Krista and Petr's Adventures Down South

It's been a long time since our last entry - mostly because we are now actually on the beaches of Brazil and the pace of life and travel has slowed to a snail's pace. Quite frankly we are exhaused from doing nothing. But it wouldn't do justice to the last part of our Peru and Bolivia trip if we didn't finish off the story.

Our journey continues from Cuzco to the town of Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca by bus (all day). Our first glimpse of Lake Titicaca reminded us of looking at the ocean as it was so vast! This lake is the highest navigable lake in the world with a surface area of over 8,000 square kms. We stayed one night in Puno and then we were off on a little "put put" boat moving at about a 1/2 knot per hour to visit the islands. The first island was Taquille which is very unique in that the people retain almost all of thier traditional ways of life. The women spin the wool and but it is only the men who do the knitting. Everyone participates in community improvement projects. Power is generated by solar panels. The lifestyle seems simple, but we can learn a lot from their example.

We had lunch here and took a little hike around then it was off to the island of Amantani where we stayed with a local family. Our "mama's" name was Norma. She was very sweet. We got dressed up in traditional clothing and went to a dance at the town hall. It was a hoot! This was definitly a highlight. We had a bit of luck with our mama's house as it seemed to be the only one with a flushing toilet and a light in the loo which was run by solar panels. We've learned to be grateful for small luxuries and not to take the small things for granted. The house had little rooms with little doorways and the kitchen had a dirt floor with little chairs. The food, which was very basic, was cooked on a tiny terracotta clay oven heated by fire.

The next day were were back on the slow boat and off to the famous Uros floating islands. The sky had the most beautiful fluffy white clouds. The islands were fascinating, however, they now exist more for the tourists and to maintain the traditional ways of life but are no longer are real communities. It was then back to Puno for one night before catching the bus to cross the border into Bolivia.

Here's a link for more info on Lake Titicaca.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca

Early the next morning we got on the bus to cross the border into Bolivia. There was quite a bit of discussion about the crossing as Bolivia has a bit of a reputation for trouble. Our tour guide Fiorella actually changed our route to avoid a certain border that she knew could be quite difficult. I'm not sure what that meant but I'm sure there was a good reason to change. Our crossing went smoothy although it was a scene of organized chaos. People and buses everywhere and several different police offices to visit. At one stage we had to get off the bus and walk the 1/2 km over the border from the Peru side to the Bolivian side. (I'm not sure how the old and lame do this.) It was quite exciting actually.

After the border crossing our first stop in Bolivia was the little resort town of Copacabana. Which is actually the original Copa - the famous beach in Rio is named after the Bolivian Copa! We had lunch here and found out how unbelievably cheap it is to travel in Bolivia. Wish we had booked more time here as one could live very well on very little. After our lunch stop in Copa we were on the final leg to La Paz. (The highest capital city in the world.) We had heard a lot about La Paz on other parts of our trip and everyone warned us how dangerous it is. So upon arriving we were quite wary and on guard. All backpacks carried on our fronts for safety. We were actually just looking forward to getting the La Paz part over with. However, we were pleasantly surprized. Bolivia is a very poor country and for that reason one has to be careful. But we found that, as in all places, the hype seems to be worse than the reality. We had a lot of fun in La Paz and took a city tour to get the feel of the city since we had such a short time there. On our last night we had a big drink up with the group in a restaurant/bar with a real Cuban salsa band - What luck, of course we danced our pants off and had a fab time.

Thanks to everyone in the group for all the fun and laughs! You got that??!!

The next leg of our journey takes us to Cuzco the heart of the Incas and pre Inca civilization. An interesting point of trivia is that Cusco is the longest continuously inhabited city in the Americas. We had only a day here as we were hopping on the bus to the living city of the Incas - Ollayantaytambo and the start of our trek. This part of the trip we were immersed in the culture past and present. It is really amazing to see the various aspects of Peru. Last week we were in a desert wasteland that seemed to go on forever and now we´ve been to the high mountain farmlands and the beginings of the Amazon jungle.

The Lares trek has so far been the cultural highpoint of the trip. This hike was in the high mountains in altitudes starting at 2,800m going up to over 5,000m on our second day. We had time to aclimatize after four or so days and so we were able to make the 5,000m pass without too much difficulty. The amazing part of the trek aside from the starkly beautiful scenery were the rural villages that we passed along the way. The people in these remote villages live largely the same as in Inca times. Adobe huts without running water or electricity. The main fuel is donkey dung and peat. The villagers dressed in traditional clothing they made themselves and wore open sandals even in the near freezing temperatures. They live a simple rural life without very much influence from the modern world and some of the more remote of the villages we saw were assessable only on foot or by horse.

We had all four seasons in the three days - rain, sun, cloud and snow on the morning of our last day. But it didn´t matter we were all smiles.

Children of the high Andes

Our tenting site at 4,800 meters

As if that wasn´t enough the next day we were on the train to Machu Piccu nestled amonsts mountain peaks and surrounded by jungle. It is as amazing as it seems. We arrived early in the morning before the bulk of the other tourists and had the place virtually to ourselves for a couple of hours. Next to Machu Piccu is the site of Wayna Piccu which is even higher and from that viewpoint one can look down on Machu Piccu. So we climbed it 45 minutes of straight up sweaty narrow stairs precariously chiselled out of the cliffside. The views were worth it. We spent the whole day exploring incredible craftmanship and architecture of the ruins. Marvelling at the progressive technology and structures. Then we caught the very interesting train back to Cusco. The train porters stowed our luggage, served beverages then changed out of their uniforms and perfomed a tradional dance in costume then gave an alpaca fashion show complete with runway moves and music. Next Top Peruvian Train Porter Model? It was quite bizzare but very entertaining.

Us at Machu Piccu

We are now in Cusco with three days to ourselves (may go horsebackriding again) then off to Puno and Lake Titicaca.
Hasta leugo amigos!

We are definitely behind in our blogging. The pace of travelling in Peru has been fanatical. Buses and more buses. Luckily they have been larger and more comfortable than in Ecuador.

Here´s a picture of Petr in the district of Barranco in Lima.

We spent a couple of days in Lima touring the city then it was off to the town of Nasca and a flight over the Nasca lines. Enroute we went past the town of Pisco which was devastated by the recent earthquake. It was horrible to see the damage caused by an earthquake in a third world country - people were living in tents along the roadside.

In Nasca we took a flight in a single engine 4 seater airplane over the lines. Petr and Krista had differing opinions of the flight. Petr loved it Krista hated it both for the same reason - small airplane banking at almost 90 degrees and very bumpy. Sorry no pictures.

Petr went dune buggy riding and sandboarding on the dunes near Pisco and had a lot of fun. (Krista was still sick from the plane.)

Then we went on the mother of all groteque bus rides - the stinky night bus to Arequipa took 10 hours and even though it was a ¨luxury¨ bus it was still uncomfortable to sleep in. Arrived in Arequipa in the morning and went to bed for a couple of hours of real sleep. Arequipa is the ¨white city¨ and is surrounded by volcanoes. Must mention that so far all of Peru that we´ve seen is a desert.

Krista and Petr in the White City

Next day we took a side trip to the Colca Canyon and reach our highest altitude so far of 4,900M (about 15,000 feet). Many of our group were feeling the effects of altitude, but luckily the effect on us was minimal. Petr tried the coca leaves which tasted awful but made him buzz like extra strong coffee. We arrived at a tiny farming village mostly made of mud and brick and spend the night in a beautiful adobe style hotel. The town was surrounded by ancient pre Inca terraces still being used today.

Petr near the Colca Canyon

The next morning we went to the Colca Canyon which is the deepest canyon on Earth which is over 3kms deep in some parts. We came to see the rare Peruvian Condor. . . and before we left 6 condor soared and circled overhead.

Slowly we made our way back to Arequipa where we are now. Tomorrow we board the plane to Cuzco and the next day start our three days of trekking in the Andes on the Lares trail to Machu Piccu.

Well here we are winding down our last days in Ecuador. On October 4 we left Quito in the afternoon to go to a 400 year old Hacienda near the small town of Cayambe (named after the volcano Cayambe). We had a lot of fun here as we went horseback riding and took a walk to the Equator line. The horses were pretty well looked after and fairly well behaved although they definitly had their pecking order.
Thanks Bas for the picture!

These days at the hacienda were very relaxing and the scenery was really nice. We had a great view of the volcano Cayambe on the way there.

The walk to the Equator line was long and dusty but very scenic.

We drank a lot of wine at the hacienda. On Friday we left and took a 1 hour bus ride to Otavallo the craft market town. This place was really colorful and also a lot of fun.

Finally we went back to Quito and spent the last night together as a group on a rooftop bistro in the historic center.
Here´s a picture of our travelling group. Thanks guys for all the fun, laughs and good times!

This last entry doesn´t really do justice to our last fabulous days in Ecuador - an amazing country with beautiful scenery and people. It is really an wonderful place and we loved all the places we visited!

Today is October 2 and it´s pretty amazing all the stuff we´ve done in one week and a half. After leaving Quito we took a 2 hour bus ride using local transit up to a hot spring resort high in the cloud forest called Papallacta. These hot springs were beautiful and super clean and the setting was like a Polynesian village.

We were in a valley surrounded by lush green mountains and spoiled ourselves in almost all of the 25 pools. We got up early in the morning and took a walk through the cloud forest before breakfast and after breakfast spend the morning pool hopping.

From there we took a scenic local bus to Tena which is the gateway town to the Amazon rainforest. From Tena we took a truck into the forest to our jungle homestay with a Quichua family. This place was very basic (no electricity, no hot water). The family was very traditional and very very hospitiable. The opportunity was really special and unique to spend time here. Some of the activities were walking through the rainforest, treking up creeks and waterfalls and (drum roll please) WHITE WATER RAFTING IN CLASS 3+ RAPIDS. This was really exiting! Krista got attacked by giant flesh eating ants but was resucued by the ever valant Petr. OK they weren't flesh eating but they were nasty.

Here's a picture of some of the local kids we met on our rafting trip when we stopped for lunch.

After leaving our Quichua family we went to a jungle lodge with a fabulous view. Perched high on a cliff it overlooked the river Napo and the surrounding rainforest.

After leaving our Shangrila jungle lodge we took a four hour local bus trip to Banos hill town surrounded by volcanos. The town is known for it's hotsprings, but after our awesome experience at Papallacta the not so clean public pools were less than appealing. We opted for a trek up the small mountain for a panoramic view of the town.

Our next destination - Cuenca a colonial city with history that dates back to Inca times. We chartered a private bus for this trip as the public bus would take 12 hours - Our was only 8. We stopped along the way at a local Quichua market where we were the only Causasians. They were as curious about us as we were about them.

Now we are back in Quito - our next destination the Cayambe Volcano and a 400 year old hacienda.