Arequipa and Colca Canyon

Ew! Cuy! Ew! Guinnea pig is not for me, I have to say. Too many remaining hairs.
So sketched out right there. I´m eating a guinnea pig´s haunch... what´s not to be sketched out about? Honestly, they have a really gross fat to meat ratio and the skin is super chewy. It had to be done once but certainly not twice.
This is Colca canyon at the Cruz del Condor (condor cross, see below). It´s above where the condors nest in the side of the canyon. It turns out that Colca canyon is actually the deepest in the world but not here. At this point it´s about 1500m deep. The deepest point is 4100m or something close to that. When we first got there it was ridiculously foggy but it cleared up half decently with time. I promise that we did get to see condors close up (about 10m away) but they always waited until the camera was off, those buggers. They really are awe-inspiring. We´ve seen other really big birds on this trip so I wasn´t sure that I´d be impressed... but they are really really big birds with really really big talons. It truly did take your breath away.
Clayton at the cross which gives Cruz del Condor it´s name. You can see the clouds are still really thick above us.
The Colca Valley, absolutely covered in terracing for farming. There´s nothing THAT spectacular about the valley and the small towns in it except for the sheer coverage of the terraces. Oh and we stayed in a town which had nice hot baths, which is always spectacular.

So we are back in Arequipa for one more day of sightseeing. Tomorrow we have a river rafting trip booked to give us one last adrenaline kick and then it´s the night bus back to Cusco (NOT looking forward to the 11 hour bus ride!). We have a flight from Cusco to Lima on the 22nd and we leave from Lima that night (at 5 minutes past midnight on the 23rd). Then it´s a full day of planes until we finally land in Victoria at 4:30pm. When you take into account the time change that´s about 19 hours of travel. This may be the last post before we get home! Though I may get one more in there in Cusco if anything particularly interesting happens. Lots of love to everyone, we will see you very soon. Merry almost Christmas!

-Dawn

Away for a few days

Hello everyone

We´ve been in Arequipa for about 3 days now after a gueling 11 hours bus ride from Bolivia. We have one more loooong ride and then it´s back to Canada to see all you lovely people! Arequipa is beautiful with gorgeous white stonework (the stones are lava that cooled very quickly). In any case, it´s a great place with a fair bit of colonialism. We´ve done a few neat things, such as watching crazy parades and seeing Juanita the Frozen Mummy which was truly amazing, but perhaps the most adventurous thing we´ve done is eat Cuy. Cuy is a dinner speciality in much of south america but we´ve been avoiding it to this point... because it´s guinnea pig. And their cooked whole (minus the guts) so it still looks like a guinnea pig. I will show you the pictures ASAP... it was somewhat unpleasant, but it had to be done! We also had an alpaca tenderloin which was much more normal.

So today we´re off to the Colca canyon, debatably the deepest canyon in the world (just barely second, actually) and an excellent place to see condors. I feel like a bit of a wimp because we´ve had to cop out and do the bus tour without actually going down into the canyon. It´s supposed to be beautiful but I´ve injured my knee and walking down more than a flight of stairs isn´t really an option. Tear tear, but I guess that we just can´t do everything. We´ll be back tomorrow night from this outing (Dec. 17th). I´ll send post some pictures then.

Lots of love!

Isla del Sol and more of Copacabana, Bolivia

This is really the most ridiculous religious process I've ever seen... I try to be open minded about these things, but this is really stupid. They are blessing their cars. Really. They cover the cars with crap, set off fireworks UNDERNEATH THE CAR, and then pour champagne all over it. It's the most bizarre thing, I had to sit and watch for a while, but from a safe distance in case there was a leak under the car while the fireworks were going off. Madness! We've only seen this in Copacabana, I don't know whether or not it's common in Bolivia.
The beach of Copacabana on the weekend! Note the llama for kids rides. Copacabana is the only land-locked nation with a naval fleet but you can understand why when you look out at lake titicaca... it's like looking at the great lakes, you can't see the other side.
This is our first camping site on Isla del Sol. This island is supposed to be about the ruins and Incan history but we really used it to do some hiking. The ruins were neat but the views were better. This particular camp site is on the edge of a bunch of farm plots manned by perhaps 5 families on the other side of this bay.
This is a glimpse of the labrynth (also called Temple of the Sun) which was built by the Incas. This is supposedly where their first leader was birthed by the sun and mother earth. Sort of a Jesus concept. The labrynth was impossible to take good pictures of but it was very twisty and confusing. This spot has been occupied for a really long time, long before the Incas.
This is me at a sacrificial table (mainly for animals, I think). As always, the smoothness of Incan stones is very impressive. Behind me is the Puma Rock (jaguar shaped). This is right next to the labrynth. The mouth is the inward section slightly to the right of centre. Pumas are incredibly important in the religion of all peoples that come from the areas we've seen in South America. They represent power and divinity... when shaamen took hallucinogens they said that they were being possesed by the puma (divinity) and even are represented as turning into them.
This is near our second campsite on Isla del Sol, on the beach next to the northern village (easier for meals). This was a nice site as well but a bit noisier, especially when the local children want to play. These kids learn their manners from their parents who bully tourists into giving them money... the kids did a damn good job of bullying us into spinning them around, but the concept of taking turns was totally lost of them! They really didn't understand what was good behavior and what wasn't, though that's my northern interpretation of good behavior. Rules are very different for children down here.


So now we're headed back to Peru for the last 10 days of our trip (yikes!). It goes so quick and though we don't want to leave the excitement and the learning experience, we're very happy to be going home for christmas. Can't wait to see everyone!

Pictures to go with the words

This is the floating islands in Lake Titicaca of the Uros culture. Each of these little islands is made from reeds (I think I talked about it before).
This is the sunset at the top of a mountain on the island of Amantani (titcaca, Peru side). It was on this island that we stayed with a local family for the night.
We went to a fiesta all dressed up in the local wear. It was a bit hokey (I think that's obvious) but we got our exercise with their crazy running/dancing. I would like to defend my hefty appearance by saying that I am wearing a HELL of a lot in this picture!
This is the family we stayed with. Clayton has recently taken Alice's growing mushrooms and become a giant.
The rinky sailboat! There wasn't much wind so we had to get out of the bay using Clayton Power.

Lago Titikaka y Bolivia

Hola amigos! So we´re now in Copacabana, Bolivia and loving it. This is a beautiful town with a gorgeous lake front, filled with all different types of boats for rent. Yesterday we spent 3 hours sailing in a tiny little boat with a mast that was clearly a tree trunk with the branches halfhazardly hacked off. It was fun, tacking was perhaps a bit more of a chore than normal but we got the hang of it. I´m sorry that we haven´t got any photos for you this time but the internet connection is SLLLOOOOWWWW. But yes I have to highly recommend Copacabana for it´s beautiful weather, incredible cheapness, and excellent Incan ruins. Though I recently had a row with the hotel owner for trying to screw us and decided I needed a pre-lunch Cuba Libre (rummy)... this explains how out of order this entry is.

We were previously in Puno to check out the Peru side of Lake Titicaca and see some pre-Incan ruins. The ruins involved funerary tours built by the Colla culture (incan ancestors). This was really neat in that you could see how the stone working progressed from this earlier culture into the amazing Incan works. Even in the Colla time they were hollowing out stones to equalize weights around the towers they built and making domed roofs without mortar. Very impressive. The trip to the Peru islands in the lake was pretty fun. We started with the Uros culture on the famous floating islands... they build these islands out of reeds and put down anchors. Thus if they don´t like their neighboors they just pick up anchor and float away, or hack away the section that their neighboors house is on (I think this actually happens pretty rarely but it´s a fun idea... I would´ve liked to hack the floor out from one of my old roommates, haha). We then went to another island which was less touristy and stayed the night with a local family. They were fantastic and we left them a big tip and bought some of the grandmother´s work (her name was also Elena, haha). We felt particularly good about this when we found out that the husband had passed away and this was their only form of income. It´s a rough life for people on this island but they sure do have the views to make up for it. We got to dress up in their local clothes and had a little fiesta which was lots of fun... they like to sweat when dancing! Especially the women who are layered in like 3 heavy skirts. The guys just wear funny hats, I can´t wait to show everyone the pictures. The next day we went to the last island on our trip, Taquile. This is the island where men knit... it´s supposed to be a very manly activity there. Unfortunately this island has been rather ruined by tourism and was basically a big shopping centre. But it was a good trip in any case and we feel as though we saw a lot in a little amount of time.

Today we´re going to Isla del Sol, the main island on the Bolivia side. We´re quite excited about it as we get to camp a bit and hike around without a guide. We should be back to Copacabana on tuesday and then back into Peru on wednesday or thursday (heading to Arequipa, for those with a map). Isla del Sol is very important in Incan religion as it was supposed to be the birth site of the son of the two major gods, the sun and mother earth. Hence we´re supposedly in the vagina of the world, which is a bit humorous. Some people still combine this religion with Christianity in very interesting ways... almost as though the Incan religion is the facts of history and the Christian religion is faith. Praying to mother earth is very common practice. Anyways, we must go catch our boat. Lots of love and hugs! Pictures soon, I promise

-Dawn

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu! - OVERVIEW 4

Wayna Picchu is a mountain right next to the Machu Picchu site that towers over it, allowing you to get the classic shot from above. The walk up is steep, though, and I think that the walk down may defy logic and actually be steeper. This is a shot that Clay took near the top where those crazy Incans built some stone terracing. He went up with Adam around 11 while I went up alone a little while later. Though I loved the group, it was nice to hike alone for a while, at my own pace.
One of Clay's shots as the clouds are clearing.
Yeah, it's steep. But that might be a little bit dramatic.
By the time I got up there the sun was shining, butterflies were everywhere, people were happy, it was great. This shows the road down from Machu Picchu as well. The trek up took short cuts up and was pretty direct.

Yay I made it! I'm so tired... but yay I made it!

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu! - OVERVIEW 3

It rained. We're happy, really. After hauling ass up to Machu Picchy at 5am in the pouring rain (not an easy 45 minutes!) and finding that the lovely dry restaurant in which we could ring out our socks was closed until 11, we may have been a touch on the bitchy side. And yeah, the walk up wasn't easy. You know, I wasn't quite sure that I was getting my recommended dosage of stairs but I think I'm OK now for about the next 20 years. Our 2 hour tour was over in about 45 minutes because we were all so cold and tired. However, we got some chocolate in us (I ate 8 oreos and felt no guilt) and tried again with a bit of hypothermic giggles in us. It went much better this time and started to clear up around noon. We were supposed to be done around then but some of us hung out for a few hours in the afternoon because it was just so much better. The sun came out and it was the classic Machu Picchu experience.

This is the sun temple, the best bit of architechture in Machu Picchu. How in the hell did they do that? Look at how perfectly the stones fit together (no mortar) and curve around... all by hand. The temples show examples of excellent stonework while the living areas are more crude. There were several structures with specific purposes (astrology, art, sacrifice) but the broader pictures are more impressive.
It's really very big. You could wander about for hours and not see everything. The theory is that Machu Picchu was a university of sorts where the most important Incans were trained. Apparently it was abandoned when the Incans realized that the Spanish didn't actually want to be friends. The inhabitants destroyed all the trails to the city, took all their valuables and hid in the surrounding jungle. So the mystery is where this hidden treasure is located. Many thanks to Ash and Luke for scoring a decent tour and actually paying attention.

Richenda - apparently the Virgins of the Sun concept got vetoed when Yale reexamined the burried skeletons and saw that they were actually 50:50 male and female.
What's the deal with this freaking rain?

Hehe this is just humorous. Adam was walking along and was suddenly surrounded by a huge boys school... it was hilarious, a bunch of rowdy little boys walking along the narrow path with tall, white Adam sticking up in the middle, looking around bewildered. Here he is in his class photo. From an archeological standpoint, the big rock mimicks the shape of the mountains behind it.

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu! - OVERVIEW 2

Day 3 was through cloud forest and really reminded me of treking the west coast back home on a foggy day. There were lots of fun/sketchy bridges like this one. After lunch we had a bus booked to take us down a road section, though some psychos decided they needed to hike for the entire 5 days. Those of you who know Clay are well aware of what he did. Jet engine. Anyways, the Irish couple left us on this day to take a train/bus combo to Aguas Callientes and we were down to 5 trekers. I have some great stories about this American father-son team from the deep south but I think they should be reserved for drunken conversations when a good laugh is needed. Remind me about it, these are damn hilarious stories.


Children here are the cutest in the world and I don't care that I've only seen a tiny bit of it. This conversation is OVER (inside joke, appologies). A bit more of Day 3... replace deciduous trees with coniferous and you've got BC west coast rain forest.
Day 4 started with a cable car, which is always fun. Don't Steve and Adam cuddle well?
The men on the 4th day. Every day had some sort of challenge. This one brought us intense sun all morning while we hiked along dirt/sand roads. I sweat buckets, which made me hungry, which brings me to one of my favorite parts of treking hard: chocolate bars. It's like you're supposed to eat them, they're almost HEALTHY, I love it. Ok, no one cares about my passion for chocolate, back to the trek. The afternoon was all along train tracks which was a bit tough as you had to watch your feet. However, when you did look up it was always to see lush greens that a camera just can't capture (well, mine can't). We got into Aguas Callientes that night and had a shower! With hot water! No shower head but we musn't be picky now. The next morning had a 4:00 wake up call to get up to Machu Picchu for 'sunrise'...

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu! - OVERVIEW 1

So this is an attempt at an overview of the Salkantay trek which ended at a town called Aguas Callientes. This town is at the base of Machu Picchu. The trek is a total of 70km (might I point out that the Inca Trail is only about 40km) with a peak height of 4600m, a new record for us. It was just stunningly beautiful at points and perhaps the most rewarding trek I've done, though it was really very difficult at times. We were lucky to have an excellent group that were almost always in good spirits and incredibly supportive. OK here goes -

The group! Minus Clay who is our photographer. Senor Steve the punk rock journalist from South Africa in the green, Ash and Luke from Ireland/Aussy in the front right corner (IT and psyc don't seem to do them justice... perhaps they're professional partiers), our well-supplied humour department in the form of Adam the radio host/very serious political journalist (sorta) from Aussy is sitting above them, Carmen in the top left corner was the retired mama from Spain with pipes of steel, and sitting next to her is our guide Henri who I'm pretty sure has some walking/flying combo worked out considering how fast he can go. And me in the middle! The first day was the hardest for me. The three hours in the afternoon had a fair bit of up and shocked my muscles pretty good, making me rather dead for the three hours in the afternoon. The reward for the day was the beautiful glacier looming in front... I tried hard not to think about how I was going to get around it the next day.
Me after the first set of switchbacks on day 2. DAMN I was exhausted, but really ridiculously proud of myself. I gotta say, I brought my A game to this day. This probably had nothing to do with the mad amounts of coca, tylenol, diamox, arnica, and chocolate that I ingested. Clayton crossing the valley towards the second round of up that brutalized me a fair bit more. Clay was lucky enough to be born with some sort of powerful jet engine that allows him to powerhouse up hills at supernatural speeds. Jerk (said with love). This engine theory probably explains the funky noises that he often makes. In any case, the entire group made it up to the 4600m pass in about 3 hours from a starting height of 3700m, with varying amounts of pain. I had been absolutely terrified of this part of the trek and was really proud of all of us for givin'er so hard.

Side note: givin'er and giv'er are apparently Canadian terms. For those unaware, they mean to work it, basically. To be hardcore and determined. You can giv'er on a trek, on an assignment, on a night out drinking, in bed, etc etc.

Day 2 wore on and on. I think we hiked for about 11 hours; 3 up and the rest down. By the end of the day I don't think any of us could have managed to walk through Cuzco, much less further along the trek. The change of terrain was really interesting, going from the alpine pass which was pretty devoid of life, through valleys/bogs with HUGE rocks randomly scattered about, and down into cloud forest. The last bit was rather dangerously steep with lots of loose rock but we all made it down alive. The joy of this campsite was the hot spring pool nearby. We sat in there during a thunder storm and were totally surrounded by mountains being lit up by thousands of fireflies. It was a pretty spectacular way to reward your sore muscles, though I think we all could've used a few more days of rest and recouperation there.

Heading out to Machu Picchu!

Buenos dias mis amigos!

This is just a quick entry to let everyone know that we´re going to be MIA until Dec 2nd. We´re starting the Salkantay trail up to Machu Picchu tomorrow morning (early! 4:30am!). I´m a little nervous because the highest pass (on day 2) is 4800m but I think it´s fairly gradual so hopefully we won´t get too sick. I´ve got some coca leaves to chew on to help, though I´ve yet to be convinced about their effectiveness. Anyways, if you´re into prayers/encouraging thoughts, send me one on wednesday! We´ve met others who have done the Inca Trail which is supposed to be of comparable difficulty and they struggled through all right... this was very reassuring for me because I know I´ve got some better leg muscles than most of those girls! Vain, I know, sorry. It´s a 5 day trek so we will get to Machu Picchu on Dec 1st and get back to Cusco in the evening. It´s a bit ridiculous as there´s trains up and down but there´s just something about hiking it... I think I´d be rather shameful if I didn´t walk up. We´ve decided that we can only do one major trek in the next month and remain happy so that´s opened up some time for us and we´ve been enjoying Cusco. We did the vast majority of our christmas present shopping yesterday which was fun... we bought some things for ourselves too, like a hammock and an alpaca blanket... and pants, I just can´t turn down nice pants for ten bucks. It was great to finally buy so many of the things we´ve oogled for the last 3 months. We´re just about ready to move on, though. Cusco is fun but it´s not really south american. It feels very European; organized and clean without the randomness and insanity that makes so many south american cities so interesting. And there´s English, so much English, it´s really bizarre. The shoe shine boys speak English, which is crazy. Uneducated children are bilingual. It´s just amazing though I feel bad if I don´t try to speak Spanish since I´m the one in their country. Anyways, I have one really fun tidbit to share about Cusco: you can drink for free all night, men as well as women. No joke, it´s so much fun! I think that some people in the main square get paid by the number of people they recruit into their discotech so they just want to give you free drink tickets. So you follow one person, tell the 20 other people grabbing your arms that you´ll go to their bars later (and mean it), work your way out of the crowd and into the bar. Get your free drinks, dance a bit, then leave and get the next free drink tickets. There´s no such thing as cover charges. Oh and in the daytime many of the discotechs play movies on projector screens so you can go there for dinner and a movie (again, no cover charge). We had an AMAZING meal at one of them last night while watching a movie. Apparently you can still go out on dates even if you haven´t spent more than 3 hours apart in 3 months, haha.

Alright well this is longer than intended. Lots of love to everyone! See you for christmas!

-Dawn

Cusco (or is it Cuzco??)

The spelling is up for debate, sources seem confused. In any case, we´re here in the main city in Southern Peru and one of the hottest tourist destinations in South America. Though it´s not actually hot, it´s really very high up and we´re entering the rainy season so for most of the day it´s not unlike the temperature at home. And then the sun comes out for a bit and you remember how much closer you are to it here. I still intend on coming home as a dark white girl, though I may fade a bit in the next month.

So this is sort of our home base for the next month. We´ve found a hostel that we like and is relatively affordable (Cusco is expensive) and intend on leaving a lot of our things in storage while we visit out last few destinations. Cusco is fun... very european with all the luxuries of a european city... though they all still insist on honking their horns constantly for absolutely no reason whatsoever and I may resort to throwing rocks soon... there´s also only so many dozens of times you can yell ´Use your signal!!!!´ before you´re just right pissed off. Haha the drivers may be my number one reason for wanting to come home! But the hostel we´re in is on a walkway as opposed to a street so it´s relatively quiet, and in the main square it´s forbidden for drivers to use their horns (I´m not joking, it´s a real issue!). Today we´re leaving the main city to go to some surrounding ruins which should be fun. Things are more organized here so you´re more likely to do a tour in a group of 15 or 20 as opposed to you and the guy next door as it was in Ecuador. Still it should be good times and it´s only for a few hours so we can get back to our favorite Cusco activity of eating. Mmm helado (ice cream) like you wouldn´t believe... and every different kind of food you could ever want... it´s just great, I love eating here. I think I´m putting back on my food poisoning weight but it´s so very worth it. Yummy, everyone should go out right now and eat the best icecream you can afford and just sit and appreciate it.

We´ve just been exploring the city, going to old churches (Incan converted to Catholic often, with influences from both) and seeing the ruins that some of the current builings are on top of. Incan architecture is amazing simply in that the stones are made with totally straight edges and you can barely see the gaps between them. They used very minimal mortar and we´re wondering if that´s why Incan walls survive earthquakes so well... because they have some give to them, they aren´t brittle. Earthquakes are a real danger here and the shrine to the Lord of the Earthquakes (Jesus with a fun new title) is surrounded by candles.

The current plan is to do a hike to Macchu Picchu in a few days. We can´t do the Inca trail, as we knew well in advance, because it´s booked up. However, there´s an althernative called the Salkantay which is a 5 day trek to a top altitude of 4800m. I´m a little scared of going that high after my last experience but we´ll have mules so that should help. After touring the ruins on the 5th day we´ll take the train down. Then we´ll have a few rest days before taking off to a city called Arequipa (I think that´s how you spell it... more or less) which is a small town where you take off for the Colca Canyon. I´ve recently been informed that this is actually the second deepest canyon in the world by about 140m. The deepest is nearby but I think it´s harder to get to. Anyways, the Colca canyon is good for viewing condors. Then we´re off to Lake Titicaca where we´ll spend about a week in the different islands. This is a very important religious place for indigenous people and I´m really looking forward to it.

Then we come home! I´m really looking forward to Christmas with everyone and can´t wait to see you all (Woods, Hiles, and wonderful friends). Lots of love!

-Dawn

ps - for those who like shoes- I just bought a pair of really nice suede GIRL boots for like $22 and I´m really very happy about it. This is just a note to tell all of you trendy girls out there that you are NOT allowed to tell me they´re out of style when I get back! Dawn finally bought nice shoes!

Ruins in Peru

Picture out of order again. This is the Temple of the moon (expained a little more below). The ramp shown below is about the length of a football field and they think the area was used for religous events and entertaining death matches something akin to roman gladiators.

Amazing base relief artwork at the Chavin ´rainbow´temple which actually exists amazingly close to the Trujillo city centre. The Chavin did amazing work with adobe (mud) bricks. The remains of a palace shown above was once part of the largest pre-Inca cty in South America, covering more than 26 square km. This city was conquered by the Inca just 10 years before the Spanish arrived. After 30 or 40 years of the Spanish most of the inhabitants had died out due to war or disease. The Spanish then set up mining companies to dig and loot the tombs of the 9 previous rulers of the city.
Painted base-relief artwork of the Moche temple of the moon. The Moche preceeded the Chavin and were around about 100-700AD. This temple was covered with sand untill 1968 so its quite well preserved.
A shot from the top of the temple of the moon showning new digs at its base and the unexcavated temple of the sun in the distance.
The same arena area as the first picture. Each row of paintings in the distance is about the hight of a man.

Pictures of Cuenca in Ecuador and the Lord of Sipan ruins in Northern Peru

Art market in Cuenca... very fun and much more across the river and a few blocks down.
Flower market in Cuenca. My god, the orchids and lilies you can buy for cheep!
This actually isn´t from the Lord of Sipan museum since you weren´t allowed to take pictures there, but it´s from a similar excavation and shows one example of the many many amazing metallurgy pieces we saw. This culture was from 100-700AD I think.
This is the excavation we got to go into at the actual Lord of Sipan site. There are 3 buildings here which are very well done with adobe but covered with sand and somewhat erroded on the outside. The one behind and under this picture is the 1st pyramid which is thought to be regarding religious things.

This is the entire site. The left high peak is the first pyramid, the right is the home of the king so think palace, and the small mound infront is the burial place for important people which has been the most excavated. Very cool.

Pictures of El Nariz del Diablo, the most dangerous train ride on earth (apparently)

You used to be able to sit on top of the train but then some people died so I just got up there for a quick shot while the train was stopped.
A good substitute for the top of the train
This is when the giant train engine came off of the track... hmmm... before the dangerous part.. hmmm. It was amazing, though, they got it back on in about half an hour and just pulled the rest of the train through the dirt over the bad patch of tracks. Really pretty hilarious!

All the people milling around the tipped train
The dangerous part... the actual pics looking down don´t look like much. There are railway switchbacks almost the entire way up this mountain. It was high, definetly, but I gotta say I´ve been on way WAY sketchier bus rides.