The Wordy Guanacos

Trip Stats

2010-04-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

Countries visited: Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Canada(for a few hours).
Total # of days: 203
Most days in one country: 62, Argentina
Fewest days in one country: 10 Columbia
Most days in one place: 18 La Luna, Otavalo, Ecuador
Highest point: Chachani summit, 6075 meters(19,931 feet)
Most elevation gained in one day on foot: (Only Anika) 1935 metes (6348 feet)-Piedra Grande camp to summit of Vallecitos (5435 meters or 17,831 feet).
Longest bus ride: 34 hours, Ushuaia to Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
Sick days: Brad-6 Anika-2
Pairs of shoes worn out: Brad-3 Anika-0
Sunglasses lost or broken: Brad-3 Anika-0
Total number of cups carried: 1, Lost in Quito(day 32) and never replaced.
Modes of travel used: Feet, bike, taxi, van, bus, train, airplane, tram, ferry, hitch hiking, subway.
Total Number of taxi trips: 7
Longest trek: Torres del Paine loop, 102km (63.4miles). 6 nights 7 days.
Total number of different overnight treks: 11
Most distance covered on foot in one day: 28km (17.4miles) 1st day of Torres trek.
Total number of nights spent in tent: 85 (41.9%)
Most consecutive days in tent: 22
Night spent at highest altitude: Chachani base camp 5300meters (17,388 feet)
Nights spent on transportation: Bus-17 Train-1 Airplane-2 Total 20 (9.9%)
Bus ticket purchased furthest in advance: 5 days. Easter Sunday bus ticket to BA 2 days before our flight leaves for home.
Number of MP3 playing devices broken: 2
Sample list of products containing beef lard: Wheat crackers, scones, oriental flavor top ramen, vegetable empanadas, vegetable broth cubes, chicken broth cubes, dry vegetable soup mix, croissants.
Days before Anika realizes this: 195
Number of books read by Brad: 48
Books read per week: 1.66
Number of Books read by Anika: 36
Total number of pages: 11,894
Average number of pages per day: 58.6

Books read by Brad:
1. Walking Across America
2. Bel Canto
3. The Old Man and the Sea
4. Left for Dead
1st 100 pages of Marching Power
1st 100 pages of The End of Mr. Y
5. Journey to the Center of the Earth
6. The Yearling
7. Starship Troopers
8. The Martian Chronicles
9. Animal Farm
1st 75 pages of Patagonia, History, Myths, Legends
10. The Three Musketeers
11. Dune
12. The Da Vinci Code
13. To Kill a Mocking Bird
14. Dune Messiah
15. Congo
16. The Joy Luck Club
17. Sphere
18. The Clan of the Cave Bear
19. The Green Hills of Earth
20. The River Why
21. Lord of the Flies
22. The Chosen
23. Of Mice and Men
24. Stranger in a Strange Land
1st 100 pages of Oliver Twist
25. Gates of Fire
26. Around the World in 80 Days
27. The Silmarillion
1st 300 pages of The Green House
28. Narcissus and Goldmund
29. Last 250 pages of Marching Powder
1st 100 pages of Walden plus Poems
30. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
31. The Red Tent
32. Tai-Pan
33. Pirate Latitudes
34. The Way West
35. The Last Step
36. The Three Daughters of Madam Liang
37. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
38. The Good Earth
39. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
40. The Book Seller of Kabul
41. An Elegy for Easterly
42. Eva Luna
43. The Journey to the East
44. The Dragon in the Sea
45. The Sea Wolf
46. The Perfect Storm
47. Water Method Man

48. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
First 300 pages of the Mater and Margerita

Books read by Anika:
1. Middlesex
2. Bel Canto
3. Marching Powder
4. The Famished Road
5. We'll Meet Again
6. The Bell Jar
7. The Three Musketeers
8. To Kill A Mockingbird
9. The Joy Luck Club
10. Congo
11. Sphere
12. The Clan of the Cave Bear
13. The Lord of the Flies
14. The River Why
15. In the Time of the Butterflies
16. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
17. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
18. Women in Love
19. Narcissus and Goldmund
20. The Red Tent
21. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
22. Gabriel Garcia Marquez Short Stories
23. La Hija de La Fortuna (in Spanish)
24. The Last Step
25. The Three Daughters of Madam Liang
26. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
27. The Good Earth
28. The Bookseller of Kabul
29. Eva Luna
30. The Water-Method Man
31. Journey to the East
32. The Perfect Storm
33. The Catcher in the Rye
34. Robinson Crusoe
35. The Sea-Wolf

36. Elegy for Easterly

Buenos Aires, Iguazu and Salta

2010-03-13T05:11:00.000-08:00

It´s Saturday morning in Salta, Argentina, a long way from where I last posted in Puerto Madryn! We´ve traveled a long distance since then as well and we have seen a huge variety of climates and landscapes. First, we spent about 4 days in a cute little mountain town called Sierra de la Ventana. I´m not entirely convinced that it is a legitimate mountain town since most of it´s surroundings are beautiful grasslands, fields of sunflowers and rolling hills but the closest thing in the Buenos Aires province to a mountain, the 3,720 foot Cerro Ventana, is also nearby. Of course, since I´m always looking for the views, I climbed up the steep rocky slope to the large hole in the rock face known as the Ventana that opens up amazing vistas to the countryside.

Next stop, Buenos Aires, by way of a very cheap, very interesting train. Brad and I decided to be super cheap and go with the first class tickets in order to have reclining seats but no other services. The train itself was marked by grafitti and had no numbers to describe the cars or the seats so we made our best guess as to where we needed to sit and spent a very long night trying to sleep under ever blaring flourescent overhead lights and beside windows with a film of dirt so thick that even when the sun rose it was hard to tell. But it was fun! And we made it safely to Buenos Aires and Meghan was waiting for us at the train station to take us back to her cute, comfortable apartment in a very neighborhoody area of the massive city. I know I have mentioned before that big cities are sometimes a bit difficult for us as travelers but when you have friends who can also be tour guides, big cities are made much smaller and much more attractive! Meghan and her boyfriend, Pablo, created space in their packed work and study schedules to show us all of the best corners of Buenos Aires and of course the sights that all tourists must see as well. The center of the city choked with cars, buses and a mix of business suited men and women, tourists, students and protesters milling about in the famous Plaza de Mayo and the tree lined streets shading adorable sidewalk cafes was frenetic and exciting. The shopping streets in the trendy neighborhoods of Palermo and Villa Crespo were fun to explore and a great place to observe the beautiful fashionable people who live there but actually making purchases was out of the question because prices were high! I fulfilled my long standing desire to actually buy things by visiting outlet stores along Cordoba and Corrientes streets and among the street vendors at several outdoor markets. The weekend was a whirlwind of activity that ranged from wandering the relaxed hippie market and the famous Recoleta cemetary where Evita is buried (Brad and I somehow stumbled upon her very simple, unassuming tomb) to discovering antiques and clothing by young designers and street performers dancing the tango in the bohemian San Telmo area of the city. Thursday evening found Brad, Pablo and I at an important River vs San Lorenzo soccer game at the huge stadium where fans shouted and sang their devotion to the team for hours until River came out victorious in the end. The weekend nights started late, usually after a 7pm nap, a 10pm dinner and then drinks or dancing at hidden jazz clubs or techno clubs which kept us out until the sun came up and we found our weary selves on a bus back to Meghan´s apartment and to our beds until at least 2pm! We had fun visiting with some friends that Meghan has made in the city and we spent Sunday evening at their apartment having a large and delicious asado with meats, salads, breads and famous Argentine wine.

Buenos Aires is so huge and there are so many people who live there that activity and action are on every corner at every hour. I definitely could spend more time there especially hanging out more with Meghan! This wish will be granted because on April 5th, Brad and I are hopping on a flight bound for Vancouver BC (the cheapest destination close to home) that leaves from Buenos Aires. So we will definitely try to return to the city a couple of days in advance to spend every last minute possible with Meghan and Pablo and to do a few more exciting things in the capital. It feels funny putting a cap on our trip that for so long has be indefinite but it also feels pretty good to be thinking about heading home to be back in Portland just as the good weather is rolling in (hopefully)!

After spending one week in Buenos Aires Brad and I got an 18 hour bus ride up to the northeastern most corner of Argentina to see Iguazu Falls. The minute we stepped off of the bus and were immediately drenched in sweat caused by the stifling humidity of the rainforest we realized that we were very far from the bustling capital city, the windswept Patagonian planes, the sunny beaches, and the mountainous lakes district that we had experienced in our other Argentine destinations. This part of Argentina is bordered by Brazil and Paraguay and, in fact, there is a park from where you can see all three countries divided by 2 rivers that converge at the junction. The lifestyle is very laid back and slow, appropriate to the oppressive heat. Iguazu Falls is made up of hundreds of waterfalls of various sizes and levels that thunder over grassy cliffs and between gorges in the landscape creating spray so dense that often the bottom half of the falls is not even visable. It was an impressive experience to stand on the catwalks and balconies that are built sometimes directly over the edges of vast cascades and it took us the entire day to get our fill of one of the largest waterfalls in the world. We even got to take a short boat ride to more closely observe a couple of the waterfalls but the main purpose was to get completely drenched when the boat drives directly into the crashing spray! It was a great relief from the heat!

Two days in Iguazu was all we needed and then we were off on probably the last over 20 hour bus ride of the trip. Our destination, Salta, is in the northwestern corner of Argentina and we have been enjoying our time here wandering around the beautiful plazas and ornate churches that characterize this city. But more than the sights, I am loving being back in a more Andean feeling city. We are very close to Bolivia here and it is obvious in the darker skinned residents, the woven artisan crafts, and the hectic mercado central scene packed with musicians, fresh fruit, cheap food stands selling tamales with spicy hot sauces, and odds and ends that keep you entertained for hours. We will spend a bit more time here in Salta and then use our last 3 weeks to make our way down through the central part of Argentina until we end up back in Buenos Aires in time to fly home.

And now my time is up on the computer and I´ve gotta head out!
Love, Anika

Yo te quiero, no importa nada.

2010-03-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

Anika and I went with Meghan's boyfriend Pablo to Buenos Aire's largest stadium to watch River play against San Lorenzo. It was an impressive experience; the energy and passion were beyond anything I have seen at any sporting event. The cultural differences were equally fascinating and are on display in the video.

The fans from the different teams are separated by seating section and there was a large crowd for the visiting team as well. The two groups of opposing fans take turns singing insulting songs to each other. In the USA, when have you ever seen tens of thousands of men, sober men (no alcohol sold plus searches and breathalyzers upon entry), singing to each other? Here in the video the home town fans are singing to their team. The text of the song is roughly -

Ole ole ole
Ole ole ole ola
Jugando bien
O jugando mal
Oh yo te quiero
No importa nada

In english: Playing well or playing badly, I love you, nothing else matters.

It must feel good as a team to have tens of thousands of fans sing that to you. Our team, River, won with the only goal of the game coming late in the second half. When the game was over all the home team fans stayed in their seats and waited another half an hour for the visiting fans to leave, to ensure that they do not mix on the streets outside the stadium. I hope the post and video give a small impression of this magical experience.

-Brad

Penguins!!

2010-02-24T08:46:00.001-08:00

Wednesday afternoon in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Two o´clock is right around the corner which means the entire city will shut down leaving nothing open except, if I´m lucky, this internet cafe and a fast food place called Mostaza. More than any other country we have visited, Argentina adheres strictly to the siesta schedule. The small stores along the beachfront street that sell souveniers and excursions to Peninsula Valdes are in the habit of posting a hand scribbled note on their doors noting the hour at which the shop will reopen for business (usually 5 or 6 in the evening) but when the specified hour rolls around, inevitably the store will remain closed until the employees show up sometimes hours late. Brad and I have begun to accept tardiness and we´re trying really hard to adjust to this, in my North American mind, ridiculously impractical schedule. Showing up at 9am to open the store, then taking a 3 or 4 hour break in the middle of the afternoon only to return to work until late in the evening seems like a funny business model. I would much prefer to get all of my work done during the day so that I could go home at night and enjoy my entire evening free. But of course, that´s just me, and Argentina has a very different view of the workday. So here we are at 2pm, getting ready to wait out the afternoon on the beach or perhaps eating softserve ice cream at Mostaza!

Going back a few weeks: After we spent a night in Punta Arenas, Chile, we caught a bus 12 hours south to Ushuaia. In order to arrive in Ushuaia, we had to cross the Straight of Magellan on a ferry to land on the island of Tierra del Fuego. It was a windy, rainy day and we watched black and white Commerson´s dolphins chase the wake of the ferry as we were blown across the famous waterway. The bus continued through a surprising and snowy mountain range which opened up onto the Beagle channel (named after the boat on which Darwin travelled) and the small, hilly city at the end of the world, Ushuaia. Given the blustery weather on the day we arrived, Brad and I wisely decided to stay in a hostel in town, which broke our 22 night streak of sleeping in a tent. It was a bit of shock to sleep in a bed and I could hardly sleep because it was so hot in the heated dorm room compared to the tent! After 2 nights in hostels and taking advantage of being able to use a kitchen to cook a delayed Valentine´s day feast (we spent the real Valentine´s day on the 12 hour bus ride), we moved out of town 3 km to a lovely campground surrounded by maroon colored lupin at the base of a ski run. We did a short hike out to a glacier that the campground host correctly described as nonexistant compared to Perito Moreno and Glacier Grey! It was a beautiful hike, though, with panoramic views down the valley to the Beagle Channel and Ushuaia. It was definitely nice to get out of the touristy center of Ushuaia that seems always to be crawling with older, rich people just in town from the cruise ships long enough to purchase outrageously priced outdoor gear and trinkets and chocolates from the boutique shops. Although the weather improved to reveal pristine blue skies and sunshine until almost 10pm for a couple of days, the wind was still brisk and Brad and I decided it was time to make the big turnaround and for the first time in months, head north.

After busing it 34 hours farther north, though technically we are still in Patagonia, Puerto Madryn, where we have been for 5 days, feels like a tropical paradise compared to Tierra del Fuego. We have enjoyed several days of very warm, though still windy, weather and sun that doesn´t just shine, it actually warms you up too! On Monday we took a tour out to the Peninsula Valdes, which is a protected area teeming with sea lions, sea elephants, penguins, armadillos, guanacos, and whales (though we didn´t see any). I was very excited to finally see some penguins waddling around the beaches and some of them even seemed to mug for my very eager camera! Also in Puerto Madryn, we spent a really great day with some friends, Gonzalo, Luciana, Cynthia and Inés. We had met Gon and Luciana in Washington last summer when we attempted to climb Mt. St. Helens together. They work in marine life research here in Puerto Madryn and we have been looking forward to contacting them for months. They took us to a fun restaurant for beers one night and then helped us get our hands on some bikes so we could all ride out of town to Punta Lomo, a sea lion colony, and some beaches with beautiful deserty backdrops and blue green water. It was a great chance to get out of the city and to practice our Spanish!

Tonight, we are scheduled to take a bus up north to the city of Bahía Blanca, a scant 9 hours of bus time. From there we will decide if we want to visit the mountain town of Sierra de la Ventana or the beach town of Monte Hermosa. When we leave Puerto Madryn we will be out of the Patagonia region for good, heading north for warmer days and sadly, less daylight. At this point in our trip we are going toward Buenos Aires where we will stay with Meghan, our good friend from Portland! I am looking forward to it so much that it is almost hard to want to stop between here and there. Hopefully we will be able to post some pictures from BA if we can find a good internet connection and a few hours to spare! That´s all for now.
Love, Anika

Punta Arenas Cemetery

2010-02-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

Today we spent a few calming hours walking amoung the rows of both above and below ground tombs in the old cemetery of Punta Arenas. There was a fasicnating variety of objects used to create individual altars for the family graves. The well manacured grounds have earned it the reputation for being one of the most beautiful cemeteries in South America. I´ve tried to give you some idea of what it was like, but it is hard to improve upon the town´s free English language tourist map/guide:
¨SARA BRAUN¨
CEMETERY
The necropolis of Punta Arenas -capital city of Patagonia- is an open museum full with symbols, art and human feeling, open in 1894.
Here, dreams are memories that goes scrutinizing those who enter this field of peace, where rests she that one that got ahead of us history and that, with its pioneer spirit, colonists and contemporary were building our Patagonian identity.
In this cemetery are the perpetual cradles from each human epic that remebers the time that encouraged their lives.

We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

-Brad and Anika.

Glaciers, Hiking, and Heading Still Farther South

2010-02-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

Hey all! It´s been a little while since I´ve found cheap enough internet to do an update so bear with me while I try to let you all know what we´ve been up to in Patagonia! I last left you in El Calafate, Argentina, where Brad and I took a tour into Parque Nacional Los Glaciares to see the impressive Perito Moreno glacier. It is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Patagonia because the front of the glacier is 3 miles long and can be easily observed from a series of intricate walkways that allow visitors to see the glacier from different vantage points. The glacier is also quite important because it is still advancing and it is said that it grows as much as 2 meters everyday. All of those miles of ice pushing the glacier forward makes Perito Moreno the most exciting piece of ice you will ever observe nonstop for 6 hours! Chunks of ice constantly break off and fall dramatically into the chilly water below creating large waves that send the icebergs floating off to the middle of the lake. I chose to sit in one spot where I could see the best of the glaciers faces and listened to the popping and cracking noises that indicated where the next icy plunge would occur and shockingly, before I knew it, 4 hours had passed! Though expensive, the trip to see the glacier was one of the highlights of this trip so far.

Two nights in touristy and expensive Calafate was all that we needed and after the trip to the glacier, Brad and I were off to Puerto Natales, which required a border crossing and more stamps in our passports! In Patagonia, there is almost no difference between Chile and Argentina...in fact, it almost seems as if we have left South America entirely because prices are so high, there are so many tourists around, and English is either spoken or written everywhere. I am actually quite excited to head back up north to explore the real Argentina and actually speak some Spanish again! Anyway, Puerto Natales is a colorful, windy little town on the edge of a lake surrounded by mountains and glaciers. That´s the other thing about Patagonia...there are glaciers everywhere! You can hardly walk around a corner without running into another glacier and the really crazy thing is that all of the glaciers are at sea level, not just confined to the mountains. So, we camped in Puerto Natales, in the yard of a hostel, and we spent a few days organizing ourselves to head into Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, the most famous park in South America.

In our travels we have run into many people coming from the south who had done Torres del Paine and we have gotten a lot of mixed information and recommendations about the right way to experience the park...do just the circuit, do the W trail, wear raingear, just get wet and dry out later, you will get muddy feet, the wind will knock you over, the sun is so hot you will sweat like an athlete, etc. I had initially thought that we could wait around for a favorable weather window in which we would be safely able to see the entire park with little rain but upon arriving in Puerto Natales, I learned that the weather in Patagonia is incredibly complex and completely impossible to predict. If there is one constant, at least in the summer, it is the strong gusty wind. So Brad and I did some grocery shopping, enough to last us 8 or 9 days in the park and headed out to hike the circuit trail. Most tourists who come to Torres del Paine hike the W trail, which leads you to the highlights of the park and only takes something like 4 days. The circuit takes about 8 days and leads to the backcountry sections of the park which are more remote and visited by far fewer people. On our first day we hiked 28 km to Refugio Dixon in the most gorgeous, sunny, windless weather you can imagine. We assumed that our offerings to the weather gods had paid off and we could hike blissfully in ideal weather for at least a few days. But the following day we hiked for hours in the pouring rain, though it did remain windless. On the third day we set off in freezing, snowy, and windy conditions to hike up the John Gardener pass, the highest point on the circuit, which is not actually that high when compared with other hiking we did in Peru and Ecuador. It was a thrilling experience to emerge from the trees onto the snow covered, windswept trail that lead up to the pass. By the time we reached the top, we were taking a few steps and then stopping to hold onto rocks as the wind gusted, threatening to blow us over. From the top, where we stopped long enough to take one photograph, we had our first view of Glacier Gray, one of the biggest glaciers in the Patagonian icefield. But we descended quickly into the trees on the other side as the wind was relentless. After a steep, muddy hike down toward the glacier, we arrived at Refugio Gray for the night. There are a variety of campsites in the park, some you have to pay to use and others are free. The free sites are less tidy and often have problems with mice or overflowing pit toilets. It was a mystery to me how the park could charge a hefty entrance fee and then provide less than stellar accommodations for it´s campers. Also the trails, especially around the circuit, were often covered in calf deep mud and it was impossible to avoid getting extremely muddy even on dry days. Oh well, that´s just Chile. From Refugio Gray, we hiked to a free campsite at the base of the Valle Frances, which many people claim is the star of the Torres del Paine show despite the name of the park. When we poked our heads out of the rainfly the following day, however, it was pouring rain, and Brad had a little stomach bug that had him running down the trail to the bathroom frequently. I emerged from the tent only twice during the whole day as it continued to rain without pause. The next day, it was still raining but I made a gallant effort to explore the valley but after hiking one hour in without seeing any mountains and with the wind blowing in my face, I gave up and returned to camp to pack up and hike out to the final campsite, Las Torres. (Brad was feeling much better by the way). On the way, we hiked on the shore of a lake where you could observe the gusts of wind building up over the water to push the waves in a huge misty spray in toward the shore...it was pretty exhilerating! On the final morning, we woke up to sunny skies to see us out of the park and back to Puerto Natales and my first shower in 7 days. So, overall, we did some great hiking and saw many unforgettable things and I left feeling proud of completing my longest backpacking trip yet but a bit disappointed for not getting to see ALL of the sights.

In Puerto Natales we had a great time hanging out with our NW friends, Ryan and Molly and also with a couple from Vancouver BC, Claire and Dan, who we met at the hostel. We had a couple of really great bbqs and we spent a lot of good times there. But we said goodbye to them this morning and headed south to Punta Arenas, the southernmost city on continental South America. We spent the afternoon sightseeing around this windy city situated right on the Straight of Magellan. They have a gorgeous cemetary which Brad has already told you about in the previous post and there are wide boulevards which make walking around very easy and comfortable. The population of Punta Arenas has been incredibly mixed in the past from prisoners to soldiers and sailors to my favorite, ´dandies of the wool boom` who made their fortunes on sheeps wool and who built elaborate mansions that still stand around the plaza de armas downtown. It has been fun but we are off to Ushuaia tomorrow on a long bus ride that will take us to Tierra del Fuego and almost as far south as you can go on this continent! It is unbelievable to have reached this point in our adventure.
Hope all is well! Love, Anika

Southbound

2010-02-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

We have just arrived in Patagonia...well actually is has been a few days now but it is pretty unbelievable to be in this place that we have constantly been dubbing as the southernmost destination of this crazy trip! In Chile, we spent a couple of days in Valdivia, a beautiful city in the Lakes District but which is actually surrounded by 2 rivers that eventually arrive at the pacific ocean. I wandered around the town and talked with several young people who are students in the city during the school year and who work in tourism during the summer months. It was nice to speak some legitimate Chilean spanish and use the traditional kiss on the cheek Chilean greeting! When I arrived at the river the first thing I saw were crew boats practicing and I got very excited realizing that my sport existed so far south! Brad and I also made our way out of town to the Kuntsmann brewery, a very popular microbrew throughout Chile. We had the sampler which consisted of a blonde, a lager, a red, a honey and a wheat beer as well as several others of the same designation except they were not filtered. We were appreciative of different flavors but we grew quite nostalgic for the varitey of brews available in Portland.
After Valdivia, we spent a night in Osorno and then crossed the border into Argentina on a bus that broke down twice. The first time we were able to contiune our journey and the second time required a rescue bus to take us stranded passengers into Bariloche. We made the somewhat unwise decision to leave our backpacks on the stranded bus so that we could make it to Bariloche but the we had to wait one hour for our backpacks to arrive, which they thankfully did. When we were reunited with our backpacks we hopped on a micro headed toward the center of town but only minutes later I discovered that our tentpoles were missing. Usually they are secured into place by the ties in my backpack´s side pockets but they were no longer there. We immediately exited the bus and sprinted back to the bus station where we were reunited with the poles at the lost and found office. It was a close call considering how many nights of camping we have ahead of us in Patagonia!
I spent one night in trendy Bariloche where many rich Argentine tourists were spending their vacations and then I headed 2 hours south to El Bolson where Brad had gone the night before and where I was joyously reunited with our tent. Since it is high season in Argentina, there were almost no vacant dorm beds and I wandered around Bariloche until I found a place to bed down for the night. It is much easier to find a place to sleep when you have your own tent. El Bolson is an amazing little hippy town surrounded by rocky rideglines and green forests. When I exited the bus on Saturday I was immediately confronted by a fair full of dreadlocked hippies selling amazing crafts, artisan foods and microbrews. I was completely contented to spend several days there enjoying the bounty of delicious foods and creativity as well as a hike or two into the beautiful green wilderness littered with mountain climbin refuges.
From El Bolson Brad and I caught a southbound bus for the tiny town of El Chalten, located directly in the middle of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. It was amazing that to arrive in that northern area of Patagonia even though it still took 30 hours. We left El Bolson on Wednesday night and didn´t arrive in El Chalten until Friday morning and we didn´t get any movies or food along the way.
El Chalten at 7am is a little bit of a disapointment but we had taken some benedryl and we had slept very well so we felt very revived when we stepped of the bus to brisk winds that made us immediately want to change into every layer of clothing we posessed. We pitched our tent and then went to talk with the national park ranger who recommended a trip into the park immediately because of a substantially good weather window. So we repacked our tent and headed off into Parque Naional Los Glaciares. But first we ran into our NW buddies Molly and Ryan who were camped at our campsite and we ended up heading into the park to see the star attraction Cerro Fitz Roy. It was a great hiking day and we saw some amazing blue glacial lakes at the base of Fitz Roy and all of the amazingly pointy peaks that surround it. There were some clouds that covered the summit but by the following morning they were all gone and we had an unbelievable view of Fitz Roy and the surrounding peaks. We did more hiking that lead us to a glacier and a lake and then were headed to the other side of the park where we had a fairytale view of Cerro Torre, the snowy spire of rock that shoots up straight from a glacier that feeds Laguna Torre at it´s base. It was an amazing couple of days and we felt extremely lucky to be able to view so many amazing sights without a breath of wind or a hint of rain.
On the third day we hiked back into El Chalten to the comfort of a delicious pizza, a microbrew beer and many clouds that gathered until this morning when we hopped on a bus to the next town farther south, El Calafate. We are currently in this town waiting to catch a tour in to see the giant star of the Patagonian show el Perito Moreno glacier. Maybe we will go tomorrow. It is hard to believe that we have reached so far south after so many months of anticipation!
Hope everything is well!
Love,
Anika

In South America....

2010-01-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

1. Broken bottles cemented atop a wall is your security system.
2. All men sleep on buses no matter how poor the roads.
3. People have great hair.
4. Virgins are cool.
5. Women miraculously walk in stiletto heels on cobble stone streets.
6. Purchasing a bus ticket does not always entitle you to a place to sit.
7. Inkacola tastes like bubble gum.
8. Track suits are school uniforms.
9. Overnight buses show horror movies right before you are supposed to go to sleep.
10. Dirty or scratched coins are not accepted
11. Llamas wear sunglasses and pose for photos.
12. You have to decide when is the right time to kick a dog.
13. Every window on the bus is a trash can.
14. Stupid tourists buy digoridoos at indiginous Andean markets.
15. Cultural differences in sidewalk etiquette make crowded city navigation difficult.
16. A 9 seat van holds 21.
17. Every item gets its own plastic bag.
18. The claws of chicken feet break the surface as the level of your soup drops.
19. Distance is measured in time instead of kilometers.
20. Except at banks lines are unacknowledged.
21. Machu Picchu has the only soda fountain in the Andes.
22. There is only one type of cheese.
23. Prices are not fixed and never indicated (except in Chile).
24. It is cheaper to eat at a resturant then to cook for yourself (except Chile).
25. Water is electrically heated in the shower head; which is shocking when not installed correctly.
26. No one has change.
27. Directions are given with a series of hand gestures and repeated ¨por alla¨.
28. At each hostel you must register your passport number and list your occupation, but no one seems to notice if you are a ´rock star´or ´sex machine´.
29. No meal is complete without at least one liter of soda.
30. All grass areas in parks are fenced off and strictly not for walking on.
31. In Bolivia the fuel we use for our stove in also the poor man´s drink of choice, (192 proof ethenol).
32. In Colombia, a leading coffee producer, everyone drinks instant coffee. In Ecuador, a leading cocao producer, the chocolate is terrible; all the good stuff is exported to Switzerland.
33. Look with extreme skeptisism upon the phrase, ¨We have hot water 24 hour a day¨.
34. On Sundays, nothing but God´s store is open.
35. Boxed wine and bottled wine are the same quality and cost.
36. Always, at minimum, double the recomended amount of water for powdered drink mixes.

Typical Local/Tourist exchange:
Brad: (in Spanish) What flavors of soft serve icecream do you have?
Icecream Lady: Chocolate and peach.
Brad: Can I have a cone of just chocolate?
Icecream Lady: Chocolate?
Brad: Yes, chocolate.
Icecream Lady: Here you are. (handing Brad the cone)
Brad: (After paying and taking his first bite) This is peach.
Icecream Lady: Yes, I ran out of chocolate.
Brad: So you only have peach?
Icecream Lady: Yes, only peach.
Brad and Anika walk away laughing.

Most common exchange in South America:
Local: What is your name?
Brad: Brad.
Local: Bratt.
Brad: No, Brad.
Local: Brett.
Brad: Brad.
Local: Like Brad Pitt?
Brad: Yes, like Brad Pitt.
Local: (very excitedly) Ohhh! Yes Brad Pitt.

-Brad and Anika

2010-01-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

Today is election day in Chile. I have fond memories of watching the US presidential primary election in a movie theater full cheering people in Portland. I hope we can find some place to watch the results, but I am doubtful as much of the town in closed down today. Anika and I are still enjoying each others´ company and we are both exited to be heading to Patagonia. On the way down I am hoping to stay on an oganic farm and work for a few weeks in exchange for our room and board. I have been feeling a little restless with my lack of physical productivity and it would be good to expel some energy in this way.

Traveling in Chile has been very relaxing as the transportation infrastructure is excellent and we can relax our guard somewhat against theft and scams. Chile is South America´s richest country and therefore the wealth disparity between the locals and us is much less. This has served to ease some of the strain on my conscience, which was heavy at times, especially walking the streets of Bolivia. The inequality in the world is not just, and everyone knows this, but it is easier to ignore when not looking it directly in the eyes.

We spent a few nice days in Santiago, Chile´s capital. The days were warm and sunny and our hostel had a swiming pool. We reunited with two friends, Morgan and Daniel, from our tour of the Bolivian salt flats. Morgan was about to return to the US and we were able to attend her going away party/BBQ.

The wine here is good, Anika is getting better at cards(cribbage), and the days are getting longer with every mile we make southward. I hope all is well in the north half of the world.

-Brad

Another Jump to the South

2010-01-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

Today is Saturday, and I only know this because I happened to look at my watch this morning and notice the little S in the upper part of the screen. Sometimes I literally go for days without knowing what day of the week it is. And then one day I try to go explore a little town and everything is closed...and then I know it is Sunday. But today is actually a significant day because tomorrow, Sunday, January 17th, are the run-off presidential elections in Chile and they are hotly contested. The first elections happened in December and since there was no majority reached the top two candidates, Piñera and Frei, are facing off. Piñera is the more conservative candidate and he is said to have a slight lead since he won more of the vote in December but Frei, the more liberal candidate, may come through on top since the Independent candidate who is generally favored by liberal voters, is no longer in the race. There is such a split in the population that nobody really knows who will win and there is some anxiety since Chile has not had a conservative president in decades. I am pretty interested in the outcome and I am hoping to be able to get access to some election coverage tomorrow. This is somewhat improbable, however, because in Chile, as in Bolivia, election day is treated almost as a national holiday and businesses begin to close today in the afternoon and will remain closed through Sunday so that everybody can vote. Alcohol sales are also cut off tonight and will not resume until Monday. Another interesting election tidbit is that once you vote in Chile for the first time you must vote in every subsequent election or you will be either slapped a huge fine or worse unless you are physically a certain distance away from your voting district. Because of this, we heard that many residents of Santiago travel 6 hours north to La Serena to avoid their voting duties.

Whatever happens in the Sunday elections, Brad and I will be camped out in a little campsite near the lakeside town of Villarrica, in the Lakes District of Chile. We arrived yesterday after a ridiculous day of travelling that consisted of 5 different buses and as many different cities. For the last couple of days we have been in the Reserva Natural Radal Siete Tazas, a park just to the east of the Panamerican highway and south a few hours from Santiago. The park is famous for it´s sparkling clear river that snakes it´s way through an impressively deep but narrow canyon, dropping in a series of waterfalls into 7 pools known as the Siete Tazas (seven cups). There is a beautiful trail that runs alongside the waterfalls and we were lucky enough to observe 3 kayakers descending through each section of of the seven pools! The final sight on this small section of river is a waterfall known as Salta La Leona which plunges out of the steep sided gorge into a wide bowl and a nice pool that swimmers can enjoy (if they can endure the icy water which Brad compared to Crater Lake and I definitely didn´t get in far enough to say). It was really a relief to be out in nature for a couple of days after spending the last few weeks in Valparaíso and Santiago, which were great fun but intense places. We realized that in Chile we have camped almost every night except for when we stayed in hostels in the big cities, but even though we have been sleeping in a tent, we have not been in nature. However, we have reached the Lakes District, the gateway to Patagonia, and that means we will be embarking on some serious nature adventure very soon! On Monday we will begin a short backpacking trip to traverse the side of Volcán Villarrica, which I climbed back when I visited this area in 2005.

The Lakes District is obviously rich in lakes but it is also has plentiful volcanos, most of which are very classically cinder cone shaped and covered in a nice layer of snow. None of the volcanos here are over 4,000 meters so they are not tall compared to any of the Andes mountains in Peru or Ecuador. But they are quite scenic mixed with the landscape of lakes and pine forests which very much resemble areas of the Pacific NW. Last night we also had the first rain we have experienced since I can even remember...maybe it was La Paz...or perhaps there was a slight rainstorm in Tupiza in southern Bolivia that required the use of our raingear. But since then we have seen not a drop of rain so I certainly have no animosity toward a little sprinkling. Plus our tent could use a bath!

That´s pretty much the news for now. I do have one story to relate about Valparaíso. There´s a dance club I used to go to called El Huevo which was amazing because it consisted of 4 floors and at least as many rooms playing a variety of music. Well, of course I had to take Brad there and so we went on the Friday night before leaving Valpo. Besides a higher cover charge and a slightly remodeled space, it was the same place I remember from 5 years ago! Without realizing it, we danced, heard a couple of live cover bands play, and observed some amazing salsa dancers in the rooftop bar until the club kicked everyone out at closing time, 5am. By that time, I had gone back to the dark corner where I had stashed my white fleece sweatshirt earlier in the night and I found it missing along with another light cardigan sweater. I was pretty upset considering I have very few clothing items on this trip and the fleece was a key layer for warmth for me. But then I remembered that on one trip to Huevo back in 2005, I had inadvertantly walked away from the coatcheck with my own 2 jackets and many blocks later realized that I had also taken a light black jacket that certainly was not mine. I wore that jacket all over Chile and Connecticut and Boston and I continue to wear that jacket in Oregon these days. So I guess it was just club karma that took that white fleece from me! Besides, after leaving Huevo, who could be upset while observing the crowds of partiers in Valpo on a Friday night/morning all devouring the classic completo (hotdog with avocado, katchup, mustard, and mayonaise) before stumbling home to bed as the sun rises?

More later!
Chao,
Anika

Revisiting Valpo

2010-01-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

You know how people say that no news is good news. Well, considering it has been a couple of weeks since either Brad or I have updated the blog, I can assure you it is because things are proceeding excellently here in Chile!

I guess to start I should wish you all a Happy New Year! I hope you all had delightful celebrations. Brad and I were in the beach town of La Serena for the festivities, camping just a block away from the ocean among the highrise condominiums and apartment buildings that line the very posh seaside strip located about an hour walk from the colonial church filled city center of La Serena. The beach is a very popular New Years destination for Chileans and they come in droves from the inland cities to enjoy the wide, fine white sandy beaches and to soak up the plentiful summer sun. There were moments when you could hardly see the sand for all of the colorful umbrellas that were crammed between the boardwalk and the waves. It was very obvious that the majority of the Chilean tourists who were populating the lodgings near the beach were quite well off financially and many of the restaurants and invitation only New Years Eve parties were well beyond our budget. Luckily, the best parties were found directly on the beach where families set up card tables stocked with Pisco, wine, champagne and plenty of munchies to fortify their late night celebrations. At midnight there was a fireworks display (actually there were 4 of them up and down the beaches) that was not as impressive as some I´ve seen but still provided entertainment as they appeared to actually light the waves on fire (there were probably some pretty scared fish out there)! Brad and I were able to chill a bottle of champagne by placing it carefully between 2 bags of ice we found in the Hiper Lider (huge Costcolike supermarket). It was the first bagged ice we have seen during the entire trip!

When we were sufficiently finished with our explorations of La Serena we moved 2 hours inland to the Valle de Elqui to the little tiny town of Pisco Elqui. This valley is a series of stark deserty mountains cut down the middle with a vein of leafy vineyards where grapes especially suited for making Pisco are grown almost exclusively in this one location in Chile. The dry heat was perfectly balanced with a blustery wind to create a lazy climate. If I lived in Pisco Elqui I would never get anything done due to the irresistable urge to relax with an ice cream cone in the shady plaza. Luckily I was there to do just that as well as to take a walk down the road to the nearest artisan Pisco distillary, Los Nichos, where I got to check out the bodegas where barrels of the grape brandy were slowly aging. Samples were also provided and Brad and I ended up buying a nice bottle of Pisco to mix with cocacola (for a Piscola) or sprite (for a Pisco blanco). In Pisco Elqui we camped in a rowdy campsite where hoards of Chilean revelers often stayed up until sunrise singing and playing bongo drums but it was amusing enough to keep me from feeling annoyed.

After 2 nights in Pisco Elqui the day finally came for me to return to Valparaíso, the port city where I spent all of my 5 months abroad almost 5 years ago. I have been biding my time for a chance to return and I was pretty much beside myself with anticipation through the whole 7.5 hour bus journey (that should have been just 6 but there were "muchos tacos," or traffic jams, according to the bus driver). In Valpo, Brad and I have been staying at a beautiful hostel that is artistically decorated with colorful walls and little art installations in every corner. It has been a perfect base for exploring the city since it is centrally located just partway up Cerro Carcel, one of the many hills that surround the bay of Valparaíso. The hills that depart from the slight 3 block wide downtown sector of the city help to create the haphazard image of Valpo that is conjured when travellers remember the colorful houses hanging on the sides of rocky outcroppings and the curvy, meandering streets broken up by endless staircases and secret passageways that give the city so much character. Exploring the city this time around has been exciting because we have had 4 days of blue sky and sunlight that sparkles off of the bay and the activities of cargo boats and cruise ships that come and go. Everything is extremely familiar to me and it is a comfort knowing where I can find hardware stores, the cheapest groceries, and the best places for getting beer or pastries. Also Brad and I sat in the general admission galeria of a very important, first of the season, soccer game featuring the cherished Valparaíso team oddly called the Santiago Wanderers. The game took place in the stadium on Cerro Playa Ancha, right next door to the Universidad de Playa Ancha, where I attended classes when I studied in Valpo. It was definitely a trip to revisit that spot. When the Wanderers won there were many celebrations and repetitions of the quick s-s-s-santiagowanderersvalparaíso! The game was monitored by the intimidating Carabineros (riot police) who were patting everyone down in a pretty invasive search and were not allowing any plastic bottles into the stadium. Somehow Brad managed to charm one of them into letting him keep a ratty ductape wrapped bottle that we have been drinking from throughout this entire trip! On a side note, purchasing and throwing away plastic has been one of the most mentally disturbing aspects of this trip for me. I can´t stand throwing away plastic and that includes plastic bottles, plastic bags, the thick plastic jugs that drinkable yogurt comes in and all of the plastic packaging that comes standard on most items. It´s tough to contribute to the trash heaps especially when so much of it can be seen in roadside ditches and washing up onto beaches. I try to reuse the plastic bags that the produce sections of the grocery stores insist you use even when purchasing a single tomato but I do endure some funny looks from people!

So, Valpo has been amazing and we still have at least one more day here, just until I feel like I have seen everything that needs to be seen. Brad and I went to the top of a tall hill yesterday to see La Sebastiana, one of three houses owned by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. He was an amazingly clever decorator and everything in his quirky houses served a purpose, had a back story or related some joke or poem to the visitor. It is an inspiring place with a stunning panoramic view of the whole city of Valparaíso. Today, Brad and I took a micro (little public bus) over to the adjacent resort town of Viña del Mar where the beaches are suitable for swimming and sun bathing and there are tree-lined, shop-filled streets. It is a less gritty version of Valpo but has none of the artistic touches or funky student presence that I appreciate so much in Valpo. Still it was nice to wander there for a day and to have lunch at Cafe Journal, a spot I used to frequent when I lived here.

Santiago is the next stop on the list but we probably will stay just long enough to see a few sights and to try to get our ipod fixed at an Apple store since I know there is at least one in the capital. We have been without music for a couple of months now and I´m getting a bit desperate! Check out the picture page...we´ve added some photos and we´re slowly working on captioning the rest.
Best wishes and besitos from Chile!
Love,
Anika

Chi-Chi-Chi-lay-lay-lay!

2009-12-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Before I go into any description of our final experiences in Bolivia, I must express my insane happiness at being in Chile again! In order to maintain composure during the 3 previous months of travel I must have somehow put out of my mind how much I have been anticipating my return to the country where I studied back in 2005. But now that I am here, I am psyched up for many weeks of travel south through the varied landscapes of this pencil thin country. It is also much easier to plan an itinerary in Chile because there is really only one direction in which to travel, south, and any east and west travel can be accomplished in a matter of a couple of hours at most. We crossed the Chilean border from Bolivia 2 days ago after finishing up a 3 day tour of the salt flats and other sights in southwestern Bolivia. After the almost 3 weeks of travel on rough Bolivian roads riddled with potholes and uneven surfaces, my first impression of Chile was as we eased away from the border crossing on a minibus. Almost immediately we pulled onto a beautifully paved, two-lane road marked with yellow and white lines. Even in the middle of the dusty, remote Atacama desert, the Chileans have managed to create amazing roads. And that is a major difference between the poorest and the richest countries in Latinamerica.

Bolivia was THE country for viewing some beautifully unique and otherworldly scenery. In the south, Brad and I spent 2 nights in Tupiza, a town with the feeling you get in rural Oregon, especially in places like Grants Pass. The streets were fronted with stores that could have been saloons and the leisurely pace was welcome, perfectly suited to sidling around the town´s plazas. Surrounding Tupiza on all sides are rainbow colored rocky hills cut with valleys and a small river. The scenery reminded me of the North American southwest, deserty and with a strong sunshine that can turn rapidly to dry lightning and thunder. From Tupiza, Brad and I worked on booking a tour to see the remote sections of southwestern Bolivia and ending at the Chilean border. But we had no luck finding other travellers who wanted to do the same tour and we were forced to take a bus north to Uyuni, a town made up mostly of tour agencies just waiting to provide us with our desired itinerary. The trouble with Uyuni is that with over 60 tour agencies, none of which have stellar reputations, we were thrown into the fray of deciding which tour operators were telling us the truth about their exceptional service and which ones were going to send us out onto the salar with drivers who drink or decide to somehow shirk their responsibilities as guides. Luckily, on our first outing to weed through the masses, we ran into our 4 friends from the NW who had just, that minute, returned from the tour and highly recommended their tour operator. Problem solved! We booked with Kantuta tours leaving on Sunday.

There were 6 of us and the driver who loaded into the Toyota "cuatro por cuatro" on the first day of the tour. Brad and me, Guido (Italian), Susana (Bolivian), Morgan (North Carolinian), Daniel (Chilean) and Adalit, our great driver who provided us with good information and super positive energy throughout the trip. We visited the cementerio de trenes (train cemetary) first where we got to climb around on trains that were used back in 1825 and which are now just rusting slowly into the desert sand. Then it was off to the real highlight, the Salar de Uyuni by way of a small village whose existance is determined by collecting mounds of salt from the salt flats and processing, packaging, and selling it (even though we noticed that the salt we used at all of the meals on the salt flats tour was imported from Chile....). Adalit drove us expertly past the mounds of salt and onto the white expanse of salt that extends out in all directions seemingly without boundaries or limits. The farther we drove away from Uyuni, the whiter the salt got and the sun reflected blindingly back at us from the ground. The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world stretching 4,085 square miles. Also, it is really high above sea level at 3,656 meters and impressively it only varies in altitude at most by 1 meter across the entire area! That makes the salar a perfect place to goof around with a camera and create artistic perspective shots that depict tiny people standing on big people´s shoulders or tiny people karateing huge plastic dinosaurs! If you care to peek at the results of our hours long salt flats photography session you can find the best shots on our photo page! You will see we got very excited about jumping too. Also, there was an island (Intiwasi) made of coral in the middle of the salt flat that is home to thousands of giant cacti that have been around for many hundreds of years (there may be a picture of an Andean Emu that lives with the cacti on that island...who knew there was such a thing as an Andean Emu??).

The first night was spent at the edge of the Salar in a salt hotel, literally a building made of salt blocks harvested from the Salar. The ground was covered with a thick layer of loose salt crystals and the beds were supported by huge chunks of salt as well. It was a nice idea but we stayed at a non-salt hostel the next night that was, in reality, much nicer. On the second day of the tour, Adalit drove us to sight after sight of amazing scenery, each one differing starkly from the previous. We saw volcanos, deserty landscapes with Salvador Daliesque rocks, lagunas that changed colors from bright green to white to pink to blue depending on their mineral content, flocks of pink flamengos inhabiting the lagunas, and expanses of desert that ended in rainbow colored volcanic ridges. Through all of this, the roads were created in the moment by the drivers and we bumped along in our trusty Jeep oohing and ahhing and the incredible, surrealistic scenes.

The final night at the hotel next to the Laguna Colorada, a red lake teeming with flamengos, was full of merriment and I didn´t sleep much due to several Argentine rugby players and other partyers who decided that singing was better than sleep and the party continued well into the night before we woke up at 4:30am, primetime for geyser viewing. The high altitude geyser field is a free-for-all for tourists with no safety precautions surrounding the boiling pots of claylike mud that bubble and spurt randomly high into the air. Sulfery steam shot from vents in the ground and with the rising sun and the colorful volcanic mineral pools, the whole scene was wild and otherworldly. I could have spent much more time there but the next stop was a hot springs pool where Brad and I bathed in the healing steamy water before a lovely breakfast catered to us beside a large laguna surrounded by volcanos. And finally, we reached Laguna Verde, a white rimmed greenish lake, complete with flamingos, and a volcano guardian called Licancabur which stradles the Bolivian Chilean border. We departed from our tour there at the remote border crossing marking the edge of the Bolivian altiplano and as we entered Chile, we headed straight downhill (on that lovely paved road) all the way to the Atacama desert and the little touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama. We have plans to stay in San Pedro for Christmas tomorrow and to leave the next day probably for Calama or Antofagasta to commence our tour of Chile! It is very exciting to be in San Pedro because I have been here before and I am having a great time remembering what I did during that time. I found the hostel where I stayed and the benches in the beautiful plaza where I spent time reading and writing journal entries. This time in San Pedro we are camping. Brad took me out to a delicious dinner of salmon and steak the other night (probably the best food we´ve had on this trip). And tomorrow, on Christmas, I think we will rent bikes to cruise around to the valleys around town.

I´m thinking about everyone back home today on Christmas eve. I feel sad that I will be missing our traditional Swedish dinner because I´m sure it will be just as delicious and exciting as ever! But I also feel very lucky to be in this beautiful desert town with perfect, dry, hot, sunny weather for the holidays. I love and miss you all very much. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Anika

The Heart of Darkness

2009-12-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

I had been looking forward to our arrival in Potosi and a tour of their historic mines. The mines captured my imagination and I read anything I could find relating to their history. Cerro Rico, the rich mountain, looms directly over Potosi, its excavation ravaged face a reminder that the town below would not exist at all except for the minerals hidden deep in its bowels.

The Spanish began mining the mountain in 1546, and it has been mined continuously for the following 463 years. The quality silver ore was depleted in the first 250 years of mining. During this time the mountain was producing more than half the world’s silver. Potosi grew to a city of over 200,000 people, larger than London or Paris. In this period, the Spanish removed 45,000 tons of silver from the ´rich mountain´. At today’s price of $17.41 per ounce, Spain’s total take was $25,070,400,000 in today’s dollars price for which some colonialists willing sold their humanity. An estimated 8 million forced labors died working the mines, most of them indigenous Americans. 8 millions lives, painfully lived and silently lost to satiate man’s endless desire for shiny metals.

A tour of the mines today provides a profound lesson in colonialism’s lasting impact in South America. Indigenous peoples, speaking their native Quechua, today chose to enter the same mines that were the tombs and torment of their ancestors. The rich veins of silver are gone and can be seen adorning Catholic churches throughout Europe. Modern miners remove an inferior ore, containing mainly zinc and lead, with trace amounts of silver. Potosi at 4090 meters (13,400 feet) has no agriculture and little other industry. The miners work in small groups each with their own claim, and each getting paid based on the quality and quantity of ore produced. They choose to work in the mines, and being independent they choose how many days to work and how many hours each day. But choice is a function of opportunity and in Potosi, the poorest district in Bolivia, South America’s poorest country there is little to choose between. 5000 men, and only men, work the mines. In any given year 25 men die from accidents inside the mines; cave ins, explosions, or toxic gases. That is one half percent, or one in every 200.

I met a man on the third level of the mine who had been working the mine for 30 years, rolling the dice each year. On the fourth level I met a 15 year old boy who had been working the mines for 2 years. He was shirtless in the stifling heat and worked with a hand chisel at a vein of ore. We gave him a gift which consisted of a stick of dynamite, detonator, fuse, and ammonium nitrate. No toy fireworks for this boy whose childhood was over years ago. I hope he avoids the myriad dangers that lie within that mountain, however if he comes out of the mines safely year after year he will take something equally as deadly with him. The mountain never leaves the miners, they carry it with them, particles of the Cerro Rico lodged in their lungs. They start young and die young usually around 40, main of silicosis pneumonia. The miners of Potosi knowingly sacrifice their bodies to wrest these minerals from the mountain. The Spaniards forced their ancestors to unwillingly make the same sacrifice. My mind wants there to be a difference, to believe that that things must have changed drastically for the better after so many years. However faced with the vivid reality, the difference it not enough.

The Mountain that Eats People

2009-12-15T13:20:00.000-08:00

Two nights ago we arrived in Potosi, Bolivia, the highest city in the world. I am not quite sure what designations a city must have to be a city because I am certain there must be higher settlements somewhere in Nepal or elsewhere but regardless, Potosi is a hilly, windy, bustling mining city with a fascinating history. It was founded in 1546 by the Spanish because they had discovered silver in the veins of Cerro Rico, the reddish mountain that lies just beyond the boundaries of Potosi. Cerro Rico towers over the city in more ways than just being the dominant land feature of the 4,060 meter landscape. Although you can hardly lose sight of it while you walk through the town, the most important influence it has on the population of Potosi is that it provides thousands of men with dangerous mining jobs so that they can afford to feed and clothe their families. There are no other industries in this region so Cerro Rico lures many men to it's caves with the promise of a salary from it's mineral rich rocks. For hundreds of years Cerro Rico has been mined beginning with the Spanish who employed indiginous workers as well as imported African slaves to extract the silver that practically sustained the Spanish monarchy. There was so much silver that many workers were required to extract it so Potosi actually became one of the biggest cities in the world in the 1600's, bigger even than Paris and London. But as the 45,000 tons of silver were being extracted from the 150 mines that snake through the mountain, it is rumored that over 8 million lives have been lost. Lacking professional engineers and geologists to consult on how the tunnels are constructed, to be sure there are accidents that happen within the mines but the majority of the miners who have lost their lives have died because they have no protective equpiment to help prevent the inhalation of dust as they work. The life expectancy of the miners is short, about 40 years, and most die of silicosis in their lungs.

Cerro Rico has been continuously mined since the 1500's and the silver has been all but been depleted from it's veins, but the mines are still producing minerals like zinc and lead as well as the occasional silver. These 3 minerals are extracted from the waste rock in nearby factories but there is no further separation and the Bolivians export the 3 mixed together so the value of the product is pretty low. However, generations of men from Potosi have worked and continue to work in the mines, and often children as young as 13 begin their careers in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfathers, and older brothers. Most miners work independently to earn their salaries which amount to between 30 and 50 Bolivianos per day, or about 3 to 5 US dollars after a long 10 hour shift in the mines. The working conditions are extremely harsh, with extreme temperature fluxuations and the presence of toxins in the air that prevent the miners from eating during their shifts. They drink soda and they chew massive amounts of coca leaves to combat not only the difficulties of working at altitude but also to keep them alert as they work. Another important aspect of the miner's work is their belief and worship of the Tio, or the devil. Each mine contains a statue of the Tio where the miners can leave offering of coca leaves, cigarettes, and alcohol to ask for protection during their shifts in the mine. They believe that they are so far underground beneath Cerro Rico that God's power cannot sufice so they reach out to Tio for that protection.

After learning much of the history of Potosi I was quite interested to visit the city and to do one of the available tours to the mines inside of Cerro Rico. I was warned it is not an easy experience and that it is challenging both physically and mentally. The first stop on the tour was to acquire the necessary gear to enter the mines: large pants, a jacket, rubber boots and a hardhat complete with a headlamp powered by a waistbelt battery pack. From there, we stopped at the miner's market to purchase gifts to give to the miners we would meet in the mines. Brad and I bought dynamite, a liter of soda and some coca leaves to distribute. Since the miners work for themselves the gifts do help their individual chances for a successful workday. As we rode in the bus to the mine, it was hard to shake the thought that I had a whole stick of dynamite complete with fuse resting in my lap. We entered Mina Candalaria, which our guide, Efra, informed us was one of the oldest mines on Cerro Rico, dating back to when the Spanish mined the mountain. The walls were reinforced with rock that had been put in place hundreds of years ago. For 1.5 hours we toured the tunnels, walking down narrow passageways that were fixed with rails on which the hand powered mine carts could ride, full of mostly waste materials. We descended through openings just big enough to pass through on our hands and knees and we shimmied down rickety ladders to the 4th and last level in the mine. At each turn we met miners and we watched them work, shoveling waste materials, chipping away at the rocks with hand tools, separating potential minerals from walls, and creating 20 inch long cylindrical holes where at the end of the day, they would place dynamite and blast a new hole to hopefully follow or expose a lucrative mineral vein. Our guide facilitated conversations, often in Quechua, and we learned about several miners but their stories were mostly the same - they are in their mid 20's, they started working in the mines as young teenagers, their fathers and brothers all work nearby in the same mine, they are glad to be almost done with their 10 hour shift. We distributed our gifts, Brad got to try his hand at using a hammer, we shook hands with the miners and moved on. It was very hot inside of the mine especially at the 4th level. The dust was thick in the air and the chemical smells made me feel quite lightheaded. Even though I was using a t-shirt to cover my nose and mouth I found it was a chore to breath. After less than 2 hours inside the mine, the blue sky and fresh air outside were overwhelmingly blissful. It made me so grateful that I never have to go inside of the mine again and it was so hard to imagine how 5,000 brave men work day after day in those appallaing underground conditions chipping away at rocks and exploding holes into the base of that mountain. Our guide told us that you can visit Potosi, but unless you visit the mines, you cannot possibly understand the culture of the city. They say that Cerro Rico is the mountain that eats people because so many die there, but the miners also say that the people eat the mountain because it sustains them so much in life...a vicious cycle.

We are taking a relaxed day today before going south to Tupiza in the morning. I think Brad wrote a post about Potosi also so we'll see if we had different things to say about the experience in the mines! More pictures should be up now from way back at Machu Picchu. Enjoy!

Bolivia and Halfway Blues

2009-12-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

Today is an errand day in La Paz, Bolivia. Brad and I were just walking from the bus station having bought tickets on tonight´s 12 hour overnight bus to Sucre when the menacing clouds opened up and a midday shower forced us into the nearest internet and phone cafe. Luckily, we have many internet tasks to accomplish and we could be here for the duration of the storm. We´ve actually had brilliant weather here in Bolivia since we arrived last Saturday to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Coming from Puno, Peru, we borded a minibus headed for the border town of Yuguyo around 2:30pm thinking we would have just enough time to get through the border formalities before it closed at 6pm (or 7pm Bolivia time since it is one hour later here). But of course, the minibus sat in the station for at least 3o minutes while the bus driver stood in front yelling the name of the bus´ destination until finally every last seat and several aisle positions were full. This departure delay put a bit of stress on our border crossing time frame and we spent a tense 2.5 hours watching Lake Titicaca on the left side of the bus and the setting sun on the right side. We made it to Yuguyo with 15 minutes to complete the whole border crossing but luckily it was not busy and we said goodbye to Peru, paid the required for Americans only $135 reciprocity fee and entered Bolivia. Since I didn´t have passport photos, they charged me an extra $5 to cross and our friends who had crossed several days earlier said that even after they had paid the $135 in cash, the border officials demanded photo copies of their ATM cards! I don´t believe there is any consistency in the requirements for crossing the Bolivian border except the common factor that all Americans must pay at least $135.

Copacabana was a beautifully tranquil, though touristy, little town right on the shores on Lake Titicaca. We arrived on Saturday night and were immediately informed that everything would be closed the following day, Sunday, due to the Bolivian national elections. Things are normally closed on Sundays in Latinamerican cities but on election day not even buses would run and we couldn´t get on a boat to the nearby Isla del Sol. So we spent a very relaxed day reading books in the plazas and by the lake and on our hostel rooftop. Many radios blared with election updates and by the evening, Evo Morales was projected to be reelected by a landslide. At 1am, on our way back to our hostel, Brad and I encountered about 15 Bolivian men parading and dancing around the main plaza with a bass drum, several other percussion instruments and many pan flutes!

Next stop, La Paz. To enter the highest capital city in the world, all transportation goes through the neighborhood of El Alto which begins on a plateau and spills over the side of the valley joining the rest of stunning La Paz as it runs down through a huge valley watched over by extremely tall snowy mountains. The traffic seemed impossibly thick with colectivo vans and taxis choking the roadways and asserting themselves on their horns. Somehow our bus wove it´s way through the madness and dropped us in the middle of the masses of people that perpetually crowd the streets of La Paz. There are market stalls on every street corner and some streets have both the normal shops in buildings as well as market stalls double wide on the sidewalks being fed by electrical wires hanging low over walkways. There is barely room for people to walk let alone the cars that also insist on plowing through. Brad and I and an American couple, Molly and Ryan, who we have been travelling with a bit, got dorm beds at the Adventure Brew hostel, which promised fun by including free beer and an all you can eat pancake breakfasts in the total cost of the room. We took full advantage of these things the first night and morning but we realized very soon that our travel philosophies differ quite a bit from those people who travel to party. I was often in bed hours before the rest of the people in our dorm room were back from the bars, especially if they had visited the notorious bar where you can buy cocaine all night long. My time in La Paz was a mix of wandering through the market streets including the witches market where you can buy herbs and spices as well as llama fetuses and spending some time feeling sick with an upset stomach (the first illness I have really experienced on this trip).

Now we are in the colonial city of Sucre, which is a lot less frenetic than La Paz and feels quite comfortable. There is a beautiful plaza and some fun shops and a central market that sells fruits, vegetables and meat. Last night, Brad and I, Molly and Ryan, and a couple from Portland, Justin and Julia, went out for dinner and drinks with the purpose of watching the Blazer game! It was very fun to experience such a Portland specific event even though the Blazers lost. I´m at an imaginary mid point in this trip (about 3 months in) and I am feeling a bit travel weary and I find that I am being affected negatively by each countries´ little quirks whereas at the start of the trip, those quirks were interesting and fun. I find that I often think about Portland and the Northwest and miss my friends, family and the structured life that I had while I was living and working in Portland. Brad and I often say we would fly back in a second if we could just have a burrito from the truck on 50th and Division in Portland! But even though I am feeling these things, I am still incredibly excited about the prospects for our travel in the near future. We have so many more amazing things to see and do, starting probably within the week with the Salt flats and the amazing scenery in southwestern Bolivia. Plus, we will be heading into Chile after that and I can´t wait to get back to that country where there will be some familiarity. No doubt this little bout of homesickness and nostalgia for the NW will pass with the holiday season!
Love,
Anika

Checking Off the Highlights

2009-12-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

If anybody remembers back to when Brad and I started planning our South American trip, pretty much the only concrete item on the list of things to do was a visit to Machu Picchu, hopefully after hiking the 4 day, 3 night Inca trail to the ruins. Now, since we weren´t going to plan a single day of the trip, we adamantly refused to heed the recommended advice to reserve a spot on a trek at least 6 weeks in advance in order to snag 2 of the only 400 Inca trail passes that are handed out each day since the government started regulating access to the trail a few years ago. We decided that since we would be in Cuzco during the low tourist season, and since our schedule was so flexible, we could probably manage to tag along with a tour group even if we had to wait several days to do so.

We arrived in Cuzco at 5:30am after yet another overnight bus trip and we wandered, bleary eyed and sleepy through the early morning, rain soaked streets, not realizing that we were passing through the Plaza de Armas and many important historical landmarks. Finding the Hostel Samay Wasi in the hilly neighborhood of San Blas whose super friendly owers fed us breakfast and put us up in a lovely double room, we rested a bit before tackling the daunting task of visiting the multitude of tour companies that litter the streets and allies of Cuzco. We visited at least 5 different tour companies after the initial positive discovery that there were Inca trail passes still available starting on the 29th of November, just 4 days away. Getting different price quotes and a sense of the vibe of each company, we decided on one and that afternoon we had booked a trail trip with the ridiculously named X-treme Tourbulencia company. We learned from them that the same regulations that limit the number of tourists on the trail per day, also have strict guidelines for what gear the tourists can carry and also, fortunately, how much weight and what items the required porters can carry. Brad and I had hoped that by carrying our own tent, sleeping bags and mattresses, we could get a discount on the trail price, but the rules will not allow tourists to even carry tents. Since I am so used to backpacking with all of the necessary items strapped to my own back I had serious reservations at the prospect of using human pack animals to do my job. But setting those thoughts aside until the trip, Brad and I had several days in which to discover Cuzco and the Inca ruins that stand just outside of the city.

Walking through the streets of Cuzco, you have to avoid, or better yet, appear to ignore, the constant barrage of vendors peddling their goods directly in your path, women shoving flyers for massages in your face and then pursuing you with verbal solicitations, and little boys pouting on the street corners when you walk by without letting them shine your shoes. It is an overwhelming scene to say the least but despite these little annoyances, I thouroughly enjoyed the time I spent marvelling at the modern structures built directly on top of the original Inca stone foundations that have lasted impeccably for 500 years through invasions and earthquakes. Just outside of Cuzco, in the Sacred Valley, we visited 5 Incan ruin sights that are easily explored with the purchase of a Boleto Turistico, which is yet another expense that must be paid in order to do the important once in a lifetime historical tours of the area. Saqsaywaman (pronounced sexy woman), Qénqo, Tambomachay, Pukapukara and Pisaq were important ceremonial, military fortresses, and residential communities that are wonderfully preserved. However, reading the brochures and listening to guides makes you realize how little historians really know about the Incan culture despite the fact that there are so many living descendents.

At 6am on November 29th, our Inca trail guides, Russell and Freud, picked us up at our hostel, loaded us onto a bus with 7 other tourists and 10 porters and drove us 3 hours to the starting point of the Inca trail, km 82 in the Sacred Valley. After getting our passports stamped, we headed off on a relatively flat trail for several kilometers in a sprinkling of raindrops that I feared would be a constant during the full 4 day trip since it is the rainy season in the mountains of Peru. My unease at having porters to carry much of my gear was brought out when we stopped for lunch only to discover the porters were already there having set up a giant dining tent inside of which was a cloth covered table, plastic stools, and a 4-piece silverwear set for each person. This was followed by a 4-course lunch of stuffed avocado, a vegetable soup, a meat, onion and rice dish for the main plate, and hot coca tea to finish. Such luxury is unheard of when I hike by myself and being catered to was uncomfortable. The rest of the hiking day was a gradual uphill to a campsite (of course already established by the porters so that all of us lazy tourists had to do was choose a tent) in a beautiful valley at the end of which, when the clouds finally cleared, we could see a snowy mountain and an almost full moon. On day 2, we hiked in sunshine to Dead Woman´s pass at just over 4,200 meters. It was a challenging but exciting hike up many Inca made stone stairs and then down the other side into a waterfall fed river valley where we found our campsite and sat down to 2 elaborate meals seperated by a tea time. In the middle of that night, the rain started and didn´t stop until we reached the third campsite at 1pm. Day 3 is supposed to be the most scenic hike as you climb over 2 passes, walk along a sharp ridgeline, explore several Incan ruins, and crawl through a couple of tunnels. We couldn´t see the snowy mountain views and we got completely soaked but it was still an enjoyable day and the misty scenery that we could see was beautiful. The last campsite on the trail is pretty silly to most hikers who are used to roughing it a bit more. See, there´s a restaurant on the site that plays club music and offers hot showers for a fee. You can also buy candy bars, beer, toilet paper and many other items. I do admit, a beer was pretty refreshing especially after the rain stopped and the sun came out in this edge of the Amazon rainforest section of the route to Machu Picchu.

The final day on the trail starts with a jolt at 3:45am as the porters literally start taking the stakes out of the tents while you scramble to pack your gear, eat a pancake and rush onto the trail only to be stopped in line at the control station and a locked gate that doesn´t open until 5:30am. Brad and I and a Canadian member of our group named Peter, scrambled to arrive at control as early as possible to establish our place in line. There were 3 groups ahead of us and as we waited at least 200 people lined up behind us. There was a lot of anticipation mounting as we waited, almost like the start of a road race. And when the gate opened, people literally started running down the narrow, rocky stairsteps that make up the majority of the trail. Brad, Peter and I are strong hikers and we soon passed every other person on the trail as we sped the 35 minutes to arrive at the Sun gate, the original official entrance to Machu Picchu. All of this rushing was only necessary on that morning because we wanted to acquire a ticket to climb the famous mountain, Huayna Picchu, that appears in almost every picture of Machu Picchu. There are a limited number of passes available to climb this mountain due to the fact that 3-5 people disappear each year while summiting. As we skidded to a halt at the sun gate to regroup, 3 dudes without backpacks sprinted past us onto the traverse that leads to the city of Machu Picchu making us the 2nd group from the Inca trail to appear at the ruin. Even with this mad dash, none of us procured tickets because they had been given out to the tourists who had come on the buses early in the morning. We were disappointed but only for a moment because we had before us the stunning city of Machu Picchu to explore. Early in the morning, there were some sprinkles and the mist obscured much of the view of the city but as the day progressed, the sun made an appearance and it got quite warm and we enjoyed fantastic views of the Incan stonework, the many temples, the famous sun dial, and some llamas that live at the sight! And in the end, we were able to climb Huayna Picchu, a hike that took us up the steep, slippery stone stairs of the mountain to the ruins at the top from which we had an incredible birds eye view of Machu Picchu and the surrounding hills that make up the impossible site where the ruins are located.

Even though there were hundreds of other people on the Inca trail, it was still a stunning introduction to Machu Picchu and I´m thrilled that it worked out so well for us to obtain a pass even without making reservations months in advance! We spent a day recovering back in Cuzco after taking the train back into town from Aguas Calientes in the Sacred Valley. And today I am in Puno, Peru, on the edge of the high altitude Lake Titicaca, yet another highlight of South America. We are on the verge of hopping over into Bolivia where, after spending way too much money in Cuzco, we will be able to live very cheaply for as long as we want! I´ll put pictures up soon.
Happy December everyone!
Love,
Anika

Money Math

2009-11-27T13:13:00.000-08:00

Shockingly almost everyone in South America seems to want money for their goods or services. In my bank account sits the money that both they and I desperately need. Finding the best way to access this money is a recurring problem that I have been studying for the last few months. With globalization on its unstoppable march it is now possible to walk up to any ATM and withdraw money in your choice of US dollars or the local currency, nuevo Peruvian Soles in my present location. Sounds incredibly simple, but lets take a deeper look. A quick look at my online bank statement after my first withdrawl showed a 5 dollar foreign ATM transaction fee in addition to a $1.50 fee charged by the local bank. The maximum amount of Soles that can be withdrawn from most ATMs is maddeningly capped at 400 soles. At the current interbank exchange rate of 2.88 soles per dollar that amounts to 138.88 dollars. Now with fees equaling 6.50 dollars per transation, 4.8% of my money is lost before it even reaches me. Another look at my online bank statement and a little more math shows me that they have not given me the interbank exchange rate of 2.88/dollar, but instead 2.79/dollar. This is a 3.2% gap. If we add this to our transaction fees, we see that a full 8% of my money disappears in the move from Bank of America to my hand in Peru. This was an unacceptable situation; maddening in fact becuase the money simply vanishes and I have nothing to show for it.

After a bit of investigation I discovered it was possible to withdraw larger amounts from the bank tellers. This requires one to jump through a number of hoops, your origanal passport is necessary and also possibly another form of picture ID, driver´s licence; the bank may also want you to produce copies of these document that they can keep on file. But eventually they will give you a large lump sum of US currency. They will then offer you an insultingly low exchange rate which you refuse.

Now you step out on to the street with 500 dollars in your pocket. Your eyes are a little sharper. You are a little more aware of your environment, who and what is around you. Near the banks you find ´casas de cambio´, money changing shops. People sit in small booths advertising what currencies they exchange, almost always only dollars or Euros. Shady looking men sit outside the shops with huge stacks of dirty looking bills in their hands. They try to catch your attention, promising higher rates than the people in the booths. They have no real estate overhead so they probably do offer marginally better rates, but making these transactions on the busy sidewalk doesn´t feel right. You´ve also been warned that many of these individuals are slight of hand artists and operate with ´fixed´calculators to fleece the mathmatically lazy. After entering a number of casas de cambio you decide the best rate you can get is 2.87 soles/dollar, wonderfully close the official rate. You tell the woman behind the glass that you would like to change 200 dollars. She punches some buttons on her calculator and pushes it toward you through the hole, it reads 574. You take a few second as the gears in your head go to work 100 x 2.87 easy 287, multiple that by two...... yes 574. OK, you hand over the two 50´s and one 100. She inspects them very carefully and when she is satisfied begins counting out your money below the counter out of view. She passes it to you through the hole in the glass. Now, when you turned down the bank´s exchange rate of 2.80/dollar the friendly teller lady told you to make sure and check the bills from the casa de cambios. A quick inspection shows you that the bottom 100 sole note in the stack is clearly a counterfit note. It is dirty and worn, probably in an attempt to hide the low quality of the forgery. The real give away is that the purple ink forming the large 100 does not change to black as you tilt the note to an acute angle to your eye. "Este billete no esta valido", you say, handing the note back through the glass. The woman on the other side cracks a knowing smile and changes it for a real note. After one more count you pocket the bills and walk out. It´s one of the only times on this continent you have neglected to say "gracias" after a transaction.

The bank would not say how much the transation fee would be for a 500 dollar withdrawl. A quick look on the internet shows the withdrawl and directly after it a 15 dollar fee, an even 3%. The difference between the official 2.88 rate and the 2.87 is about .3%. So, was this all worth it to save 4.7%? You think so, if only to abate your anger at some faceless corporation skimming your hard earned money with impunity.

Lucuma Haiku

2009-11-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

Lucuma ice cream
Is my favorite thing ever
When it is hot out

It tastes like a fruit
But also like cookie dough
How can that be true?

Orange colored ice cream
Normally is not my thing
Lucuma is orange

What is lucuma?
National fruit of Peru
Chile would argue

I eat lucuma
Whenever I can find it
Almost everyday

Rise and Shine

2009-11-24T16:24:00.000-08:00

Rise and shine, Anika hates that phrase, probably becuase of its repeated use when the need was to rise from a warm soft bed. To emerge from the world of cozy, fuzzy dreams and face the sometimes cruel cold morning. Luckily that phrase was not in Alberto´s volcabulary when he approached our tent at 1:30am. ¨Hola chicos, breakfast is ready¨, our guide said in his mix of English and Spanish. The annoucement cought neither Anika nor I by surprise. We had been awake for hours, Anika had slept none at all since we retired to our tent 7 hours earlier at 6:30pm. The air was thin and the night was bitterly cold. Stones were piled waist high around our tent but at 5200 meters (17060 feet) the cold tendrils of mountain air still managed to reach into our shelter and through the three sleeping bags that covered the two of us. We were ready to get out and get moving.

We emerge quickly after Alberto´s wake up call, wrapped in all the layers we possessed. A clear night sky of stars greated us. A welcome replacement to the overcast sky that covered us when we retired. A few cups of coca tea and a light breakfast were quickly consumed and we found ourselves on the headlight lit trail at 2am. The summit of Chachani stood a little over 800 meters above us at 6075 meters, but we would have to traverse the flanks of two lesser summits before tackling the final, highest peak. We kept our pace slow and steady stopping infrequently and for only enought time to drink some water and eat what little food our disgruntled stomachs could manage. We reached a gently sloping shoulder withing the first hour and began our traverse of the first peak. Our eyes were glued to our feet and the small portion of the trail illuminated by our head lamps. As we cleared a ridge to our left our attension was drawn the sparkling lights of Arequipa, roughly 3000 meters below us. It was somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning and I though of all the people down there sleeping peacefully as we trudged along the steep volcanic scree. The sky began to lighten as we reached the saddle between the first and second peaks, Angel and Fatima. We steadied ourselved with our ice axes, planted into the uphill slope. We began the traverse of Fatima gaining more altitude, with numerous switchbacks. The thin air made itself felt and I was forced to rest more often than my ego would have prefered. Our climbing partners, Emily and Andy, provided well timed encouragment and the four of us pressed on at a slower but steady pace.

Rounding the second peak into the final saddle brought us into the path of a powerful and bone chilling wind. We covered our faces and began the final accent toward Chachani´s summit. My feelings on the switchbacks alternated between a steady determination as I leaned into the wind with eyes downcast, to an almost giddy lightness as I would round the turn and let the wind push me upwards for a stretch. I have never felt so inexplicably out of breath as on that last trudge to the summit. I put my fingers to my neck and my pulse felt as if it were trying to knock my whole hand away. Breaths between each step were needed as I approuched the top. Once again my climbing partners provided needed encouragement. It was a funny feeling approuching the climax of the climb, being so close to the summit, but still needed to rest. There the top was 10 yards away and I was waiting to catch my breath.

Miracously the summit was sunny and calm, as well as free of snow at this time of year. We reveled in the unobstructed 360 degree veiw. We took silly pictures, laughed, and hugged. Anika was all smiles and I´m sure she could have climbed another 1000 meters with little trouble. The sun was starting to make his presence felt and it was nice to have an external source of warmth. We shed layers as we decended, cutting out all the switchbacks and letting the loose volcanic soil cushion out steep plunging steps. By the time we reached base camp 7 and a half hours had elapsed and we were all suffering headaches in differing degrees. A surpisingly short one hour break only intensified the hammering behind my temples and I was pleased to decend further to the road where our 4X4 awaited. The 3 hour drive back to Ariequipa lacked the anticipation of the trip up the mountain, but we suffered the curved and bumps with zombie like stocism, even as the jeep broke down, was fixed, then broke down again.

A day and a half proved sufficent recovery time and Anika and I then booked an overnight bus to Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire and today Peru´s biggest tourist town, providing a gateway to Machu Pichu. We arrived this morning, so far so good. I wish all of you the best.

-Brad

It Doesn´t Get Any Better Than This!

2009-11-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

Many people begin the Santa Cruz trek fearing that because there is so much literature and hype about it and so many people tackle it either solo or with a guide each year that maybe their expectations will be too great and by the time they reach the end, they will feel that it hasn´t lived up to those expectations. I admit, I even had this thought because back in January when I started paging through my guidebook months before we started on this adventure, I had highlighted the Santa Cruz trek in yellow meaning it was a not-to-miss stop in our travels. However, Brad and I completed the trek a couple of days ago and I believe that I have never seen so many natural wonders packed into a mere 30 or so kilometers and 4 days of walking! Every meter farther along the trail or up the next switchback revealed something new and completely amazing!

The trek started in the tiny town of Cashapampa, about 3 hours and 2 very packed colectivos to the north of Huaraz. Cashapampa´s backdrop is massive rock face that soars out of the valley where the town is located and we realized as we got closer that the minute sliver of a canyon visible from the trailhead was our route through that wall and into the Santa Cruz valley beyond. We headed up the trail following the Rio Santa Cruz the whole way. It was a steep beginning as we climbed on a rocky trail beside massive boulders which seemed to have been randomly plopped into the valley and up into the canyon before the valley widened a bit and the trail flattened out onto the green riverbank. We saw several other hikers either walking the opposite direction as Brad and me or we passed them going the same way and everybody had a recommendation for side trips or places to camp. The guided trips on Santa Cruz start from the opposite direction, at the town of Vaqueria, our ending point, so the people we were hiking with were all carrying their own big backpacks with tents, food, and stoves and we ended up getting to know a nice group of people that we would see and camp near throughout the trip. The first night, we camped in a green field beside a massive emerald green lake that filled up the valley and ended right at the foot of a 6000m snowy mountain that peaked through the valley walls and watched over us in our little tent that night. The wind blew pretty hard right at sunset and it was bitterly cold overnight because there was not one cloud in sight, providing no insulation from the cold. It was tough getting and staying warm, but when the sun emerged on day 2, it was hot and I used a shit ton of sunscreen!

On the second day, we hiked farther down the canyon and took a sidetrip that switchbacked up the left side of the canyon and into a higher valley that gave us our first look at Alpamayo, a mountain that the Peruvians brag about as being named the world´s most beautiful mountain this past year. I´m not sure exactly how you can rate a mountain on it´s beauty but apparently there is a such a measurement! Alpamayo is not quite 6000m but it is flanked by at least 4 other peaks that are. And looking behind us down the high valley, we could see at least 5 other razor sharp, pointed mountains that stood out beautifully against the perfect blue sky that accompanied us throughout our second day of hiking! Above the valley, we hiked through a morrine and into a bowl that held a aquamarine lake with chunks of ice floating at it´s surface and a glacier from the mountain just above touching the water at the other end. As we relaxed beside the chilly water, a thunderous crack broke the silence and we watched as a seemingly small chunk of ice from the glacier plunged into the lake! It is very exhilerating to watch a glacier move and we felt lucky to be the only witnesses to that moment. That night, we camped on a meadow below, you guessed it, more snowy, insanely tall mountain peaks and millions of stars.

On the third day, we tackled that highest point of the trek, the Punta Union pass, which is just about 4760m or 15,000 feet tall! It took us almost 2 hours to hike from camp to the pass and once there, we caught our first glimpses of the next valley we would enter. The pass is an unbroken wall of rock except for a notch that the trail goes through that is just big enough to stand in the middle and spread your arms to touch each side! We continued down the next valley to the next campsite, again overlooked by white mountains and we pitched our tent on a flat spot by a river where horses were grazing. We had arrived at the pass just as some clouds were forming and by the time we reached camp, the sky was pretty grey. It rained during the night and the morning looked dreary and foggy. The initial plan had been to hike out of the Santa Cruz trek and then hike to another lake that is on the road out of the national park but we decided that the clouds would obscure most of what we wanted to see at that lake, so we ended up heading back to Huaraz. Plus I had a touch of a headache and was not feeling all that well, so it was great to head back to town. We waited at Vaqueria for a couple of hours and 7 buddies who we had been hiking and camping near us throughout the trek (one couple from Seattle) all finished and we were able to share a colectivo van. The road is so bad, however that each bump in the road sent my brain crashing into my skull and the 3 hour ride started to resemble torture.

Back in Huaraz, after a nap, a large dinner and a beer, I started feeling much better and we spent one more day relaxing before heading out at 9am on a bus to Lima. From Lima, we hopped directly on a night bus for Arequipa, which was a grueling 15 hour trip! I am actually just trying to stay awake right now after arriving a few hours ago so I´m sorry if the description of our trek above is incoherent in any way! Arequipa is Peru´s second largest city and it is directly in the middle of the desert watched over by 2 large mountains, Chachani and El Misti, one of which is the easiest over 6000m peak to climb in the world! It´s really hot here. But from what I have seen it is a colonial city filled with interesting arquitecture and plazas. I´m also hoping to find a good book exchange since I´ve just finished off my 9th or 10th book of the trip and I´m eager for something really good to read! Peru is exciting for sure...I continue to love all of the places I have visited, even the cities have been pretty hospitable and the Peruvian people are extremely helpful, friendly and knowledgeable about their country.

Anyway, check out the pictures of the trek. They don´t quite do the landscape justice but I tried!

Cordillera Blanca

2009-11-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

Even though it has been 3 nights since we arrived in Huaraz, I am still quite happy to be bumming around this colorful mountain city! We have enjoyed three perfectly clear, warm sunny days that showcase the dozen or so 6,000 meter mountain peaks that surround Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca, jutting up just outside of the green valley walls that enclose the city. Especially as the sun sets just around 6pm, the glow of the fading light illuminates the peaks and they are such a huge presence in this place that I feel tempted to climb each one of them! Unfortunately, I don´t think Huaraz will be the place for scaling huge mountains...we will leave that for an upcoming adventure in Arequipe, farther south in Peru. For now, Brad and I are preparing to do a 4 or 5 night backpacking trip in the Cordillera Blanca, a trip called the Santa Cruz trek that has become a big draw for travellers but fortunately we are at the end of the high season for trekking in Peru and we don´t expect to meet too many other trekkers.
Brad has been a bit sick with a cold for these past few days so we have been resting and trying to get in a lot of sleep and relaxation and he is much better today! We actually did a day hike outside of Huaraz today to the Laguna Churup, which lies just at the base of Volcan Churup. The hike took us to a couple of small indigenous villages where they speak mostly Quechua. The women wear brightly colored skirts often embroidered with sparkly threads, similarly colored layers of shawls, and tall cowboylike hats covered with either another bright cloth or some other intricate decoration like feathers or fabrics. I am very interested in the combination of traditional outfits and western clothing that exist in the same space. Sometimes it is the young people that wear sweat pants and fleeces but sometimes they are dressed traditionally and the older women and men have adopted more western attire. The primary occupation in the small towns is definitely farming and raising animals and as we hiked we passed many herds of sheep, cows cutting the grass as they grazed, and burros hauling bags of produce and grains. Leaving the villages, we hiked up a low rocky ridge to the entrance of a massive canyon created by the ancient existence and movement of glaciers coming off of Volcan Churup. We climbed the side of a huge, crystal clear waterfall careening down the canyon wall and ended up at the turquoise colored Laguna Churup over which towered the snowcapped and partially glaciated mountain. Further along the trail was the Laguna Churupita, a smaller aquamarine colored version of the lower lake. It was a perfect start to our exploration of the Cordillera Blanca and I am more excited than ever to start our trip tomorrow!
There are more picture up on picasa though they don´t have captions yet.

Swedes in Big Pink Buses

2009-11-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

So I had just been out in Huanchaco last night sending some emails in a internet place full of 12 year old Peruvian boys playing online shooting games, when I got back to the hostel only to find two huge pink buses parked outside and at least 30 jolly Swedes mingling around. Fascinated by this sight, I observed as each member of the group set to various tasks in arranging the bus for spending the night. See, these buses are specially equipped with beds both inside of them and on the roof, underneath a canvas tentlike tarp that pops up high enough to provide space for probably about 10 people to stretch out for the night on cots! I talked with one Swedish girl who told me that this group had been travelling together in the Pink Caravan for 3 weeks in Peru and had about 2 more weeks to go. They both travel and sleep in the bus so they can cut down on costs and see a lot of places in a shorter period of time. I mentioned that the Swedes were jolly, well it turns out, according to the girl, several of the men had been drinking whiskey all during the travel day. When I mentioned that my dad's cousin started the only whiskey distillery in Sweden, Mackmyra, the men got very excited wishing that they had that whiskey to drink in Peru but unfortunately it is very difficult to get, even in Sweden!
Well, they got their buses set up and went to bed and bright and early at 7am all 30 or so of them were wide awake and ready to start their day and they just happen to be sharing the bathrooms and the kitchen that the campers (ie Brad and I) use so there was quite a ruckus at that hour. Impressively they hauled in all of the supplies to cook up a large smorgasbord that they all devoured before heading out to view the ruins that are in this area. Later, I looked in the trash and saw boxes of cornflakes, bottles of cream, and hard boiled egg shells...all in the true Swedish breakfast spirit! Dad, I thought you would appreciate this story very much!

We are heading to Huaraz tonight on the 9:15 night bus. More details when we arrive!

2009-11-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

Overnight bus trips are long and you don´t really sleep as much as you expect to especially when the bus is driving along curvy, partially paved mountain roads and hurtling down hills in the pitch dark. But overnight trips do save on hostel costs and you get a lot of mileage out of the way in the process. We left Loja, Ecuador at 11pm on Friday and we arrived in Piura, Peru at 7am the next day. At 3am all of the passengers were awakened and ushered off the bus to take care of border formalities - getting our exit stamps from Ecuador, walking across a bridge to Peru, and getting an entrance stamp by a dude in a track suit sitting in a blank room with lizards crawling across the walls and a single lightbulb to illuminate the process. It all felt like a dream when the morning sky started to light up and we became aware of the surroundings in a brand new country! Loja is in the mountains so we had descended to sea level by the time we stepped off the bus in Piura. We then immediately switched buses several more times in Chiclayo and then Trujillo and ended our trip in the beach town of Huanchaco, Peru, a small, relaxed surfing town filled with tourists - both Peruvian and foreigners. This beach, unlike rainy Puerto Lopez, is sunny and warm! And since we are just at the edge of a massive desert that we drove for 6 hours through, the heat is dry and quite perect. Speaking of this desert, I had no idea before I got here that northern Peru, at least west of the Andes, is a huge sandy, flat expanse of desert that goes right up to the ocean!

In Huanchaco we are camping in the beautiful yard of a hostel right on the oceanfront. The tent got too hot this morning so I just took my sleeping bag into the hammock that is set up almost directly outside of the tent and continued to recover from the long bus ride by sleeping for another hour or so, late into the morning. Tomorrow I think we will visit some ruins that are really close, just into the desert a little ways. I am very excited to be in a new country! I am working on learning the new exchange rate for Peruvian Soles and I am listening for what Peruvian spanish sounds like since there is usually a slight difference from country to country! Anyway, the internet is cutting me off now so I will leave you with this...more later!

The way things are done.

2009-10-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

I´ve been pretty hard on my shoes, and unlike Anika only brought one pair. Somewhere on the slopes of Cotopaxi a hole opened up along the outer edge near the sole. My normal behavor when the seems start to come apart on a pair of shoes is to toss them and start looking for a new pair. However, I got these shoes special for this trip and they are just right in so many ways. Also, I´m starting to get into the grove of the way things are done down here. To throw these shoes away would be needless and senselessly wasteful. I have past dozens of shoe repair places as I´ve walked the street of various cities. Once we returned from the mountains I stopped at the first one we passed. Thirty minutes and a dollar later my shoe was as good as new. There was something very satisfing about this experience. I´m hoping to wear some more holes in these boots in order to have the pleasure of repeating it.

Turning 26

2009-10-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

We spent my birthday at an Ecoresort on the beach south of Puerto Lopez. The place was very nice with beautiful Bamboo architecture, a fabulous botanical garden, and even a swimming pool. The rooms were very expensive, but we were able to set up our tent in the corner of the garden and stay for 7 dollars a night. We spent some time on the beach, but the gray skys and thin mist limited this activity. Mostly we sat in confortable chairs and read our books in front of an open fire. Cards also past the time. Anika is getting better at cribbage and the games are becoming more interesting. It has been nice to relax for a few days after the fast paced travel schedule that brought us out of Quito, up a volcano, around a crater lake, and down to the coast in what seemed to be a the blink of an eye.

The resort was mostly empty and the staff had little to do. I played a couple of games of pool with the them and had some interesting conversations. I wanted to talk about Ecuador, but my new friend kept bringing the conversation back to Michael Jackson. What a strange live that guy had.

There are so many more places to go, and so many things that I am exited to see; it is hard to stay focused on the time and place in which I find myself. The comfort and familiarity of home are missed, but novelty and awe take their place.

More pictures are up, and I added a link to them on the right.
-Brad

From the mountains to the beaches of Ecuador

2009-10-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

Back again, finally!

It has been a whirlwind of travel this past week or so. Since that first day in Quito, things drastically improved. We spend a couple of great days sightseeing around the city and getting a lot of important business done. There are a great deal of very old churches and monestaries in the old town of Quito and we saw most of them, at least from the outside. Often it costs several dollars to enter a church so we had to pick and choose which to visit. The one we spent the most time visiting was the monestary of Santa Catalina where nuns live in silence except for 1 hour each day (from 12:30 to 1:30pm) when they can speak to each other about specified topics in the little courtyard outside of their rooms. The nuns also make candies, lotions, non-alcoholic wines and other goods that you can buy through a revolving window so that the nuns remain hidden. I bought a delicious candy called a turron which is made of honey and peanuts. We also visited the museum which has a wide display of religious art mostly in the Quiteño style which, the guide informed us, is characterized by an excessive amount of blood and gore. Most of the gruesome paintings featured fountains of blood squirting from Jesus´wounds with lambs drinking from the bloody rivers. The guide also gave us a look into a replica of a nun´s cell and as a finale, she led us up a windy staircase into the bell tower which gave us a spectacular view of all of Quito´s old town. In Quito, we also visited two outdoor stores where Brad bought a waterproof backpack cover, an English language bookstore with used books which was far superior to any book exchange that we have encountered in hostals, and El Guapulo, a bohemian neighborhood with roads that twist down into a valley that supposedly marks Francisco de Orellana´s journey from Quito to the Atlantic via the Amazon, the first such decent by a European. We also watched the Ecuador vs Chile soccer game in which Ecuador was disqualified from the World Cup.

Preparing ourselves for a backpacking adventure in Cotopaxi National Park took several days in Quito and a very interesting trip to the Supermaxi grocery store where we cobbled together a few days worth of meals suitable to be carried on our backs. We even found peanut butter! And then we were off on a southbound bus to be dropped at the El Boliche entrance to the park. As we hopped off the bus and watched it speed down the panamaerican highway we hoped that the directions we had photocopied out of the hiking and backpacking guide to Ecuador plus the topographical maps we had bought wouldn´t lead us astray. The first day was to be a 9 or 10km hike to a camp site at the Rio Daule where there was water and picnic sites. We hiked and hiked with no sign of a camp site and so we continued along a road that we knew would, and eventually did, lead us to the main entrance road into the park. However, instead of meeting the road somewhere in the middle, we emerged directly at the park entrance station, Control Caspi, and the guard looked at us like we had wandered off of another planet since, according to him, the road we had been hiking on is the old road into Cotopaxi and is definitely no longer used by anyone at all! So, we camped at the park entrance station and at 9 the next morning, we were packed and once again starting our hike toward the volcano, though the morning was cloudy and we could not see any sign of the 19,300 foot peak. We felt incredibly stong striding along that road, refusing all offers of rides toward the interior of the park. Even though we were at about 12,000 feet, we were very well acclimatized having just lived at La Luna for 2 weeks and walking felt great! Soon we came to Mariscal Sucre, where there is a restaurant, a museum and several cabañas. We passed a deserted camping area and it struck us as bizarre that nobody would be camping on a weekend in Ecuador´s most famous national park. We passed Laguna Limpiopungo, a high altitude lake home to many species of birds. And we kept on walking, starting up the road that leads to the climber´s refugio, where those attempting the summit start their climbs. As the slope increased and we started to feel tired, Brad and I scouted out a campsite in the dip between a couple of green hills and set up our tent. We had a sweeping view of the flat paramo that lay below with Laguna Limpiopungo, 2 volcanos to the east, several more peaks to the north, and as the sun set, Cotopaxi showed it´s glaciers and towered over us as we made dinner and prepared for bed. During the night it rained nonstop and there was plenty of lightning and thunder. I felt nervous about the flashing all around us but we were safe and our trusty tent even kept us and our packs perfectly dry. We emerged in the morning to sun and a clear view of the climbers descending from their morning summit victories. That morning we made it to the climber´s refugio at about 16,000 feet and we spent at least an hour enjoying the views, talking to the climbers who had been to the top that day, and drinking a beer and some hot chocolate. When the tourists started pouring in from their hired buses, we began our descent and walked almost all the way out of the park before hailing a pickup truck and getting a bumpy ride out to the panamericana where we flagged a bus to Latacunga. It was a stunning adventure!

It´s hard to transition from the serenity and crisp clean air of the mountains to a bustling city. I always find myself feeling a bit stressed out and slighly more irritable when making desicions. Latacunga has very little in the way of hostels and so we ended up in the Hotel Centro which is just as cheap as most hostels and had a private bathroom and a TV (the first one we´ve watched pretty much since we left Portland). It wasn´t the nicest room and unlike a hostel there was a serious lack of information about the city and the surrounding area, not to mention there were no other backpackers sitting around to relate their experiences and to give advice. We managed to get ourselves fed (although I did have to dodge chicken feet in my soup again) and to book a ticket on a bus the next morning to Chugchilan, a little town on what the Lonely Planet dubs the Quilotoa Loop. The Loop is a series of towns in the highlands that specialize in farming and in other crafts. Some of the towns are close enough together that you can hike between them and some require a bus or other transportation. When we arried in Chugchilan there was a thick fog restricting our views of almost everything but what was about 15 feet in front of us. I was worried that it would be foggy the next day as well and that our plan to hike 8 miles to Laguna Quilotoa would be threatened but the locals assured us it would clear in the morning. Brad and I camped in the yard of a beautiful hostel and spent some time reading in front of their nice wood stove. Sure enough when we woke up, the sun was out and it was a really warm day for our hike. Grabbing some bread and bananas for breakfast, we made our way out of town, into a steep canyon and then straight up the other side. We wound our way along a trail that is used by tourists and locals (as well as llamas) to pass between the little villages. I greeted a little girl in one village saying Buenos Dias and she definitely mocked my accent as she repeated the greeting back to me. We also encountered several children who tried to convince us that we were lost so that they could guide us back to town, earing a dollar or a gift for their services. Clearly, many tourists pass through the area and the local children have learned well how to get what they want from us. Laguna Quilotoa is a crater lake and it is incredibly striking, although I think that because I grew up near the Crater Lake in Oregon, I was slightly less impressed by it´s beauty. When Brad and I got to the crater rim, we were just sitting down to enjoy tunafish sandwiches for lunch when the clouds moved it, it started to rain, then hail, and pretty soon we were in the middle of a full blown thunder and lightning storm that crashed and echoed around the crater walls. We made our way around the crater on a tiny, trecherous trail that passed what looked like a couple of funeral pyres perched on the rocky cliffs on the way to the little village of Quilotoa. By the time we got there, the lake was completely obscured by fog, we were pretty well drenched, and we decided to hire a pickup truck to take us to the village of Zumbahua where we immediately caught a bus toward the warmer weather at the coast.

We had planned to stay one more night at least around Quilotoa but the beauty of not having an itinerary allowed us to spontaneously switch our schedule to match our needs. I really needed to be in the sun and warmer weather so we went west to the Pacific Ocean. But first, the bus stopped in Quevedo, a city that is not even mentioned in the guide book because it has no services for travelers. After a lot of asking around we ended up at a decent hostel for the night but it was on one of the busiest, loudest streets I have ever seen and all night we could not only hear but feel the rumbling trucks passing beside our room. From Quevedo, we got a bus to Portoviejo, from Portoviejo we got a bus to Jipijapa (pronounced hippihoppa), from Jipijapa we got a bus to Puerto Lopez, our final destination, which is where I am right now. Puerto Viejo has been both exciting and a bit of a letdown. First, it is a quiet beach town with dirt roads and a very clean beach in a bay that is loaded with blue fishing boats. We are staying in a bamboo hostel with beautiful plants and hammocks (and cold showers) and beds that have mosquito nets though they aren´t really needed they just look kinda cool. That stuff is all great! The only letdown is that the sun hasn´t really made a clear appearance since we got here almost 2 nights ago. Today was pretty bright and the breeze is definitely warm but I was hoping for some blue skies and sun! I guess you can´t have everything and we certainly do have quite a few very good things. Tonight we ate fresh fish for dinner that was caught by some fellow travelers who we met in Otavalo and who happened to be here too. They went out fishing today and invited us to eat some of their delicious fish! Tomorrow I believe we will be heading just a little way down the coast to another little beach. But now I think it is time to go read my book. In a hammock. With a bowl of fresh pineapple from the market.

Thanks for reading! More pictures are up in the Ecuador section of picasa.
Love,
Anika

A Shaky Start In Quito

2009-10-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Buenas Tardes a Todos,
So here we are in Quito, about 2 hours south of Otavalo and the farthest south Brad has ever been! Since we are going south, I guess almost every travel day brings us farther south than Brad has ever been, but it´s still fun to say! Anyway, we left La Luna, saying goodbye to a lot of people with whom we have worked and spent some great times. It felt a little strange to put on the backpacks and walk down the 4km to the Panamerica for the last time. It was also strange to watch our stuff that we had strewn about our little room at La Luna, get packed neatly into our 2 small bags. I almost forgot that it all fit the first time but nothing has changed besides the addition of a new headband and a coin purse from Otavalo. We easily flagged a Quito bound bus and paid our $2 upon boarding. We arrived at the northern bus station and immediately transferred buses to go to the southern bus station, the one that the Lonely Planet shows us is directly in the middle of the Old Town, a mere 5 or 6 blocks from the Casa Bambu, our hostel. When we arrived at the southern terminal, we climbed into a taxi and upon naming our destination, discovered that we were instead at a brand new southern bus terminal that is way the hell south of town, not at all near the Old Town and certainly a long distance from the Casa Bambu. It was just 3 months ago that the bus terminal had moved locations from the Old Town to the south of town. The cab ride took us to the front door of the Casa Bambu and we checked into 2 dorm beds. Since the main center of Quito is divided into the New Town and the Old Town, we chose the Casa Bambu because it is situated directly between the two, easy walking distance from each and in a very quiet neighborhood up a hill that looks out over the city. There is a roof terrace in the hostel that has spectacular views, a pool table, ping pong, hammocks, and a pretty little garden with a lawn that appears to be made for tents. When we inquired about camping, however, the hostel owner informed us that they are beginning to remodel so they will not allow camping at this time. Bummer since it would be bad ass to camp in the middle of Quito.

This morning, Brad and I awoke after a really great night of sleep (we even got to sleep in past 7:45 which is when we have been waking up in order to open the door of La Luna at 8 and start serving coffee) and we were ready to tackle the various errands we had lined up to accomplish today. First off, after the failed trip to the US Embassy in Bogota, Brad and I figured that the best place to get additional pages for his passport would be in Quito since the US Embassy is located just a few blocks from Casa Bambu. When we arrived at the supposed embassy site, the building could have been an embassy, it had large fences and flags, but none of the flags featured the stars and stripes. A nearby traffic cop explained to us that 3 months ago, the US Embassy moved to a new location waaaaay up in the northern section of Quito (sound familiar?) and we would have to catch a bus to get there. Setting aside our expectations of getting the errands out of the way early, we boarded the bus and half an hour later arrived at the embassy only to discover that services for citizens of the USA didn´t begin until 1:30pm. So we got right back on the bus and hopped off close to the hostel for our next activity, a visit to the Instituto Geografico Militar, which is actually located exactly where the Lonely Planet specifies. And it was extremely easy to obtain and buy copies of the topographical maps that we will need when we go hiking in Cotopaxi National Park and in the highland villages near Laguna Quilotoa in the coming weeks.

I was so excited to start seeing the sights of Quito that the morning of a few setbacks seemed to take forever, and so it was finally time to head out to see the Old Town. I have a few memories of the wide plazas in Old Town from when I was briefly in Quito with my family back in 2005 and I was really anxious to see if I remembered everything correctly. Walking from the hostel, we went south along a very busy, exhaust filled street, Avenida Gran Colombia, until we got to the Mercado Central, a two storey building with food stalls serving up Almuerzos as well as stalls loaded with fruits, vegetables, and meats to buy. Being lunch time, we surveyed the options and sat down to eat a chicken soup followed by a plate of rice, potatos, and more chicken. Sounded just about what we expected until the soup came and the chicken part of the soup was chicken feet and what looked like a chicken head without the beak (Brad actually told me the chicken head part later because I was too busy trying not to look at what was sitting at the bottom of the broth and potatos besides the all too obvious chicken foot). The rest of the meal wasn´t much better not to mention that a woman who was selling juice came up and totally tricked us into buying an additional disgustingly sweet juice from her when we figured it was just the juice that always comes with the Almuerzo. Oh well, lessons learned!

Following lunch, we walked back into the street to head toward the Plaza Grande in Old Town. The drizzle that had started just before lunch turned suddenly into a deluge and we ran up a hill and across several streets to a massive gothic church called the Basilica del Voto Nacional to escape the water. Inside, there were very few lights and the side aisles were so dim and eerie that to see the end of them you actually had to walk the full length of the church. Many other people had chosen to take refuge from the storm in the church too and we stood together in the doorway to watch the weather. Figuring that tomorrow morning would be a better opportunity to do more exploring, Brad and I hurried back through the rain to the hostel, me to do some interneting, and Brad to head out to attempt to get his passport business sorted out. And that brings us to the moment. I´m feeling a bit silly about the restart of our travels after so long in Otavalo but I´m sure we will quickly feel more at ease again.

Hasta Luego,
Anika

Fuya Fuya

2009-10-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

It´s Wednesday in Otavalo and Brad and I are in town for a couple of hours today between our work shifts up at La Luna. We visited a book store but found the English books were too expensive to buy, even used. I found the post office in order to buy a couple of stamps so I could send a letter and possibly a post card back to the States but there were several people in line all waiting to send huge packages of what looked like woven sweaters and scarves so I decided to wait on the stamp purchase. It´s fun to walk around Otavalo on days when the market is not happening because things are much calmer and far fewer tourists are in the streets.
La Luna has been almost empty of guests since Sunday so Brad and I took the opportunity to do one of the many hikes in the hills that surround Otavalo. We walked 10.5km up a road to Laguna Mojanda, a large lake in what appears to be the crater of a huge volcano but is really just a high altitude lake sitting in a basin between sharp little peaks and steep green hillsides. To the west is Volcan Fuya Fuya whose 4260 meter high summit lies just about 2km beyond the lake. When we arrived at the lake, it was cloudy but very calm and after a short sandwich break, we climbed to the top of Fuya Fuya and were greeted with beautiful views mostly to the south toward Quito and down the sides of the mountain to Otavalo and lots of very hilly green farmland. On extremely clear days you can see all the way to Quito, several snowy Andes peaks, and some people even say you can see Colombia. Even without the long distance views, it was a thrill to stand on the peak watching the mist float in and to enjoy the complete isolation and silence of being the only people around. We finished our day by hiking the road back to La Luna. As we collapsed into the hammocks on the porch to rest our legs, the first rain we have seen in Ecuador began to fall and it was beautiful to watch the parched grass and dusty roads get a much needed soaking.
After a couple of days with no guests at La Luna, the place is starting to fill up again and we are expecting almost full occupancy on Friday and Saturday this weekend. For the past 2 weekends, a group of 8 American students and their 2 guides has lived in the dormitory and we have been serving them breakfast and sometimes lunch and dinner which gets a bit hectic (but fun) especially when they all make special requests to go along with the order they place off the menu (instead of just avodado slices on the nachos, make it into guacamole and add a touch of lime, oh and light on the cheese). It´s pretty interesting to meet all of the travellers who pass through on their way to other adventures. We get great information about places we hope to visit and we have a growing list of contacts who we hope to keep meeting up with throughout our travels. Just a few more days left at our job in Otavalo and then it´s off to Quito on Monday. It has been incredibly relaxing to be in one place for 2 weeks and we have made some good friends with the owners and others who have also enjoyed staying for more than just a night or two at La Luna. I think, however, that I will be ready to move on to more travels when the time comes!
Hope all is well and keep up the comments...we love hearing from you!
Anika
P.S. more pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/swiftbradley/Colombia# and http://picasaweb.google.com/swiftbradley/Ecuador#

Let the Good Times Roll

2009-10-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

It has been over a week since we came to Otavalo and six days since we started working at La Luna. The owners are quite nice and the work is not hard. We take orders in the morning for breakfast and bring food out from the kitchen. We keep track of guests' tabs and deal with payment when they check out. We do a little cleaning up at the end of the night, feed the dogs and close the resturant. I have done some repainting of the rooms and some prep work on the walls before applying new plaster. Everyday I move the horse, Lulu, to a new stop in the yard and bring her water.

We were taking special care of Lulu early in the week becuase she was very pregnant. No one knew exactly how far along she was but they knew it was close to a year, which is a horse's gestation period. A few days ago we awoke to find that Lulu had given birth during the night and tragicly the colt was not alive. Lulu was standing next to it and looked extremely sad. I helped dig a grave and we buried the colt; it was a sad morning.

I have been playing soccer almost daily with the local kids and adults; everyone is included in the game. They play with a small ball which I am not used to and the altitude here, 10,000 feet, has severely limited my endurance, but I still enjoy the games a great deal. No one gets angry during the games and smiles are abundant. The people here are some the happiest I have seen in all my travels. They are not rich, but not overly poor. They have maintained their traditions and have pride in their heritage. Family bonds are close and it has been fasicnating to learn how everyone is interconnected. The people here have not abondoned their culture in search of western style materialism. I believe this pride in who they are and who their ancestors were is the source of their happiness.

Work is not hard and most the time there is nothing to do, so we read lots of book and go on walks into town or around the hills surrounding the hostel. The locals are exeedingly friendly and I have had the privledge of several conversations ranging from soil conditions and the need for rain, to lessons in Quechua, the first language of many here. In fact a conversation in spanish can be slow at times as it is possible that both of us are conversing in our second language. We are looking forward to another wonderful week here. See you later.

Two More Weeks In Otavalo

2009-09-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hello! Well, I´m back in Otavalo after one full day of relaxation on the La Luna farm. I literally did nothing but write in my journal, read my book, talk with fellow travelers and the hostel owners, and eat a home cooked meal full of vegetables and other goods we purchased at the market on Saturday. It´s great to have no agenda, it feels very freeing to not quite know what we will be up to tomorrow or the next day. Although having said that, Brad and I have decided to commit to 2 full weeks of working at La Luna. There has been a couple helping out but they are leaving tomorrow so we thought we would ask if they need more help and the owner, Kevin, agreed to let us work in exchange for room and board. Since it is the off season here in Ecuador, there are very few occupants in the rooms and no reservations on the books so our job basically consists of hanging out around the farm from 8-11 each morning and then again from 6-10 at night to help out with serving and sometimes preparing food and keeping track of people´s expenses. We get to eat any of the food we want and we will move into an upstairs room with a carpet, a fireplace, and a balcony that has a hammock on it! I am very excited for this opportunity. It will give us a chance to do a lot of the hiking around Otavalo as our schedule is pretty flexible and Kevin will likely give us a few days to sight see in the area. We will also get by spending very little money although I will have to restrain myself from buying tons of beautiful crafts at the Saturday markets in town! And speaking of Saturday market, we wrote our last posts before we had made any purchases but by the end of the market we had an extensive array of fruits and vegetables, many of which I had not tasted or even heard of before. For a grand total of $5.00 we bought 1 pineapple, 5 bananas, 2 oranges, 2 guayabanas, 1 tomato, 6 apples, 3 red onions, 15 hot peppers, 1 lime, 1 huge avocado, 1 grapefruit, 2 heads of broccoli, 1 pepino (a sweet fruit with a taste between a mango and a pear), 1 unknown fruit with slimy seeds, 1 quarter pound of quinoa, and 3 bagel-like bread things! Since Ecuador uses the dollar no conversion was necessary to see how much produce we got for the amount of money we spent.
Not much more news to report so I will stop here.
Hope everyone is doing well! We love hearing your comments and getting your emails!

Chao,
Anika

Beautiful Otavalo

2009-09-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

We crossed our first border yesterday! La frontera, as they call it in Colombia was a busy place with people entering and leaving Colombia and Ecuador. We had a day full of logistics including transportation on taxis, colectivos (taxis that carry as many passengers as can fit and charge less money), big buses, and a brief walk across a bridge that served as the official border crossing.

Our last night in Colombia was spent at El Sanctuario Las Lajas, a little tiny town just outisde of the border town of Ipiales. There is a church there that was built in the early 1900´s after an image of the virgen appeared on the rock wall of a sheer canyon. The church was built around the image on the side of the canyon supported by an arched bridge that stradles a little river fed by a waterfall. There are many pilgrims that come from both Ecuador and Colombia to visit the sanctuario and there are many very cheap hotels to house all of the visitors. We stayed in La Casa Pastoral which is run by nuns and is decorated with religious imagery. The rooms were just big enough to hold a double bed, which I really think was a mattress filled with straw on top of some very hard boards. It was a beautiful place to finish our travels in Colombia.

Without any problems, we received a stamp in our passports and arrived in Ecuador. Easily, we caught a big bus and rode 3 hours through the gorgeous countryside. We are now staying in a beautiful hostal/farm called La Luna, about 4km outside of Otavalo. La Luna has a lot of space that includes dormitories, regular rooms, and also spaces to camp on their lawn, which we decided to do. It´s fun to take out our tent and have our own little space especially when we can also spend time socializing with other guests in the common areas (which all have fireplaces) and use their bathrooms, showers, and kitchen facilities. We woke up this morning to the crowing of roosters and the sound of a very pregnant horse munching some grass right beside the tent! Also, we have perfect views of two spectacular volcanos that border the valley where Otavalo lies. Today is Saturday and it is the big Otavalo market day. It is a market I have heard about for years from my grandma DJ who visited it in the 70´s and I feel very excited to be here. Brad and I woke up at 6am to walk the 45 minutes downhill from La Luna to be in time for the Feria de los Animales (animal market) which starts early and ends early unlike the crafts and food markets that stay open all day. There was a lot of action among the local people who bring their cows, chickens, pigs, alpacas, kittens, ducks, and guinea pigs to sell and to trade or purchase other animals. Many people wear the traditional clothing of colorful shawls and skirts and both men and women wear their hair in long braids often coverd in woven cloth. It is interesting to be inside of this market that has been happening for hundreds of years in this same beautiful valley. After we write these blog entries, the plan is to stay in town and look at the crafts, purchase a backpack load full of fresh fruit and eat some delicious street food for lunch! I feel super relaxed in this town and I think we will be here for quite a few days, camping, visiting with people and taking walks in the green countryside to nearby lakes and waterfalls.

It is very exciting to be in a new country! I didn´t anticipate feeling a huge difference between Colombia and Ecuador so soon after crossing the border but I do feel a larger sense of security here in Ecuador. The recent history of violence in Colombia is definitely fading away with the increased police and military presence on roads and in cities. There were many police checkpoints on long bus rides where we had to show our passports and Brad got searched but it was all out of concern for the safety of the bus passengers. The Colombians themselves are extremely friendly and helpful but they are quick to remind foreigners of the need to be wary of personal safety and the security of belongings. I think that tourism is increasing and with a few more years of safe progress, Colombia may become a hot spot for travelers because it has so much to offer in terms of natural beauty and cultural variety unique to each region.

With that, it´s time to enjoy the market! The sun is shining and it is a gorgeous day in Ecuador.

I´m not sure what Brad wrote about in his post because we´re not consulting each other, but if he didn´t write about climbing the 15,000 ft. very windy volcano in Parque Nacional Purace then I´ll have to write another entry soon!

Love,
Anika

From Ecuador

2009-09-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

We left you last at Popayan. We departed to the national park of Purace. A two hour bus ride over mountainous dirt roads eventually dropped us at a crossroads called La Cuza de Mina (the cross of the mine). This is a junction with the "main" road, with the smaller road leading up the volcano and eventually to a sulfur mine high on its slopes. We hoisted our packs and began the short climb up the road to the park entrance. We met the park ranger, his family, and their two dogs, Negro and Conga. We explained to the park ranger that we would like to camp for the night and then climb the volcano in the morning. He was very helpful and showed us where to set up camp and explained the eccentricities of trail. The wind was strong all night and neitherAnika nor I slept well. We had pitched our tent under a three walled shelter and the sounds of the tree branches scraping against the roof and wall gave the night a dark ominous feeling. We started out climb a little after 7am the next morning and soon were leaning against a stiff wind. Clouds came and went allowing us to more fully appreciate the vistas when they revealed themselves. Anika was a strong climber and found herself frequently waiting for me. We reached the edge of the crater after about three and one half hours. The wind was blowing about 45 miles per hour and the temperature was slightly below freezing, maybe 30F degrees. We were immersed in clouds that were blowing by us with great speed, coating all the volcanic rock in a thin layer of ice. We tried to peer over the crater rim, but could see little. We were a little over 15000 feet at the crater´s edges, a new high for both Anika and I. Without a view there was little reason to stay and we soon descended out of clouds and had a scenic leisurely hike back to Pilimbala, the ranger station. We broke camp and hiked the two kilometers out to the the main dirt road. After some time we were able to wave a bus down secure a ride back into Popayan, were we got a much needed nights rest.

The next morning we were off again, catching an early bus to the Ecuadorian/Colombian border town of Ipiales. This took 7 hours on a cramped bus filled adults, children, a large rocking horse, and plenty of salsa music. A quick shared taxi ride brought us to Las Lajas, the site of a famous church which we planned to visit in the morning. Apparently the image of the virgin appeared on the rockface overlooking the river and a church was build over the river and directly abutting the rock face. I wanted to look for the virgin´s image in the rock, but today the image is painted directly onto the cliff and gilded with 24K gold leaf, so there can be no confusion as to whether it is there or not.

The next morning we crossed the border into Ecuador. There were no hassles from border officials on either side. We got our stamps, walked across a bridge and were in Ecuador. I feel somewhat more comfortable in this country. By all accounts Colombia has become quite safe in recent years, but I still have been unable to shake some of my preconceptions. It had been such a violent place so recently, I feel this part of its history was not far enough in the past for my comfort.

We are currently in Otavalo, a small town famous for it`s indigenous heritage and the Saturday market. We are camping on the picturesque grounds of a hostel situated on a hill above town. At 10,000 feet the hostel is about 1,000 feet above the town and the views are spectacular. It takes about an hour to walk down into town. I am taking a break from the market to write this entry and it has been fascinating. We started the morning at the animal market, were every manner of domesticated animal is displayed, inspected, and bought or sold. There were crates full of ducklings, baskets of chicks, bags of kittens, piles of piglets, boxes of puppies, and much more. Every so often one of the animals would get loose and go running around the market. One large pig reeked havoc on tables, fences, ankles and calves; avoiding numerous lasso attempts and eventually making a run for it across the Pan America Highway with a number of locals in pursuit.

We have met many other interesting travelers. Last night we had beers with a German/Swiss couple at our hostel. They have been traveling for over a year. Going from India up through Nepal, into Tibet and then Mongolia, across to Japan and then onto Hawaii, from there to San Francisco where they purchased a motorcycle with a side car. They have driven the bike down from California through Central America; then strapping it onto the deck of a boat they brought it from Panama down to Colombia. They plan to ride southern end of the continent and then ride a cargo ship back to Europe. People that this have good stories and good energy, it's quite inspiring.

Otavalo is a gorgeous place and we hope to spend a number of days here, relaxing and planning our next move. The beaches of Ecuador might be in order. We'll see and let you know.

Popayan

2009-09-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

After 2 nights in Popayan in a modern hostel right on the edge of the old colonial district, we are heading east to Parque Nacional Purace. We had considered going to the town of San Agustin (5-6 hours away by bumpy unpaved road) but when we heard of the opportunity to climb a volcano just 1.5 hours outside of Popayan, we decided we will do that instead! We have spent a bit of time talking to the hostel owners about the climb and we feel excited to be doing something that deviates slightly from the standard Lonely Planet trail (meaning there is only a small box at the bottom of a page describing this adventure as opposed to a multi page description about the alternative).
Popayan has been a great relaxing time spent wandering by the beautiful white washed buildings, reading our books all over town (in the plaza, on a hill where we could watch the sunset, in the hostel), and sleeping very soundly even in a 7 person bunk bed dorm situation. I feel very rested and I think I am getting into the travel rhythm now. We have eaten some really amazing vegetarian food in a restaurant that opens only from 12-1pm everyday to serve 4 courses of just one menu per day so it is a surprise each time but most include some kind of fried banana, plantain or starchy root thing as well as una sopita (a bowl of soup) to begin the meal. This meal costs just about $2.25.
Anyway, we are off to the bus station to hop on a bus to the Parque Nacional and specifically to the town of Pilimbala, basically just a park entrance station where we will be camping!

We have a little camera card reader now so we can start posting photos!

Love,
Anika

Bogota to Salento

2009-09-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

Buenas Tardes,

Finally, it´s time for an actual post from South America and my first blog post ever! It is a little after 5pm in the little town of Salento, Colombia. I arrived here yesterday after a 10 hour bus ride from Bogota to Armenia and then another hour on a small bus from Armenia to Salento. It was not part of our initial plan to come to this pueblo but it was highly recommended by the owner of the Playpus hostel in Bogota and so we took the extra little step to make it here and it is pefect! Just a few thousand people live here and it is nestled between beautiful green mountains that all appear to have been terraced and farmed either currently or at some previous time. There is a central plaza with a little white church and colorful cafes and craft shops surrounding it. Leading to the east of Salento is the Canyon de Cocla which we will visit tomorrow for some hiking and hopefully to see some waxy palm trees, which are almost extinct, and thousands of hummingbirds. Last night, when we arrived in Salento, it was raining hard and the Plantation House hostal where we wanted to sleep was full so we ended up at Hotel Las Palmas, the second cheapest place in town in a dormitory with a German guy named Fabi and a fat orange cat named Mono. Today we transferred our stuff over to a pretty little double room in the Plantation House, a hostal on the edge of town with a huge garden full of banana plants, shady trees, and a perfectly placed hammock which I occupied for several hours today in the sun.

Before Salento, we stayed in a hostal in Bogota for 2 nights and had a full 2 days to wander the city and see some pretty impressive sights. On the first day, in an effort to keep myself awake after a night of flying, I suggested a self guided walking tour of the Candelaria district, a bohemian area of town crowded with college students who attend Los Andes University. Brad and I set out in the streets, which are lined with multicolored small shops and restaurants and we eventually found ourselves at the Plaza Bolivar, the main government center of the country, where the congress, courts, the president´s house, the city government and the main cathetral are located. It had been sprinkling all day but by the time we were farthest from the hostal, it was pouring and our raincoats could only keep out so much rain so we sloshed back through the rivers in the streets and took refuge in the hostal with other travelers to drink coffee and play cards.
On the second day, in the afternoon, we rode the Teleferico to the top of cerro (hill) Monserrate that rises almost directly behind our hostal. It was interesting to get a full view of sprawling Bogota and to gain some perspective about how small an area of the city we had seen and to understand where all 8 million people in the city must reside. There was a church at the top of the hill but the best part (besides the view) was a cross made out of moss growing on a wall of trickling water. I felt pretty safe in Bogota, considering all of the safety concerns that I have read and heard about but big cities are always a bit hectic and crowded and it takes a lot of energy and effort to figure out how to get places and what to do. Also, Bogota was quite rainy and very cold. I even convinced Brad to let me sleep in his down sleeping bag to keep extra warm! Even after only 2 days I was looking forward to being in a small town with access to hiking and the chance relax in a hammock.
So now it is time to grab some dinner and maybe a couple of beers (which cost about $1.00 or less in cans from the grocery store) and maybe sit in the square to watch the parade of Colombian tourists who are sure to arrive due to it being a weekend.
After we are done in Salento, I think the plan is to head a little farther south to Cali but beyond that, there is no plan!

Chao,
Anika

Getting Started

2009-09-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Bogota after a long plane flight, first to LA, then to Maimi, and finally to Bogota.
It was nice to arrive in the morning as we had the entire day to get settled. We took a small bus from the airport to the city center. The lack of street sugns made it difficult to know when to get off the bus. When we felt like we were getting close we got off and wandered around the city center. A few helpful Columbians later we had found out hostel and were settled.

We took a cable car ride to the top of a mountain overlooking the city. The church on top was unimpressive as the contruction seemed very new. Across a small saddle on the neighboring mountain top was a statue of Jesus with arms outstretched, he looked like the little brother of the one that overlooks Rio in Brasil. The veiw of Bogota was excellent, the city spreads out in a valley between two mountain ranges. Millions of people live in that valley and froma above the scale of the city is evident. My favorite part of the mountain top was in the church courtyard. Along a shadded wall dripping with water, gardeners had grown moss along the wall in the shape of the holy cross, very vibrant and creative.

We made an adventurous trip across town by bus in an attempt to get more pages added to my passport. As the bus pulled up to the U.S. embassy with the stars and stripes waving over head, the two lone Americans exited the bus, so much for blending in. Arriving at 1pm we were told that the service we required is only offered until noon. The woman at the hostel tried to encourage to call ahead and check their hours. However I wrongly assumed that an embassy would be open to help citizens whenever they arrived. The Embassy was a massive compound stretching for blocks and securely guarded, it served as a reminder of the power and influence of the US in Latin America.

Bogota is the center of Columbia economically and politically. Imagine if we could take LA, New York, and Washington D.C. and squeeze them into one city. A short walk from our hostel took us to a plaza, surrounding which were the Columbian congressional building, the supreme court building, and the city hall for Bogota. Directly behind the congressional building is the residence of the president of Columbia, Alvaro Uribe.

Two days of dodging cars and breathing diesel exuast and we were ready to leave Bogota. Two buses and 12 hours of travel have brought us Salento, from where I write this entry. The trip was only 340km, so do the math and figure out how fast we traveled, but to be fair we had to wait two hours in the terminal in bogota and another half hour in Armenia where we transfered buses. Salento is a quiet mountain town which receives a great deal of tourism on the weekends as Columbians make day trips here. We arrived at night in the rain with lightening and thunder. It was fun to awake to the town bathed in sun with blue skys above. We have a wonderful place to stay and can walk to all parts of the town. We have spent a good part of the day laying in hammocks, reading our books, and looking on the veiw of lush green mountains. the scene changes as clouds pass and the sun hit different ridges and valleys.

We have some adventures planned for tomorrow, hikes up a mountain valley and a hot spot for humming birds.

P.S. Anika looks cute in a hammock, right at home.

My Six Month Dose of Materialism

2009-09-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

These are the obsessively chosen things I will be bringing with me:

2 person double wall tent and pole. Blue and yellow stuff sacks in foreground.
Fleece fingerless gloves with mitten flap cover.
Smartwool boxer briefs.
Black fleece with hood.
15 degree down sleeping bag.
Down jacket.
Water proof mittens shells.
Waterproof pants.
Waterproof jacket.
Smartwool T-shirt.
Money belt with passport, vaccinations records and other important paperwork.
Small frameless daypack.
Smartwool long underwear top
Marino wool long underwear bottoms.
Two pairs nylon lightweight pants.
Silk sleeping bag liner.
Compass.
Thin wool hat.
Warm fleece hat.
4 pairs socks.
Long sleeve cotton T-shirt. The only cotton item.
Wallet.
Sunglasses, cool ones.
Head lamp.
DEET.
Small towel.
Lock and key for hostel lockers.
First aid kit.
Inflatable sleeping pad.
White lightweight, nylon collared shirt.
Cook kit - titanium pot and lid, soda can style alchol stove, and windscreen.
Light weight hiking shoes.
Thin foam flip flops.
Digital camera.
4 rechargeable AA batteries.
6 gigabytes of camera memory.
Battery charger.
Necessary plug adapters.
USB flash drive.
Ipod.
Ipod charger.
2 pairs Ipod headphones.
1 splitter allowing two people to listen to the same Ipod.
chapstick, SPF 30
Sunscreen SPF 30
Water treatment drops.
2 ounces all purpose soap.
Space blanket for use as ground cover under tent and also for emergency warmth.
Tooth brush.
Toothe paste.
Floss.
Pocket knife.
2 single edged razor blades.
Medications - malaria pills (hope not to need), Cipro, wide range antibotic, Imodium, Advil.
waterproof pack cover.
Trash compactor bag, to use as pack liner.
50 liter Granite Gear Meridian Vapor Backpack.

The backpack is the absurdly small looking item with that bright reflective strip on it. I'm pretty sure everything fits inside, but looking at it all laid out on the bed, it seems like a magic trick. That is a queen sized bed for your reference. That's it for the first post, now I can go ahead and send the address out to all you guys and gals. I hope you enjoy reading about our trip and I hope we find the time and opportunity to update this site frequently.