Adventures on the Loose

Savannah, Georgia, USA

embtravelgirl — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Well, it's the last day of 2010. Guess that means it's time for a recap and an update of the months that I've not written anything here. I started my new job in Savannah at the end of March...right after the big St. Patrick's Day parade and celebration on River Street. Savannah has been an adjustment, and it's taken a while to find good friends, but things are looking up. Couch Surfing has been an excellent place to meet new people that live here in the area and also to host folks from around the world. Between Couch Surfing and the salsa/bachata/tango classes and community, in just the last 8 months or so, I've met people from all over the US, Australia, Germany, France, Peru, Columbia, Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa, and more.

This little international traveler is finally getting better at Spanish, too. Gracias a mis amigos, la musica, y mi tv show favorito: Al Fondo Hay Sitio. :)

I've made a few trips to Atlanta to visit friends, and in September spend a couple weeks traveling around Peru with my boyfriend Darcy. I went to Granny's house for Thanksgiving with family, and Christmas this year was at my sister's new place outside of Washington, DC.

I'm looking forward to 2011 and expect it to be even better than 2010. God bless y'all in this coming year! ¡Dios les bendiga en este proximo año!

Photos: Savannah

embtravelgirl — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Photos from my time in Savannah

Photos: Texas, Mexico

embtravelgirl — Mon, 1 Mar 2010 14:59:00 GMT

just another month

Texas & Mexico

embtravelgirl — Mon, 1 Mar 2010 14:55:00 GMT

So, after my Peru journey, I was in a wedding in Atlanta and had Christmas with my parents and brother in Tupelo. Then, it was off to North Carolina to visit family and go snow tubing. After that, I decided to spend the next month or so in Texas, thanks to my good friend Brad who let me stay in his spare room. I studied for the PE (professional engineering exam) during the day, and cooked dinner in the evenings. The weather was nice, as was the change of scenery. I guess I just had to work up to being back home in the States. Just keep jumping around! We had a fun wine tasting party one weekend. A different Saturday, we spent at the beach, but had a bit of an adventure with car trouble. We ended up not seeing quite as much beach as planned, but enjoyed the unexpected trip to the sea turtle rescue center. I was also able to visit the first place I lived, in Texas, and the second, in Louisiana. The weekend before I left Texas, I visited Monterrey, Mexico.

I couch surfed with a couple of girls who live near the old part of town, close to almost everything. In Monterrey, I walked along the Santa Lucia Riverwalk, lined with parks along both sides the length of the manmade river. I toured a couple museums and went to the Mirador del Obispado. It was a long walk back down from there, but it was also a beautiful day. While we didn’t make it to the Cerveceria, Azael and I did sort of the buses and traveled to Cola de Caballo – horse’s tail waterfall. That was nice; nothing too monumental, but pretty, outside the city, and another nice walk. I even got to ride the free-on-Sundays metro to the bus station to head back to Texas.

But wait! There’s one more adventure from Monterrey to tell! Bar Internacional. It’s a dance club that played cumbia all night. From the moment I walked in the door, my entire body vibrated with the music, unlike any other experience…the floor, even the air, vibrated with the cumbia. I went with my hosts Azael and Paloma and some of their friends. It was an eye-opening experience. There are women there that guys will pay to dance with them. Once we’d been there for a few songs, a couple of the guys we were with taught me a few new moves, and we all had a great time dancing the night away. I guess it was close to 3 am when we got home. Fun times!

The Last Week

embtravelgirl — Mon, 7 Dec 2009 15:16:00 GMT

I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving in Cusco on Saturday the 28th with Darcy, Elar, Pamela, and Williams. We couldn't find turkey, but we did get chicken. We also had mashed sweet potatoes with raisins on top, creamed corn, something similar to lima beans, croissants, deviled eggs, wine, Coca-Cola, and chocolate cake.

Monday, I left Cusco, sadly, and flew to Lima. From there I nearly immediately took an overnight bus to Huaraz for three days. There, I visited the mountains, lakes, and a few towns around the area. It's a beautiful area. Unluckily, all the rain meant that my trek got changed and shortened, so I didn't see as much as I would have liked. It was just like my trip to Peru - too short!

Back in Lima, I hung out with new friends, and visited a few new places around the city. I also re-visited a few places to re-take some pictures. The flight home to the States wasn't too bad, even though I missed my connecting flight back to Atlanta. That was straightened out without too much difficulty, and I landed in Atlanta Sunday night, December 6th. I drove to Mississippi the next day, and that concludes this particular adventure of traveling.

I'm still in touch with many new friends, and I look forward to seeing more of Peru and South America one day.

Photos: More travels around Cusco and Huaraz

embtravelgirl — Sat, 5 Dec 2009 10:13:00 GMT

end of the trip

Photos: Aldea Yanapay

embtravelgirl — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:21:00 GMT

social project/school in Cusco

Aldea Yanapay

embtravelgirl — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:26:00 GMT

So, back in Cusco, I search for a volunteer opportunity. I find one that fits me at Yanapay. Most mornings, I spend at the police station working with the children that are there. Some are there because of their parents or because they have no where else to go...others because they got in a fight at a discoteque or got caught stealing or robbing someone in the Plaza. It`s tough because they are only allowed outside when the police say they can go, and that doesn`t seem to be often. In the mornings, depending on their ages, I get to draw pictures or color with them or teach some English or help with math problems. It just depends on the day. It`s a good experience though.

In the afternoons, I am working at a school, which is really more of an after-school program. It is basically run entirely by volunteers, so the fact that I am teaching 4, 5, and 6 year olds, while it is strange to me, isn`t so strange to them. The kids understand that different people will be in and out every week, but the project leader and a few other staff are constant. My first week, I worked in the Biblioteca (Library) helping the kids (ages 4-8 or so) do their homework. It can be tough trying to keep them separated and focused and semi-quiet, but it was worth it. Especially when a child finally figures out an answer or reads a sentence or smiles because they aren`t frustrated anymore. After that, it is circle time with the whole school, and then family time. ¡Soy Tigre! I am in the Tiger Family. The first week, we learned all about the magic garden, which is being built at the school. (In Spanish) I taught all about the hens, guinea pigs, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, mint, and other things in the garden. The kids got to build a model of the garden, complete with a greenhouse made from plastic bottles and a henhouse with gallinas drawn by tracing their hands (like we do turkeys for Thanksgiving.) It was tons of fun, and I think I have some of the most precious kids in the school.

This week, we are learning about cultural exchange. The school has a brand new pen-pal school in New York, and the kids are working on writing letters and telling the kids about themselves, their school, and their country. It is a bit more difficult to keep their attention with this topic, but the first day went ok. The school also has a room for art, a room for games, and a reinforcement room if the kids don`t have homework that day, or finish early.

This is keeping me quite busy, but I am definitely loving it. I wish I could stay longer, even though I am excited about coming home in two weeks, too. And, I am using Darcy`s camera right now, so eventually, I will have some pictures from Cusco and Yanapay.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Arequipa Misfortune

embtravelgirl — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:17:00 GMT

So, as it turns out, the one time that I didn`t take the usual precautions, something went wrong. You would think that your purse would be safe while on your chair in the back corner of a restaurant with mirrors on the walls at a table with three guys for lunch in the plaza. But no. Alas. It was stolen. And, again, the one time that I had my passport with me (because I just returned to Peru after a quick trip to Bolivia so I needed it) it was in my purse. Along with the credit cards, sunglasses, Lonely Planet guide that I had written in, and worst of all...my camera and flash drive with all my pictures from my trip. And again, the flash drive was not in my purse 99% of the time. However, on this particular day, I was moving pictures from my camera to my flash drive. So, believe me, I can think of a million different things I could have done to prevent this mishap, so don`t comment on that!

Point is, since I lost my passport, I called Darcy for help in Perù, and Lindsey was luckily having a snow day from work and helped me out immensely on the States end of things. After spending the day at the police station, I took the next bus back to Cusco. There is a US Consulate office here, and they were able to help me out with getting a new passport.

One day, I would like to go back to Arequipa, but I think the city and I need a little time apart right now.

Read the Photos! I´ll get some more stories later.

embtravelgirl — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:20:00 GMT

I finally got up some photos. Since Abancay, I´ve spent a few more days in Cusco, went to a birthday party, went out dancing, and said hasta luego to the city. Leaving was a sad day. But, I met new friends in Puno, and toured the islands of Uros (the floating islands made from reeds), Amantini, and Taquile. Then I made the last minute decision to go with my new friends to Bolivia to see the other side of Lake Titicaca and the Island of the Sun. Ask me about the border crossing later. Sometimes it´s difficult being American!

After two days in a foreign country, I came back ¨home¨ to Peru. Gracias a Dios. I traveled with Laura, from Spain, to Arequipa. We then took a side trip to Chivay and Cababaconde to see some hot springs, the Oasis, Cañon del Colca, and the CONDORS. They flew so close; it was amazing. Check out the pictures...I took too many!

And that´s the short version for now. If anyone knows any good deals for me to fly back to the States between the 6th and 10th of December, please let me know!

And, also, on a funny note, the garbage trucks here play music as they drive around town. We heard a clip of classical music the other day. And...I´m excited to have a TV in my room tonight. I´m soooo gonna watch Al Fondo Hay Sitio! I´ve missed it the last few days without technology! haha. Peruvian novelas.

Gallery: Puno, Copacabana, Arequipa

embtravelgirl — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:49:00 GMT

more places I´ve been

Abancay

embtravelgirl — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, Darcy and I left after lunch for Abancay...a city of 100,000 about 3.5 hours west of Cusco. It´s where he grew up. First, we caught a car with a mom and two little girls for the first two hours of the trip there. Analia is 8 years old and had a cute 3-week old puppy named Beethoven who only peed on the seat twice. In Curahuassi, we changed vehicles and got stuck in the back seat with two other grown men. I slept most of that segment of the trip...it helps with motion sickness going around all those curves! I think this driver thought that a sign saying ¨dangerous curve, slow down, 35 km/hr¨ actually meant, ¨i´m going 90 km/hr now, ok, that works!¨ It´s just better not to watch many times.

Anyhow, we made it to Abancay and stayed at his place there. It was nice except that there was only water for a few hours in the morning. And even this wouldn´t have been a big deal, except I got sick while I was there. Not having water in the baño is not a pleasant experience when you´re not feeling so well. I took a lot of Pepto Bismol and Tylenol and slept a lot. Luckily, I only had a fever for one day before it was gone.

But on to the interesting things...We went to Parque El Mirador (Lookout Park) on a hill above the city that was nice. They have playground equipment for the kids, a small pool, and some zoo-type animals. I saw my first vicuñas (like wild alapacas) and condors, too. The condors were enormous! And Darcy said they weren´t even full-grown! There was also this really cute little monkey that took quite a liking to Darcy and followed him back and forth. The next day, we took a colectivo car to Yaca, which is about 30 minute away. They had a food festival, some live music, and some prancing horses. Unluckily, I didn´t really eat anything, but I enjoyed spending a good part of the day there. It´s Tourist Week in Apurimac (where Yaca is and Abancay is the capitol), but I think there were only 3 other international tourists around. We ran into two girls from England a few times, and ended up riding back to Cusco with them, too. Also listened to a great band from Argentina and Columbia and did some dancing, too. Lots of walking around the city, a bit of window shopping, and bought replacement sunglasses that, as it turns out, stain my face maroon when I wear them!

One of the best meals I´ve had was in Abancay. It was meat nearly as good as steak. Thinner, but very juicy and tender. And something similar to very runny mashed potatoes. It´s the first time I´ve seen potatoes cooked that way here in Peru. They were very yummy. And there was a cold pasta salad and cooked carrots on the salad buffet. Oh, healthy food. (Healthier than french fries, fried trout, or fried chicken!)

Otherwise, I´ve been taking it easy, enjoying the city, and practicing Spanish. I´m trying to read one of Darcy´s books, Y De Repente, Un Ángel by Jaime Bayle, and it´s fun, but takes forever. I think the first chapter (about 3 pages) took a good 30 minutes by the time I read it, looked up all the words I didn´t know and wrote those down, and read it again. I´m almost on Chapter 3 now!

Choquequirao Ruins - No guide? No problem!

embtravelgirl — Sun, 4 Oct 2009 08:06:00 GMT

So, it all began on Wednesday morning with me wandering through the streets of Cusco wondering what was left to see around here. I saw a picture outside a travel agency of some ruins called Choquequirao, so I inquired about them. A four-day hike? I´ve done one of those already. Sounds like fun. I sign up. My group leaves first thing in the morning, so I pack my dirty clothes and call it good.

Thursday. I´m up to grab a quick shower before getting picked up, but there´s no water today. Not even being picky asking for hot water! I get nothing. Ok. No big deal. I´m going to be all dirty soon anyhow. Well, for some reason, my ride never comes, so we call at 5:30 am, and someone eventually shows up. No idea who this guy in a taxi is, but he takes me to a bus terminal and says, ¨Meet Daniel from Australia. He´s your partner for the trek.¨ OK. I was supposed to have 3 other people on this hike. Turns out Daniel wasn´t supposed to have anyone else in his group...which is supposed to last one day longer than my trip. hmmm...not off to a great start. We sit and wait, then run after some guy who says, you´re in seat 41 and you´re in 42, then puts us on a bus and disappears. OK. Not really getting better. 3.5 hours later, we get off at a turn off to a tiny town called Cachora with our cook, I think, and take a taxi 30 minutes to some house where we have breakfast...or maybe lunch.

The trek starts with us being told that the horses have too much to carry today, so we have to carry everything we brought. Not the original plan. Five hours and 19 km later, I´m exhausted and not really thrilled at having to share the tent with Daniel, too. The food was sparse for dinner, and I was asleep before 8 pm. In the morning, I had to beg for some boiled (clean) water for the day since no one listened to me last night. That meant that my water for the entire morning was hot. The first two km were downhill, and not too bad. About 30 minutes. The next 7.5 km were sheer torture. By some miracle, we climbed 1700 meters in 3.5 hrs. Lunch was a couple hours later, then my guide, Elvis, and I walked the last 3 km in an hour to Choquequirao.

This was the best part of the four days, minus getting back to Cusco. The ruins are huge, and it was most likely a very important place. The construction was very different than Machu Picchu and some of the other ones I´ve seen, so that was neat. The Incas took the best of each culture they conquered, so this place was built by some other group under the Incan direction. We hiked down the back side of the mountain a ways to get to Sector Llamas. Here, there are lots of llamas in the rocks...white rocks that make llama shapes, that is. The we hiked all the way back up to the top of the highest point where important people probably lived, and then over to the temple. A little side trip down the other side of the mountain brought us to Pikiwasi (little house, in Quechua.) We talked a lot in Spanish, then had a ¨tranquillo¨ walk back to the campsite. I had spagetti for dinner, and my tentmate is sick. Double whammy.

Luckily, I didn´t wake up sick and my new friends from Atlanta that are one the trek with a different group didn´t leave me. My guide is apparently staying with Daniel, so I am guide-less. Margo and Diego are cool though, and so is their guide Kati. Somehow we flew down the mountain and got to the river in about two hours. I put my feet in for a bit, then we began the 2 km climb of torture up the other side to our lunch destination. It was sooo hot. Probably only mid-80s, but that sun is a lot hotter the closer you are to it! Especially, when climbing. At lunchtime, I was adopted by a Spanish couple and their guide Juan. That was the best meal of the trip. The next three km weren´t too bad since we waited for the sun to go down a bit before continuing to the next campsite.

Once there, I put my stuff in my tent, which I have by myself tonight since Daniel is still next to the ruins. Yay! At least that´s how it was supposed to work out. I walked back to my tent before dinner and saw someone else´s sleeping bag and backpack in there! I found Kati after laughing at my misfortune with the Atlanta couple, and she got it all cleared up for me. Luckily, no big deal. 5:00 came really early, despite all my early bedtimes, and I started walking the last 19 km ahead of the horses that the Spaniards are riding. A while later, the Atlantans caught up and passed me, then I was alone again. I made it about 5 km before I thought my chest was going to burst. All of that was uphill. And the air was getting colder, making it harder to breathe.

The horses caught up and Juan said they had an extra horse if I wanted it. I considered being stubborn, but then decided that a horse ride would be a nice change and a good way to actually enjoy the end of my trip! So, good news-I get a horse. Bad news-I have to wait for it to catch up since it´s farther back. So, Juan and I walk really, really, turtle slow, and make it to the top of the pass before the horse catches up. Ok. I did it! I walked all of the hard part by myself! Now we rest, grab a snack, and wait on the horses. Once they´re all together, Juan says that we have to walk about 15 minutes because this part of the trek is dangerous for the horses. NOOOOooooooo!!!!! Don´t tell me I get a horse, and then take him away from me!!! That´s just wrong. So, I ended up getting to ride, but it wasn´t until the last 10 km, which were basically flat. The easy part. But it was a nice change, and it was fun.

We got back to Cachora and had breakfast around 10. Long, confusing story later, I ended up with 7 other people stuffed in a tiny taxi for 30 minutes to the turn off the highway for Cachora. With all of our backpacks, cooking equipment, etc. Crazy, and somehow, I actually fell asleep with my head leaning on the back of the driver´s seat. At the turnoff, my cook and I got dropped off on the side of the road to wait over two hours for our bus back to Cusco. And I don´t really understand much of what my cook says. Nor do I know his name. After a bit, he basically said that if I had S/.20 ´(because he didn´t have any money) then we could take whatever bus came next that had space for us, so we didn´t have to be bored waiting there. Sounds good to me! 5 minutes later, he flags down a bus, we climb on, and I slept most of the 3 hours back to Cusco. The random guy that picked me up on Thursday was there to put me in another taxi, and I made it back to Manuel Prado (the street where Darcy lives) just fine. Almost.

It would have been fine if my taxi driver hadn´t run a red light and nearly hit a police truck. I mean, seriously. So, literally, one block away from home, we get pulled over, and the police take his papers. They were nice enough to let him drive me the one block home, and then, I imagine, the taxi guy was in big trouble. But I wasn´t there to see it. Darcy warmed up some food for me after I got out of the shower (much needed after none for four days), and the rest of the evening was quite lovely.

And that, my friends, was my trip to Choquequirao.

Manú National Park

embtravelgirl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:00:00 GMT

Mud wrestling. Canopy Zip Line. Rafting. Night hike. Early morning bird watching. Rubber boots. And lots of Yaniv.

My group for the four-day tour of Manú National Park consisted of me, Jonathan from Indiana, Saskia and Olaf from Holland, Alon from Israel, and Alex from Germany. All of us speak English and most know some Spanish. David was our guide. It was a fantastic group!

Our second day of the trip consisted of some walking, a van ride, rafting, and then a motorized canoe-boat to the second lodge. The rafting was fun. It was an easy river, and we got to jump in a float/swim a few different times. Pretty fast moving water in some parts though.

When we arrived, we had to take off our socks and shoes and walk through the mud, practically up to our knees, to get to dry land and our lodge. It was so funny, that I wanted to come back and take pictures after I put my stuff down, so we all did. We were going to go swim in the river, so we had our swimsuits on already. Olaf and Jonathan decided to dive in the mud, and it looked like so much fun, that we all ended up joining in. David took a ton of pictures for us, and we had a blast. We probably rolled around in the mud for a good hour before jumping in the river to get cleaned up a bit.

Over the four days, we saw a ton of monkeys, some very close...capuchin, squirrel, howler, and red howler monkeys. Lots of insects, especially on the night hike. Many flies/gnats along the canopy tour, but just the annoying kind that fly into your eyes and ears, not the biting kind. My repellant kept away all the mosquitos. We got up really early one morning to take a boat down river to see a clay liq with hundreds of parrots and some macaws, too. It was pretty incredible. We had a pair of binoculars and a telescope to see across the river without disturbing them. We saw many other birds later when we took little balsa wood rafts across a lagoon using sticks to propel us and to steer.

All the food was yummy, and the sleeping quarters were nice enough. There was even hot water for showers, which I was pretty shocked about since it is already pretty warm in the jungle.

So, Yaniv is an Israeli card game that we all learned while in Manú. It´s a lot of fun and everyone could play. There was also a good bit of Egyptian War, where the question was, why is it Egyptian, specifically? Who knows. We almost learned a card game from Holland, but they decided it was too difficult to explain in Dutch, so they didn´t even want to try in English! We mostly stuck to Yaniv, and spent many enjoyable hours entertaining ourselves by the light of a candle and a couple head lamps!

Some local modern culture

embtravelgirl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:30:00 GMT

So, I´m doing really well at keeping up with this novela (soap opera) called Al Fondo Hay Sitio. Some days I understand more than others, but it´s still funny because it´s so over-acted! Monday nights at 8:00, and if you miss it, check it out on Tuesday, too!

Yesterday, I watched a baseball movie with Kevin Costner all dubbed in Spanish without subtitles. It was a little slow, but I was able to follow it. It´s a bit easier to learn watching movies or tv shows (like Friends) in English with Spanish subtitles.

As for music, I bought a few cds, and Darcy said he´d make sure I got the other songs that I had on my list. It´s fun to watch the Top 20 countdown. I´m able to recognize a lot of the popular music...including Michael Jackson´s Billy Jean. Goodness knows why everyone here loves that song so much, but they do. I even saw a performance by a Peruvian guy dancing and singing it before a concert. Currently, my favorite song is called El Amor (The Love) by Tito El Bambino. It is very pretty, easy to sing along with, and I´m learning the words...which makes it even easier to sing along with! It talks about love in all its forms, and the video is sweet, too. It shows romantic love, a punk guy helping an old man across the street, a mom with her newborn, etc. The words talk about ¨Love is magic, it´s like a dream that at the end you find it...it´s like a light that fills up your soul...it increases like clouds in the sky...it makes the world go around...it´s incredible...¨ etc...

I´ve done some dancing here in Peru...salsa and bachata mostly, but I enjoy dancing to the reggaeton music, too. They play a bit of everything in the clubs. Mythology starts with salsa, then bachata and cumbia, followed by reggaeton and hip hop, with some techno towards the end of the night. Oh, and also lots of American 80s music or early 90s...stuff you´d never actually hear in a bar at home. Hilarious. I love it!

And the picture of the food I cooked for dinner, just because I don´t have pictures of dancing or singing or watching tv. We watched tv while we ate this! The counts, right? And it was sooo nice to have lots of veggies without any rice or potatoes to be seen! A little chicken, some pasta, veggies, and extra broccoli. Yum Yum. Not like home...but good. It was a nice bottle of Chilean wine, too.

Traveling in Peru

embtravelgirl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Basically, it´s crazy. The roads in cities are usually paved, at least the major ones, unless they´re stone. Some highways are paved, but a majority of the roads I´ve been on are dirt. Still better than some of the ones I drove on in Costa Rica though! One difference is that they are sooo narrow here! It´s practically a requirement to honk the horn as you round curves...that and lots of praying there´s not an oncoming oil tanker truck around the next curve. Oh wait...that´s happened twice so far!

So, leaving Santa Teresa Monday the 21st, we luckily caught a car as it was pulling away. Of course, that was unlucky for the man in the front seat who got relegated to the backseat with three other full grown people. Darcy and I took the front seat. (not seats.) About 15 minutes into the drive, we stopped and picked up 5 schoolboys who climbed in the back hatch section. Somehow, this isn´t a problem! Another 45 minutes later, we arrived in Santa Maria where a lady called in a spot in another vehicle leaving in a couple hours. We had sandwiches for lunch and played cards while we waited. A couple really cute tiny boys of maybe 3 years came and watched us for a few minutes before running away. Our next vehicle arrived, and luckily we got the first seat in the back of the van for the four hour, bumpy, fast ride back to Cusco. At a police checkpoint, we had to wait outside under a tiny shelter while the driver changed a flat tire in the rain. It was crazy watching him try to shove big rocks under the wheels and drive on them because it was so muddy! Eventually, we got back in, tried to sleep a bit, gave up, and took video of the drive! Made it to Cusco safe and sound. :)

Driving around the city, most taxis ignore the traffic laws. Stop signs (PARE here) don´t really mean anything unless there is a bigger vehicle already in the intersection. Traffic lights are only obeyed when there is a traffic police person standing in the intersection with a whistle. Oh, and there may as well not be lines on the road. If two or three cars can fit, then they will. If the car in front is going to slow, it will get passed. And people have re-wired their vehicles to make it easier to honk their horns. I kid you not. One car had the horn on the gear shift...no need to move your hands at all!

Oh, it´s not all that scary...my drivers for my Manú trip were both quite good. They didn´t scare me to death or make me car sick, which is fantastic. The also didn´t use the horn all the time or make me feel like we were going to drive off the mountain. At least not too often. With some of the roads, it´s a bit hard not to feel that way!

Oh, then there was the one trip where we actually saw a rock slide. I´ve always wanted to see one. You know you see those signs, especially in the mountains, and wonder...now what would I do if a rock fell here? Well, if they´re already falling, you stop on one side and look across the pile of rocks at the van on the other side and shrug. Then you get out of the van, check to see if they´re just small rocks or big rocks, and floor it while someone stands there watching to see if the really big one is about to fall or not. We made it across safely. Thank God. That was almost as scary as having an SUV pass us on a 10-ft section of road when we were on the outside next to the drop off.

And then there´s just the art of finding a vehicle to get where you want to go. In all these cities, there´s a corner or a block where you just wait for a car. Some of them are private cars where they charge everyone a little and cram in as many people as possible. Not so fun. The better ones are the vans or small buses that everyone gets their own seat for a dollar or two, and when the vehicle is full, it leaves...and not a moment earlier. I´ve been lucky and only waited 10 minutes before, and I´ve been unlucky and waited an hour and a half. That´s just how it works here. Yesterday, I caught a van going toward a city and hopped off at a road that went to Maras. I then found a taxi to take me the 4 km to Maras with a couple other people who had been waiting for who knows how long. We dropped them off in town, and then the taxi continued to take me to Moray...another 9 km away. We picked up a couple Quechua ladies along the way and dropped them off further down the road. I paid a bit too much (but it was so much easier) to have the driver, Raúl, wait on me at Moray, and then take me to Salineras. I´m pretty sure that happens often. It was nice knowing there was a car waiting when I got finished touring the ruins and the salt mine though. Then he dropped me off at the turn off back at the highway. I waited a few minutes with some other folks who wanted to go to Cusco, too, and after trying to flag down some vehicles, a bus stopped and picked us up. One dollar and an hour later, I was back in Cusco!

Gallery: Cusco, Manú, etc.

embtravelgirl — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:46:00 GMT

places around Cusco

Update from Cusco

embtravelgirl — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:00:00 GMT

So, lots of stuff going on since getting back from Machu Picchu, but not too much time to write. Do check out the pictures, though! I am getting more and more compliments on my Spanish, so I´m really excited about that, even though I´m finding it more and more difficult to talk sometimes. I think it´s because I´m getting into talking about thoughts and feelings now, not just what´s for dinner and where is the bathroom! It´s great though. Cusco is still fantastic.

Darcy and I took a weekend trip to Quillabamba, Santa Maria, and Santa Teresa, which I hope to write more about the traveling here later. We had a great time though. I got a really long, hot shower in our hostel, (fantastic!) and we spent quite a bit of time at the Baños Termales (hot baths) and some random waterfall in the middle of nowhere. When I say middle of nowhere, I mean we took a shared van down a long, gravel road for 30 minutes when the driver stopped and practically kicked us out, then kept going. We stood on the side of the street for a minute lost, then found out that you had to pay a lady 2 soles (less than $1) to walk through her backyard and past the chickens before finding this little tiny waterfall. But it was an adventure, and we had fun climbing up the rocks, taking pictures, and goofing off until a bus load of school kids showed up. Apparently it´s a popular destination! To get back to Quillabamba, we stood on the side of the road until a taxi came by. They already had three people in the back and one in the front, but that doesn´t really matter here. The driver made the guy up front squeeze in the back and put Darcy and I in the front seat. I´m really glad we get along well! I do love this country!

I´ve also seen a few museums and churches in Cusco, and eaten lots of good food. I can´t say I´m growing any fonder of rice though. It takes effort to find a meal without rice and potatoes...yes, both. For almost every meal. I spent one day with my guide Ernesto from the Lares Valley Trek. We went to some lake nearby and paddled around in a peddle boat that we called El Patito Feo, The Ugly Duckling, because it was a swan. He also showed me around a couple more sets of ruins from the Pre-Inca times. Long names that I don´t remember. We had chicharrones for lunch. Kind of like bbq without any sauce.

I´ve also gone to a soccer game with Darcy and some of his family and friends, gotten a massage, talked to random strangers in the plaza, and done a lot of walking. I´m off to do some shopping for Spanish music...I´ve got a list of my favorite songs here, and I want to find cds of them all. It might cost me $5 or $10. Hopefully off to the Manú National Reserve later this week! Take care!

Gallery: Mostly Machu Picchu

embtravelgirl — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Marcona, Lima, y Cusco area

The Amazing Machu Picchu & Huayna Picchu

embtravelgirl — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Talk about one of the most incredible experiences of a lifetime! That would be my yesterday. On Thursday, I began my day around 5 AM. Met up with the bus and my group for hiking the Lares Valley Trek. There were nine of us in the group with two guides, three cooks, and three horse-llama-men. Three Germans, two other Americans, two Londoners, and one French-Canadian. All spoke English, and many had some level of Spanish down, too. It made for an easy, enjoyable group.

The first day, we started hiking just before lunch. The llamas carried some of our stuff, and we carried some. We hiked for a little while, then stopped for lunch. We did not have to worry about not having enough food on this trip. Even with all the hiking, I´m afraid I may have actually gained weight! So, the first day, we hiked about 12 kilometers before stopping to camp for the night. The second day was again overcast and a bit chilly, but nice as long as we kept moving. We hiked around 15 kilometers, and it was quite difficult. Our highest altitude was today...somewhere around 4500 m (14,000 ft). Even with being in Cusco for a few days and drinking lots of the ¨special¨ tea, I was still feeling it. A bit of a headache at random points throughout the day. As we were approaching the third pass of the trip, it started to hail. Definitely added a bit of something different, especially when we reached the top and the sun was shining on the other side of the mountain. The clouds started to disappear and the views were amazing. Day 3 was around a 5 km hike in the morning before stopping in Patacancha for lunch and saying goodbye to our horsemen and cooks. We then took a bus to a train station in Ollantaytambo and the train to Aguas Calientes. Of course, we did have an opportunity to try cuy before we left. That´s a local dish of roasted guinnea pig. It was really yummy, as was the rocoto relleno (stuffed spicy pepper) and the camote (sweet potato) that are traditionally served with it. We had dinner in Aguas Calientes, also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo, and had nice warm showers at the hostel.

Sunday morning, we woke up at 3.44 AM for a quick breakfast of bread and tea, then walked to the bus station to wait in line for the first buses up the mountain to Machu Picchu. The alternative was walking, but we were there early enough that I think we did good by taking the bus. Our group got on the 3rd bus up the mountain at 6 AM, which took about 30 minutes. Once there, we stood in line again, and were very lucky to get tickets to Huayna Picchu. Only 400 people are allowed to climb that mountain each day, and I had ticket 310! Roberto, our guide, gave us a good two hour tour around Machu Picchu, and we were there early enough to get some great postcard-quality photos without people in them! Afterwards, we hung out for a bit in the ruins, and then started the hike to Huaynu Picchu at 10.40 am.

As tired and sore as we were, we all made it to the summit in about 45 minutes. (average is 1 hour.) We hung out there and explored and took pictures for a while, and then our group of 9 separated a bit. Jakob and Alex and I went down the backside of the mountain to go see the Gran Caverna (big cave). It was basically a long hike down steep Incan steps, and by the time we got there we´d all run out of water and food. Little did we know that we had to turn around and walk right back up the mountain again to get back to the gate. It was up a different path, but it was still up. It was incredible difficult, and incredibly worth all the pain! I loved it! Luckily, the altitude wasn´t a problem because we were almost 2000 m lower than we had been the day before. The steps were all very steep though, and the ladders were scarily steep and long. I can´t wait to share my pictures though. This side of the mountain was more jungle-like than the other, so we were able to see different plants and birds and lizards. I think we did the trek in record time, too. We needed to be back to meet the rest of our group and not miss our train, so will-power worked wonders and kept us moving. We also ran into an Israeli guy that we hiked with back to the beginning. We made the whole thing in just under 3 hours, which is a miracle because just going out to the cave should have taken 2.5!

After visiting a couple more places around Machu Picchu, we met up with the rest of the group and caught a bus back down the mountain to town where we had dinner and got our stuff for the trip back to Cusco. We got in around 9.30 pm, and I was also able to call Darcy and let him know my train ticket had gotten messed up and that I would be back a day earlier than expected. Luckily, he´s able to understand my Spanish without too much difficulty, so that´s good...especially over the phone!

Today, our group of 9 met for brunch, and then I met Darcy for a few hours this afternoon in between his work. I´m heading out to meet up with Michael, the Israeli guy, to visit a museum or something before dinnertime. Amazingly, my muscles aren´t too sore; however, I can say I officially hate escaleras (steps) right now! I am seriously contemplating one of those massages that they keep pushing here in town!

I do have to say that I thoroughly recommend visiting Machu Picchu and getting up early enough to get one of those 400 tickets to Huayna Picchu because it´s totally worth it. I literally have run out of adjectives to describe the beauty, engineering, incredible amazingness of it all.

Hasta luego!