to Peru. It’s a four hour flight and we were blessed with comfortable seats and our own TVs in the seats with about 30 movies to chose from, music, games, and TV shows. I was exhausted (we had to get up at 5:30 to catch our plane) but I wouldn’t let myself sleep because there were so many movies I wanted to watch. Combine that with constant drink service from nice stewardesses and hot food and I was ready to fly another four hours.

We got to Lima and had a taxi waiting for us that had been arranged through our hostel. We ended up going that route because we’d read that some taxi drivers won’t take you to where you want to go, some might rob you, and some might just rip you off. So we paid a little less than $20 for the arranged guy. We’re staying in the suburb of Miraflores at the Stop ‘n Drop hostel. Downtown Lima isn’t safe and it’s not recommended that people stay there, unless they really need to be in that location, so we’re out in the middle class suburbs, surrounded by McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbuck’s, a plaza with an old church and craft vendors, and a ton of backpackers and tourists. The guy that runs the hostel is way too overambitious and keeps trying to sell us everything from surf lessons, to paragliding, to guided trips, to nasty breakfasts with cold eggs. We got conned into one day of the nasty breakfast and one traditional Peruvian buffet that cost about 4 times as much as any other meal we’ve had here. But, in fairness, it was also really good food. We’re finally out of the land of ham and cheese, it’s glorious. Peru has great fish, shellfish, vegetables, potatoes, fruits, and ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime juice with onions and cilantro). They actually like to put fresh fruits and vegetables into their dishes which is very excellent and much needed after the meat, cheese, and pasta fest I’ve put my body through over the past three months. If I don’t get sick from the water, maybe I’ll be able to poop normal for awhile. Bonus.

We went out last night with some people that were staying at the hostel. Chris and I haven’t been very social and spend all of our time together so it’s now time to talk to different people. On our last night in Buenos Aires we had sushi with an Australian couple and last night we hit up some karaoke bars with Irish and English people. There weren’t many songs in english to choose from to sing but I did do an excellent version of Total Eclipse of the Heart a’la the movie Old School.

Today we did a tiny bit of wandering around Miraflores and saw the beach (cold, some surfers, cloudy) and a pre-Inca ruin. The ruin is just sitting in the middle of Miraflores. In the guide book it said it was free (it wasn’t), and when we walked into the entrance, the girl working the counter was asleep so we figured we could just go in. We figured wrong, and a guide came up and asked us if we wanted a tour to see the ruins. Everything was roped off and the only way you can see anything is to pay a guide (who only speaks Spanish) to take you beyond the ropes. We declined the offer and went back to the hostel.

Tomorrow we’re going to the city center to see some churches and old bones in a crypt. We also need to go to a bus station and buy a ticket to leave Tuesday for the town of Chachapoyas. It’s way north and we should be going that way when we leave Peru next month for Ecuador, but we have some time to kill before we go down to Cusco to meet Liz so Chachapoyas it is. It’s a 22 hour bus ride. Blech.

We’re going to Chachapoyas because it’s the city you need to visit to see Kuelap. Kuelap is a pre-Colombian city that apparently rivals Macchu Picchu. It’s not as cleaned up, and a lot harder to get to, so most people skip it. I’m still not sure exactly how we’re going to get there (most tours are expensive) but we’ll figure it out. Some routes to Kuelap involve some serious trekking, some involve hiring a car and driver, and some involve minor trekking. I’m hoping for minor to no trekking. We’ll also be in the Amazon so hello scary bugs, humidity, and malaria! I have pills for the malaria so we should be fine. After that, a long bus ride back to Lima and from there we will travel south to Nazca to see the Nazca lines. From Nazca, we’ll probably head to Cusco.

I’m anxious to get out of Lima and see Peru; I think there’s a lot of interesting things to be seen.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Back in BA

Chris and I are back in Buenos Aires. We took an hour long ferry from Colonia in Uruguay and arrived yesterday. The pictures from Colonia are up on the website here. We’re staying in the neighborhood of Palermo which is the trendier part of town with lots of cafes, restaurants, shops, bars, etc. It’s nice and much cleaner and quieter than the other parts of Buenos Aires we stayed at in February. BA is the land of dog poop all over the sidewalks, so we’ve been watching out for that, as well as crazy drivers. So far, neither one has gotten us.

We’re staying in Casa Esmerelda hostel with a shared room. After living it up in actual hotels with TVs and private bathrooms, we need to save some money and stay in the shared rooms/bathroom places. We’ve got one Australian guy in our room that’s been riding motorcycles around the world for four and a half years. On this leg, he rode down the coast from Oregon. He’s ridden through Africa and Europe, and makes my travels seem lame by comparison.

Today was a national holiday (kind of like a Labor Day) so it was pretty dead. Last night we went out with a couple from Colorado that we met in the hostel and Chris and I put away 4 (!!!) bottles of wine so it was good that things were quiet today as we didn’t feel like doing much anyway. The couple had been traveling through South America since June and their Spanish was awesome, which made me jealous. They had lived in BA previously on this trip and took us to a really good vegetarian restaurant and I had some broccoli ravioli in a cream sauce that was glorious. When you can find fresh veggies in a restaurant in South America, it’s time to celebrate. The Colorado people had lots of good things to say about Colombia, which is great. We haven’t heard anything good about Venezuela so we’ll probably skip that and spend more time in Colombia.

Tomorrow is our last full day in BA so we should probably venture out and actually do something… although I’m not sure what that will be. Maybe I’ll finally make it to the Evita Museum, and Chris wants to check out a big book fair to look for books to learn Spanish. Our friend Seth from Paraguay is in town with his parents so hopefully we can meet up for dinner or something.

Saturday morning we fly to Lima, Peru. We have a hostel booked and someone from the hostel is picking us up at the airport, which is helpful. We’ll probably stay in Lima for only a few days and then go north, up the coast. We want to surf and lay around on a beach. There are also some ruins that apparently rival Macchu Picchu but I think it involves a lot of jungle and nature to get there, so I don’t know how excited I am for that.

And I guess that’s it. Things are fine; I’m just a little boring right now.