Ok wow - it has been almost two weeks since updating and we've certainly been on the move in that time!!! I haven't been feeling to well this week and we also haven't had internet as much this week so I'm using those as my two big excuses for not updating! But enough of the excuses because there is a lot to write about! Oh yeah - and I tried uploading some pictures for this post but the first picture I had going for over a 1/2 hour and it wasn't 1/4 done uploading yet so I'll have to scrap that idea until we get better internet (sorry Leighton!)
Alright so...while in Puno we did a day trip to two different islands on Lake Titicaca - Islas Uros which is actually a group of floating islands made of 2 meter thick reeds, and Isla Taquile. The floating islands are extremely touristy with welcome signs and the locals trying to sell handcrafts and such but it was still a really neat experience. The islands last for 11 - 12 years before they rot out and a new one has to be built. The first one we visited was 5 years old and felt quite solid! The second island housed a school, restaurant and a fish farm which apparently housed Canadian salmon which was kind of interesting! We then took the very slow boat ride to Isla Taquile which is a farming island and the locals are very traditional! Their clothing identified there relationship status' which was quite interesting! The males wear long toques which are red and white if they are single and more solid red if they were married. The single guys wear the tail of the toque to the left of their head if they have a girlfriend and to the right if they are looking for a girlfriend. Wearing it straight back meant they were single and not looking. The women were similar in the fact that married women wore solid red tops while single women wore other colored tops. If a single woman was interested in a man - she would twirl the pom poms on the edge of her head covering in the direction of the man looking for a girlfriend! What a system! So we had lunch on that island...no I did not buy a red and white toque and wear it on the right side of my head to see if I would get any pom poms twirled in my direction, and we headed back to the boat for the slow ride back to Puno.
After Puno we headed to Arequipa to hopefully catch a good glimpse of El Misti volcano looming just outside of town and to see Canon Del Colca which is over twice as deep as Grand Canyon! Well we didn't get to enjoy a great view of El Misti as the clouds kept her hidden and the few clear glimpses we got were on the bus with no chance of getting a good picture but thats ok! A quick side not, it seems every city and town in Peru had the main plaza named Plaza de Armas which means Plaza of Arms. It was a military strategy as this would be the center of refuge upon an attack and the place to distribute arms to defend the city. We had been wondering why the name repeated so many times and this makes sense! Anyways, Arequipa was a fairly ritzy city and had one street running off of the Plaza de Armas which made us thought we were back in North America. It was full of fancy stores and restaurants including a Starbucks of which we did partake in some Christmas blends! This street also had a 4 ft wide "sandwich restaurant" that served shawarma style chicken (vertical spit of chicken) sandwiches which were quite excellent!!! We tried hiking north through the town to get a better view of El Misti but the views were continuously blocked by buildings but it was a good hike outside of the more touristy area! Although the "touristy" area was filled with way more locals than tourists so that was good!
From Arequipa we did a two day trek into Canon del Colca. We saw condor's which are an endangered vulture which grows to over a 1 meter tall with a 3 meter wide wing span! There was a Cruz del Condor lookout location which is supposed to have regular Condor sitings and as we were piling back into the van after not seeing a condor - someone yelled out that they spotted a condor so out of the van we jumped! It was an amazing graceful bird that glided through the air effortlessly!!! After the condor lookout, we were dropped off at the start of our 18 km hike which brought us to our Oasis hotel which really was an Oasis! Pools, concrete huts with reed windows and roofs, dirt floors, volleyball and a wide variety of plants made it stick out from the more deserty surroundings! When we got dropped off for the hike - 4 of us were told that we actually had a different guide that we would wait for once we hiked down to the bottom of the canyon since groups were only supposed to be 8 and we were 12. So we made our way down to the bridge crossing the river at the bottom and there we waited....for 1.5 hours until our guide showed up with the 3 women he had with him. After they had a short break - we took the short 20 minute climb up to our lunch restaurant. Us 4 original guys got to the restaurant first and were almost finished our soup by the time the women got there. We just finished up the last few bites of the main course when our new guide informed us that they would take too long to get to Oasis and the rain was starting to fall so he suggested we go with one of the groups that was just leaving which happened to be our original group! We did get a little wet but it was refreshing and luckily didn't come down too hard! The climb back up out of the canon the next morning was certainly tiring! We got moving around 5:20 a.m. and climbed 1100 meters over 7 kms of switchbacks! It was a constant uphill climb which was easier where the path was "smooth" but the stair sections got difficult by the end! It made sense by the end why a bottle of coke was 5 soles at Oasis since this was the only path down! (although 5 soles is only like $2 so it really wasn't unreasonable - especially by North American standards!) I did the hike in 2 hours which I was happy with - really didn't stop to take breaks - just wanted to complete the task! We then walked 20 - 30 minutes to our breakfast spot where we relaxed for a while. On the trip back to Arequipa I was sitting beside an atheist from England and we had a good conversation about religion! One of the women from "our group" was sitting in front of us on the bus and she started listening in as she was intrigued by our conversation. It was good to hear his questions and responses to my answers.
So the next day we headed back to Puno in order to cross into Bolivia the day after that. So we took the bus to Bolivia on November 21. We booked tickets all the way to La Paz which is the capital city. It was supposed to be approximately 6 hours total but was closer to 7 by the time we had a lunch break and went through border crossing transitions. It was the easiest border to cross! Started by a quick stop in the Peruvian police station where they simply looked at our papers, then to migration where we were stamped out of Peru. We were asked no questions in either location. Then a quick walk up the street through an arch and after 10 seconds in the Bolivian migration office where they again asked no questions but simply handed us our tourist papers, we were officially in Bolivia! Well the bus took us to Copacabana where we had an hour break to find some lunch and wander around before we would transfer to a smaller bus which I understood was necessary in order to get over a bridge (some people were staying in Copacabana so the big bus wasn't necessary either!). After lunch down by the water where I got a western burger which had 2 big beef patties, ham and bacon (yes i was quite impressed by the burger!) we boarded the smaller bus and headed out of town. Oh yeah - to enter Copacabana - all of a sudden the bus stopped and we were told we need to pay 1 boliviano in order to proceed...wasn't too impressed at the surprise cost but in reality it was only like 15 cents. So 10 minutes outside of Copacabana, we pulled up to a docking location where i realized we weren't taking a bridge across the sliver of Lake Titicaca - the bus was going on a ferry! Well the bus stops and we are told to get out because we would have to pay 1.50 bolivianos in order to take a different boat across. Now i wasn't too impressed - I know - 1.50 bolivianos again wasn't much money but to me it's the principle of the matter - I had already paid to get all the way to La Paz, that should include any mandatory expenditures on route! Plus the guy at the ticket window gipped me 0.50 which he quite rudely waved me on and i simply walked off - it wasn't worth fighting for.
So we got to La Paz without anymore surprise expenditures and after finding a hotel we walked around for a while exploring. We eventually made it back to the hotel and there were ATM's right across the street which was perfect because Mike and I didn't have a lot of Bolivianos (we exchanged the few Peruvian soles we had left at the border into Bolivianos). So Mike tried the one ATM and it didn't work. So I proceeded to the other one, tried to take out 1100 bolivianos and the machine told me that was not possible at the time, asked if i wanted to do another transaction so I said yes and proceeded to successfully take out 500 bolivianos. Well, successful until the machine started to shut down immediately after I got my cash and my card was stuck in the machine! It slowly rebooted and then displayed a "machine out of service" screen! Smashing buttons didn't work so I got Mike to wait at the machine while I went across the street to see if I could use our hotels phone to call the number on the ATM. The owner took his cell phone out - guess they didn't have a land line?, and called the number where I proceeded to explain to the rep what the machine had done. They informed me nothing could be done for me at that time and I would have to call back the next morning. So I called Royal Bank right away and explained my situation so they put a note on my account that my debit was lost but may be recoverable. Instead of calling the next morning, I went down to the bank of the ATM where I explained the situation and the bank informed me there was nothing they could do - my card was gone. Very helpful I thought! So I called Royal Bank again and cancelled my card after looking at my accounts online. I discovered a discrepancy on a withdrawal which worked out to be the 1100 bolivianos I had originally tried to take out but never got! Yeah - I still got charged that amount! So I told Royal Bank but they said there was nothing they could do for me until I was back in a Royal Bank!!! I explained to them that I would be gone for another 4 months but that didn't matter - they needed my signature in order to start the investigation...that makes absolutely no sense to me and certainly doesn't make me feel protected by my bank while overseas!!!! Then I asked if there was any way of waiving the cash advance fees associated with visa since that is my only option left for getting cash at the moment and the woman was quite rude as I explained that I was going to be gone for 4 months! She just said - "well can't you just pay for everything with your visa or why do you need cash?". She also said "4 months of cancelling fees isn't a solution!". Well no it's not I thought but I'm kind of stuck! And obviously she's never left Canada because for some silly reason all the little shops down here, and the lack of electricity in some places means visa isn't generally accepted and cash is a necessity! Well, Chris Klassen will be bringing down my new debit card so I won't need the visa for cash advances after that and the bank has said that the charges for cash advances can be reversed at that point if I call in again...I really hope that is the truth!!! A big thanks to Chris though - that works out really well!!!!!
All in all, the banking incident wasn't really a huge headache - a learning experience for sure!!! It does lead to a funny story though! When my card first got stuck - a guy from Spain asked if everything was alright and I explained how my card was stuck in the machine. He offered his condolences and wished me all the best! Well the next day at supper we ran into him at a restaurant and he asked how everything went so I briefly told him the situation. We started small talk and I asked where he was from, where he was traveling, etc. and he explained that he was from Spain but living in Caracas, Venezuela and was working there. I asked him what he did for work and he said he was an electrician. I found that slightly amusing as he was dressed in fairly typical "hippie" attire and he proceeded to explain that he connected electricity everywhere - in people, through people and the cosmos, etc, etc... yup - he was certainly a very interesting individual but extremely friendly!
My battery is about to die and I don't have a charger so I will quickly sum up the last few days. We left La Paz November 23 on a bus that broke down 15 minutes into the drive so again we got transferred to a smaller, much more uncomfortable bus!!! We got to Oruro and I have been sick since so not much has happened! Mike hasn't been feeling the hottest either although he is getting quite a bit better now! Yesterday we managed to bus to Potosi which is one of the highest elevation cities in the world at over 4,000 meters and it is a city full of rich history! More so the rich part because of extensive silver mining where over 8 million african and bolivian slaves died under Spanish control of the mines!
Ok, now my battery is really going to die so I'll try sending this before that happens! Will add more pictures when we get better internet! Hope you are all doing well!!!!!
Saturday, 26 November 2011
Monday, 14 November 2011
4 Day Jungle Trek, Cuzco - Machu Picchu
Well I won't go into as much detail about the trek as I did in my journal because you would all fall asleep! But here are a few of the important notes about a fantastic 4 day adventure!
In total we were 8 people. Carlos our guide, Christian from Switzerland, Remi and Lea from France, Kengo from New York, Fiona from Ireland, and of course Mike and I. It was a fantastic group as everyone was very easy going and jokes abounded! The first day involved being dropped off by van at 4100 m, where we grabbed the mountain bikes off the roof and descended 2000 m over a 52 km stretch on a road that is considered to be the world's second most dangerous road! I was shocked by the level of safety they had for us including helmets and bright orange vests and the van following our route behind us in case of mechanical failures. At 4100 m the ride started off quite cool so a jacket and pants were needed, but by the end - the temps had us sweating in shorts and t-shirts! The last section was undergoing road improvements so the van went ahead of us at that point which was unfortunate for Fiona who suffered a blown out tire which no one realized until we were finished the bike ride! The van had to go back and find her which took over 40 minutes which had us concerned by the end due to the label of the highway as the 2nd most dangerous! We then packed into the van and drove to Santa Maria which was our pit stop for the night!
We had local Peruvian dishes as our meals which generally included a soup to start, and then a main dish of which there was rice, potatoes, steak, spaghetti with chicken to name a few! Two items that stood out as absolutely delicious were the freshly made guacamole and bread starter, and a chicken salad made with french fries, onions, peppers and mayonnaise! Yes - french fries in salad - it was SO good! Unfortunately haven't found it in a restaurant yet!
Day two was the start of our hike into the jungle! There were numerous varieties of fruits including oranges, bananas, papaya, mango and other local fruits. There were also farms where the main products were coffee and cocaine. Yes I said cocaine! Coca tea which is made from the leaves of the cocaine plant is a very popular tea down here which is quite delicious! The leaves are eaten for their abundance of minerals and vitamins! It's just too bad that some idiot figured out that by mixing it with acid that you can create a narcotic and make the trade of an amazing healthy plant illegal...so I guess I won't be bringing any home as a souvenir unfortunately! Anyways, back to the hiking! We hiked a total of 14 km through rugged terrain and temperatures reaching 39 degrees! We took a 1.5 hr lunch and siesta break around noon during the intense heat! The end of the trail brought us to a set of hot springs with 3 pools ranging in temperature from 25 - 32 degrees. Mike and I decided not to pay the entrance fee into the springs but enjoyed the view and some cool drinks including Inca Kola which is hard to describe but almost like the old Tahiti Treat for those of you who remember that! From there, a van took us to Santa Teresa which was the pit stop for the night! A funny story from here involves Christian! We could send our big bags on ahead by taxi so we wouldn't have to hike with them but Christian only had the one bag. So we were in a store getting water for the next day and he got a bag for the water so that he would have something to put his extra stuff in since he only had the one bag. Well we circled around the block and during that time his bag broke. So, he went up to the woman sitting in front of the store and proclaimed "Senorita, una grande problemo", he shows her the bag and says "no funciona" and we are all killing ourselves in laughter! The store he was standing in front of was the store next door to the one where he had gotten the bag and the woman had the most confused look on her face! He tried to explain to her his dilemma as we're trying to tell him it's the wrong woman but he was quite focused! Eventually he realized and it all got sorted out at the right store!
Day 3 was also an interesting day! We had 4 people join our group for the last day hike to get to Aguas Calientes (a.k.a Machu Picchu town). There was a couple from Chile and two guys from Italy. Well I don't have too much to say about the Chileans...but the Italians certainly made things interesting! We met them the night before at supper and you could tell they had certainly had a bit too much to drink already and what they were smoking wasn't particularly legal. When we got back to the hostel that night, the larger italian was sitting on the steps by the bathroom with his head on his knees and hands on his head and our group is thinking...'tomorrow is going to be a long day!'. It wasn't long after that he was throwing up in the bathroom which continued for quite some time! We had to get up at 5:00 am to catch some breakfast before heading out on the hike and this was happening after 11:30 pm. Well we got up and made it to the restaurant where we were having breakfast and the Italians were no where to be found! They did show up during the breakfast in rough shape however. So we left in the van again to get us to our starting point of the hike. Our group had decided to pay a little extra money so that we could hike 9 kms of original Inca trail instead of along the river road which was included in the price. This hike started too far from the town which is why we needed the van to drive us to the start. We started the hike at roughly 2000 m and climbed up to 2800 m passing the rich hikers with all their fancy gear and even a number of machete wielding locals so we felt good about that! It was a good steady steep climb! The end of the climb up brought us to a vantage point where we could see Machu Picchu 5 km off in the distance! The site we were observing from was also an old Inca site. Oh yeah, the two Italians were incredibly slow off the start and we thought the hike was going to take forever! Then out of the blue, the one that had been in the worst shape the night before just took off on a good steady pace and we only caught up to him shortly before reaching the Inca site! We were shocked!!! They were certainly focused and determined when they needed to be! The hike down from this site dropped about 700 m and it was down the entire time!!! There were no flat sections - just steep switchbacks as we worked our way down to the river! The guide told us it would take roughly 1 hr 40 mins to get down but a few of us made it down in less than 1/2 hr! And yes - Mike would never forgive me if I didn't state that he made it down first! We definitely paid for it though as our quads have been shot for the last couple of days from being jolted so hard during the decent! It was well worth it though! We then rested down by the river giving our feet an icy cold bath in the glacier fed river! We then hiked to hydro electric town where there is a hydroelectric station (go figure huh!) and had lunch there! It was here that we were given our bags back for the hike along the railroad tracks to Aguas Calientes. The train is the only access to the town so the taxi could not take our bags all the way there! It was another 9 km hike to the town but it was very easy as the path beside the tracks was very flat!
Day 4 was Machu Picchu (MP) day!!! Our group opted to take the bus up to the MP site instead of walking up the Inca stairs for an hour since our legs were tired! The MP gate opened at 6:00 am and the first buses left at 5:30 am. So we got up at 4:30 to stand in line by 5:00 in the hopes of getting on the first bus. Well we didn't get on the first two buses but we still made it in time for the 6:00 am opening! When we got there - the clouds were just started to roll off of MP which made the whole experience surreal! MP was just revealing itself to us! Unfortunately, it was also drizzling a bit so swarms of people were out in there stupidly rainbow colored ponchos! GAH! I was so tired of pink, yellow, bright blue and red ponchos filling MP and ruining pictures! That was my one complaint - those should not only not be sold at the MP gate but they should be banned!!! Anyways...enough ranting! Haha! Not much I can really describe about MP as it was just a lot to take in! One big item of note though was that Mike and I were hiking to the Sun Gate which was a ceremonially but also entrance spot for MP at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11! I'm already starting to decide where I should be for 12:12:12 12/12/12! Suggestions are welcome! We had a tour of MP for 2 hours in the morning and the rest of the day we spent exploring and simply sitting and enjoying the views! We left the site around 3:00 pm after 9 hours of enjoying the entire shock and awe of the beauty of MP and it's surroundings! We stayed in Aguas Calientes until our train departed at 6:45 pm having some coffee and a good supper! While at the restaurant having coffee, I went to the bathroom but the lock wasn't working so a woman totally walked in on me and the surprised look of horror on her face was priceless! Later on, she came up and introduced herself - she thought it was only right and we had a good laugh about it!
So that sums up a portion of the experience! If you read this far I'm impressed! Thought I was going to make it short but we simply experienced and saw too many things in 4 days! Some thoughts I had at Machu Picchu which I've never really thought about before - were the facts that Indigenous groups from all over the world saw the beauty of creation and knew there had to be a creator! There worship may have not been "christian worship" but they knew that God provided for them through creation even though they labelled God through other facets. I wonder where in history people lost the awe, respect and gratitude for a perfect creation that so intricately provides everything we need and more?!
Well that is all for now - the last few days, Mike and I have spent in Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca on the border of Peru and Bolivia. We've done a lot of relaxing after the hike as we've given our legs a rest and worked through the hundreds of pictures we took! Thanks for reading! I've included a few pictures here from the trek but a much fuller photo album (although not as high quality pictures) can be found on my facebook page!
Monday, 7 November 2011
Cuzco, Peru
We arrived in Cuzco on Saturday at 7:00 pm after a grueling 26.5 hr bus ride from Lima! It was supposed to be a 22 hr ride starting at 4:30 pm from Lima on Friday which would have gotten us into Cuzco at 2:30 pm. However, the bus broke down Saturday morning at 11:00 am so we were stranded for 1.5 hrs while waiting for a mechanic to fix the engine! After "fixing" the engine, we slugged our way for the last 6.5 hrs to Cuzco going at most 20 - 30 km/hr! By 3:00 pm we were starting to get a little ansty!!! We did make it however and the views on route were quite excellent! We have been spending yesterday and today doing some touring in and around Cuzco which included a trek through the Saqsaywaman ruins which were quite beautiful and were a nice lead up to Machu Picchu! We are starting our trek to Machu Picchu tomorrow morning on a 4 day Inka Jungle tour. We take a bus out of Cuzco and then take a 4-5 hour mountain bike ride downhill as we drop almost 3000 meters! The next two days we will be trekking through jungle until we get to Aguas Calientes thursday night. We will walk up at 5:00 am on Friday to hike to Machu Picchu where we will spend the day!
The food has been great! The new foods I've tried so far are lamb and alpaca! Both were quite tasty!!! Food in Cuzco has been awesome! The first supper in Cuzco is where we tried llama, had soup, dessert, wine, and fresh coca tea for 20 soles which is about $6.50!
Friday, 4 November 2011
Lima, Peru
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Purpose
Well, 5 hours from now our flight is leaving Winnipeg (fingers crossed!) and thought I would quickly share what the purposes for going south are. Firstly, to disciple Mike - and yes I've told him that and since he is also a follower of this blog if he forgot, then this is his reminder! Secondly, for personal growth focused mainly on my relationship with God. It's been a year since quitting engineering and it's been quite the journey since and so I'm looking forward where it may take me in the future! (and no - i don't know where that is yet!). And thirdly, especially true for the Guatemala portion of the trip, the purpose is to be missional and to see how God is working in the lives of the people down there and to get involved in His work.
So thank you for all the thoughts and prayers! Now it is time to grab a nap and to finalize packing! So goodnight, goodbye, and see you soon!
So thank you for all the thoughts and prayers! Now it is time to grab a nap and to finalize packing! So goodnight, goodbye, and see you soon!
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