My Six Months

Pacific Crest Trail GPS tracker -- website link

plandro — Sun, 9 Aug 2009 17:23:00 GMT

So you really want to know where I am? There's this thing called SPOT tracker and I'm taking it on my PCT hike. It's about the size of a cell phone and updates my location on a google map about ever 10 minutes. If my group and I were ever in any trouble it can help fam and 911 crews get to us easily. Here's the link!

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0zhjxEINTlVdGHXBqUhbvDuZr0NN2OQEl

Wave goodbye to the sheep

plandro — Thu, 6 Aug 2009 04:59:00 GMT

That's right, another checkpoint cleared as Angela and I are back from New Zealand (and finally back on sleeping schedule). And yes, there ARE a ton of sheep, hence the title. It was weird enough never living July 2nd, 2009 (departed LAX 7/1 and arrived in Sydney 7/3), but everything was evened out by the end of the month as we lived August 1st twice (departed NZ at 1pm 8/1 and arrived LAX1pm 8/1). With all this time travel I wonder whether I was riding an Airbus or the Starship Enterprise. I'll look into that.

Anyways, after DOMINATING the north island NZ, we took our little campervan on a 3 hour ferry accross the Pacific on Cook Straight landing on the northern south island at Picton, just a tiny commuter town. I secretly enjoyed laughing a bit at Ang as she struggled with the motion sickness of the boat, but after taking a Dremamine she was out like a light.

Offloading the boat in the afternoon we kept driving down the east coast and landed in a small town Kaikoura, just to spend the night. Another day of driving got us to Christchurch where we decided to explore a bit. We walked the city, main tourist sites, central square, art gallery, scenic gondola ride, etc. Christchurch doesn't boast the same number of adventure rush activities as the rest of NZ, but instead has some colonial vibe and peaceful atmosphere to it, especially for being a thriving city. I took Ang to see "The Hangover", now one of my favorite movies. Also near Christchurch, just south after our next drive was Omaru with Maraki boulders, perfectly spherical boulders that lie in the coastal sands, and a blue penguin colony. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from this because any bright lights (camera flashes) can hurt the little guys. And little they were, smallest in the world actually at only 10 inches high. At dusk we watched them arrive in 10-12 group pods, check to make sure they have everyone, and waddle into their hillside bunkers. There were 3 groups in all and we were able to see a few up close, approx 5 feet.

After Omaru, schedule time limited us from going further south, bummer :(. So we packed up and drove to Queenstown, official "adventure capital of NZ". Days before we had booked a nice, luxurious, overpriced hotel room to get out of the van for a while. It was centrally located so we spent most of the time walking around and checking out the local shops, food, etc. One of the days we booked the ski bus and snowboard gear. Until we reached the lodge of Cardrona resort, there never seemed like there was going to be enough snow to board. It snowed for a few hours while I mastered the bunny slopes, taking out 2 or 3 kids at a time as I hurled down the hill, mostly on my butt. Overall it was great, except at the end where it was a race against time to make it down to the parking lot before the return bus left. We accidentally to a detour route way too late and nearly missed the bus.

On our way out of Queenstown, Angela miraculously talked me into a horse ride that went through many of the film sites for Lord of the Rings. Another early morning on the horse put me on the back of a cranky horse that felt like it needed to bite or eat anything. The views were amazing however because we explored places where no vehicles could go. Once getting back we headed north and found ourselves needing to hurry for our flight back to the states.

Besides more miraculous views on the way up, the last major highlight was a helicopter ride we took on a whim near small town, Fox glacier. Prices were really cheap ($120/ person for 30 min) and took you up over the "southern Alps" including largest NZ peak Mt. Cook, glaciers, and other spectacular scenery. They even landed us on the glacier where we walked around for 10 minutes and snapped some photos. Very fun! One of my favorites overall actually.

We made it to Auckland 2 days before our flight and stayed in a very homely hostel outside the city. The ride over was akward time wise because we stayed awake the entire time until landing at which it felt like bedtime for us.... weird.

Now I'm just getting off a week break in Klamath of golf, visiting parents, sleeping, prepping for the last adventure: 25 days on the Pacific Crest Trail with my uncle steve. Then its pretty much over... summer of 09.

One side thing I wanted to mention was a scary incident a few days ago. Waking up with Ang one morning to thunderstorms outside came to no surprise until there was an eerie silence, followed by a deafening crack of thunder which sounded more like a hundred canons set off outside the room. We were instantly standing, shaking, and scared to death wondering just how close that lightning strike was. Later in the day, still talking about the creepy morning, we noticed a 30 foot split that ran vertically through our neighbor, Mr. Baker's redwood tree just on the other side of a fence (40 feet from our room). Bark and other shards of wood, including limbs were blown in all directions, and most notably, the split went all the way through to the other side. Its been 3 nights since this all happened and I'm still not sleeping like I should be. Freaky stuff, and just in time for the PCT too.

Thanks again for reading, I'll check back in 25 days!

Paul

Aussie to Kiwi - North Island NZ

plandro — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:56:00 GMT

Well no trip of mine is complete witout getting sick and not 1 day went by after arriving in Auckland, NZ before I was sneazing, coughing, chills, fever... full on sick. Angela and I spent a few days in Auckland exploring and actually weren't that impressed, not after Sydney at least.

We then decided, on the 3rd day, to rent a campervan, a basic minivan converted to have extra storage, a sink, bed, and dining table. We have now completed almost a complete tour of the north island. The first part was a big slap in the face and realization that it's winter down here as we were hit by a huuuge storm complete with 80 MPH winds. After that cleared we headed to the very north of the north Island to Cape Reinga where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman sea. This was pretty cool because you can actually see the patches of turbulence made from this phenomena.

Next we took off south (only direction we could drive) and skipped right past Auckland again and landed in stinky "Rotorua". I say stinky because it's known for volcanic activity and gives off so much hydrogen sulfide, you can actually smell it in the air (HS smells like rotten eggs!). And when in rome... we spent most of the time touring these thermally active areas, including one freezing afternoon at a local culture center when the rain and wind suprised us. That particular day was just unlucky because later that evening back at the campervan the keys "somehow got locked inside" (words of angela) and we had to be saved by the handyman manager with the high tech, latest methods.... a coat hanger.

After egg smell place, we headed to the east coast and down south via small coastal town Napier. When we got there I wanted to take a small detour to a legendary golf course, Cape Kidnappers (http://www.capekidnappers.com/), and snap a few photos. Earlier today (next day in this story) I found myself forking out the cheap $300 US to snap into my finest dirty clothes I had in my backpack and meet their standards for a round. Heck, it even cost me an extra $25 so Angela could ride along! Well, you should be happy to know I shot a stellar 107 (but it felt like a 75, I swear) and I guess it was worth it?

Anyways, Angela and I are having a blast and already planning a summer trip to do all the stuff that is being spoiled by the weather. Up next is 2 weeks on the south island, the more scenic of the 2, snowboarding, and most likely a snowball in the face from me to Ang.

PS - keep checking back for pics as its hard to post with slow and costly internet connections.

Cheers,

-P

A week in the land of Oz!

plandro — Wed, 8 Jul 2009 19:17:00 GMT

This summer is flying by! Or shall I say winter? Oz, or Aus, or Australia, Sydney to be exact was cold. Not northwest US freezing, but cold. Angela and I just finished a fully packed week there and landed in Auckland, New Zealand today (July 8th). Everyone back home is a whopping 18 hours behind us, so you'll have to read this tomorrow, or never? I can practically see the international dateline.

The flight from LA to Sydney was 14 hours, but thankfully it was one of the newest planes they had and came equipped with tons of movies, games, music, etc (even family guy!!). We landed in south sydney just past dawn and the scenery was beautiful. For 3 days starting that morning we shacked for free from my UK buddy Govind who I met in Machu Picchu a few months back. He is working now for national newspaper as a financer, "The Australian".

The first day was pretty much sleep, to adjust for the day we skipped completely (let it be known, Angela and I did not live on Thursday, July 1, 2009!). We did manage to take a walking tour and scope out the major attractions. The days following it was non-stop fun: a night out on the town with Govind and friends, an Aussie "footie game" (kinda like soccer, rugby, and NFL all mixed into one), Transformers 2 the movie on the world's largest IMAX screen (8 stories!!), tix to the Sydney Symphony at the opera house, day trip to the Blue Mountains 2 hours outside of the city, and more.

Public transportation was great there as we purchased $50 week passes which gets you on all the buses, trains, and water ferries. This made travelling alot easier. Except for the part of course where I lost mine briefly and had to pay a day for things individually.... idiot. The language intrigues me the most about this place, as I'm sure they are loving my straight-laced American accent. Although they are speaking english, alot of the times I can't understand the Aussie's! Plus there are words that just don't appear in any dictionary anywhere. For instance, "ferdinkum", "wanker", "frothies" (beer). Any guesses? By the time I left I figure the secret to make anything sound Aussie is.... just add "mate" to the end of your sentence, especially when asking someone a question.

Check out the new photos and stuff. Angela and I are going to rent a camper van starting tomorrow or the next day and start our driving tour of the NZ islands!

Cheers mate!

Last of South America and Home Sweet Home

plandro — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 13:01:00 GMT

Sorry for the delay of stories... I've been getting more lazy :)

After the "attack of Buenos Aires" I headed north to Iguazu Waterfall National Park on the border of Argentina and Brazil. Touring both sides (argentina was better), they were stunning; dozens of falls dropping 100's of meters. The most famous was known as the "Devil's Throat" and looked like 8 Niagra's in 1 funnelled down a small chute. I had good company too, one day with 2 canadian siblings, and the other with 2 Israely girls.

Next I headed into Brazil to Porto Allegre for a video-conference meeting, just for fun, at the local HP site. I called and chatted with my San Diego buds and had Angela escorted into the Corvallis site. I set up a little slide show and was helped with all of this by Rodrigo and his wife Ali, my host family in the city. Rodrigo works for HP Brazil and was introduced to me by a fellow HP San Diego OSU alumni. While at their house, I was treated to several dinners, all the ammenities at their large flat overlooking the city, and great company. Unfortunately I came down with a very bad sore throat here which turned into a horrible cold.

My cold and I then travelled north 2 hours by plane (set up by Rodrigo for only $80 US dollars!) to Sao Paulo, on the world's top 10 largest population list, boasting at least 15 million. It took us 10 minutes just to fly across the city to the airport where I gazed at hundreds of skyscrapers in very random places. I learned later that there was no real true city center. On the ride I met a random business man who was very friendly and offered to share a cab ride with me to help me get where I was going (and most importanly translate Portugese!) He first insisted that we stop by an "authentic Australian barbeque" place for lunch.... turns out it was Outback Steak House! haha. I acted surprised anyways. In Sao Paulo I met back up with my Aussie mate, Ben Davey. The first 2 days I had to stick around the hostel and get over my cold. After that we filled up another 2 days with a city walk, night out to live funk music with the Brazilian girls I met in southern Peru, 3 straight nights of $5 noodles from a chinese family's stir fry street corner stand, billiards, and more billiards.

We later caught a 5 hour bus to my final destination, Rio de Janeiro. We showed up on a saturday night and were determined to make it a big night out but spent an hour trying to find a working ATM and were unsuccessful and ultimately ended up slumping back to the hostel. The next days following we paid for a soccer game guided tour (saw the famous Maracopa stadium that Brazil national team plays in), took a sky tram overlooking the city at night time, and visited Copacabana and Impanima beaches (sipping coconut drinks).

On the last day, I went swimming in my boxers in the ocean because it was the only opportunity left to touch the Atlantic. A few times I accidentally put on a few peep shows with the waves nearly taking off my boxers! I then showered, hailed a bus to the airport, boarded a huge plane to Sao Paulo and then onto Houston, TX. After that it was one more 4 hour flight to PDX where I touched Oregon ground at 11am. My mom greeted me from the emergency exit of the plane before we even pulled up to the gate, as she snuck out onto the runway as a baggage inspector.... just kidding, but that's the expression I saw from her and my brother when I stepped past security.

Once arriving I saw a bunch of the family, went south to Corvallis for Angela's graduation, a few days at Tillamook beach (Cape Meares) with family and friends, a week at Black Butte (LOTS OF GOLF!!!) with the 'rents and siblings, and then onto Sydney Australia/ New Zealand!

Unfortunately somewhere along the way of south america I lost about half my pictures on a small memory card. It probably dropped out of my pocket on the plane or something but it's definetely gone.... very sad. The worst hit was Brazil, I have NO pictures from there to show from there now.

Please check out my new Aussie pics though with Angela and the next post coming soon!

Done with Argentina, onto Brazil, & almost home!

plandro — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:02:00 GMT

Standing in the main plaza of San Carlos de Beriloche, known as the NW entry-point of Argentine Patagonia, I watched as the rain poured down ruining almost the entire list of adventures for this area.

After Santiago, Chile aka ¨smog city¨, I rode a 20 hr bus through dozens of upward switchbacks across the Andes and arrived in Mendoza, Argentina just over the border. I spent 3 days there, meeting up with a few Irish friends whom I´d met in Santiago. The main event in Mendoza was wine tours. So on a mild Saturday we rented bikes and rode to several wineries, chocolate shops, and more gorging ourselves with tasty spirits and food. This western city is the wine capital of the Argentina (produces 70% of the entire country´s wine) and partly of south america. Over and over again I went for the cabernet sauvignons. For dinner the same night I experienced another Argentine specialty... juicy and hearty steak. It was easily on my top 5 best steaks of all time; cooked to perfection, not to red, not overdone, 2 inches thick, and covered in a pepper gravy.... YUM. And the price? $50 bucks or more in the US... here $15 US bucks (45 Arg. pesos). I could move here for this reason alone.

Up next was Bariloche, one of the Patagonia´s adventure capitals. Very popular in their summer season, January and February, and winter season, June-Sept. While I didn´t think about the season before I arrived, it suddenly came to me that I might not see the sun too much. In other words, visions of me and Bear Gryll´s trekking through Andean peak-lined sceneries under blue skies flashed through my mind until the morning of the second day in Bariloche; when the rain started. First I should note there was not a glimpse of sunlight until almost 9 am. I spent the entire afternoon the day before planning what was suppose to be a good adventure day, but found out that trails were closed due to high altitude snow and other activities finished for the season. Ultimately I had 3 options- (1) Ride a bus 30 min NW along the lake to a small peninsula where there were a few easy trails totally 2 hours of hiking.... baby stuff, moving on... (2) Bus 1 hour SW to a high altitude trailhead and snowshoe to the only open hut in the park, spend the night, and possibly see the edge of a glacier... or (3) bus 2 hours south to small city El Bolson where micro climates rule presenting the possibility of no rain.

Although option 2 was enticing, I had no snow gear option 3 it was. Arriving the next day at 11 in El Bolson, it was pouring harder than Bariloche. I had come well-equipped however, gore-tex rain jacket, extra layers, water proof pants, and gortex boots. I soon found a 15km suitable hike from the nearby tourist office (in addition to some ¨this guy is crazy to be hiking on a day like today¨ looks) and set off. The path was dirt road with views on one side of an emergine canyon ultimately leading to a rocky structure that when viewed from the right angle, looked like a face. Everything was going great until halfway through the hike, i lept over an enormous puddle, and my tight fitting pants ripped right in the crotch. Rain poured in and by the time I carried my sorry butt back to the bus terminal... let´s just say ëverything¨was wet!

Most of the other time in Bariloche was spent hanging with a couple from scotland and england (stewart and linva) and another couple from the camen islands and london. After this town, I headed out to Buenos Aires, big city time. After a 20 minute walk from the bus terminal to a central suburb, I found a very cheap single room for 50 pesos per night. Looking in the bathroom here, I started to notice a funny pattern. Many of the places in south america, consider a shower any place where there is water flowing from above.... to clarify, most of the bathrooms just had a shower head in the most random places and would usually soak EVERYTHING... toilet, sink, floor, toilet paper, etc. Often they would include a squeegy to clean up the floor a bit.

Buenos Aires was not the best for me in short. The first incident was right after I checked into the hotel and cleaned up. While walking down the bustling pedestrian path outside my place a guy outside handed me a flyer that said Club Clear (with a picture of some cocktails and beer) and after looking it over, I was seriously interested in checking it out for a potential place to hang out that evening. He said he would show me where it was... just around the corner. Big mistake on my part for following. Next thing I know is I sit down at the bar, 2 girls in lingerie come on either side of me and hand me a drink and started drinking 2 of their own. I refused now realzing this was a strip club or something and got up to leave when a security guy blocked my path. The bartender and him demanded that I pay for my untouched drink AND the girls´ drinks other wise they wouldn´t let me out!!! I argued for 15 minutes and got pretty angry, but soon gave up and forked over a hefty 200 pesos, a good 2-days worth of spending cash. It was 2 pm in the afternoon and I was in there for probably 2 minutes!!!

The second thing that happened was on my 3rd day while innocently exploring a few popular, touristy plazas. While walking around the first one, Plaza de Congressio, a boy about 14 came up, put is hand on my shoulder and started shouting... ¨money amigo, money, money, now, now¨. I was really confused at first and then a second boy, same age, came up on my other side and did the same thing. Speeding up at first, I soon saw 2 more boys come over a fence in front of me and recognized this to be a trap of some sort. One of the guys in front of me put his hand under his shirt, prentending to have a gun. Luckily I easily caught this and knew not to be fooled. While they kept up at my pace, they started kicking my heals and reaching for my pockets. At that point I shoved the front 2 kids and ran a block to get away.... PUNKS. But everything was ok, I was just a little shook up and decided to call it a day after that.

While I wasn´t getting robbed in Buenos Aires, I had a great couple days hanging out with a past Peru travel buddy, Ben from Austrailia. At one point we met up with an actress and teacher I´d met in Peru as well and saw one of her plays titled ¨The Lovers of Autofanes¨. Although we were confused by the language barrier on all the small details, we managed to capture the overall plot. It was staged in the Roman empire times in which the men were fighting a war. The ladies who disliked the war used sex and appeal to lure the men out of the fight... very funny and Belen was the lead too. The last night in BA we met up with Belen again and had a huge steak dinner, an Argentine specialty which Ben had not experienced yet (mine came in Mendoza).

After BA, specifically the kid incident, I had walked straight to the bus station and booked my ticket to the NE corner of Argentina, right on the border of Brazil to Iguazu Falls. This is where I´m writing this message from. I spent 2 days exploring both the Argentine and Brazil side of a shared famous national park that boasts huge waterfalls. The Argentine side included a boat tour and 4x4 cruise which left you completely soaked from a waterfall dip at the end. Finally today, my last day here, I hiked to Tres Fontera, a point that you can see Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, all serperated by large rivers.

So this is the last of Argentina! Going to watch some NBA finals tonight at a local pub and then off to Porto Alegre Brazil tomorrow (Sunday 5-31). When I arrive I´ll be spending a couple nights with an HP buddy, Rodrigo Victor and doing a video Halo meeting with some guys from San Diego HP, the GF Angie, and a few others in Oregon. Today marks about 12 days left on this South American trip and I´m getting excited to come home. Sao Paulo Brazil and Rio De Jienero Brazil are the final 2 cities.

Thanks again to you mom, for probably being the only sole reader left on this blog and I´ll be home soon!!

Last of Chile and into Argentina

plandro — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:35:00 GMT

Made it to Argentina, 2nd to last country. Thus below is all about the end of Chile.

After I left north Chile, Arica and San Pedro de Atacama, I headed south to beachtown Valparaiso with a buddy I met in San Pedro, Richard from London. Nice guy, smoked 2 cigarettes at a time, 3 packs a day, well at least it looked that way! I hiked from the bus station across town, up an unexpected hill and found a great bed and breakfast for about $20 per night. Although this seems cheap, overall I must say Chile is expensive in South American terms and in some cases like shopping in the US. In this B&B I had a single room (a huge commodity among hostels) and hence the name, a spread of cheese, ham, fruit, bread, juice and coffee every morning for breakfast... I really liked this place.

After meeting up with Richard we set out on the next full day to explore the hills of Valparaiso, apparently the thing to do there. The city is composed of 42 seperate peaks, all loaded with houses and little trams that take you up to different levels. So we did that for a while, found a sweet place for lunch and tried Ceviche (mix of raw fish and veggies) for my cousin Lisa who told me I had to try it. It was better than I expected and was a little hesitant at first.

Us 2 then hiked for what turned into 4 hours to the next town in search of golf. I was the pusher of this, wanting badly to play since I arrived in Chile. We arrived at a private country club and after fighting some poor spanish with the guy at the front desk, happened to be interupted by the president of the club. He told us (in english!) that usually guests are not allowed on but he would let us play! The price... $50 per person green fee and tee time for the next day, Sunday... the best day for a man to play golf! Haha!

That night, Saturday we had a big night on the town, Irish pub for a couple hours and then to a big dance club. Instead of describing the whole thing, let´s just say we got back at 6am the next morning! That translated to 5 hours of sleep to 11 am, a quick breakfast, and taxi out to the golf course for a 1pm tee time. Because of high prices on extras like club rentals, balls, tees, etc, Richard and I shared a bag and took turns carrying it. They luckily loaned us 2 putters for free whiched helped a ton. An Irish guy, in his 50´s, had asked to join us the previous day, so he played along.

I shot 150, about average for me. The course was well kept, deep sand, fast greens, short and rough grass resembling San Diego ¨bermuda¨ type. I actually played ok except (as usual Dan and Dad) had a nasty hook goin on so I spent most of my time with a machetti club in the forest. And did I mention, with the price of loaners I only had 6 balls to work with!! That made things pretty interesting.

Next day, headed out 2 hours bus ride to Santiago. We checked into a huge, popular hostel ¨Casa de Roja¨ (the red house). I slept in a room with 8 beds for 9000 pesos, $18 per night. First night just hung out and met some different peope over beers and beer pong. Next day explored Santiago´s city center by metro, took lots of pictures, ending with a big dinner full of beef steaks, fries, and grilled onions... a little too much. It would have been a great meal but I had been eating something similar for the previous 2 or 3 lunches and dinners and was growing tired of it. Next day Richard left, set off on my own finding a hill full of trams, sites, gondola cable rides, and panoramic shots of the smoggy city. Instead of settling for the usual meal, I finally found a great place and had a glass of wine, pasta and shrimp, grilled veggies, and a grande piece of chocolate cake to top things off. That meal was a high point of the trip!

Yesterday, 5-14 Thursday, I woke up, went for a run and caught a bus for Argentina, just across the border for an 8 hour ride to Mendoza, wine capital of the country. Got some great shots of the Andes as we passed through them and near the border crossings. Without the mountains it probably would have been a 3 hour bus ride! Anyways, found a hostel and room with 10 beds in it, and spent last night chillin with 2 girls travelling for a year from Ireland. One is a biochemistry major and other a teacher who both just up and quit to travel, a common story among others that I´ve met.

Upcoming plans? Tomorrow tour the many vineyards for 4 or 5 hours by bike, possibly end with the hot springs depending on the state I´m in! Then I have to make a decision to go to the beautiful but cold this time of year, Beriloche (way south to Patagonia) or north 10 hours to Cordoba, another cool city and warmer. We´ll see what happens.

Angela, have fun on your planned girls night out tonight and thanks for putting up with my mom for a day (I know, it´s very very tough). Hello to all others and thanks again for reading!

Paul

Across Peru to Chile!

plandro — Sat, 9 May 2009 10:14:00 GMT

Hola from Chile! I finally made it to the 3rd of 5 countries and passed the halfway point of my journey.

Alter Machu Picchu and eating some of the largest, re-energizing meals of my life, I boarded a bus 10 hours south, overnight to Arequipa, Peru. My ultimate destination was Colca Canyon, the 2nd largest canyon in the World, twice as big as the Grand Canyon both wide and deep. Unfortunately to get there I had to take another 3 hour bus from Ariquipa to a city at the head of the canyon, Chivay. Once arriving, it was a quick afternoon of finding a hostel, planning the next day, and then up at 4am the following morning walking down the desolate, dark streets to the Chivay bus terminal. A police officer had told me to catch a 6am bus to the middle of the canyon...as it turned out, I found out the hard way that there was no bus until 8am! Once finally on my ride it dropped us off at ¨Cruz del Condor¨where visitors crammed into a small open-air monument to see the massive canyon and soaring Andean Condors, supposedly the largest flying birds(?) I was able to catch two of them on camera swooping overhead looking very similar to vultures. As you might expect, the canyon was indeed huge... to put things in perspective, as I stood at approximately 10,000 feet on the ledge and peered down to the thread-sized river widing at the bottom, I was looking nearly at sea level! After staring in awe for a while, I took off hiking with a german couple I met on the bus alongside the canyon for a couple of hours. While boasting some more great canyon views, it led us to the last small town of Cabanaconde to catch a ride back to the hostels.

Back in Chivay, some natural hotsprings outside of town was my next destination: a large swimming pool with a constant inlet stream of 100 degree, steaming water. It was the perfect follow-up to an all day hike.

The next day I again awoke early to catch a 9am bus to Ariquipa, then onward to Tacna, Peru´s southern-most major transportation hub. Arriving there at 10 pm, taxi drivers flooded me with offers across the border to Chile. I chose one thought to be a reasonable price- the driver then led me through the entire process: passport checking, fees, money exchange, and finally into a beatup 1970´s-ish cadillac crammed with 4 other people. I somehow managed to get stuck with front middle, grrr :(

First, 10 minutes down the road was the Peru exit checkpoint. Next at another 15 minutes was the Chile entry point & customs. This made me somewhat nervous recalling a story the german couple told me while hiking in Colca Canyon. Encountering Chile´s harsh ¨no-fruit-entry¨ rule, the couple had accidentally left 3 plums in their bag while crossing this checkpoint. They were fined 150 euros (approx $200 US dollars) and written up for an arrest warrant! They had to then clear this later at a local german embassy. To add to the nervousness while approaching the office, I suddenly remembered all those free bananas I received in Ecuador! Luckily over the last few hostels I have been ditching them one small pile at a time, but still fretted over forgetting just 1.

In short I made it through OK and rode another 20 minutes safely into Chile´s northern most transportation hub, Arica. It was nearly midnight once I finally arrived, so I hailed the first taxi and slept in a terrible but cheap hostel. The next morning I awoke and went straight to the bus station. Because it was a sunday, there was no available outbound ride to my next stop, San Pedro de Atacama, until Monday. I bought the ticket, found a better hostel and started to explore Arica.

In Arica I found black sand beaches, a towering monument high above the city displaying the fight against Peru in the late 1800´s (not sure on the date-?), a cinema showing american movies with spanish subtititles (I watched X-men the beginning), and a McDonald´s. Now I have been good about staying away from these throughout the entire trip and don´t normally have it even in the US. But around lunchtime I was starving, hadn´t had anything since Ariquipa over 24 hours before, and didn´t feel like mustering up poor spanish. So I gave in and got a ¨lo mas grande¨ big mac meal, with papas fritas (french fries), a coke, and ice cream sunday (again a typically uncle joe diet)... all for about $8 US.

The next evening in Arica, Monday night, I boarded my bus to San Pedro de Atacam, true Chilean desert and highly recommended hang-out spot from other traveler´s I´d met. The ride there was horrible, in fact the worst one I´d encountered up to that point. At 4am while dying in a hot and humid atmosphere, pinned up against the wall by my the person next to me, we were all directed off the bus for some police search. It not only was early but took over an hour for them to search all the bags, under the bus, in the bus, and everywhere else!

We showed up at San Pedro at 9am. I had befriended a 29 year old from London who quit his job as a lawyer to come travel for 3 months. Oddly he had worked contract positions with HP on some of their mergers with foreign print companies such as Scitex, NUR, Colorspan, and even the latest US company EDS. All of these I knew very well and we chatted about similar HP employees and locations we´d both met and been to.

Once getting the usual hostel, food, and much needed baños, we booked a sand boarding ride later that day and in the evening a stargazing tour. The sand boarding took a little bit to get use to, resembling snow boarding quite a bit and included.

This entry is getting too long and has taken me over a week to construct. Thus, the rest of the story is I booked a bus ticket to Valparaiso (a beach to the south) from San Pedro, thought it left at 1:30pm but really left at 1.... so I showed up to find my bus idling ready to go, and instead of asking any questions, just watched it drive off into the distance. When I finally asked an attended where my bus was, he just pointed at the one that left. Oh well, so I booked a ticket for an hour later to Santiago, continuing on to Valpraiso.

Next entry is for the last of Chile and first of Argentina!

Machu Picchu

plandro — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT

I´m almost half-way through my journey now, beggining to prep for Chile. This entry is dedicated to my 4 day, 3 night Machu Picchu hike, the less traveled route amoung tourists.

It started last Friday evening (4-24) with an info session from our tour guide Jaire in a very cramped room near the center of town, Plaza del Armas. He went over all the details in an hour and by the end, I had made a UK buddy, Govind, and was shopping for last minute supplies. The next morning, Saturday at 6am I was the first to be picked up in the bus that delivered us to the trailhead. We then picked up 10 other hikers and 10 porters or helpers that carried all of the tents, tables, chairs, food, and other essential gear. Three hours later at the trailhead, around 10 am, my small backpack was stuffed completely full and ready to go. Somehow I managed to attach a sleeping bag and sleeping pad to it, i´m proud to say I had the lightest and smallest backpack!

After the checkpoint, we hiked all of Saturday over flat, easy dirt trail covering 12km. We came across the first Inca ruins and small cities, stopping to get explanations from 1 of the 2 tour guides (Edgar was the other one). Most of the time was spent learning names and getting to know the others. My group consisted of a dutch couple from Holland in their mid 20´s, 2 California couples living in LA in their mid to late 20´s, a father and son from the UK, Govind from the UK in his late 20´s, a constant drinker and smoker, outspoken, obnoxious guy from Ireland, and a few mid-30 guys from Lima, Peru. The group chemistry was great, everyone working together very well. We showed up to our camp around 6pm on Saturday with everything all set up including a full meal!

The 2nd day we were awoken at 5am by 4 porters at our tent entrances, serving cocoa leaf tea, a local herbal remedy for altitude sickness. Over the course of the trip, everyone was constantly drinking this tea, more for its excellent flavor than Peru-claimed remedy. After breakfast, we were introduced to the porters and took a group photo. Then we set out for the hardest day, climing 2000 feet to approx. 14,000 feet, the highest altitude I have ever been at, and was very nervous about it. The path turned from dirt trail to stone walkways and steps which remained the theme over the remainder of the trip. It was a very, very tough day and seemed like the pass would never come! By the time I could see the top, nearing the last 200 vertical feet or so, I a little dizzy, but not sick. I felt like I had a few beers in me and wobbling a little bit, but now as I recall, everyone did! In short, I made it to the top, waited about 20 minutes for the rest of the group, made a short video (posted on youtube) with Govind, and continued to the next camp. The next camp was nearly at the pass, making for a very cold night. Thankfully I had packed plenty of clothes and a sleeping bag liner in preparation. Before it got dark, I decided to join only 2 or 3 others opting to try the cold shower. Let me say that I´m surprised that an icicle did not form in mid-shower because it was FREEEEEZING!!! Not sure if it was worth it. I should also mention that up to this point the weather was very nice, partly cloudy and mostly warm.

Again on the 3rd day (monday), we were awoken at 5am to more cocoa leaf tea, rain and heavy fog. I put on all my rain-gear and started with the group to the top of a smaller pass, but still exhausting. It turned out to be our longest day at about 9 hours of hiking. However, after the pass, the weather cleared a bit, and the trek was mostly downhill. Once getting to levels below the clouds, the views were fantastic. Lush green mountainsides hinting evidence of jungles near, enourmous valleys with gushing rivers at the bottom, and of course plenty of flauna and flora. We reached the final camp around dark, 6pm. I proceeded to take a hot shower, but was in a line too long and once again ended up with cold water (grrr). At dinner we decided as group how much to tip the porters, coming to 60 soles per hiker (about $20). Just to show how hard they were working, we never saw them during the entire trip except at the camps. After each meal as we were getting prepped, they quickly packed up (within 5 min!) and sprinted off with sandles and hardly a method of attaching loads to themselves (sometimes just a single roap holding a tarp of stuff around their chests).

On the morning that we were to arrive at MP, it was a 3:45 wake-up call, as morning is the best time to vist the site. After breakfast and clearing a group checkpoint, we were off on the stone trail again. Unfortunately it had rained that night and the clouds remained blocking some views until later in the morning. I hiked mostly with the girl of Holland couple, Neinka who matched my pace.

We arrived to MP at 7:30am and went to try and pick-up hard-to-get tickets to climb Whynapicchu mountain (the big pointing mountain in the background of any MP postcard). Only 400 were given out per day. At the ticket counter, they told us we had to first check our bags at the official entrance of the site, so we asked him to hold the remaining 5 tickets, and sprinted to the entrance! After going there, we checked our bags, stamped our passports, and raced back just in time to pick up the mountain tickets. Then, if that wasn´t enough, had to go back to the official entrance to meet the rest of the group. That was an intense workout! Once the rest of the group showed up, the guide took us on an hour tour, telling us the history and brining us by the main viewpoints. At 10, Neinka and I hiked to the top of Whyanpicchu mountain, proving to be another intense, completely vertical, hands-and-knees crawling workout. The views from here were priceless however. Somehow the Inca´s managed to build another mini stone city on top of this pointy rock, barely visible from the postcard MP pictures (one needs to look very carefully). After being entirely awestruck and snapping another 1000 pictures, I left on as bus as instructed by our guide, to the town below MP, Auguas Calientes. We all me there and had a huuuuuge, trip-ending meal. I ate a cheeseburger, fries, coke, cheesecake, and 2 banana milkshakes (uncle Joe´s daily diet minus a handful of M&M´s). From there, we trained and bussed back to Cusco.

Govind and I met up later to eat another enormous meal, personal pan pizzas and spit an entire plate of spaghetti. Then had a few drinks, hit a bar til 1 am, and then went back to the hotels where I passed out cold.

Overall, as you might expect, an AMAZING experience. I honestly thought it wouldn´t be that much better than seeing it from a photo, but I was wrong. Even after 3 days of intense hiking, waking up at 4 am on the final day, I still got goosebumps when first seeing the sprawling, vast layout of stone structures and terraces.

Today, Wednesday, the day after the trip, I am making my way by bus 9 hours inland to Ariquipa. It is home to the largest canyons in the world which someone mentioned to me. I will explore them for a day, head over towards Lima for a couple days and then onto Chile later this week or early next week.

Please check out my photos and link to the YouTube video below of Govind and me at the top of the highest pass on the MP trail. Thanks again for reading and as usual I will write more next week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=157os2xgYgA

Week 2: Last of Ecuador - More Baños and the Defaz Family

plandro — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:47:00 GMT

I am officially done in Ecuador and now in Peru. Here are the highlights from my last days in Ecuador.
Early in the week (April 14thish) I finished up my stay in Baños, recreation capital town of Ecuador. I showed up on a Saturday night on Easter weekend and the streets were packed. Getting off the bus I happened to make a travel companion, Mike from Texas, 24 year old south america veteran. He had been on the road for 7 months (thats right mom, mine wasnt for so long after all)! During the 3 days in the “the bathrooms” I went on a big 8 mile hike, climbing 2000 feet, but saw some great views. I also came across a farmer that gave Mike and I a tour of his home and farm (sampling the fruit too). The day following the hike I was planning on taking a leisurely, supposedly very commong bike ride to a small city called Puyo, gateway to the Amazon jungle east of Baños. Turns out 65km equates to 40mi and it was almost all up hill! I was beat when I got to Puyo and had to hail a bus back to the hostel in the dark with my terrible, 5 phrase spanish.

The next day, Mike and I decided to head to Latacunga, a mid point for our different adventures. It was about a 4 hour bus ride towards the coast where we got a cheap hostel and prepared for the next day. He ended up going on a hike-bus, 4'day trip around a circle of small towns that was very well known among backpackers.

I instead got on what was suppose to be a 6 hour bus ride to Quevedo, another small town where the Defaz family was located. THey were the family of my co'worker Janet Defaz and had agreed to put me up for a 4 days and 3 nights. The bus ride ended up being a crazy event! It was a very windy, dirt road with many pot holes. It was only wide enough for 1 vehicle but cars coming in both directions. At the top of the mountain pass we encountered fog so thick I was expecting a crash... i dont know how we made it out of there without one! Once the fog cleared we encountered a 3 hour delay due to mud slides and the consequential construction. That was a true test of my patience and as a result, I was dropped off in Quevedo in the dark with no idea where I was. In fact it turned out there wasnt even a bus stop in central Quevedo and the bus just stopped when I started making a fuss in again, terrible spanish.

At the Defaz family´s home, I was treated like a king. I was put up in a huge room, ate their food, and got to use all their stuff! Over the four days I got to know Janet Defaz´s (Tatiana´s sister) friends, coworkers, and family. I especially enjoyed joking and playing with Janet´s 9 year old daughter, Marialexis. In the short 4 days I was with the Defaz family, I visited a Dole banana plantation (walking away with a free box of bananas), hiked the "siete cascada" a series of 7 huge waterfalls with a barbeque and natural waterslide at the end, and taught english as well as talked about engineering to various classes at a local school owned by Janet. Unfortunately on the hike I slipped and fell backwards into a shallow pool ruining my camera. Also somewhere along the way, my sunglasses and a credit card was nabbed by someone. Not sure exactly how it happend. So my pictures stop after the waterfall :( until I can get a new one.

The only reason I was looking forward to leaving Quevedo was because the intense heat and humidity. I am now in Cusco, Peru arriving a few days ago where the climate is much cooler. The elevation is so high it´s almost as if i was standing on top of Mount Hood (almost, but not quite). I will write more very soon about the bus trip and Macchu Picchu which starts Saturday, 4-25.

Thanks again for reading and check out my pictures section.

Week 1: Quito and Baños, Ecuador

plandro — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:31:00 GMT

Buenas to all and thanks again for keeping up with my journey (especially Mrs. Poultan´s elementary class!) Everything has been great so far. I´ve eaten some very strange meals (including guinnuea pig and Chinese-Ecuadorian food), seen cool sites, and made a few friends along the way.

I spent 5 days in Quito, Ecuador (the capital) in a small hotel room for $20 per night. On the second day I met 2 travelling doctors taking breaks from their residencies from New Jersey and Colorado. They were also visiting hospital camps in the Amazon jungle after Quito. We witnessed Good Friday (catholic holiday) Ecuadorian style in which the entire town takes a holiday and participates in a 4 hour march or parade through the city.

On Saturday I traveled by bus for 4 hours to a small town called Baños, south east of Quito where I´m writing this entry. It is the gateway to the Amazon jungle and resembles it in many ways. I met a 24 year old man named Mike travelling for 7 months through all of central and south America. He was only a month from returning back to his hometown in Texas and was very helpful with travelling tips; for example, I stayed in a hostel at $5 a night yesterday (and yes mom, it was very safe and hospitable). We spent all day today (Sunday) hiking trails around the city and visiting with locals, mostly farmers. I wish I could do more adventure sports here, as the town is famous for, but I must leave for my next city Quevedo, Ec. in the mid-western part of the country. I will be learning Spanish and teaching English to 4th graders.

Again thanks for reading and I will post more next week!

Paul

Routes, timelines, and misc info

plandro — Thu, 2 Apr 2009 14:10:00 GMT

Here's a couple links that might be helpful. You can also find more on the right hand side of the page under "bookmarks".

TRIP MAP: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=-21.289374,-59.150391&spn=49.402213,79.101563&z=4&msid=101394943754844339068.0004668a1a3ae0a2f8994

TRIP CALENDAR: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=paul.landrum%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

Gallery: Trip Photos

plandro — Thu, 2 Apr 2009 10:23:00 GMT

California coastal tour

plandro — Thu, 2 Apr 2009 09:58:00 GMT

So I played hookie from work, packed up & stored my junk, and left San Diego for Oregon. The drive took me 2 full days (long route) up HWY 101/ 1. Windy roads, great views, speeding ticket, cheap hotel in Santa Cruz, and a personal pan pizza would best sum up the trip. I knew once I reached Oregon... the weather went from low 70's & clear to mid 40's and rainy.