Sleeping with the Taratullas

Friday, March 08

 

Another overnight bus brought us to Quito, Ecuador by 6am. As per our usual early morning bus routine, we waited until the sun came up before making a move. When the sun did come around, we hopped in a cab and asked them to take us to where all the backpackers could be found. Instead of charging us $1, he charged us the usual gringo price of $4 and didn’t bother taking us to the place we found out later he should have.  Instead, he took us for a 3 minute cab ride, and we ended up at a hotel in a random part of the city, which had no backpackers at all, and found out later was pretty dangerous. Thankfully the hotel itself was safe, and before we noticed we had gone back to sleep.

 

At 1pm we woke up and decided to walk around the neighbourhood to see what we could find. That was when we realized that we might not actually be where we wanted to be. There was a nice big park a few blocks away, but the neighbourhood looked kind of run down and uninviting. We grabbed a quick lunch at a restaurant that looked well populated and quickly headed back in the direction of our hotel. Before going back in, we stepped into the internet café just down the street to try and contact Dave’s friend Ivan to see if he was available to meet us for dinner. Ivan had already contacted us and sent his phone number so that we could call him from the hotel.

 

Later that evening, right as Ivan and his wife Pavla, arrived to  pick us up, there was a group of about 10 guys outside that looked like they were in a gang walking down the street all in a line. We quickly ran into the car and Ivan sped off, telling us that we were crazy for picking this hotel and he didn’t recommend that we stayed there over night. We filled him in on how we got there in the first place and told him we were definitely planning on finding another place to stay for the rest of our time in Quito.

 

Ivan and Pavla took us to a popular place known for dinner, drinks and dancing called Mariscal Foch where we did exactly that; dinner and some drinks, minus the dancing. We got to know Pavla, and Alice got to know Ivan for the first time. Pavla is an architect from the Czech Republic and they were both just about to start a new business designing houses in Ecuador. They told us they would be driving 3 hours out of the city the following day to speak to a guy about some possible business opportunities and they would gladly drop us off at a popular touristy area to spend the day if we were interested.

 

Saturday, March 09

 

We graciously accepted the tag-along on their mini road trip and were up and running with them by 9am.  The 3 hour drive was another winding one, as Quito the city is fairly high up in the mountains and we had to make our way down. The weather was not very much in our favour, as the sky was completely clouded over and occasionally the rain would come down pretty strong. The place they wanted us to go to sounded beautiful, with a big lake and waterfalls. However, because of the rain and the lack of a conveniently timed out bus from the entrance, we decided to forgoe the drop off. We really ended up tagging along with the couple to a town a half an hour further called Los Bancos, where we sat at a restaurant and had a snack while they had their meeting. After the meeting they took us through the gated area and into the almost empty lots where the new community would be built. It was so quiet and secluded, full of greenery with a huge community pool and cabana’s ready to go.

 

We grabbed a late lunch in the small town a few minutes away before heading back to Quito, and checked into a hostel right in the centre of Mariscal Foch (the nice safe area from the night before). We spent the rest of the evening relaxing there, at the hostel, until bed.

 

Sunday, March 10

 

The once busy streets of Mariscal seemed to be a ghost town on this rainy Sunday morning, but we ventured out to explore the streets anyway. We had decided that because the Galapagos where out of the question at this point, we would try to book a jungle tour instead. We sat down at a travel agency (one of only two that were open on Sundays) and inquired about our tour options. We were lucky to find a 5 day tour leaving the very next day. Before we booked the tour however, we had to go down the street to the bus terminal to make sure we could catch a bus that would arrive in the city called Lago Agrio before morning, as we would be picked up by someone with the tour in the by 9am. We were able to get the last 2 seats on the 10:30pm bus, take out money, and run back to the tour office to confirm the trip.

 

We now had almost 10 hours to kill in ghost town before our next adventure was to begin. We spent the day mucking around the hostel, working on our blog, sending home photos and running in and out for lunch, snacks, drinks, and dinner.

 

By 10:00 we were at the terminal ready to catch our 8 hour bus.

 

Monday, March 11

 

Well you can probably guess that our bus ride was yet another winding descent down the mountain. This bus was particularly uncomfortable and we barely got any sleep. The worst part was that we made it to Lago Agrio before our estimated time, which meant we were dropped off in a tiny deserted town at 4:30 in the morning. We did however, meet a fellow traveller on our bus named Harro (from Holand) whom we shared a cab with to the hotel where we were suppose to meet our driver for 9. The hotel, along with everything else in the town was boarded down closed, but with a collection of other people waiting to pick up there tour, sitting (and some lying down sleeping) waiting right in front.

 

We groggily joined the crowd and when the hotel opened an hour later, sat down on their patio and ordered breakfast while we continued to wait. Our driver Betty showed up and drove us and two other guys Hugo and Vidar (also from holand) to the small airport down the street to pick up the last 2 people in our group, who turned out to be an older Australian couple. Once all 6 of us were loaded into the truck we took the 2 1/2 hour drive deeper and deeper into the jungle to Cuyabeno River. There, we met Elvis, our tour guide, and were transferred into a speed boat for the next 2 and half hours down the river toward our Eco lodge accommodations.

 

Elvis pointed out as many animals as he could find for us along the way including various types of monkeys and birds and even a juvenile anaconda. Our lodge was made up of a main hut for a dining room and kitchen, a lounge hut and various smaller huts for us to sleep. We settled into our cute and cozy hut before sitting down for our delicious home cooked lunch.

 

We had some free time (which we spent napping, obviously) before we set out on the boat again to the big lagoon to watch the sunset and do some more animal watching. The sunset was breathtaking and we were lucky enough to run into some pink dolphins, who were just too quick to get pictures of, before went back for a candlelight lodge dinner. 

 

Tuesday, March 12

 

After breakfast we were introduced to our new guide for the day named William. We were a little thankful as, even though Elvis was lovely, his English was pretty difficult to understand. William fit us all in rain boots and made sure we all lathered up the bug spray in preparation for our jungle walk. We took the speed boat down a the river and were dropped off by a little path made in between the trees. We walked for about an hour and a half, while William stopped every few minutes to teach us about plants as we walked by and pointed out some bugs and birds.  He told us about the diversity of the jungle and how any hectare had 300 or so different types of trees. About half way through the walk we came to a Tarzan swing made by hanging branches from the tall trees. We all took turns swinging on it and taking cheesy pictures. Our rain boots came in handy as half of the walk we had to sludge through the mud and even swampy pools of water that accumulated from the heavy rains they had been getting. When we finally got to the end of our walk, our regular boat was not waiting for us. Instead, we all piled into a rickety canoe and had to paddle back to the lodge, but were thankfully rewarded with a delicious lunch.

 

In the afternoon we set back out on the river to a quite swampy spot for Piranha fishing. We were each given a simple stick with a line and a hook. Our quick lesson consisted of watching William attach some raw meat to his hook, tossing in his stick and wiggling it around a bit in a splashing motion. We all attached our own bait and threw our sticks in the same fashion. We cheered aloud, as one by one, people were getting little tugs on their lines and or pulling in and letting go of the Piranhas. Everyone was able to get at least one Piranha, everyone except for the two of us! We decided that Canadians just weren't meant to be   
                                                                                             good piranha fishers.

 

We headed back to the big lagoon for sunset swimming again, the evening ritual. After the sun went down it was a perfect night for hunting for the caiman alligators, something we had been looking forward to since we set out for the jungle. "Mascota" our boat driver, took us to the far side of the lagoon while we all clutched our flash lights in anticipation. Sure enough as we slowly approached the far side, we saw a pair of yellow eyes shining in the light. We quickly cut the engine and quietly waited until we saw the head of big caiman pop up several of feet away from us. William tossed out a few left over pieces of our Piranha bait and the caiman started slowly approaching the boat. At one point he was literally 2 feet away from exactly where the two of us were sitting and we were able to take some frighteningly close up pictures.

 

Dinner that night was delicious, but included a family of flying ant visitors. Alice had a hard time fighting them off and could barely eat. As soon as everyone else was done eating we made our way up to the bird watching tower to get away from the bugs and look at the stars.  Because we were so close to the equator we were able to see the stars on both the southern and northern hemispheres which included impeccable views of both the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper in one sky! It was our very first time seeing the Southern Cross which was a really nice treat.

 

                                                                       Wednesday, March 13

 

Today's itinerary took us to a native village a couple of hours down the river. The boat ride down was slow and relaxing as we were scouting for animals along the way. When we arrived, were guided by one of the local women down a path in the jungle where she showed us how they pick Yucas ( a South American type of very starchy potato). She tossed them around and got us all to help peel them before we walked back and watcher her cut them up and drain them from their juices using a hand woven mat. She worked the Yuka into a fine powder before she threw it into a giant pan and cooked tortillas out of it. We made tuna wraps as the end result for a little snack when she was done.

 

Before we left we went back into the jungle for a 15 minute walk to the biggest tree we'd ever seen (lengthwise and widthwise) Along the way we got to learn about all the different kind of plants they had growing right there on the island. They were stocked up on coffee and cacao plants, banana's, papaya, yucca and much more. We learned that the cacao plant has a big red fruit that encases all the seeds. When William cut it open it resembled the fruit inside a lychee and tasted juicy, sweet and delicious.

 

For the second half of our village trip we were taken to another village where the big Shaman lived. A shaman is a person in high respect that is educated in natural medicine, the person sick villagers are taken to for spiritual and homeopathic care. We sat down around him and he told us the story of his lineage and how he became to be the community Shaman. He told us the story of his graduation ritual and how his father took him into the middle of the jungle to try "ayawasca". Ayawasca is a crushed root, that is made into a hallucinogenic drink. As a shaman he would have to drink it every time he was trying to see into the eye of the spirit of disease in order to heal his patients. 

 

At the end of his presentation, he asked for a volunteer so he could show us a typical heeling ritual. No body raised their hand at first, until David was nice enough to take one for the team. The Shaman asked David to lye face down on a tiny little platform while he basically wacked him on the back over and over again with a sharp twig while he recited a traditional chant. David kept a straight face even though the process was quite painful, and when he got up, his back blew up in hives! The Shaman assured us it was completely normal and within an hour the hives would significantly decrease. We thanked the Shaman for a wonderful afternoon and headed back to the Eco lodge for an afternoon nap.

 

Before dinner we suited up in our rain boots once again and headed back into the jungle for a night walk. The jungle comes alive at night with a whole different slew of insects and animals. We saw a huge bug that looked exactly like a lobster, and a huge tarantula along with many other interesting bugs.  We were also slaughtered by the flying stinging bugs, as they were attracted to our headlamps and gringo blood. On the way back we stayed on the lookout for more Caiman, but settled for a tree boa instead.

 

Thursday, March 14

 

We were back with Elvis today, and back in our canoe with no motor. We paddled out for our second attempt at Piranha fishing along with some more animal exploring. We were disappointed yet again, as the piranha's seemed to be on vacation that day. We all got blisters from paddling on the way back and were able to work up HUGE appetites for lunch.

 

We spent most of the afternoon reading in hammocks before bringing in the evening with yet another breathtaking sunset at the lagoon. On the way back we stopped to look for the caiman again and this time, found a different one. At first his little yellow eyes made us believe he was a tiny one, maybe a baby. However when we got close (a little too close) we scared him and he made a big snapping splash that scared the living day lights out of us!

 

Friday, March 15

 

 

We woke to our last day in the jungle in the pouring rain, which is fair, being the rainforest and all. We had bird watching scheduled for 6:45am but were told not to bother if it was raining. As were straggled out for breakfast at 8, we were lucky enough to catch two toucans sharing some fruit up in the trees just as the rain was beginning to settle. After breakfast, they dressed us up in Ponchos for the 2 hour boat ride in the rain. Unfortunately our ponchos didn't protect us against the down pour as our clothes were all soaking wet by the time we made it back.

 

We said a sad goodbye to Elvis, William and some of our friends and headed back to the main town, Lago Agrio, to catch a bus to our next destination called Banos a little town with an active volcano.

 

 

 

With Love from the Amazon

D'Alice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gypsy Dayz

 

 

 

Saturday, March 02

When we woke up in Cusco, Peru after our 4 day crazy jungle tour we were still completely demolished. Our muscles were aching so much we could barely walk down the stairs with our backpacks to check out of our hostel. We spent the morning trying to find an easy way out of Peru and into Ecuador, unfortunately we had no such luck. Flights were super expensive and buses looked like they were going to take several days. We obviously opted for the long and inexpensive bussing route. On the taxi ride to the terminal, the streets were packed with people and traffic was bumper to bumper, but we didn't mind because all the street ladies were out selling there marketable items so we had a lot to look at.

The incredible (and nauseating ) view from the bus

At the terminal we managed to find a bus leaving at 4pm and heading to Lima (the capital of Peru). While we were waiting we ran into Philipp, one our friends from our Machu Picchu tour. He was also looking for a way to Ecuador and decided to join us on our trek.

The entire bus ride went in, out and through beautiful mountain and valleys. As usual though, along with the stunning views came that nauseating feeling in the pit of our bellies. The only way we can describe the ride in detail is that it felt like the bus was doing figure eight after figure eight for 25 straight hours. Thankfully we were lucky enough to have "healthy" neighbours and Gravol.

Before the sun came up the next day we woke up abruptly from a loud 'POP' we found out quickly that we had gotten a flat tire. The driver and crew quickly changed the tires, and we quickly fell right back asleep and we were right back on the road in no time.

Sunday, March 03

By 5:30 in the evening we arrived in Lima. The bus dropped us off in a whole in the wall in the middle of a place that we could automatically tell we didn't want to be in after dark. Philipp offered to walk down the street and ask around about where we could find an on going bus ticket. We were sure we weren't interested in staying in Lima overnight as we had heard that it was just another busy city with nothing too exciting to see. After almost an hour of waiting, we were starting to get worried about Philipp, but sure enough he made it back and quickly urged us to grab out things and get going as it was starting to get dark and someone on the street told him the area we were in was indeed considered dangerous. We sped walked to a mini terminal about 15 minutes away and bought tickets for the next bus leaving for city named Trujillo, which was the only available city North of where we were and on the way to the Ecuadorian border.

We found out that our 9:30 bus was overbooked and just as we were putting our bags on the bus, we were asked if we wouldn't mind switching to the super luxurious 11pm bus. We were more than happy to wait as this bus was considered VIP with leather seats that reclined back 160 degrees, which was a big step up from our usual "semi-cama's".

Monday, March 04

We woke up on day 2 of bus sleeping in Trujillo, Peru at 7am. The next bus to Tumbes (border town) wasn't until 8pm, so our taxi driver offered to be our private driver for the day for 30 solas per person which sounded pretty enticing for 12 hours of service. We accepted his offer as surprisingly there was a lot to see. The town was on the coast, so naturally there was a beach. In addition there were two touristic sights with indigenous ruins that were very recently discovered.

It was a cloudy day so we decided to have our driver take us to the touristic centre for breakfast and a place where we could drop off our big bags of laundry after the big hike. Our next stop was at "Huaca dela Luna" one of the archeological sites. They had found out that it dated back to 200 - 500 AC. At first when we pulled up it just looked like we were in the middle of the desert. However, as soon as we started on our tour we began to see the remains of the village between the sand hills. We were very impressed by the detail of the carvings in the sand. We learned about the culture and their rituals and even met two of their incredibly rare, hairless dogs!

After the first site we headed to "Chan Chan" another similar site that was 10 times larger than the first. We opted out of the tour for this one as we had already learned about the culture at the last, but we were able to walk around the main grounds on our own and read the information bubbles along the way. The village was massive with corridors leading to areas where these people had their prayers, met for festivals in the market areas, and even where they buried their dead.

By the time we got through the second site we were beginning to run out of energy, so we got our driver Armando to take us to a local Peruvian restaurant for lunch and then back to the touristic square where we could sit at a café and have some internet time.

We were hoping the clouds would subside at some point during the day so we could get a couple hours of beach time after so many weeks of being up in high altitudes.

We took a walk down the main street, and when we got to the main square we saw that they had a big festival going on to celebrate their annual book fair. We stuck around to watch the costume show for a bit and then settled down at a local café.

 

By 8pm we were on our 3rd night bus in a row in true gypsy fashion. Although this bus was nothing like the last, is was good enough for us to sleep somewhat peacefully into the morning.

 

Tuesday, March 05

 

 

 

Our arrival in Tumbes was right on schedule and as expected the city was over populated, crazy, and hectic. We had heard that border towns were somewhat grimy and dangerous, and this seemed to be the perfect example.  As soon as we got off the bus we got hit by the heat and harassed by taxi and motor taxi’s for rides to the frontier (border). We picked up another fellow backpacker from Slovenia, named Primoz, and the 4 of us jumped into a cab for 1 sol each to yet another bus company. Luckily there was a bus leaving for a city called Guayaquil, Ecuador, in less than 10 minutes and it cost us less than $10 per person. We barely had enough money left over between the 4 us as none of us wanted to take out Peruvian money right before crossing into Ecuador (where their currency was American dollars). Thus we were left with no money and no time for breakfast, and we opened up our snack bags to eat the last of our animal crackers and chocolate to hold us over.

 

The bus was a little rickety, but we had the front 4 seats which meant extra leg room and a great view. As soon as we crossed the border the landscape went from dry and empty to lush dense greenery. The first couple of hours we drove by banana plantation after banana plantation with a great view of a volcano in the background.

 

Four hours into the trip we started picking up random people off the street including countless guys selling anything from coconut water to meat on a stick. We managed to fill our bellies with fruit, meat, potatoes and cookies for only $2 each! It was definitely the best bus lunch we’d had since the 15 cent “taco de pollo” in Nicaragua nearly 3 months earlier.

 

By 5pm we entered Guayaquil, a city that to our surprise was pretty modern and definitely in the 1st world. The Terminal was HUGE and filled with brand name stores and restaurants. Upon arrival, we had no plan, nor the energy to make one. We eventually parked ourselves in the food court and took turns going to the bank, (we tried 5 different ones until we could finally withdraw some cash) and doing research at the internet hub.

 

Philipp had arranged a place for himself through a website called couchsurfing, which is basically a place where travellers open up their homes to other travellers to make exploring a new city or country easier and cheaper. His host’s name was Diego, and when he arrived to pick him up we kindly asked him if he wouldn’t mind driving us to the backpackers district. He graciously agreed, and even drove us around the town to show us a few things on the way. It was already dark out, so we couldn’t see much, but we were very thankful and thoroughly enjoyed his hospitality. The hostel he drove us to was in a safe and wealthy area, and the hostel itself was originally a big house with an awesome outdoor pool!

 

After we checked in, we went to pick up some take-out and ate dinner by the pool while Diego filled us in on everything there was to know about himself and Ecuador. At last, that night we were able to have long overdue showers and a comfy sleep in a real bed while listening to the pouring rain.

 

Wednesday, March 06

 

Diego and Philipp came to pick us up at 12:45 and we all went to the downtown core by the docks for lunch. The docks overlooked the river and the big bridge that brought us into the city.  On the far left was an old poor town that was transformed into a touristy hill to climb to get a great view of the whole city. We climbed all 420 steps (not without getting flashbacks of Machu Picchu) to the top, and indeed enjoyed the great view in spite of the cloudy weather.

 

Later that afternoon, Diego took us to a poshy dessert place (Diego was definitely one of the wealthier Ecuadorians) on the ritzy side of town where we sat outside in the blazing humidity for coffee and pastries. The place looked like a high end resort full of security and expensive stores. Diego had told us that one of the stores was owned by the former “Miss Ecuador”, and a belt in there would cost no less than $200. Even the bathrooms were impressive with marble counters, tiles and walls, and was all in all a huge step up from the holes in the ground in Bolivia!

 

We spent the evening at our hostel by the pool again sipping  beers and having a relaxing fiesta that brought us into the wee hours of the morning. Before we went to bed we said a HUGE goodbye to Philipp as he was heading straight to the bus terminal to hop on a bus to Quito for 5am, and we had become very close over the recent days of gypsy-ism.

 

Thursday, March 07

 

We woke up super late and did absolutely nothing all afternoon besides hanging out at the hostel watching TV, checking our emails, and relaxing.

 

 

 

At 7pm Diego came to pick us up and took us out to try Ecuador’s famous crabs for dinner. It was definitely an interesting experience even though it gave us huge stomach aches after.

 

By 11:30 we back on a bus (sigh) and headed for Quito to meet Dave’s old friend Ivan from Canyon Creek. Naturally, we hoped that would be the last overnight bus for a little while, unfortunately though, it wouldn’t be.

 

Thanks for reading along,
With love from the mountains in Quito

D'alice

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trekking through the Jungle to Machu Picchu

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Monday, February 25

 

We arrived in Cusco Peru a little too early for our liking. It was 5:30 am, and still completely dark outside. We shared a cab with our new best-friend-travel-buddies Brian and Michelle, to the centre of tourist town and decided to wait patiently on a bench until the sun came up to wonder around. The central park was beautiful, well kept, and landscaped, and we could see a tiny little Starbucks sign in the corner of one of the buildings so we knew we were going to like this city. By 6am we were being harassed by a man named Jimmy handing out flyers for the hostel he was promoting, and asking us to follow him over there. We were exhausted and figured "why not" at this point, so the 4 of us headed down the 5 blocks with him. Michelle and Brian found a hotel they thought was pleasing on the way, and Dave and Alice continued past the central market to the hostel. We checked into the biggest private room we've ever gotten and went straight to the market for two $1 delicious breakfast sandwiches.

We met Michelle and Brian later that afternoon for lunch and some relaxing time at Starbucks and talked about our options for making our way to Machu Picchu. Jimmy from earlier that morning was also promoting trips to Machu Picchu and one that we couldn't resist was the 4 day Inka Jungle Tour for only $200 pp. Michelle and Brian didn't have enough time left in their travels for a 4 day trek, and since our trip was leaving the very next day, this was going to be our last night with our new friends. We planned another mini wine and cheese party for the evening back at our hostel, and we picked up 2 boxes of wine and $3 cheese from the market for later.


We were determined to find the other "Wild Rover" location in Cusco since we just loved their menu so much in La Paz, and made our way over their for dinner, but not before Michelle was nice enough to give Dave a hostel haircut! We shared a shepherds pie and our favorite veggie soup and the boys played a little bit of jits before we headed back for some wine. Michelle and Brian wanted to stop at their hotel to pick up a few things they wanted to donate to us before heading back home, so we went ahead and said we'd get everything all set up.

As we turned the corner and onto our street, we heard a whole slew of dogs barking in the distance, and just as we passed an open door along the way, a dog came running out and headed straight for the back of Alice's thigh! She yelled "OUCH!" and the dog quickly ran away, but not before he gave her a tight little squeeze. Alice quickly bee lined it into the hostel and ran upstairs to check the damage. Luckily, no skin had been broken and all it looked like was a big red mark even though it was stinging pretty bad. The first thought that went through our minds was RABIES! and we quickly started researching all the information we could find about it. Thankfully most of the things we read about put us at ease being that there was no broken skin. We followed the instructions by washing the site right away and Alice applied almost our entire tube of Polysporin around the site.

When we finally calmed down we were able to enjoy a short goodbye drink with Michelle and Brian and wished them the best of luck on their travels back home.

Tuesday, February 26

At 6:45 am we had prepared our small bags to take with us to the tour and we were on our way to the main square where we had to meet our group. The tour agency was a little bit disorganized as there were much too many people working there and they seemed as if they were having communication problems with one another. We still managed to leave on time, nonetheless, and headed straight to a bicycle rental shop to pick up our mountain bikes for the first leg of the trip. As soon as the bikes were locked up tightly to the top of our mini bus we began our 4 hour drive up the mountain to a place called Ahora Malaga. At 4350m the 22 of us got out of the 2 busses and suited up for the 4 hour downhill bike ride, but not before a quick pep talk about rules and safety from our guides.

As we set out on our descent, it was cold, rainy, steep, and occasionally very rocky.  The lower we got the more the fog broke and the more we could tell how high up we actually were! The views were breathtaking as we rode down, looking down into the valley full of greenery and surrounded by mountains all the way around. We stopped a few times along the way to make sure we were all ok and sticking together. At one point we were forced to stop at a road block due to an big landslide earlier that morning. Construction crew were working frantically to clear the road and allow traffic to get through. We waited for about 40 minutes, watching the cars pile up behind us before the workers let us through. As soon as we started making our way across and it all seemed safe, we saw some rocks beginning to crumble right in front of us! Before we knew it, a big rock was heading right for Dave and smashed right into the metal bar around the front wheel of his bike, missing his leg by mere inches! Thankfully both Dave and his bike were just fine, even though we had to stop for a minute to catch our breath and realize how lucky we were.

The rest of the ride was incredibly fun and exhilerating. We sped down the mountain very fast, dodging cars, trucks, eachother, and getting soaking wet driving through random mini rivers. We made it down to the bottom in only 3 1/2 hours, and quickly changed before jumping back into the bus for a quick 1/2 ride into the small town of Santa Maria where we had lunch and checked into our hostel.  The town had one main dirt road for a street where they had a few restaurants, 2 markets and 2 little bars.

We rested after lunch for a couple of hours and after dinner our guides took us all to one of the local bars to try a popular drink called the Inca Monkey ( Inca liquor, with creme de mente and cacao).

Wednesday, February 27

We all had to be up for breakfast at 6:15 before starting our 9 hour hike through the jungle. We started at the old town of Santa Maria before it had gotten washed away by El Nino years back. The weather was hot, sunny and humid as we started trekking uphill through the outskirts of the lush greenery of the jungle. Our first stop was at a local house in the hills where they had a pet monkey tied up.  The monkey would immediately search people´s pockets, take out whatever he could find (i.e. Cell phones) and proceed to smash them on the concrete.  Needless to say, we cleaned out our pockets before getting up close and personal.

After refueling on water and snacks, we faced another treacherous hour and a half uphill climb through the treacherous heat and jungle.  The next stop was at another local house, where we were served freshly squeezed Passionfruit juice, as well as ¨Chicha Morales¨, which we had tried a few times to that point.  Our guide, Rene, gave us a lessons on cocoa, coffee, and hot peppers, amongst other locally grown specimen.  The pepper he gave Dave was particularily large, and after eating the whole thing in one bite (not advised), Dave began crying and hiccupping, and was asked to confirm whether or not he was missing his mama.  Of course the answer was yes :).  Finally, we were treated to a demonstration of the application of a local plant that served as war paint, sunscreen, and insect repellent, and then we were on our way.

Another tough uphill section, and an hour or so later, and we were at our final local house-stop.  This one had a rascal as a pet, as well as a dog, and they entertained the group by playfighting on a hammock.  We were given a quick lesson on the uses of Coca leaves, and most of us cleaned the war paint off our faces, as we were told that the combination of sweat and paint would stain our clothing.  We then embarked on the section of the hike that included the original Inca trail, which was quite a treat.  The old steps were quite narrow, and at some points only offered a few feet to the side where the cliffs were both breathtaking and frightening (especially for Dave, as you should all well know by now).  We stopped at an authentic Inca rest area, where we were told of the history of the Inca trail, Machu Picchu, and the importance of the Coca Leaves.  We were all given big wads of Coca Leaves to chew on, and were told that when your cheek went numb, then you knew they were working.


We hiked for ANOTHER 2 hours before lunch, and by the time we got to the very small town where lunch was being served, we were all famished.  We ate pasta with meat sauce, and not too many words were spoken by the 20 or so hikers during the feeding.  After lunch, we were told we had an hour to rest, and we all lay down on the dirt and tried to sleep.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful, except to say that we hiked all the way up the mountain, only to immediately turn around and hike back down.  A little frustrated by this, we asked why we would do such a thing, and we were told that the normal trail along the river (not a steep uphill climb, like we had done) had been washed away by the recent flooding that had occured.  Oh well.  All told, we hiked just over 26 km that day, about half of which was uphill.  We were rewarded at the end, though, by finishing our hike at the natural hot springs, where we all rested our aching muscles and blistered feet (not bitter at all).

When we were finished at the hot springs, it was pouring rain, and we made our way safely up the mountain to the town of Santa Teresa.  And by, ¨safely up the mountain¨, what we mean is, we packed 8 people into a
station wagon taxi, that had only front wheel drive, and a completely fogged over windshield.  As we slipped, slided, and prayed our way up the mountain (dirt road), Alice and Dave traded terrifying looks, and were close to tears.  We made it safely, though, ran out of the cab, and thanked our lucky stars, so to speak.

We finished the evening with dinner and were treated to 3 shots of "Inca Tequilla", which was a mix of some very strong plum liquor, and very spicy hotsauce.  We slept well.

Thursday, February 28.

We were told to be back at the same restaraunt were we´d had dinner the night before for breakfast at 7:15 am.  Most of us got there by 7:30.  We had an omelette and panqueques for breakfast, and then 75% of the group left to go zip-lining, as it had either been included in their tour or they paid extra.  Did Alice and Dave pay for zip-lining though? Noooooo!  They thought that after the 26 km hike from the day before, it´d be a good idea to add the extra 3 hours that would be necessary for those who didn´t zipline.  So at 8:30, we embarked on another day of hiking with a group that had went from 22 down to 7.

 

The hike itself was mostly unremarkable.  It was raining pretty consistently, and the road itself was pretty flat.  There was some pretty nice scenery, though, as we inched closer to Machu Picchu mountain, and saw waterfalls, and roaring rivers along the way.  After almost 3 hours to the second, we met up with the zipliners at the "cablecar".   The "cablecar" was a makeshift river passing, as the aforementioned flooding had recently washed away the bridge that crossed over the river.  Two by two we all stuffed into the metal box and were pulled across the river.  The experience was quite slow, and a little terrifying, as we saw the river crashing about 50 feet below.  After about 2 hours, though, the whole group had made it across safely.  We had lunch at a restaraunt just beside the train station, and then set out on the second half of the hike through the jungle.

We walked along the train tracks for the remainder of the afternoon, and made friends with some of the other hikers, specifically a nice couple from Italy who didnt speak much english, but were on the same pace as us as they had not done the ziplining either.  We saw a bit of local wildlife in the form of birds, butterflies, and poinsonous caterpillars, and were treated to a nice rainbow as well.  Nearing the end of the hike, we looked up and saw a tiny little tease of Machu Picchu high in the mountains ahead.

We finally made it to our town as the sun was setting, and had dinner.  We all turned in to our beds immediately after dinner, as we would all be waking up before balls a.m. the next day.  We were given two options on how to make it up to Machu Picchu; one; wake up at 4:00 a.m., walk to the trailhead (30 min), and hike up the 1875 Inca steps that took you up to the site, or two; wake up at 5:00 a.m. and take the bus up......

Friday, March 1.

Being the hardcore backpackers we had come to think we were, we woke up at 4:00 a.m. and decided to go for the hike.  We left the hostel just after 4:20, and, accompanied by a group of 7 others, made our way to the trailhead in the dark (assisted by our trusty headlamp).  We made it to the trailhead just before 5:00, and despite the screaming objections from our legs, started up the steps.

As we had become accustomed to, we made our way to the back of the pack, and adopted a slow-but-steady pace.  And wouldn´t you know it, our Italian friends found themselves in the exact same place!  We hiked up the difficult steps as a group of 4 determined trekkers, and made it to the top, soaking wet with sweat, just after 6:00 a.m.  The rest of our group (most of whom had opted for taking the bus) greeted us with dry shirts, fresh legs, but also claps and cheers as we made it to the top.  We had a quick snack that we´d packed along, and then went for our guided tour of Machu Picchu.

The guide spoke english well, and gave us great insight into the meaning of Machu Picchu, the different sectors of the city, and the temples of the area. We will spare the details for you, as google can provide a much better and more precise recount.  We will say, however, that the site was unbelievable, and the pictures do not do any kind of justice.  Initially, the entire area was blanketted in a thick fog, but as the guide promised, the fog dissipated as the day went on, and by the end, we were provided with a crystal clear view of Machu Picchu, the surrounding mountains, and the river and towns far below.

 When we had booked the tour back in Cusco with good ol´ Jimmy, he had told us that we had two "optional hikes" once at Machu Picchu.  He made it sound as if they were both pretty similar in both difficulty and reward, and of course, he lied.  One of which was called "Oanupichhu", and was a 45 minute hike up to the site of the moon temple and a sacrificial cave.  The second was a hike up the actual Machu Pichhu mountain, which was a 2 hour hike up to nothing.  Everybody else in our group had been signed up for Oanupicchu, but of course Jimmy had signed us up for Machu Picchu mountain, without our trusty Italian friends to keep us company.  Despite the already severe pain in our legs, we decided that we would probably only get one shot at Machu Picchu, and to take advantage of it.

The hike to the summit did in fact take 2 hours, and although there was nothing in the way of temple or cave at the top, there was an incredible view, and it was very rewarding.  The top also, however, contain a breathtakingly steep cliff beside the three feet of path, which proved too much for Dave and his vertigo to handle.  But, being that we had made it to the top (minus the last 10 steps), we agreed to stop there, eat a big bag of Doritos, and head back down after Dave had stopped trembling in fear.



We met up with our Italian buds again at the point that looked out over the city, and spent the rest of the afternoon in awe, and discussing our respective optional climbs.  To finish the trip, we were left with one final decision; take the bus down, or walk down the same 1875 steps that we had conquered much earlier in the morning.  Of course, we were not going to throw in the towel now, and decided to make the final hour and a half walk back to the town.  When we finally reached our hostel, we had discovered that along with the Italians, we were the only people to have walked every single step along the 4 day journey, and were very proud of that fact.

We spent the evening drinking beer, eating pizza, and waiting for the 9:30 train that would eventually connect with an 11:00 bus back to Cusco.  We made it back to Cusco just before 1:00 a.m. and were sleeping before we even hit the pillow.

 

 

Sorry about the long read, but we had a lot to say!
With love from bed,
D'Alice

 

 

 

Through Bolivia to Lake Titicaca to Peru!

 

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Monday,  February 18
 

We woke up to catch our bus to Sucre, a town north of the flats with great historical culture. It was the first time that our assigned seats weren’t next to each other, but thankfully they were just one row apart. The ride was a pretty windy one, which we have become quite used to by now. Unfortunately we couldn’t say the same for the Bolivian lady sitting beside David. This poor lady couldn’t hold her stomach and started getting sick in a bag 20 minutes into the trip! She was pretty good about it, holding up her blanket so David couldn’t see it all happening. She did however, fail to prevent a little bit of spatter from getting on his pants! Way to start off a morning eh? If you thought that was bad enough, it wasn’t until she ended up farting on him that he was completely mortified!

 

It wasn’t long before they made us all get off the bus in a dingy terminal and a sketchy part of town along the way. They were directing some of us onto one bus, and others on another even though we were all going to the same place. None of us had any idea we were even suppose have this bus switch, so we all got worried for a while. The 2 buses ended up joining together again however, and it all ended up working out just fine. This stretch lasted hours, while the bus continuously stopped to pick up unpaying local people along the way. At one point the aisles were full of traditional Bolivian women with their wide skirts and long dangling braids, and their children in their arms leaning over onto us for the rest of the way.

 

When we arrived in Sucre at 7:30 pm we all literally ran off the bus for air, ready to lose our sanity. Still with Michelle and Brian, we opted to attempt walking into the city centre where they already had reservations at a hostel. We walked around in circles trying to read a map that didn’t make any sense and after 30 minutes of not making any progress we decided to just hop into a cab. Their hostel turned out to be super swanky for $60 a night so Dave and Alice headed down the street in search of something a little bit more in their price range. We found something quickly, just 3 blocks over for only $11 a night, which we were happy with.

 

Tuesday, February 19

 

After our complimentary breakfast of the usual toast and coffee, we met up with Michelle and Brian to explore the town of Sucre. We  walked through the central park in the “Plaza de Armas”, the political square and headed down the street to find a mini central park with a mini Eifel Tower. The parks were beautifully landscaped with well kept cultural building all in white surrounding them. The streets were narrow with loads of people running to and from where ever they needed to be, a mix of tourists and locals throughout. The central part of the city was very touristy, filled with cafes, shops, and tour agencies.

 

We decided it might be fun to veer out of the touristy area and head back to the bus terminal to pre-book our ongoing tickets as we had heard from other backpackers that they were filling up fast. So we headed over there by foot this time, and after 2 hours of walking and getting slightly lost along the way we found it and completed our mission. We stopped at a local hat store at the terminal so Michelle and Brian could buy some fun hats and then headed back to tourist town for an overdue lunch. We had Philly cheese sandwiches and taco’s at a café with the best hot sauce thus far.  

 

  

After lunch we split up to have some down time, but not before planning a patio/wine party back at Michelle and Brian’s swanky hotel. Dave and Alice spent the afternoon watching episode after episode of their new favorite show Game of Thrones and didn’t even end up having time for a nap in the pouring rain. By 9 o’clock the rain still hadn’t stopped coming down, so we figured our patio party idea wouldn’t work, but we grabbed our rain jackets and headed over the pick up our friends anyway. We opted for an indoor wine and cheese party back at our cheese plate find from the night before and next thing you know... we had downed 3 $6 bottles of wine and hadn’t even eaten dinner yet!

 

By this time we didn't even realized the kitchen was closed, so we walked down the street and found another café that still looked alive and kicking. We ordered a big Mediterranean plate for 4, and of course another bottle of wine and laughed the night away.

 

Wednesday, February 20

 

We woke up in no shape to move anywhere too fast. After eating as much left over pasta as possible to soak up our hangovers, we checked out of our place and headed over to Michelle Brian’s to take advantage of their extra hour before checkout. We were able to leave all of our bags there for the day as we had a few more things to see before leaving town later that evening.

 

We walked through the square and found a cute café that looked like they had a good espresso machine, wifi, and yummy cakes in the window. We spent a couple of hours there, searching the web for our much dreaded expensive flights out of South America and across the pacific ocean. After lots of sweating and price checking, we settled on a flight out of Quito, Equador to New Zealand for March 19 with a great big stop over in Fiji.

 

The owner at the “Abis café” was super hospitable, we spent some time getting to know him and he invited us to his brand new restaurant down the street for a late lunch. At 2pm we said thank you and goodbye before jumping on the dinosaur bus to Sucre’s infamous Jurassic Park. While excavating an area 30 minutes out of town, Sucre had stumbled upon over 50 000 dinosaur tracks and turned it into a big tourist attraction and museum. We took a tour that taught us all about the tracks and their origin.

 

We ended off our great hangover day in Sucre with a delicious home cooked meal at the new “Abis Restaurant”. As soon as we were done eating we quickly thanked the owner again and headed back to the terminal for yet another long windy, mountainous overnight bus ride. We quickly realized it was going to be a long night when we saw that there was no bathroom on the bus and only 30 minutes into the drive people were getting sick left, right and centre. An exceptionally gross lady was sitting behind Michelle, hanging over her seat coughing and making gagging noises all night. At one point this lady got up and walked down the aisle with a bottle in her hand leaning over Alice’s chair and heaving like she was going to throw up all over the place! Thankfully she sat back down and was able to mildly contain herself.

 

Thursday, February 21

 

At 2am we finally stopped at a hole in the wall for a bathroom break. The bathrooms were almost unusable due to the dirt and smell coming out of them. There were only 2 stalls that had to be shared by all the people on the bus (men and women) and the doors had huge holes in them so you could completely see the person doing their business inside! The toilets didn’t even have a flushing mechanism, you had to fill up a jug of water and wash your business down the toilet yourself!  When we got back on the bus, we realized how pungent the smell of puke actually was in there.

 

When we were all in utter disgust and just as we were thinking it couldn’t get any worse, the bus broke down at 5am. David and Brian went outside a few minutes later to see what had happened, and there 5 steps away from the door to the bus was gross lady, squatting down taking care of a number 2! The night just couldn’t end soon enough. It took 4 hours to get a mechanic out to fix our bus and we didn’t arrive to La Paz until noon that day.

 

Completely run down and irritated, we walked uphill into the centre of town with our big bags to find a hostel. Thankfully we found room at the Wild Rover, quickly and almost painlessly. The place was huge and nice and it even had an Irish pub/restaurant built into it. We had a delicious and cheap homemade veggie soup, stir-fry and Cajun fries for lunch and didn’t wake up from our nap until 9pm.

 

When we woke up it was pouring rain, so instead of going anywhere, we ordered a pizza and went right back to bed.

 

Friday, February 22

 

Alice couldn’t sleep past 5:45 am and worked on the blog until Dave opened his eyes at 8. They went to the pub for their free coffee and toast and set out to meet Brian and Michelle at the Plaza Marillo ( the main square) for noon. Michelle was having a slow morning as she was feeling flu-ish so we went back to pick her up before heading to our pub for another delicious, cheap home cooked meal.

 

After lunch we dropped Michelle back off at her hotel and set out to explore the city. We walked over to the La Paz Prison which was only a block away from Michelle and Brian’s place. We thought it was a little weird that the jail was right smack in the middle of a busy city, but it was pretty interesting none-the-less. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking to and through the witches' market. It was street after street of shops and vendors selling all the touristy things under the sun, from home hardware materials to musical instruments to finger hand puppets.

 

Later that night we met Brian at the La Paz movie theatre to grab dinner and to see the new Die Hard movie.

 

 

Saturday, February 23

 

 

Michelle and Brian came to meet us at our pub for yet another delicious meal for breakfast. We had a lazy morning as we didn’t have to check out until 1pm. We had a terminal lunch and hopped on a 3 hour bus to Copacabana, a city on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We got 2 rooms at the Mirador Hotel for only 60 pesos a night ($10 US). We went directly to the tour office to book a tour of the lake for the following day and our next bus out of Bolivia and into Peru. We only had a half an hour to walk around the tiny, but super cute town before it got dark. When it did get dark, we huddled into one of the restaurants on the strip called Mantah Aku for steak, pizza and onion rings.

 

Sunday, February 24

 

By 8:30 we had had our continental breakfast and were on our catamaran lake tour of Titicaca. The tour was a long, cold and rainy ferry to the island called Isla De La Luna. The sky was just finally beginning to open up as we stepped foot on the island. One of the islands few inhabitants walked us up and around the island explaining it’s heritage and the meaning behind it’s name. An couple of hours later we were on the second island called Isla De La Sol where the sun conveniently came out in full effect and we enjoyed a nice patio lunch.

 

By 5:30 the tour was over and we were back just in time to catch our 6:30 bus to Peru, our 8th country in just over 2 months of travelling. We got our favorite front row double decker seats with a view. Just as we were starting to dose off 3 hours later, we all got woken up and kicked off the bus to switch busses. Here we are thinking oh no, here we go again!

Thanks for tuning in!
With love from a(nother) bus,
D'Alice