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.