Well, we are currently in Quito which, despite all the scary stories we´ve heard from other travlers, seems like a really cool city. We´re staying in a place nicknamed Gringolandia which is full of discotecs, coffee shops, and internet cafes. Today we went to the Basilica and climbed up to the top of the towers and the belfry. It was pretty scary. The ladder/stairs were practically vertical and the wind was blowing very had. The view was nice though. We also toured the city museum which had galleries about the way of life in Quito before and after the Spaniards colonized the area. It was a pleasant museum with lots of antique things to look at and there were also sound effects...but I´m not sure why the history stopped after the 1800s.
Before coming to Quito we spent a couple days in Banos. It´s a small town close to the Amazon Basin. Actually, it´s 71km from the Amazon and we biked that distance. It was mainly downhill which made it do-able and it had gorgeous views of the mountains and the view of the basin was absolutely amazing! We have only a few more days in Ecuador which is pretty unfortunate since it´s been a lot of fun and I feel like we are missing out on a bunch of stuff. Our plan is to go to the Equator tomorrow and then spend a day in a town called Mindo which is just outside of Quito and then we´ll be going to Colombia!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Raton, raton
So, on our first full day in Ecuador we were walking by the indoor market in Lojas and I spotted a rat and calmly pointed it out to Koehler and Grace. Then, we noticed that all on the street and sidewalk there was a ton of comotion surrounding the rat. Children were jumping around, women were screaming, men were trying to act tough. All of the sudden the rat made a B line towards us. I ran in one direction and Koehler and Grace went the other way. I turned around just in time to see the rat at Graces heal just before two men smashed the rat against the wall. The poor rat died very slowly.
Our second grand Ecuadorian adventure came the next morning after a night bus when we arrived in Riobamba at like 6:30 in the morning. I casually walked off the bus with my purse and got my big bookbag while we waited for the cab. As we were loading up the cab I realized I had left my oh so important bookbag on the bus with my travelers checks, passport, and steripen. I turned to the cab driver and said [SIGUE EL BUS] which means follow that bus. An exciting as well as successful chase ensued.
We just finished the El Altar trek which our friend Philip had recommened to us. The trek was two days and one night. Basically, we walked anywhere from 8 to about 12 miles on the first day. It was pretty and very green and there were a lot of cows, horses and donkeys. The hike ended in the meadow at the base of a volcano with snow. The next morning we did another little hike around the crater to see the Laguna Amarillo. It was actually blue...but pretty nonetheless.
Now, we are in Banos and are about to go to some thermal baths and then do a bike ride to the Amazon Basin tomorrow!!
Our second grand Ecuadorian adventure came the next morning after a night bus when we arrived in Riobamba at like 6:30 in the morning. I casually walked off the bus with my purse and got my big bookbag while we waited for the cab. As we were loading up the cab I realized I had left my oh so important bookbag on the bus with my travelers checks, passport, and steripen. I turned to the cab driver and said [SIGUE EL BUS] which means follow that bus. An exciting as well as successful chase ensued.
We just finished the El Altar trek which our friend Philip had recommened to us. The trek was two days and one night. Basically, we walked anywhere from 8 to about 12 miles on the first day. It was pretty and very green and there were a lot of cows, horses and donkeys. The hike ended in the meadow at the base of a volcano with snow. The next morning we did another little hike around the crater to see the Laguna Amarillo. It was actually blue...but pretty nonetheless.
Now, we are in Banos and are about to go to some thermal baths and then do a bike ride to the Amazon Basin tomorrow!!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Per-whoo
Hola, hola, hola,
So, we've been Peru for about 10 days. I don't know what it is exactly but I have not felt a strong connection. It may have to do with the fact that everything we decided we thought would be cool (Machu Picchu, Nazca Lines, Rafting in Cuzco) was preceded by a tragic event (floods and mudslides, airplane crash, drowning accidents).
We did spend a lovely week in Cuzco with my family which was really nice. We went around the Sacred Valley and saw some ruins around the city. We also got our fill of religious paintings from the Cuscan school and audiotours. We went to 4 or 5 cathedrals and took an audiotour in everyone which was pretty repetitive. I was able to walk away with a couple of Fun Facts that I'd like to share:
* San Blas is the patron saint of ear, nose and throat doctors since he saved a child who was choking on a fishbone.
* Cuscan painters had a fear of empty spaces.
* In 1650 there was a big earthquake and the people in the church took a Jesus on a cross out to the square and the quake stopped.
Okay, well now we are in Lima for the day before going to Trujillo. We did not mean/want to come Lima but Flores Bus Line/God had a different plan for us. We purchased bus tickets for Ica so we could go sandboarding on the dunes for the day before going up to Trujillo...but the bus just kind of flew through Ica and we decided to get off wherever it stopped. But Lima is nice. For some reason the main square kind of reminded me of Miami since there are a lot of overpriced, out door dinning areas that have a similar red and green and wicker color scheme.
Hopefully, our next post will be from Ecuador!
So, we've been Peru for about 10 days. I don't know what it is exactly but I have not felt a strong connection. It may have to do with the fact that everything we decided we thought would be cool (Machu Picchu, Nazca Lines, Rafting in Cuzco) was preceded by a tragic event (floods and mudslides, airplane crash, drowning accidents).
We did spend a lovely week in Cuzco with my family which was really nice. We went around the Sacred Valley and saw some ruins around the city. We also got our fill of religious paintings from the Cuscan school and audiotours. We went to 4 or 5 cathedrals and took an audiotour in everyone which was pretty repetitive. I was able to walk away with a couple of Fun Facts that I'd like to share:
* San Blas is the patron saint of ear, nose and throat doctors since he saved a child who was choking on a fishbone.
* Cuscan painters had a fear of empty spaces.
* In 1650 there was a big earthquake and the people in the church took a Jesus on a cross out to the square and the quake stopped.
Okay, well now we are in Lima for the day before going to Trujillo. We did not mean/want to come Lima but Flores Bus Line/God had a different plan for us. We purchased bus tickets for Ica so we could go sandboarding on the dunes for the day before going up to Trujillo...but the bus just kind of flew through Ica and we decided to get off wherever it stopped. But Lima is nice. For some reason the main square kind of reminded me of Miami since there are a lot of overpriced, out door dinning areas that have a similar red and green and wicker color scheme.
Hopefully, our next post will be from Ecuador!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Photo Montage II!!
Hi All,
These are in reverse order, starting from the most recent (which is now two weeks old)!
Salt Flats in Uyuni!
with two people you can only get so creative...
Hola Comadres, Bienvenidos Carnaval
She-wolving it in Cafayate, Argentina
Wowie...IGUAZU falls!
Eating meat, for the first documented time in 4/6 years, respectively.Friday, March 5, 2010
Bolivia reluctant to say goodbye, Peru unwilling to welcome
please excuse the frustration expressed in this blogpost:
March 4th rolls around. Emily and I have planned our Titicaca trips around the hope, dream, wish, to do a 2day, 1 night, canyon tour in Arequipa, Peru that leaves 3am March 5th. March 3rd we had a wonderful trek over to Isla del Sol, got harrassed by some little boys who wanted our watches, but everything was easybreezy because we were going to do the COLCA CANYON TOURRRRR, second deepest canyon in the world were you get to be one with condors(ish=) as they soar up and around the canyon.
9AM, March 4th: show up at bus agency to find that BOlivian transporters (bus drivers, minibus drivers, taxi drivers) are on strike. Is it for an honest wage increase? Better safety on the roads or on the job? No sir, no ma´am. Bolivian drivers are protesting for 48 hours over their right to drink and drive without the threat of having their license taken away (for life) hanging maliciously over their heads. DEEP frustration. Warned against walking to the border because the night before, protesters had harrassed the tourists for protecting their bolivian guide to the border. Told to wait until the evening. BUT it is around an 8hr trip to arequipa, no way that we can wait AND leave to do our canyon tour the next day. so, we sweetly ask a man with a boat to boat us over to the border. he obliges, after we agree on a reasonable price for him risking his new, shiny, boat being pegged with angry rocks.
11AM: arrive at border. sweet relief! for two seconds. oh, wait, Puno, the capital of Peruvian Lake Titicaca region, has also decided to go on a transportation strike (for a somewhat more noble cause, not that it was that hard: water rights). as we are walking around ghost border town of Yapumpá (or something) with our backpacks, snickers follow us down the road, coming from tinted-windowed pickup trucks and coughPATHETICcough moto-taxis, which are tricycles with a motor. Weave our way through rocks and carparts that have been strewn in the road to prevent passage of vehicles, and sit on side of road with other travelers, hopeless.
long story short: since the puno strike was local, not national, we were able to bend rules and take 4 minibuses to reach puno (taking us 7 hours which should have taken us 3 from copacabana) by 430 bolivian time. buy a ticket to arequipa, and spend arrive by 1130 peruvian time, magnificant! oops, wrong again.
even though we had sent email updates of our ABSOLUTE DECISION to do the canyon tour on the 4th, and inability to change those reservations, and inability to arrive to hostel quickly due to multiple transportation strikes in multiple countries, our hostel was jusssst a bit too incompetant to follow through on their part. they had not booked us the tour, but offered us the chance to do the tour with an alternative company, still waking up at 3am. ghladly accepted. woke up at 3am, whoopsies, that tour is full, too, no other options.
ON VERGE OF TEARS, slump and slide our way back into our bunkbeds to sleep away sorrow. not that lucky. but, they eventually offered us a free white water rafting tour for tomorrow. which we will accept.
sorry for length and frustration, we have since perked up with the help of fresh plums, church visitations, and frappachinos!
March 4th rolls around. Emily and I have planned our Titicaca trips around the hope, dream, wish, to do a 2day, 1 night, canyon tour in Arequipa, Peru that leaves 3am March 5th. March 3rd we had a wonderful trek over to Isla del Sol, got harrassed by some little boys who wanted our watches, but everything was easybreezy because we were going to do the COLCA CANYON TOURRRRR, second deepest canyon in the world were you get to be one with condors(ish=) as they soar up and around the canyon.
9AM, March 4th: show up at bus agency to find that BOlivian transporters (bus drivers, minibus drivers, taxi drivers) are on strike. Is it for an honest wage increase? Better safety on the roads or on the job? No sir, no ma´am. Bolivian drivers are protesting for 48 hours over their right to drink and drive without the threat of having their license taken away (for life) hanging maliciously over their heads. DEEP frustration. Warned against walking to the border because the night before, protesters had harrassed the tourists for protecting their bolivian guide to the border. Told to wait until the evening. BUT it is around an 8hr trip to arequipa, no way that we can wait AND leave to do our canyon tour the next day. so, we sweetly ask a man with a boat to boat us over to the border. he obliges, after we agree on a reasonable price for him risking his new, shiny, boat being pegged with angry rocks.
11AM: arrive at border. sweet relief! for two seconds. oh, wait, Puno, the capital of Peruvian Lake Titicaca region, has also decided to go on a transportation strike (for a somewhat more noble cause, not that it was that hard: water rights). as we are walking around ghost border town of Yapumpá (or something) with our backpacks, snickers follow us down the road, coming from tinted-windowed pickup trucks and coughPATHETICcough moto-taxis, which are tricycles with a motor. Weave our way through rocks and carparts that have been strewn in the road to prevent passage of vehicles, and sit on side of road with other travelers, hopeless.
long story short: since the puno strike was local, not national, we were able to bend rules and take 4 minibuses to reach puno (taking us 7 hours which should have taken us 3 from copacabana) by 430 bolivian time. buy a ticket to arequipa, and spend arrive by 1130 peruvian time, magnificant! oops, wrong again.
even though we had sent email updates of our ABSOLUTE DECISION to do the canyon tour on the 4th, and inability to change those reservations, and inability to arrive to hostel quickly due to multiple transportation strikes in multiple countries, our hostel was jusssst a bit too incompetant to follow through on their part. they had not booked us the tour, but offered us the chance to do the tour with an alternative company, still waking up at 3am. ghladly accepted. woke up at 3am, whoopsies, that tour is full, too, no other options.
ON VERGE OF TEARS, slump and slide our way back into our bunkbeds to sleep away sorrow. not that lucky. but, they eventually offered us a free white water rafting tour for tomorrow. which we will accept.
sorry for length and frustration, we have since perked up with the help of fresh plums, church visitations, and frappachinos!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
PotosiUyuniCochabambaLaPaz
Wow, we´ve gotten slack on blog updates!
Here is a quick rundown of what has happened:
Potosi - We did a mine tour of mines which date back to the 1600´s where silver was extracted and sent to Spain. It is also the highest city in the world.
Uyuni - Went on a 3 day tour of the salt flats, lagoons, desert, geysers, and stange rock formations. Some highlights were staying in hostel made of salt, seeing flamingos, and playing old maid.
Cochabamba - We stayed with Koehler´s cousin Saadid who is in college studying medicine and said our final goodbye while in South America to Lorelle and Adrienne. We also ate at a chain called Dumbo´s multiple times where we enjoyed ice-cream, cakes, and salad.
La Paz - Highest capital in the world. We walked around the city center and stayed in a hostel that had it´s own microbrewery. We also saw dried llama fetus in the witches market...yum.
Well, hope all is well...we´ll try to better about the updates...we´ll try.
Here is a quick rundown of what has happened:
Potosi - We did a mine tour of mines which date back to the 1600´s where silver was extracted and sent to Spain. It is also the highest city in the world.
Uyuni - Went on a 3 day tour of the salt flats, lagoons, desert, geysers, and stange rock formations. Some highlights were staying in hostel made of salt, seeing flamingos, and playing old maid.
Cochabamba - We stayed with Koehler´s cousin Saadid who is in college studying medicine and said our final goodbye while in South America to Lorelle and Adrienne. We also ate at a chain called Dumbo´s multiple times where we enjoyed ice-cream, cakes, and salad.
La Paz - Highest capital in the world. We walked around the city center and stayed in a hostel that had it´s own microbrewery. We also saw dried llama fetus in the witches market...yum.
Well, hope all is well...we´ll try to better about the updates...we´ll try.
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