South American Pictures

If you ever find that the pictures contained in the blog are not enough, don`t worry, there are more! In an attempt to keep this overwhelmingly lengthy blog as short as possible, we´ve created a separate page for photos. We`ll add pictures periodically to http://www.SLOtography.com - just click on the slideshow and you're there.

What can we say about Cordoba?

the answer...not much. But alas, it was a destination on our journey which is the only requirement for a post on this blog.



(Some Fountain)

However, underneath the blanket of litter, melted ice cream, and dog feces, lies a beautiful city, full of culture and rich with history. Our room, located in the center of town, had a balcony that overlooked one of the busiest shopping areas in town...which meant we didn't have to go far to explore. In fact, with our birds eye view, we spent hours just observing Argentinian culture. And here's what we found:

• Argentines must have seen the movie "children of men," because they are having children like they are going extinct. Babies having babies man.
  
• Once you have some babies, take them everywhere with you, anywhere...like a pub, and anytime...like 11pm. This also explains the suffering babysitting industry.
  
• Smoke delicious Lucky Strike cigarettes and Eat Meat!
  
• Shopping is more important than just about anything, except for looking good.

(Our View)

Iguazu Falls

The heat is overwhelming...but the misting water cools, not to mention the boat rides that gaurantee to get you drenched. Exotic animals run around freely, food is priced like it`s going out of style, and children (and adults) laugh and smile. It is the closest thing to a theme park you`ll find in Argentina. However, instead of rollercoasters and lemonade slush, there are hundreds of the gnarliest waterfalls you`ve ever seen. (And I have seen Niagara falls, but it was the Canadian side...)

(These falls are so massive that water mists up and then rains down on you)

(This guy looks like a croc to me, but Lauren swears it is a Lizard)

Mendoza, Come for the Wine, Stay because of the Food

How does 2 days (the plan) turn into 5? The answer: a violent stomach infection! And so goes our first experience in Argentina.

Our time in Mendoza began like any other stop, we arrived on a bus from Santiago, a beautiful trip over the Andes, on a Tuesday night. After our search for treap lodging, we settled on a seemingly decent hostel w/ a pool outside of our room.

We head out into the late evening in search of food, and came accross just that, a Mecca of fast food in the Mercado Central. I convinced Lauren that the Argentines would be able to make a decent rendition of my favorite food: the burrito. Wishful thinking of course, as they turned out snacks that were no bigger than a taco bell taco, and about as tasty (how does that sound Rusty?). So we found ourselves searching for a second dinner at 11pm; this time we went for the authentic Argentine cuisine, a better decision.

On our second day, we set out for the infamous Mendocino wine country, responsible for over 75% of the country´s booming wine industry. The rural wine country is a 40 minute bus ride from the center of the city, which happens to be free if you don´t have any change to pay, bonus! Once there, we rented bicycles so that we could cover more ground, however we still only made it to one winery. After one excellent tasting round, we found ourselves too impaired to ride our bikes...apparently a ´taste´is a bit bigger in Argentina.

Our next day in Mendoza, our supposed last day in town, began yet again with the sounds of birds chirping. Mendocinos were going about their days in their casual-busy style; children were playing world cup caliber games of soccer on the town square, and by 1pm, Lauren was throwing up her breakfast behind a park bench.

Fast forward to the next day, (skipping the details of the unpleasantries of the repeated trips to the bathroom), and we had outstayed our welcome at the hostel, a 3 night maximum. I proceeded to pack all of our stuff and move it to a hotel accross the street, as it was clear we weren´t going anywhere that day. Lauren managed to collect her self enough to make the grueling journey from one bed to the other. It was also very clear that something needed to be done, so I explained the situation to the kid at the reception desk. He assured me he´d take care of it.

They arrived, (two of them), about 40 minutes later in style - via ambulance. Their nurse uniforms appeared to be clean and legitimate, as well as their portable medical kit. The male nurse stood timidly in the corner once I invited him in. The woman did most of the talking, and doctoring for that matter. My first question to her: ¨Se habla ingles¨ was answered by a wave of the hand over the head, the international sign for Not a Chance. Upon listening to the sounds Lauren´s stomach with her stethoscope, she exclaimed, ¨Muy fuerte!¨ The last time I had heard that phrase was when our waitor tried to describe the gnarly lightning storm that hit in Puno. So I listened myself to the little war taking place in Lauren´s stomach, with amazement. The nurse administered a painful shot in Lauren´s backside to help with the vomiting, and wrote us a prescription for antibiotics.

The road to recovery included the aforementioned medicines, simple foods (like fruits), and episodes of Law & Order (Special Victims unit, the lamer one with the lamer theme music), CSI Miami, and some Jacki Chan movie (giving a specific name of the movie would not clarify any). We managed to escape Mendoza, having spent more time here than anywhere else, yet having seen and done nearly nothing. Oh well, it was time for a break.


The following

The Inca Trail, a Video Diary

Day 1 of our trek, keep in mind we didn´t get much sleep the night before.

R.O.U.S.´s

Rodents of Unusual Size still exist in South America. The Capybara maintains the title of the largest rodent world. It´s quite easy to see upon inspection that this animal is most closely related to the Guinea pig, it´s just the size of a fat Beagle (that´s for you Matt). Speaking of, check out all of these Beagles, and one Dachsund, reminds me of the good ol` days on Flora:

(A professional dog walker is in high demand in Buenos Aires, it`s also Lauren`s proposed future occupation)

Santiago...The whale´s blowhole

We arrived to Santiago around 7pm on Saturday night, after a not so grueling 24 hour bus ride (our butts must be getting flatter by the minute). After stepping off the bus and into the most amazing weather yet, literally perfect by definition, we jumped into a cab and were wisked away to Residential Londres, praying for vacancies. This beautiful old hostel is located on none other than Calle Londres, a side street from the main drag of Santiago. The cobblestone road is lined with trees and cafes and makes you feel like you´re in the countryside of Italy. To our delight the Hostel had room for us, so we decided to stay for 3 nights. Our room was at the end of the hall over looking the courtyard below, in my opinion, our best room yet. We didn´t stay here long before heading out to explore the nightlife Santiago had to offer. Santiago is broken up into Barrios: there is the Barrio Brasil, Barrio Londres/Paris, Barrio Central, and the Barrio Bellavista, etc. The Barrio Bellavista is acclaimed to be the up and coming restaurant area, so go figure, we headed there first. Now, since we´ve been in South America for what, like 3 weeks, we´ve began to adjust to the late night eating...and drinking. We walked around the Bellavista area, scoping out different restaurants, taking in the night life, and mostly killing time before settling at a place in a main square for some appetizers and wine (mind you it´s around 10:30pm...perfect). We stayed at this restaurant for about an hour, drinking and eating stuffed red peppers before we decided to head somewhere else. We left this square with nothing but the highest intentions of finding more food and wine in an even better location. Along the way to our next destination we bought a few gifts for loved ones (which didn´t seem to be such a good idea 2 days later when we attempted to send them home) and eventually settled in a little cafe on one of the side streets. We ordered pizza and wine and sat there with the feeling like we´ve been here before. That´s when it came to us (pretty much simultaneously), this looks just like Chorro Street and we´re right outside of Bulls.....hummm I think this may be a sad point in our lives. We stayed at our SLO gettaway for about 2 hours talking about home and our friends and family, then oddly enough, the clock struck 2 and back to the hostel we went.

(A view from Plaza de Armas)

The next morning we awoke to, quite literally, birds chirping outside our windows and a nice breeze flowing through our room. We got up, mulled around for a little bit then set off to really check out the city. Well, I guess one could call it poor planning on out part, but to our dismay, it was Sunday and the city is pretty much deserted on Sundays, really! We searched for over an hour looking for first, New York Bagel, which Blake found in an outdated guide book we borrowed from the hostel, then for food in general. We basically stopped at the first place that was open and had a not very impressive salmon and boiled chicken lunch. At this point, we decided our best option was to go back to the movie theater we´d pasted earlier and relax there for 2 hours. After the movie we headed back to bellavista area, grabbed some more food, again mediocre at best, did a little shopping then called it a day and went back to the hostel.

Monday was a whole different story. From the moment we stepped out of the hostel the city seemed back to normal, people everywhere, cars on the streets, all sorts of noises and smells, it was alive again. We spent the first part of morning checking out the Plaza De Armas (seems like every city in SA has a Plaza de Armas) and more importantly, searching for the illustrious post office that was said to be located in the plaza. After a never ending search (here we are back the never ending-ness) I found it! It seemed like the most difficult was behind us, all we needed to do was throw our stuff in a box and ship it off, not to be seen until we return in March. Well, as one may expect, there was a tiny problem with the throwing it in a box part...they didn´t have a box big enough. This is the point, which I alluded to above, where we began to regret buying our loved ones gifts off the street. After some quick thinking we decided to go back to a electronic store we past earlier and attempt to buy a box from them. We walked in and asked a man if we could buy a box, we looked at us, laughed and said, ¨that is your spanish?¨, we couldn´t do anything but laugh, too. This savior of a man took us downstairs and brought out box after box trying to fit these oddly shaped items. After continuing to fail, we all decided the best thing to do would be to combine 2 boxes. This may not seem like the smartest thing to do, especially with something fragile in nature, but we didn´t care anymore (Dad-this goes against everything you taught me about effeciently shipping things). But after cutting and folding and a whole roll of tape, it was perfect, ready for anything the post office was going to put it through.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city before settling down for dinner at a little cafe we found. This experienced proved to be the best dining experience not only in Santiago, but the whole trip so far. The food was excellent, our waiter was great and we got to chat with the owner/chef about his life and love for food.

(Felipe, our new best friend)

On our last day (Tuesday) we planned on taking a bus to Valparaiso, a local beach town, but that never happened. While we were at breakfast we met a Chilean man named Eduardo and wound up sitting and talking with him for over an hour. At that point we decided it best to just head over the Andes into Medoza. Ciao Chile.

Santiago Style

Santiago is a city of unparalleled style. Upon arriving, we first noticed that we had underestimated the power of (young) love when we were in La Paz. Santiago puts La Paz to shame; the make out sessions are more intense, the weather is nicer, the clothing more elaborate, and perhaps more noticable than all the rest, are the mullets. To any soul who endured the late 80´s, the single ¨Achy Breaky Heart,¨or a Monster Truck Rally, the mullet is well known. There are many theories as to why South America has just recently adopted the mullet as their own. Some say it´s the 20-year delay in television broadcasting, or the fact that Diego Maradona, the greatest Argentinian soccer player to ever live, still embraces the party lifestyle that any mullet wearer must abide by.

(Billy Ray Cyrus - the inventor)

Whatever the case, the mullet is an epidemic in South America, of which they offer no vaccination. Of course, my mullet-aphobia could only delay the inevitable, I desperately needed a haircut myself. I would have to summon up all of my available spanish skills to aviod walking out of a Santiagan barber shop with a look of shame on my face and a hairstyle reminiscent of Jeff Foxworthy (and all of the infamous rednecks). So I stumbled into a carefully selected salon: one in which no mullets were pictured in the window. Unfortunately, the stylist who appeared happened to be a proud carryer of the mullet virus, but it was too late. With my elementary level spanish and a lot of pointing at pictures of the various members of N-Sync who appeared on the walls, I explained the haircut that I desired.

Things were going farely well, at no point during the haircut did my hair begin to resemble a mullet. My stylist turned out to be gay, what do you know? He found out that we were travelling and began to list off the most ¨romantic¨cities in the world to see whether I´d been: Paris, Barcelona, San Francisco...etc. I realized at some point during the haircut that I hadn´t been to any type of barber shop in over 4 years, in fact my last experience was in New Zealand in 2003. I have gotten by for years with a $20 grooming kit purchased at your friendly neighborhood Rite Aid...I´d like to say that this is due to my fear of mullets, but it´s mostly just an attempt to save the $15 per cut (I assume that´s what Supercuts is charging these days). Whatever the case, I made it out of there with a $5 expert cut, that in no way implies that my weekends are spent watching Nascar.

(Diego Maradona)

greatest goal of all time

The Long and Winding Road (To Uyuni)

So we made our way from La Paz (see previous post), to Uyuni, home of the largest salt flat in the world. Our method of travel, as is typical in South America, was via bus. And because we are high rollers, we upgraded to the comfortable bus, chartered by Todo Tourismo. The buses here really are amazing. Full reclinability, with a leg rest that folds up for use as well. They play music videos to pass the time while serving up meals that are on par with any elementary school cafeteria in California. And once the meal is complete, it´s movie time! So far, we´ve been lucky to view such movies as: ¨What a Girl Wants¨, ¨Torque¨, and ¨Evan Almighty.¨ Haven´t heard of them? There´s probably a reason for that.

On this particular trip, we were naive enough to believe that in a country in which only 4% of the roads are paved, we would have a smooth enough trip to sleep through, and therefore we took the overnight bus. After 1 hour of smooth, paved roads we encountered 7 hours of speed bump ridden gravel. I would have had a much easier time sleeping if I used a metallic vibrating foot massager (like the ones they have at the mid-state fair) for a pillow. But amazingly we made it to Uyuni in time for our tour of the incredible Salt Flats: Salar de Uyuni.


(Salt Mounds, piled up to dry as part of the mining process)

Salt flats, like the one we just witnessed, are appropriately named. However, like most things in this world, the name doesn't quite do it justice. You can´t possibly imagine just how flat, or how salty this world is. The vastness of the salt is such that your eyes begin to play tricks on you. The ¨islands¨as they are called (land masses that rise from the sea of salt) appear to be floating in the distance. I´m not quite sure what causes this phenomenon, perhaps it´s the same effect of blurriness that you see as you look at the heat coming off of the asphalt road? And as far as the salt, it´s the size and flavor of kosher salt. That´s right, I tried it, and it was delicious.

(The Illusion - a Mirage?)

Much to our surprise, the salt flats were only a small portion of our tour. In fact, by 4 o´clock on the first day, we said goodbye to the salt flats and hello to our first nights accomodation: a salt hotel (made out of blocks of salt, not to be confused with the ice hotel in Sweden). The floor of this hotel was garnished with the very salt found in the salt flats. We enjoyed dinner and drinks, and the company of our tour group.

Flamencos (Flamingos) dominated the rest of the tour, as we found ourselves driving great distances to see colorful lagoons populated by everyone´s favorite pink bird. I´ll let the pictures do the talking on these ones...


Our second night (began at 2pm), and was much like a standard Thursday night in college: numerous beer runs, card games intended to demean the participants, and a pasta dinner. Of course, we didn´t consider the ramifications or a night like this prior to a 4 o´clock wake up call...but it was too cold to complain about anything else. Luckily we found our way through the geysers and were in a giant hot tub by 6:30am...which served to warm us up a bit in time for breakfast.


(Lauren came up with this idea)


(The Hot Tub)

We made a few more stops, and by 11am we were on a bus destined for Chile. We arrived at the border by noon, did the imagracion dance, and we were enjoying San Pedro de Ottocoma in no time. Because we hadn´t had enough driving at this point, we decided the best thing to do was to jump on a 24 hour bus to Santiago. What´s the point of traveling if you´re not moving?

La Paz is for Lovers

La Paz is the capital of Bolivia. It is also the highest capital city in the world...when I first heard this, I assumed they were talking about elevation, although I´ve since been informed that there are some other factors that go into that illustrious title...

To paint a picture in your mind, envision San Fransisco: not incredibly large as far as cities go, and rollercoaster like terrain. Then remove the classic ¨Full House¨style homes and apartment buildings and replace them with ramshackle shacks. Take away the Golden Gate bridge, the bay, and the dense layer of fog, and instead paint in the Andes mountain range and it´s massive snow capped peaks blanketed in big white fluffy clouds.

Hopefully that gives you some idea of what we were working with here. On a high note, everything is dirt cheap. Food (amazing dinners, five star stuff for $25 w/ wine) , accomodations ($14 a night), taxis (never more than $1.50), shopping (don´t even get me started!). So in two days we covered most of the city on foot, ate three square meals a day, and do all of our Christmas shopping.

As for the ¨La Paz is for Lovers¨title, that was a shout out to all of the teenage romance that flourishes in public eye for all to see. As I mentioned, we covered nearly the entire city, and never found a bench to sit on because they were all being used for some sort of make out session. Parks run rampant with hormonal encounters, any patch of grass is fair game. Don´t get the wrong idea, I think these kids are alright. The problem is, the severe lack of affection amongst the older crowd. It´s like these Bolivians get it all out of their system by the age of 17. It´s a mystery.

The Greatest Lake

As children, we study geography. We look at maps of irregular shapes; not the squares, circles, triangles, and even trapezoids that we´re used to...and we´re supposed to commit to memory these countries that we have never visited (and quite often, never will). Sure, Italy is easy to remember because it´s shaped like a woman´s boot...and I had a pretty good grasp on the feared USSR until they went and cut it into more irregular shapes and gave those shapes unpronounceable names. But of all those geographical studies, I don´t recall ever paying much attention to South America, with of course one exception: Lake Titicaca.



To a child, there is no better word than Titicaca. It is a combination of two of the most hilarious and inappropriate words, but somehow this union makes the word alright for a kid to say. And to an adult, I think the word still carries a little hilarity - if only in a nostalgic way. But it's intrigue extends far beyond the name: at 12,500 ft above Sea Level, Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world! Did you know that this lake also has a group of 41 artificial floating islands, known as Uros, with over 3,000 inhabitants. God bless Wikipedia

The islands of Uros, are quite literally floating, made from materials found entirely in the lake. The homes are completely mobile, as four men can pick them up. And like a large boat, they use anchors to keep the island from completely floating away.

So for a number of reasons, including its infamous name, Lauren and I were bound for Titicaca. We began in the city of Puno: the most common launching point in Peru, because of it´s close proximity to the islands of the lake. Within minutes of departing from the harbor, we realized that amazingly, this lake lives up to its name. The giggle that the name used to inspire, is now replaced with visions of a picturesque blue lake topped with fluffy white clouds and an even more impressive deep blue sky.

The tour on which we embarked, visited 3 of Lake Titicaca´s islands. That´s right, it´s a pretty big lake, with islands. Uros, as mentioned before, was our first stop. The colors on this island are impressive. Even more impressive is the resilience of the island´s inhabitants. You can see the city of Puno clearly from the reeds on which which you stand. On any given day, due to the floating nature of the island, I´m sure a fit person could swim ashore and start enjoying the finer things, such as: meat, people who aren´t related to you, electricity, etc. But as we found on this trip, it´s not about the finer things, it´s about simplicity.

We next ventured to Amantani (A-man-ta-ne), a real island, made by God or volcanic activity, or whatever you believe in. On this island, we had planned to spend the night, and so we immediately met our host family. Señor Augustin and his family kindly welcomed us and prepared lunch for us. Later that night, after a stroll through town and a quick hike, we returned for dinner. Of course, the dinner conversation was limited and awkward due to our inability to effectively speak Spanish. But we were able to talk about the cold weather and rain, and that despite the fact that he is a vegetarian due to the non-existence of meat on his native island...his favorite food is chicken. After dinner we went to the discoteca, not exactly the Graduate on Minor Madness night, but impressive nonetheless. We participated in authentic dances while dressed in authentic clothing. At one point, the authentic dance evolved into one large ring around the rosie game...that´s really the best way to describe it. It´s a good thing the dance only lasted one hour. We definitely lived the simple life: there are no cars on the island, little electricity, and really nothing to do but live. When we asked Augustin what he does for fun, he kind of laughed as if to indicate that that´s not really his thing.

(Senor Augustin)

Peruvian Perros

As everyone has told us, no trip to Peru would be complete without seeing one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Machu Picchu was nice, but a mere hour after viewing the last city of the Incans, I had the pleasure of seeing this monstrosity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peruvian_Hairless_Dog

That´s right, it´s the Peruvian Hairless (almost) Dog. As you can see, it possesses some hair which has taken the form as the too oftenly confused with a cool haircut: mowhawk. It´s skin is as black as oil, and tends to form excessive wrinkles when the dog reaches maturity. Unfortunately, this is not an aesthetically pleasing conbination.

Lauren and I had the pleasure of first seeing this creature at a restaurant in Aguas Calientes (just below Machu Picchu). And as we began to embrace our first trip back to civilization after our 4 day trek, this creature had to come along and transport us back to medievil times.

Enjoy (another Peruvian dog, more reminiscent of the cruelty witnessed in the states)

The Inca Trail (aka the Cake Walk)

The phrase, ¨piece of cake¨ was actually only used once during our trek...and that occured on our last morning at 4:30 am when we were served a birthday cake for breakfast. The cake was actually for one of the hikers on the tour with us, Joseph, whose actual birthday isn´t until late December. There are many theories as to why the cook decided to bake a cake for someone who hadn´t even begun to think about their birthday, rather than actually cook us breakfast...but we´re getting ahead of ourselves here.

...rewind...

Day 1, The Inca Trail Begins (except not really)
Our day begins at 4:00am, as we are picked up at our hostel at 4:30am to board a bus bound for the infamous Kilometer 82, the beginning of our 4 day, 3 night trek. I don´t believe a single word was spoken until we sat down for breakfast at 7:00am in Ollantaytambo. At this point we began to meet the other members of our tour: 3 Swedes, 3 Norwegians, 2 Slovenians, and of course, 4 Californians bra (including us). Behind the scenes of the tour, there is plenty of action as well: 2 guides, Flavio (not to be confused with Fabio), and Joshin (apparently a mariposa name?); and 18 porters. That´s right, for 12 hikers, there are 18 porters to carry our tents, food, (sprinkles for the cake), etc.

(Our guide, Flavio)

That´s the background, now our story begins. Day 1 was mostly uneventful, possibly even deceiving as to what was in store for the rest of the trek. We hiked for hours through mostly simple terrain, followed by an incredible 4 course lunch (the norm). And after lunch we logged another 3 hours to camp (which was completely set up upon our arrival). Of course, all day long we stopped frequently to view Incan ruins (which in retrospect, were unimpressive). Throughout the day we passed and got passed by numerous other tour groups that we would see along the way. But we were frequently humbled by porters who wore nothing but sandals, shorts, and t-shirts, while carrying nearly 60lbs of gear. Needless to say, we weren´t the only ones on the trail.

Day 2, Was this a bad idea?...
Not many people can say they´ve been as high as 4,200 meters without the assistance of a modern flying machine. 5:00 am wake up call, but I´m pretty sure the rooster was going before that. Breakfast at 5:30am did not dissapoint, and by 6:10am we were all panting, literally. Oxygen is in short supply when you ascend to heights close to 10,000 ft. We began the day at 9,842 ft and by 11:00am we were at 13,779 ft, (let me get out my calculator) and we have hiked 4,000 ft in 5 hours. To add more perspective, we only traveled 5 km horizontally; a 3 mile long Incan staircase to what seemed at the time as Heaven. I don´t think you are quite getting the picture...in order to do so, I recommend you wrap your entire head in bubble wrap and jump on your mom´s stairmaster, put it on the gnarliest glutteal workout setting, and go to town for 5 hours (no, not really, but sort of like that).

But back to the stairway to heaven thing. There is definitely an amazing feeling that you get when you get to the top of a Mountain, one we´ve all felt at some point. Whether that mountain is Bishops Peak (1,500 ft?) or maybe you´re awesome and you´ve even hiked Half Dome (6,500 ft?). However, that feeling is amplified with each additional foot you climb...most likely because of the oxygen deprivation, or possibly the wad of Coca leaves stuffed in your cheek?

(Wave Hands like Clouds)

Nonetheless, it´s not as if this feeling lasts forever. It quickly diminishes with the realization that you´ve got to hike down an even more intimidating staircase (yes Bryan, down is much worse) down to 11,646 ft for lunch; then back up to 13,123 ft (not as high, not as cool). At this point your body begins to remind you that you were not born an Incan (or Peruvian), and therefore the Incan trail was not built for you.

But alas, we reached camp (much later, and much more tired). The rain came down hard that night, reminding us that it is the rainy season; but we managed to stay mostly dry and warm. And we were able to sleep in the next morning, til 6:30am! Sweet bliss.

Day 3, I thought I was in my twenties...not my eighties?
The punishment we imparted on our bodies on day 2 is felt with each step...that´s right, more steps. Of course, in relative terms, day 3 was gentle...but that´s the problem with relativity. Our heads and eyes had gone from glancing around at all of the wonderous sights, to simply looking down to look for which rock was least likely to make us slip. Before and after arriving at camp, we visited the most amazing Incan ruins yet:

(The view from Incipatu)

Day 4,Why do they call them Monkey Steps?
4:00am wake up call, it is pitch black outside, cold, and even more painful. Fortunately, we have adrenaline on our sides. We are a mere 2 hours away from Machu Picchu...our ultimate destination, the cream of the crop when it comes to Incan Ruins. We kept a brisk pace as I narrated ¨The Never Ending Story¨ for Lauren (A personal favorite movie from childhood, and yes, we´ve already run out of interesting things to talk about).

Ok, here is it (impatient Calvin), the second half, more like last 1/4 of the story....

So where were we....The Never Ending Story... Brisk walking... people hating on us because we got to cut in front of them in the queue forming for entrance into the final gate before Machu Picchu...awww, yes, the Monkey Steps. The legend of the Monkey steps was told to us before we even left on our trek. These steps seemed to be the last obstacle before arriving at Machu Picchu. Well as it turns out, we climbed the steps with ease without even realizing we were there. Once at the top, we looked back and noticed an exhausted woman literally crawling up the steps on all fours...we looked at each other and said, ¨that´s why they call them Monkey Steps.¨

Now for Machu Picchu, le fiest te résistance, the Grande Finale for the Incans (except not really). We arrived around 8 in the morning, full of anticiaption; we run to the main look out point only to see......FOG! 4 days, countless steps, weasing, and what do we get, FOG! Let me say it agian, FOG FOG FOG! Just our luck.


(Llamas in the mist)

We hung out at the look out point for about 30 minutes, listening to our guide, Flavio, as he told us more about the Incans, and getting an occasional glimpse of what lyes below: an amazing community built solely out of rocks. After this we went down to civilization for about 45 minutes to use a real bathroom (man, the bathrooms on the trail are a story in their own) and get some food to fuel our depleted bodies, because like we said at the beginning, our breakfast on the last day was birthday cake (not exactly what you want to eat at 430 in the morning, before hiking).

So, at this point we´re just two of 500+ people amongst the ruins, most of whom are bussed in each day. The fact that we´ve been hiking the original Inca trail for 4 days means nothing to them. After getting back through the main entrance, we walked around the ruins for about 2 hours, with Flavio guiding us through amazingly constructed rooms and buildings, explaining their purposes. By now the fog had cleared and the sun was shinning, things were looking pretty great. It´s hard to really impart what the Incans did here without experiencing it for yourself. The way they build is like nothing you´d ever see today, although it´s not to late to build the Hawaii house like this Calvin. The Incans literally built the terraces they plant their crops on, we´re talking 6-10 ft tall. Every stone was shaved and sanded with another stone by hand, and fit with percision to it neighboring stone, just incredible! Their water and drainage system ran underground and was quite amazing according to Blake. They even had a sun tower, while alligned with the sun gate (about 1.5 miles away) as a lookout, and each year on the 21st of December, if you´re standing at the sun gate you can see the sun rising throught the window of the sun tower. I know the description I´m painting here doesn´t even begin to give it justice, but don´t worry, Blake and I took over 800 pictures so you can see for yourself, or just go visit. Maybe just go visit?

Once we had toured the ruins throughly we took a bus down to the closest town, Aguas Calientes. This town is solely built on the toursim that Machu Picchu brings. Here we had lunch and waited for our train back to Ullantaytambo, where we were transferred to a bus for a 3 hour ride back to Cusco. Now, lets recap, we´ve been hiking for 4 days, sleeping in a tent, no shower, exhausted beyond belief and we´re on a bus 30 minutes away from a hot shower and a real bed.....what should happen, but the bus breaks down! Now, this is typical throughout S.A. and anyone who come here and utilizes the bus system should be aware of this (as we were), but come on, talk about horrible timing! So now were in the middle of nowhere, chillin on the side of the road, just waiting for another bus to come get us. Well after about 30 minutes and endless cars driving by and honking (but not stopping) we all load onto a new bus to the final trek to our prospective hostels/hotels. The last exciting detail in this seemly never ending story (we seem to continue to come back to that) is when we were dropped off in a very ominious looking part of Cusco at 10pm and told to take a taxi the rest of the way. There may have been a small outburst by the Ameicans on the bus when told this, but lets just say we eventually made it home.

So that´s it, the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu and everything else you probably didn´t want to know, except Calvin who seems to have endless time on his hands. The trip was amazing and unforgettable and something we would both do again in a heartbeat!

I feel the earth move under my feet

Actually, despite our wonderful luck, we´ve felt neither of the two recent massive earthquakes that have hit South America. You can assume from that statement, and the fact that I am writing this blog now, that both Lauren and I are safe and sound. It seems there was a quake that hit Chile (7.7 magnitude) on Wednesday morning, and another that hit the coast of Peru (7.9 magnitude) on Wednesday night. The respective capital cities (Santiago and Lima) were hit pretty hard. Fortunately for us, we had left Lima that morning on our way to Cusco, which is significantly inland. I thank all for the suggestion to get the hell out of Lima, for I've seen my fare share of quakes and don´t feel the need to feel another.

On a brighter note, we are beginning to acclimate to the elevation here in Cusco (about 10,000 ft). Cusco is a beautiful place; from the air it looks like a huge bowl with mountains all around, and hundreds of thousands of little red roofed homes. Yesterday we were bussed around the city to check out some of the Incan ruins. If you haven´t heard a thousand times before, the Incans are pretty incredible. Of course hearing all about it still does not take away from the amazement you feel when you actually see it. So that´s a plug to come visit.


(Like I said: Incredible)


(Man´s best friends, in Peru)

I feel a swarm of people waiting for my seat at the computer to open up, and therefore this post must come to a close. We depart on the Inca trail tomorrow for Machu Picchu, so we may be a little quiet for about 4 days, but I´m sure the stories and pictures upon our return will more than make up for it.

Until then

The First Real Night...

Hola Familia y Amigos,
We have arrived! We are in Cusco, Peru (which is amazing), but more importantly, we have achieved that glorious, idyllic state that all travelers know and love! We flew into Lima yesterday and we were lucky enough to avoid any serious problems (i.e. sitting next to some crazy talker or not getting our bags). Upon first glance (outside of the airport) Lima looks to be a crazy, dirty, unsafe to drive (and walk) city, but as we continued on our journey to the hostel, it improved tremendously. We stayed in an area known as Miraflores, which is located up the street from the Pacific Ocean (healing any home sickness we incurred during the 20 hours of travel). After checking in and cleaning up, we went out to explore. One might imagine, that on a Tuesday night at 9:30, there would be little going on; FALSE! On the contrary....Miraflores is a happening place. We ate dinner in a little restaurant in the alley by our hotel and chatted with a guy from Montreal, a great first night.

This Morning (Wednesday) we got up and cruised around Miraflores a little more then headed back to the aeropuerto, for yet another flight. We arrived in Cusco around 2:30 and have been lovin´ it ever since. Cusco is a wonderful city fulled with vibrant colors, beautiful old buildings, and lovely people. Plaza de Armas is the main square, which the city seems to revolve around. After walking around the city for a few hours we relaxed in a local coffee shop called Cappuccino for some coca tea. From here we headed back to out hostel for some good home cooking- rice, veggies and chicken with a peanut sauce....not bad for $3.50 US. So at this point, it is 12:24am and we have been celebrating our new Swedish friends 21st birthday. LIFE IS GREAT! We are both so happy to be here, it is indescribable! We are going on a trek to the Sacred Valley tomorrow, so we will let you know how that goes.

For know, it is time to continue celebrating to a song we all know and love "Paradise City" because that is were we are! Hope all is well in the states, we will continue to keep you all up to date. Also, for those we told about the amazing global phone we purchased specifically for this trip...it does not work in South America!!!! We are soooooooo done with Verizon! Ok, that is all for now, bye!

Special notes for people:

Marie- Glad to hear you are using the car and loving it...se vende, cuanto cuesta?

Dad- Thanks for the news about the earthquake in Chile, we do not know if it will affect our travels at this point, but it is possible.

Daniel- we saw a man on the street today cleaning his feet with a carbonated beverage, you may have some competition.

Adios!

Countdown...

We've made it this far - less than one day away...It's been a long journey just to get to this point. For all who may have caught the travel bug themselves, I thought I'd offer a little insight on how far we have come:

Of course, when you decide to go traveling, it's not as if you just throw your crap in a bag, get a taxi to the airport, buy a ticket, and go. If only it were that simple. It's funny, but in order to enjoy the simplicity and freedom promised by traveling, you essentially have to endure an obstacle course. Yes, I'm aware that I've managed to find a way to complain about the fact that I'll be traveling the world...but I swear it's justified.

Of course, it begins with the no strings attached claim, "let's go travel!" That fairy tale ends when you see ticket prices and the negative (-) sign by the large number in your bank account when you do commit to "going". Then you buy travel books, and the pictures inspire excitement...as the dream begins to become reality. However, upon further review, you discover that you will be exposed to nearly every single epidemic that still exists in this world. So, you arrange a meeting at the health center, where some guy who was not nearly committed enough to become a real doctor convinces you to willingly inject several viruses and bacteria into your body at a handsome fee.

The hepatitis series is a must if you've heard anything Pamela Anderson has had to say in the last couple years. It's kind of cool to take the typhoid fever pills because they are a live bacteria which you must keep refrigerated. Of course you can't remember the last time you had a tetanus shot, so you may as well get that. And you never thought you'd actually have the opportunity to take the yellow fever vaccination, and you know what they say about opportunity knocking...

Well, once you get over the flu like symptoms that result from all of that foreign bacteria wreaking havoc on your system, you feel confident and ready for the journey ahead. There are just a few more tasks you've got to take care of:

* Move out of your house, consolidate all of your belongings into a large backpack (the rest you must move into storage), and move back in with your mom (which, by the way, I would highly recommend)
* Break the news to your boss that you've decided to leave your excellent job to instead pursue a career in quickly deleting any savings you've accrued

But now it is here, and all of that agony is behind us...yes, now it is time to enjoy the fruits of our labors and travel.

Not Much Has Changed...

..Since our last post, which is fine, because we have yet to share this blog with anyone. However, Claire from Fillmore California magaged to stumble upon it and leave us an encouraging response. Thank you Claire, God bless you too, and congratulations for the first comment!

We're less than one month away from departure. We've made some additional plans for the trip (flights, hostels, moterhome rentals, etc.) and most importantly, we have reserved a four day trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. According to all of those who have seen it, Machu Picchu is most excellent...and Wikipedia has some pretty good things to say about it too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu

We'll be taking a couple days to "acclimate" (overrated) in Cusco. I imagine we'll encounter a bunch of tourists doing exactly the same thing as us (or having just done it)...so I'm sure we'll have plenty of stoked conversations with them as we sip on coco tea (and I'm not talking hot chocolate) and trip on the thin air.

So there it is. We're going to get things started with a grueling 4 day - 3 night hike, through rugged terrain, varying in elevation from 7,000 - 14,000 ft. I'm guessing that we'll need a little time to relax after such a massive trek, so I'm going to be dedicating the next 11 weeks to that.

The Journey Begins (AKA the first post!)

(in Juneau, Alaska, in front of the Taku Glacier)

We haven't left yet, but we can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. We leave on Nov. 12th out of San Francisco International Airport. Our first stop is a layover in El Salvador; should we decide to venture out of the airport we'll have about six hours to see all the City of San Salvador has to offer...plenty of time. After that, it's on to Lima, Peru...and our trip begins.

More Pictures and Posts to Come, stay tuned