As of 6am this morning, am back in the Andes, which strangely feels like going home a bit, I think because I spent so long in Cusco, and then Quito as well. After meeting Irene in Chiclayo, we had a 3 hour bus to Trujillo, which was MUCH nicer, and quite modern. Our hostel was a little sketch, pretty grungy around the edges, but we only stayed there one night, and most of the day since they kept our laundry hostage about twice as long as they promised it would take.
From there, it was only a short, but hilarious (due to our awkwardly large and bulky backpacks, Irene´s medecine bottles falling out of the grocery bags and rolling down the aisles, hitting people in the face with our luggage, etc) colectivo bus ride to Huanchaco, back on the coast. Actually one of the nicer beach towns, (although freezing cold, there are some HUGE waves) definitely much nicer than Máncora- although this assessment might be slightly elevated by the fact that on our first night there, I managed to find a coffeeshop that a)serves actual cafe, not the instant kind and b) serves delicious, warm brownie with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce that almost made me forget how disappointing all other desserts have been for the past 2 months.
Then on Saturday Irene and I, plus our Norwegian roommate Matteus, took a few colectivos and found a guide to show us around Chan Chan, which is one of these huge walled cities in the middle of the desert. Only one of the palaces (the royal one) is open to the public, and only parts of it, but the place is huge, with tombs, a giant well/pond, etc. In all, there are 13 of these palaces, and they make up over 25 km square of cities, all in and around Trujillo. Plus they keep finding more all the time, even in the ones which they thought had been fully excavated and partially restored. There are a bunch of other sites you can see, and I especially wanted to get to Huaca de la Luna, but by the time we were making our way over there, it was too late in the afternoon and we were told we´d basically be stranded i nthe middle of the desert with no way to get a ride back. And then Sunday (yesterday?) it was closed, so only got to see Chan Chan unfortunately, but that was still pretty cool.
So then a night bus last night to Huaraz, and we´re staying at a pretty cool family place with a bunch of other backpackers. Very friendly and everything is decorated for Christmas, and we´re actually having a midnight Christmas meal tonight, so that should be really nice. And then tomorrow possibly some mountain biking (you can hitch a ride on a bus that takes you up the mountain and then you can just coast down, which is definitely my idea of exercise, especially since I am having a little bit of headaches and fatigue from coming back to high altitude). And then probably find another restaurant or something for a second Christmas dinner tomorrow night, so it feels like I´m eating leftovers for a week, just like at home. After that I think we´re leaving the town and going up to this lodge that was recommended to us, where you can do some great hikes, and even though it´s a lot colder (the town I´m at is right beside the second highest peak in south america) they have a hot tub, and a sauna room, etc. so I think I´ll be able to endure it. Barely. And then it´s to Lima for New Year!!
So that´s about it for now, although I hope you all have a great Christmas and new Year and miss all of you sooo much!! Hope you´re enjoying the great food and I´ll let you know how everything goes here soon!!
Love, Sarah
Monday, December 24, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
On the way to Máncora!!!
So the last week has been a blast. Got to Montañita on Friday night all grumpy and tired, but managed to randomly bump into the Swedish boys again and some of their new friends, won some money off boys at poker and then went out to see this live band playing sweet nineties songs at a bar that has sand floors and a campfire in the middle of the dance floor. Soooo fun!
The next two days were pretty lazy, with great weather, and just laying on the beach, swimming, beach volleyball, and good music all the time. My favourite part is how you can just lay on a deck chair under an umbrella (rented for only 3 dollars a day), have people selling ceviche (seafood soup that I'm trying to train myself to like because it's such a specialty and EXTREMELY fresh, seeing as how they add the oysters and snails to it right in front of your eyes), empanadas (these fried pastries that can have cheese, ham, chicken, vegetables, or my personal favourite, carne, which is a vague label for any sort of meat), ice cream and various other treats. Plus the fact that when they rent you the umbrella, that means the cabaña boys will just keep going to get you drinks and you don't even have to get out of your chair. Veeeeeery nice. Didn't get into any surfing, partly cause the waves weren't all that great and partly because I was too lazy. Wanted to be fresh for Máncora, you know? hahaha But I really am looking forward to getting some lessons, maybe starting this weekend. First I need to get a new bathing suit though, as I got a big rip in the ass of my old ones, which was a) embarrassing and b) annoying, seeing as how I now have to replace them and bathing suit shopping is gross at the best of times, let alone in a foreign country when you're already at the beach and have no other options but to buy the one suit that fits. Grrr. Oh well, hopefully the fact that Máncora is a surfing mecca will provide at least something that will at least be functional, even if I have to pay a crapload for roxy.
And then Monday morning I woke up all gross from salt and sand everywhere (it seems like you can never get rid of it. May have something to do with the fact that no one in the entire town ever wears shoes anywhere. Literally. Only to find that both the water and electricity had been shut off to the whole town without anyone telling any of the tourists. I had the feeling that either this happens often enough that the locals are used to it, or they were anticipating such an event, whereas all of the tourists were obviously walking around all day with dirty clothes, unkempt hair and grumpy expressions. Especially since it was bad beach weather on top of everything else, all cold and cloudy, so we sat inside on the patios all day playing cards (shithead and poker, both excellent wastes of time). And then Tuesday, said goodbye to people and took the bus up north an hour to Puerto Lopez, where I arranged to take a tour of Isla de la Plata the next day.
Had a nice bbq with some people at my hostel, where I made myself overcome some psychological barriers to eat marlin (which i'm pretty sure was still raw except for the seared millimeter on the outside) but it actually wasn't too bad. or at least I didn't gag.
Was to the tour agency first thing in the morning, and we went down to the beach to get on the boat. We got down to the beach, and besides being a jumping off point for these tours, Puerto Lopez is a big fishing town. So at that time in the morning, it's chaos. Boats coming in, people measuring catches, cutting up fish, selling fruit and snacks and remote controls (ya bizarre, i know, but he was there and there was a little crowd all gathered around him). And for every person actually doing something, there were about 5 or 6 men just standing around supervising everything, so that you could hardly move without running into someone or getting honked at by a truck trying to snake its way down the beach. There were a ton of tuna, eels, giant marlins and I even spotted a big hammerhead shark being carted away. Counting me there were 9 people in the tour, and these 2 swiss couples were absolutely ridiculous. Like as soon as they saw the boat we were taking, which was admittedly not a luxury yacht, but more than adequate for a 3 hour round trip purchased for $30 including transportation, guide, snacks, lunch and snorkelling equipment, they all freaked out on the guide, being like "at these prices I was expecting something much bigger, this is absolutely unacceptable and I am very disappointed". And then continuing to mutter under their breaths (rather loudly) about how crappy they thought this whole day was going to be, and they should ask for their money back, etc etc etc. And then when they saw the rest of us pulling off our socks and shoes to roll off our pants to wade to the boat, they were flabbergasted. Actually had their mouths hanging agape. As if they never had to remove their shoes for anyone in their lives, unless it was a pedicurist. And then when presented with the bag to store all the shoes in until we got off at the island, they balked even more, to the point where they actually refused to get onboard until the guide went around and found a separate bag for the four of them to put all their shoes into first before deigning to put them beside the rest of ours in the bag, as if they had spotted someone with a nasty foot fungus or something and were afraid of catching it. It was about at this point that I realized how much fun they were going to be, and made friends with everyone else.
So about an hour and a half on the boat before we got to the island, and before getting off, the captain and skipper started throwing lettuce overboard, which confused me at first, but then all of a sudden the entire boat was surrounded by sea turtles and angel fish. So close you could touch them, although that was discouraged both by the stickler guide and my fear of their giant snapping mouths. And then on the island (which was a lot drier and more desolate than I guess I was expecting) we walked for a few hours along these trails where there were blue footed boobies in various stages of courting and nesting. Saw some doing the little courting dances and others with eggs or various sized chicks, which were so fluffy and cute. And then at the far end was a HUGE colony of magnificent frigate birds (that's their actual name, not just me scraping for adjectives by the way). And then back to the boat for a late lunch and snorkelling off the boat, which was AMAZING. I don't even know what all the things were so I can't name them for you (sorry) but unbelievable colours of fish, that you could see on the reef like 15 or 20 m away, but the reef even was surprisingly close to the surface in some places so you could see into all the little nooks and crevices all up close. Saw some manta rays and angel fish, clown fish, eels, and even a jellyfish from far away. Plus there were tons of schools of tiny fish that would surround you, which was kind of fun except for the fact that they kept bumping up against me or nibbling at me, which would freak me out and make me thrash around like shark bait and get salty water up my nose putting me into a sneezing fit. Probably not all that graceful or attractive, but it was good fun.
And then back at the hostel when I was packing up my stuff, happened to run into more people that I knew and stayed to talk with them for a little bit before catching the bus back to Montañita, where I stayed for the night. Then I caught the 5am direct bus from there to Guayaquil, where I arrived at 8am to find that the next direct bus over the border to Máncora doesn't leave until 11:30 tonight. Which is good because now I have time to have a bit of a look around the city and hopefully buy a new camera in a mall somewhere, otherwise I'd have to wait until Lima likely. So hung around in the bus station dozing for a bit after buying my ticket for tonight, and then took the bus downtown to find something to do. After hopping on the bus (with all of my huge pack, which is gross considering how disgustingly sticky hot it is here) the man who was the announcer of what bus it was (ie the guy who hangs around on the curb yelling out the destination, trying to find more people to get on) started off screaming in a booming voice, and at first I was a little confused by what he was talking about, but it ended up being one of the most elaborate and convincing sales pitches I've heard in a while. Now I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but maybe i should backtrack to a bit of a description of the south american bus system
So when you get on a bus, you can board pretty much from anywhere, whether a specified stop or not, as long as you are waving your hand, flicking it like getting a bug off. Boarding is sometimes on a bit of a rolling stop, so you better make sure you have all your stuff ready to hand to the man assisting the driver (see description above) or just look extremely helpless so that they will fully stop and help you load it. And you don't have to have a ticket, in fact, most people don't, since the assistant guy usually comes around after every stop or two and collects either tickets or money from anyone who got on recently, figuring out the fare based on where you tell him you're going to get off. Sometimes other passengers are holding bags of fruit, pushing sugar cane lengths under the seat, or holding chickens in their laps. And at any given time, someone jumping on the bus may actually not be looking to go anywhere, or are a passenger but still use the opportunity to sell whatever they are peddling that day, whether it be bags of coconut milk, boxes of incense, fresh fruit, chocolates, empanadas or sandwiches, baked goods, peanuts, plantain chips, etc. So anyway, back to today's story, said assistant guy goes into this spiel and I wasn't sure where it was going, because the first several minutes were about how Ecuadorians are eating too unhealthily, the state of nutrition in schools and nursing homes, and the expanding waistline of the nation. And then he started hauling out laminated newspaper and scientific journal articles, citing his sources for statistics and nutritional information. VERY thorough research being presented here, for another few minutes. And then the pitch began. How he was extremely concerned for the future of his nation, and in fact every person on that bus. He wanted to improve each of our chances for survival by offering us the opportunity to purchase some of these special herbs and seeds from a very important native ecuadorian plant which was thought to prevent problems due to high cholesterol, reduce the risk of cancer, etc etc. And actually by the end of it, I was one of the few people on the rather crowded bus who wasn't convinced to buy something from his bag of tricks, although I was extremely impressed by the thoroughness of the effort, haha.
So then got off the bus downtown and lugged around my stuff all morning checking out the Bahia street market, which is this huge collection of stalls, like a mixture of flea market and tiny little shops all bunched up together, lots selling the exact same products, tons of clothes, shoes, aforementioned remote controls, food, etc. Very interesting place, and probably you could find almost anything you needed. Except for a camera that is. So now I've just had a bit of a stroll along the Malecón waterfront and am sitting in an underground mall trying to see if there's anywhwere here I could find a digital camera, because if not I'm off to find another bigger mall. Possibly one with a movie theatre where I can kill some time before heading back to the bus station later tonight. so going to be one long day, but hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll be ready to check into my next hostel for a few weeks and start on those surf lessons. Oh yeah, first I have to find that bathing suit......
Thanks for the comments guys (Aunt Laurie especially). And Allison, that sounds like a perfect thing to add to your list- we should do some trip planning comparisons, cause I have had some amazing accounts from other travellers I've met on the road if you want some ideas of places to go, hahaha. Off to brave the heat again- I know I shouldn't complain when it's like snowing and stuff there, but seriously. Love you all!
xo Sarah
The next two days were pretty lazy, with great weather, and just laying on the beach, swimming, beach volleyball, and good music all the time. My favourite part is how you can just lay on a deck chair under an umbrella (rented for only 3 dollars a day), have people selling ceviche (seafood soup that I'm trying to train myself to like because it's such a specialty and EXTREMELY fresh, seeing as how they add the oysters and snails to it right in front of your eyes), empanadas (these fried pastries that can have cheese, ham, chicken, vegetables, or my personal favourite, carne, which is a vague label for any sort of meat), ice cream and various other treats. Plus the fact that when they rent you the umbrella, that means the cabaña boys will just keep going to get you drinks and you don't even have to get out of your chair. Veeeeeery nice. Didn't get into any surfing, partly cause the waves weren't all that great and partly because I was too lazy. Wanted to be fresh for Máncora, you know? hahaha But I really am looking forward to getting some lessons, maybe starting this weekend. First I need to get a new bathing suit though, as I got a big rip in the ass of my old ones, which was a) embarrassing and b) annoying, seeing as how I now have to replace them and bathing suit shopping is gross at the best of times, let alone in a foreign country when you're already at the beach and have no other options but to buy the one suit that fits. Grrr. Oh well, hopefully the fact that Máncora is a surfing mecca will provide at least something that will at least be functional, even if I have to pay a crapload for roxy.
And then Monday morning I woke up all gross from salt and sand everywhere (it seems like you can never get rid of it. May have something to do with the fact that no one in the entire town ever wears shoes anywhere. Literally. Only to find that both the water and electricity had been shut off to the whole town without anyone telling any of the tourists. I had the feeling that either this happens often enough that the locals are used to it, or they were anticipating such an event, whereas all of the tourists were obviously walking around all day with dirty clothes, unkempt hair and grumpy expressions. Especially since it was bad beach weather on top of everything else, all cold and cloudy, so we sat inside on the patios all day playing cards (shithead and poker, both excellent wastes of time). And then Tuesday, said goodbye to people and took the bus up north an hour to Puerto Lopez, where I arranged to take a tour of Isla de la Plata the next day.
Had a nice bbq with some people at my hostel, where I made myself overcome some psychological barriers to eat marlin (which i'm pretty sure was still raw except for the seared millimeter on the outside) but it actually wasn't too bad. or at least I didn't gag.
Was to the tour agency first thing in the morning, and we went down to the beach to get on the boat. We got down to the beach, and besides being a jumping off point for these tours, Puerto Lopez is a big fishing town. So at that time in the morning, it's chaos. Boats coming in, people measuring catches, cutting up fish, selling fruit and snacks and remote controls (ya bizarre, i know, but he was there and there was a little crowd all gathered around him). And for every person actually doing something, there were about 5 or 6 men just standing around supervising everything, so that you could hardly move without running into someone or getting honked at by a truck trying to snake its way down the beach. There were a ton of tuna, eels, giant marlins and I even spotted a big hammerhead shark being carted away. Counting me there were 9 people in the tour, and these 2 swiss couples were absolutely ridiculous. Like as soon as they saw the boat we were taking, which was admittedly not a luxury yacht, but more than adequate for a 3 hour round trip purchased for $30 including transportation, guide, snacks, lunch and snorkelling equipment, they all freaked out on the guide, being like "at these prices I was expecting something much bigger, this is absolutely unacceptable and I am very disappointed". And then continuing to mutter under their breaths (rather loudly) about how crappy they thought this whole day was going to be, and they should ask for their money back, etc etc etc. And then when they saw the rest of us pulling off our socks and shoes to roll off our pants to wade to the boat, they were flabbergasted. Actually had their mouths hanging agape. As if they never had to remove their shoes for anyone in their lives, unless it was a pedicurist. And then when presented with the bag to store all the shoes in until we got off at the island, they balked even more, to the point where they actually refused to get onboard until the guide went around and found a separate bag for the four of them to put all their shoes into first before deigning to put them beside the rest of ours in the bag, as if they had spotted someone with a nasty foot fungus or something and were afraid of catching it. It was about at this point that I realized how much fun they were going to be, and made friends with everyone else.
So about an hour and a half on the boat before we got to the island, and before getting off, the captain and skipper started throwing lettuce overboard, which confused me at first, but then all of a sudden the entire boat was surrounded by sea turtles and angel fish. So close you could touch them, although that was discouraged both by the stickler guide and my fear of their giant snapping mouths. And then on the island (which was a lot drier and more desolate than I guess I was expecting) we walked for a few hours along these trails where there were blue footed boobies in various stages of courting and nesting. Saw some doing the little courting dances and others with eggs or various sized chicks, which were so fluffy and cute. And then at the far end was a HUGE colony of magnificent frigate birds (that's their actual name, not just me scraping for adjectives by the way). And then back to the boat for a late lunch and snorkelling off the boat, which was AMAZING. I don't even know what all the things were so I can't name them for you (sorry) but unbelievable colours of fish, that you could see on the reef like 15 or 20 m away, but the reef even was surprisingly close to the surface in some places so you could see into all the little nooks and crevices all up close. Saw some manta rays and angel fish, clown fish, eels, and even a jellyfish from far away. Plus there were tons of schools of tiny fish that would surround you, which was kind of fun except for the fact that they kept bumping up against me or nibbling at me, which would freak me out and make me thrash around like shark bait and get salty water up my nose putting me into a sneezing fit. Probably not all that graceful or attractive, but it was good fun.
And then back at the hostel when I was packing up my stuff, happened to run into more people that I knew and stayed to talk with them for a little bit before catching the bus back to Montañita, where I stayed for the night. Then I caught the 5am direct bus from there to Guayaquil, where I arrived at 8am to find that the next direct bus over the border to Máncora doesn't leave until 11:30 tonight. Which is good because now I have time to have a bit of a look around the city and hopefully buy a new camera in a mall somewhere, otherwise I'd have to wait until Lima likely. So hung around in the bus station dozing for a bit after buying my ticket for tonight, and then took the bus downtown to find something to do. After hopping on the bus (with all of my huge pack, which is gross considering how disgustingly sticky hot it is here) the man who was the announcer of what bus it was (ie the guy who hangs around on the curb yelling out the destination, trying to find more people to get on) started off screaming in a booming voice, and at first I was a little confused by what he was talking about, but it ended up being one of the most elaborate and convincing sales pitches I've heard in a while. Now I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but maybe i should backtrack to a bit of a description of the south american bus system
So when you get on a bus, you can board pretty much from anywhere, whether a specified stop or not, as long as you are waving your hand, flicking it like getting a bug off. Boarding is sometimes on a bit of a rolling stop, so you better make sure you have all your stuff ready to hand to the man assisting the driver (see description above) or just look extremely helpless so that they will fully stop and help you load it. And you don't have to have a ticket, in fact, most people don't, since the assistant guy usually comes around after every stop or two and collects either tickets or money from anyone who got on recently, figuring out the fare based on where you tell him you're going to get off. Sometimes other passengers are holding bags of fruit, pushing sugar cane lengths under the seat, or holding chickens in their laps. And at any given time, someone jumping on the bus may actually not be looking to go anywhere, or are a passenger but still use the opportunity to sell whatever they are peddling that day, whether it be bags of coconut milk, boxes of incense, fresh fruit, chocolates, empanadas or sandwiches, baked goods, peanuts, plantain chips, etc. So anyway, back to today's story, said assistant guy goes into this spiel and I wasn't sure where it was going, because the first several minutes were about how Ecuadorians are eating too unhealthily, the state of nutrition in schools and nursing homes, and the expanding waistline of the nation. And then he started hauling out laminated newspaper and scientific journal articles, citing his sources for statistics and nutritional information. VERY thorough research being presented here, for another few minutes. And then the pitch began. How he was extremely concerned for the future of his nation, and in fact every person on that bus. He wanted to improve each of our chances for survival by offering us the opportunity to purchase some of these special herbs and seeds from a very important native ecuadorian plant which was thought to prevent problems due to high cholesterol, reduce the risk of cancer, etc etc. And actually by the end of it, I was one of the few people on the rather crowded bus who wasn't convinced to buy something from his bag of tricks, although I was extremely impressed by the thoroughness of the effort, haha.
So then got off the bus downtown and lugged around my stuff all morning checking out the Bahia street market, which is this huge collection of stalls, like a mixture of flea market and tiny little shops all bunched up together, lots selling the exact same products, tons of clothes, shoes, aforementioned remote controls, food, etc. Very interesting place, and probably you could find almost anything you needed. Except for a camera that is. So now I've just had a bit of a stroll along the Malecón waterfront and am sitting in an underground mall trying to see if there's anywhwere here I could find a digital camera, because if not I'm off to find another bigger mall. Possibly one with a movie theatre where I can kill some time before heading back to the bus station later tonight. so going to be one long day, but hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll be ready to check into my next hostel for a few weeks and start on those surf lessons. Oh yeah, first I have to find that bathing suit......
Thanks for the comments guys (Aunt Laurie especially). And Allison, that sounds like a perfect thing to add to your list- we should do some trip planning comparisons, cause I have had some amazing accounts from other travellers I've met on the road if you want some ideas of places to go, hahaha. Off to brave the heat again- I know I shouldn't complain when it's like snowing and stuff there, but seriously. Love you all!
xo Sarah
Friday, December 7, 2007
Mantañita, finally
Okay, so the last few days have been mostly less than entertaining. Got up with a deja vu of my cold on Thursday, so skipped the canyoning in favour of more sleep and leisurely packing. Kinda sucked, but thought I would feel better afterwards.
Checked out of my hostel, and headed to the bus station, where I waited an hour for one going to Riobamba, supposedly a 1.5 hour drive, but because they're still clearing roads and doing work since last year's volcano eruption, you have to backtrack to the last main town and go all the way around, so became like a 4 hour drive. Due to said cold and the warding-off medicine i took, was sort of dozing during the last part of the trip, so when got off the bus, failed to double-check all of my stuff and so I lost my beautiful new camera. On which were all of the Ecuador pictures which I still hadn't been able to upload yet. And my peruvian sim card which I was going to reuse starting next week. Among other things.
So realized this after the bus had gone, and because of the way the terminals are, there wasn't anyone to ask about where I could contact if it got returned (doubtful, but still, I wanted to at least try). Went to a few telephone cabinas to use their phone books, but apparently bus terminals don't have phone numbers here. Anyway, long story short, someone in Ecuador now has a very fancy camera to play with and is probably emailing all my photos to their friends as we speak.
Needless to say, wasn't in the best of moods by the time I caught a cab (with two Finnish- is that a word? girls who had been staying at my hostel and were on the same bus as me) to the train station, because apparently this Devil's Nose Train ride is very popular and it's best to buy your tickets ahead of time. So we show up to do just that, all eager beaverish, to have some man at the train station explain to us (and point to a sign repeating what he already said as if we were the dumb tourists which we are) basically that because the President of Ecuador was going to Alausí (the midpoint town where the special section of the train ride starts) the next day (Friday) for an official visit, the train would not be running from Riobamba to Alausí, but rather only from Alausí onwards. He did, however, assure us that if we stayed in Riobamba and took the bus in the morning, we would get to Alausí in time to buy tickets and could go on as per normal from there. Despite his assurances though, the three of us were skeptical that we would have enough time to get there, buy tickets, and reserve seats on the roof. So we decided that the best plan of action would be to take the bus to Alausí that day and then we could buy the tickets the night before and be sure we'd get on.
So that's all well and good. We take a taxi back to the bus terminal, 5 km away, hop on another bus to Alausí which takes about 2.5 or 3 hours. So we get there around 7:30, head to our hostel, the top one of 3 which Lonely Planet recommends, and let's just say that I'm glad we managed to get the first choice because otherwise I might have caught some strange disease. In fact, I may have one anyway cause that place was gross. Also, because of the presidential visit, reception informed us that there was absolutely no room anywhere in town for the following night, so if we missed the train or the few select buses that may (or may not, due to the president) be running, we'd be shit out of luck. Head down to the train station, only to find that it is, of course, closed. And when we ask passersby, reception at the hotel etc., when the boleteria opens and whether or not the train is actually going, I think we got about 12 different replies, none of which matched the guidebook, but all were completely confident of their advice. Aaaaaanyway, we got some food (pollo a la plancha AGAIN- who knew you could actually get sick of chicken and rice?) and then went off to bed so that we could get up at 7am and stake out the ticket office. I will just also said that I probably should have been eerily aware of the fact that in a very small town, we were the only tourists there. Curious.
7am. Janitor informs us that information will become available at 8am. Go for breakfast, which makes me feel more queasy than I have in a VERY long time, but luckily didn't amount to anything other than making me feel even crappier than before. Go back to the boleteria at the appointed time, to find noone there, but a plethera of workers scuttling around the train, polishing every nut and bolt. We ask several of them and they (including one rather official looking guy) absolutely say that there is no possible way the train is going today because of the presidential visit. Still unwilling to accept defeat, we stop at the nearby tourist office which is now open, ask the lady there, and after she asks around, are again told that the train for sure is not running today, but to come back on Sunday or Wednesday. We then figure out that we have 50 mintues to pack all of our stuff and buy bus tickets away from that craphole before everything gets completely congested with military and secret service looking people, who have already begun to mill around and sit in cars with tinted windows talking into their sleeves. No jokes.
Manage to find our respective buses (theirs back to Riobamba to wait till Sunday, mine to Guayaquil to catch one to the coast) and I was off on another bus ride, this one 5 hours long sitting behind a man who insisted on fully reclining his seat into my lap, and actually managed to give me grease stains on my clothes from his slicked back hair that he kept flicking into my personal space. I almost slapped his slightly agape mouth about 9 times.
Bus terminal at Guayaquil, extremely modern. Managed to get something to eat, use the ATM (although again, the first few I tried wouldn't accept my card. vERY annoying) but then after wandering around for a while was told that despite the very deceptive looking boleteria area with open booths, I had to actually leave the terminal and go to the OLD terminal (duh!) where you could buy tickets. By this point, it's about 3 pm and soooooooo hot there I thought I was going to faint, especially since I've now been hauling all my bags around for the past hour. But figure out the tickets, via a nice man who only charged me $1 for his excellent advice which almost got me on a bus back to quito, and then it was 2 or so hours to Santa Elena. Where I had to get off and take another bus to get here, Mantañita. So got here just after dark, so I'm not exactly sure what it looks like, but on the way I did manage to see some of the Pacific before dusk set in, for the first time ever, so I'm pretty pumped to get up tomorrow and go swimming. Found a room at this very surferish hostel, which is pretty nice except for the fact that a water shortage has made my shower rather colder than I would normally like, but either way, it felt good to not have greasy ecuadorian hair all over me.
It's now about 9:30 and i might grab something to eat before going to bed, but first impressions are good. Very chill, although I sort of feel like I should have studied up my surfer lingo, because it is definitely like a scene straight from Blue Crush or something, and I'm the blonde girl who has no idea what we're talking about but oh well. Probably going to stay here until Monday, hopefully doing a day trip somewhere in there to Isla de la Plata and then on to Cuenca (or perhaps Alausí again if I can work up the courage to risk another disappointing Nariz del Diablo experience).
Either way, feeling a smidge less bitter than earlier today, and I'm sure relaxing on the beach tomorrow will do wonders for that.
xo
Checked out of my hostel, and headed to the bus station, where I waited an hour for one going to Riobamba, supposedly a 1.5 hour drive, but because they're still clearing roads and doing work since last year's volcano eruption, you have to backtrack to the last main town and go all the way around, so became like a 4 hour drive. Due to said cold and the warding-off medicine i took, was sort of dozing during the last part of the trip, so when got off the bus, failed to double-check all of my stuff and so I lost my beautiful new camera. On which were all of the Ecuador pictures which I still hadn't been able to upload yet. And my peruvian sim card which I was going to reuse starting next week. Among other things.
So realized this after the bus had gone, and because of the way the terminals are, there wasn't anyone to ask about where I could contact if it got returned (doubtful, but still, I wanted to at least try). Went to a few telephone cabinas to use their phone books, but apparently bus terminals don't have phone numbers here. Anyway, long story short, someone in Ecuador now has a very fancy camera to play with and is probably emailing all my photos to their friends as we speak.
Needless to say, wasn't in the best of moods by the time I caught a cab (with two Finnish- is that a word? girls who had been staying at my hostel and were on the same bus as me) to the train station, because apparently this Devil's Nose Train ride is very popular and it's best to buy your tickets ahead of time. So we show up to do just that, all eager beaverish, to have some man at the train station explain to us (and point to a sign repeating what he already said as if we were the dumb tourists which we are) basically that because the President of Ecuador was going to Alausí (the midpoint town where the special section of the train ride starts) the next day (Friday) for an official visit, the train would not be running from Riobamba to Alausí, but rather only from Alausí onwards. He did, however, assure us that if we stayed in Riobamba and took the bus in the morning, we would get to Alausí in time to buy tickets and could go on as per normal from there. Despite his assurances though, the three of us were skeptical that we would have enough time to get there, buy tickets, and reserve seats on the roof. So we decided that the best plan of action would be to take the bus to Alausí that day and then we could buy the tickets the night before and be sure we'd get on.
So that's all well and good. We take a taxi back to the bus terminal, 5 km away, hop on another bus to Alausí which takes about 2.5 or 3 hours. So we get there around 7:30, head to our hostel, the top one of 3 which Lonely Planet recommends, and let's just say that I'm glad we managed to get the first choice because otherwise I might have caught some strange disease. In fact, I may have one anyway cause that place was gross. Also, because of the presidential visit, reception informed us that there was absolutely no room anywhere in town for the following night, so if we missed the train or the few select buses that may (or may not, due to the president) be running, we'd be shit out of luck. Head down to the train station, only to find that it is, of course, closed. And when we ask passersby, reception at the hotel etc., when the boleteria opens and whether or not the train is actually going, I think we got about 12 different replies, none of which matched the guidebook, but all were completely confident of their advice. Aaaaaanyway, we got some food (pollo a la plancha AGAIN- who knew you could actually get sick of chicken and rice?) and then went off to bed so that we could get up at 7am and stake out the ticket office. I will just also said that I probably should have been eerily aware of the fact that in a very small town, we were the only tourists there. Curious.
7am. Janitor informs us that information will become available at 8am. Go for breakfast, which makes me feel more queasy than I have in a VERY long time, but luckily didn't amount to anything other than making me feel even crappier than before. Go back to the boleteria at the appointed time, to find noone there, but a plethera of workers scuttling around the train, polishing every nut and bolt. We ask several of them and they (including one rather official looking guy) absolutely say that there is no possible way the train is going today because of the presidential visit. Still unwilling to accept defeat, we stop at the nearby tourist office which is now open, ask the lady there, and after she asks around, are again told that the train for sure is not running today, but to come back on Sunday or Wednesday. We then figure out that we have 50 mintues to pack all of our stuff and buy bus tickets away from that craphole before everything gets completely congested with military and secret service looking people, who have already begun to mill around and sit in cars with tinted windows talking into their sleeves. No jokes.
Manage to find our respective buses (theirs back to Riobamba to wait till Sunday, mine to Guayaquil to catch one to the coast) and I was off on another bus ride, this one 5 hours long sitting behind a man who insisted on fully reclining his seat into my lap, and actually managed to give me grease stains on my clothes from his slicked back hair that he kept flicking into my personal space. I almost slapped his slightly agape mouth about 9 times.
Bus terminal at Guayaquil, extremely modern. Managed to get something to eat, use the ATM (although again, the first few I tried wouldn't accept my card. vERY annoying) but then after wandering around for a while was told that despite the very deceptive looking boleteria area with open booths, I had to actually leave the terminal and go to the OLD terminal (duh!) where you could buy tickets. By this point, it's about 3 pm and soooooooo hot there I thought I was going to faint, especially since I've now been hauling all my bags around for the past hour. But figure out the tickets, via a nice man who only charged me $1 for his excellent advice which almost got me on a bus back to quito, and then it was 2 or so hours to Santa Elena. Where I had to get off and take another bus to get here, Mantañita. So got here just after dark, so I'm not exactly sure what it looks like, but on the way I did manage to see some of the Pacific before dusk set in, for the first time ever, so I'm pretty pumped to get up tomorrow and go swimming. Found a room at this very surferish hostel, which is pretty nice except for the fact that a water shortage has made my shower rather colder than I would normally like, but either way, it felt good to not have greasy ecuadorian hair all over me.
It's now about 9:30 and i might grab something to eat before going to bed, but first impressions are good. Very chill, although I sort of feel like I should have studied up my surfer lingo, because it is definitely like a scene straight from Blue Crush or something, and I'm the blonde girl who has no idea what we're talking about but oh well. Probably going to stay here until Monday, hopefully doing a day trip somewhere in there to Isla de la Plata and then on to Cuenca (or perhaps Alausí again if I can work up the courage to risk another disappointing Nariz del Diablo experience).
Either way, feeling a smidge less bitter than earlier today, and I'm sure relaxing on the beach tomorrow will do wonders for that.
xo
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Last night in Baños
Unfortunately for you guys, the last few times I´ve tried to upload photos, there have been extenuating technical circumstances which prohibit it. Sooo frustrating. Like right now, when it tells me that I don't have the security level necessary to access my own photos. I will never understand computers, especially not south american ones. I only recently found out where the apostrophe was.
Anyway......... had a great last week in Quito. It was the beginning of their annual citywide independence celebration, and was quite the fiesta. I was only there for the first few days (actually I think it's culminating today) but it was some crazy times. Concerts everywhere, streets shut down, basically one big 6 day party.
A bunch of us from the hostel (if anyone is heading to Quito, i highly recommend Hostel Revolution in San Blas, it's amazing)got pretty close and had some good times out on the town, getting invited to house parties out in the suburbs of quito, which provided an entertaining early morning trying to find a cab way out there willing to drive us back to the old town. But they had some hilarious nineties music that all of us were singing along to, and the one ecuadorian guy even started freestyling, which took me back to old times, hahaha. There was one really annoying guy there though that claimed he was part of Phark in Columbia, though he didn't really seem like the type. But made some good friends, (including my roommate for the week, who is from San Diego and has been an extra multiple times on Veronica Mars, and when I found that out I think my excited girlish squeals freaked him out, but seriously, how cool?)I actually stayed an extra day there because there were two Swedish brothers, Joel and Gustav, who were leaving for Baños on Sunday so I stayed around to travel with them. (not entirely because they're basically gourmet chefs who cook me amazing food and i only have to do the dishes, but that was a large part of it, haha)
So Sunday afternoon we got a bus here to Baños, about a 4 hour drive, whilst entertained by back to back C grade Elizabeth Shue movies in spanish. Thrilling, let me tell you.
But anyway, arrived here around 8:30 and managed to find a nice hostel with a really cool terrace and glassed in kitchen slash restaurant thing on the roof. Pretty much just crashed there after some less than impressive ecuadorian style pizza, since I hadn't slept more than an hour the night before (see account of houseparty above). But then the Monday we checked out the town a little bit, had a delicious 1 dollar almuerzo in the market after heading to the thermal baths outside of town. Definitely not what I was picturing, as it turned out to be basically public pools with dirty looking volcanically warmed water. But around behind it you could follow this stream around the base of the mountain, which was pretty cool. And then we were told it was a really good idea to take one of these chivas, an open bus sort of thing, arranged by various tour companies in town at night up to see the volcano. But after a rather long and uncomfortable bus ride, we only went halfway up the mountain to where we had a great view of the town, but couldn't even see the volcano at all because a different mountain was in the way. Felt cheated out of my three dollars, but they did serve me some delicious juice slash tequila mixture which sort of made up for it.
And then Tuesday we rented some horses to ride for the day, and a guide took us up in the mountains a bit, to a nice waterfall, etc. which was pretty fun, a)because i hadn't ridden a horse in a while and it was nice to get back on one, emaciated though it was, and b)because the boys had never ridden before and their faces, squirming and complaining was likewise entertaining. And then after dinner Joel and I managed to find this obscure pathway up to the radio tower which actually overlooks the town AND the volcano, and managed to see some explosions and a bit of flowing lava, though very far away and kept fading quickly, but still pretty cool.
And today we rented some mountain bikes and went for a ride (more strenuous than i had expected, due to the wind tunnel effect of the mountains and ridiculous equatorial sun)down the ruta de las cascadas (waterfalls) which was spectacular, went on a cable car across this huge gorge river thingie and then hitched a ride back with a rather unfriendly ecuadorian man in a pickup. And then some dinner, and then the swedish boys were off to the coast. I'm staying here another night, possibly doing some canyoning tomorrow morning and then catching a bus to Riobamba, about an hour away because I want to do this cool train ride on Friday morning, the Devil's Nose, where they let you ride on the roof of the cars. And then probably a night bus to the coast, at Mantañita, where it's supposedly a really chill beach town with some good music and a bit of surfing etc. Probably stay there a couple days, with a day trip to Puerto Lopez and the Isla de la Plata, otherwise known as the poor man's galapagos, before heading back down to a few places in southern ecuador on my way to Mancóra for December 14ish. Which I am just realizing is next thursday, ie a week from tomorrow, so I guess I´d better get my ass in gear, ahaha.
Anyway, off to the telephone cabinas, and will be tomorrow again, because December 6, for those of you who don't know, is Mr. Frank Gustin's 52nd birthday, so for all of you close enough, please give him a big birthday hug from me!!!! Thanks, and chau!
Anyway......... had a great last week in Quito. It was the beginning of their annual citywide independence celebration, and was quite the fiesta. I was only there for the first few days (actually I think it's culminating today) but it was some crazy times. Concerts everywhere, streets shut down, basically one big 6 day party.
A bunch of us from the hostel (if anyone is heading to Quito, i highly recommend Hostel Revolution in San Blas, it's amazing)got pretty close and had some good times out on the town, getting invited to house parties out in the suburbs of quito, which provided an entertaining early morning trying to find a cab way out there willing to drive us back to the old town. But they had some hilarious nineties music that all of us were singing along to, and the one ecuadorian guy even started freestyling, which took me back to old times, hahaha. There was one really annoying guy there though that claimed he was part of Phark in Columbia, though he didn't really seem like the type. But made some good friends, (including my roommate for the week, who is from San Diego and has been an extra multiple times on Veronica Mars, and when I found that out I think my excited girlish squeals freaked him out, but seriously, how cool?)I actually stayed an extra day there because there were two Swedish brothers, Joel and Gustav, who were leaving for Baños on Sunday so I stayed around to travel with them. (not entirely because they're basically gourmet chefs who cook me amazing food and i only have to do the dishes, but that was a large part of it, haha)
So Sunday afternoon we got a bus here to Baños, about a 4 hour drive, whilst entertained by back to back C grade Elizabeth Shue movies in spanish. Thrilling, let me tell you.
But anyway, arrived here around 8:30 and managed to find a nice hostel with a really cool terrace and glassed in kitchen slash restaurant thing on the roof. Pretty much just crashed there after some less than impressive ecuadorian style pizza, since I hadn't slept more than an hour the night before (see account of houseparty above). But then the Monday we checked out the town a little bit, had a delicious 1 dollar almuerzo in the market after heading to the thermal baths outside of town. Definitely not what I was picturing, as it turned out to be basically public pools with dirty looking volcanically warmed water. But around behind it you could follow this stream around the base of the mountain, which was pretty cool. And then we were told it was a really good idea to take one of these chivas, an open bus sort of thing, arranged by various tour companies in town at night up to see the volcano. But after a rather long and uncomfortable bus ride, we only went halfway up the mountain to where we had a great view of the town, but couldn't even see the volcano at all because a different mountain was in the way. Felt cheated out of my three dollars, but they did serve me some delicious juice slash tequila mixture which sort of made up for it.
And then Tuesday we rented some horses to ride for the day, and a guide took us up in the mountains a bit, to a nice waterfall, etc. which was pretty fun, a)because i hadn't ridden a horse in a while and it was nice to get back on one, emaciated though it was, and b)because the boys had never ridden before and their faces, squirming and complaining was likewise entertaining. And then after dinner Joel and I managed to find this obscure pathway up to the radio tower which actually overlooks the town AND the volcano, and managed to see some explosions and a bit of flowing lava, though very far away and kept fading quickly, but still pretty cool.
And today we rented some mountain bikes and went for a ride (more strenuous than i had expected, due to the wind tunnel effect of the mountains and ridiculous equatorial sun)down the ruta de las cascadas (waterfalls) which was spectacular, went on a cable car across this huge gorge river thingie and then hitched a ride back with a rather unfriendly ecuadorian man in a pickup. And then some dinner, and then the swedish boys were off to the coast. I'm staying here another night, possibly doing some canyoning tomorrow morning and then catching a bus to Riobamba, about an hour away because I want to do this cool train ride on Friday morning, the Devil's Nose, where they let you ride on the roof of the cars. And then probably a night bus to the coast, at Mantañita, where it's supposedly a really chill beach town with some good music and a bit of surfing etc. Probably stay there a couple days, with a day trip to Puerto Lopez and the Isla de la Plata, otherwise known as the poor man's galapagos, before heading back down to a few places in southern ecuador on my way to Mancóra for December 14ish. Which I am just realizing is next thursday, ie a week from tomorrow, so I guess I´d better get my ass in gear, ahaha.
Anyway, off to the telephone cabinas, and will be tomorrow again, because December 6, for those of you who don't know, is Mr. Frank Gustin's 52nd birthday, so for all of you close enough, please give him a big birthday hug from me!!!! Thanks, and chau!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Quito week 1
Ok so, yes, I realize I have been extremely slow in updating this last entry, but I've had some technical difficulties that have been absorbing a lot of my time and energy. But more about that later.......
So the last few days in Cusco were really nice, out with friends a lot before I had to leave, went to some really cool local places with really good music. And then I flew from Cusco to Lima to Quito on Tuesday morning, with a bit of a delay which meant for a bit of stress in the Lima airport trying to manage my connecting flight, but everything ended up working out. Got to Quito and since I hadn't been able to get reservations at my first choice hostel, tried another one on a whim that ended up being pretty cool, called the Secret Garden which was a lot like Loki the hostel I had just left. I might have stayed there longer to connect with other backpackers and meet some other people, but it costs $9 a day with the taxes here, as compared to $6 at the place I am now, which is a nicer place, but not as many people around and the staff are a little grumpy, but nevertheless I have managed to meet some fun travellers. I'm in a 4 person room but so far there has been one night with all beds full, a couple with one other person and the rest of the time I have had the place to myself, so that's kind of nice. Plus the owners have a strangely temperamental dog called Shakira, which I think is hilarious.
So anyway, arrived on Tuesday and did some exploring around the old town, although I still have yet to go all the way up the basilica for the panoramic city picture, cheesy but necessary. I was sitting on the steps at the plaza San Fransisco, when some shoe shine kids came to talk to me, apparently undeterred by the fact that I was wearing flip flops and as such, had no real need for their services. But anyway, we were chatting for a while, and when my phone rang they were all pumped and asked if I would let them play games on it for a while, which I did until the battery started dying. Weird how street kids in Ecuador possess innate knowledge of how to play pool on cell phones. Found a nearby toy store and bought some candy and a soccer ball as an early birthday present for Ricardo, the little boy that I sponsor, and headed to bed early so I could enjoy the day with him.
Through Compassion, I had arranged to hire a van to drive us around for the day. Besides the driver, there was a representative from the main office in Ecuador as well as Ricardo's tutor from the project in Esmeraldas and then Ricardo and his mother. They all picked me up at my hostel in the morning and then we made our way out of the city to the zoo, which was almost an hour away. For those of you who don't know, Ricardo lives in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, which is 6 hours away from Quito by bus, a tropical city right on the coast famous for its large afro-ecuadorian population. He's seven years old (eight in a couple of weeks) and neither he nor his mom had been to the capital before. And he was also really excited by the present, because apparently that's what he had asked for for his birthday and it was his first soccer ball ever. So that was kind of cool. At first especially, he was really quiet and shy, but I think he was mostly just overwhelmed by the whole situation, all the traffic and huge city, plus meeting me etc. I was able to talk with him and his mom a bit, but the dialect that they speak is quite difficult for me to understand, so I was glad that the rep from Compassion was there because he did a lot of translation when necessary, which was really helpful.
Anyway, at the zoo there was quite a bit to see there, although the cages were pretty small which was kind of depressing, but the staff seemed to really try hard and treat the animals well so that made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. Ricardo was enthralled with the monkeys and kept trying to get me to take his picture with them, but wouldn't turn around to look at the camera because he was so fascinated by them.
But after the zoo, we stopped at a nearby place for lunch, where when we were waiting for our food to come, I kept hearing bird noises and so I looked around until I saw a bird cage, but it was empty. Strange, but I didn't really think much of it until I saw two parrots scurrying around beneath people's feet at the next table. And then Ricardo started crawling around on the floor chasing them, which was pretty funny. I tried to get some pictures, but I'm not sure how well they turned out, but the whole thing was pretty comical.
And then we went to the teleferriqo, which is this fairly new cable car that goes up the mountain for a great view over the city, but by the time we got there it was really cloudy and rainy, so we wouldn't have been able to see anything. Instead, right at the same place there is a small amusement park and arcade, so we played some games and did a little rollercoaster, etc., which he seemed equally happy with. But by then it was about 5 and they still had to take the bus back home so we said our goodbyes and his mom and I had a little moment which was kind of neat.
And then Thursday I was pretty overtired so I didn't do a whole lot, although there is a park near my hostel kind of up on a hill where you can take some nice pictures over the city so I hung around there a little bit. Went out at night with some people that I met here and then Friday did some exploring in the new town, la Mariscal district or Gringolandia, depending on who you ask. Went to a museum, although a lot of their rooms were closed off because of some technical difficulties or something, so I might go back this week and see if they'll honour my ticket to see the rest. Had a really interesting $1 dinner consisting of some really good vegetables and rice, questionable boiled chicken and decidedly less than tasty tamale, but it was entertaining nonetheless. There was a whole family serving just our table, me and 4 english and australian guys and the grandma kept coming over and touching the boys' hair and telling them they were beautiful. Hilarious.
And then Saturday, one of those guys and I got up early to catch the bus to this famous market in Otavalo, a town about 2 hours away from Quito. They have a large artisan market everyday, but on Saturdays they have 3 or 4 different rings and all the streets in the centre are pretty much filled with vendors. The sheer size of the place was unbelievable, with everykind of jewellery, alpaca product, bag, food, animal etc you can think of. There were even quite a few people selling bags of these large white and brown spotted beetles that I'm a little unsure of what they were for, but was hesitant to ask. Later in the day we saw someone frying some and then eating them. Barf. Unfortunately though, it was at this point that I realized that my bank card wouldn't work in the atm, and neither would any of my credit cards. So I didn't get to buy as much as I would have liked, since I only had about 30 dollars with me.
Got back to Quito that day and then on Sunday we went to the equator monument at Mitad del Mundo (the centre of the world), which is about 45 minutes away from my hostel by bus, outside the city. The place is horribly cheesy and had this whole compound of eerily disney-esque shops and restaurants surrounding it, but we took our pictures regardless. But actually, the huge monument is located at the place where the guy originally placed the line about a hundred years ago, and it's close but not completely accurate. So once you go back outside the compound, you can go a few hundred metres up the road and there's this dirt laneway you follow to a completely different little museum setup at the actual gps of 0'0'0, so then we got a really interesting guided tour there and a second picture in front of the sign.
Went out for some delicious Cantonese for dinner and then watched a really bizarre movie, but all in all a good weekend.
Oh and then this morning, spent a good portion of my emergency cash on a phone call to the Royal Bank only to first be disconnected and then told that according to them my account and card are perfectly fine. Extremely frustrating. But then I just started walking up and down the streets trying my card in every atm until eventually I found one that worked, so hopefully as long as I keep using that same one while I'm here it will be alright. Still, I think I'm going to have to keep a bit more money in my lock box at the hostel than I did in Peru if the atms are going to that unreliable. But for the moment, problem solved so that's good, I don't have to start busking on the street or anything to pay for my food.
Otherwise, Quito is nice, so far I still miss Cusco because of the friends I made there, plus the fact that Quito just gives me the sense of a big city, and not much else. There definitely is poverty, but there is also a lot of skyscrapers and mercedes and mcdonalds on every corner, which isn't really my style. So currently I'm on the computer at the South American Explorers office, and this afternoon I hope to look over their volunteer listings and see if there's anything available for short term opportunties. If there's something promising, I wouldn't mind sticking around until next week because Dec 1-6 is the city's main independence celebration, with bullfights and futbol games and lots of parties. Otherwise, I might leave in the next couple days and head on down to the central highlands and possibly arrange a jungle tour from there or to isla de la plata (poor man's galapagos). There's a bunch of people at my hostel who have just gotten back from the real Galapagos, and I've been tempted to just splurge and do it, it's such a once in a lifetime thing and I'm in Ecuador, possibly for the only time, but I think the cost (at least 1300-1500 total for a reliable tour, the flights and park entry) is just more than I can afford, especially this early in my travels. So unfortunately I don't think that Galapagos is in the cards, sorry Andrew :(
But either way, I have until December 12ish to spend in Ecuador and then I have made plans to meet up with a dutch girl, Irene, who I met through my spanish school in Cusco. We're looking to meet in Mancora, a chill little surf town on the northern coast of Peru and then stay there until Boxing day, learning how to surf, relaxing on the beach etc., which should be really fun. Also at that time there is a big surf competition so the town should be pretty busy with tourists and competitors etc. And then after Christmas, we're looking to head down the west coast of Peru, stop at a few towns and then spend a couple days in Lima, then onto Pisco (the town that was hit hardest by the earthquake this past summer) then the desert, Arequipa, and then Lake titicaca on our way into Bolivia, likely around mid January. I'm thinking that probably around then we will split up, because I have more intention of getting to Rio for Carnaval than she does, and I think she has some other things in mind for what she wants to do. But either way, it might be nice to have someone around to travel with for a while.
Ok, well I think that's it for now, I'm off to delve into these volunteer listings which are massive, but hope you are all well and thanks for reading these obscenely long entries!!
xo sarah
So the last few days in Cusco were really nice, out with friends a lot before I had to leave, went to some really cool local places with really good music. And then I flew from Cusco to Lima to Quito on Tuesday morning, with a bit of a delay which meant for a bit of stress in the Lima airport trying to manage my connecting flight, but everything ended up working out. Got to Quito and since I hadn't been able to get reservations at my first choice hostel, tried another one on a whim that ended up being pretty cool, called the Secret Garden which was a lot like Loki the hostel I had just left. I might have stayed there longer to connect with other backpackers and meet some other people, but it costs $9 a day with the taxes here, as compared to $6 at the place I am now, which is a nicer place, but not as many people around and the staff are a little grumpy, but nevertheless I have managed to meet some fun travellers. I'm in a 4 person room but so far there has been one night with all beds full, a couple with one other person and the rest of the time I have had the place to myself, so that's kind of nice. Plus the owners have a strangely temperamental dog called Shakira, which I think is hilarious.
So anyway, arrived on Tuesday and did some exploring around the old town, although I still have yet to go all the way up the basilica for the panoramic city picture, cheesy but necessary. I was sitting on the steps at the plaza San Fransisco, when some shoe shine kids came to talk to me, apparently undeterred by the fact that I was wearing flip flops and as such, had no real need for their services. But anyway, we were chatting for a while, and when my phone rang they were all pumped and asked if I would let them play games on it for a while, which I did until the battery started dying. Weird how street kids in Ecuador possess innate knowledge of how to play pool on cell phones. Found a nearby toy store and bought some candy and a soccer ball as an early birthday present for Ricardo, the little boy that I sponsor, and headed to bed early so I could enjoy the day with him.
Through Compassion, I had arranged to hire a van to drive us around for the day. Besides the driver, there was a representative from the main office in Ecuador as well as Ricardo's tutor from the project in Esmeraldas and then Ricardo and his mother. They all picked me up at my hostel in the morning and then we made our way out of the city to the zoo, which was almost an hour away. For those of you who don't know, Ricardo lives in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, which is 6 hours away from Quito by bus, a tropical city right on the coast famous for its large afro-ecuadorian population. He's seven years old (eight in a couple of weeks) and neither he nor his mom had been to the capital before. And he was also really excited by the present, because apparently that's what he had asked for for his birthday and it was his first soccer ball ever. So that was kind of cool. At first especially, he was really quiet and shy, but I think he was mostly just overwhelmed by the whole situation, all the traffic and huge city, plus meeting me etc. I was able to talk with him and his mom a bit, but the dialect that they speak is quite difficult for me to understand, so I was glad that the rep from Compassion was there because he did a lot of translation when necessary, which was really helpful.
Anyway, at the zoo there was quite a bit to see there, although the cages were pretty small which was kind of depressing, but the staff seemed to really try hard and treat the animals well so that made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. Ricardo was enthralled with the monkeys and kept trying to get me to take his picture with them, but wouldn't turn around to look at the camera because he was so fascinated by them.
But after the zoo, we stopped at a nearby place for lunch, where when we were waiting for our food to come, I kept hearing bird noises and so I looked around until I saw a bird cage, but it was empty. Strange, but I didn't really think much of it until I saw two parrots scurrying around beneath people's feet at the next table. And then Ricardo started crawling around on the floor chasing them, which was pretty funny. I tried to get some pictures, but I'm not sure how well they turned out, but the whole thing was pretty comical.
And then we went to the teleferriqo, which is this fairly new cable car that goes up the mountain for a great view over the city, but by the time we got there it was really cloudy and rainy, so we wouldn't have been able to see anything. Instead, right at the same place there is a small amusement park and arcade, so we played some games and did a little rollercoaster, etc., which he seemed equally happy with. But by then it was about 5 and they still had to take the bus back home so we said our goodbyes and his mom and I had a little moment which was kind of neat.
And then Thursday I was pretty overtired so I didn't do a whole lot, although there is a park near my hostel kind of up on a hill where you can take some nice pictures over the city so I hung around there a little bit. Went out at night with some people that I met here and then Friday did some exploring in the new town, la Mariscal district or Gringolandia, depending on who you ask. Went to a museum, although a lot of their rooms were closed off because of some technical difficulties or something, so I might go back this week and see if they'll honour my ticket to see the rest. Had a really interesting $1 dinner consisting of some really good vegetables and rice, questionable boiled chicken and decidedly less than tasty tamale, but it was entertaining nonetheless. There was a whole family serving just our table, me and 4 english and australian guys and the grandma kept coming over and touching the boys' hair and telling them they were beautiful. Hilarious.
And then Saturday, one of those guys and I got up early to catch the bus to this famous market in Otavalo, a town about 2 hours away from Quito. They have a large artisan market everyday, but on Saturdays they have 3 or 4 different rings and all the streets in the centre are pretty much filled with vendors. The sheer size of the place was unbelievable, with everykind of jewellery, alpaca product, bag, food, animal etc you can think of. There were even quite a few people selling bags of these large white and brown spotted beetles that I'm a little unsure of what they were for, but was hesitant to ask. Later in the day we saw someone frying some and then eating them. Barf. Unfortunately though, it was at this point that I realized that my bank card wouldn't work in the atm, and neither would any of my credit cards. So I didn't get to buy as much as I would have liked, since I only had about 30 dollars with me.
Got back to Quito that day and then on Sunday we went to the equator monument at Mitad del Mundo (the centre of the world), which is about 45 minutes away from my hostel by bus, outside the city. The place is horribly cheesy and had this whole compound of eerily disney-esque shops and restaurants surrounding it, but we took our pictures regardless. But actually, the huge monument is located at the place where the guy originally placed the line about a hundred years ago, and it's close but not completely accurate. So once you go back outside the compound, you can go a few hundred metres up the road and there's this dirt laneway you follow to a completely different little museum setup at the actual gps of 0'0'0, so then we got a really interesting guided tour there and a second picture in front of the sign.
Went out for some delicious Cantonese for dinner and then watched a really bizarre movie, but all in all a good weekend.
Oh and then this morning, spent a good portion of my emergency cash on a phone call to the Royal Bank only to first be disconnected and then told that according to them my account and card are perfectly fine. Extremely frustrating. But then I just started walking up and down the streets trying my card in every atm until eventually I found one that worked, so hopefully as long as I keep using that same one while I'm here it will be alright. Still, I think I'm going to have to keep a bit more money in my lock box at the hostel than I did in Peru if the atms are going to that unreliable. But for the moment, problem solved so that's good, I don't have to start busking on the street or anything to pay for my food.
Otherwise, Quito is nice, so far I still miss Cusco because of the friends I made there, plus the fact that Quito just gives me the sense of a big city, and not much else. There definitely is poverty, but there is also a lot of skyscrapers and mercedes and mcdonalds on every corner, which isn't really my style. So currently I'm on the computer at the South American Explorers office, and this afternoon I hope to look over their volunteer listings and see if there's anything available for short term opportunties. If there's something promising, I wouldn't mind sticking around until next week because Dec 1-6 is the city's main independence celebration, with bullfights and futbol games and lots of parties. Otherwise, I might leave in the next couple days and head on down to the central highlands and possibly arrange a jungle tour from there or to isla de la plata (poor man's galapagos). There's a bunch of people at my hostel who have just gotten back from the real Galapagos, and I've been tempted to just splurge and do it, it's such a once in a lifetime thing and I'm in Ecuador, possibly for the only time, but I think the cost (at least 1300-1500 total for a reliable tour, the flights and park entry) is just more than I can afford, especially this early in my travels. So unfortunately I don't think that Galapagos is in the cards, sorry Andrew :(
But either way, I have until December 12ish to spend in Ecuador and then I have made plans to meet up with a dutch girl, Irene, who I met through my spanish school in Cusco. We're looking to meet in Mancora, a chill little surf town on the northern coast of Peru and then stay there until Boxing day, learning how to surf, relaxing on the beach etc., which should be really fun. Also at that time there is a big surf competition so the town should be pretty busy with tourists and competitors etc. And then after Christmas, we're looking to head down the west coast of Peru, stop at a few towns and then spend a couple days in Lima, then onto Pisco (the town that was hit hardest by the earthquake this past summer) then the desert, Arequipa, and then Lake titicaca on our way into Bolivia, likely around mid January. I'm thinking that probably around then we will split up, because I have more intention of getting to Rio for Carnaval than she does, and I think she has some other things in mind for what she wants to do. But either way, it might be nice to have someone around to travel with for a while.
Ok, well I think that's it for now, I'm off to delve into these volunteer listings which are massive, but hope you are all well and thanks for reading these obscenely long entries!!
xo sarah
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Last weekend in Cusco *tear*
So this is officially my last few days in Cusco, and as predicted, I´m getting pretty sad to leave. I´ve met a lot of really fun people here, travellers and locals, and there´s something really relaxed and chill about being here, but there´s always something to do if you want to.
For example, this past week has been crazy. I´ve been doing my spanish classes in the mornings, and while it´s only been 2 weeks of part time lessons, I really think that it has helped a lot. I mean, at the very least I have learned how to conjugate all regular and mostly all irregular verbs in the present, 3 different types of the futuro proximo, as well as the present progressive, pasado perfecto, pasado imperfecto and pasado indefinido. Which probably means nothing to most of you, but i feel like that´s quite the accomplishment for a gringo girl in 2 weeks of lessons, hahaha.
And then in the afternoons, starting sometimes right after my class, I´ve been helping some guys also from the Amauta Spanish School with their volunteering placement, which is an after school program for street kids or kids in a really poor neighbourhood. Like most of them, even if they have a house, don´t have running water or indoor plumbing or enough food to eat. They´re so cute though, and so much fun to hang out with. The project Colibri is a 2 room building, again with no running water, which makes snacktime and any sort of cleanup REALLY interesting, let me tell you. But the whole place is pretty sparse and depressing, so the guys (Steve is from Ireland and Neils is from Holland) had the idea of painting some murals and cartoon characters and stuff on the walls to brighten up the place. Which I know is an unlikely situation for my skills to come in handy, but I´ll have all of you know that my artistic skills have apparently been lying latent, waiting for just such a situation. Apparently I´m really good at drawing disney characters on walls, copying the design off of dvd covers. I was pretty nervous about it, but apparently this has been my calling all along. I´ll try and take some pictures on Monday as proof, cause i know most of you are shaking your heads in disbelief right now but it´s true.
So anyway, Tuesday it took us most of the early afternoon before most of the kids came just to clean the wall, which was filthy, and again it´s hard to facilitate cleanup without running water of any kind. And then the kids arrive around 4 and then we basically play with them, take them to the park, help with homework, get them a snack and then the centre closes around 8. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we´ve been drawing the pictures on the walls, outlining them in black markers and putting paint by number numbers on so that next week sometime I think the guys have got it set up with plastic ponchos and stuff so that the kids can all help fill in the mural with colour. I´m sad that I can´t stay longer to work there more, and see the place all finished, but the guys have promised to email me some pictures.
But a little bit about the kids: one of my favourites (yes i know you´re not supposed to have them, but whatever)is a little boy about 5 years old named Jose who always comes running up to me yelling "amiga!!" and asked me on friday if i´d be his girlfriend. To try to persuademe he built me a lego house which he then filled with 16 lego dogs. I was a little swayed, i have to say. hahhaha. And then there is Margota, who loves to braid my hair, and by braid of course I mean tie in irremovable knots. Roberto Carlos (great name eh?) is 4 and so cute, and probably my largest fan of my artwork, as he stands behind me when I´m drawing something with these huge eyes and gets so excited when he recognizes the dog from the lady and the tramp, or the squirrel from ice age etc., and starts jumping up and down. soooo cute. and also encouraging, as the mere fact that i can draw anything recognizable makes me practically want to scream and jump up and down, it´s that exciting. He has a brother named Franco who looks younger but is actually 5 and I think he has some sort of disabilities, or else is just a really slow talker,because he´s tiny and pretty much the only thing he can say that is recognizable is "besame", so he goes around to all the little girls asking them for kisses. And he´s so charming he pretty much always gets them, hahaha. But in total there are usually around 30 kids or more who show up, and they´re all so adorable, and really appreciative of you spending time with them.
Otherwise, I´ve been doing a lot of dancing, going out with friends from the school, and from here, and basically been having a great time. My plane ticket to quito is for this coming tuesday morning, ánd then I am meeting with Ricardo, my Compassion sponsor kid all day Wednesday, which I am also superpumped about. So I´ll be sure to let you know how the flight and the visit was soon!!
Xo,
Sarah
For example, this past week has been crazy. I´ve been doing my spanish classes in the mornings, and while it´s only been 2 weeks of part time lessons, I really think that it has helped a lot. I mean, at the very least I have learned how to conjugate all regular and mostly all irregular verbs in the present, 3 different types of the futuro proximo, as well as the present progressive, pasado perfecto, pasado imperfecto and pasado indefinido. Which probably means nothing to most of you, but i feel like that´s quite the accomplishment for a gringo girl in 2 weeks of lessons, hahaha.
And then in the afternoons, starting sometimes right after my class, I´ve been helping some guys also from the Amauta Spanish School with their volunteering placement, which is an after school program for street kids or kids in a really poor neighbourhood. Like most of them, even if they have a house, don´t have running water or indoor plumbing or enough food to eat. They´re so cute though, and so much fun to hang out with. The project Colibri is a 2 room building, again with no running water, which makes snacktime and any sort of cleanup REALLY interesting, let me tell you. But the whole place is pretty sparse and depressing, so the guys (Steve is from Ireland and Neils is from Holland) had the idea of painting some murals and cartoon characters and stuff on the walls to brighten up the place. Which I know is an unlikely situation for my skills to come in handy, but I´ll have all of you know that my artistic skills have apparently been lying latent, waiting for just such a situation. Apparently I´m really good at drawing disney characters on walls, copying the design off of dvd covers. I was pretty nervous about it, but apparently this has been my calling all along. I´ll try and take some pictures on Monday as proof, cause i know most of you are shaking your heads in disbelief right now but it´s true.
So anyway, Tuesday it took us most of the early afternoon before most of the kids came just to clean the wall, which was filthy, and again it´s hard to facilitate cleanup without running water of any kind. And then the kids arrive around 4 and then we basically play with them, take them to the park, help with homework, get them a snack and then the centre closes around 8. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we´ve been drawing the pictures on the walls, outlining them in black markers and putting paint by number numbers on so that next week sometime I think the guys have got it set up with plastic ponchos and stuff so that the kids can all help fill in the mural with colour. I´m sad that I can´t stay longer to work there more, and see the place all finished, but the guys have promised to email me some pictures.
But a little bit about the kids: one of my favourites (yes i know you´re not supposed to have them, but whatever)is a little boy about 5 years old named Jose who always comes running up to me yelling "amiga!!" and asked me on friday if i´d be his girlfriend. To try to persuademe he built me a lego house which he then filled with 16 lego dogs. I was a little swayed, i have to say. hahhaha. And then there is Margota, who loves to braid my hair, and by braid of course I mean tie in irremovable knots. Roberto Carlos (great name eh?) is 4 and so cute, and probably my largest fan of my artwork, as he stands behind me when I´m drawing something with these huge eyes and gets so excited when he recognizes the dog from the lady and the tramp, or the squirrel from ice age etc., and starts jumping up and down. soooo cute. and also encouraging, as the mere fact that i can draw anything recognizable makes me practically want to scream and jump up and down, it´s that exciting. He has a brother named Franco who looks younger but is actually 5 and I think he has some sort of disabilities, or else is just a really slow talker,because he´s tiny and pretty much the only thing he can say that is recognizable is "besame", so he goes around to all the little girls asking them for kisses. And he´s so charming he pretty much always gets them, hahaha. But in total there are usually around 30 kids or more who show up, and they´re all so adorable, and really appreciative of you spending time with them.
Otherwise, I´ve been doing a lot of dancing, going out with friends from the school, and from here, and basically been having a great time. My plane ticket to quito is for this coming tuesday morning, ánd then I am meeting with Ricardo, my Compassion sponsor kid all day Wednesday, which I am also superpumped about. So I´ll be sure to let you know how the flight and the visit was soon!!
Xo,
Sarah
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Two+ weeks down......
So I realized today that I´ve already been here in Cusco for more than two weeks which is weird, but at the same time I definitely am starting to feel comfortable here, and am going to be kind of sad when i have to leave next weekend.
This week has been really busy, with spanish classes, which are going well, although I´m not sure how much I can feasibly learn of a language in 2 weeks of part time classes. Plus, I also did some volunteering through the school at a hospital for kids with physical and mental disabilities, most of whom have been abandoned by their families because they can´t possibly care for them, and it´s seen as degeneration and shameful to have a child with any sort of "abnormalities". So that was really good, cause most of the kids are so cute and just begging for attention as there´s hardly any staff there, or at least there wasn´t at times when I was there. But unfortunately, I´m pretty sure that as a result of playing with them, I managed to get some icky eye infection which made for a pretty disgusting show on thursday and friday, and didn´t help the cold-ear infection-sinus trifecta i was already battling. But anyway, started some cipro treatment, which has seemed to quickly start clearing all of that up, so hopefully i´ll be healthier now for a while.
Went out on Wednesday and Thursday nights dancing, first with people from the Spanish school (who are strangely 98% all Dutch) and then with people from Loki, the hostal I´m staying at, which is an awesome place to meet people, although the turnover is kind of overwhelming, and the only good part is that other people are just as likely to forget your name too so you start to not feel bad when you have no idea what people are called anymore.
Last night even though I was supposed to hang out with some people I met at the hostal, I went to bed early and actually slept for about 14 hours, which I think also helped with my many ailments, cause today I woke up totally refreshed, (and only needing a handful of kleenex instead of a box) which is a nice break.
Today though, I went out for lunch at a really good all day breakfast place and then went to read a book I had brought at Plaza San Blas, which is a little bit away from the downtown and usually a better place to be able to sit in peace without being hounded by people trying to sell postcards and finger puppets to gullible tourists. Strangely a) there was some sort of market going on there, so there were tons of prospective entrepreneurs there and b) I opened up my novel, which was Margaret Atwood´s The Edible Woman, (that I can´t remember where I got it from) to find on the title page a handwritten note that said "for Sarah -best, Margaret Atwood". How bizarre is that? I was going to hand it in to a book exchange soon so I could get something new to read, but I might end up keeping it just because that´s such a weird coincidence, almost like magic.
Ok well that´s pretty much it for now- things are kind of in a routine here, so nothing all that exciting to report, but I´m off to see a reggae band (which sort of reminds me of newworldson for those of you who know what i´m talking about). Hope all is well with all of you!!
xo Sarah
This week has been really busy, with spanish classes, which are going well, although I´m not sure how much I can feasibly learn of a language in 2 weeks of part time classes. Plus, I also did some volunteering through the school at a hospital for kids with physical and mental disabilities, most of whom have been abandoned by their families because they can´t possibly care for them, and it´s seen as degeneration and shameful to have a child with any sort of "abnormalities". So that was really good, cause most of the kids are so cute and just begging for attention as there´s hardly any staff there, or at least there wasn´t at times when I was there. But unfortunately, I´m pretty sure that as a result of playing with them, I managed to get some icky eye infection which made for a pretty disgusting show on thursday and friday, and didn´t help the cold-ear infection-sinus trifecta i was already battling. But anyway, started some cipro treatment, which has seemed to quickly start clearing all of that up, so hopefully i´ll be healthier now for a while.
Went out on Wednesday and Thursday nights dancing, first with people from the Spanish school (who are strangely 98% all Dutch) and then with people from Loki, the hostal I´m staying at, which is an awesome place to meet people, although the turnover is kind of overwhelming, and the only good part is that other people are just as likely to forget your name too so you start to not feel bad when you have no idea what people are called anymore.
Last night even though I was supposed to hang out with some people I met at the hostal, I went to bed early and actually slept for about 14 hours, which I think also helped with my many ailments, cause today I woke up totally refreshed, (and only needing a handful of kleenex instead of a box) which is a nice break.
Today though, I went out for lunch at a really good all day breakfast place and then went to read a book I had brought at Plaza San Blas, which is a little bit away from the downtown and usually a better place to be able to sit in peace without being hounded by people trying to sell postcards and finger puppets to gullible tourists. Strangely a) there was some sort of market going on there, so there were tons of prospective entrepreneurs there and b) I opened up my novel, which was Margaret Atwood´s The Edible Woman, (that I can´t remember where I got it from) to find on the title page a handwritten note that said "for Sarah -best, Margaret Atwood". How bizarre is that? I was going to hand it in to a book exchange soon so I could get something new to read, but I might end up keeping it just because that´s such a weird coincidence, almost like magic.
Ok well that´s pretty much it for now- things are kind of in a routine here, so nothing all that exciting to report, but I´m off to see a reggae band (which sort of reminds me of newworldson for those of you who know what i´m talking about). Hope all is well with all of you!!
xo Sarah
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Inca Trail contd
Ok, so the second day, finally crawled to the top of that first pass (after there had already been a false pass which was EXTREMELY cruel) and then there were probably literally 1000 steps down to the campsite for that day. My ears were popping like crazy, because I managed to do that section in like 40 minutes. But then we were done for the day at like 1:30 in the afternoon, which was nice. Had a big nap, tea time, and a great sunset in the mountains. Then the next morning we got up early again and started on the second pass, which wasn{t so bad, and when you got to the top of it, there were these hazy lagoons which were pretty neat looking. And then on the way down from there, there were several ruins, one of which was quite large and pretty spectacular. It had a single staircase up to it, and was surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs. I forget what it{s exact name was in Quechua, but it was known as the {inaccessible town{ in English. And then from there we had to keep descending to where we had lunch, back in cloud forest areas, and then start ascending up to get to the third pass. This was the longest day of walking, with more than 15 km of trail to get through, although it was probably the most beautiful, with waterfalls, caves carved into the mountain, etc. We were all pretty tired by the time we got to our campsite at Winay Wayna, but our guide made us drop all our stuff and continue on a little bit further past the campsite to get a tour of his favourite ruins. And it was pretty neat' we got there just as the sun was starting to go down, and there were rows upon rows of agricultural terraces and baths. After it started to get really dark though, we headed back to the campsite, which was the largest one yet, with a restaurant and actual bathrooms on site, which i definitely took advantage of and paid the 5 soles for a hot shower. Which probably didn{t do much considering we still had more gross sweaty hiking the next day, but it definitely made me feel better in the short term, so i figure it was worth it.
That last day we got up at quarter to four to make sure that we would be the first ones in line for the final checkpoint, which didn{t even open until 5:30,n it opened it was a mad sprint to try to reach Intipunku, the SunGate of Machu Picchu as the first group. We almost did it, but a few crazy Norwegian guys from a group behind us overtook us so we weren{t the first ones there after all, despite hiking faster than i imagined possible for at least an hour. One of the guys was trying to pass us, and Angie, one of the Australian girls was trying to stop him by weaving back and forth, so he sort of joke tackled her to get past. Which then made her wheel around and whack him so hard with her walking stick that I practically heard bones crack. Just to give you an idea of how intense this race was. But like i said, it didn{t really matter because by the time we got to the sun gate, expecting the postcard view, we arrived to find a) that we weren{t the first ones there, and b) all you could see was cloud. Literally, not even the outline of a mountain was visible. Kind of disappointing.
So we stayed there a few more minutes, recovering and hoping that the fog would start to lift, which it slowly was, and then we carried on for the last 20 minutes or so of walking from there to Machu Picchu itself. Which was probably the most leisurely and easy section of the whole entire trail. Which of course meant that I managed to sprain my ankle. Literally 10 minutes before we got to Machu Picchu. I was sooo disappointed, because even though it didn{t seem to be too bad of a sprain, I wasn{t sure if I{d be able to climb Huayna Picchu, the mountain overlooking the ruins, which was sort of what I{d been looking forward to the whole time. Anyway, we got our team picture taken again, got a tour of the main parts of the ruins, and then at the last second I decided to risk it and forewent the last half of the tour in favour of the climb. Apparently it should only take like 45 minutes, but it definitely took me just about an hour to get up there, hobbling along, especially since the stairs are so steep that you have to cling to this railing and stop every two seconds for people coming back down. But you go up all these stairs, and then get to the ruins part near the top of the mountain, where it really gets steep, and then you continue on, have to shimmy nearly on your stomach sort of diagonally upwards through this gross little cave thing, climb up a ladder and then suddenly you{re on top of the mountain. I don{t know what I was expecting exactly, but I guess I hadn{t really thought that it would literally be some boulders up there, and you{re literally perched on the peak of the mountain. Absolutely spectacular, with Machu Picchu and Intipunku visible below you, and mountains in every direction you can see. It really did feel like I was suspended in midair, because you can{t see any of the stairs or mountain below you. But I didn{t linger too long up there, because it was already so crowded with people all jostling for the best picture spot that I thought I may be shoved off into oblivion, especially with a crippled foot.
So we started back down, looked at a few of the buildings that are up there, and then I went back down to explore Machu Picchu a bit more. Although by that time I was so exhausted and dehydrated that I wanted to get over to the exit and get something to eat, but somehow got lost slash stuck in the maze of buildings for about half an hour. I could see where I wanted to get to, but every time I thought I had it figured out, there was another dead end or a tomb or something. I know I should have been still marvelling at all of the stonework and detail, which was amazing, but at that point I was just getting really annoyed. But anyway, finally got it figured out, and actually I think it{s good that I didn{t get to completely look at everything I wanted to there, just because it preserves some of the mystery and awe, you know?
So then we had to take a bus down to meet up with the rest of our trek group at a restaurant in the town of Aguas Caliente, which is at the bottom of the mountain, had a little goodbye ceremony and then we were off to the train, which took an unbelievably long 5 hours to get back into Cusco. Had a good chat with one of the British couples, Sam and EJ on the train though, and also had a funny little moment with an older man whose wife was sleeping, and this huge moth kept flying around her open mouth. At first he was trying to shoo it away, and then just sort of shrugged his shoulders and gave up, at which point he realized that I was watching him and laughing, and then we took turns pretending to herd the moth back and forth to each other, and laughing hysterically when it landed on sleeping people nearby. We never even said anything to each other, but it was a very amusing diversion in what was pretty much otherwise a really long and boring train ride.
Basically fell dead asleep for 12 hours or so, only to wake up Sunday morning to realize that the cold I had been harbouring during the trek had now decided to kidnap my voice completely. Seriously couldn{t say a single word. Which sucked because I had already used up all of my Halls and didn{t have hardly any bottled water left, which made for a very interesting and mimed visit to the store (the pharmacies here keep all the products behind the counter, so you have to ask specifically for the things you want- that was fun). But I did manage to get some necessities and went back to bed for a few hours, and the voice started to come back a little bit at a time, though it{s still nowhere near normal.
Started spanish school at Amauta yesterday, as well as switched hostels into somewhere with more people around, which hopefully will provide some entertainment. The showers were almost painfully hot though, which is an unusual improvement over the last place at least. The first 2 hours of spanish class with the first teacher were pretty rough, as it felt like I was being tested on all sorts of things that I hadn{t been taught yet and was just expected to know. And she wasn{t very patient. But then the second girl was much more helpful, and it was more of a lesson and practice, which seemed manageable and will likely be useful I{m sure. We also had a nice welcome dinner for all the new students which was free, but not really that good of food. Among other things, there was this pasta served that was supposed to have spinach on it, but basically was rubbery spaghetti with green goo. mmmmm
Anyway, now I{m in an internet cafe across the street from my new hostel waiting for my trek pictures to try to upload, which is painfully slow as usual, and also waiting for my laundry to get done (supposed to be finished at lunchtime) which hopefully is true, otherwise I{ll be wearing these pyjama pants to school for lack of other clothing options. Weird.- suddenly it{s like i{m back at university again :)
Ok well I think that{s all for today- at least some of my pictures should be up on snapfish today, although my camera battery might not live long enough for them all to get up there, so some of the machu picchu ones might get up tomorrow or the next day. Hope things are well with all of you- keep the emails coming, they definitely provide some much needed entertainment and keep me feeling up to date on things back home.
Love always,
sarah
That last day we got up at quarter to four to make sure that we would be the first ones in line for the final checkpoint, which didn{t even open until 5:30,n it opened it was a mad sprint to try to reach Intipunku, the SunGate of Machu Picchu as the first group. We almost did it, but a few crazy Norwegian guys from a group behind us overtook us so we weren{t the first ones there after all, despite hiking faster than i imagined possible for at least an hour. One of the guys was trying to pass us, and Angie, one of the Australian girls was trying to stop him by weaving back and forth, so he sort of joke tackled her to get past. Which then made her wheel around and whack him so hard with her walking stick that I practically heard bones crack. Just to give you an idea of how intense this race was. But like i said, it didn{t really matter because by the time we got to the sun gate, expecting the postcard view, we arrived to find a) that we weren{t the first ones there, and b) all you could see was cloud. Literally, not even the outline of a mountain was visible. Kind of disappointing.
So we stayed there a few more minutes, recovering and hoping that the fog would start to lift, which it slowly was, and then we carried on for the last 20 minutes or so of walking from there to Machu Picchu itself. Which was probably the most leisurely and easy section of the whole entire trail. Which of course meant that I managed to sprain my ankle. Literally 10 minutes before we got to Machu Picchu. I was sooo disappointed, because even though it didn{t seem to be too bad of a sprain, I wasn{t sure if I{d be able to climb Huayna Picchu, the mountain overlooking the ruins, which was sort of what I{d been looking forward to the whole time. Anyway, we got our team picture taken again, got a tour of the main parts of the ruins, and then at the last second I decided to risk it and forewent the last half of the tour in favour of the climb. Apparently it should only take like 45 minutes, but it definitely took me just about an hour to get up there, hobbling along, especially since the stairs are so steep that you have to cling to this railing and stop every two seconds for people coming back down. But you go up all these stairs, and then get to the ruins part near the top of the mountain, where it really gets steep, and then you continue on, have to shimmy nearly on your stomach sort of diagonally upwards through this gross little cave thing, climb up a ladder and then suddenly you{re on top of the mountain. I don{t know what I was expecting exactly, but I guess I hadn{t really thought that it would literally be some boulders up there, and you{re literally perched on the peak of the mountain. Absolutely spectacular, with Machu Picchu and Intipunku visible below you, and mountains in every direction you can see. It really did feel like I was suspended in midair, because you can{t see any of the stairs or mountain below you. But I didn{t linger too long up there, because it was already so crowded with people all jostling for the best picture spot that I thought I may be shoved off into oblivion, especially with a crippled foot.
So we started back down, looked at a few of the buildings that are up there, and then I went back down to explore Machu Picchu a bit more. Although by that time I was so exhausted and dehydrated that I wanted to get over to the exit and get something to eat, but somehow got lost slash stuck in the maze of buildings for about half an hour. I could see where I wanted to get to, but every time I thought I had it figured out, there was another dead end or a tomb or something. I know I should have been still marvelling at all of the stonework and detail, which was amazing, but at that point I was just getting really annoyed. But anyway, finally got it figured out, and actually I think it{s good that I didn{t get to completely look at everything I wanted to there, just because it preserves some of the mystery and awe, you know?
So then we had to take a bus down to meet up with the rest of our trek group at a restaurant in the town of Aguas Caliente, which is at the bottom of the mountain, had a little goodbye ceremony and then we were off to the train, which took an unbelievably long 5 hours to get back into Cusco. Had a good chat with one of the British couples, Sam and EJ on the train though, and also had a funny little moment with an older man whose wife was sleeping, and this huge moth kept flying around her open mouth. At first he was trying to shoo it away, and then just sort of shrugged his shoulders and gave up, at which point he realized that I was watching him and laughing, and then we took turns pretending to herd the moth back and forth to each other, and laughing hysterically when it landed on sleeping people nearby. We never even said anything to each other, but it was a very amusing diversion in what was pretty much otherwise a really long and boring train ride.
Basically fell dead asleep for 12 hours or so, only to wake up Sunday morning to realize that the cold I had been harbouring during the trek had now decided to kidnap my voice completely. Seriously couldn{t say a single word. Which sucked because I had already used up all of my Halls and didn{t have hardly any bottled water left, which made for a very interesting and mimed visit to the store (the pharmacies here keep all the products behind the counter, so you have to ask specifically for the things you want- that was fun). But I did manage to get some necessities and went back to bed for a few hours, and the voice started to come back a little bit at a time, though it{s still nowhere near normal.
Started spanish school at Amauta yesterday, as well as switched hostels into somewhere with more people around, which hopefully will provide some entertainment. The showers were almost painfully hot though, which is an unusual improvement over the last place at least. The first 2 hours of spanish class with the first teacher were pretty rough, as it felt like I was being tested on all sorts of things that I hadn{t been taught yet and was just expected to know. And she wasn{t very patient. But then the second girl was much more helpful, and it was more of a lesson and practice, which seemed manageable and will likely be useful I{m sure. We also had a nice welcome dinner for all the new students which was free, but not really that good of food. Among other things, there was this pasta served that was supposed to have spinach on it, but basically was rubbery spaghetti with green goo. mmmmm
Anyway, now I{m in an internet cafe across the street from my new hostel waiting for my trek pictures to try to upload, which is painfully slow as usual, and also waiting for my laundry to get done (supposed to be finished at lunchtime) which hopefully is true, otherwise I{ll be wearing these pyjama pants to school for lack of other clothing options. Weird.- suddenly it{s like i{m back at university again :)
Ok well I think that{s all for today- at least some of my pictures should be up on snapfish today, although my camera battery might not live long enough for them all to get up there, so some of the machu picchu ones might get up tomorrow or the next day. Hope things are well with all of you- keep the emails coming, they definitely provide some much needed entertainment and keep me feeling up to date on things back home.
Love always,
sarah
Monday, November 5, 2007
Back from trekking
I can't believe it's over already, but the four day Inca Trail Trek ended on Saturday night. Absolutely exhausting, and challenging to within an inch of my life, but holy crap, so worth it.
So much to describe, but I'll try to give the short version now because I'm on a common computer that wont' let me upload pictures right now. And I have spanish class that starts soon so I don't have time to investigate.
Got picked up disgustingly early on the Wednesdsay morning at my hostel, and we took a bus partway there, stopped for breakfast in Ollantaytambo, a small village in the Sacred Valley. On the way to the Inca Trail checkpoint our bus got a flat tire so we had to stop to get it changed, and then found out a few miles down the road that the guy who changed it did it wrong, so the axle broke or something and then we were on the side of the road waiting for a different bus to come get us. But we got there eventually, with an eventful start to the day, so all was good. In total, there were 16 trekkers, 2 guides, a cook, and 21 porters with my tour, which sounds like a lot, but we were definitely well fed and taken care of, with all the equipment and everything that got brought with us. All the exercise plus some really good food managed to give me my appetite back so that's comforting, although living expenses tend to increase dramatically when you have to factor in meals, ahahaha.
The first day after checking in and showing our passports, the hiking was pretty easy, or at least mild. We got to the campsite right before it started to get dark, which is pretty early at like 5thirtyish here. And it rained that whole first night pretty hard, so much so that i had dreams about them coming to relocate us further along the trail because our tents were washing away down the river. No such luck though. And then the second day we got woken up in our tents at 5am with some coca tea in bed, then breakfast and the start of the hardest day of hiking. The first few hours weren't so bad, as we were travelling through some really cool cloud forests, with beautiful orchids everywhere, hanging mosses and ferns, waterfalls, etc. But then at the breaktime we sort of hit the treeline on the mountain and from there to the top it was a huge struggle. The steps were really steep, and for those last few hours of climbing, my hands and feet had gone completely numb, from the altitude i guess, which made it a bit more difficult. Myself and this other girl, Isabelle, from Quebec, were the last ones to manage to get up to the top of that first pass and let me tell you, there were many times when i seriously was considering living the remainder of my days on the side of that mountain.
Ok, this is nowhere near the end of the story, but i'm getting told to get off the computer now for some reason, so i'll have to continue this later on, but just know that it was an amazing time, and i'm back in Cusco safe and sound, with much to report, verbally and pictorially, soon!
xo sarah
So much to describe, but I'll try to give the short version now because I'm on a common computer that wont' let me upload pictures right now. And I have spanish class that starts soon so I don't have time to investigate.
Got picked up disgustingly early on the Wednesdsay morning at my hostel, and we took a bus partway there, stopped for breakfast in Ollantaytambo, a small village in the Sacred Valley. On the way to the Inca Trail checkpoint our bus got a flat tire so we had to stop to get it changed, and then found out a few miles down the road that the guy who changed it did it wrong, so the axle broke or something and then we were on the side of the road waiting for a different bus to come get us. But we got there eventually, with an eventful start to the day, so all was good. In total, there were 16 trekkers, 2 guides, a cook, and 21 porters with my tour, which sounds like a lot, but we were definitely well fed and taken care of, with all the equipment and everything that got brought with us. All the exercise plus some really good food managed to give me my appetite back so that's comforting, although living expenses tend to increase dramatically when you have to factor in meals, ahahaha.
The first day after checking in and showing our passports, the hiking was pretty easy, or at least mild. We got to the campsite right before it started to get dark, which is pretty early at like 5thirtyish here. And it rained that whole first night pretty hard, so much so that i had dreams about them coming to relocate us further along the trail because our tents were washing away down the river. No such luck though. And then the second day we got woken up in our tents at 5am with some coca tea in bed, then breakfast and the start of the hardest day of hiking. The first few hours weren't so bad, as we were travelling through some really cool cloud forests, with beautiful orchids everywhere, hanging mosses and ferns, waterfalls, etc. But then at the breaktime we sort of hit the treeline on the mountain and from there to the top it was a huge struggle. The steps were really steep, and for those last few hours of climbing, my hands and feet had gone completely numb, from the altitude i guess, which made it a bit more difficult. Myself and this other girl, Isabelle, from Quebec, were the last ones to manage to get up to the top of that first pass and let me tell you, there were many times when i seriously was considering living the remainder of my days on the side of that mountain.
Ok, this is nowhere near the end of the story, but i'm getting told to get off the computer now for some reason, so i'll have to continue this later on, but just know that it was an amazing time, and i'm back in Cusco safe and sound, with much to report, verbally and pictorially, soon!
xo sarah
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Cusco Day 6
Ok, so I know this has been a bit late in coming, but sometimes it´s hard to get motivated to go inside some creepy little internet stall when it´s gorgeous outside and there´s so much stuff to do. So I apologize, but right now there´s a nasty rainstorm so luckily I´m holing up in a cafe for a while. :)
So I got here on Thursday, and because I hardly got any sleep and was tired and grumpy, that first day was kinda rough. After paying way more than necessary for that first hostel, I switched places on Friday morning, to a hostel close to downtown called La Maison de la Jeunesse. Until yesterday, I was staying there alone in a 3 person room for 20 soles a night, so approximately $7. I managed to get my phone set up (sort of) after about amillion hours of broken spanish in the Claro office, so for 20 soles i now have a month of unlimited local service, 100 text messages. Unfortunately, the rates for international calling are pretty crappy, and so far receiving calls has been difficult too, so it looks like it´s going to be calling stations for the most part, but that´s still relatively cheap. But if anyone is interested in giving it a try, the number is 0051 84 931 6398. No guarantees, but text messages seem to be working mostly okay, so feel free to give me a try!!
On Friday I went and bought a boleto turistico unificado, which lets you into most of the city museums and historical sites, plus all of the archaeological sites in and around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. So Friday and Saturday I did a bunch of exploring around the city, went to so many museums and art galleries and churches, etc. that I can´t even remember them all. Wherever you´re allowed to take pictures, I started taking pictures of the name of the place just so I can remember what everything is. Probably my favourite was Qoricancha, what used to be the central temple of the Incas, for it was located in the exact centre of their empire. When the Spanish came, they dismantled some of the rooms (Temple of the Sun, parts of Temple of the moon, etc) and built up around the original walls, putting in all sorts of religious works of art and colonial architecture. The way that you could see the conflict and yet the integration between the two cultures was pretty neat, plus it was just some beautiful buildings and gardens. And actually, my hostel is almost right across the street from it, so when you see the pictures looking out over the gardens area, my hostel is on the left on the other side of the street.
On Thursday night, I had met a few people who were also travelling, and the one guy Joseph was from Brazil (speaks English) and has done a crapload of South American travelling already, and knew a bunch of the locals in Cusco. So over the weekend it was neat to be able to get shown around a bit by some people who know the non touristy places. Friday night I went out, which was really fun, and there are so many clubs all over the place that you can barely walk down the street after 9 without getting (sometimes literally) dragged into someplace with the promise of free drinks or food. Saturday night there was some sort of religious festival going on, although no one i asked seemed to actually know what it was all about. There were parades and firecrackers all day, bands meandering around, etc. and then after dark in front of the Cathedral in the Plaza DArmas, there was like 20 of these rickety structures made of (bamboo?) that were lit on fire one after the other. There were fireworks built into them so that they made really cool explosions. Unfortunately, i didn´t have my camera on me so no pictures, but it was pretty wild. And even though there were pieces of random fireworks shooting off into the crowd, landing on old ladies´heads, kids running amock through the sparks getting lit on fire, I was the only one who seemed to be the least bit concerned by any of it. Everyone else just thought it was hilarious, and completely normal. After the show, we went to this really cool mediterranean themed bar in San Blas area, where there was a live band playing everything from andean music to van morrison. Pretty funny actually. The main singer was indigenous of some sort, and all the guys apparently think that this makes him look like Milhouse off the Simpsons. Not really sure about that one, but i couldn´t convince them otherwise.
And then Sunday morning, we went to this huge market in Pisac, a town like 45 minutes away by bus. My ears were really sore going there, and I don´t know if it was because we had to stand on the combi, or all the twists and turns, thinner air, etc. but my fingers went tingly for like 3 or 4 hours while we were there. But this market was HUGE. Tons of Quechua people selling handicrafts, food, clothes, etc. Joseph tried to convince me to drink some chicha (fruity alcoholic beverage scooped out of a barrel into a dirty beer mug) off the street for like 20 cents, but i declined to much teasing about being an overcautious tourist, etc. 15 minutes later: sick as a dog. I tried not to laugh too hard. ok not really.
Instead, I paid the big bucks (still like 5 dollars) to go to a more upscale touristy cafe place and tried some alpaca which had this amazing cranberryish sauce on it, and was actually delicious. The first time since arriving that I was actually able to eat more than a few bites of anything. Oh and sidenote, i don´t know if it´s because everything else is so much worse in comparison, but lately one of the only things i am enticed to eat is breakfast, including scrambled eggs. WEIRD. But aside from the lack of appetite, no GI problems to report so far. Let´s hope it stays that way, but i do have a stash of pepto and cipro just in case.
Then yesterday, I hiked up the hill at the edge of the city to go to Sacsayhuaman, Qénqo (inca and pre'inca ruins overlooking the city) and the Cristo Blanco. There was a Peruvian couple that stopped me on the way up and insisted that i go with them and that they´d show me around. So for about 3 hours, my spanish held up not too badly, much to my surprise, although i dont´think i really got the depth of explanation re: the history of the sites, but oh well.
And then today, I´m trying to do some of the wrapup stuff before i leave for the inca trail trek tomorrow morning (at a disgusting hour of 5:30 am), so i´m getting my laundry done, paid for the trek, have to go again later to meet my porter (well actually a third of a porter), I´m also trying to register for some spanish classes to start next Monday morning, so i think as soon as these pictures finish downloading (which is taking FOREVER i might add) I´m going to head over there and get that taken care of. I think though that when i get back on Sunday from Aguas Caliente, I´ll probably only stay that one night at the same hostel, and then transfer to someplace with more people around, and closer to the school that i pick.
Other impressions of cusco so far: cab drivers are crazy- no actual slowing down for people to cross the road or anything, but lots of honking. Usually for no apparent reason. Dogs run EVERYWHERE all the time. And not just dogs, but llamas, goats, and last night I was walking around waiting until i got hungry before finding somehwere to eat, and 3 donkeys came right up to me expectantly. No owner visible or anything. I didn´t really know if i was supposed to feed it or what. Eventually they got disgusted with me and wandered away, but still. And finally, I think I´m going to take a hint from the local Quechua women here, who walk around the streets offering tourists the chance to take photographs of them for a sole. Because I get asked pretty much 10-15 times a day or more if people can take their picture with me. Me with them. And their friends. In front of the fountain. On the bench. Showing a Canada flag. etc etc etc. I don´t even need a talent or anything to busk with, i´m pretty sure i could pay for this whole trip just in photographing fees.
ps. how hilarious is it that right now i´m listening to wonderwall on the radio in this cafe, and all the other tourists and i are singing along??
The pictures I´m posting to Snapfish, (link on the top right of this page), and i think it´s set up so that you should be able to make an id for yourself, and then view my group room, which is called South America 07-08. But if that doesn´t work, just go to snapfish.com and log in under my name, sargustin@hotmail.com, password : smarties and you should be able to find it that way. And Mom, if you could let me know if they´re all up there, and maybe download them to cd or something so that i can start deleting off my camera when necessary? won´t be for a while yet, but just in case.
Anyway, sorry for the delay but hopefully the long entry makes up for it somewhat. I´m sure i´ll have lots more to report early next week once i get back from macchu picchu, so until then, I hope you all have a great week, and Happy Halloween!!
Love,
Sarah
So I got here on Thursday, and because I hardly got any sleep and was tired and grumpy, that first day was kinda rough. After paying way more than necessary for that first hostel, I switched places on Friday morning, to a hostel close to downtown called La Maison de la Jeunesse. Until yesterday, I was staying there alone in a 3 person room for 20 soles a night, so approximately $7. I managed to get my phone set up (sort of) after about amillion hours of broken spanish in the Claro office, so for 20 soles i now have a month of unlimited local service, 100 text messages. Unfortunately, the rates for international calling are pretty crappy, and so far receiving calls has been difficult too, so it looks like it´s going to be calling stations for the most part, but that´s still relatively cheap. But if anyone is interested in giving it a try, the number is 0051 84 931 6398. No guarantees, but text messages seem to be working mostly okay, so feel free to give me a try!!
On Friday I went and bought a boleto turistico unificado, which lets you into most of the city museums and historical sites, plus all of the archaeological sites in and around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. So Friday and Saturday I did a bunch of exploring around the city, went to so many museums and art galleries and churches, etc. that I can´t even remember them all. Wherever you´re allowed to take pictures, I started taking pictures of the name of the place just so I can remember what everything is. Probably my favourite was Qoricancha, what used to be the central temple of the Incas, for it was located in the exact centre of their empire. When the Spanish came, they dismantled some of the rooms (Temple of the Sun, parts of Temple of the moon, etc) and built up around the original walls, putting in all sorts of religious works of art and colonial architecture. The way that you could see the conflict and yet the integration between the two cultures was pretty neat, plus it was just some beautiful buildings and gardens. And actually, my hostel is almost right across the street from it, so when you see the pictures looking out over the gardens area, my hostel is on the left on the other side of the street.
On Thursday night, I had met a few people who were also travelling, and the one guy Joseph was from Brazil (speaks English) and has done a crapload of South American travelling already, and knew a bunch of the locals in Cusco. So over the weekend it was neat to be able to get shown around a bit by some people who know the non touristy places. Friday night I went out, which was really fun, and there are so many clubs all over the place that you can barely walk down the street after 9 without getting (sometimes literally) dragged into someplace with the promise of free drinks or food. Saturday night there was some sort of religious festival going on, although no one i asked seemed to actually know what it was all about. There were parades and firecrackers all day, bands meandering around, etc. and then after dark in front of the Cathedral in the Plaza DArmas, there was like 20 of these rickety structures made of (bamboo?) that were lit on fire one after the other. There were fireworks built into them so that they made really cool explosions. Unfortunately, i didn´t have my camera on me so no pictures, but it was pretty wild. And even though there were pieces of random fireworks shooting off into the crowd, landing on old ladies´heads, kids running amock through the sparks getting lit on fire, I was the only one who seemed to be the least bit concerned by any of it. Everyone else just thought it was hilarious, and completely normal. After the show, we went to this really cool mediterranean themed bar in San Blas area, where there was a live band playing everything from andean music to van morrison. Pretty funny actually. The main singer was indigenous of some sort, and all the guys apparently think that this makes him look like Milhouse off the Simpsons. Not really sure about that one, but i couldn´t convince them otherwise.
And then Sunday morning, we went to this huge market in Pisac, a town like 45 minutes away by bus. My ears were really sore going there, and I don´t know if it was because we had to stand on the combi, or all the twists and turns, thinner air, etc. but my fingers went tingly for like 3 or 4 hours while we were there. But this market was HUGE. Tons of Quechua people selling handicrafts, food, clothes, etc. Joseph tried to convince me to drink some chicha (fruity alcoholic beverage scooped out of a barrel into a dirty beer mug) off the street for like 20 cents, but i declined to much teasing about being an overcautious tourist, etc. 15 minutes later: sick as a dog. I tried not to laugh too hard. ok not really.
Instead, I paid the big bucks (still like 5 dollars) to go to a more upscale touristy cafe place and tried some alpaca which had this amazing cranberryish sauce on it, and was actually delicious. The first time since arriving that I was actually able to eat more than a few bites of anything. Oh and sidenote, i don´t know if it´s because everything else is so much worse in comparison, but lately one of the only things i am enticed to eat is breakfast, including scrambled eggs. WEIRD. But aside from the lack of appetite, no GI problems to report so far. Let´s hope it stays that way, but i do have a stash of pepto and cipro just in case.
Then yesterday, I hiked up the hill at the edge of the city to go to Sacsayhuaman, Qénqo (inca and pre'inca ruins overlooking the city) and the Cristo Blanco. There was a Peruvian couple that stopped me on the way up and insisted that i go with them and that they´d show me around. So for about 3 hours, my spanish held up not too badly, much to my surprise, although i dont´think i really got the depth of explanation re: the history of the sites, but oh well.
And then today, I´m trying to do some of the wrapup stuff before i leave for the inca trail trek tomorrow morning (at a disgusting hour of 5:30 am), so i´m getting my laundry done, paid for the trek, have to go again later to meet my porter (well actually a third of a porter), I´m also trying to register for some spanish classes to start next Monday morning, so i think as soon as these pictures finish downloading (which is taking FOREVER i might add) I´m going to head over there and get that taken care of. I think though that when i get back on Sunday from Aguas Caliente, I´ll probably only stay that one night at the same hostel, and then transfer to someplace with more people around, and closer to the school that i pick.
Other impressions of cusco so far: cab drivers are crazy- no actual slowing down for people to cross the road or anything, but lots of honking. Usually for no apparent reason. Dogs run EVERYWHERE all the time. And not just dogs, but llamas, goats, and last night I was walking around waiting until i got hungry before finding somehwere to eat, and 3 donkeys came right up to me expectantly. No owner visible or anything. I didn´t really know if i was supposed to feed it or what. Eventually they got disgusted with me and wandered away, but still. And finally, I think I´m going to take a hint from the local Quechua women here, who walk around the streets offering tourists the chance to take photographs of them for a sole. Because I get asked pretty much 10-15 times a day or more if people can take their picture with me. Me with them. And their friends. In front of the fountain. On the bench. Showing a Canada flag. etc etc etc. I don´t even need a talent or anything to busk with, i´m pretty sure i could pay for this whole trip just in photographing fees.
ps. how hilarious is it that right now i´m listening to wonderwall on the radio in this cafe, and all the other tourists and i are singing along??
The pictures I´m posting to Snapfish, (link on the top right of this page), and i think it´s set up so that you should be able to make an id for yourself, and then view my group room, which is called South America 07-08. But if that doesn´t work, just go to snapfish.com and log in under my name, sargustin@hotmail.com, password : smarties and you should be able to find it that way. And Mom, if you could let me know if they´re all up there, and maybe download them to cd or something so that i can start deleting off my camera when necessary? won´t be for a while yet, but just in case.
Anyway, sorry for the delay but hopefully the long entry makes up for it somewhat. I´m sure i´ll have lots more to report early next week once i get back from macchu picchu, so until then, I hope you all have a great week, and Happy Halloween!!
Love,
Sarah
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Here in Cusco!!
This is just a quick note to let you all know that I'm here in Cusco safe and sound- a little overwhelmed, but good. The plane rides were pretty effortless, no baggage problems or anything luckily, although there wasn't a lot of sleep to be had. So I got here early this morning and went to some hostal that I think I will change tomorrow, but this morning it was good enough for a few hours nap before doing a bit of exploring and finding my way around. It's really cold anywhere in the shade, but the sun is nice and bright. Feeling a little bit lightheaded when walking around the crazy steep streets, but so far no major complaints. Right now I'm at the South American Explorers clubhouse, which is really nice with lots of free stuff and advice, guidebooks to look at, etc. so i think i'll be spending quite a bit of time here. Thanks again for all your well wishes, and I'll try to keep updating you as I go along but as of yet i haven't even begun to think about how to upload pictures or anything. Right now I'm pretty much headed out to find an atm and hopefully get a sim card worked out for my phone. Love you all and miss you already- wish you could be here too!!
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