It's late and I am beyond frustrated with computers at the moment. Nothing is working and everything is so slllllllooooooooowwwwwww, I want to pitch this computer through a window. But, I wanted to let you know that the majority of our Galapagos pictures are up. When the wifi decides to cooperate, the rest will be up. I wanted to at least put something on there.
Otherwise, things are fine. We arrived to Quito today and met up with this girl Mel that we went on the Galapagos cruise with. She had already done some ground work on trips into the jungle so tomorrow night we take an overnight bus into the hot, humid, bug infested jungle. We are doing a five day trip and staying in a lodge. There will be day hikes, boat trips, meeting with local people, and pirhana fishing. Yikes. Hopefully nothing swims up our pee holes in the river.
But I (or Chris) will write more before we leave, and hopefully tomorrow we can get the rest of the photos sorted. Now, I'm sleepy and I have a trashy book to finish.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Back from the Galapagos...
I know you’ve been missing the regular updates on supertrippin, but we’ve been sailing around the Galapagos for the past 8 days. It was a rough job, but we toughed it out. I’m kidding. It was awesome.
So we are still in the Galapagos, in a town called Puerto Ayora and tomorrow in the early afternoon we fly out to Quito. Today it was rainy and we walked to a beach called Tortuga Bay along a 2.5km path. I don’t know if it was the copious amounts of vegetables on the boat, or just general South American issues, but for the first time in my life, I pooped outside. Unfortunately, it was out of sheer necessity and it was either the side of the trail that was to be soiled or my white shorts so I took the former. Chris talked in his last blog about disrespecting the jungle, and today, I definitely disrespected the forest. After I jogged back and found Chris on the trail and retold my tragic story, he showed me the sign that said not to touch the poison leaves along the trail. Thank god I chose different leaves or I’d be writing this blog from a hospital with a rash in a very unfortunate location.
But enough potty talk, I managed to get a few shorts blogs written while we were on the boat, so they are below. Also, if wifi is working, all of the Galapagos pictures should be up in our photos session.
So we are still in the Galapagos, in a town called Puerto Ayora and tomorrow in the early afternoon we fly out to Quito. Today it was rainy and we walked to a beach called Tortuga Bay along a 2.5km path. I don’t know if it was the copious amounts of vegetables on the boat, or just general South American issues, but for the first time in my life, I pooped outside. Unfortunately, it was out of sheer necessity and it was either the side of the trail that was to be soiled or my white shorts so I took the former. Chris talked in his last blog about disrespecting the jungle, and today, I definitely disrespected the forest. After I jogged back and found Chris on the trail and retold my tragic story, he showed me the sign that said not to touch the poison leaves along the trail. Thank god I chose different leaves or I’d be writing this blog from a hospital with a rash in a very unfortunate location.
But enough potty talk, I managed to get a few shorts blogs written while we were on the boat, so they are below. Also, if wifi is working, all of the Galapagos pictures should be up in our photos session.
Galapagos Part 1
We are on day 2 of our 8 day cruise through the Galapagos Islands. We made it on the boat (after two people on our plane in Guayaquil were taken off in stretchers for severe dehydration… we think) and have been cruising around the islands, taking little land and sea excursions from the boat. We are on a yacht called the Angelito and I would recommend it. The guide is good, the staff friendly, and most important, I like the food. Our boat fits 16 passengers, with 8 rooms and most of the people on our boat are youngish and traveling as well so that’s always a bonus.
There’s much to see here so I will try and give a brief list of what I’ve seen in the past day and a half:
sea lions
penguins
lava lizards
marine iguanas
land iguanas
sea turtles
white tipped reef sharks
a lot of fish
a lot of birds
We take little walks around the islands and then snorkel in other areas. I like the snorkeling the best because there are so many fish and penguins and turtles and sea lions and sharks to see. Actually, I haven’t seen the sea lions underwater yet, but I hear it’s coming. Chris did battle with a penguin underwater today and escaped with no wounds. Actually, the thing just poked him in the back with its beak and then wanted to swim around him. That’s kind of the special thing about the Galapagos: the animals could give a shit that you’re there. You walk onto these islands and iguanas and sea lions are inches from you, and the best reaction you get is a yawn, a sneeze, or maybe they just roll over on their backs. The fish are the same way. They say it’s because people came here so late (in the grand scheme of things) so the animals aren’t afraid. I don’t know if that’s correct or not, but regardless, it’s really cool to be so close to so many different species.
Now, I’m on the top deck of the boat and typing on this computer and it’s getting me a bit queasy, so I will be done for now. More updates soon.
Galapagos Part 2
We are currently on Day 4 of our 8 day cruise. The evening of Day 2 was super vomit time for me, so I wasn’t able to blog, only barf off the side of the boat. The water gets pretty choppy, so yesterday we had about 6 hours of sailing and lost about half of the guests to sea sickness. I didn’t throw up yesterday, but I think my body really wanted to. Otherwise, things are fine. Today we are in the main harbor town of Puerto Ayora and will be here for the remainder of the day. We went to the Charles Darwin research center and saw the giant land tortoises. Some of them are over 100 years old and tend to resemble our grandparents, or E.T.
Yesterday we had some nice snorkeling and saw more sharks and sea lions. Chris saw a sea turtle. Our boat is good and the 16 passengers are all pretty young and fun which is nice. Here’s a rundown of everyone:
· 4 Americans (including me and Chris)
· 4 Canadians
· 4 Germans
· 2 Dutch
· 1 Australian
· 1 French
We are a pretty international crew and spend the nights playing cards (when the water isn’t too rough).
So far, besides the vomiting, I’ve really enjoyed this trip and would recommend the Galapagos to anyone. Just bring the sea sickness pills.
Galapagos Part 3
I haven’t been the best about keeping up with my Galapagos blog, but in fairness, everyday is pretty much the same. We have breakfast at 7, do a shore excursion, come back to the boat, do a snorkel excursion, move the boat for an hour or two to a new location, eat lunch, do a shore excursion, maybe snorkel again, lay around the boat, eat dinner, play cards or Yahtzee, and go to bed and try not to vomit or get tossed out of bed as the boat moves again. It’s good.
Today is our last full day which is a bummer. Tomorrow, we are done pretty early and Chris and I are staying on the main island one more night, and then flying to Quito on Monday. Tonight we have our special goodbye dinner and we have to tip the crew and guide. This experience has been much better than the Machu Picchu Inca Trail in regards to being fed and the expertise and niceness of our guide. Last night we had tuna lasagna and that was one of my trip highlights.
The Galapagos are really cool and I recommend visiting them, but they didn’t exactly blow my mind like other people had described. The snorkeling is good, but the amount of fish we have seen isn’t that substantial. And the land trips are good but I feel like it’s just a lot of birds, sea lions, and iguanas… and lizards. It’s a good time and definitely worth the money, I just don’t think it will be the most incredible thing you will ever see. If it is, it’s time to get out a bit more.
My favorite things have been snorkeling with the sea lions and the penguins. It’s really cool to watch how fast they can move underwater. They attempt to play with us and check us out, but we’re just too slow and they lose interest quickly. I also saw a giant manta ray one day from the boat. I think it was about 6 feet wide. We saw one jump completely out of the water another day. One day a marine iguana swam between my legs and that was fun/shocking. Another highlight was snorkeling near the white tipped reef sharks, they are pretty big and it’s always cool to say you snorkel with sharks. In my opinion, the birds are boring, but if birds are your thing, you might as well leave for the Galapagos tomorrow. And the sea lions are fun to watch and they let you get really close. And I have seen two dead baby seal lions, one with a bloodied placenta, and I didn’t need that stinky yuck in my life.
When we get to Quito, we might go to the jungle. We shall see. July 1st we fly to Cartagena, Colombia for some more beach time. July 29th we fly back to the states from Rio de Janeiro. It’s going too fast; we only have about 5 weeks to go.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sacajawea and Disrespecting the Jungle
Today we leave for the Galapagos. It should be a great time on an 8 day cruise. Before we go I just wanted to write a few things more about Ecuador as I'm not sure if we will have internet access on the boat.
First of all, as Stefani has already mentioned, Ecuador seems to be the most Americanized country we have visited so far. The first noticeable instance of this is the fact that they use the US dollar as their currency. Like every country we've been in down here, they still have trouble making change for almost any purchase you make. Normally you might think you could give someone a 10 for something that cost a few dollars and everything would be ok. That's not the case here. If you did that here, you would wait for a long time while the clerk talked to everyone around to see if they had any change and eventually, after confirming that no one had change, they would leave to go get change somewhere else. When they finally returned you would get a handful of change in coins. The most common of which here are 50 cent pieces and Sacajawea dollar coins. You probably remember the short lived Sacajawea coins in the US. They were everywhere for about 3 days several years ago. I still get them from stamp machines at the post office, but I always wondered what happened to all of them. Now I know. They were all shipped down to Ecuador. I can see this deal going down. "OK we'll pay you an extra half a cent per kilo of bananas so that you can afford to buy shoes and feed your children, but we will have to pay you in Sacajawea coins. Take it or leave it."
Another instance of Americanization here is related to the Coriolis effect. Everywhere in South America, water has swirled clockwise as it drained from sinks as opposed to the normal American way of counterclockwise. Here in Guayaquil, however, we are still in the southern hemisphere and the water is swirling counterclockwise, as it would in the northern hemisphere. Some of you out there might be thinking, isn't this guy supposed to be an ocean engineer. Doesn't he know that the Coriolis force is so small that it doesn't really effect the way water flows out of a sink. That may be so, but here in Guayaquil the myth of Coriolis is alive and well, and it is effecting the way water drains from the sinks in Hotel Ecuador.
I'm running out of time and battery juice for my computer so I just want to leave you with a story about dirty hippies and the jungle. I hope to go into the jungle from Quito after we return from the Galapagos. There are several places that offer 4 or 5 day trips where you travel first by plane and then by boat to lodges in the Amazon. Depending on where you go, you spend time checking out the wildlife, going on hikes through the jungle and possibly meeting some of the indigenous people that still live out there. While we were in Nazca, Peru there was a dirty hippy talking on the phone presumably to a travel agent of some sort. The guy was wearing pink long johns and a flannel shirt and looked like he hadn't bathed in a while even though he was staying in a hotel that had showers. Based on what I overheard of his phone conversation, I'm guessing that he hadn't showered because he didn't want to disrespect the desert by using it's water. Basically, he was telling the person on the other side of the phone conversation that he wanted to go to the jungle, but that it was extremely important that he not enter the jungle via airplane for spiritual purposes. At least three times he said something along the lines of, "it would just be so disrespectful to enter by plane. I really need to enter the jungle by boat. Do you understand?" You probably had to be there to truly appreciate what a piece of work this guy was, but hopefully you get some understanding from what is written here. I mean...to each his own, but this guy was a turd.
Right now I'm going to go disrespect the Galapagos by flying to the islands and then cruising around in a fuel burning motor boat.
First of all, as Stefani has already mentioned, Ecuador seems to be the most Americanized country we have visited so far. The first noticeable instance of this is the fact that they use the US dollar as their currency. Like every country we've been in down here, they still have trouble making change for almost any purchase you make. Normally you might think you could give someone a 10 for something that cost a few dollars and everything would be ok. That's not the case here. If you did that here, you would wait for a long time while the clerk talked to everyone around to see if they had any change and eventually, after confirming that no one had change, they would leave to go get change somewhere else. When they finally returned you would get a handful of change in coins. The most common of which here are 50 cent pieces and Sacajawea dollar coins. You probably remember the short lived Sacajawea coins in the US. They were everywhere for about 3 days several years ago. I still get them from stamp machines at the post office, but I always wondered what happened to all of them. Now I know. They were all shipped down to Ecuador. I can see this deal going down. "OK we'll pay you an extra half a cent per kilo of bananas so that you can afford to buy shoes and feed your children, but we will have to pay you in Sacajawea coins. Take it or leave it."
Another instance of Americanization here is related to the Coriolis effect. Everywhere in South America, water has swirled clockwise as it drained from sinks as opposed to the normal American way of counterclockwise. Here in Guayaquil, however, we are still in the southern hemisphere and the water is swirling counterclockwise, as it would in the northern hemisphere. Some of you out there might be thinking, isn't this guy supposed to be an ocean engineer. Doesn't he know that the Coriolis force is so small that it doesn't really effect the way water flows out of a sink. That may be so, but here in Guayaquil the myth of Coriolis is alive and well, and it is effecting the way water drains from the sinks in Hotel Ecuador.
I'm running out of time and battery juice for my computer so I just want to leave you with a story about dirty hippies and the jungle. I hope to go into the jungle from Quito after we return from the Galapagos. There are several places that offer 4 or 5 day trips where you travel first by plane and then by boat to lodges in the Amazon. Depending on where you go, you spend time checking out the wildlife, going on hikes through the jungle and possibly meeting some of the indigenous people that still live out there. While we were in Nazca, Peru there was a dirty hippy talking on the phone presumably to a travel agent of some sort. The guy was wearing pink long johns and a flannel shirt and looked like he hadn't bathed in a while even though he was staying in a hotel that had showers. Based on what I overheard of his phone conversation, I'm guessing that he hadn't showered because he didn't want to disrespect the desert by using it's water. Basically, he was telling the person on the other side of the phone conversation that he wanted to go to the jungle, but that it was extremely important that he not enter the jungle via airplane for spiritual purposes. At least three times he said something along the lines of, "it would just be so disrespectful to enter by plane. I really need to enter the jungle by boat. Do you understand?" You probably had to be there to truly appreciate what a piece of work this guy was, but hopefully you get some understanding from what is written here. I mean...to each his own, but this guy was a turd.
Right now I'm going to go disrespect the Galapagos by flying to the islands and then cruising around in a fuel burning motor boat.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Going Galapagos... I think
So far so good for the Galapagos. I don’t think they’ve gotten our money yet, but we do have plane tickets and a ride arranged to the airport and a confirmation voucher for the boat, so things are moving along. We are on the boat June 15-22 and then return to Quito on June 23rd. Yesterday, we went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie and Chris is extra excited for the South American jungle (even though the South American jungle in that film was actually shot on the Big Island) and he’s trying to arrange a trip out of Quito right after the Galapagos. I still don’t know how much it will cost and I’m not that interested in the jungle, so I might just hang out in Quito for a few days on my own, we’ll see.
But for now, we are still in Guayaquil. Out of all of the places we have visited in the last four and a half months, this is the city with the most American restaurants and shops and stuff. We’ve been to a few malls (looking for Indiana Jones in English) and they have Nine West, Tommy Hilfiger, Sunglass Hut (even thought they spell it Sunglass Hot), Pizza Hut, Chili’s, TGI Friday’s, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, and more KFC than most places in the states. I also think that all of this fast food might contribute to the fact that the people here are the fattest we have seen in all of South America. Seriously, they are HUGE. And speaking of huge, I feel like I am on my way because in the past few days I have also had Taco Bell, nutella filled churros covered in chocolate and powdered sugar, deep fried shrimp and calamari, pina coladas, and other varieties of cheesy Mexican food. Chris and I have both lost some weight recently due to constant diarrhea and short supplies of food and no fast food, so I guess we’re just packing it back on. Hopefully I don’t get another diet of vomiting and liquid poop on the Galapagos trip, I don’t know how much more I can handle right now, but at least we’ll be far away from KFC… I hope.
As for more pleasant food related topics pan de yucca, fruit juice, and yogurt in Ecuador are all awesome. From what I’ve gathered, most of the food here consists of fried chicken or some sort of grayish meat in gravy, with white rice, French fries, and maybe some beans. This does not excite me. But, they also have great fruit and yogurt stands with these delicious bread spheres called pan de yucca. The fruit stands just blend up fresh fruit (strawberries, oranges, banana, peaches, papaya, mango, pears, whatever) for about $1 and give you a huge cup of tasty deliciousness. The yogurt is not typical condensed yogurt, but more of a liquid, blended with ice and fresh fruit so you get a milkshake with yogurt, it’s good. Then you get the pan de yucca which is a small ball of bread, and when you bite into the crusty outer layer, you are greeted by a doughy cheesy warm center. It fills you up quickly and tastes wonderful. In Paraguay, they have almost similar bread called chipa, but the pan de yucca version is better as it is lighter and generally tastier.
OK, one more food story and then I am done. At one of the malls yesterday, we went to a large grocery store to stock up on essentials for the Galapagos trip. And apparently, we are unhealthy and disgusting because here are the contents of our cart:
2 bottles of rum
1 bottle of vodka
3 boxes of Kinder Eggs special Simpson’s edition – if you don’t know what Kinder Eggs are, do yourself a favor and Google it, it’s worth it
2 bottles of Coke
4 bottles of sparkling water
4 bags of Doritos
Whoa! We’re gross. From what we’ve heard, booze is expensive on the boat, hence the stockpiling, although Chris decided to have an early birthday celebration on his own in our hotel room last night so we need to restock one of the bottles of rum.
Today, I tried to use the WiFi connection at the fancy Hampton Inn down the street but it was running too slow. Tomorrow we might return to the mall to restock our booze and Kinder Eggs and they have an internet connection there I hope to use. I really want to get our pictures from Machu Picchu and Mancora loaded before we leave on Sunday. I also want to call for Father’s Day, but if it doesn’t work out, Happy Father’s Day dad!
I have a date with myself in a couple of hours to see Sex and the City in English (Chris refuses to go) so I’m looking forward to that, hopefully it’s better than the new Indiana Jones.
But for now, we are still in Guayaquil. Out of all of the places we have visited in the last four and a half months, this is the city with the most American restaurants and shops and stuff. We’ve been to a few malls (looking for Indiana Jones in English) and they have Nine West, Tommy Hilfiger, Sunglass Hut (even thought they spell it Sunglass Hot), Pizza Hut, Chili’s, TGI Friday’s, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, and more KFC than most places in the states. I also think that all of this fast food might contribute to the fact that the people here are the fattest we have seen in all of South America. Seriously, they are HUGE. And speaking of huge, I feel like I am on my way because in the past few days I have also had Taco Bell, nutella filled churros covered in chocolate and powdered sugar, deep fried shrimp and calamari, pina coladas, and other varieties of cheesy Mexican food. Chris and I have both lost some weight recently due to constant diarrhea and short supplies of food and no fast food, so I guess we’re just packing it back on. Hopefully I don’t get another diet of vomiting and liquid poop on the Galapagos trip, I don’t know how much more I can handle right now, but at least we’ll be far away from KFC… I hope.
As for more pleasant food related topics pan de yucca, fruit juice, and yogurt in Ecuador are all awesome. From what I’ve gathered, most of the food here consists of fried chicken or some sort of grayish meat in gravy, with white rice, French fries, and maybe some beans. This does not excite me. But, they also have great fruit and yogurt stands with these delicious bread spheres called pan de yucca. The fruit stands just blend up fresh fruit (strawberries, oranges, banana, peaches, papaya, mango, pears, whatever) for about $1 and give you a huge cup of tasty deliciousness. The yogurt is not typical condensed yogurt, but more of a liquid, blended with ice and fresh fruit so you get a milkshake with yogurt, it’s good. Then you get the pan de yucca which is a small ball of bread, and when you bite into the crusty outer layer, you are greeted by a doughy cheesy warm center. It fills you up quickly and tastes wonderful. In Paraguay, they have almost similar bread called chipa, but the pan de yucca version is better as it is lighter and generally tastier.
OK, one more food story and then I am done. At one of the malls yesterday, we went to a large grocery store to stock up on essentials for the Galapagos trip. And apparently, we are unhealthy and disgusting because here are the contents of our cart:
2 bottles of rum
1 bottle of vodka
3 boxes of Kinder Eggs special Simpson’s edition – if you don’t know what Kinder Eggs are, do yourself a favor and Google it, it’s worth it
2 bottles of Coke
4 bottles of sparkling water
4 bags of Doritos
Whoa! We’re gross. From what we’ve heard, booze is expensive on the boat, hence the stockpiling, although Chris decided to have an early birthday celebration on his own in our hotel room last night so we need to restock one of the bottles of rum.
Today, I tried to use the WiFi connection at the fancy Hampton Inn down the street but it was running too slow. Tomorrow we might return to the mall to restock our booze and Kinder Eggs and they have an internet connection there I hope to use. I really want to get our pictures from Machu Picchu and Mancora loaded before we leave on Sunday. I also want to call for Father’s Day, but if it doesn’t work out, Happy Father’s Day dad!
I have a date with myself in a couple of hours to see Sex and the City in English (Chris refuses to go) so I’m looking forward to that, hopefully it’s better than the new Indiana Jones.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
On (and Off) the Road Again
Chris and I survived one birthday extravaganza in Mancora, Peru, and are gearing up for another one this Saturday in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I’m sorry I didn’t check in on the blog last week, but it was time to do nothing on a beach and I didn’t have much to write about anyway.
If you like dirty, sleepy surfer towns with good food and obnoxious discos every night of the week, then Mancora is for you. It’s a stop on the surfer pilgrimage down the Pan-American Highway. The water isn’t too cold and they have long continuous breaks, and according to Chris, lots and lots of fish in the water. I was still nursing my cut and bruised shins from the Inca Trail and a trip in third world ocean didn’t seem like the most hygienic step towards recovery. But it looked pretty.
We stayed across from the beach at a place called Casa Blanca and we shared our room with an assortment of biting insects, crickets, and possibly rats on the roof. Yuck. Plus we were near the discos so I got to hear ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ by Shakira at least four times a night, usually ending around 2AM. But it was cheap and we are seriously trying to save money right now. During the day, we drank $3 650ml beers and ate ceviche and fried calamari and shrimp on the beach. The seafood, from the shellfish to the tuna, was truly delicious in Mancora. And I tried to hide from the sun, because it is so strong the closer you get to the Equator. On my birthday, we met up with a couple we’d met earlier in the day from Portland, Oregon and ended the night on the beach with a fire and an assortment of international hippies and local kids. It was a good 29th celebration.
Yesterday, Chris and I took a stupidly long bus ride to Guayaquil. From here, we hope to catch a flight to the Galapagos on Sunday for an eight day cruise. That is our big money sucker, so we are currently staying in a hotel for $12.50 a night (I splurged an extra $1.50 for an air conditioner). I remember at the beginning of the trip telling Chris that I could never stay in a room filled with bugs and containing no hot water. Apparently, my standards have dropped a bit.
We have a reservation for our Galapagos trip but we still have not been able to transfer money to the travel agent to pay. They can’t accept credit cards and we need to deposit the money into an account. It has taken too many days with bank holds and I am getting nervous. But Chris just transferred a bulk of the money over, so hopefully it all works out.
But back to the miserable bus trip; it was miserable. It took us 2 hours to get through the border crossings between Peru and Ecuador. On the Peru side, we waited in line for 45 minutes for one guy to stamp everyone out on their exit card. Then, we had to go into another room and another line to get another guy to stamp our passport, because one person couldn’t possibly do both jobs. I have no idea why it took so long, because the only thing I was asked was how I pronounce my middle name (it’s Michele, not Micheley). In Ecuador, after about 20 minutes in line, I was asked how to pronounce my last name and what cities I planned to visit and then given a thumbs up by one of the guards. Good thing I chose wisely.
Between border crossings and general South American lateness, I think our bus trip took about 11 hours and we originally thought it would take about 5. Our next trip to another country (Colombia) is going to be via air, so that should make things easier.
So hello Ecuador. Chris and I went to a new boardwalk to have dinner last night and spent too much money on dinner. We had read that crab were must in this town, so for $12.99 (they use the US dollar in Ecuador) we had all you can drink beers, crab soup, crab rice, fried banana chips, some sort of weird pumpkin/raisin crab stuffed crab head, and BUCKETS of steamed crabs. They kept bringing buckets of the sad little things covered in mud and dirt. I should have known better as I usually receive shrimp with the heads and legs down here and mussels and clams with a mouthful of sand and fish with the heads and bones. Usually, when I have crab, I am just given the legs. We weren’t sure what to do with the head and when I busted it open with my mallet, it just looked like a big grey dirty mess, so I didn’t touch it again. The legs were tasty, but too much work for me, and I don’t like being given a whole animal to pick apart and de-dirt and eat. I like my animal to not resemble an animal, just a pile of meat.
Today, we are going to walk around the city. Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador and we already found the cinema so hopefully we can see the new Indiana Jones. On the buses, they always show these horrible bootlegs and yesterday, we got the new Indiana Jones in Spanish and filmed by camcorder in a theatre. We tried to ignore it and really want to see the film in English and not by someone’s crappy handheld. There is also an IMAX and if they have something in English, I would like to see that as well.
If we disappear for a bit, we are sailing through the Galapagos cavorting with sea lions and iguanas and giant turtles. So wish us luck.
If you like dirty, sleepy surfer towns with good food and obnoxious discos every night of the week, then Mancora is for you. It’s a stop on the surfer pilgrimage down the Pan-American Highway. The water isn’t too cold and they have long continuous breaks, and according to Chris, lots and lots of fish in the water. I was still nursing my cut and bruised shins from the Inca Trail and a trip in third world ocean didn’t seem like the most hygienic step towards recovery. But it looked pretty.
We stayed across from the beach at a place called Casa Blanca and we shared our room with an assortment of biting insects, crickets, and possibly rats on the roof. Yuck. Plus we were near the discos so I got to hear ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ by Shakira at least four times a night, usually ending around 2AM. But it was cheap and we are seriously trying to save money right now. During the day, we drank $3 650ml beers and ate ceviche and fried calamari and shrimp on the beach. The seafood, from the shellfish to the tuna, was truly delicious in Mancora. And I tried to hide from the sun, because it is so strong the closer you get to the Equator. On my birthday, we met up with a couple we’d met earlier in the day from Portland, Oregon and ended the night on the beach with a fire and an assortment of international hippies and local kids. It was a good 29th celebration.
Yesterday, Chris and I took a stupidly long bus ride to Guayaquil. From here, we hope to catch a flight to the Galapagos on Sunday for an eight day cruise. That is our big money sucker, so we are currently staying in a hotel for $12.50 a night (I splurged an extra $1.50 for an air conditioner). I remember at the beginning of the trip telling Chris that I could never stay in a room filled with bugs and containing no hot water. Apparently, my standards have dropped a bit.
We have a reservation for our Galapagos trip but we still have not been able to transfer money to the travel agent to pay. They can’t accept credit cards and we need to deposit the money into an account. It has taken too many days with bank holds and I am getting nervous. But Chris just transferred a bulk of the money over, so hopefully it all works out.
But back to the miserable bus trip; it was miserable. It took us 2 hours to get through the border crossings between Peru and Ecuador. On the Peru side, we waited in line for 45 minutes for one guy to stamp everyone out on their exit card. Then, we had to go into another room and another line to get another guy to stamp our passport, because one person couldn’t possibly do both jobs. I have no idea why it took so long, because the only thing I was asked was how I pronounce my middle name (it’s Michele, not Micheley). In Ecuador, after about 20 minutes in line, I was asked how to pronounce my last name and what cities I planned to visit and then given a thumbs up by one of the guards. Good thing I chose wisely.
Between border crossings and general South American lateness, I think our bus trip took about 11 hours and we originally thought it would take about 5. Our next trip to another country (Colombia) is going to be via air, so that should make things easier.
So hello Ecuador. Chris and I went to a new boardwalk to have dinner last night and spent too much money on dinner. We had read that crab were must in this town, so for $12.99 (they use the US dollar in Ecuador) we had all you can drink beers, crab soup, crab rice, fried banana chips, some sort of weird pumpkin/raisin crab stuffed crab head, and BUCKETS of steamed crabs. They kept bringing buckets of the sad little things covered in mud and dirt. I should have known better as I usually receive shrimp with the heads and legs down here and mussels and clams with a mouthful of sand and fish with the heads and bones. Usually, when I have crab, I am just given the legs. We weren’t sure what to do with the head and when I busted it open with my mallet, it just looked like a big grey dirty mess, so I didn’t touch it again. The legs were tasty, but too much work for me, and I don’t like being given a whole animal to pick apart and de-dirt and eat. I like my animal to not resemble an animal, just a pile of meat.
Today, we are going to walk around the city. Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador and we already found the cinema so hopefully we can see the new Indiana Jones. On the buses, they always show these horrible bootlegs and yesterday, we got the new Indiana Jones in Spanish and filmed by camcorder in a theatre. We tried to ignore it and really want to see the film in English and not by someone’s crappy handheld. There is also an IMAX and if they have something in English, I would like to see that as well.
If we disappear for a bit, we are sailing through the Galapagos cavorting with sea lions and iguanas and giant turtles. So wish us luck.
Bugs, Beaches, Buses and Boats
After Machu Picchu we took a bus to Mancora, which is a little beach town in northern Peru. We took an overnight bus and paid the extra $15 for the "first class" section of the bus. I really don´t think that there was any difference between the first class and the rest, although we were separated from the toilet by a door that kept the stink out. Maybe that was what the extra money was for. It was a pretty typical bus ride. The food sucked, there wasn´t enough room, the movies were bootleg copies dubbed into Spanish with the volume turned down to low to hear anyway. Also, as is typical, we had no idea what was going on when the bus made its various stops.
We got off in the morning, got our bags out from under the bus and started walking towards what we hoped was an area with hotels. We hadn´t booked one ahead of time. After not walking very far we decided it would be best to ask someone at the bus stop where the hotels were. At this point they realised we thought we were in Mancora, but we were actually in Los Organos. Mancora is not a big town by any stretch, but apparently Los Organos has absolutely nothing. Apparently not even one hotel, because that tipped the lady at the bus station off that we were not where we thought we were. As the bus started to pull away someone caught the attention of the driver and he let us back on, now with our huge backpacks as carry-on luggage.
It was only like another 20 minutes or so to Mancora. When we got there, we were instantly bombarded with offers for a mototaxi. A mototaxi is a motorcycle that has been converted into a three-wheeled taxi with a bench for the passengers and a little rack on the back for luggage in case you didn´t know. There are approximately 238 mototaxis in Mancora. I only counted 147 tourists while we were there, so the market for taxis is already grossly over-saturated in case any of you were thinking of a career change. Our potential taxi driver pulled out a map with a list of hotels/straw huts in the area. We remembered the Casa Blanca from the vivamancora website and it was cheap (around $15 per night), so we had the guy take us there.
The room looked clean except for the dead bugs on the bed and the live ones in the bathroom, so we decided to stay there for a few days. There was a nice wide beach across the street with a great break that attracted only a handful of surfers each day. There were also a lot of bars and restaurants that line the back of the beach. It was nice to finally be somewhere warm and sunny after climbing around in the Andes and visiting cold places like Lake Titicaca.
In Mancora, the party starts around 10 or 11 and lasts from between 3 am and 8 am. We really only partook in this on Stef´s birthday, so the other nights we spent trying to fall asleep to music that sucked to bad to be played in the States and was exported to lands where people don´t know any better. Most nights we were so exhausted that that wouldn´t have mattered, but the constant reminder of biting bugs and the sound of rats in the thatch ceiling all combined to make for some pretty poor nights of sleeping. We enjoyed our time on the beach eating ceviche and other good seafood and partying with some people we met from Oregon. So all things considered, this was a good last stop for Peru.
Yesterday we took a bus from Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador. When we crossed the border into Ecuador, I finally thought things looked like South America should. There were banana trees and jungle covered hills as far as I could see. When we arrived in Guayaquil, it seems just like any other big city down here. Last night it seemed much nicer to me when we walked to a place for dinner. In the light of day, however, it looks pretty crappy. At least the part near our hotel looks pretty gross. We are only here for a few days and then off to the Galapagos. We bought a cruise that was expensive for us, but pretty cheap as far as Galapagos cruises go. It is 8 days long and from all accounts of other travellers and guide books, we won´t be disappointed. We´re looking forward to that and I for one am looking forward to exploring Ecuador (assuming that it hasn´t been ruined by some hippy from Oregon (not the people from Mancora) that lived here some years ago).
We got off in the morning, got our bags out from under the bus and started walking towards what we hoped was an area with hotels. We hadn´t booked one ahead of time. After not walking very far we decided it would be best to ask someone at the bus stop where the hotels were. At this point they realised we thought we were in Mancora, but we were actually in Los Organos. Mancora is not a big town by any stretch, but apparently Los Organos has absolutely nothing. Apparently not even one hotel, because that tipped the lady at the bus station off that we were not where we thought we were. As the bus started to pull away someone caught the attention of the driver and he let us back on, now with our huge backpacks as carry-on luggage.
It was only like another 20 minutes or so to Mancora. When we got there, we were instantly bombarded with offers for a mototaxi. A mototaxi is a motorcycle that has been converted into a three-wheeled taxi with a bench for the passengers and a little rack on the back for luggage in case you didn´t know. There are approximately 238 mototaxis in Mancora. I only counted 147 tourists while we were there, so the market for taxis is already grossly over-saturated in case any of you were thinking of a career change. Our potential taxi driver pulled out a map with a list of hotels/straw huts in the area. We remembered the Casa Blanca from the vivamancora website and it was cheap (around $15 per night), so we had the guy take us there.
The room looked clean except for the dead bugs on the bed and the live ones in the bathroom, so we decided to stay there for a few days. There was a nice wide beach across the street with a great break that attracted only a handful of surfers each day. There were also a lot of bars and restaurants that line the back of the beach. It was nice to finally be somewhere warm and sunny after climbing around in the Andes and visiting cold places like Lake Titicaca.
In Mancora, the party starts around 10 or 11 and lasts from between 3 am and 8 am. We really only partook in this on Stef´s birthday, so the other nights we spent trying to fall asleep to music that sucked to bad to be played in the States and was exported to lands where people don´t know any better. Most nights we were so exhausted that that wouldn´t have mattered, but the constant reminder of biting bugs and the sound of rats in the thatch ceiling all combined to make for some pretty poor nights of sleeping. We enjoyed our time on the beach eating ceviche and other good seafood and partying with some people we met from Oregon. So all things considered, this was a good last stop for Peru.
Yesterday we took a bus from Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador. When we crossed the border into Ecuador, I finally thought things looked like South America should. There were banana trees and jungle covered hills as far as I could see. When we arrived in Guayaquil, it seems just like any other big city down here. Last night it seemed much nicer to me when we walked to a place for dinner. In the light of day, however, it looks pretty crappy. At least the part near our hotel looks pretty gross. We are only here for a few days and then off to the Galapagos. We bought a cruise that was expensive for us, but pretty cheap as far as Galapagos cruises go. It is 8 days long and from all accounts of other travellers and guide books, we won´t be disappointed. We´re looking forward to that and I for one am looking forward to exploring Ecuador (assuming that it hasn´t been ruined by some hippy from Oregon (not the people from Mancora) that lived here some years ago).
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Machu Picchu... meh.
I wanted to title this blog Machu Sucku but I don’t think that is fair as everyone else that visited Machu Picchu yesterday found it to be awesome and inspiring, so I guess there is just something wrong with me. When we reached the first lookout of the site, right around dawn and after 4 days of hiking, this fat middle aged American guy reached for his fat middle aged American wife and said, “Ah, doesn’t this just make it all worth it?” I looked out of over the pile of rocks and thought back on the last four days and immediately reached the conclusion that I wanted to reach over and punch that guy in the throat. Lucky for him I was too sore to get to him. Moving on…
Chris and I arrived to Machu Picchu stinky and tired yesterday morning around 6:15am. We’d been up since 4am and hiking along the Inca Trail. We got to the first lookout just in time to meet up with all of the rich people that paid big bucks to stay at the 5 star hotel right next to the site, and they traipsed up the hill freshly pressed, well rested, uninjured, and smelling lovely. We were slimy and smelly and hobbling (well, I was hobbling). And to be fair, Machu Picchu is a feat of engineering and very interesting to look at and blah blah blah, but seriously, you do not need to walk up and down the damn Peruvian Andes for four days to see the stupid thing. You get just as much out of it if you take the train and bus up to the site… at least according to me. Plus it’s a lot cheaper than the $421 I blew to see it.
Everyday, the government allows 500 people to enter the Inca Trail for the four day hike. Chris and I went with Chaska Tours and we had 3 other people in our group, all from Holland. One couple was 60 and 66, and the other guy was single and 30. We set out at a very slow and easy pace with our guide Ivan. Also for our group, we had seven porters and one cook. The porters are insane with athletic ability. These guys carry at a maximum 25 kilos on their backs (everything from fuel, to tents, to food) and run and/or walk briskly in rubber sandals and no socks up and down the mountains to your next lunch or camp site. Doing the Inca Trail is spoiled camping because you arrive to each site to have lunch waiting and tents set up by the super porters. The first day we had trout and fresh grilled veggies for lunch, and I wish I could say it got better from there, but after that, it was a steady decline in food value and quantity.
Day Two is the hard day. And yes, it’s flippin hard. In my journal I called it What Goes Up Must Come Down because we had to walk up and over a mountain with a 4200 meter summit (approx. 13,776 feet). For Chris, it was What Goes Down Must Come Up because he woke up on Day Two and promptly puked about 5 times into a donkey pasture. It’s always a joy to listen to someone barfing at six in the morning next to your tent. We’re not sure if it was the food or the water or some Peruvian death bug, but Chris was pukey on the hardest day. But with no energy, he made it up the stupid pass. Our guide wasn’t around much that day and in the evening he finally introduced us to our porters after keeping them at a distance from us, which I thought was weird.
Day Three was the crying day. We had to walk about 15km and go up and over another pass. My knees hurt and my ankles kept rolling and at one point, I tripped and fell and banged my knee and cut my shin. And I cried. But just a little bit and they were tears of frustration and hatred and not tears of pain and therefore I did not break Chris’ No Crying While Hiking rule, although he’ll say that I did. When I was on the ground with a hurt leg it dawned on me that I did not need to go trekking or camping ever again. I hate it and I will always hate it and that’s it. I brought this stupid Inca Trail trip on myself but no more, I’m done. If Chris wants to walk up a mountain in Ecuador or Colombia in the next two months, I will silently cheer him on from the hotel while watching cable.
So I was a bit grumpy and not that into the whole thing. The final night, the porters were brought out again and this time we were supposed to give them money. It was forced and awkward and I guess we didn’t tip enough because for our final morning (at 4AM) our last meal was one piece of stale bread with a small piece of dried up cheese in the center. Woo hoo. I looked at the other camper’s meals and they had delicious piles of pancakes and toast and eggs and one group even had cake. Cake! So Chaska Tours is getting a strongly worded letter in a few days, I hate it when people mess with my food.
Anyway, I have more MP rants, but right now I have to board a bus for a town in Peru called Mancora. Chris and I flew from Cusco to Lima this morning and our bus is leaving shortly. Happily, this bus company had wifi in their station so I can finally post pics from Cusco and Lake Titicaca. Machu Picchu is coming soon.
Chris and I have our birthdays to celebrate this Saturday and next Saturday and are looking forward to 29 and 31… well, not really, but whatever.
Chris and I arrived to Machu Picchu stinky and tired yesterday morning around 6:15am. We’d been up since 4am and hiking along the Inca Trail. We got to the first lookout just in time to meet up with all of the rich people that paid big bucks to stay at the 5 star hotel right next to the site, and they traipsed up the hill freshly pressed, well rested, uninjured, and smelling lovely. We were slimy and smelly and hobbling (well, I was hobbling). And to be fair, Machu Picchu is a feat of engineering and very interesting to look at and blah blah blah, but seriously, you do not need to walk up and down the damn Peruvian Andes for four days to see the stupid thing. You get just as much out of it if you take the train and bus up to the site… at least according to me. Plus it’s a lot cheaper than the $421 I blew to see it.
Everyday, the government allows 500 people to enter the Inca Trail for the four day hike. Chris and I went with Chaska Tours and we had 3 other people in our group, all from Holland. One couple was 60 and 66, and the other guy was single and 30. We set out at a very slow and easy pace with our guide Ivan. Also for our group, we had seven porters and one cook. The porters are insane with athletic ability. These guys carry at a maximum 25 kilos on their backs (everything from fuel, to tents, to food) and run and/or walk briskly in rubber sandals and no socks up and down the mountains to your next lunch or camp site. Doing the Inca Trail is spoiled camping because you arrive to each site to have lunch waiting and tents set up by the super porters. The first day we had trout and fresh grilled veggies for lunch, and I wish I could say it got better from there, but after that, it was a steady decline in food value and quantity.
Day Two is the hard day. And yes, it’s flippin hard. In my journal I called it What Goes Up Must Come Down because we had to walk up and over a mountain with a 4200 meter summit (approx. 13,776 feet). For Chris, it was What Goes Down Must Come Up because he woke up on Day Two and promptly puked about 5 times into a donkey pasture. It’s always a joy to listen to someone barfing at six in the morning next to your tent. We’re not sure if it was the food or the water or some Peruvian death bug, but Chris was pukey on the hardest day. But with no energy, he made it up the stupid pass. Our guide wasn’t around much that day and in the evening he finally introduced us to our porters after keeping them at a distance from us, which I thought was weird.
Day Three was the crying day. We had to walk about 15km and go up and over another pass. My knees hurt and my ankles kept rolling and at one point, I tripped and fell and banged my knee and cut my shin. And I cried. But just a little bit and they were tears of frustration and hatred and not tears of pain and therefore I did not break Chris’ No Crying While Hiking rule, although he’ll say that I did. When I was on the ground with a hurt leg it dawned on me that I did not need to go trekking or camping ever again. I hate it and I will always hate it and that’s it. I brought this stupid Inca Trail trip on myself but no more, I’m done. If Chris wants to walk up a mountain in Ecuador or Colombia in the next two months, I will silently cheer him on from the hotel while watching cable.
So I was a bit grumpy and not that into the whole thing. The final night, the porters were brought out again and this time we were supposed to give them money. It was forced and awkward and I guess we didn’t tip enough because for our final morning (at 4AM) our last meal was one piece of stale bread with a small piece of dried up cheese in the center. Woo hoo. I looked at the other camper’s meals and they had delicious piles of pancakes and toast and eggs and one group even had cake. Cake! So Chaska Tours is getting a strongly worded letter in a few days, I hate it when people mess with my food.
Anyway, I have more MP rants, but right now I have to board a bus for a town in Peru called Mancora. Chris and I flew from Cusco to Lima this morning and our bus is leaving shortly. Happily, this bus company had wifi in their station so I can finally post pics from Cusco and Lake Titicaca. Machu Picchu is coming soon.
Chris and I have our birthdays to celebrate this Saturday and next Saturday and are looking forward to 29 and 31… well, not really, but whatever.
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