Hola from Cusco! Want a massage? Pedicure? Manicure? If you answered yes to any of these questions Cusco is the town for you. On every corner awaits a young woman soliciting spa treatments and we have quickly had to learn how to firmly say, "No gracias!" or get taken advantage of. Though we have been able to refuse these kind offers of body care, we have definitely been taken advantage of as well. Vendors walk around selling alpaca goods, sweaters, hats and the like, jewelry, handmade belts, gourd carvings, sweets, and the list goes on and on. They always assure us that they will give us "a special price, just for us!" and being the push overs that we are, we have bought their promises along with at least one of each of the aforementioned items. Each day we trudge back up the hill to our hostel, bags buldging, talking about how we can justify the days purchases. Usually we just end up pitying ourselves for our glutonous tendencies, but really everything is very cheap down here and for people back home! Oh dang, there we go again trying to make right the fact that we are alpaca shopaholics. Ughhh! With only three hours left in Cusco, we feel we are in the clear as far as spending more money goes, but alas, we still have a 20 minute walk back to our hostel. Fingers crossed we don´t run into any adorable Quechua women vendors like we did yesterday after returning from the trek. After promising ourselves we were done buying anything, we got 20 meters from our hostel door and bam! she hit us, and hit us hard. We were initially roped in by the offer to learn how to spin wool. It quickly got out of hand and next thing we knew we had bought 6 handmade wool belts. Damn! But afterall, they were pretty cheap and handmade by the precious woman before us.
Let´s jump back a few days. After spending a fortune on Cusco goods, we decided for the sake of our bank accounts we needed to leave the city and get out into the wilderness. At 5:30pm on Sunday evening without doing any research what so ever at the hundreds of trekking agencies, we signed up for a 5 day trek at our hostel. We knew three things: the cost, the destination (Machu Picchu), and that we needed to be ready by 4:30am the next morning. Great! (We´ve definitely noticed a trend in our ability to plan ahead.) So we packed our few belongings, and crawled into bed around 8 excited for the days to come. Our wake up call came at 3:30, lights flicked on, eyes peeled slowly open, and we crawled out of bed already dressed and strapped on our packs. We were off!
We loaded into a van and drove around picking up the other trekkers in our group. 1, 2, 3 people. 4, 5, 6 more. 16, 17 and finally 18 people and our two guides. It was a huge group, but alas, we had no expectations so we weren´t disappointed. We drove 2 winding, bumpy, excruciatingly sleepy hours to our "trailhead", which was in fact a small house where we ate bread and jam and drank coca tea for breakfast. We got into a large group circle before taking off and realized almost every English accent was represented (South African, Irish, British, Kiwi, Aussie, and of course ´merican). We took off up a road that led us directly into dark black daunting thunderheads. Within minutes it began to completely downpour and despite our designer name rainjackets and pack covers we looked like drowned rats and began to speculate whether or not there actually is a raincoat out there that can keep you completely dry. We trudged along for hours, eventually losing feeling in our fingers and toes and wondering if maybe we should have done a bit of research about the specifics of our trek. Eventually the rain ceased and we stopped for some hot lunch, gradually regaining dexterity in our extremities. After lunch we continued along the road happy to get the blood flowing once again. Mountains began popping up on either side of the road and what was that on the peaks? By golly it was snow! We started to wonder yet again if maybe we should have done a bit more research into the type of clothing that was suggested. Our previous thoughts had been "Oh, we´re in Peruuuuuuuu. The tropics! We´ll be fiiiiiine!". Wrong! There was snow and glaciers and icy rain. Luckily we both come from cold environments so what we packed was sufficient. After 16km we found ourselves walking in a glacial valley surrounded by jagged glacier covered mountains. The fields were being worked by a few Quechua families abiding by the old farming ways and cows, horses and llamas grazed on the steep hillsides. Miles and miles of stonewalls divided fields and marked the road and a glacial fed river raged through the valley. Our environment was breath taking and made the rainy morning slog all the more worthwhile. We were in awe and both agreed that having no prior expectations made the view even more spectacular. We camped at the base of Salkantay Mountain (Peak elevation 6250m) and were able to snap some wonderful photos as the clouds cleared and the sun went down. The trip we found out was completely catered as we arrived to set up tents, tea time and snacks, and a hot meal. We were in heaven! So far, so good.
We awoke bright and early (5am) on day two to our cooks scratching on our tent door, offering us hot coca tea to prepare us for the long day ahead. Unable to put our scalding drinks down, we were forced to stay awake, drink our tea and pack our stuff up. Good one cooks! We crawled out of our cozy sleeping bags to brave the chill mountain air and quickly put on all of our newly purchased alpaca layers. Thank god for the persistent Cusco vendors! We rushed outside to snap a few more photos of the mountains in the morning light before eating our breakfast of bread and jam (of course) and cake (thanks to trekker Melanie for being born!). We hit the trail bright and early and began our hardest day of the trek. In order to get where we needed to be we had to go up and over Salkantay pass and in order to do that we needed to first go up and up and up and up. After nearly 600meters of straight up and 20 meters of switchbacks, we found ourselves at a pristine glacial pond aptly named "really cold pond" in Quechua (we´ve since forgotten the actual Quechua word). We took a rest break here where we were able to stare in awe at the towering Salkantay above and its glacial covered slopes. We then schlogged straight up another 100 meters to the highest point of the trek at the top of Salkantay Pass (4200 meters).
At the top of the pass we gave stone offerings to Salkantay along with three coca leaves. After saying "Sulpaiki Apu Salkantay." or "Thank you Salkantay mountain spirit." we made a wish and left our offerings for the mountain gods. It was a nice ceremony that left each of us feeling a bit more connected to each other, the trek and the mountains. It was of course followed by a small photo session where everyone got group photos, photos with the guides, jumping photos....etc. We then began our downhill journey to our lunch destination. It quickly began to rain after we left the top of the pass and the next hour and a half was cold and a bit rushed. The valley was beautiful, littered with enormous glacial deposits and carved out by a glacial stream. Stone walls were abundant, as were horses and cows. The occasional electricityless (??) 3 house communities never ceased to amaze us as we made our way down the valley. We stopped at one for a quick lunch before pressing on to our campsite.
The second half of the day we trekked through the cloud rainforest. It was incredible how drastically our environment changed from high mountain pass to cloud rainforest. As we hiked along next to a very paddleable river I couldn´t help but point and say to Laura over and over again, ¨doesn´t that look fun!!¨. Thank you Laura for your patience! We also passed orchids, enormous waterfalls, incredible geology, weird bugs, neat plants and definitely did our fair share of scientific geeking out. Blllaaaah! We arrived at a small town where our tents were set up and awaiting our sore and exhausted bodies. Somehow we both found the energy to play a few small sided games of soccer...errrr....futbol, before our evening tea and snack time. We gorged ourselfed on popcorn, soda crackers, hot chocolate, and some deep fried goodness, and played cards while waiting for dinner. While playing cards I noticed that everyone I was playing with would say ¨Pass..¨ pronounced ¨Pos¨ and there I was with my ´merican accent saying ¨Paaaasss¨. When I drew attention to this everyone began immitaing Laura and I, saying ¨Oh maii gawd!¨and ¨Wooooooowwww!¨. Before this we had no idea how often we used these exclamations. It became the trip joke and whenever we came upon a spectacular view we bit our tongues and the others filled in the blank for us in their best ´merican accents.
We awoke early the next morning for our easiest day. We hiked 6 hours through the cloud forest, again along a very paddleable river, and to vans that would take us an hour to our next campsite. We dropped off our gear at our tents and then loaded back into the vans to head to the....wait for it....HOT SPRINGS!!!!! Bodies tired, feet sore, and in need of a cold beverage and a hot soak we couldn´t wait to get to the changing rooms that were partially submerged on the other side of the hot spring pools. Laura and I somehow missed the memo that the rest of group got to change at the campsite. We stared in complete bewilderment at the changing shacks across the way and eventually just stripped off our shoes, rolled up our pants and went for it. We arrived at the changing rooms partially soaked and saw that the floor was in fact, water. We both perched on boulders that had been tossed into the room and did flamingo type maneuvers to get into our bathing suits. Finally, and with much anticipation, we finished changing and were able to get our soak on. We soon found ourselves purchasing adult beverages from a 7 year old boy named Antonio. His mother was also selling beers but was at the other end of the pool so we assumed it was probably ok. Things definitely work differently in South America and we jusitified this one to ourselves by saying "at least if he isn´t given perfect change he can work on his math skills....er....ugh." We soaked in a hot pool right next to a terrific rapid on the Santa Alena River and took in the magnificent surrounding scenery. It was an evening to be remembered!
That evening we had a nice quiet dinner outside. As we were polishing off the last of our coca tea a monkey came flying out of nowhere and began jumping from sugar bowl to sugar bowl, stuffing his mouth, and sending the lot of us into a screaming frenzy. Things definitely work differently in South America. The justification for this one was that his name was Poncho and was in fact a pet of the campground owners. After things got sorted out and we all settled down a little bit around a campfire Poncho nuzzled into my arms for a brief moment before ditching me for one of the South Africans. We fell into bed that night completely exhausted.
The next morning we were woken up, not by the soft cooing of our cooks, but instead by the screaching of Poncho who had chosen the top of our tent as his morning post. That, and of course a dog fight. Again, things work a little differently down here in South America. We packed our belongings, thankful for the extra two hours of sleep-in we got and were greeted by a pancake breakfast. Deeeeee-lightful! Bellies full, we headed off up a road, sun blazing, bodies broken, feet aching. We hiked for a few hours and arrived at Hidro Electrica for lunch. This is where people are able to catch a train to Aguas Caliente which was our final destination at the bottom of Machu Picchu. We of course were trekking though so we chose to walk the 3 hours along the train tracks to Aguas. The walk was beautiful through the rainforest and offered us the occasional view of Wayna Picchu, which is the pointy mountain in the background of every Machu Picchu picture you have ever seen. Trains would pass and though my feet longed for a break, I was happy to be walking. With energy coming from someplace unknown to me, we almost ran the final half kilometer to Aguas. Perhaps it came from the knowledge that I would get a hot shower and a soft bed or perhaps it was knowing that I would have to get up at 3:30 the next morning and the sooner I got there, the more sleep I would get, I know not. Either way, the tiny town of Aguas Calientes was a most welcome site and probably looked a lot more beautiful to me then, than it actually is. We ate dinner, said adios to our chefs who were leaving us that night and set off to our respective hostels to catch a few winks before our 3:30 wake up call.
Boy howdy, did 3:30 come fast! Laura and I woke up to the sound of washing machines churning away and quickly realized that it was in fact not washing machines, but the sound of pouring rain on the tin roof of our hostel. We weren´t discouraged however, because we had no expecatations....jk, at this point our expectations were high, but pouring rain just made our final few kilometers to Machu Picchu that much more epic. We threw on our raincoats, put on our headlamps, and set off in the pouring rain with a few others from our group. You may be wondering why the heck we got up so early when Machu Picchu is open all day. Only 400 people a day are permitted to climb Wayna Picchu and we all really wanted the spectacular view that it offers of Machu Picchu and it would be an excellent finale to our 85 km trek. To get to the gate to get tickets to Wayna Picchu it is necessary to start the hour of vertical stairs to the top as soon as the bottom gate opens in order to beat the buses which begin arriving at 545 at the top. So we were in a bit of a race with the lazies who choose to take the bus and not walk the sacred Inca stairs. So, where was I, we were at the gate at 4:15 and it opened at 4:45. This is where all hell broke loose in my legs as I pulled my person up the ridiculously steep, tall and never ending stairs. At one point where I felt I couldn´t go on I heard the drone of a bus engine as it worked its way up the mountain and let out a war cry (in my head of course) in a last ditch effort to find energy to beat the lazies. With zero energy left I arrived at the top and began to worry that I wouldn´t be able to haul myself around the ruins let alone up another 9472 stairs to get to the top of Wayna Picchu and all because I am wicked competitive and couldn´t let the lazies win! Needless to say I was the 5th one at the top, Laura was a close 7th and we got our stamps to go up Wayna Picchu, (the bus riders didn´t even arrive for another 20 minutes after we got there)! Woooo hoooooo! Siesta time.
We met our guide at the top and began our tour of the magnificent ruins of the Lost Inca City. I don´t even know how to begin writing about it as it was perhaps the most incredible thing I have seen with my own two eyes. It was absolutely surreal. A city, perched on top of a steep mountain top in the cloud rainforest, surrounded by river valleys, seemingly unreachable by man. The ruins were remarkably preserverd due to the unbelievable stonework of the Inca. All buildings were built with walls that tilted in at 5 to 7 degrees in order to withstand earthquakes. No mortar was used, but rather each piece of granite rock was worked until it fit perfectly within the matrix of rockwork that made up the city. Terraces cut into the near vertical slopes and the soil that made up each terrace had been transported by thousands of Inca workers hundreds of kilometers through the mountains from the Sacred Valley. Llamas grazed the many terraces and plazas and made the perfect cliche Machu Picchu picture. I don´t know how else to describe this world wonder...it was simply incredible.
We hiked the 45 minutes straight up to the top of Wayna Picchu and got a spectacular view of the ruins below and of the surrounding mountain landscape. The Inca astronomer and his family lived at the top of Wayna Picchu where star viewing was optimal. His terraces and house still remain and were even more incredible in that they were built literally into vertical stone walls. The stairs leading to the very top were terrifying and in the States I´m pretty sure you would be required to be belayed or at the very least, sign a waiver. We bounded down the mountain (hardly!) and finished our tour of the ruins by visiting the Inca Drawbridge which was essentially just a few logs across a stone wall built vertically into a cliff face. The Inca would blindfold the llamas in order to get the animals to even cross the bridge. We figure that anyone who was perhaps trying to attack Machu Picchu made it to the bridge and decided that the Inca were too crazy to be worth fighting. ¨They cross that thing???! F that, they win...". It was yet another mind blowing construction.
We hadn´t eated all day and decided that we had seen all that we could see and were ready to head back to Aguas. Ready to take the bus back (yesssss, we nearly became lazies after 85+ km....) we found out that it was 8 dollars for 30 minutes and decided our legs could do yet one more final push. We made our way down the mountain in a pack of local high schoolers carrying a boom box blaring Eminem and Akon and decided nothing could make us feel more like champions of the world than a little American rap. We crossed the "finish line" when we entered the restaurant and ordered a family size pizza and 1.5L beer each. THIS is the moment we had really worked toward, not some old rocks maticulously put into place on top of a mountain.
Overall, unbelieveable experience. Though we went into it expecting nothing, it far surpassed any expectations we may have had if we had known more about what we were getting ourselves into. The group was wonderful. The sites spectacular. The overall experience, life changing.
With our money carefully stowed away where we can´t possibly get to it for one last purchase, we will make our way to our hostel to pick up our bags to get to the bus station. Off to Arequipa for our last hurrah!
Cheers!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Nothing like watching a vegetarian cut into a guinea pig...
On Wednesday morning I woke up at 6:09 in a frenzy realizing that our alarm had been set for the wrong time and we had to pack everything and make it to the bus by 6:15. If we had been anywhere else we wouldn´t have even made the attempt, but we remembered that things move a lot slower down here in South America and made a run for it. We arrived at the station around 6:30 and ended up waiting another 10 minutes before the bus even got there. Our intuition was correct.
After a 5 hour bus ride, we arrived in Zumba where we waited for the next ranchero (truck with rows of seats in the back that transports people to and from the Peruvian-Ecuadorian border from Zumba). We had lunch with a very nice Austrian couple and we ended up sharing taxis with them for rest of the day. We ended up back in Jaén, our least favorite place we´d been yet, for the night. For some unknown reason, we decided to stay at Hospedaje Perú where we paid $1.50 for a room. If this doesn´t jump start your imagination at what this place was like, it was exactly what you´d expect for $1.50. The rooms made us feel like we were spending the night in jail. The hallways were just wide enough to fit through, they were hot and humid and smelled exactly like the fishy town we´d avoided earlier in our trip. To top off the comforting atmosphere, the lighting was dim and eerie and as if this wasn´t enough, we woke up to the call of a rooster at about 4 a.m. We thought this ended when we left the farm but I guess not. Apparently it´s not completely out of the norm for Peruvians to share their hostel rooms with their roosters. But what more could you expect for $1.50 a night?
Needless to say, we booked it out of Jaén as soon as possible in the morning. We took a colectivo to Bagua Grande and from there took another colectivo to Chachapoyas. This second colectivo was probably the scariest ride we´ve experienced down here yet. The driver was unaware of any traffic signs and didn´t seem to care at all about his speed when it started pouring. Thankfully though, the road was along el Río Utcubamba which had plenty of whitewater. This obviously kept Kit distracted who in turn kept me distracted. Thank you Kit.
We were certainly thankful to make it to Chachapoyas alive. When we arrived, we decided that we want to treat ourselves to a relatively nice hotel (enclosed rooms, internet, breakfast and even hot showers!) after our Jaén experience. We checked into the hotel, went out to get some dinner and headed back for an early night. We´d forgotten how exhausting it is being on the road. The next day we went on a tour to nearby Chachapoyan ruins of Kuélap. Since it is pretty hard to reach and is consequently not very well known by many people, Kuélap is known as a non-touristy Machu Picchu. The ride was completely through the mountains during which we passed through tons of tiny indiginous villages. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Kuélap is an ancient city built by the Chachapoyan (translates in Quechua as ¨People of the Clouds¨) people in the cloud forests of Northern Perú. The city is strategically located on a mountaintop abundant in rocks that were used for construction and overlooks all the surrounding mountains and valleys. It is surrounded by a 12m high stone wall with entrances purposely shaped like bottlenecks to force the enemy into easily defeated single-file lines. The city consisted at one time of 400 circular structures in which 6-8 people lived and other buildings that were used for ceremonies and sacrifices. It was a pretty incredible visit overall and learning about ancient Peruvian culture first-hand like this makes it unforgettable.
On Saturday we went on another tour to some more nearby ruins... at this rate we´re on our way to becoming destroyed. Sorry, I just felt like I had to keep Kit´s bad joke going. Anyways, we first visited Quiocta which is a cave that contains a few bones and ancient artifacts of the indiginous people. However, Kit and I seemed to appreciate the geology of the cave more than the few artifacts we saw. There were tons of stalactites and stalagmites for us to geek out over which I learned grow 1cm every 100 years! Also, in case you were wondering, stactites hold tight to the ceiling whereas you might trip over stalagmites.
Our second visit of the day was Karajía. This is another Chachapoyan site that is located on the face of a cliff. Instead of burying their dead, the Chachapoyan people brought the bodies to this funerary site. In ancient times, the entire cliff face was covered with tombs filled with mummies of the most important individuals. Today the site contains 6 face shaped tombs constructed of wood and mud. The location that the Chachapoyas chose for their dead is very interesting in that the tombs look over the entire nearby village. It was yet another interesting ancient site.
A few days prior to this, we decided that Chachapoyas would be a good place for us to try the Peruvian delicacy of cuy (guinea pig). On Saturday a few people on our tour ordered cuy for lunch and to our surprise, it came on the plate looking far too much like the common, furry pet we were used to from the states. I think this immediately turned Kit off to the idea of trying it but I decided I was still going to go for it. When my plate was served that night for dinner, the cuy was thankfully face down. I didn´t really know where to begin so I just srtarted cutting frantically, which is where the title of this post comes from, (¨Nothing like watching a vegetarian cut into a guinea pig¨). After about 5 minutes of cutting and getting nowhere, the waitor came over politely and said ¨Es más fácil comer con las manos.¨ ¨It's easier to eat with your hands.¨ I felt a little rude since this would be pretty impolite in a relatively nice restaurant in the states, but it did prove to be the most efficient way to tackle it. After about 15 minutes of me awkwardly trying to eat my dinner, I realized that Kit had stopped eating hers and was instead staring at my attempt to be culturally open-minded.
It all went pretty well except for a couple minor incidents. I think it was at the point when I was going for the spine meat (weird) when I nearly poked myself in the eye with a rib-bone. I took a little break after that. I had forgotten how dangerour it was to be a carnivore. A little while later, in an attempt to get at a meaty part of the arm, I dropped my fork and said ¨Ugh I just freaked out.¨ Kit responded saying ¨What happened?¨ I replied ¨I just realized I was holding it´s hand.¨ It was by far the most exciting dinner we´ve had yet and probably the most exciting we´ll have for quite a while. Overall I´d give cuy about a 5 out of 10 due to how extremely difficult it is to actually eat, not to mention how difficult it is to look at a deep-fried guinea pig on your plate. However, I´d give the overall experience a 10 out of 10 for the sheer entertainment that it gave us. We followed this dinner with a couple scoops of ice cream, mainly to help fill me up. It turns out guinea pigs don´t have much meat on their bones.
We spent Sunday catching up on sleep and e-mails and exploring the town, then headed down to Cajamarca on Monday morning. We spent the night last night in a town just outside of Cajamarca called Baños del Inca which has natural hot springs. After a twelve hour bus ride, we spent the night soaking in the hot springs which was just what we needed. At this point we have about 2 more hours until our 16 hour overnight bus ride to Lima and from Lima we´re headed to Cusco. Twelve hours of bus rides down and 38 hours and countless games of Yahtzee to go until we reach Cusco. Woo Hoo!! Our next update will probably be in Cusco so all our best until then! Mucho amor!!
After a 5 hour bus ride, we arrived in Zumba where we waited for the next ranchero (truck with rows of seats in the back that transports people to and from the Peruvian-Ecuadorian border from Zumba). We had lunch with a very nice Austrian couple and we ended up sharing taxis with them for rest of the day. We ended up back in Jaén, our least favorite place we´d been yet, for the night. For some unknown reason, we decided to stay at Hospedaje Perú where we paid $1.50 for a room. If this doesn´t jump start your imagination at what this place was like, it was exactly what you´d expect for $1.50. The rooms made us feel like we were spending the night in jail. The hallways were just wide enough to fit through, they were hot and humid and smelled exactly like the fishy town we´d avoided earlier in our trip. To top off the comforting atmosphere, the lighting was dim and eerie and as if this wasn´t enough, we woke up to the call of a rooster at about 4 a.m. We thought this ended when we left the farm but I guess not. Apparently it´s not completely out of the norm for Peruvians to share their hostel rooms with their roosters. But what more could you expect for $1.50 a night?
Needless to say, we booked it out of Jaén as soon as possible in the morning. We took a colectivo to Bagua Grande and from there took another colectivo to Chachapoyas. This second colectivo was probably the scariest ride we´ve experienced down here yet. The driver was unaware of any traffic signs and didn´t seem to care at all about his speed when it started pouring. Thankfully though, the road was along el Río Utcubamba which had plenty of whitewater. This obviously kept Kit distracted who in turn kept me distracted. Thank you Kit.
We were certainly thankful to make it to Chachapoyas alive. When we arrived, we decided that we want to treat ourselves to a relatively nice hotel (enclosed rooms, internet, breakfast and even hot showers!) after our Jaén experience. We checked into the hotel, went out to get some dinner and headed back for an early night. We´d forgotten how exhausting it is being on the road. The next day we went on a tour to nearby Chachapoyan ruins of Kuélap. Since it is pretty hard to reach and is consequently not very well known by many people, Kuélap is known as a non-touristy Machu Picchu. The ride was completely through the mountains during which we passed through tons of tiny indiginous villages. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Kuélap is an ancient city built by the Chachapoyan (translates in Quechua as ¨People of the Clouds¨) people in the cloud forests of Northern Perú. The city is strategically located on a mountaintop abundant in rocks that were used for construction and overlooks all the surrounding mountains and valleys. It is surrounded by a 12m high stone wall with entrances purposely shaped like bottlenecks to force the enemy into easily defeated single-file lines. The city consisted at one time of 400 circular structures in which 6-8 people lived and other buildings that were used for ceremonies and sacrifices. It was a pretty incredible visit overall and learning about ancient Peruvian culture first-hand like this makes it unforgettable.
On Saturday we went on another tour to some more nearby ruins... at this rate we´re on our way to becoming destroyed. Sorry, I just felt like I had to keep Kit´s bad joke going. Anyways, we first visited Quiocta which is a cave that contains a few bones and ancient artifacts of the indiginous people. However, Kit and I seemed to appreciate the geology of the cave more than the few artifacts we saw. There were tons of stalactites and stalagmites for us to geek out over which I learned grow 1cm every 100 years! Also, in case you were wondering, stactites hold tight to the ceiling whereas you might trip over stalagmites.
Our second visit of the day was Karajía. This is another Chachapoyan site that is located on the face of a cliff. Instead of burying their dead, the Chachapoyan people brought the bodies to this funerary site. In ancient times, the entire cliff face was covered with tombs filled with mummies of the most important individuals. Today the site contains 6 face shaped tombs constructed of wood and mud. The location that the Chachapoyas chose for their dead is very interesting in that the tombs look over the entire nearby village. It was yet another interesting ancient site.
A few days prior to this, we decided that Chachapoyas would be a good place for us to try the Peruvian delicacy of cuy (guinea pig). On Saturday a few people on our tour ordered cuy for lunch and to our surprise, it came on the plate looking far too much like the common, furry pet we were used to from the states. I think this immediately turned Kit off to the idea of trying it but I decided I was still going to go for it. When my plate was served that night for dinner, the cuy was thankfully face down. I didn´t really know where to begin so I just srtarted cutting frantically, which is where the title of this post comes from, (¨Nothing like watching a vegetarian cut into a guinea pig¨). After about 5 minutes of cutting and getting nowhere, the waitor came over politely and said ¨Es más fácil comer con las manos.¨ ¨It's easier to eat with your hands.¨ I felt a little rude since this would be pretty impolite in a relatively nice restaurant in the states, but it did prove to be the most efficient way to tackle it. After about 15 minutes of me awkwardly trying to eat my dinner, I realized that Kit had stopped eating hers and was instead staring at my attempt to be culturally open-minded.
It all went pretty well except for a couple minor incidents. I think it was at the point when I was going for the spine meat (weird) when I nearly poked myself in the eye with a rib-bone. I took a little break after that. I had forgotten how dangerour it was to be a carnivore. A little while later, in an attempt to get at a meaty part of the arm, I dropped my fork and said ¨Ugh I just freaked out.¨ Kit responded saying ¨What happened?¨ I replied ¨I just realized I was holding it´s hand.¨ It was by far the most exciting dinner we´ve had yet and probably the most exciting we´ll have for quite a while. Overall I´d give cuy about a 5 out of 10 due to how extremely difficult it is to actually eat, not to mention how difficult it is to look at a deep-fried guinea pig on your plate. However, I´d give the overall experience a 10 out of 10 for the sheer entertainment that it gave us. We followed this dinner with a couple scoops of ice cream, mainly to help fill me up. It turns out guinea pigs don´t have much meat on their bones.
We spent Sunday catching up on sleep and e-mails and exploring the town, then headed down to Cajamarca on Monday morning. We spent the night last night in a town just outside of Cajamarca called Baños del Inca which has natural hot springs. After a twelve hour bus ride, we spent the night soaking in the hot springs which was just what we needed. At this point we have about 2 more hours until our 16 hour overnight bus ride to Lima and from Lima we´re headed to Cusco. Twelve hours of bus rides down and 38 hours and countless games of Yahtzee to go until we reach Cusco. Woo Hoo!! Our next update will probably be in Cusco so all our best until then! Mucho amor!!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Farewell Neverland!
Today was a sad day as we parted ways with Neverland Farm and our new friends. However, before I talk about the sad stuff, I will fill you in on what has happened in the last two/three weeks since our last post...
The School- For the last two weeks we were able to get into the Tumianuma elementary school to teach English and computer skills. There are 4 different classes, Jardin (kindergarten), 2nd-3rd, 4th-5th, and 6th-7th. We ended up mostly teaching English as the computers were difficult to use and frustrating for the kids. Our first day at school was very interesting. We had the youngest kids for an hour of English which is a long time for 5 year old attention spans. We definitely overwhelmed them with too many words and not enough songs and games. We then went to the 6th and 7th grade classroom. We had them for an hour and a half with no teacher in the room to ensure good behavior. Three of the boys in the class definitely took advantage of this situation. If you find it hard to discipline kids, try it in another language that you don´t have a complete grasp on. Boy howdy was it tough! We got through some simple phrases and a bit of vocab with them but we left the school feeling a bit down about the day and not too excited to devote every morning for the next two weeks to trying to discipline kids. After a day at the school, we now knew what to expect, so we decided we needed a new plan of attack for teaching. We came up with songs, games, vocab and phrases to make the teaching more organized and we learned a few important words (basta! = enough! and afuera! = outside!) in case anyone acted up. Our second day at the school was magical! We had the youngest kids for 30 minutes and we played a delightful game in which we would yell out a color and the kids would have to run to that color block which we had set out around the playground. They did wonderfully and we had no problem with short attention spans. We then had the 2nd/3rd graders and they were wonderful! So adorable and excited to learn. We drew animals on the board and they would get so excited when they could guess what it was and would yell out what it was in Spanish then we would tell them what it was in English. They were really curious and wonderfully behaved. They would copy down the drawings and words we wrote on the board and run up and show us what they had drawn. It was quite cute! We then went back into the 6th/7th grade room and to our delight they were well behaved also! We left school feeling great about the day and excited to keep going. From that day on we loved every day we got to go into school. We played soccer, volleyball and jumped rope at recess and each day would walk home with the kids. They loved to take pictures with our cameras and actually took some really nice photos! It was difficult to say goodbye today. We brought in three new volunteers to introduce them to the teachers and students and it was sad to explain that we wouldn´t be back. It was amazing how much we had learned about a lot of students too...¨this one is really good at soccer....this one loves the color yellow...this one is a bully...this one gets picked on but is wonderfully smart...etc. etc. etc.¨ We got really invested in some of the kids and hope to be able to return to see them in a few years. We are working hard to figure out how to open up the communication for our parents schools at home and the Tumianuma school and are in the process of raising some money in order to buy a battery (the last missing link) to bring internet to the entire mountain community of Tumianuma. If you have any cash sitting around burning a hole in your wallet we are trying to raise about $500 dollars to get the internet up and going, so let us know! Our hope is that we can help purchase the battery for the internet, which will be crucial to starting up the idea of having sister schools in different countries and make that connection much easier to maintain. At any rate, we are sad to have left but are thankful for the time that we got to spend with those kids!
The Farm- The farm has been lovely in the last two weeks. We have planted, harvested, gone fruit picking, gone swimming, worked with the horses, cooked bountiful meals from obscure ingredients (including an avocado cake!), made adobe bricks, painted, and through it all made some darn good friends. Perhaps our favorite job was working with Daniel to irrigate the garden. We do so very simply by opening and closing different ditches and then by walking around the crops digging smaller ditches to channel the water to each different plant. It is fun work and is a lot like putting together a puzzle. Any job was fun if we got to work with Daniel though! He grew up in Quito and went to University to get a degree in farm management. He is passionate about what he does and was an incredibly patient teacher. He became a close friend and we will both miss him dearly. He owns some property in the cloud rainforest and is planning on opening up a nature reserve and wildlife rescue center within the next 5 years. We plan on coming back to visit him for sure!
The Mountain- This past weekend we finally got up into the mountains to the Inca ruins near the farm. Seven of us, our guide (and friend from the farm) and our two horses loaded with gear all set out for the 5 hour hike to the ruins. We had heard it was steep and boy howdy was it!! Up up up up up and more up! My spirit was free up there though. With each vista increasing in beauty as we went, I couldn´t help but break into song (The hills are alive with the sound of muuuuusssiiiiiiiccc! aaahhh ahhh aaah ahhhh!¨) much to everyone´s dismay. It was incredible. My legs burned and my heart sang...I felt so alive! We climbed higher and higher and eventually came to a pine forest which looked, smelled, and sounded exactly like home. It made me nostalgic for the days I have spent backpacking with my Dad in Montana. I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in Ecuador! We ate the most bizarre lunch I have ever had, hard boiled eggs, yucca cakes, rice, mayonaise, ketchup, pb&j sandwiches, and cheese. Needless to say, we had to siesta before we got back to hiking. After a short nap we put on our packs and finished the hike to a small abandoned house where we spent the night. We ate an early dinner as we all worked up an apatite on the hike. With nothing to do Patricio taught us a game called Three in a Row which is essentially a complicated version of Tic-Tac-Toe. Tina had warned us never to enter into a gambling game with Patricio saying ¨Just don´t do it. You will lose.¨ but we disregarded her warning and when a bottle of Zhumir (Ecuadorian adult beverage) was produced we knew we were in for it. We played the game for hours and had a terrific night losing game after game after game to Patricio. Tina was right! We slept outside under the starless cloudy sky and just hoped there wouldn´t be rain. We were lucky and stayed dry but had an early and obnoxious wake up call from a swarm of blood thirsty mosquitos. We ate breakfast, packed our stuff and headed for the ruins. If you are picturing ruins like Machu Picchu, you may be a bit disappointed. The ruins were small but the nature of the trip was unreal. Private guide, overnight trip, mountains to ourselves, ruins to ourselves...unbelievable! The ruins were simple but important to the Inca. They consisted of three circles within each other. On the outside of the center circle there were stairs up to where a throne had been where the Inca Mayor sat to oversee sacrifices. The mountains were sacred to the Inca and they often preformed human sacrifice as offerings to the mountain gods. I can´t even begin to express the feeling I had standing on top of a mountain, in the center of ancient Inca ruins where many before me had died as offerings to the gods of the mountain. It was intense and real and beautiful. After my moment of awe passed, we acted out the parts. Patricio was the Inca king, Leah the one chosen to make the sacrifice and Laura, of course, the sacrificial victim. We got some good pictures and had some good laughs. We pressed on, passing through grassy meadows, pine forests, and out onto the steep ridgeline that would return us to Neverland. It was truly an incredible experience and one that will last on in my memory forever.
To Peru- With the help of Daniel and his sister who is a travel agent we were able to look up Galapagos packages. Much to our dismay we weren´t able to find a cheap enough trip and so we are going to miss visiting there on this trip. We keep saying that it will just be a good excuse to have to come back to Ecuador some day. So...we are heading back to Peru! The plan is to go to Chachapoyas in Northern Peru. Rumor has it, Chachapoyas is nearly as magnificent as Machu Picchu, but less touristy, so we are excited to go see more ruins. From there we plan on heading to Southern Peru to visit Arequipa (home of the deepest Canyon in the world), Cuzco and Machu Picchu. By the end of this trip we are going to be RUINed. Hehe. Sorry for the bad pun, but I have been waiting to use it for several paragraphs now.
We will hopefully have more consistent internet from here on out so we will try to update the blog more often. We both have some amazing pictures as well, but the internet cafe here doesn´t allow picture downloads. So we will post some as soon as we can. We are now over halfway through our trip and can´t believe how fast it is flying by. What a wonderful first month!
To those of you who are experiencing snow, enjoy it for us. We both have sunburned faces and necks and are missing the excitement of the first snow!
All of our love! More soon...
The School- For the last two weeks we were able to get into the Tumianuma elementary school to teach English and computer skills. There are 4 different classes, Jardin (kindergarten), 2nd-3rd, 4th-5th, and 6th-7th. We ended up mostly teaching English as the computers were difficult to use and frustrating for the kids. Our first day at school was very interesting. We had the youngest kids for an hour of English which is a long time for 5 year old attention spans. We definitely overwhelmed them with too many words and not enough songs and games. We then went to the 6th and 7th grade classroom. We had them for an hour and a half with no teacher in the room to ensure good behavior. Three of the boys in the class definitely took advantage of this situation. If you find it hard to discipline kids, try it in another language that you don´t have a complete grasp on. Boy howdy was it tough! We got through some simple phrases and a bit of vocab with them but we left the school feeling a bit down about the day and not too excited to devote every morning for the next two weeks to trying to discipline kids. After a day at the school, we now knew what to expect, so we decided we needed a new plan of attack for teaching. We came up with songs, games, vocab and phrases to make the teaching more organized and we learned a few important words (basta! = enough! and afuera! = outside!) in case anyone acted up. Our second day at the school was magical! We had the youngest kids for 30 minutes and we played a delightful game in which we would yell out a color and the kids would have to run to that color block which we had set out around the playground. They did wonderfully and we had no problem with short attention spans. We then had the 2nd/3rd graders and they were wonderful! So adorable and excited to learn. We drew animals on the board and they would get so excited when they could guess what it was and would yell out what it was in Spanish then we would tell them what it was in English. They were really curious and wonderfully behaved. They would copy down the drawings and words we wrote on the board and run up and show us what they had drawn. It was quite cute! We then went back into the 6th/7th grade room and to our delight they were well behaved also! We left school feeling great about the day and excited to keep going. From that day on we loved every day we got to go into school. We played soccer, volleyball and jumped rope at recess and each day would walk home with the kids. They loved to take pictures with our cameras and actually took some really nice photos! It was difficult to say goodbye today. We brought in three new volunteers to introduce them to the teachers and students and it was sad to explain that we wouldn´t be back. It was amazing how much we had learned about a lot of students too...¨this one is really good at soccer....this one loves the color yellow...this one is a bully...this one gets picked on but is wonderfully smart...etc. etc. etc.¨ We got really invested in some of the kids and hope to be able to return to see them in a few years. We are working hard to figure out how to open up the communication for our parents schools at home and the Tumianuma school and are in the process of raising some money in order to buy a battery (the last missing link) to bring internet to the entire mountain community of Tumianuma. If you have any cash sitting around burning a hole in your wallet we are trying to raise about $500 dollars to get the internet up and going, so let us know! Our hope is that we can help purchase the battery for the internet, which will be crucial to starting up the idea of having sister schools in different countries and make that connection much easier to maintain. At any rate, we are sad to have left but are thankful for the time that we got to spend with those kids!
The Farm- The farm has been lovely in the last two weeks. We have planted, harvested, gone fruit picking, gone swimming, worked with the horses, cooked bountiful meals from obscure ingredients (including an avocado cake!), made adobe bricks, painted, and through it all made some darn good friends. Perhaps our favorite job was working with Daniel to irrigate the garden. We do so very simply by opening and closing different ditches and then by walking around the crops digging smaller ditches to channel the water to each different plant. It is fun work and is a lot like putting together a puzzle. Any job was fun if we got to work with Daniel though! He grew up in Quito and went to University to get a degree in farm management. He is passionate about what he does and was an incredibly patient teacher. He became a close friend and we will both miss him dearly. He owns some property in the cloud rainforest and is planning on opening up a nature reserve and wildlife rescue center within the next 5 years. We plan on coming back to visit him for sure!
The Mountain- This past weekend we finally got up into the mountains to the Inca ruins near the farm. Seven of us, our guide (and friend from the farm) and our two horses loaded with gear all set out for the 5 hour hike to the ruins. We had heard it was steep and boy howdy was it!! Up up up up up and more up! My spirit was free up there though. With each vista increasing in beauty as we went, I couldn´t help but break into song (The hills are alive with the sound of muuuuusssiiiiiiiccc! aaahhh ahhh aaah ahhhh!¨) much to everyone´s dismay. It was incredible. My legs burned and my heart sang...I felt so alive! We climbed higher and higher and eventually came to a pine forest which looked, smelled, and sounded exactly like home. It made me nostalgic for the days I have spent backpacking with my Dad in Montana. I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in Ecuador! We ate the most bizarre lunch I have ever had, hard boiled eggs, yucca cakes, rice, mayonaise, ketchup, pb&j sandwiches, and cheese. Needless to say, we had to siesta before we got back to hiking. After a short nap we put on our packs and finished the hike to a small abandoned house where we spent the night. We ate an early dinner as we all worked up an apatite on the hike. With nothing to do Patricio taught us a game called Three in a Row which is essentially a complicated version of Tic-Tac-Toe. Tina had warned us never to enter into a gambling game with Patricio saying ¨Just don´t do it. You will lose.¨ but we disregarded her warning and when a bottle of Zhumir (Ecuadorian adult beverage) was produced we knew we were in for it. We played the game for hours and had a terrific night losing game after game after game to Patricio. Tina was right! We slept outside under the starless cloudy sky and just hoped there wouldn´t be rain. We were lucky and stayed dry but had an early and obnoxious wake up call from a swarm of blood thirsty mosquitos. We ate breakfast, packed our stuff and headed for the ruins. If you are picturing ruins like Machu Picchu, you may be a bit disappointed. The ruins were small but the nature of the trip was unreal. Private guide, overnight trip, mountains to ourselves, ruins to ourselves...unbelievable! The ruins were simple but important to the Inca. They consisted of three circles within each other. On the outside of the center circle there were stairs up to where a throne had been where the Inca Mayor sat to oversee sacrifices. The mountains were sacred to the Inca and they often preformed human sacrifice as offerings to the mountain gods. I can´t even begin to express the feeling I had standing on top of a mountain, in the center of ancient Inca ruins where many before me had died as offerings to the gods of the mountain. It was intense and real and beautiful. After my moment of awe passed, we acted out the parts. Patricio was the Inca king, Leah the one chosen to make the sacrifice and Laura, of course, the sacrificial victim. We got some good pictures and had some good laughs. We pressed on, passing through grassy meadows, pine forests, and out onto the steep ridgeline that would return us to Neverland. It was truly an incredible experience and one that will last on in my memory forever.
To Peru- With the help of Daniel and his sister who is a travel agent we were able to look up Galapagos packages. Much to our dismay we weren´t able to find a cheap enough trip and so we are going to miss visiting there on this trip. We keep saying that it will just be a good excuse to have to come back to Ecuador some day. So...we are heading back to Peru! The plan is to go to Chachapoyas in Northern Peru. Rumor has it, Chachapoyas is nearly as magnificent as Machu Picchu, but less touristy, so we are excited to go see more ruins. From there we plan on heading to Southern Peru to visit Arequipa (home of the deepest Canyon in the world), Cuzco and Machu Picchu. By the end of this trip we are going to be RUINed. Hehe. Sorry for the bad pun, but I have been waiting to use it for several paragraphs now.
We will hopefully have more consistent internet from here on out so we will try to update the blog more often. We both have some amazing pictures as well, but the internet cafe here doesn´t allow picture downloads. So we will post some as soon as we can. We are now over halfway through our trip and can´t believe how fast it is flying by. What a wonderful first month!
To those of you who are experiencing snow, enjoy it for us. We both have sunburned faces and necks and are missing the excitement of the first snow!
All of our love! More soon...
Monday, October 18, 2010
Wow, Neverland is so absolutely incredible!!!! At the moment we´re in Vilcabamba- a town in Ecuador known as the valley of longevity. It´s full of Gringos and is super laid back- the location and the vibe of this place is likely why so many people live forever here. Our entire ride from the Ecuadorian border was gorgeous. It was up and down, back and forth traversing through the Andes... I couldn´t tell you how many times I said "Holy crap this is unbelievable."
We stayed the night last night in a really sweet hostel that was super eco-touristy and comfortable. The next day we took a bus to Tumianuma. When we got on the bus, a bunch of young kids were getting on at the same time and we realized we were literally hitching a ride on their school bus. It was pretty crazy and reminded me of elementary school bus rides back in the day. A little while later before we left, this crazy man got on and was trying to sell a bunch of snacks. He came by and literally placed baggies of candied peanuts in our laps without asking if we wanted them. I instantly thought "Sweet, free treats!" Obviously they weren´t free and in a couple of seconds he came back down the aisle asking for us to pay for them. They were only 50 cents so we just bought them but it was pretty funny how confused we were. It was a 45 minute ride to Tumianuma and we were dropped off in the middle of this deserted-looking town. The directions from the website told us to find Gloria (they told us we couldn´t miss her, she was a tiny old woman withwarm brown eyes... like every older woman down here) and she would guide us in the right direction. When we got off the bus, every older woman in the tiny town poked their heads out of their houses to check us out. They kindly pointed us toward Gloria´s house where we found 2 adorable, shoeless little boys as curious as ever. They told us she was out of town and we just kind of stood there for a little trying to figure out what to do. Then, thankfully Daniel, the farm manager of Neverland walked around the corner and introduced himself and asked if we were going to the farm. He let us leave our heavy bags at Gloria´s and they´d send a horse later for it all.
The farm was a 40 minute walk from town and is nestled in an incredible part of the valley. There is a river right near the property and a small creek runs right through the farm- couldn´t be a more perfect location. The farm has tons of fruit trees (bananas, mango, zapote (custard apple maybe?), guava, papaya, avocado), lettuce, yucca, cabbage, carrots, arugula, tons of chickens and cows, 2 horses... the list goes on. There are a few different plots of garden and the first day we worked on a new plot where they´re going to plant corn, beans and squash (The three sisters!). We got up at 6:45, had breakfast (oatmeal with zapote and panela (non-refined sugar from sugar cane- kind of like molasses/honey) and went to the field at 7:30. After the morning in the field, I went back to la cocina to prepare lunch for everyone with one of the other volunteers. Lunch was so fresh and so yummy! Every meal we eat is about 90% from the farm- just like home! :)
After lunch we chilled for a little and then did some less strenuous work since the afternoons are super hot here. I helped prepare a garden bed in part of the garden that´s being reworked. This entailed shoveling compost onto the beds, covering it with straw and then covering that with yucca branches to keep the straw on. It was a pretty streuous first day so when we finished for the day we took a dip in the river to cool off and then went back to hang out a little before dinner.
On the second day we learned a little bit more about what the farm is all about. Daniel had us chop and shovel dried manure and this lead to a long skeptical conversation between Kit and I about why the frick we came to Ecuador to chop manure for this community we were only going to be a part of for 3 weeks. Literally in the middle of this conversation, Daniel walked up to us and started explaining exactly why we were doing what we were doing. He told us about how incredible cows are for converting grass to milk, meat and manure. He explained the importance of using manure as a fertilizer and by using it on this farm he hoped to spread the message to nearby farmers who have been forced to switch to synthetic fertilizers. We felt a lot better after this chat and chopped the poop with a lot more enthusiasm than before!
After this was done both Kit and I worked with the irrigation system. Throughout the garden area there are channels dug from the creek that lead to every trench in between the beds so the water is distributed. We went through and made sure the channels were all clear of leaves and grass and getting enough water to the different beds. It´s such an interesting system and it was really fun to work on.
We had the past two days off which has been really nice to catch up on rest and relax a little. Today we came into town with Tina and were finally able to give the shoes and balls we´d collected before the trip to the local school kids. What an experience! It was such a simple donation but it made the kids so happy! Seeing the kids wearing the shoes and playing with the balls was even more heart-warming than I expected and I´m hoping we can continue sending simple donations like these in the future. We´re hoping to be able to set-up a sister school system with both schools in Montana and New York as a sort of pen-pal/donation deal which would be great. This is in the works as we speak and I´m sure there will be more on this later. For now, we need to catch a ride back up to the farm for a week full of construction. We´re building a house on the farm for Daniel and he is leaving for the week so we´re hoping to finish it by the time he returns.
Mucho amor y hasta pronto,
Laura y Kit
We stayed the night last night in a really sweet hostel that was super eco-touristy and comfortable. The next day we took a bus to Tumianuma. When we got on the bus, a bunch of young kids were getting on at the same time and we realized we were literally hitching a ride on their school bus. It was pretty crazy and reminded me of elementary school bus rides back in the day. A little while later before we left, this crazy man got on and was trying to sell a bunch of snacks. He came by and literally placed baggies of candied peanuts in our laps without asking if we wanted them. I instantly thought "Sweet, free treats!" Obviously they weren´t free and in a couple of seconds he came back down the aisle asking for us to pay for them. They were only 50 cents so we just bought them but it was pretty funny how confused we were. It was a 45 minute ride to Tumianuma and we were dropped off in the middle of this deserted-looking town. The directions from the website told us to find Gloria (they told us we couldn´t miss her, she was a tiny old woman withwarm brown eyes... like every older woman down here) and she would guide us in the right direction. When we got off the bus, every older woman in the tiny town poked their heads out of their houses to check us out. They kindly pointed us toward Gloria´s house where we found 2 adorable, shoeless little boys as curious as ever. They told us she was out of town and we just kind of stood there for a little trying to figure out what to do. Then, thankfully Daniel, the farm manager of Neverland walked around the corner and introduced himself and asked if we were going to the farm. He let us leave our heavy bags at Gloria´s and they´d send a horse later for it all.
The farm was a 40 minute walk from town and is nestled in an incredible part of the valley. There is a river right near the property and a small creek runs right through the farm- couldn´t be a more perfect location. The farm has tons of fruit trees (bananas, mango, zapote (custard apple maybe?), guava, papaya, avocado), lettuce, yucca, cabbage, carrots, arugula, tons of chickens and cows, 2 horses... the list goes on. There are a few different plots of garden and the first day we worked on a new plot where they´re going to plant corn, beans and squash (The three sisters!). We got up at 6:45, had breakfast (oatmeal with zapote and panela (non-refined sugar from sugar cane- kind of like molasses/honey) and went to the field at 7:30. After the morning in the field, I went back to la cocina to prepare lunch for everyone with one of the other volunteers. Lunch was so fresh and so yummy! Every meal we eat is about 90% from the farm- just like home! :)
After lunch we chilled for a little and then did some less strenuous work since the afternoons are super hot here. I helped prepare a garden bed in part of the garden that´s being reworked. This entailed shoveling compost onto the beds, covering it with straw and then covering that with yucca branches to keep the straw on. It was a pretty streuous first day so when we finished for the day we took a dip in the river to cool off and then went back to hang out a little before dinner.
On the second day we learned a little bit more about what the farm is all about. Daniel had us chop and shovel dried manure and this lead to a long skeptical conversation between Kit and I about why the frick we came to Ecuador to chop manure for this community we were only going to be a part of for 3 weeks. Literally in the middle of this conversation, Daniel walked up to us and started explaining exactly why we were doing what we were doing. He told us about how incredible cows are for converting grass to milk, meat and manure. He explained the importance of using manure as a fertilizer and by using it on this farm he hoped to spread the message to nearby farmers who have been forced to switch to synthetic fertilizers. We felt a lot better after this chat and chopped the poop with a lot more enthusiasm than before!
After this was done both Kit and I worked with the irrigation system. Throughout the garden area there are channels dug from the creek that lead to every trench in between the beds so the water is distributed. We went through and made sure the channels were all clear of leaves and grass and getting enough water to the different beds. It´s such an interesting system and it was really fun to work on.
We had the past two days off which has been really nice to catch up on rest and relax a little. Today we came into town with Tina and were finally able to give the shoes and balls we´d collected before the trip to the local school kids. What an experience! It was such a simple donation but it made the kids so happy! Seeing the kids wearing the shoes and playing with the balls was even more heart-warming than I expected and I´m hoping we can continue sending simple donations like these in the future. We´re hoping to be able to set-up a sister school system with both schools in Montana and New York as a sort of pen-pal/donation deal which would be great. This is in the works as we speak and I´m sure there will be more on this later. For now, we need to catch a ride back up to the farm for a week full of construction. We´re building a house on the farm for Daniel and he is leaving for the week so we´re hoping to finish it by the time he returns.
Mucho amor y hasta pronto,
Laura y Kit
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The latest
Wednesday October 13th
So we've had an eventful couple of days. We took a bus to jaen where
we were clearly the first gringos to come through in a while. We got
stared at and overcharged for dinner and our hostal. We were glad to
just be there for the night. We grabbed the first collectivo out of
there at 6 in the morning and began yet another excruciatingly long
day of traveling.
The first collectivo to San ignacio we fit 6 people in a car built for
5. Laura and I shared the front seat for 2 hours which was
uncomfortable to say the least. We thought 6 people was a lot, but in
the second collectivo we fit 7 and a baby. Both collectivos tool us
flying along bumpy muddy dirt roads with steep dropoffs. It was
frightening, but just part of the adventure. So, It was tight quarters
for an hour and a half, then we were dropped off at the border.
We had to check out at the Peruvian border with a guy who spoke really
fast and mumbley. We had to keep asking him to repeat himself and
instead of slowing down he just kept raising his voice. By the end he
was pretty much just yelling at us. Finally out of frustration he
stamped our passports and told us we could leave. We then walked
across a bridge and were in Ecuador.
Ecuador was a little more official looking. There were three guys in
uniform who intimidated us a lot. We checked in, got our passprts
stamped and were told we were going to have to wait for a few hours
before the carito, large flatbed truck with a bunch of wooden benches
in rows, left. We sat with our bags and eventually the officers
curiosity got the best of them and they started asking us questions.
Top of the list was "are you single?" and "why are you traveling
alone?" meaing without men. We answered their questions and in an
attempt to add to the conversation I managed to ask them if they were
in love with each other. How embarassing! They laughed and said "us?!?
No , we're just friends." I am pretty sure they knew what I wasasking,
but just wanted to give me a hard time. So evenntualy 1230 rolled
around and we hopped on the truck, waved goodbye to our new border
patrol friends and set out for our ecuadorian adventure.
Within 3 minutes we came upon a gate in the road with a bunch of
millitary guys in uniform with guns. My heart immediately started
racing and almost burst through my chest when try told laura and I to
get off the truck. What did they want from us and why did they need
those huge guns? I was pretty sure this wasn't a good situation. They
asked for our passports, wrote down the numbers, appollgized for the
inconvenience and let us get back on the truck. Phew!! I guess I tend
to overreact when there are huge guns involved. So we bumped along for
a while then came to zumba where we would catch a bus to vilcabamba.
We sat around at the bus "terminal" (it was really just an open grassy
area with a few buildings here and there) until our stomachs began to
rumble. We had two hours beforeour bus was to leave so we decided to
ask where a restaurant was. We were told there was one in oneof the
buildings at the terminal so we decided we'd try it out.
The restaurant was little more than an open room with several tables
and chairs and at first we though we had just stumbled into someones
house. We got a lot of looks and eventually a curious little girl
wandered over to us to stare. We asked her name and she asked ours and
that opened the floodgates of conversation. She started talking really
fast, as 5 year olds do, and we had a difficult time understanding
what she was saying. Our food eventually came out and being vegetarian
was clearly not in the cards for this lunch. We picked at our chicken,
trying not to be rude but it was sort of less than appealing. At one
point the little girl came over to us and said something we didn't
understand but everyone else in re restaurant seemed to get as the all
turned and looked at us, stiffling chuckles about what the girl had
said. We don't think it was anything mean because the laughs seemed
friendly enough but we will forever be curious about what she said.
At the restaurant a middle aged man and a kid our age struck up
conversation with us. They were very kind and were heading to loja and
offered to drive us to vilcabamba which is on the way. Our thoughts
flashed to everything we have ever heard about not taking rides from
strangers but our instincts over ruled the warnings and we accepted
the ride. It would be an hour faster, more comfortable, and we would
get some pleasant converstion in. They were extremely kind and the 4
hour ride actually went pretty fast. They dropped us off at our hostal
outside of town, made sure we were able to get a room and toldus if we
were ever in loja to email them and they would show us around.
So we are here in vilcabamba which is hands down the most beautiful
place we have been yet. It is incredible and we are excited to get to
spend so much time in this area. We are heading to the farm now so
emails ad updates will be less frequent. Maybe once a week...
So we've had an eventful couple of days. We took a bus to jaen where
we were clearly the first gringos to come through in a while. We got
stared at and overcharged for dinner and our hostal. We were glad to
just be there for the night. We grabbed the first collectivo out of
there at 6 in the morning and began yet another excruciatingly long
day of traveling.
The first collectivo to San ignacio we fit 6 people in a car built for
5. Laura and I shared the front seat for 2 hours which was
uncomfortable to say the least. We thought 6 people was a lot, but in
the second collectivo we fit 7 and a baby. Both collectivos tool us
flying along bumpy muddy dirt roads with steep dropoffs. It was
frightening, but just part of the adventure. So, It was tight quarters
for an hour and a half, then we were dropped off at the border.
We had to check out at the Peruvian border with a guy who spoke really
fast and mumbley. We had to keep asking him to repeat himself and
instead of slowing down he just kept raising his voice. By the end he
was pretty much just yelling at us. Finally out of frustration he
stamped our passports and told us we could leave. We then walked
across a bridge and were in Ecuador.
Ecuador was a little more official looking. There were three guys in
uniform who intimidated us a lot. We checked in, got our passprts
stamped and were told we were going to have to wait for a few hours
before the carito, large flatbed truck with a bunch of wooden benches
in rows, left. We sat with our bags and eventually the officers
curiosity got the best of them and they started asking us questions.
Top of the list was "are you single?" and "why are you traveling
alone?" meaing without men. We answered their questions and in an
attempt to add to the conversation I managed to ask them if they were
in love with each other. How embarassing! They laughed and said "us?!?
No , we're just friends." I am pretty sure they knew what I wasasking,
but just wanted to give me a hard time. So evenntualy 1230 rolled
around and we hopped on the truck, waved goodbye to our new border
patrol friends and set out for our ecuadorian adventure.
Within 3 minutes we came upon a gate in the road with a bunch of
millitary guys in uniform with guns. My heart immediately started
racing and almost burst through my chest when try told laura and I to
get off the truck. What did they want from us and why did they need
those huge guns? I was pretty sure this wasn't a good situation. They
asked for our passports, wrote down the numbers, appollgized for the
inconvenience and let us get back on the truck. Phew!! I guess I tend
to overreact when there are huge guns involved. So we bumped along for
a while then came to zumba where we would catch a bus to vilcabamba.
We sat around at the bus "terminal" (it was really just an open grassy
area with a few buildings here and there) until our stomachs began to
rumble. We had two hours beforeour bus was to leave so we decided to
ask where a restaurant was. We were told there was one in oneof the
buildings at the terminal so we decided we'd try it out.
The restaurant was little more than an open room with several tables
and chairs and at first we though we had just stumbled into someones
house. We got a lot of looks and eventually a curious little girl
wandered over to us to stare. We asked her name and she asked ours and
that opened the floodgates of conversation. She started talking really
fast, as 5 year olds do, and we had a difficult time understanding
what she was saying. Our food eventually came out and being vegetarian
was clearly not in the cards for this lunch. We picked at our chicken,
trying not to be rude but it was sort of less than appealing. At one
point the little girl came over to us and said something we didn't
understand but everyone else in re restaurant seemed to get as the all
turned and looked at us, stiffling chuckles about what the girl had
said. We don't think it was anything mean because the laughs seemed
friendly enough but we will forever be curious about what she said.
At the restaurant a middle aged man and a kid our age struck up
conversation with us. They were very kind and were heading to loja and
offered to drive us to vilcabamba which is on the way. Our thoughts
flashed to everything we have ever heard about not taking rides from
strangers but our instincts over ruled the warnings and we accepted
the ride. It would be an hour faster, more comfortable, and we would
get some pleasant converstion in. They were extremely kind and the 4
hour ride actually went pretty fast. They dropped us off at our hostal
outside of town, made sure we were able to get a room and toldus if we
were ever in loja to email them and they would show us around.
So we are here in vilcabamba which is hands down the most beautiful
place we have been yet. It is incredible and we are excited to get to
spend so much time in this area. We are heading to the farm now so
emails ad updates will be less frequent. Maybe once a week...
An amazing day by mistake...
Oct 10
We ended up not getting a bus today because it was full so we are
headed out tomorrow instead. We had the most amazing day though!!
These three wonderful Peruvian women took us under their wing for the
day and we went with them to some amazing ruins. At the ruins we kept
just walking by signs that said we couldn't go any further because
they were doing work on it still. The women were totally just doing
what they wanted so laura and I went with it. They spoke really fast
Spanish and I tinks I understood maybe 10% ofwhat they were saying. We
got to see some amazing ''off limits'' stuff; tombs, friezes, the main
huaca, so it made it worth it to break the rules. Well, it turns out
that oneof the ladies we were with was an archaeologist (which we knew
from the beginning) but not just any archaeologist, she was part of
the crew that first found the tombs at this place (tucume). How
freaking cool is that?!? So as a recap, we miss our bus, meet three
very kind Peruvian women oneof which is a big time archaeologist, get
a private guide to these amazing ruins and spend the rest of the day
with them. It was fabulous and seemed like it was mant to be and we
weren't supposed to catch that bus. Awesome! We also went to the sipan
museum which was unreal. Sipan was the burial site of aims big time
Moche leader a couple thousand years ago and hewas entombed with tons
of gold, beads, pottery, silver, copper....the museum was stunning!!
Then the women took us to this amazing Spanish colonial house that had
30 rooms and the longest balcony in south America! It also was quite
amazing. All of the things we saw today were because of these three
kind women ( irma, Rosario, josephina). It was truly a wonderful and
full day. By the end we were hungry and exhausted but stoked about our
adventure.
Tomorrow we sit on a bus for 6 hoursand arrive in the mountains and
the rainforest. I am excited for a change of scenery.
Our bus leaves at 1:15 tomorrow so I'll havesome Internet inthe
morning. Hope all is well! Look up those places i mentioned online.
They are awesome!
We ended up not getting a bus today because it was full so we are
headed out tomorrow instead. We had the most amazing day though!!
These three wonderful Peruvian women took us under their wing for the
day and we went with them to some amazing ruins. At the ruins we kept
just walking by signs that said we couldn't go any further because
they were doing work on it still. The women were totally just doing
what they wanted so laura and I went with it. They spoke really fast
Spanish and I tinks I understood maybe 10% ofwhat they were saying. We
got to see some amazing ''off limits'' stuff; tombs, friezes, the main
huaca, so it made it worth it to break the rules. Well, it turns out
that oneof the ladies we were with was an archaeologist (which we knew
from the beginning) but not just any archaeologist, she was part of
the crew that first found the tombs at this place (tucume). How
freaking cool is that?!? So as a recap, we miss our bus, meet three
very kind Peruvian women oneof which is a big time archaeologist, get
a private guide to these amazing ruins and spend the rest of the day
with them. It was fabulous and seemed like it was mant to be and we
weren't supposed to catch that bus. Awesome! We also went to the sipan
museum which was unreal. Sipan was the burial site of aims big time
Moche leader a couple thousand years ago and hewas entombed with tons
of gold, beads, pottery, silver, copper....the museum was stunning!!
Then the women took us to this amazing Spanish colonial house that had
30 rooms and the longest balcony in south America! It also was quite
amazing. All of the things we saw today were because of these three
kind women ( irma, Rosario, josephina). It was truly a wonderful and
full day. By the end we were hungry and exhausted but stoked about our
adventure.
Tomorrow we sit on a bus for 6 hoursand arrive in the mountains and
the rainforest. I am excited for a change of scenery.
Our bus leaves at 1:15 tomorrow so I'll havesome Internet inthe
morning. Hope all is well! Look up those places i mentioned online.
They are awesome!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
"¿Chimbote, eh?" "...Si"
We boarded around 8:00 and were quickly served breakfast; a piece of lemon flavored corn bread and a cheese sandwich was the vegetarian option. After leaving Lima, all we saw was desert, coast and impoverished towns over and over again. You can probably imagine how boring this became after 8 hours, but it did provide for some good reflection time. It also made me appreciate me breakfast quite a bit more as well.
About half an hour before we arrived in Chimbote, we decided to take the hint from the worker at the bus station and change our final destination. We had already been on the bus for 8 hours so we figured two hours more to Trujillo was worth the ride. When we got to Chimbote we got off the bus to pay the rest of our way North to Trujillo and were immediately hit with the decaying fish smell that we were extremely happy to be avoiding. We were also bombarded with young Peruvian children begging us for food and money. This was the first we had seen of this and was extremely difficult to ignore. After getting our ticket changed, we got back on the bus for two more hours.
We arrived in Trujillo and took a taxi to a nearby surf-town called Huanchaco. We decided to take the cheap route and stay in a dormitory style room at this pretty neat Hostel on the ocean where we have two roomates, one English guy and one French girl. After moving our bags in, we had some dinner (spaghetti and pizza... super Gringo) and then called it a night. Somehow,10 hours of doing nothing on a bus proved to be exhausting.
After a restful night, we decided to go and check out some nearby ruins. We visited La Huaca de La Luna and La Huaca del Sol which are both ancient temples of the Moche people. To give you a brief summary, the Moche people would hold ceremonial battles and the losing warriors were brought to these sites to be prepared to be sacrificed to their highest deity. After having a tour of the temples, we checked out the La Huaca de La Luna museum. It was pretty incredible to see so much original pottery and other artifacts from so long ago. On our visit we were accompanied by a slough of Peruvian children that were on school field trips. It was apparent that they found us much more interesting than the Moche artifacts as they continually stared at us and yelled out the only English phrases they knew (Hello! Good afternoon.)
The plan from here is to stay 2 more nights in Huanchaco and then continue the northward journey with the next stop in Piura. Back for another 8ish hour long desert-filled ride. Woo Hoo! Until then, surfing and a live reggae concert are in order.
¡Hasta pronto!
 |
| Our friendly neighbor we met on our way out of the hostel this morning. |
While checking in at the bus station for our ride to Chimbote, the man taking our bags asked us in a pretty skeptical tone, "Chimbote, eh?". Kit and I discussed this and decided he was probably thinking, ´Why the hell would you want to go there?´ Little did he know we weren´t so sure why we going either. However, we decided, as our bus was boarding in about half an hour, we didn´t really have a choice.
We boarded around 8:00 and were quickly served breakfast; a piece of lemon flavored corn bread and a cheese sandwich was the vegetarian option. After leaving Lima, all we saw was desert, coast and impoverished towns over and over again. You can probably imagine how boring this became after 8 hours, but it did provide for some good reflection time. It also made me appreciate me breakfast quite a bit more as well.
About half an hour before we arrived in Chimbote, we decided to take the hint from the worker at the bus station and change our final destination. We had already been on the bus for 8 hours so we figured two hours more to Trujillo was worth the ride. When we got to Chimbote we got off the bus to pay the rest of our way North to Trujillo and were immediately hit with the decaying fish smell that we were extremely happy to be avoiding. We were also bombarded with young Peruvian children begging us for food and money. This was the first we had seen of this and was extremely difficult to ignore. After getting our ticket changed, we got back on the bus for two more hours.
We arrived in Trujillo and took a taxi to a nearby surf-town called Huanchaco. We decided to take the cheap route and stay in a dormitory style room at this pretty neat Hostel on the ocean where we have two roomates, one English guy and one French girl. After moving our bags in, we had some dinner (spaghetti and pizza... super Gringo) and then called it a night. Somehow,10 hours of doing nothing on a bus proved to be exhausting.
After a restful night, we decided to go and check out some nearby ruins. We visited La Huaca de La Luna and La Huaca del Sol which are both ancient temples of the Moche people. To give you a brief summary, the Moche people would hold ceremonial battles and the losing warriors were brought to these sites to be prepared to be sacrificed to their highest deity. After having a tour of the temples, we checked out the La Huaca de La Luna museum. It was pretty incredible to see so much original pottery and other artifacts from so long ago. On our visit we were accompanied by a slough of Peruvian children that were on school field trips. It was apparent that they found us much more interesting than the Moche artifacts as they continually stared at us and yelled out the only English phrases they knew (Hello! Good afternoon.)
 |
| Standing on Huaca de La Luna, Huaca del Sol in the background |
 |
| Decorations on wall that surrounded temple |
 |
| More artwork on the wall. |
The plan from here is to stay 2 more nights in Huanchaco and then continue the northward journey with the next stop in Piura. Back for another 8ish hour long desert-filled ride. Woo Hoo! Until then, surfing and a live reggae concert are in order.
¡Hasta pronto!
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