Ciudad Inka de Machupicchu

We met up with our English boys in Cusco at a hostel called Loki. We were soooo excited to see our boys, we missed them so much! Unfortunately they had already taken the train up to Machu Picchu so we didn’t get to do the tour with them but we spent a lovely day watching Lord of the Rings and eating tuna melts! They took off to Arequipa the following morning and we booked our Inka Jungle Trek. The trek consisted of mountain biking 55km from an elevation of 4300m to a town called Santa Marta, staying the night and then waking up bright and early to trek 15km along the rail road track to the town of Agua Calientes, which sits 20mins south of Machu Picchu. The bike ride and trek was a blast!

 I assumed that I would be holding David up a bunch because he bikes to work all the time and well is just a heck of a lot more bicycle inclined than I but David proved me wrong yet again! As we were going down the highway we came across a semi… he was going a tad bit slow for my liking so I went to pass him, I rode past and as David came to follow behind a van had appeared coming from the other direction, so he swerved back behind the semi but overcompensated and went straight into the ditch! A few bloody elbows, broken front break and sore knees later David appeared down the road! Hahaha what a tard! The problem was that we were only half way there so David rode the rest of the way with no front break and his chain kept slipping off of the gears so he pretty much just coasted uncontrollably down the rest of the way! It was sooo much fun though and the country side was beautiful.  The road is in the process of being repaired so the last two hours of our journey had to be in a stuffy van to Santa Teresa. The tour group that we were placed with was awesome though so the journey was great. There were 4 Chilean boys, 2 Argentinian guys and a Brazilian couple. We got to practice our Spanish and learn all about the countries we will soon be visiting!

Upon arriving at our hostel in Santa Teresa we realized why we were warned that everything might not run smoothly when the owner of the hostel couldn’t be tracked down and we had to switch to another location! It was all good though and we were able to walk around the little town, watch a soccer match and the kiddlets chase a monkey through the streets. Dinner was great that night as well, no guenie pig but we enjoyed a beautiful quinoa veggie soup and Lomo Saltado. We had a lovely sleep apart from the 4am rain storm on our tin roof room which awoke all of us just in time for me to sing happy birthday to David! My voice definitely made for a peaceful 2 more hours of rest!

Even though I especially asked for a sunny day on David’s Birthday it started off pretty miserable with rain and clouds above but thankfully when we finished up breakfast the clouds broke off just in time for us to start our trek.  The scenery could not have been more perfect. It actually was ironic that we watched Lord of the Rings right before our trip because that is exactly what I would describe it as! We trekked for about 4hrs until we arrived in a town called Hydro Electrica. The water plant is pretty spectacular. The whole plant is situated inside a mountain! We for sure have to do some research on this place cause it blew our minds! After a nice lunch we continued our journey down the rail road tracks for another 3-4hrs.  David made the observation that we were spending his 28^th b-day in hot water (the town of Agua Caliente.) After getting set up in our room we made our way to the hot springs which was really just luke warm, dirty water, over filled bathtubs. Great way to spend the afternoon! At 7:30pm we met our group for dinner and our guide explained the itinerary for the following day. 

Day 3- In order to climb Waynapicchu, the mountain situated north of Machu Picchu you need to be the first 400 people to the front gate of Machu Picchu. In order to be the first 400 people to Machu Picchu you have to be the first 300 people to the base of Machu Picchu mountain. In order to be the first 300 people to the base of Machu Picchu, you have to wake up at 3:30 run to the bridge which is located 20mins north of Agua Calientes.  Honestly, I didn`t even really know what Waynapicchu was, all I knew was that David and I had to be there for the race! We woke up at 3:25am, got changed and ran down the stairs to check our bags and make our way to the bridge.  There was one key on the lobby desk… the race was on! We turned our flashlight and began our run! We passed a few couples on the way and arrived at the gate at 3:40am. We were blown away when we got there to see about 100 people ahead of us.  At 4:15am a huge pack of people showed up behind us! It was nuts! The gate to the base of the mountain opened at 4:40am. At first it was pretty orderly, everyone was keeping the line, walking up the road to the start of the trek… that was until one rowdy guy decided to get his run on and that`s when it started! Dave and I sprinted to the trail head! We literally ran up the entire mountain! It still blows my mind looking at what we accomplished! About 30mins up, I thought I was going to pass out, I told David to go on without me but after 2 people passed me I gave myself a huge kick in the butt and forced myself to carry on. I passed a few more people and when I arrived at the top, about 15-20 people behind David we were only about 50^th in line! I was so proud of David! He sprinted the entire way! He`s a crazy fool! At 6:00am they opened the gates to Machu Picchu and we got our tickets stamped to Waynapicchu!

The first sight of Machu Picchu was spectacular! I have never seen anything like it and even though I gave David such a tough time about wanting to come to such a touristy place, I`m soooo happy that we did! The city is actually relatively young, only about 600yrs old. It was rediscovered in the early 1900s by a North American professor who was told by a farmer that there existed some ruins at the peak of Machu Picchu mountain. On the journey up the mountain the professor met a young boy whose family actually lived in a house in Machu Picchu and farmed the land. The boy led the explorers to the archaeological remains. The official date of the scientific discovery was July 24^th, 1911.

The following year the professor returned and started to uncover the site.  Today 70% of the ruins are in their natural state which is pretty incredible! No one is 100% sure what Machu Picchu actually was but think it may have been a royal retreat. They can estimate that because of the water system that is in place that the city could sustain 500-700 people. Not really sure why they all left the site though, some say they were made aware that the Spaniards had invaded Cusco so they cleared out but who knows?  Either way it was crazy! We had a tour of the city and then a nap in the sun before making our way up Wayna Picchu at around 10:30am.  Can I just tell you that once I saw Wayna Picchu I wanted to shot myself? I was sooooo exhausted from my morning sprint and kinda wanted to die! The mountain was incredibly intimidating and everyone that was coming down kept going on and on about how hard it was but after popping a few coca energy mints in my mouth I decided we had to do it! It was soooo worth it! The view was amazing! There were also some ruins on top of the mountain as well so that was neat to see! You get a real appreciation for the site looking down though and are able to see the shape of the condor.  We stayed up there for about 2hrs and then walked back down to check out a few more sites. We headed back down the trail at about 4:00pm which was neat because most people had already left so we had the city all to ourselves.  When we arrived back in Agua Caliente David decided that he deserved some cold beers and pizza so we treated ourselves to a nice bite to eat. Our train back down to Cusco departed at 5:30 and somehow we lucked out and got put on the 1^st class section which was really nice! The journey was long and hard but so far one of the coolest things I’ve seen. We’re now off to Bolivia to take on some jungle trekking and death road mountain biking! Should be fun!  

From Lima to Cusco... The Peruvian Coast !!

We departed Lima around noon on January 8 (after Dawne had a chance to do some last minute shopping at the nearby department store of course, which was ok with me as I had one last opportunity to visit the McDonald’s across the street… First time since the Miami airport, not bad… But it kinda makes you wonder how McD’s does it?  No matter where in the world you are, it tastes exactly the same).  Anyways, we took a bus (yet again) to the town of Pisco, near La Parque de Nacional Paracas.  It was supposed to take 4 hours, but it took us an extra 2 hours just getting out of Lima because of a flipped over SUV blocking the road.  We had planned to carry on to Paracas, but decided to stay in Pisco because of the delay.  Pisco didn’t really have much to offer thanks to a violent earthquake 4 years ago which flattened the city. 

The city is being rebuilt, but clearly things are moving very slowly.  What Pisco did have to offer was a gut-turning smell of rotting fish (sardines) coming from the numerous fishmeal processing plants just south of town along the coast.  The north blowing wind made for a rather unpleasant night.   We hit the road to Paracas early in the morning and jumped aboard a tour boat to visit Isla Ballesta, which is known as the poor man’s Galapagos.  During the 2 hour trip we saw plenty of Sea Lions, Seals, BOOBIES, Penguins and a variety of other birds( for those of who may not know “Boobies” are a bird famous to South America).  Not quite the Galapagos, but it was still fun to see the the animals !

Once the tour was complete we jumped aboard another bus to Huacachina, a desert oasis 2 hours south of Pisco.  This place was really mind boggling.  When I said this place was an oasis, I was serious.  Picture a giant lagoon surrounded by palm trees and lush green vegetation, with  hundred meter high sand dunes as the backdrop in every direction; that is Haucachina.  We checked into one of the several hostels near the lagoon and lounged by the pool enjoying the hot desert sun.  After about 10 minutes I started to get antsy and had to find something for us to do for the rest of the day. After all, it was only 2pm… The day was still young!!  Lucky for me there was a sandboarding  / dunebuggy tour offered from our hostel.  I signed us up for the 4:30pm sunset tour and soon we were off. 

Our driver pulled up in his jacked up 9 seater dune-buggy, a real class act !!  Sunglasses on, smoke hanging out of his mouth as the tires screeched on the pavement.  The only thing missing was a beer in hand !!  We jumped in, strapped up our fighter jet style seatbelts and soon realized what we had done.  This wasn’t your casual Sunday drive to the dunes, but instead the most death defying wild ride one could imagine.  The driver, still smoke hanging out of his mouth, one hand on the wheel flashed us all a casual grin seconds before pinning it.  He would head up extremely steep hills and cut a sharp corner near the top before heading straight back down, much the same way snowmobilers due when “High Marking”… How we didn’t roll is a miracle !!

We finally got to take a break from the wild ride and boarded down some sand dunes.  The first few we did were rather small, but it gave us a feel for riding the board.  One would think it would be much like snowboarding, but it really isn’t at all.  We both found out the hard way (with a couple nasty sand filled falls) that it’s nearly impossible to cut at all, and you really need to just let it go and head straight down.  We just got the hang of it before heading to the top of a super high dune, which was a bit intimidating to head straight down.  We eventually went for it and made our way down to the bottom without any serious injuries. 

Once we finished up a few more rides it was time to watch the sunset over the desert hills.  It was amazing to see the sun fall behind the infinitely barren landscape.  Finally we jumped back into the dune buggy for one last wild ride.  We did a few more hills and some crazy corners, and just before heading into town we hit a jump and were airborne for a good 3 seconds before landing back on the tires!  Thank goodness for that great floating suspension!!  We were glad to be back at the hostel safe and sound and finished off the night with dinner near the lagoon.



Hummingbird Figure

The next morning it was on the road again as we boarded a bus to Nazca, to check out the "Nazca Lines",which are ginat geoglyphs etched into the sunbaked desert.  However, the geoglyphs are so big, that they are really only discernable from the air !!  We went directlyfrom the bus drop off to the airport to try to book a flight.  Most of the agencies were full, butwe we're lucky enough to find one company who was willing to take us up over the lines that afternoon.  Neither Dawne nor I have ever flown in a small plane, so we were a bit anxious about embarking on our first Cessna journey, especially over the Peruvian desert !! 

Turns out Dawne was a bit more anxious than I (it was easy to tell from the small panic attack she was having in the waiting room only minutes before the flight!).  After getting a couple of extra bottles of water, we were ready to go!  We climbed into the back of the plane, which was even smalled than I had originally anticipated would be.  The extremely large American fellow, who was very excited that he had to pay for 2 seats on the plane, boarded in front of us.  We were just hoping that he would sit in the middle and not move, afraid that any shift in his wieght would surely bring the plane down.  Shortly after take-off, we found out what is different about small planes.  For the majority of the flight, we were fairly certain that it would be our last as the plane bounced around in the sky, being pushed around by the turbulent warm air and winds over the desert!  If only I had taken some video or picture of Dawne !!  Wow !!  The flight lasted 35 minutes and we saw several of the figures that the ancient Nazca people had imprinted on the desert ground below.  It was really amazing to see, but incredicbly rough on the stomach !! 

 We were both glad to be back on the ground after the flight and needed the rest of the day to allow our bodies to recover from the rough ride !  We borrowed some space at a really fancy hotels pool for the afternoon, and waited for our night bus south to Arequipa for an altitude adjustment !  Arequipa was a relaxing place and we didn't really get up to much for the 3 days we were there.  Just outside of town is "Colca Canyon", which is 3 times deeper than the grand canyon.  We decided not to go on the tour to see it, and just took it easy instead, taking in some of the views in and around the city.  Next we're off to Cusco to meet up with our English friends and make our way to Machu Picchu !!

Whirlwind in Lima

Good day folks, Senor Serfas speaking.  I'm not sure how many times I'm going to have to remind Dawne that this trip is an adventure, not a vacation !!!  Mancora was nice, but we don't have time to spend days relaxing on the beach and partying like it's Sprinkbreak.  We need to learn stuff, see stuff, and do absolutely everything we can in the short time we have on the road.  !!! 

Once we finally left Mancora, I decided we needed to pick up the pace a little and make up for all the lost tme we spent on the silly beach !  I broke open the Lonely Planet and any other guide book I had and got to work, delicately planning our next steps.

We arrived to Lima around 2pm after an all night bus ride down the coast (18 hours).  Buses are getting much easier to handle now, and the scenery (once it gets light out) is absolutely amazing !  On display this journey was more vast barren desert with sand dunes spilling into the bright blue ocean.  It was breathtaking !!  We spent the afternoon wandering around a nearby park, and checking out the very talented local artists and craftsmakers.

 

Day # 2 in Lime, I present you with "Dave's Delightful Full Day Tour:"

Itinerary

09:30 - 10:00 am  - Breakfast ( let's be serious, no one likes tours that start too early ! )

10:00 - 11:30 am - Tour of the Monastario de San Francisco.  The highlights here were definately the underground catacombs, where a suspected 70,000 buriels took place (skulls and bones everywhere!), as well as the library, which held thousands of antique books dating back to the Spanish conquest.... Including the first Latin American dictionary.  Only problem is, I don't think they organized the books using the "Dewey Decimal System".  We mentioned to them that we would send down Shirley and Irene to get the place whipped into shape !!! 

11:30 - 12:30 pm - Guided tour of the Central Plaza and surrounding historical buildings, including the Presidential Palace (guided by none other than, yours truely !)  The guide was very informative, not to mention fairly good looking.

12:30 - 1:30 pm - Tour of the Museo de la Inquisicion.  This was ok, but not that great (the tour was in Spanish, so we only picked up certain parts) BUT, there was a wax musuem which displayed the gruesome ways in which prisoners were tortured.

1:30 - 3:00 pm - Free time, and by free time I actually mean an advenure walk through the central market and China town.  This was interesting to say the least.  We toughened up, plugged our noses and took a walk through the meat market area, where you can actually buy anything you ever imagined.  They certainly make full use of any animal slaughtered down here.

3:00 - 4:30 pm - Tour of Hauca Pucllana, an adobe brick pyramid of Lima culture dating back to 400 AD.  This was really cool !  This pyrimid is right in the middle of the city and it only partially restored.  The unrestored portion looks like a pile of dirt and rocks, but once they dug a few feet the pyramid was exposed.

4:30 - 5:30 pm - Walk back to the hostel and stop for a local Peruvian snack.

We both figured that was quite enough for one day, but we're very pleased with our accomplishment !  We would definately recommend this tour to our friends!

The next day we took it fairly easy.  We did however stop by the mall which was built into the side of the cliff over looking the ocean.  The view was incredible and we spent the afternoon drinking wine at one of the restaraunts built into the cliff.  In the evening we went to a fountain park which was an amazing dispay of water and lights.

 

After Lima, I'm feeling like we're back on track with our adventure, but there's still no time to relax, and plenty of work to be done over the next several days !!  There's just so much to see, and so little time !!!

A Cuencan New Years

Well to continue our "keener, learn everything possible" attitude, David and I enrolled in more spanish classes upon arriving in Cuenca. We did 8 hrs of class and were invited to the school's end of the year celebration. It was great fun! Ecuadorians really know how to party! They had bought about 12 bottles of this fermented sugar cane alchohol called Zumhir... it was fantastic! The only thing about it was that David still had a stomach flu from Montanita and it hurt him to eat or drink anything but they didn't care at all, just kept pouring the delightful drink down Dave's throat. 

I feel like I should take a break in my blog here and explain something.... I know you're all thinking pooooooor David, sick with the stomach flu... but really... his daily routine is, "let's go eat some sketchy meat on the street" then he gets sick and can't eat for 3 days... then once he's had me run around for him enough and cater to his every need, he starts to feel a little bit better, makes his way to KFC or some other fast food joint and fills up on the greasiest thing that they have to make up for the days where he couldn't eat or had to eat my cooking...

Anyways, back to new year's...  In Cuenca, they celebrate the New Years by making a paper mannequin of someone and then burn them on the 31^st, it's supposed to burn all the previous year’s bad things that they have done and prepare them for the new year. We made two mannequin on our last day of school, one of the president and one of one of the teachers at the school. The school had their party a day earlier as it was closed on the actual holiday so we were all invited to join in on the celebration. It was pretty crazy. It didn`t take us long to realize that it was just an excuse for the teachers to get absolutely pissed when our teacher came up to us and inquired if it was alright if we skipped our 8am class the following morning! We let it slip after hours of limbo, shots of Zhumir and lighting our mannequins up in between 2 parked cars!

On the real new year`s eve we planned to cook a huge meal with our new best friends, Digs, Mel & Clark and a few other friends we had made at the hostel. I had a blast choosing out a few recipes and then making my way to the market and bargain over random ingredients which I mostly had no idea if they were even the right thing! The meal was a great success though, we ate on top of the rooftop terrace and Dave set off fireworks as we enjoyed our meal. Afterwards we all headed downstairs to the family room, played a few games, ate some chocolate fondue and then booked it out to the streets for more lighting of mannequins on fire!!! David set off more fireworks and we both sprayed everyone with champagne on the stroke of midnight! It was awesome, except for my dress is now ruined!!! After hours of us dancing around the fire we started to make our way to the club when we walked by a group of little girls. They grabbed my hands and started to dance with me! Not going to lie, this part of my night was for sure the highlight, they were so cute and even though my dance moves weren’t the smoothest after hours of drinking games and champagne sipping they thought I was the female Michael Jackson (or so I thought at the time) It was sooo much fun! Slowly our friends started to drift away to the club and soon enough David was the only one waiting for me…. The girls and I had our typical Boychuck group hug goodbye which only took 15 mins and then met up with our friends at a club on the river front. Met lots of locals and danced the night away!

When we awoke in the morning we decided it was time to move on to another location, Mancora Peru was calling our names! Mel, David and I made our way to the bus station to purchase our ticket. The rest of the day consisted of movie watching and I will be proud to say that I made everyone in our entire hostel watch Step Up!!! No one was happy about it but I still think it changed all of their lives!

The following morning we had to wake up at 6:00am to make it to our bus. It was a long bus ride but well worth it when we arrived. Mancora was glorious!!! Picture a beach town in the desert, never rains, always perfect weather, tons of restaurants, shops and hotels, it was awesome! The first few nights we stayed at a hostel off the beaten track but then booked ourselves into a beautiful hostel which was more like a resort, called Loki! Unfortunately it was fully booked so Dave and I had to stay in a dorm. Normally this would be OK but we had a pretty unique experience in our room. It all happened on the eve of the 4^th of Jan 2011. David and I were exhausted after a day of lounging on the beach so decided to have a nice relaxing Tuesday evening and go up to our room and watch a little bit of Dexter on our laptop before going to bed. First off, that idea was impossible as our room was located directly above a club and the bass was pounding so loudly that it was tough to concentrate. This blarring salsa music continued until the club shut down at 3am. We were finally able to shut our eyes when we heard some pounding on the door. I got up let our roommates in and jumped back into bed. We found out soon enough that only one of the individuals was our real roommate and lucky as we so often are, they chose the bed within arms reach of us to have their special night. Man was it romantic. I don`t know if you have ever been in a similar situation but I would have to say it was the most awkward thing I have ever had to be a part of. Digs had leant me his IPod the night before and I have never been more grateful for anything in my entire life!!  Dave wasn`t so lucky… he was directly beside the couple and if any of you know David, you can imagine his face change color, his anger veins form and his fists whiten. I was incredibly proud of him at this point because I realised that all our hard work in Spanish class had paid off as he proceeded to politely ask if the couple could please be aware that they were in a dorm and that there were plenty of other hostels with private rooms, or a shower or balcony that they were welcome to use… They didn`t listen… Again they went at it… Again David asked them to stop in Spanish… the guy finally sat up and said, "Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!" hahaha still makes me laugh! We both just tore into him after that!! A few hours later when the sun started to come up, David and I packed our bags and made our way to the front desk to demand a private room. Our next night was A LOT nicer! We met a ton of great people at Loki and went out on the town with a big group of them! One night after hours of flippy cup I meet a guy from Lima outside the bar and tried Bull's heart! He didn't tell me what it was until I had finished eating the entire scewer!!! Even though I was sooo grossed out, I can't lie, it was the best meat I've ever had!  

We left Mancora as different people... saw and heard things people should never have to experience... We have learned many life lessons, mainly to avoid dorm rooms at all costs but we left on a possitive note and will miss the desert beach deeply!

Montanita, Ecuador

After  all the hard work in Banos and Columbia, we decided that we were due for a break !!  This travelling business is really hard work and sooooo exhausting !!  With Christmas coming up, we decided that we should find a noce place to settle in for “Christmas Holidays”… That place was Montanita, Ecuador, a small surfer / hippie / party town on the coast.

As usual, the bus ride was rather interesting.  We took one bus from Banos to a large city called Guayaquil, where we needed to purchase new tickets and switch buses to Montanita.  Like always, we were swarmed the second we stepped off the bus with people trying to “help us out”.  We held it pretty cool and avoided all the scammers and finally found out where the line was for the tickets we needed, the bad news was, there  were about a hundred other people in the line in front of us !!!   Thank goodness for the helpful guy that helped me (David) out and took me right to the front of the line to get a “Direct Ticket” to Montanita…  He only charged me triple, which was a great deal I thought !!  Five minutes later, we were on a bus leaving the terminal.  Too bad for all those suckers still waiting in line !!!!  Bad news for us was that the bus was only heading in the general direction of Montanita, and we would later find out that we would need to get off the bus 2/3’s of the way there and pay / switch again.   Oooops !  Needless to say, Dawne has been promoted to Head of Transportation and Logistics !!  Congrats Dawne !!!!

As it turns out we ended up sharing a vehicle with an Ecuadorian couple for the last stage of the journey to Montanita.  It was great to chat with them and learn about some of their customs.  We found out they were on their way to Montanita for their honeymoon and they were so excited to tell us all about their wedding and traditions.

 On Monday we came across a Scuba shop and inquired about PADI certification and Spanish lessons.  As usual, we couldn’t make up our mind as to which to focus on, so we again settled for both.  This made for a pretty hectic week.  Over the next four days we managed to complete  8 hours of Spanish classes each, 5 chapters of PADI Scuba theory (and quizzes), 2 hours of “in pool” dive training, 4 “open water” ocean dives and a PADI final exam, which we completed just minutes before turkey dinner on Christmas Eve.  

 

Wow!!  What a week!!!  To make things more interesting David got a bad case of food poisoning mid-week.  Scuba diving, wet suits and diarrea… That’s a recipe for some pretty interesting moments, but I’m happy to say I made it through with no disaster !!  (Sorry about the details)

As we mentioned in the last post, we found turkey dinner on Christmas Eve that we ate with some of the other travelers we met over the past few weeks and followed up dinner with some cocktails.  Santa had no trouble finding us in our hotel (must have been the Christmas lights we put up on the ocean front balcony), so we spent Christmas morning opening gifts and indulging on the treats we found in our stockings. 

After that we went to the beach and treated ourselves to some surf lessons.  Dawne made it look easy, while I had a few problems with the whole standing up thing!!  Maybe next time will be better!!  We had a wonderful time in Montanita, and learnt so much.  We’re starting to get a reputation amongst other traveller’s as the “Nerdy Canadians who are too busy learning to have any fun!”  I think they’re just jealous!! 

Where to next???