Left foot. Right foot. MACHU PICCHU!

I ended my last blog talking about the amazing bus we were on from Trujillo to Lima. We arrived safe and sound to our hostal in Lima. It was this cool, hip sort of place owned by a French guy and his buddy. The entrance into it was covered in pictures and things people had written on the wall of their time in the hostal. Cool! The young owner told us it used to be a place for squatters but him and his buddy bought it and fixed it up. It has huge staircases and like 10 foot ceilings with walls and furniture decorated in a hip sort of way. I was impressed. We slept the night there then got up at 5am to head to the airport for our flight to Cuzco. It was a packed flight but only lasted for about an hour and a half. It was interesting flying over the Andes because the mountains literally show above the clouds. They seemed so close. A very pretty flight. We landed early in the morning and could feel the altitude hit us as soon as we stepped off that plane! Apparently 3400 meters really affects the way you breath. We found our hostal (which is also super cute! We have found some of the cutest little hostals for so cheap here! Actually its more like a hotel here. Free internet, nice beds, our own bathroom with hot water! yay! free pancakes for breakfast, and they give us towels. Sweet deal!) and I decided to nap. The altitude was making me feel tired and my head was pounding. After a quick nap, we decided to take a walk (very slowly since we took 2 steps and would be short of breath) around Cuzco. Its a very pretty little city but we lucked out being here now: in June is their winter solstice and many other things so there has been a festival going on pretty much the entire time we have been here. July is also a very busy month since it marks the 100th anniversary of Machu Picchu being discovered! We found a little british pub to have some lunch in, since we are getting sick of rice and potatoes all the time. It was delicious! We did some more walking and wandering and eventually ended up back at the hostal. It was a pretty laid back day, which we did not mind at all!

The next morning we got up and had the free pancakes (om nom nom!) and then headed out for a horseback ride we had booked the day before. We cabbed out to a site where we got on our horses and started going. The horses here are so tiny! They are basically the size of a donkey, although everything down here seems to be smaller than anything you find in North America. Anik had a bit of a time being comfortable on his but he toughed it out. We did a 2 hour ride around the mountain side, which took us around to see a couple more places with Inca ruins and then on top of a big mountain where we could view all of Cuzco. It was extremely relaxing and so quiet! I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we walked down the road to a big Inca ruin (you could honestly spend almost a month just in Cuzco enjoying the atmosphere and seeing all the ruins around the city!). You had to pay more than we expected to get in but we did it anyway. I can't remember what the first site we visited was called but it was fairly small. We then walked another 20 minutes to the next site called Saqsaywaman (I swear!). We hired a tour guide here who told us about the Inca people and what they believed in. This site is huge! and quite popular I believe. He mentioned the Inca's didn't have a so called religion, but they believe heavily in spirtuality and spent a lot of time meditating facing the sun (since they believed in a Sun God of sorts). Very interesting stuff and I still can't fathom how they built the structures they did. Amazing! We walked around Cuzco a little more in the afternoon and had another bite to eat. We haven't had much local food yet, but mostly because we knew we would eat 5 days worth on our Machu Picchu trek. Another fairly tame night. It gets freeeezing cold here! Like actually! Brrrrr.

On our third day in Cuzco, we decided to get all the things done we needed to before going on the trek. We went to a local market in town to buy some warmer things. I bought a toque, scarf, mitts, and a sweater all made of alpaca. I didn't really think I would need them for the hike but it turns out I did. We bought a few other things and then decided to stop for lunch. In the afternoon we had to sort out how we were getting to Venezuela from Peru. So expensive! Major planning fail on our part. I am glad we aren't going further South because Lima and Cuzco are already pretty cold but flying to Venezuela cost us HALF! of what it cost us to fly down to South America and back! Ugh. We did some more touring and eventually headed to our Machu Picchu tour company's office for a debriefing of the trip. We met our group which consisted of two indians from England and three American girls. Everyone was fairly young so we were pretty pumped about that. We had our debriefing, some pizza, and then back to the hostal for some sleep before our 4 am wake up call!

Okay, finally onto the Machu Picchu trek! It was an amazing, challenging, fun trip that was way different than what I expected. I am not going to lie - the first day was pretty miserable. But every day after that was better than the last and I had a great time.
Day 1 - Cock-a-doodle-do at 3:30am! What a rough time of day to wake up. We got all packed up, checked out of the hostal and waited for our pickup. We picked up the rest of the group and we were on our way! It was a 2 hour van ride to our first stop in a small town (Mollepata) for breakfast. We ate and picked up some last minute items before continuing on (5 soles for a walking stick - less than $2 - was the best investment I ever made, although I didn't know it yet!). Another 2 hour bus ride before getting to where we would start hiking, called Soray Pampa. We were already at 3800m in altitude and definitely felt it as we started the trail. We were facing the mountain called Salkantay (the mountain the trek is named after) and our guide told us that they locals sort of pray to this mountain. Salkantay means wild mountain and it was named that because there is always a swirl of clouds around the peak. Its peak reaches 6264m, which was mostly always covered in clouds while we hiked. We started our trek up and soon realised that we needed to walk at a snails pace in order not to burn ourselves out. Our guide had told us we should buy some coca leaves to help with energy and altitude sickness so we soon found ourselves chewing on them. They are actually the leaves used in part for cocain! As we hiked further up, we eventually found a bit of a hail/snow storm. It was quite quick but we were thinking we could tell everyone we trekked through hail! Little did we know a few minutes later we would be in a full out blizzard. Not even kidding! It was a mix of hail/snow because it wasn't as soft as snow but not as big as I would say hail usually is. It was cold enough that it stayed on the ground and we all had to bundle up with as much clothing as we had. Thank god I did buy the toque, mitts, and alpaca sweater but I was still freezing. I'm using my summer vacation for more winter - am I nuts?! It was especially miserable because the altitude and climb up the mountain was rough enough but the snow really made it difficult. We stopped at about 4400m at a place called Soyrococha for lunch after about 4 hours of trekking. We all crowded into the tent around a little 4 person table. The cooks had passed us a while back and had already boiled hot water for us so we were so happy to have some hot coca while the storm outside was going full force! The cooks prepared a delicious lunch for us but my body cooled down a lot while sitting inside the tent. I even braved going out in the storm once it died down for a bathroom break. Truly at nature! haha. We headed back out into the storm to continue up to the mountain. We FINALLY hit the highest point on the trek, 4600m. We were all overjoyed! It was downhill form here pretty much for the next couple days. Shortly after reaching the peak, the storm broke and the sun came out. The change in attitude in the group was unbelieveable - everyone literally started singing! Crazy! We looked back at how far we had come and it had completely cleared up. WTF! We just treked through that for it to clear up completely. Oh well. The views were astonishing though. We were always surrounded by mountains the entire hike, some white capped and covered in snow while others were green with some shrubbery. After another 3 hours of hiking we reached our base camp in a valley between the mountains called Huayracmachay. It was actually a little village and we were camped near the outer edge of it. The bathroom was the sketchiest thing I'd ever seen, quite literally a hut built out of... I'm not sure what. It was apparently fairly nasty inside so we all found huge boulders to use as a bathroom. Worked well enough except it was freezing. We were all still quite cold so we napped/actually just layed in our sleeping bags shivering until supper. Another delish meal but we were all still cold so we went to bed shortly after supper. It had been a long day. It was a really really cold night so unfortunately most of us only got an hour or two of sleep. Like I said - this day was the most miserable!

Day 2 - We got to sleep in (if you can call it that since we all really hadn't slept) until about 7:00. The cooks brought hot water with tea or coca leaves to us outside our tent. What a nice way to wake up when you're freezing your buns off! We had a great breakfast of amazing porridge and pancakes then headed off on our way. One of the nice things was that the cooks/mule drivers set up and took down our tents for us and packed everything up on the mules so we just had to be ready to go on time. It was a chilly morning so we dressed warmly and then headed back down the mountain. We got to trek for a while on flat land and then the rest of the day was mostly along the side of one mountain on the valley going downhill. It was quite hard on the knees and feet since it was mainly rocks you had to be careful steeping over but again the views were amazing and it was better than the day before. The sun even came out every once in a while so we didn't have to wear such heavy clothing all day. We reached our second camping location around 1:30pm, Colcapampa. Another small town where we camp near the outskirts. We had another amazing lunch and then had free time in the afternoon. The sun was out so we didn't have to wear heavy clothing but were by no means warm enough for shorts and t-shirts as I expected we could be. We had a table inside a shack to sit in and even a bathroom with real brick walls and a toilet that flushed, although it was a little nasty. We played cards for a while and then eventually came to the conclusion that the best games we knew were drinking games! We went to a close store and bought some alcohol but it only came in like 2.5 shot bottles so we had to buy lots! We had dinner and continued to play games. Eventually a group of 20 people showed up to camp in our same location, and we were angry (not really but you know what I mean!). We had only seen one group so far on the trail so we liked the peace and quiet. We were concerned they would be loud and rowdy with so many of them, but that turned out to be us! We played some card games and some other drinking games, sociables, and ended with I've Never. One of the guys from the big group came up to us and reminded us that there were a lot of people camping, we were revealing pretty private information about ourselves, and they could all hear us. But we didn't care seeing as how it was dark, we didn't know them and they couldn't tell who was drinking to what. Plus, a few of the group were quite a few deep and we had moved past a bottle of Pisco (popular alcohol here) and onto big bottles of beer. Although we had been playing and being loud for quite a while, it wasn't even late. I think everyone had packed it in by 10:30pm! What a great day it had been.

Day 3 - We got to sleep in again until around 7:00 and were woken up by the cooks with hot tea again. We had all slept much much better since it wasn't so cold and with help from the alcohol. We were considerably slower to get moving but we knew the day of hiking wasn't hard again today. We set off and spent the day walking down a road the whole time. Easy walking so that was a nice change. There is a path you can walk along but its apparently up and down a lot and a lot more difficult. We had the chance to all talk more amongst ourselves since we weren't gasping for breath while walking or focusing so much on where to step. We arrived at a our campsite for lunch in decent time. Another step up from the night before! A clean bathroom that actually looks like a bathroom [the one the night before had a piece of sheet metal for a door with some wood attached to keep it from bending]. There was even a sink outside the bathroom for washing our hands. Omg! Running water! I can't tell you how nice it felt to wash my hands after only using hand sanitizer for 3 days! After a relaxed lunch, we all got changed and hopped into a dodgey little van heading for the hot springs! It was an interesting ride, we even witnessed an small accident in the town St. Theresa that we passed through. We arrived and were more than excited to get in, but of course there were tonnes of people there. I guess most hikes have the tourists go here [although there were a lot of locals as well] but it was nice, even with so many people. Apparently there used to be a big building with lockers, and showers, and everything and they charged admission to get into the hot springs but there was a huuuuuge landslide [which we could easily see] last year so the buildings are gone but it seems they dug out the hot springs. It felt sooooo nice on our aching muscles! We spent a couple hours enjoying the warm bath before heading back to camp. If I thought the ride to the hot springs was interesting, the ride back was..... more interesting I guess.. haha I have a terrible vocabulary. Anyways, it was dark already and the roads that wind around the mountain can mostly only fit one vehicle, with the one edge of the road leading straight off the side of the mountain most of the time! We eventually met a huge dumptruck on the road going the opposite way of us and there was no way for it to get past. Our driver, who I'm not sure had a license, started to reverse down the road but ended up angling towards the edge of the road near the mountain cliff! We were freaking out but luckily our guide that was with us stopped him. He then cranks his wheel and heads the opposite direction across the road into the bush, once again stopped by our guide. We are thinking by this point this guy doesn't know how to drive and is going to send us over the mountain! The dumptruck driver turns off his truck, jumps out, and comes to steer our van while walking along beside it. We reverse down the road a little ways with the driver doing this for us until we come to a wider part in the road. We stop, he runs back up to this truck, squeezes past us and off we go again. After this exchange I was extremely nervous about the rest of the ride back! But we made it. Supper and then off to bed right away since our wake up call the next morning was at 4am!

Day 4 - Cock a doodle do! at 4am. Not a happy camper! Actually, Anik and I failed to hear the wake up call and woke up late asking why everyone was being so loud. We rushed to get ready and had a breakfast before heading out around 530am. We left so early so we could make it to a view point before it got too hot. We were definitely grateful for this since it was a hard climb up a mountain for like 3.5 hours. I struggled the most on this day. I´m not sure why but my body just didn´t want to do anything more! My legs were so tired and sore and I had to stop every few steps to catch my breath and give my legs a break. Quite annoying. We could feel the sun coming up and it soon got extremely hot, but luckily most of the climb was in the shade of the trees. The views up the mountain were spectacular, as everyday had been on our trip. We made it to the viewing point and were the first group up there, which was nice. We could see Machu Picchu and Waynapicchu far off in the distance but it was nice to be getting much closer! At this viewpoint, there were also some ruins and our guide told us a little about the Inca´s history and how the spainards invaded. Interesting stuff but even nicer was the opportunity for a long break, a snack, and a sit in the sunshine. By the time we left, there was probably 20 people that had made their way into this little area so we were glad to head down the mountain. It took 2.5 hours of zig zagging downhill to get to the bottom of the mountain. It was fairly steep and quite hard on the legs. Sometimes when we would stop, my legs would just shake! It was getting even hotter and we were all sweating like crazy. Luckily at the bottom we were able to stop along the river that wound its way through the mountains. It was freezing cold but felt wonderful on our aching, sweaty feet! Our guide even jumped right in, even though it was cold as ice water! After the break we continued on to lunch. We all bought a cold drink (first real cold drink in 4 days) and enjoyed the break. After lunch, we had another 3 hour walk to the town of Aguas Calientes, which is the town nearest Machu Picchu. The walk was alright since we just followed a flat trail along train tracks the entire way but it had been a lot of walking that day and it seemed to take a long time before we reached the town. We found our hostel and were all soooo happy to shower! Unfortunately for me, all the hot water was gone by the time I showered, but I actually felt clean! After the shower, we went to a restaurant in the town for a snack before dinner. We were all starved, plus a nice drank didn´t hurt either. At dinner we discussed the next morning, our Machu Picchu day, and Anik and I decided to take the bus up to Machu Picchu rather than walking the hour up the 1000´s of stairs. We had already walked 59km in 4 days, and although we felt we should hike the last 5 km up the mountain to Machu Picchu, we couldn´t do it. I couldn´t do it! We all tucked in right after dinner, excited for our tour the next day!

Day 5 - The last day! Woke up around 4:00am. Ugh these early mornings kill me. We met our guide and the two brits to catch the bus up the mountain. The three american girls had gotten up at 3am and left by 3:30am to make sure they hiked up the mountain in good time. The gate for hiking up the mountain doesn´t open until 4:50am but people start lining up early to rush up to the top to ensure they get to see Huayna Picchu. We went to the bus stop at 4:30am to stand in line since the buses didn´t start running until 5:30am. There was about 100 people there already when we showed up but many many more showed up and lined up behind us.We made it up to Macchu Picchu by shortly after 6am and stood in another line for Huayna Picchu. You don´t have to pay for Huayna Picchu since the entrance is connected to the far side of Machu Picchu but they only allow 400 people a day up the mountain so you have to be some of the first to Machu Picchu to get the stamp for Huayna Picchu. We lucked out with getting stamps and then waited in line to actually get into Machu Picchu. We met up with the americans (who said they hiked up the mountain in 40 minutes but they were much more fit than us!) and then decided what to do. Us and the brits got the 7:00am timeslot for Huayna Picchu but americans got the 10:00am timeslot since our tour was supposed to start right away with our guide. Our guide, Milton, agreed to do the tour twice so we spent time taking pictures of Machu Picchu as we made our way through to the entrance of Huayna Picchu. It was actually great being there so early because there are much much less people that early. It was nice to see the ruins almost empty! We took half an hour to hike up Huayna Picchu (its a long ways! Zig zag up the mountain to the very top where the ruins are) but we were sweating like mad. We had to meet our guide back in Machu Picchu at 9:00am so we didn´t have much time to spend roaming up there. It was more to say we did it than anything else. The climb down went faster but the sun was much hotter, we had to stop several times for people going up to pass us, and some of the spots were tricky to climb down. We met Milton and then waited for the brits, as they had wanted to see more of the ruins so left after us. We spent some time laying in the sun on the terraces. There were a lot more people by this time and tonnes of Japanese! I think they came on a huge tour bus together. Milton took us on the tour and told us about the Incas. I can´t really explain the ruins, its something you have to see for yourself. I can´t imagine what it would have looked like in its day though! Man, how spectacular it must have been. We ended with Milton, said our goodbyes, and then lazed around the ruins for a few more hours. We spent some time with the brits before laying on the terraces for a nap for a couple hours. They keep llamas around so I got close to them and took some pictures as well. By 2:30pm we had caught a bus back down to Aguas Calientes (we had considered walking down to say we had at least walked the stairs but.. we were lazy). We met with our backpacking group for dinner before heading to the train station. We took the train to Ollaytatambo (or something like that) then a van picked us up to take us back to Cuzco. We said our goodbyes to our group but were extremely happy to be back in our hostel with a comfy bed, clean room, and always hot shower! What an awesome 5 days it had been!

Days passing by

My last post ended with us waiting for a bus. Luckily it eventually came. There wasn't enough room for us to sit in seats for we sat in the bus drivers section for the first little while (buses here have a wall and door separating passengers from the driver. I sat in the seat beside the driver, Anik sat on the dash of the bus facing his back to the front, the french lady sat on the steps with her two sons standing with their backs against the dividing wall. We rode like this for almost half an hour until some passengers got off. It was nice to see where we were driving though for a change. We were driving through the clouds.. Quite literally! It was White like fog but it was actually a cloud! Crazy! We eventually got to Cuenca and said goodbye to the french. We only had to wait an hour for our bus to Loja, which was a good amount of downtime after our 4 HR bus ride before another 5 HR one. We got on the bus after dark and I was actually able to sleep a little bit. We didn't get into Loja until about 11:30pm and had thought about taking a night bus to Peru but I wasnt feeling well and knew I would need real sleep. We found a hostel (after waking up the owner) and tucked in for the night. 

We let ourselves sleep in the next day as we knew it'd be a 9 HR bus ride across the border into Peru. We had breakfast but it was greasy and I wasn't a fan. They have meats and seafood in sauce served with rice for breakfast. Not exactly my ideal breakfast. BUT the orange juice was amazing. I actually watches the girl carry in fresh oranges which she squeezed and served. Mmmmm! When we got to the bus station we realised we had three hours to kill before the bus left. A lot of reading but it seemed to go by fairly quickly. One thing I have to say - the bus stop bathrooms are the only ones I've had to pay for and they have been the nastiest. Bleh! But you I have no choice here since most buses have bathrooms but they aren't always useable. One thing I've found hard with all the busing we've done is that you lack food and get dehydrated. We hardly drink fluids before or while busing because a 9 HR bus ride having to pee would not be enjoyable! The buses generally stop in towns quickly but I am not sure they'd wait for me if I took too long. So that leads to dehydration basically everyday traveling plus a lack of food because you don't eat while on the bus and I'm usually too tired by the time we get in to be bothered. The good thing is Anik and I have been good about carrying crackers, water and fruit with us to snack on. Anyways we got on our bus around 1:00pm the next day ready for the long bus ride. This was actually one of the worst rides yet. We went through a long stretch of construction where it was super dusty, meaning we had to close the windows leaving the bus stifling hot, and so bumpy! These conditions weren't conducive to the game of crazy 8s Anik and I were tryin to play! The views were gorgeous though and we've been lucky to see so much of Ecuador. You could see things changing from jungle to desert and it was neat to see. The bumpiness for hours sucked with the driver speedin around the zig zagging corners but it was still beautiful. We got to the Ecuador border where we had to get off the bus to fill out paperwork. We had to walk across the Peru border to fill out paperwork for entering the country and then hopped back on the bus. Didn't even check our bags! Can you imagine?! How different things are here. So far everywhere we've been in Peru has been desert. The first thing I can comment about Peru is that it smells. It smelled so strongly passing through towns I had to put my scarf to my face. What's it smell like you're wondering? Outhouses. Lots of old rotting outhouses.  So nasty. I can't explain it I just know the towns smell. They also have differences here. They use a few different words and actually seem to blur their words together more than in Ecuador. I'm having a harder time understanding here. They also have tuk-tuk looking things that are called mototaxis. Double decker buses are alot more common here and they have more security when loading the buses. Wow what a tangent. Anyways, we made it to Piura, Peru by about 10 pm which was our destination. We let the taxi take us to a hostel where we settled in. We hadn't had Internet for a while so we went to a little Internet cafe to research things for the next leg of our trip. Only 1 sole for an hour, which is less then a dollar! So cheap. 

It was now June 10 so we had decided to stop along the coast since we wouldn't have to be in Cuzco until the 14th. We let ourselves sleep in again before heading out to find food and a bank. We only had American money so we had to get some Peruvian soles before carrying on. We wandered around and found a bank and then a little restaurant where we just said si to the girl, having no clue what she was asking! Back to the bus stop for another 6 HR ride. We tried one place which was sold out except for night buses (another difference in Peru - the separate carriers have their own terminals whereas in Ecuador it would be one big terminal). We tried another one and were in luck that it left in an hour. They rate here for busing is similar to Ecuador - about $1 per HR of travel. We have come all this way for so cheap! We made it from Piura to Trujillo on time and caught a cab. Trujillo is a big city so we decided to stay in a surf town right on the coast called Huanchaco. It was only about 20 mins outside the city so we got in in good time. We went to the hostel we wanted to stay at and got a room. The hostel was really quite cute! We walked the beach and found a place to eat before heading back to the hostel. All this busing is actually very tiring! 

The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel, which was sooo good. Our taxi driver and lonely planet talked about ruins (Chan Chan) near the town so we spent the afternoon roaming them. We hired an English speaking guide for the first one. I'm glad we did so we could explain it all. The ruins were from the Chimu's who lived before the Incas! The palace we walked around sprawled for 14 hectares but of course we never saw it all. Truly impressive though.  The culture of the tribe was for a king to build a palace and when he died they would bury him there and then build another palace for the new king. So the area is actually filled with palaces but theyre still excavating the area. Even the palace we were in wasn't completely uncovered. Some of it was original but some of it had been reconstructed for preservation. This culture believed in sacrifice so the one area we went to was just the area where they did sacrifices. Mostly of women and children for fertility. We wanted to go see the Huanca del Luna and Huanca del Sol which were more ruins well intact with artifacts but we didn't have time. Maybe next time we are here! We had lunch at a little restaurant run by a guy from Holland who moved here three years ago. It was delish! We spent the next hour on the beach but the sun wen away and then it was cold (since it's fall here). We spent time in the hammocks at the hostel and then played with the hostels pet amazon turtle, which wandered into our room. We decided to walk the beach for a place to eat again when we found heaven. Omg. Best food I've had in a long long time and I've had some good food here. They had the BBQ right on the side walk so we watched him cook. We ordered a plate of mixed meat, some of which we couldn't find in my dictionary but it was all unbelievable. Cooked to perfection with so much flavour. We actually considered getting the BBQ guy to marry me so we could bring him to Canada to cook for us. It was THAT good! After stuffing our faces we walked the pier and the beach. The waves here were huge and we both like the sound of the waves. We decided to have dessert at the holland guys place since we'd seen apple pie earlier in the day. We also ordered a fruit dessert dish served with ice cream. What gluttons we are! What a pleasant surprise when mango showed up in the fruit dessert. Anik has been looking for mango but it was out of season in Ecuador. Mmmm. Best food day yet. We were both drunk off the food I think. We spent some time booking our flights from Lima to Cuzco and looking up hostels in Lima and Cuzco and it was bed time. The food put me right to sleep! 

That brings me to today! Wow I'm actually up to date. We got up fairly early this morning to get ready for our trip today. We knew it'd be a 9 HR bus ride from Trujillo to Lima. We had pancakes at the hostel filled with lemon and White sugar. Mmmm so good. We walked to a local supermarket to pick up more snacks and found some amazing fresh fruit. I would bet it was picked yesterday. And mangos! We checked out of the hostel and then waited to catch a cab back to Trujillo. Turns out a local bus came first so we hopped on, backpacks and all. Only cost 3 soles to get to the city although it was an interesting ride. Nonetheless we made it safe and caught a cab to a bus terminal. We knew this one bus company called ittsa advertised comfy seats that recline a long ways so we went there. It cost us double what it would on a shitty bus but I didn't care. Double price was still only about $20. And the washrooms in the terminal were clean and useable. Score! In fact, it seemed to be a ritzy type of bus company. After waiting for an hour we found out I was right! The seats are big enough for almost two of me to fit in, you can stretch your legs out a long ways, they give you a pillow, drinks, lunch and snacks, the ac actually works, and the chairs recline to a lazy boy position plus their leather  This is luxury! We've now been on the bus for 7 hrs and it hardly feels like it. Oh there's also a working bathroom, and we're on the second level so it's quieter with great views  Seems like first class on an airplane. I'm in heaven. This is definitely the way to bus from place to place..

Snapshots

Galapagos!

The sea turtle we swam with!

Sweet star fish

Penguin!

Some of the brightly colored fish

Our group with the Albatross

Gigantic sting ray

School of barracudas!

The HUGE sea turtle we saw

Anik and I when we were snorkelling with the white tip sharks.

White tip shark

Sitting on the side of the road..

Right now we're sitting on the side of the road by the small town of Alausi. How did we get here you may wonder? Well after Galapagos we flew back to Quito and met up for dinner with Andrew and Justin. We had an early night so we could be prepared for our travels the next day. After some preparations we caught a taxi to the south bus terminal and luckily caught a bus leaving in 5 minutes! We bused from Quito through Banos to Puyo. We met a couple from Florida here that also didn't have a hostel booked but had looked at a nice one online. Very  cute!! Only $10 a night each with a private bathroom and breakfast included. We decided to do a tour recommended by the owner with the American couple. The next morning we met the guide and first stop was the monkey house!! Here they had many different kinds of monkeys that we think they rehabilitate but I obviously didn't ask enough questions. The main point is that you get to play with and hold monkeys! They were so cute... except one peed on me! After the monkeys we had some ice cream and then we trekked around the jungle (not really the jungle but close enough for me) to a beautiful waterfall. The indigenous people here believe waterfalls to be holy so we had to 'ask permission' before swimming in the water. It was fantastic. The next part of the tour was to ride in a traditional canoe down the Puyo river. So peaceful. From here we went to a lookout point with an amazing view of the area and then a delicious lunch. After lunch we even had time for a quick nap in some hammocks. We had a quick visit with an indigenous tribe who painted our faces and let us try a blow dart gun (and the girls kicked the guys butts in using it!). Our final stop was a pond with some enormous fish. They were about 1-2 meters. They're endangered here so they breed them in these ponds. After our tour, Anik and I gathered our things and went to the bus terminal. We had to wait a little bit but we caught a bus to Rio Bamba arriving around 10:45pm. What a long day! 

We woke up super early this morning in Rio Bamba with intentions of taking a train to the Nariz del Diablo (nose of the devil). In our lonely plant book it said a train leaves at 7 am but tickets start selling at 6am. Turns out the train doesn't run the entire way at this time and we would have to bus to Alausi and then take the train from there. We luckily caught a bus just as it was leaving and spent the next 2 hrs on the bus. Too early in the morning for me! We got to the town and bought our ticket for the train but it didn't leave till 11am. Luckily, Alausi is a small town surrounded by green mountains. Seriously gorgeous (although I'm pretty sure I've said that about everything in Ecuador). We found a big open square where I napped while Anik read. Just perfect. The train finally came. It's actually a slow moving train but is meant as a tourist attraction. Construction of the railroad ended in the early 1900s but not before taking more than 2500 lives. It was extremely dangerous to build because it zig zags up and down a mountain and because of the intense climate in the mountains. It's a beautiful little train ride with some amazing views and is a great little piece of history. 

This brings me to the present. After the train we caught a cab and told him we were going to Cuenca. He said okay but when he took us out of town and dropped us off on a highway we were confused. He said a bus would be along in 10 minutes and we just have to wave it down. Uhhhhhh okay. We waited and waited but no bus came. Another cab came and dropped of a mother and her two sons (who we found out were from France) so we felt a little better we werent sitting here alone anymore! Now just to wait for a bus...

The Galapagos Paradise - Part 2

A quick side note : Anik and I are now spending countless hours on buses on our way from Quito to Lima so I am typing on his iPhone and will post to my blog when we get Internet. This means I may make a couple posts in one day if we don't have Internet for a while and also that there may be more spelling and grammatical errors. You have been warned!! :)

Okay so I left off last time with day 3. Onto day 4 then! This was one of the most eventful days yet. Probably my favourite. We were up stupid early again to go snorkelling. We hadn't seen sharks yet and our guide promised some. He told us the reason we had to go so early was because the park doesn't let people snorkel at this location but they don't check it until later in the morning. This is probably the reason it was the best snorkelling yet! We started off in a little cove and saw more little sea lions. We kept close to the coast but I had the creeps because on one side was the coast and rocks but the other side was murky ocean. Plus it was super deep here. I was waiting for jaws to come out of the blue and eat me! We ended the first dive in a cave, which freaked me out worse! Our second dive we were told there would be White tip sharks. Even though they are fairly calm sharks and only eat soft fish, I was still freaking out. I made Anik hold my hand while we snorkelled. Sure enough there were sharks. Lots of them. They were a long ways down (I think) but the water was clear as glass. We also saw barracudas (a big school of them) but one was a little too close for my liking. It was in a group of regular fish swimming closer to the surface and I can honestly tell you  I was scared! Anik will attest to it. We also saw a massive sting ray and the biggest sea turtle ever. Both were hiding under rock caves on the ocean floor. The sea turtle was honestly the most ridiculous size. We also saw so many colors and shapes of starfish and other kinds of fish. Even an octopus hiding in a hollowed out sort of rock. What a morning for snorkelling! After returning to the boat, we were heading closer to the Island Floreana when we found a group of dolphins!! They were huge dolphins! Some swam along the front of the boat keeping whatever speed we were while the rest of them were swimming along farther out. My first time seeing dolphins in the wild so it was pretty cool to see! 
We were now on Floreana Island walking around. The beach was a dark brown and red color because of the iron and magnesium. Saw more flamingos and another gorgeous beach. In the afternoon we were at Post Office Bay. It's named this because back in the day the whalers on the island used this area as a post office. They had no way of communicating with their families so they came up with a system. They left a large barrel by the beach and people leaving would take letters that were close to where they were going and hand deliver them to the families. Letters from home were also received in this way. They let tourists do it now so we opened the barrel and pulled out post cards for BC or MB and then left our own in there for someone else to deliver! Neat system! On this island we also went down a lava tunnel formed many many years ago. It was pitch black! On the beach we had a chance to snorkel again and we played with more sea lions. What a day! After dinner our guide showed us the pics and videos he had taken of us snorkelling and told us we could burn them onto a cd to take home! Awesome since he has some unreal pics of the sea life we saw!!

Day 5 - This morning we left the boat for good. We packed our bags and said goodbye to the crew before heading to our last stop of the boat tour, the Charles Darwin Research Center. Here we saw the enormous land tortoises. They were a sight to see. They breed them here and keep them for 40 years and then release them back into the wild. 40 years seems a long time to us but we know these animals live at least 200 years, maybe longer. After the centre we said goodbye to our tourist crew, collected our bags, and then went with the two Israelis (Itay and Liad) to buy tickets to other islands. They were heading to San Cristobal island but we were going to Isabela for a couple days. The boat didn't leave until 2:00 so we all decided to go to Tortuga Bay, which was on the island we were currently on, Santa Cruz. What a walk! It went on forever but we finally got to a huge beach. Walked around some and laid on the shade for a while before heading back. We said goodbye to them and then boarded the tiniest sketchiest boat ever that's supposed to take us the 2 hours across the ocean to Isabela. We were scared but it turned out to be fine. All the bumping over waves reminded me of doing shore lunches on Lake of the Woods at Totem. We found our hostel on Isabela and then walked around the town.  Such a nice little sleepy town with sandy roads. We saw another flamingo lagoon then had dinner and hit the sack. It had been a long day. 

It was now June 3rd and we had been enjoying everyday on the islands. We decided to do a snorkelling tour because we enjoyed snorkelling and hoped to see hammerhead sharks. On this tour we met a couple that were from Japan and were on their honeymoon! Except it's probably not what you're thinking. Their honeymoon was a year long round the world trip that they had started in Yellowknife 4 months ago. New life goal! Sounded amazing. Anyways we did some snorkelling but I guess we had been spoiled on the tour. Our guide this time didn't even snorkel with us and the water was very cloudy so we didn't see much. The biggest thing was that we saw and swam with penguins here!! Anik and I both wanted to see penguins and swim with them so although we didn't see much else we were glad to see them. They love to play in the water and swim around you although they swim so fast it's hard to keep track of them! No hammerheads though. In the afternoon Anik and I decided to walk the miles of beach on the island. It was very peaceful, the sand felt amazing on our feet, and we saw many many crabs. We decided to spend time playing in the water when something I feared happened. I got stung by a tiny blue jellyfish as it washed up on shore! We were sitting on the sand playing tic-tac-toe in the sand letting the last of the waves hit us. I had been thoroughly enjoying myself until then. I can hardly explain the pain. Definitely worse than a bee sting but of course it didn't help it was on my inner thigh. By the time we walked back to the hostel I felt like my leg was seizing up. I'm not sure if that's a real thing that happens but it felt like it! Anik went to a pharmacy and hoped the pharmacist had given him the right creme. The two stings were so swollen surrounded by a bit patch of red so I could hardly sit still it hurt so much. Anik had the movie Kung Fu Panda on his phone so we watched that to take my mind off it. By the end of the movie it felt much better so I guess the creme helped. We had dinner and a lazy night again. 

The next day we went to see triple inactive volcanoes with the owner of our hostel. It was only the three of us which Anik and I really enjoyed. It was area on the land of his friends and it was spectacular. We got to climb down into one of the inactive ones that actually goes down 80 meters. We didn't go down nearly that far but it was pretty cool. The inside was all covered in green vegetation. There were some shady steps and ropes to us to get down but we survived. We also went to the top of another one and could see for miles. After the volcanoes we went on a quick tour of a well known cave. Some guy used to catch pigs there by getting them while in the cave.. or something. Neat anyways. That afternoon we were the laziest bunch of slobs. It was our last day on the islands but we felt extremely satisfied with everything we had seen and done. We spent the next 5 hours in the hammocks behind our hostel reading, napping and eating ice cream. What a life! 

The next day we were up at 5 am because there's only one boat a day that leaves at 6am. We loaded on (it was a much nicer boat) and tried to sleep. We had a quick breakfast and then caught a taxi to take us across the island to the ferry. The 5 minutes ferry took us across to Baltra Island where we caught the bus to the airport. The airport was chaos here! It's so tiny and packed with people leaving and just arriving. We got our tickets and went through security without a single person looking at our passports! Although I guess you can't get on the islands without showing it soooo I guess they assume you're all good. We saw a plane out on the Tarmac but once through security we couldn't find any airport personal so we just walked out onto the Tarmac to the plane. Strangest thing. 

Bye bye Galapagos. It's been a blast! 

The Galapagos Paradise! - Part 1

There is so much to say about the Galapagos trip I think I will break it into two posts.

It´s hard to explain the experience in words. Before I get into an explanation of our trip, I feel I should explain my mixed feelings about this beautiful place. I love that I was able to interact and observe the animals the way I did, and yet I can´t help but wonder what the islands would have looked like if we hadn´t interfered the way humans always do. To be totally honest, I feel like we always ruin nature! These islands are so gorgeous, even though they´re all volcanoes or made of hardened lava, and they have some of the most rare species on this earth. And here are hundreds of tourists a day bothering the animals and trampeling around on the land. In one aspect, I was so awe struck at how close I was able to get to the animals and how curious they seem but on the other hand it makes me sad to know that we are affecting them. There are so many boats in the water, so many snorkelers crowding one animal, sometimes there is litter on the beaches, and then of course there are the annoying tourists that want to touch the animals or bother them because they think its funny. I truly did my best not to disturb the animals and just observe them. It´s just unfortunate that not everyone thinks in this way. I suppose the tourism provides an economy for keeping it a national park and for the naturalists to do what they can to preserve the area. Otherwise it may have been turned into fishing grounds or probably, knowing humans, torn apart for oil. Lets hope the damage we do here is offset by some of the good they try to do.

Anyways, about the Galapagos! Where do I start? We took off from Quito early Sunday morning and landed in Galapagos without incident. The weather here was so hot and humid, but it had been fairly cool in Quito so we were quite happy about it. We found our tour guide and met our new friends that would be with us on the tour. A group of retiree´s from France touring Ecuador and Peru were with us. Unfortunately they didn´t speak English or Spanish but thanks to Anik we were able to talk a little. Since finishing high school, french is no longer in my vocabulary! We also met the two Israeli guys that have been backpacking South America for quite a while now, and three girls from the US. On a brief side note I´ve noticed that people from everywhere but North America travel for 6 months to a year at a time. Almost everyone we met backpacking has been traveling for more than 6 months!! And in Canada my 2.5 month trip is a big deal! Anyways, we were taken to our home for the next 5 days, the Yolita II. We had our first stop at Bachas Beach where we saw marine iguana´s for the first time. The marine iguana´s are only found on the Galapagos Islands as they have had to adapt to the environment here. Since the land is all hardened lava, there sometimes isn´t much for them to eat. They spend hours in the sun heating up their bodies so they can spend 45 minutes diving in the ocean for red and green algae to eat. After being in the ocean, they spend time in the sun again to warm up and this is when they snort out salt since they ingest too much when they go diving. Crazy right? This was also the first beach we saw and it was seriously the whitest beach I´ve ever seen with the softest sand. Soft like flour! Our guide, Washington, explained that the beach was shit! Literally. Fish eat the coral on the bottom of the ocean and excrete it and then it washes up on the shores of the islands to make this beautiful white beach. At this beach we were able to snorkel, so Anik and I went touring around. So beautiful and my first time snorkeling. It took some time to get used to it since it made me feel claustrophobic but it was amazing to see so many colors of fish. I had a blast and we´d only been in the Galapagos for 3 hours! The water here is also the bluest blue I´ve ever seen. It´s so clear you can snorkel quite a ways out from the coast and see everything clearly. After the beach we had some down time on the boat and Anik and I discovered the best place to sit, the bow of the boat on comfy lounger chairs. We were later introduced to the crew, which was when I realized I was feeling sea sick and just kept telling myself ¨You´re not going to throw up. You´re not going to throw up. It´s okay¨. As soon as introductions were done I raced to our room to curl into a ball in hopes of feeling better. Anik´s a great doctor and took care of me so I slept almost 12 hours through the night! Best sleep I´d had in a long time. I think the rocking of the boat actually helped me sleep like a baby.


Day 2 - We were up at a decent time for breakfast. Our first stop - South Plaza Island. This was our first encounter with seals! They put on a good show for us while playing in the water. On this island there are many land iguanas. the males find a cactus and guard it as they needthe water inside it to drink. The female iguanas then flock to the cactus for water And the male can mate. This island had a rock cliff along one side so we had some gorgeous views of the ocean. After lunch we were at Santa Fe island. Here we did some more snorkeling and saw so many fish! the water in the bay of the island was the most unbelievable teal color. This was the first time being in the water with seals although every time we skorkeled after this day we swam with seals. They are so curious and just look at you with interest under the water. We also found a sea turtle and were able to swim around the bay with it for a while. It was so relaxed and peaceful and I couldn't believe how close we got to it! we also had a chance to land on the island right on a beach with a seal colony. Most didn't pay much attention to us. There were even baby seals which are the cutesy things ever. The funniest thing is how the seals walk for a bit and then plop on tue ground as if the two second walk was hardest thing ever! I could have watched them for hours. this night was the first night we would be moving while sleeping, which I thought would be better with less rocking but I was wrong. It was a rough night.

Day 3 - Early morning. Like 530 am early so we could be the fist on Espanola island. First thing we crossed was another colony of sleeping seals. This was our fist close encounter with the famous blue footed boobies. They were also very curious and stared at us with interest but weren't the least bit scared of us. We all got some great pictures. My favorite bird of all though is the albatross. It has a wing span of 7 ft and is enormous but sooooo beautiful. I wanted to touch one because their feathers look so soft but of course I didn't. We even got to witness their famous mating dance. These birds mate for life and after spending a long time apart they have this unique and interesting dance. This island also had a blow hole that shot water to ridiculous heights. Made for some great pics. In the afternoon we went snorkeling again around Gardner island this time. More sea lions in the water and the clearest blue water. We were looking for sharks but never found any here. After that we landed on Gardner beach which went on for miles, was white and soft like flour, and had a sea lion colony on it. More fantastic pictures and here we saw the blue footed boobies dive into the water to fish. It's quite a site to see as they sore around above turn on the spot and. Dive bomb into the water! after dinner we were relocating again and Anik and i got to see the night sky in all it's glory. Out in the middle of an ocean the sky is really something. we also saw bioluminescent algae which looked like blue sparks cOming off the boat.

I think this is enough for now. I am currently using Aniks iPhone to type so I apologize for the typos. Tomorrow we leave foe the jungle so I am hoping I can finish my galpagos blog on the bus. I will post pictures when I can!! I have some amazing ones!