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
Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
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.FINALLY some pictures! Our latest trek...
We hiked up to a lake at 4200m which by the way is really really high and there was a fair bit of altitude sickness. The day we went up it poured rain and we had to set up the tent INSIDE the ranger station (thank god for that ramshakel house). It didn´t hold heat at all but it was nice and dry. These pictures show the reward for this rather difficult day. The one above is looking back the way we came from the top of a morraine to the side of the ranger station, just in front of the lake.
Me also at the top of the morraine. Getting down was quite fun, very steep, I did a lot of sledding on my boot.
Just a fantastic picture clay took, same angle as the first picture.
hm, yep, same angle again... but this one on our way down (I can´t seem to get the order of pictures at all right)
Clay on the way back down.
OK so this is me on the way up and it was rainy and I was very sick with food poisoning and altitude illness. It was lame, long story short, and we did 900m of height gain by foot after coming up 1km by little bus in an hour. Oh and it was COLD! 1 degree when we went to bed that night and that house was not at all insulating... many windows didn´t have panes and the walls had a gap before the roof. But the views, you know... it always ends up being worth it.
The lake! Glacier fed and quite near the equator... that´s when you know you´re high up. We hiked around it to the far side.
Mr. clay hiles + lake + glacier
I was pretty ill so I just laid on the beach while clay went a bit more up. This is another lake that he found about 80m higher.
I am the tiny little black dot on the right hand side. The ranger station is at the other end of the lake. This was a gorgeous walk and we had awesome weather.
OK so this is me on the way up and it was rainy and I was very sick with food poisoning and altitude illness. It was lame, long story short, and we did 900m of height gain by foot after coming up 1km by little bus in an hour. Oh and it was COLD! 1 degree when we went to bed that night and that house was not at all insulating... many windows didn´t have panes and the walls had a gap before the roof. But the views, you know... it always ends up being worth it.
The lake! Glacier fed and quite near the equator... that´s when you know you´re high up. We hiked around it to the far side.
Mr. clay hiles + lake + glacier
I was pretty ill so I just laid on the beach while clay went a bit more up. This is another lake that he found about 80m higher.
I am the tiny little black dot on the right hand side. The ranger station is at the other end of the lake. This was a gorgeous walk and we had awesome weather.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Finally into Peru!
Hello all
Sorry about the lapse in blogging there, I was applying to Phyio schools and just couldn´t manage to spend another minute on a computer. In any case, that´s all done now (YAY!) and I´m ready to fill you in. We spent a fair bit of time in Cuenca as I worked on my applications but we also went to some very cool art markets (you wouldn´t believe the beautiful paintings that people are selling for ridiculously cheap), partied a bit with some other gringos, and went to a few museums. Eventually we just had to get out of Ecuador, though... Peru´s a big country (compared to Ecuador, not Canada) and we don´t have a lot of time left! We caught an overnight bus into a Peruvian city called Piura. This was a bit gong show. We´d been told in advance by another Canadian couple to just assume that there are professional theives on overnight busses, so we were very careful. We took the memory card out of the camera, wrapped the arm straps of our little packs around our legs, and kept most things of value under the bus with our big packs. However, 2 people on our bus weren´t so well informed/lucky. One Scotsman had his hiking boots stolen and a local kid (maybe 16 or 17 years old) had $80 USD stolen. The real tragedy was of course the kid who may have worked for a month for that money. He was really upset while the Scotsman played it off as though losing $300 boots was nothing... it really was an odd behaviour, he wasn´t going to claim it on his insurance or file a police report. It made it less likely that the police would help the kid and it almost justified stealing the boots. It was a pretty sad experience but interesting.
The city we entered (Piura) was TERRIBLE! If any one is travelling to Peru then do your best to avoid Piura. We´re safe and well but it was very overwhelming with swarms of cabbies telling you how dangerous it is there and you need to get in their cab because you´ll be attacked if you walk down the road to the next bus line... and you don´t know who´s more dangerous, the swarms of cabbies or the swarms of poor people. Anyways, we were lucky to have a couple friends on the bus that we met in the Galapagos so we just walked in a big group. It was a rude introduction, though! But enough bad things... we made our way to Chiclayo which is an ugly big city but it has some AWESOME ruins nearby. The ruins here are from the Moche culture which was from about 100AD to 700AD. They made big pyramids for their Lords and for the graveyards of important people in society. Each level of the pyramid was built during a different reign as they would bury the Lord when he died (along with many of his women/guards/priest which were sacrificed) and then fill up the entire pyramide with adobe and sand. They´d then build the next palace and burial chamber on top of that one. The Lord of Sipan was a lord that had been buried in an unlooted tomb with a whole bunch of very ornamental objects.. amazing bead chest plates and gold crowns, jewelery with metalwork that is pretty mind blowing... there was a necklace of these gold spider bobbles that had something like 150 weld points each. Unfortunately we couldn´t take pictures in the actual museum which was called Tumbas Reales and it´s an incredible museum... very tasteful and classy for south american tastes... you can tell there was a lot of international help. Highly recommended for any travellers. Luckily we got to go to the actual pyramid site where we had a fantastic guide. The best situation is when you´ve got a bit of spanish and the guide´s got a bit of english and you´re both trying to learn more. That way you really appreciate eachother´s efforts. Anyways, she hadn´t been very busy this particular day and we were very interested in the tombes so she let us climb down into one of the newer excavations. It was quite amazing to know that the level you were at was made maybe 1500 years ago. The pyramids themselves are pretty weather-worn but luckily the vast majority was below ground for ages. This is how these tombes were so well preserved... by sand coverage. Oh yes, nothern Peru is a desert, which was quite a change coming out of lush Ecuador.
We then travelled on to Trujillo which has some more recent ruins in the form of an ancient city called Chan Chan, occupied by the Chimu culture. This was the largest city prior to Inca conquest and really the last resort of the Chimu culture. The Incas, unlike the Spanish, allowed the Chimu to remain in this city and live according to their own traditions for quite some time as long as there was no opposition to their conquest. This was a HUGE city, I can´t remember the acreage, but it was too big for me to comprehend. We visited the best preserved sites which had some very interesting architecture but I honestly found the Moche culture more impressive, despite being a century earlier. We did visit a nearby Moche pyramid as well called the Temple of the Moon which showed some very impressive artwork on the walls... I find it amazing that paints found in the natural surroundings could last for so long.
We´re now in a small city called Caraz which is up in the Andes. The bus ride here was perhaps the most terrifying voyage I´ve ever made. I would look down out of the window and not be able to see the road (bumpy dirt by the way) but just look straight down a gigantic cliff... the fun bit was when we met another big vehicle coming the other way... we had to back up a little bit and we both nearly got off the bus, but luckily our bus was awarded the inside half of the one-lane road while the other truck inched past the cliff side. It was freaky deaky. Anyways, we´re here to do some Andean hiking. There´s a 3 day trip we want to do but I´ve unfortunately got some form of food poisoning which is making that a little impossible right now. Someone tell me why in the hell I would have a temperature of 34.5 degrees C??? It confuses me. So I´m trying to get healthy right now but our room is lacking in windows and it´s getting a bit depressing in there. The food poisoned part of me really would like to be home right now but things will get better soon. Poor Clay is bored, I know, so we´ll try and get this health thing going quickly.
After Caraz we want to go to some ruins south of Huaraz, the next big city. Then we´re going to Lima and flying to Cuzco! I´m very excited to get to southern Peru which is supposed to be very touristy but with reason. And I think a lot of people speak english there, whereas no one has in the vast majority of our trip to this point. First languages rule.
Lots of love! I promise I´ll post more regularly from now on.
Sorry about the lapse in blogging there, I was applying to Phyio schools and just couldn´t manage to spend another minute on a computer. In any case, that´s all done now (YAY!) and I´m ready to fill you in. We spent a fair bit of time in Cuenca as I worked on my applications but we also went to some very cool art markets (you wouldn´t believe the beautiful paintings that people are selling for ridiculously cheap), partied a bit with some other gringos, and went to a few museums. Eventually we just had to get out of Ecuador, though... Peru´s a big country (compared to Ecuador, not Canada) and we don´t have a lot of time left! We caught an overnight bus into a Peruvian city called Piura. This was a bit gong show. We´d been told in advance by another Canadian couple to just assume that there are professional theives on overnight busses, so we were very careful. We took the memory card out of the camera, wrapped the arm straps of our little packs around our legs, and kept most things of value under the bus with our big packs. However, 2 people on our bus weren´t so well informed/lucky. One Scotsman had his hiking boots stolen and a local kid (maybe 16 or 17 years old) had $80 USD stolen. The real tragedy was of course the kid who may have worked for a month for that money. He was really upset while the Scotsman played it off as though losing $300 boots was nothing... it really was an odd behaviour, he wasn´t going to claim it on his insurance or file a police report. It made it less likely that the police would help the kid and it almost justified stealing the boots. It was a pretty sad experience but interesting.
The city we entered (Piura) was TERRIBLE! If any one is travelling to Peru then do your best to avoid Piura. We´re safe and well but it was very overwhelming with swarms of cabbies telling you how dangerous it is there and you need to get in their cab because you´ll be attacked if you walk down the road to the next bus line... and you don´t know who´s more dangerous, the swarms of cabbies or the swarms of poor people. Anyways, we were lucky to have a couple friends on the bus that we met in the Galapagos so we just walked in a big group. It was a rude introduction, though! But enough bad things... we made our way to Chiclayo which is an ugly big city but it has some AWESOME ruins nearby. The ruins here are from the Moche culture which was from about 100AD to 700AD. They made big pyramids for their Lords and for the graveyards of important people in society. Each level of the pyramid was built during a different reign as they would bury the Lord when he died (along with many of his women/guards/priest which were sacrificed) and then fill up the entire pyramide with adobe and sand. They´d then build the next palace and burial chamber on top of that one. The Lord of Sipan was a lord that had been buried in an unlooted tomb with a whole bunch of very ornamental objects.. amazing bead chest plates and gold crowns, jewelery with metalwork that is pretty mind blowing... there was a necklace of these gold spider bobbles that had something like 150 weld points each. Unfortunately we couldn´t take pictures in the actual museum which was called Tumbas Reales and it´s an incredible museum... very tasteful and classy for south american tastes... you can tell there was a lot of international help. Highly recommended for any travellers. Luckily we got to go to the actual pyramid site where we had a fantastic guide. The best situation is when you´ve got a bit of spanish and the guide´s got a bit of english and you´re both trying to learn more. That way you really appreciate eachother´s efforts. Anyways, she hadn´t been very busy this particular day and we were very interested in the tombes so she let us climb down into one of the newer excavations. It was quite amazing to know that the level you were at was made maybe 1500 years ago. The pyramids themselves are pretty weather-worn but luckily the vast majority was below ground for ages. This is how these tombes were so well preserved... by sand coverage. Oh yes, nothern Peru is a desert, which was quite a change coming out of lush Ecuador.
We then travelled on to Trujillo which has some more recent ruins in the form of an ancient city called Chan Chan, occupied by the Chimu culture. This was the largest city prior to Inca conquest and really the last resort of the Chimu culture. The Incas, unlike the Spanish, allowed the Chimu to remain in this city and live according to their own traditions for quite some time as long as there was no opposition to their conquest. This was a HUGE city, I can´t remember the acreage, but it was too big for me to comprehend. We visited the best preserved sites which had some very interesting architecture but I honestly found the Moche culture more impressive, despite being a century earlier. We did visit a nearby Moche pyramid as well called the Temple of the Moon which showed some very impressive artwork on the walls... I find it amazing that paints found in the natural surroundings could last for so long.
We´re now in a small city called Caraz which is up in the Andes. The bus ride here was perhaps the most terrifying voyage I´ve ever made. I would look down out of the window and not be able to see the road (bumpy dirt by the way) but just look straight down a gigantic cliff... the fun bit was when we met another big vehicle coming the other way... we had to back up a little bit and we both nearly got off the bus, but luckily our bus was awarded the inside half of the one-lane road while the other truck inched past the cliff side. It was freaky deaky. Anyways, we´re here to do some Andean hiking. There´s a 3 day trip we want to do but I´ve unfortunately got some form of food poisoning which is making that a little impossible right now. Someone tell me why in the hell I would have a temperature of 34.5 degrees C??? It confuses me. So I´m trying to get healthy right now but our room is lacking in windows and it´s getting a bit depressing in there. The food poisoned part of me really would like to be home right now but things will get better soon. Poor Clay is bored, I know, so we´ll try and get this health thing going quickly.
After Caraz we want to go to some ruins south of Huaraz, the next big city. Then we´re going to Lima and flying to Cuzco! I´m very excited to get to southern Peru which is supposed to be very touristy but with reason. And I think a lot of people speak english there, whereas no one has in the vast majority of our trip to this point. First languages rule.
Lots of love! I promise I´ll post more regularly from now on.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Pictures! Baños and a bit of Galapagos backtracking. Sorry they´re out of order.
After hiking up (and up and up and up) a mountain on the side of Baños. Can you believe people live up here? There were some kids going home after school that weren´t going much slower than us, only they had much shorter legs (oh, btw, I´m normal size here, it´s great, all the chairs fit me).
This is the waterfall that feeds the thermal baths (the cold supply). It´s gorgeous, falling right next to where you lounge. This picture doesn´t quite do the height of it justice, but it shows how beautiful it is. The water then heads in multiple directions: the baths, the communal area where the women wash clothes, and underground where I think it supplies the city (or at least part of it).
This is a great pic clay took of the beach we stayed on for our last day in the Galapagos. It´s amazing that this place is a short walk from the major city, Puerto Ayora. This little bay was totally calm with waves breaking like a kilometer out. It was ridiculously sunny all day long (you can see the clouds parting for us) ... I would lie and read my book for an hour, then hop in the water, repeat until thoroughly cooked. On the right hand side of this picture is an area that was filled with white tipped sharks (they´re veggies). You could walk in and have them swim right over your feet. They liked their corner, though, so we didn´t swim with them.
I look hot. I had to add it. This is the same beach on the Galapagos but on a sand dune behind it.
The walk back to the town on the way out. An awesome way to spend our last day in Galapagos.
OK back to Baños. In our bike trip down the Av. de las cascadas we rode tram cars over several waterfalls to scout them out (such as this one).
Mr. Clayton Hiles! Again, this is over a waterfall just outside of Baños.
Another waterfall outside of Baños called the devil´s something or other, can´t remember. Quite impressive, though.
Looking away from Baños from the top of a surrounding mountain. In the distance is the Chimborazu volcano which is still very active. A friend of ours asked a local how you could get up it to see the lava flows and the local replied ´what, you don´t like your life?´
An entry from Clayton (WoW!)
Well, things have just kept rolling since Dawn last filled you in. We did some hiking on our own around Banos which was challanging, insitefull, and several other appropriate adjectives. The trail begins pretty simply at the end of a Banos city road. Pretty much immediately the trail turns to a 40 degree slope and continues up about 250m of vertical. To get to the first viewpointtook almost an hour. The view of Banos were great, but what was truely amazing was that people lived and farmed on the sheer slope. With no proper roads they have to haul everything in by foot or by burro. We talked to a group of kids of ages about 4 to 10 who made the hour long trek each way to school every day. Tough kids!
The following day we headed out for a 3 day adventure in the jungle. It was an interesting experiece for sure. I got to play with a monkey! No not that kind of monkey, a chikchicho, a small monkey native to the area. I felt bad for the poor bugger, though he was free to run about as he wished (like a cat or dog unfenced) he had astring tied around him which the children of the house liked to carry/throw him by. He was small enough to fit in my hand so he didn'tstand much of a chance with a 4 year old boy.
Our guide, Angel, took us hiking every day to investigated the flora and fawna of the forrest. Mostly it was and eplination of medicinal plants, but we also saw ants, spiders, snakes, frogs and lots of birds. All hikes ofcourse ended in beautiful waterfalls.
The last night wewent on ahike looking for caymans (like a small crocidile). We didn't find any then but it was fun none the less. Somewhat less exciting was finding out the next day that they actually capture the caymas elsewhere in the jungle then transport them back to this lagoon so they can be seen by tourists. Also that night we visited the home of an indiginous community who had a shop of intresting handicrafts and a paticularly morbid collection of animal furs (jaguar, sloth, monkies, giant anteater, as well as many fish). I gotta say, I was pretty horrified when I first saw it. It made me feel better that none of those things could be sold to tourists. The explination we were given (I don't know how accurate it is) was that most of the animals had been killed by indiginous communities deep in the jungle for food. Those people then sold the skins to this vendor to make some extra money.
The trip ended with a stunning view of the jungle and looming in the distance the Andes.
We travelled to Riobamba after the jungl to take the train some ofthe way to our next destination. The train was definately more fuin than the bus. The famous Nariz del Diablo trian route provided some stunning and sometimes frightning views. At one point the train actually derailed. Yepp, it derailed, but no worries we were going slow. It took only half an hour for them to get the engine back on the tracks, and once it was on it just pulled the cars through the dirt untill they hopped back on. This was all before 'the hard part'. Didn't exactly instill confidence as we slithered allong the rough edge of a cliff. But we made it safely. A 5 hour bus ride later and we arrived in Cuenca. Today is the celebration of Cuencas independence so we plan to partake in the fiesta tonight.
The following day we headed out for a 3 day adventure in the jungle. It was an interesting experiece for sure. I got to play with a monkey! No not that kind of monkey, a chikchicho, a small monkey native to the area. I felt bad for the poor bugger, though he was free to run about as he wished (like a cat or dog unfenced) he had astring tied around him which the children of the house liked to carry/throw him by. He was small enough to fit in my hand so he didn'tstand much of a chance with a 4 year old boy.
Our guide, Angel, took us hiking every day to investigated the flora and fawna of the forrest. Mostly it was and eplination of medicinal plants, but we also saw ants, spiders, snakes, frogs and lots of birds. All hikes ofcourse ended in beautiful waterfalls.
The last night wewent on ahike looking for caymans (like a small crocidile). We didn't find any then but it was fun none the less. Somewhat less exciting was finding out the next day that they actually capture the caymas elsewhere in the jungle then transport them back to this lagoon so they can be seen by tourists. Also that night we visited the home of an indiginous community who had a shop of intresting handicrafts and a paticularly morbid collection of animal furs (jaguar, sloth, monkies, giant anteater, as well as many fish). I gotta say, I was pretty horrified when I first saw it. It made me feel better that none of those things could be sold to tourists. The explination we were given (I don't know how accurate it is) was that most of the animals had been killed by indiginous communities deep in the jungle for food. Those people then sold the skins to this vendor to make some extra money.
The trip ended with a stunning view of the jungle and looming in the distance the Andes.
We travelled to Riobamba after the jungl to take the train some ofthe way to our next destination. The train was definately more fuin than the bus. The famous Nariz del Diablo trian route provided some stunning and sometimes frightning views. At one point the train actually derailed. Yepp, it derailed, but no worries we were going slow. It took only half an hour for them to get the engine back on the tracks, and once it was on it just pulled the cars through the dirt untill they hopped back on. This was all before 'the hard part'. Didn't exactly instill confidence as we slithered allong the rough edge of a cliff. But we made it safely. A 5 hour bus ride later and we arrived in Cuenca. Today is the celebration of Cuencas independence so we plan to partake in the fiesta tonight.
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