Sucre and Potosi

After spending what we felt like was a bit too long in La Paz, we excited to get to Cochabamba. We got in on Sunday night and unfortunately the next day was a holiday so everything was closed. It was kind of eerie and I was constantly looking over my shoulder to fend off a zombie attack. Luckily we found a touristy part of town where a bunch of resturaunts were open so we were able to make the most of it and watch two world cup games with a bunch of other (mostly South American) tourists. In the evening we took a gondola to a giant concrete Jesus but I forgot the camera so you'll have to take my word.

Our original plan was to use Cochabamba as a jumping off point to a national park called Torotoro where there are weird rock formations, caves and dinosaur footprints. On Tuesday when everything opened up again and my zombie fears were overrun by hundreds of thousands of people on the streets we were able to get some information from the tourist office. To our dismay busses only left for the park 3 days a week and at either 5:30 am or 6:30 pm and either way we would have had to spend another day killing time in Cochabamba so we decided to cut our losses and move on, there are plenty of dinosaur tracks in the prehistoric sea.

Emily plays it cool - Sucre

We took an overnight bus that same night to Sucre. As far as 10 hour bus rides go it wasn't so bad. We got into the Wasi Masi Hostel in Sucre at 6:30 am very tired but happy to find ourselves in what proved to be one of our favorite hostels we have stayed in. After a napping until 10 or so we went out and checked out the "white city" so named for all of the white colonial buildings. Sucre had a lot to offer us including an awesome fruit market (50 cents for an incredible breakfast fruit salad with yogurt), delicious local chocolate, specialty sausages famous to the area and nice streets to pick our way around. As relaxing and beautiful as the city is, we had other plans around Sucre so on that same day we made arrangements for a 3 day trek in the surrounding highlands.

Breakfast!

Plaza in Sucre

Our tour company was called Condor Trekkers which is a volunteer run and non-profit organization which benefits local communities. The morning that we were to start the trek we were waiting in the office when one of the volunteers came in to tell us that the Bolivian guide had called in sick. They had no other guides available and that, if we were willing, he could guide us himelf. He had done the trek 3 or 4 times before and was confident in his ability but he wanted to make sure we knew it would possibly be a bit more of an adventure. Emily and I agreed that we could still go as did the third guy in our group so we stuffed our backpacks full of food and gear and we set off.

The first day was long and beautiful. The landscape was a bit like Death Valley with colored sand and desert plants perfectly spaced into infinity, however we are still in the Andes so there were a lot more mountains. We walked for about 7 hours the first day and got to camp right about sunset time. Shortly afterward a full moon rose and provided all the light we needed to set up camp and eat dinner without the help of our flashlights.

Full Moon Rising

The second day was to be the hardest. In total we walked 10 hours with our full packs on and the two last hours were at night luckily by the light of the moon once again which made the final climb and picking our way around a trail with a steep drop manageable. By the time we got to camp Emily and I were exhausted but the day of walking provided a lot of great sights including the Maragua crater, the remote village of Maragua right in the middle of the crater, Dinosaur tracks! (I told you there would be more) and a killer cave called the Devil's Mouth that strangely enough looked just like a devil's mouth...or what you might imagine it to look like.

Devil's Mouth, a nice place to relax

Strange formations of the Maragua Crater

Day three of the trek was a short 3 hour walk down the mountain and through a huge dry river bed laden with rocks and crystals of all colors. We ended up at a "camion" stop which is a big flatbed with a sign on the side which appropriately describes it as "mixed transport" because you could throw a donkey in there with a few sacks of potatoes, a bunch of hay and about 30 people, no problem! Luckily for us it was only people and hay...no donkeys. Unluckily it was a 4 hour drive up and down mountain dirt roads with no seats on a hot day. It made the bus rides not seem so bad. All in all it was a difficult but amazing trek, special thanks to our volunteer tour guide Paul who stepped up to the challenge.

Inca Path on Day 1

Mixed Transport

We spent one more day relaxing in Sucre and we also visited the artesinal market in Tarabuco which was definitely worth the hour micro ride. We went big on gift shopping because our last two months will be in Chile and Argentina which will be more expensive. The next day we headed off to Potosi, the city famous for being the largest single provider of silver to Spain and the rest of the developing world during colonial time when it was larger in population than any European city. Also famous for being, at 4,060 meters, the highest city in the world. The big draw here besides all of the history is that the same mountain, Cerro Rico, that provided enough silver to bankroll the Spanish and help the rest of the Western world is still producing, still being mined by (now by cooperatives instead of slaves), and for tourists who don't feel they tempt fate enough tours go into the same tunnels that were begun in colonial times over 500 years ago. So we decked ourselves out in hard hats and headlamps and headed into the mine (edit: we both headed into the mine, but I (Emily) headed right back out after I lost sight of the entrance. Yikes!). The entrance is covered in what looks like splattered black oil but it is actually sacrificial Llama blood that the workers believe will help to keep them safe. For the first 100 yards or so you can still see stone lined tunnel work that was built by the Spanish (actualy indigenous slaves) over 500 years ago. As the tunnel goes on, the ceiling gets lower and at one point we have to get quickly into an alcove to let an ore car pass by. The brakes evidently would not be effective enough to prevent a collision with a miner or a tourist.

Miner Mcgurt

Soon we left the main "gallery" through which the ore car travels and we started crawling through the tiny tunnels that the miners use. It is hard work especially at about 4500 meters and with the dust and the dificulty breathing, claustrophobia started picking at the back of my brain. This fear wasn't helped by seeing makeshift eucalyptus trunks propped up against huge masses of rock that in a moment could either crush you or perhaps worse yet, block the passage out of the mine. After walking and crawling into the mine for about 45 minutes we met several miners. Men who had worked down there for 26 years, telling us about their day- to- day work as they stuffed Coca leaves which we had brought as gifts into their mouths. Most of them work 9 or 10 hour days in the mine doing the same thing all day...shoveling, or hammering, or pushing ore cars. After 30 years they qualify for a small government pension. Remarkably they don't seem miserable as I imagine I would feel if I had to work in these conditions. This is work that they choose to do and with their fellow miners it seems like they may share a certain amount of comaraderie which keeps up their spirits and keeps them coming back day after day for the better part of their lives. It might be the money too, the men who work for cooperatives make more than most other opportunities available in the area.

The black stuff above the entrance is Llama Blood

By the time we got out of the mine after an hour and a half I was very happy to see daylight and breath fresh air. We celebrated by lighting off a stick of dynamite wrapped in amonium sulfate. Boom!

Dinosaur Phone

Bolivia: Lake Titicaca and La Paz

Greetings from Bolivia! I'm writing this from Potosi, where we are 4060 meters high and freezing! But it's a fascinating town so it's been worth the dose of winter in June. Anyway, I'll tell you about the first leg of our time in Bolivia.

We left Cusco, with our companions from the Salkantay trek, and headed for Puno, on the Peruvian shores of Lake Titicaca. The bus ride was 8 hours, but nicely broken up with stops at touristy sites along the way - a crazily gilded colonial church, some pretty decent incan ruins, a delicious buffet lunch, a photo op on a high mountain pass (where I finally broke down and paid 1 nuevo sol to a traditionally dressed woman who let me hold her baby alpaca!), and an itsy-bitsy community museum. Note to South American tour companies- this is a really nice way to travel. Bus rides are so much more tolerable when you are made to get out and walk around for 30 minutes every hour or so.

I'm happy, but the alpaca in the middle is angry!

We found these nerds along the way to Puno.

Puno wasn´t much more than a stopover for us. We did walk around the town and down to the famous lake, which honestly was a little disappointing from the Puno shores. The next day we headed to Copacabana, a little town on the Bolivian side on the lake. The border crossing went smoothly, although as U.S. citizens we were the entertainment for the mostly European crowd on the bus, none of whom had to pay the $135 visa application fee that we did. (Bolivian president Evo Morales is not a fan of the States.)

Main plaza- Copacabana

Copacabana was a great base from which to explore the highest navigable lake in the world! It's a cute little town with stunning views of the lake, an impressive moorish Cathedral, and plenty of restaurants serving up the local specialty, trucha (trout, apparently easily mispronounced as a dirty word).

The view of Isla del Sol, from the slowest boat ever

We spent the night and then took the slowest boat in the world out to the Isla del Sol, an island on the lake where supposedly the first Incas AND the sun were born. This island was strikingly beautiful, especially after we climbed up hundreds of stairs with our backpacks on to arrive at our Hostal (not an easy feat at 3800 meters!). There was a major festival going on during our stay, so all the locals snuck off to dance and wear crazy costumes, leaving us tourists to fend for ourselves. Still, we managed to feed ourselves and the next morning took a fantastic hike to the north end of the island.

main street- Isla del Sol

another view of the Isla

We returned to the mainland and spent one more night in Copacabana before heading off to La Paz. At one point during this bus journey, everybody had to get off the bus so they could load it onto a ferry across the lake. We were loaded onto a separate boat and met the bus on the other side.

La Paz

The first sight of La Paz is pretty spectacular. It's the highest capital in the world but you arrive via the highest part, and then descend into the depths of the city which is in a valley. We shacked up at the Adventure Brew Hostel, which has a microbrewery attached (!) and ended up being a pretty great place to stay (unlimited pancake breakfast! free beer! nice people!).

typical intersection, chaos and lawlessness

La Paz is crazy. We really liked it but eventually tired of battling the insane drivers and super touristy areas. During our stay we visited the Coca musuem, which was a little run down but very interesting, and gave a great history of the importance of coca to both Bolivian culture and certain multinational corporations. We also took a Salteña making course! Salteñas are our new favorite snack- baked dumplings with a juicy filling of chicken or beef, along with potatoes, eggs, olives, and other goodies. Our two day course focused on the masa, or dough, the first day and the filling and assembly the second. We were the only non-bolivians in the class, so it was a great cultural experience (although the surly chef teaching the class couldn't really figure out why we were taking it). So, when we return home, we are well-trained to bake hundreds of these babies!

the Salteña seal- no easy trick

the finished product!

Cusco to Salkantay to Machu Picchu

It has been a while, we went through pretty much all of our time in Peru without blogging, but we were really just savoring the flavors and letting them mature into the full experience so that we could share it with you. If you didn't catch Emily's previous blog about our trip through the central highlands to Cusco, you can find it right below this one and it contains key documentation about our cultural acquaintance with a beautiful part of Peru - Including cooking classes!

After crossing through these small highland communities of central Peru where were we were often the only whities we would see all day, we arrived on a Saturday to Cusco. Cusco by contrast has more tourists than anywhere else I have seen in Latin America. Luckily this once ancient center of the Inca empire which was later overridden by colonial architecture is also one of the most beautiful cities I have seen as well. The plaza and cobblestone streets provide endless potential for wandering. Its easy to get an awesome view by climbing up a stone staircased alley, (slowly though, Cusco is at 10,800 ft. so breathing can be hard) especially nice around happy hour which is where we are headed shortly.

Cusco By Night

After a couple of days of looking around we took a walk to a few different ruins that are located just outside the city. Like I said, Cusco was once the capital of the Inca empire and although I'm sure they tried, the Spanish were not able to destroy everything. There are still amazing ruins such as Saqsaywaman and the Temple of the Sun which are easily accessible and very impressive. The stonework at Saqsaywaman in particular was larger than life and boggled the mind to consider how it was accomplished.

Saqsaywaman

The next day we spent dealing with our biggest task at hand, trying to figure out how to see the world famous Machu Picchu. After getting recommendations from friends (thank you all) and making office visits to many different agencies we finally decided on the 5 day and 4 night Salkantay route to Machu Picchu through the agency Andina Travel with whom we had an excellent experience and would definitely recommend to fellow travelers. The Salkantay route is an alternative to the classic Inca Trail, which is very popular and needs to be booked in advance due to limited permits. Our group included the two of us plus three other tourists, one guide, two cooks, three porters/horse drivers and a bunch of horses who kindly carried our things. A very cozy group.

The Cow is not in our group

We set out on June 4th which was as nice a birthday present as I could have hoped for. After a delicious lunch in the green foothills of the Vilcabamba Mountains we set out towards the mighty Salkantay, the highest peak in the range at 20,500 feet. That first day was fairly mild as far as walking goes, we climbed from 12,500 feet for about three hours to 14,500 feet where we camped between two glaciers. It was incredible, beautiful, freezing cold, hard to breathe etc. At night we could hear the avalanches coming down the glaciers of the Salkantay as we hopelessly tried to get some sleep.

Camp

Day two we walked for about 8 hours. First task in the morning was to get over the pass of just over 15,000 feet. This took us about 40 minutes during which we were constantly trying to catch our breath. The setting at the top of the world and the absence of anyone else around us made it worth it. This is the highest I have ever been in my life, no pun intended. After the pass we descended slowly into the cloud forrest. That night we all relished in the relative warm tempurature, we ate a lot and we slept enough to compensate for the sleep we missed shivering and gasping for air the night before. It was glorious.

The Pass

Day three was about 5 hours through more cloud forest until we reached "La Playa" where most groups that are doing this trail camp together. A good place to drink beer, relax, and hang out by the river which, ironically, did not have a playa. Day 4 was probably the hardest yet. We walked for about 7 hours and while we were not at high altitude any longer we literally went straight up a mountain and then straight down the other side. Luckily the previous 3 days had prepared us physically and the views were breathtaking. My favorite part of this day was the dip in the river after getting down the other side. The water came from the glaciers and provided an un-equaled refreshment. Whenever I find myself fatigued I must remember the feeling of dipping my body into an ice cold mountain stream. That same night we arrived at Aguas Calientes and got ready for our trip the next day to Machu Picchu.

Emily Surveys the Valley

The thing to do with the Picchu is get up before dawn and be on one of the first busses which start at 5:30 am. So this is what we did. We got up to the the main event in time to see the sunrise on a clear day with just a few clouds hanging in the valley to make it look like the post cards we had seen so many times but at the same time way larger than life. Our tour guide gave us a two hour tour explaining the hot spots of the city and then let us loose. We decided to opt for climbing the Montaña Machu Picchu instead of the famous Waynu Picchu which is regulated to 500 tourists per day in two, two hour bursts. By contrast, the Montaña Machu Picchu was practically empty, we only passed a few people during our climb up the nearly verticle and ancient staircase. At the top, we decided the view was worth every step as we dangled our legs for a half hour in silence above the wonders below. After returning to the bottom we checked out the Inca Bridge, an insane path that the Incas carved into the face of a giant rock wall and then it was time to say goodbye to the resident Llamas and depart from the city of stone terraces.

Llamas at the Picchu

We are now in our third country, Bolivia, delighted by the differences that can be seen in all aspects of life just by taking a 3 hour bus across the border.

On June 11th Emily and I celebrated the halfway point of our trip and the one year countdown until the day we tie the knot.

Steep Stairs of Mount Machu Picchu with the city down below

Peru Part 1!

Ok, so I wrote this over a week ago, but we have been having such a hard time finding an internet connection fast enough to allow us to upload pictures. Bleh! Anyway, here´s how we spent the first half of our time in Peru!

We arrived in Lima after two days of serious bus rides: we crossed the Ecuador-Peru border via a bus from Loja, Ecuador to Piura, Peru (8 hours). From Piura it was 15 hours to Lima, overnight on a luxurious Cruz del Sur bus. We stayed in Lima for three days. And what can I say about Lima? The day we arrived Lima was sunny and reminiscent of L.A., with its palm trees, ocean views, and TRAFFIC. From there on out we experienced the famous grey, cloudy weather that Lima is known for. We stayed in Miraflores, a nice, modern area with lots of tourists, restuarants and bars. Food was expensive. We tried going to this huge musuem, but most of it was closed for renovation (though there was an interesting exhibit about the terroist activities in the 80´s and 90´s). We actually spent a good deal of time at the LarcoMar shopping mall, built into the cliffs over the ocean, where we saw two movies. And we had good sushi one night.

So, yeah. As you can see, our time in Lima was pretty blah. We didn´t even take any pictures! But it wasn´t bad, just not too exciting. From there, we set out for the central highlands...

HUANCAYO

Strange rock formations in Huancayo

The journey up into the mountains from Lima was gorgeous, but also a pretty big shock to the system in terms of altitude gained. We tried to hydrate but still arrived in Huancayo (3,270 meters!) with headaches, out of breath, and a general feeling of malaise. Huancayo is a really cool place. It´s the commercial center of the central Andes in Peru, a place where people from the northern andes, the amazon, the southern highlands, and the coast (Lima) all come to buy and sell food and other items. It´s located in the Montaro valley, and the surrounding villages are all known for their artesan crafts- gourd carving, weaving, jewelry making, silver and alabaster goods, natural dyes, etc. And it´s a big city! But honestly the people there were among the nicest we´ve met during all of our travels. People would literally stop us on the street and be like, ¨Hey! Where are you from, nice to meet you , welcome to Huancayo, how do you like Peru?¨They really seemed to like and appreciate tourists, which was a refreshing change from, well, most other places.

So we decided to stay for a while. We stayed at a hostel called La Casa de la Abuela, a really great old house filled with antiques, with a delicious breakfast and $2 dinners. The familial atmosphere encouraged us to stick around to take cooking and salsa dancing lessons through the associated tour company, Incas del Peru. And our week of classes was great! Every morning we´d go with our cooking instructor, Nelli, to the central market to buy ingredients for the class. This was the best- the market is incredible, a little intimidating but easily navigated with Nelli on our side to do the bargaining. My favorite part of the market was the hall of potatoes- I think they really did have all of Peru´s 3,000 varieties of potatoes in this one warehouse, in enormous mountains. Men were constantly running by with 100 kilo bags of potatoes strapped to their backs, like ¨get out of my way!¨. And that was just the potatoes, there were endless amounts of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, fish, and the nightmarish hall of meat.




After the market we´d cook for a few hours and then eat the fruits of our labor. Our instructor was really knowledgeable and taught us a lot about Peruvian cuisine, especially of the Andean variety.

Buying condiments at the market

In the afternoons we had our salsa dancing lessons. I found salsa to be really hard, but then, I´m not much of a dancer. We did improve a lot over those few days. It´s all about the hips, you see.

On the weekend we tagged along on a field trip with some American college students from our hostel who where volunteering at a local orphanage. We went on a day hike with the kids up to some pre-Incan ruins.

The next day we set out with our new friend from England, Susannah, for Huancavelica.

HUANCAVELICA

Colonial Church in Huancavelica

We almost didn´t make it to Huancavelica. From Huancayo, you can either take a bus or a colectivo (shared car) to Huancavelica. We should have taken the bus. The road between the two cities is paved, which is unusual for the highlands. And apparently not a good thing, because it encouraged our colectivo driver to drive like a maniac and for some reason almost entirely on the wrong side of the road. The road, of course, mainly consisted of blind turns and sheer cliff faces. Towards the end of the trip the driver may or may not have been falling asleep, but I think that was an improvement over his conscious driving skills.

Against all odds, we arrived. Huancavelica was another friendly mountain town, in a valley beneath craggy peaks. We did a nice hike to a mirador on one of the peaks and got a great view of the place. There was a big festival going on while we were there, involving a bullfight and the associated drinking. We didn´t attend the bullfights because we heard that they kill the bull at the end, but we did check out the festival grounds. We also wandered a lot, taking in the colonial churches, hot sun, and cold nights.

At this point we bravely decided to continue on to Ayacucho and eventually to Cusco, even though there is no direct bus service between Ayacucho and Huancavelica. We had to get to the small town of Lircay, from where we could catch a colectivo to Julcamarca, from where we could take a minibus to Ayacucho.

Our attempt to take a colectivo to Lircay got shut down by the police for unclear reasons, so we took a bus. However 15 minutes into the bus ride we came upon a semitruck that had gotten stuck on the road. It wasn´t going anywhere, and since there was no room to pass, neither were we. Impressively, our bus was able to turn around on the narrow road ( we all got off for safety´s sake) and we were able to take another (longer) route.

Kurt tried really hard with this kid.

After spending the night in Lircay the rest of the trip went more or less how it was supposed to. The scenery was terrific- we saw alpacas, llamas, and even their wild relatives, vicuñas!

AYACUCHO

Ayacucho was both the most colonial and modern of the highland towns we visited. It´s known for its 30 plus churches, and for being the center of activity of the Sendero Luminoso terrorist group during the 80´s and 90´s. Considering the recent history of the place (thousands of local people were killed or disappeared during this time period, by both the terrorists and the national army) it´s amazing how welcoming and modern Ayacucho is.

It´s a really nice place to be- lots of food options, big plazas, and all the handicrafts you could ever hope to buy. We spent some time at crafts markets and visiting a small museum about local history, but mostly just walked around and took in the sights.


Our time in the central highlands was nice and relaxing (except for the complete lack of hot showers) - we enjoyed the scenery, the friendly people, and most of all, the lack of other tourists. However all that was about to change, as we left Ayacucho and headed out for the Gringo capital of South America, Cusco.

Quick Update

Hi friends,

Apologies for the lack of blogging activity. Just wanted to give a quick update- tomorrow (Kurt´s birthday!) we set out on the five day Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu. We are excited- the trek includes hiking over a 4800 meter pass between glacial peaks, before a descent into cloudforest and jungle, and then onto the famous Inca ruins. We´ll be back on June 8th, and shortly thereafter will tell you about the time we spent in the central highlands, our trek, and the Peruvian cuisine. And of course, there will be llama pictures.

Ciao,

Emily and Kurt