Three months

The last month, or so...

evi — Wed, 2 Jun 2010 10:43:00 GMT

So, this one’s a long one. I tried to be brief, but have tried to cram in almost a month of travel...

Last I wrote we were still in BA, having the time of our lives. We once again stayed a little longer than we meant to, but eventually got on a bus straight to Bolivia. Slighty sad about missing more of northern Argentina, but based on my whole stolen passport thing, also happy to not go back at this point.

The bus we booked claimed to go straight to Villazon, southern Bolivia. However, after 28 hours on the bus, once in la Quiaca (northern Argentina) we were told to get off the bus and walk a number of blocks to the border, to cross on foot and then find another bus station. And, based on the fact that they hadn´t provided meals on the bus for over 15 hours I was a little grumpy to say the least! But, we made it over then hopped on a colourful crowded bus to Tupiza.

And Tupiza was everything they said it would be - dusty, dry, very wild west! And surrounded by more beautiful Quebradas. We were pretty excited for the next day where we were going to tackle the 18km walk through said Quebradas on our own. So, we got up bright and early and headed off, with no map of course. After several false starts, we eventually found what we thought was a path. It was a little dodgy feeling, no sign posts, garbage strewn everywhere, very `alone` feeling. After passing a massive garbage dump, a cemetery and running out of water while the very unforgiving sun beat down on us we gave up and headed back into town with our tails between our legs. But, to our fortune, a few hours later we ran into a lovely New Zealand couple who had done the horse back riding version that day and highly recommended it. So - we booked a guide!

The next morning we showed up at the office only to have the fella who booked us the trip say `small favour por favor? The horses have run away, can you come back in an hour!` Fortunately they reappeared and an hour later we were on our way. It was just the two of us and our guide who must´ve been all of 16. Neither of us had ridden horses for about 15 years and without any instruction whatsoever, our horses started trotting along. For the next 5 hours we walked, trotted and I think cantered through canyons, across desert, up and down hills and it was magnificent! And doing the whole thing on horse back absolutely MADE the whole experience!

A few hours later we were on an overnight train to Oruro, having heard that the train was the way to go. Note to anyone in Bolivia, as terrrrrrribe as the buses are - the train was worse! It was freezing cold, the `calunkalunka` sounds felt as though someone was kicking the back of my seat and it was just impossible. Neither of us got any sleep that night and when we arrived in Uroro at 6am, we were little grumpy icicles...

We hopped on our next bus to Cochabamba where we were going to stay for the night before heading off to volunteer for two weeks. Only to find out upon arrival that the volunteer site was full! Ack! So, over dinner we changed plans yet again. The 3rd site that Inta Wara Yasi had just set up was in need of construction help, with only a 3 day minimum, just outside of Rurrenabaque. So, we hopped on the next bus to LaPaz and booked the 45 minute plane ride to Rurre. Best plane ride of life - skimming across snow capped mountains, then landing amidst lush jungle on a runway made of grass!

And, ahhhh Rurre. I have left a piece of my heart there as well. Apparently I love little jungle towns. There´s something about the attitude, the humidity, the lush greenness of it all that just agrees with me. But, we didn´t stay as the volunteer site was a little ways away. We had to take a wee wooden boat across the river to the `bus stand` which was a little shack where we had to wait for all the seats to fill in our 14 seat minivan before leaving (no official departure times - amazing!). So, after about an hour we piled into said van with luggage and chickens and started off on a crazy bumpy road full of puddles (well, mini lakes really), potholes and dust. But the scenery was breathtaking; huge trees, cattle, beautiful flowers and birds. Le sigh.

And we finally arrived at Inta wara yasi´s newest park: Jacj Cuisi. We were greeted by beautiful butterflies in red, purples and white and a lovely kid from Denmark who showed us in. And wow were they not kidding about `basic`! There was a 12 bed dorm with no door, rickety bunk beds and `mattresses` made from straw and canvass. The bathroom was a little bamboo hut around the corner and due to a gas shortage in Bolivia all meals were cooked over an open fire outside. Oh, and no shower - but bathing in the river with butterflies which is something else entirely! What else? Giant spiders, a wild puma that had been tracking the two who lived at the site and a coral snake spotted outside the dorm the night before! Equally terrifying and exciting! Actually, mostly terrifying. As mentioned before I have an irrational fear of pumas and Helen´s scared of spiders (And doesn´t like humidity), so it was going to be trying, that was for sure.

Strangely though, it wasn´t that bad in the least, despite my fears. I think jungle life agrees with me and hope one day in the future to go back and volunteer for a rather extended period of time. So, what did we do? The majority of our days were spent hauling rocks in a canvass sack uphill in the middle of the jungle. Oh, the sweat...It was a beautiful walk though, as we went up and down hills, through rivers and creeks with monkeys chattering away overhead and god knows what else around. The path also happened to pass through Lishoo`s daily walking path (one of the puma`s), so we were on constant look out for him and the volunteers. We were told it was unlikely that we´d run into him, but on our last day, we did. About 5 meters from where we were loading our sacks we heard a sound and so called out `hola Lishoo` as we were told to do. And there he was. So large, so magnificent, so less terrifying than I had been expecting. We stood our ground for a few minutes as he sniffed us out and then the two volunteers walking him told us to carry on our way. Phew! What else? We learned how to use machetes; cutting a path to the new watering hole, chopping fire wood and seeking out an ants nest (and then lighting it on fire - crazy!). We helped ´fix´ the bathroom, build a bus shelter and...I think that was about it. It was a blast and I was definitely sad to leave. But when we left, we managed to hitch a ride on the top of a truck full of gardening equipment which was definitely another highlight!

Back in Rurre we ran into Sophie, a lovely British girl we´ve been bumping into since Cafayate. She had just got back from a 3 day Pampas tour which she highly recommended. The price was right, so before we knew it we were in a cramped minivan with a broken windshield in the pouring rain heading out to Madidi National Park. As we arrived the sun came out and we hopped into a crazy little boat to take us to our lodge for the next few nights. It was adorable! As was our group. There were 8 of us, and this was Helen and I´s first group tour and we definitely lucked out, in terms of the people in the group and our guide. The next three days were spent exploring the pampas looking for anacondas (none seen), one unfortunate incident involving me falling into a massive puddle of stinky, muddy swamp water, seeing a rattle snake, jaguar tracks(!), many sorts of monkeys, beautiful birds, capybaras and crocodiles EVERYWHERE!

After 3 fun filled days we went back to Rurre to take the (highly UN recommended) bus back to LaPaz. It´s notorious for being a little dangerous, particularly bumpy and not too reliable. But, I´ve got to say despite one major bump that resulted in Helen getting the biggest bruise of life and the bus breaking down in the middle of nowhere for three hours it was pretty uneventful and we arrived back in LaPaz safe and sound only to hop straight on another bus to Coroico.

We had heard lovely things about Coroico and the surrounding area and were quite excited to arrive. Unfortunately we booked ourselves in the WORST hostel of our trip; shattered glass doors, a massive hole in the wall of the bathroom that was full of garbage and bed frames made of metal and cardboard. Ugh. But the next day we went on a lovely guided tour with a fella named Camillo. His English was very basic, so the next 5 hours were spent hiking around and chatting in Spanish. It really hit home how much of the language we’d been able to pick up, what a great feeling! We learnt all about the local plants and animals, political situation, farming, etc. – very educational and also full of stunning scenery. We arrived at some beautiful waterfalls at the bottom of a huge jungle valley. Camillo let us relax on our own for a bit and Helen had the genius idea of stripping down and swimming under the falls. It was COLD, but absolutely wonderful and helped cool us off for the rather strenuous walk back up the valley. We switched hostels that night and had a relaxing evening at what turned out to be the best hostel of the entire trip, complete with a lovely, local breakfast in the morning.

We then headed back to LaPaz for one more night before making our way to Cuzco, Peru. Our last major stop before heading home.

The bus ride to Cuzco was yet again, another adventure. We boarded a huge bus to Copacabana, where we were transferred to a minivan to get us to the border. At the border we were supposed to join another bus, but once arriving found out that it was full! So, there were about 14 of us, stranded at the Bolivia/Peru border, 10pm, freezing cold, our tickets gone with some lady who had disappeared in a taxi to find us an alternate route, laughing our asses off. Luckily an hour later another minivan appeared and minus the brief stop where someone had lit a fire across the highway we arrived in Cuzco safe and sound at 4am.

Cuzco was as delightful as I remember; crazy cobble stone streets, lovely architecture, cheap drinks and even cheaper markets. We explored a bit, then had an early night as we were leaving on our 4 day jungle trek to Machu Pichu the next day.

And what a blast that was. Our second ‘group tour’. And although the actual group wasn’t as delightful, our guide made up for it and we were incredibly free to go at our own pace for the majority of the 4 days.

Day one was mountain biking down a gorgeous valley. Turns out I’m a big fan of mountain biking too, so four hours of going down a crazy steep, windy road was pure heaven. We covered a fair bit of ground that day and ended up in a tiny little town where we had a lovely dinner, got to try Chicha, the local corn brewed beer (pink as they’d added strawberries to it) and watched an event at the football field that was being held for the local kids. And then slept like a baby.

Day two was definitely the most strenuous. Breaks included, we were on the go for just over 10 hours walking up and down steep hills, through jungle, up and down ancient Incan stone paths with a beautiful clear blue sky above us and perfectly comfortable temperature.

Day three was more walking, but mostly along the train track that goes from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. Again, breathtaking scenery, lots of beautiful plants and birds, waterfalls and rapids, and seeing the outer ruins of Machu Pichu looming over us from the surrounding mountain. That night over dinner our guide offered us the option of walking up the mountain at 4am to get to Machu Pichu for sunrise, or taking the bus. Out of our group of 8, Helen and I were the only ones who opted to walk!

So, 4am the next morning we packed our day pack and started out in the pitch black. We were told that there would be plenty of people to follow, but we must’ve been a ways behind them as it was just the two of us, with our little flashlights attempting to find our way. We eventually caught up with a few as we reached the bottom of the mountain. And what a walk. Bloody hell! For an hour, we went straight up steep stone steps curving back and forth. Thank god it was dark as I can’t even begin trying to imagine walking up that in the heat! We were blessed with a fair bit of energy that morning though, and so just booted it up the hill feeling quite chuffed with ourselves.

Once up there we were among the first to get entrance into Machu Pichu and it was even more stunning than I remember. I must say that I feel incredibly blessed to have seen it twice in my lifetime. Helen and I were both feeling a little emotional due to a) the sacredness of the place and b) the fact that our trip really was coming to an end So, we spent a while wandering, thinking, reflecting on the trip and enjoying the beauty of it all. We took a break in a little field and napped and then early in the afternoon we made our way back down.

We hopped on the train that night back to Cusco for one last day before going back to Lima. The next day I was just done. Couldn’t tell if I was sick, exhausted from the previous 4 days or my body was protesting the fact that we were returning to Canada so soon. Luckily it passed though and we hopped on our last bus to Lima, had a great little time in Cusco and left for the airport.

And that’s that. Almost three months of travel summarised in this wee blog and Helen and I are both back in Canada trying to figure out what comes next. Hands down the best trip of my life thus far, and not nearly long enough. I’m excited about heading back to South America as soon as the funds allow. And hope to travel with Helen again someday as she’s the best travel partner of life!

Weeks four, five and six(?)

evi — Thu, 6 May 2010 08:54:00 GMT

Ha! All I can do right now is laugh at the ridiculousness that the last few weeks have been. On SO many levels, both wonderful and challenging.

For those of you who don`t know, we are back in Buenos Aires due to some challenging circumstances which I´ll explain shortly. But, I figured out why the universe wanted me to come back...the steak! Oh. My. God. As a lot of you know, I`m not a huge steak fan and thus kept forgetting that Argentina is the steak capital of the world. Our first night back, Helen, Alejo and I went to a great little parilla in San Telmo and I almost died of happiness. Seriously. Best. Steak. Of. Life. Wow. And for less than $10CND. Sigh, the drama of the past weekend was almost worth it considering what a blissful experience that was!

So, why are we back in Buenos Aires? Unfortunately, because I had my money belt stolen which aside from a fair bit of cash, had my passport inside. The only Canadian embassy in Argentina is here in BA! So, Helen and I had to take an almost 24 hour bus ride back here from Jujuy...not to mention that we both got incredibly sick that weekend - fever, chills, muscle aches. It was either the flu or possibly a mild case of dengue fever, guess we`ll never know!

We`re both feeling heaps better though physically and my mood has improved dramatically now that the shock of the whole event has worn off. I`m incredibly thankful for the support of all you lovely people back home, and the lovely people at the embassy.

BA is as beautiful as we left it, albeit a little chillier as fall has hit. Before leaving to explore Northern Argentina, Helen and I spent another 10 days here (upon our return from Mendoza). It was a great week and a half, basically spent the same way as our first week here was - wandering the city, sitting in parks, drinking wine, seeing live music, frequenting the bar across the street, cooking delicious food, eating out at phenomenal restaurants, making friends, etc. etc.

Once again, it was hard to leave but after almost 20 days in total we felt that we had to, as time is running short on this wee trip.

We headed straight to Puerto Igauzu which hosts some of the worlds most spectacular waterfalls. And spectacular they were! I`ve never seen anything quite like them. Such power, such energy. We were already a litle wet just from the spray of them while crossing a few bridges, but in the afternoon a torrential thunder and lightning storm broke out - within seconds we were drenched! It was immensley powerful to experience the falls this way, but also slightly terrifying as we were walking along metal bridges over the top of the falls as the rain pummeled us, the wind tore at us and lightning bolts flashed across the sky - crazy! We saw monkeys, beautiful birds, crazy creatures that I don`t know the name of that tried to steal our food at lunch (think racoon, but a south american version?). We also went on a 3 hour walk to some waterfalls that are less frequented, me terrified of seeing a puma and Helen terrified of the massive spiders hanging over head. We were quite the pair! All in all, Igauzu was wonderful - humid, tropical, lush...

And then our 20+ hour bus ride to Tucuman (not sure if you´ve noticed, but we`re taking a LOT of buses!). This one though, hands down the most memorable! It was still chucking it down with rain outside and our bus leaked(!) so there was a small river running through it, pooling in the bathroom (and I´d only brought flip flops - gross!). Some of the WORST movies of life, but hilariously so, and wonderful company. We met Charlotte, a lovely girl from France and Santiago from Argentina. We had the brilliant idea of drinking wine to pass the time, so at one of our stops Santiago ran into the station and came back with a couple of bottles. We spent the next few hours drinking wine out of little plastic cups, giggling away, half watching the terrible movies on the wee tv sets and having a great time! 20+ hours passed by suprisingly fast.

Once we arrived in Tucuman we decided it wasn´t really worth stopping in, so we hopped on a bus for a few more hours to the lovely little town of Tafi del Valle -known for it`s cheese and it´s olives. Yum! We lucked out and got our own little adobe apartment with kitchen and bathroom and a little backyard for dirt cheap. And, a wood stove, that although almost smoked us out saved us from freezing as the nights in Tafi were frigid! The days were beautiful though and we explored a little of the surrounding hills, wandering and getting lost, as we tend to do, coming across beautiful wild horses, seeing gorgeous panoramic views of the city and surrounding hills, walking through gorges full of lush plant life and just soaking it all in.

After Tafi, we headed to Cafayate as we had heard that there was plenty to do there. And was there ever! On our first day we took a walk to the waterfalls, along Rio Colorado. Apparently a 3-4 hour walk...Well, it starts with a 6km walk from town to the START of the walk. That took about an hour and a half along dusty roads surrounded by vineyards, beautiful red rocks and parrots flying overhead. Once we arrived a number of people stopped us offering to be our guides as the walk was very challenging. Helen and I thought ´What? You follow the river. What? It can´t be that hard!` and went on our way. Well, after attempting to rock climb up a steep cliff to where we thought the path was, we saw a guide and two girls head off in a different direction, so we made haste and took a look at where they were headed. Phew! We lost them after a while, but found the river and it looked pretty easy going from there. And it was STUNNING! Huge red cliffs surrounding us on all sides, massive cacti and crazy little shrubs, boulders and rock formations blocking our way half the time and strange grass that was taller than us both...There wasn´t much of a path to be seen, but skipping back and forth across the river was a delight. We were constantly going up and down, clambering over boulders and rocks and parting the tall grasses that were in our way. We eventually came to what looked like a bit of a dead end when we saw the guide again. He was leading the girls up from a cave that was right in front of us, so we shimmied our way up through it and ended up about half way up the hill - I LOVE climbing up through caves. Man, oh man! The rest of the way was mostly the same and eventually came to a high point on the hill where we could not for the lives of us figure out what to do. And there again was the guide! We ended up officially joining them for the next hour as he took us up and down super steep hills, helped us scramble along steep rock faces, pulled and pushed us up and down through caves and took us to two lovely waterfalls. The waterfalls all in all weren´t stunning, but the experience of walking to them is one that I´ll never forget. We said goodbye to the guide and girls and settled down for a lovely lunch of tomato sandwiches, sitting there in awe of how in the middle of absolute nowhere we felt. Muy, muy bien! All in all, we walked for about 7 hours that day and very happily fell asleep quit early that night!

The next day we ran into some delightful british girls who were going on a free wine tour the hostel was offering. It was 10:30 in the morning and we were going to explore the Quebradas that afternoon, but we thought - why not! We only went to two vineyards, but they were great fun. The wine that is produced in Cafayate is beeeautiful, and the sample servings were quite generous. Definitely an interesting way to start the day! We made a quick lunch and then joined our group for the Quebrada tour. The Quebradas are these incredible natural sand stone formations that go on for about 80km - brilliant reds, greens and yellows - unlike anything I`ve ever seen. Helen said that it`s remeniscent of Utah, which as I´ve never been there doesn`t mean much, but if you`re reading this and have been there then hopefully that helps! We were thinking about exploring them independantly, but weren`t sure how difficult it would be as you have to rent a bike, hop on a bus, get off in the middle of nowhere and make your own way. In hindsight, I think it would be great fun to do it that way. But, the group of folks we went with were a lot of fun and we ended up meeting a great Irish couple that ended up accompanying us to Salta. The Quebradas were phenomenal, dusty and hot, but just incredible colours and majesty for lack of a better word. In total we expored them for about 5 hours and we both got some incredible photos.

That night we went out with a group of girls from the hostel, but after the first bar Helen and I were both feeling a little funny, so had an ´early` night. And we woke up feeling terrrrrible. Feverish, achy and weak - but we were planning on heading to Salta that day and concious of the little time we had left, we hopped on the bus. In Salta we had a quick dinner with the Irish couple and then slept for ages. And in the morning, sometime between leaving the hostel and getting on the 3 hour bus to Jujuy, my money belt disapeared. I didn`t realise till we arrived in Jujuy, so hopped on the bus back to check the hostel and subsequently fill out a police report. 3 x 3 hour bus rides, plus the stress, plus the fever made for one helluva weekend. And the next day we were back on the bus to BA...

Where we are now. We`ll be leaving tomorrow or Wednesday. Sad to be leaving AGAIN, but also excited about what Bolivia will bring. This past week in BA has been great. Catching up with Alejo, exploring some new areas, getting to know some wonderful artists who took me around La Boca and some galleries and artist residences there, trying the steak, and feeling more and more `at home` here.

That`s all I got for now.

Week Three

evi — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:40:00 GMT

Where to start? It´s been a helluva week! LaPaz was brief, but intense, particularly the bus ride TO... but for now I´m going to leave that out and talk about Buenos Aires.

Sigh....it was automatic love for the architecture, the parks, the sunshine, the people...and we arrived at our hostel, opened up the floor to ceiling windowed doors and shutters to our beautiful little terrace that overlooked a cobble stone street and we were DONE. Truly, madly, deeply in love.

I could describe each event as it occured, but with the detail I´d want to put in about each and every little thing we did, I could write a novel about our first week!

Every morning was spent on our wee terrace eating fruit salad (the mango´s are divine!) and then a stroll through our neighbourhood, San Telmo. A vibrant, cobble stoned, artsy area brimming with antique shops, markets, independant clothing designers, little art galleries, bakeries, cafes, bars, beautiful old buildings and lush plants. More often than not we would stop at our new favourite haunt, that although not ´pretty´has the best, cheapest empanadas we´ve found and espresso to die for.

The rest of the ´day time´was spent exploring other neighbourhoods, and lovely as they all are, we´re thrilled that we picked San Telmo to be our ´home´.

Recoleta is beautiful, ritzier than the other areas, full of gorgeous boutiques, apartment buildings and cafes. It´s also home to an awe inspiring cemetery that is like a mini-village full of huge sarcophagi and gorgeous sculpture. There´s a beautiful law school, great parks, interesting public art and an interior design MALL(!).

Palermo is most known for it´s shopping and yes - shopping was done....as was having great Indian curry at a little British pub while half watching the football game.

The city centre has this MAD pedestrian strip that goes on for eons, chockablock full of people, gorgeous buildings, McDonalds, fur shops and people hounding us to see live Tango shows. And, some of the best busking I have seen in the world! Oh, and a fancy pants mall with a beautifully painted cathedral like ceiling - very odd!

Most evenings were spent making and eating dinner on our balcony, drinking cheap (but delicious!) wine and watching the world go by, dreaming and scheming of ways to eventually move here! Grin. But best of all was the little bar directly across the street from us that didn´t ususally open till 10 or 11 and was hopping till 6am. We watched some great live jazz, boogied to a fun punk cover band and made some new friends. And on the nights we´d go to sleep ´early` the sonds of the bar mixed with the tango playing down at the square, although loud, was our own Buenos Aires lullaby...

We were both heart broken to leave on the Friday but had already bought our tickets to Mendoza, so off we went.

15 hours later we arrived on a sunny morning, checked into a hostel and sat down for coffee to decide what our next week looked like. Everyone had raved about Mendoza; a beautiful city, the wine capital of Argentina, great outdoor activities, but we just weren´t feeling it...one of us made a crack about going back to Buenos Aires and instead of laughing we looked at one another and said ´what if?´. We pulled out our map and realised how FAR Mendoza was from everything else we were planning on doing and before we knew it we were apologizing to the hostel owner and rushing back to the bus station. Two nights in a row on over night buses, 30 hours in total, less than 10 hours in Mendoza and we are back in BA!

We were greeted with the sunniest of days and the Sunday market was just setting up directly in front of our hostel. We spent the day mixing and mingling in awe of all the beautiful arts, crafts, clothing, antiques and music and retired early that night, giddy at the thought of an extra, very unplanned week in beautiful, beautiful Buneos Aires.

Our itinirary has changed a little, but after this week we´re still heading up to the falls, to northern Argentina and to Bolivia for volunteering and much more hiking. It´s funny, neither of us had ANY intention of staying in a place for this long, but it has struck us both equally. And really, this kind of flexibility is part of the beauty of traveling.

I probably won´t update the blog again until we´re into Northern Argentina so that we can soak in the beauty that is this place; with gorgeous food, bottles of wine, amazing music and grins on our faces that are bigger than either of us thought possible.

xoxo

Week Two

evi — Mon, 5 Apr 2010 06:33:00 GMT

I can´t believe that it´s only been two weeks. Part of me feels as though I´ve JUST arrived, however we´ve packed in SO much thus far that it feels as though I must´ve been here for longer than I actually have!

This past week has been wonderful. And if I had a word to sum it all up I would have to pick ´sacred´. The hiking, the holidays, the churches and events - it´s been rather magical.

Last I wrote, Helen and I were planning on going off dancing, which after a delightful homemade dinner of avacado and tomato salad on the rooftop terrace of our hostel we were both beat and so went to bed!

The next day was palm Sunday and we wandered soaking in the festive atmosphere. People everwhere selling beautiful palm leaf creations and flowers...just beautiful! Later, we boarded our bus to Puno excited by the prospect of another double decker with great seats. Ha! Yes, it was a double decker and yes it had a bathroom, but it also had no airconditioning, windows that were sealed shut, what seemed to be heat rising from the grates in the floor and it happened to be at 2pm with the sun STREAMING in. It felt about 50 degrees and within minutes we were both dripping with sweat. The heat and the altitude were just unbearable, but I somehow managed to pass out for a few hours to awake to a splitting headache, but amazingly overcast skies and a temperature that was almost bearable. Minus the incredibly stale, stinky air, the rest of the ride sailed by with little stress. We arrived in Puno shortly after 8pm where we luckily ran into someone who worked at the hostel we were going to and shared a taxi with her.

For a Sunday night Puno was really ´happening´. At least on the bizarre little pedestrian street that our hostel was on. We wandered for a while and eventually found ourselves in a cute little bar called ´Rock n Reggae´. It´s like the reggae version of Big Bad Johns in Victoria, BC for those of you who´ve been there; random notes and cigarette packs plastered all over the walls, super friendly staff and a great soundtrack ranging from the Specials to ACDC. We chatted with a couple of folks for a bit, one from Germany and one from Puno which was delightfully awkward as we tried to get by in our mixture of German, Spanish and English and called it a night shortly after.

The next day we headed to the floating islands. They´re islands. That are made out of reeds. And they float. There´s a huge history regarding why they exist, so if you´re interested you should look them up as I can´t be bothered to go into the detail right now! I visited them 9 years ago, but they´re still pretty spectacular. Although the tour groups that go to them feel a little exploitive it´s still very much worth the trip.

After the floating islands we found a beautiful little artisan co-op with a gorgeous little courtyard where we sat and journaled for a while. More wandering and exploring the crazy little town before heading to another bar for a quick drink before bed. They had Jenga(!). (For those of you who don´t know, very few things make me happier than Jenga and Boggle). We convinced Marks, our server that if we could get to a certain level that he´d give us a free beer and with some creative cheating on Helen´s end we did it! And although I´m 100% sure he knew we cheated, free beer we had. All in all, a very charming night.

We woke up 6 hours later to catch our bus to Copacabana and once again WHAT a bus ride! It was as cold as the other was hot and I was freeeezing! We actually passed snow! Who woulda thunk! We passed the Peruvian/Bolivian border with ease and shortly after arrived in Copacabana. And instantly fell in love with it! It´s built up a hill from Lake Titicaca, lots of cobble stone streets, puppies, markets and an amazingly ornate cathedral. Along the lake front were lots of little stalls and snack bars where I had the most incredible grilled trout for less than $3. Later in the day we walked a steep uphill climb to a religious site, with stations of the cross and the most incredible views. We were able to see where we THOUGHT our hike the next day was going and got quite excited as it didn´t look THAT far! We spent a fair bit of time just resting and reflecting at what was a very special and sacred place....

We walked back down as the sun was setting and the temperature just dropped. I´m still amazed at these high altitude areas - blazing hot sun in the day and then almost freezing at night. Brrr!

The next morning we grocery shopped and then headed out to Yampupata. Most folks in Copacabana who are heading to Isla del Sol just take a boat straight, but we had heard about a 3-5 hour hike to Yampupata where we could hire a boat ourselves. And so that´s what we did. And was it ever worth it! In total it did take us about 5 hours as we took many breaks and a few detours, but wow. More farm land full of people working, more donkeys and pigs and llamas, crazy little forested areas and breathtaking views. I really can´t get over the animals here. I think Helen´s getting a little sick of me pointing our every single pig, sheep or cow we pass by - but they´re just so darling!

Once in Yampupata we found a lovely old man with a rickety motor boat and an hour later, slightly high off the gas fumes we arrived on Isla del Sol.

I love Isla del Sol. After Cabanaconde, this was another place that I could spend weeks. So peaceful, so simple, so stunning! We stayed at Alfonso´s (a place recommended to us by some fellow travellers) and it was perfect! Once again we found ourselves in a little bungalow, and outside our door we looked down onto the tiny little town, the lake and the snow capped mountains in the distance.

After dumping our packs we were starved and so went to cook dinner. The kitchen was a walled off area with an open fire, shared by the incredibly kind family that ran the place. We cooked up a delicious meal of chickpeas and veggies and ate under one of the starriest skies I have ever seen (being at such a high elevation, on an island with VERY sparse electricity definitely had it´s benefits!). Bonito!

We awoke relatively early the next morning to explore the island. We figured we´d take it easy and go for a few hours and then lounge in the sun the rest of the day and soak in the views. Well, after getting lost a few times and clambering up and down hills, getting chased off properties by loud, angry dogs, we ended up walking in the unforgiving sun for a good six hours! Phew! It´s a good thing we´re getting used to the altitude!

But what a walk - we had lunch in beautiful incan ruins, walked along sandy beaches, looked over almost carribean blue waters, and walked along an old, rocky, incan path that went up and down and up and down...

Eventually we found the path that we assumed would take us back around, although it was a little faint looking...it took us through quite possibly the loveliest village we´d seen to date - obviousely not one that many travellers walk through. And I saw my first hummingbird here! Uphill again where we came across a terrifying little dog with teeth bared, growling and barking, so we made haste and scrambled down the first hill we could find...ending up on another beach with no path in sight! But, we made it back finally, had a wee power nap and cooked another fabulous meal of quinoa and veggies.

We met a great group of folks from Argentina at the hostel, and spent hours talking to them under the stars and the almost full moon, sharing mate (a beautiful tea drinking tradition) and savouring the moment...le sigh. As I said, I could´ve stayed there for weeks.

But the next day we boarded a boat back to Copacabana as we wanted to be back for the Good Friday procession. Apparently, Copacabana is THE place to be for Easter weekend, and it certainly was. The place was PACKED solid. The tranquil little beach where I´d eaten trout a few days early was jampacked with people and tents and cars and vendours selling everything from sandwhiches, to chocolate covered marshmallows on sticks, to ballons and religious ornaments. Crazy! We settled back in, had dinner and then wandered the streets finding the procession ending at the cathedral near our hostel. There were hoards of people following a procession of what strangely looked like 12 KKK members (in white and purple robes) chanting and carrying a casket remeniscent of the glass one from Snow White into the church. Very strange, but beautiful (minus the whole KKK thing). We followed the crowd into the church and stayed for a portion of the service, in awe of the ornate art inside and just the whole setting....we then made our way to the side of the building where people were packed like sardines in a long, cave like hall; walls covered in wax, deep tables full of lit candles, and prayers floating to the sky...the whole expereince left me feeling very thoughtful and I went to bed quite at peace.

The next day as we grocery shopped (I LOVE the markets here!) we passed by the Benediciones de Movilidades - the blessing of automobiles outside the cathedral. Amazing! Grid locked streets, cars covered in flowers and priests everywhere blessing the vehicles. Apparently this happens every day!

There´s still tons to write, particularily about the ride to LaPaz and our night and day here, but we´ve got dinner to have and a flight to Buenos Aires at 2am, so I´ll sign off for now.

Photos hopefully to come once we get to Argentina!

Muchos love,

Evi xoxo

Week One

evi — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:53:00 GMT

1. I wish that I had spent more than two days working through my ´30 days to great Spanish´ book. Language is proving to be a challenge!

2. I wish that I had spent more than a week working out to my 6 week excerise DVD. Our first 3 day hike almost killed me!

3. Regardless of the above, this trip is a dream come true!

For those of you who don´t know, I´m in South America for the next 3 months with the delightful Helen Davidson. The reason that I´m here is that Helen got me a little tipsy one night in Victoria while celebrating her quitting her job (true story!). Truth be told it wouldn´t have been that hard a sell had I been sober, but the slight inebriation happily glossed over any financial worries I had (due to the whole not working thing at the moment).

And so here I am. I met Helen in Miraflores exactly one week ago. We spent a day and a half catching up and wandering around, exploring the beach, the city and sitting on numerous patios drinnking wine and eating (mostly) stuffed avacados (quite possibly the greatest culinary invention of all time).

Simply put, I adore Peru. I haven´t been here for 9 years but the sights, the sounds, the smells, the sunshine - it feels as though I was just here yesterday. Our lovely hostel room overlooked a huge park full of palm trees, kids playing till past midnight, salsa dancing, a nightly market and little stray cats everywhere. The incessant honking from the chaos that is every Peruvian road I´ve seen, laughter and chatter and music....and did I mention the stuffed avacados!

Miraflores was great but it very much felt like a ´meeting spot´. Neither Helen or I had any desire to explore much more of the area so on Monday afternoon we hopped on a bus for Arequipa. And what a bus! We probably shelled out a little more than was necessary, but we scored two seats at the front of a double decker - foot rests, reclining seats, blankets and pillows and the VIEW! The next 17 hours sped by and we both managed to get some decent sleep as well. I awoke that morning to the pink sun rising through the incredibly thick fog over a landscape that can best be described as ´moon-like´. Barren, rocky desert for as far as the eye could see. (one day I will upload photos!)

A few hours later we arrived in beautiful, bustling Arequipa. The architecture is incredible, so much character in every nook and cranny. Every other arch way seems to lead to another little market or restaurant or cafe...we spent the day exploring, but were much more excited about doing one of the hikes in the Colca Canyon. So, we went to bed quite early that night in preparation for waking up at 4:30am the next day to catch a bus to Cabanaconde.

Only 6 hours this time around, but on one of the local buses. It was jam-packed with tourists and locals alike, sweltering hot and bumpier than I know how to describe. The road was thin and windy and our bus driver just sped along without a care in the world while Helen and I gazed (slightly terrified) out the window at the sheer drop with not a guard rail to be seen!

But we made it safe and sound to the little town of Cabanaconde. Nestled at the top of the Colca Canyon and surrounded by mountains as far as the eye could see, it was breathtaking to say the least. Cabanaconde is quite a wee town. There is a main sqaure which has numerous little cobble stone streets with little shops and restaurants, little houses and then fields of corn and cacti that seem to go on forever. After resting up briefly in one of the hostels we strapped on our packs and headed out on the beginning of our 3 day hike.

Actually, we didn´t have ´packs´, we had A pack that held all our food, sleeping bags, clothes and first aid kit. We thought at the time it would be easy to just share the pack, switching back and forth every hour or so. Ha. Had we only known!

We arrived at the edge of the canyon after only 20 minutes, already out of breath. It hadn´t occured to either of us that altitude might be a factor. Oops. Cabanconde sits at over 4000 meters and yes, altitude was a factor indeed! Luckily, the first day was mostly down hill. It took us about 3 hours to walk down the canyon down a steep, windy, rocky path. With our heavy pack, the altitude and the harsh decline we were exhausted by the time we reached the bottom. It was a beatiful walk though with views to die for; snow capped mountains, red rock with little crevices and caves, cacti and all sorts of greenery and a bright, almost cloudless blue sky.

At the bottom of the canyon was a large river and a rickety old bridge which we crossed on our way to find our accomodation for the night (in the little town of San Juan). Excited about the ´short cut´ we had learnt about, we started booting it up hill only to find that walking uphill after 3 hours straight down was challening to say the least. The altitude had hit me particularly hard, so Helen bravely took the pack for the rest of the walk (straight up hill for over half an hour) while I slowly clambered my way up...

And we made it to San Juan. Our accomodation was a basic little bungalow with two beds and a toilet and we slept solidly for 12 hours that night. After chatting with some of the other people that were doing the hike, eating our peanut butter and banana sandwhiches we fell sound asleep by 7pm!

The next morning we took our time, preparing a massive fruit salad and drinking coca tea (to help with the altitude) and headed out at around 10am. This day of the hike was my favourite, hands down. We walked through two little villages (more peanut butter sandwhiches for lunch in the main square of one). The villages were gorgeous, full of lush plant life, farm land, puppies everywhere and amazing little houses with tin roofs. This day of the hike was very up and and down, through varying landscape: the villages, the fields, along steep paths on the side of the canyon, hot, dry flat land covered in more cacti, and then another incredibly steep decent back to the river and yet another bridge to our second nights accomodation.

This night was at the ´oasis´, a much more basic site. Our ´hut´was just that, a lovely little round structure made of bamboo-like material, a mud floor and two beds. There was a swimming pool though which was an amazing relief after many sweaty hours hiking up and down and around in the hot, dusty air.

That evening we relaxed, treated ourselves to a hot cooked meal, chatted with some more of our fellow hikers and played with play-doh that someone had brought! It was a lovely evening and we once again fell asleep quite early (about 8:30 this time around).

The next morning we awoke at 4:30am to meet Alonso and Elena in hopes of covering as much ground as possible before the sun rose and got too hot. This day was ALL up hill, over 1000 meters. Needless to say, it was HARD. But beautiful, and incredibly satisfying. Watching the sun rise over the mountains was something I´ll remember for the rest of my life. Helen and I took plenty of stops, switched the pack back and forth every 20 minutes or so and after about 3.5 hours we made it to the top! Leaving so early in the morning was brilliant as the sun was scorching by the last half hour or so. I couldn´t imagine hiking up the canyon mid-day as some of the other people we had met were planning to do!

At the top we collapsed and rested awhile before trekking another hour or so back to Cabanaconde. We had breakfast, wandered around and then got on another bus for the 6 hours back to Arequipa.

And here we are, back in Arequipa spending the day catching up on emails and thinking about the next few weeks of our trip.

We´re going out dancing tonight with some people and then heading on a bus to Puno tomorrow. Once in Puno we´re planning on exploring some of the islands on Lake Titicaca (one of the highest elevated lakes in the world!), then heading to Copacabana, more islands and in a week or so LaPaz, Bolivia!

That´s all I´ve got for now. Apologies in advance for the spelling and gramatical errors that I´m sure have plagued this entry - I just can´t be bothered to edit as there´s too much exploring to be done!

I will eventually put up some photos, but for now - for those of you on facebook, Helen has posted some today which I´m tagged in. I´m 99% sure that you can access her album by clicking on one of the photos I´m tagged in on my page.

Much love to you all and I´ll write again in another week or so!

xo, Evi