Update for Adam and Jason

Adam and Jason have not been able to update the blog lately because the internet connections in Peru were not fast enough to upload pictures. So...they asked me to give everyone a quick update; unfortunately it ended up being a very long update.

I met up with the guys in Lima on Oct. 26th. There was not a lot to do there, so I went paragliding (strapped a parachute and a 115 lb. Peruvian to my back and jumped off a cliff) then we hopped on a 22 hr. bus to Cuzco. Upon arrival in Cuzco, we booked a one day tour of the Sacred Valley and a five day trek to Machu Picchu. Strikes near Machu Picchu pushed our trek back one day (which gave Jason and I time to recover from some bad street food) but after that everything was great.

The beginning of the hike was very demanding and mountainous, or what our guide referred to as "Inka flat". The first night was crazy cold, but the second day we reached the highest point of our journey at just over 15,000 ft. and then began a rapid decent to the jungle and warmer temperatures. On the third day one of the other guys from our group was complaining about his knees bothering him, so our cook went into the jungle, found a plant and vigorously rubbed it into our buddy's knees. This caused his knees to turn red and blister, but it worked amazingly well, and kept everyone in the group from having any sore joints for the remainder of the trek.

That third night we went swimming in some beautiful hot springs, which was just what our aching muscles and body odor ordered. In reality we may not have smelled any better after the hot springs, but at least we smelled different. After the hot springs, we returned to camp for dinner where we were intertained by a spider monkey running around on our table stealing food and sugar. The monkey found a kindred spirit at our table, and spent almost all of his down time between sugar raids nestelled in Jason's long monkey-like arms.

The fourth day of the hike was mostly uneventful, but that night we made our plans for Machu Picchu and parted with our guide. We got out of bed at 2:30 am EST on the fifth morning, strapped on our head lamps, and began the final leg of our journey to Machu Picchu. We reached the gates of Machu Picchu sometime around 5:15 am and waited for them to finally open at 6:00. Once inside the gate, Jason, Adam, and I sprinted toward higher ground to take some amazing pictures before any other tourists could get in our way. Due to the elevation, this turned out to be a very short sprint and probably cost us more time than it saved. We did eventually reach a good, unobstructed vantage point just in time to take a single picture before Machu Picchu was completely engulfed by fog.

As the day went on, the sun burnt through the fog and we were able to take some great pictures. After a two-hour tour around Machu Picchu we made the very steep climb up Huayna Picchu, and the even steeper decent down the back to the Temple of the Moon and the Grand Cave. We got back to Cuzco that night at about 11:00 pm, after a very long, very demanding, and endlessly rewarding day.

Our next stop was at a small desert oasis called Huacachina. In Huacachina we booked a dune buggy / sandboarding tour. The sandboarding was a blast, and the buggy ride with our driver, "El Diablo", was scarier and way more fun than any roller coaster. Jason had a pretty good wipeout while sandboarding and when we parted ways (Nov. 10) he was still trying to get the sand out of his ears.

Then next morning jumped on a bus headed toward Pisco, but got off part way to check out the Nazca lines. We could have seen many of the spectacular drawings on the desert floor from an airplane for $65.00 each, but we decided to save money and go the the observation point for $0.30. The observation point turned out to be a forty foot tower next to the highway with a view of two of the less impressive drawings. But, it still counts!

After the Nazca lines we flagged down another bus and made it the rest of the way to Pisco. While in Pisco, we went on a morning tour of Islas Bellestras aka: "the Poor Man's Galapagos" and saw a break dance battle in the Plaza de Armas.

From Pisco, I returned to Lima to fly home and Jason and Adam began their journey to Bolivia.

I could post a hundred more pictures and tell many more stories, but I will save the rest for Jason and Adam to tell when they return.

Nick

So long Ecuador

(The pictures are in reverse order) We stayed in the tiny little mountain town of Quilatoa at somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 feet. There was a huge crater lake or ¨laguna¨ there that was absolutely beautiful!! Unfortunately it was overcast the entire time we were there, because if the sun is out, the entire lake turns a bright turquios. There was no lock on the hostal door there, but the lady running the place said that would not be a problem. The town was tiny but the people were super nice as usual. The next picture is the view from our hostal room in Montañita. Not bad for $7 a night. We did a little surfing for a half day, and I did not do half as well as I was thinking I would. However, the über athelet in our group (Adam) didn´t have any troubles tearing it up though. The yellow picture is actually the shower in the community bathroom in our hostal in Cuenca. This is what the showers typically look like. They heat the water up just before it exits the nosel, so the less water you have running, the hotter the water will be. It takes a little longer to get all of the soap out of your hair when you are rinsing off under what feels like a leaky foset. As you can tell by all of the wires going everywhere, you can imagine why these are dubed ¨suicide showers¨Just out side of Cuenca is Cajas National Park. We just did a little 5 hour day hike, but we were just in awe of how beautiful our surroundings were the entire time. If we had the time and equipment (fishing line and hooks, stove, tent, and sleeping pads) I would love to spend a few days there fishing, hiking, and camping!! We are off on a 13 hour overnight bus to Piura, Peru now. We are going to be there for about a week helping at a church that Adam´s been to on mission trips before. We will also get to hang out with one of our college friends Karrie Haraban who is serving in the Peace Corps in the area as well.

Latacunga y Baños

Luckily we got to Latacunga just in time for the Mama Negra festival. This festival was nothing like what we have in the States, so if you are looking for a few floats to pass out candy inbetween dinner and your kids bed time, this is not the festival for you. It lasted for 2 full days and the city was like constant parade full of musicians, dancers, and guys with these backpacks that consisted of a sturdy base to hold the full cooked pig, all the cooked chickens, a memorial to the Virgin Mary, flags, streamers, fireworks, and anything else they could fit. The people were very interested in the 2 giant gringos and treated us like we were old friends that they had not seen in ages. It was too bad we had already checked into a hostal for the evening, because we had offers from at least 3 different families that insisted we stay with them. Unfortunately, Latacunga was short lived. We had met up with 3 of Adam´s Peace Corps friends Kirsten, Darlene, and Laura and left with them the next morning to head for Baños. Baños was a cool little town with some really good hiking and biking. We did a big loop hike the first day that took us up all around the surrounding mountain side, and would also have produced a great view of the local somewhat active volcano if the cloud cover had not been there. The next day we rented bikes. There is a road that is mostly downhill to the next town 60 something kilometers away, and also has great scenery and huge waterfalls. We took our time and hiked to the waterfalls which meant we only made it 20 something kilometers before we caught a truck back. In the top of the group picture you can see a tunnel similar one I thought I was going to die in at the start of our biking tour. Traveling with the girls was a lot of fun and really good for our stomaches!! I don´t want to be a vegetarian by any means, but they proved to me that there are some delicious meals out there that are lacking in the meat category. Sadly we parted ways today. Adam and I are going to do some more things in this area before heading to the coast for some surfin´, and they are heading south.

Big Bad Quito

Everyone we had talked to pre-Quito had told us their personal account of being mugged, robbed, or threatened. That is why before going Adam and I decided it might be wise to come up with some code words in case one of these situations arose. In the case we encountered an inferior foe that we thought we could open a can on and teach a lesson on mugging 2 bad gringos from the Estados Unidas, the war cry would be ¨Tanenbaum¨. If the same situation occured, however, we were not in the fightin´ mood, ¨Tippy-Toe¨ would be the proper code word. If by the slim chance we felt the assailant had the upper hand, no code word would be called and we would simply hand over what ever they asked for. We ended up making only friends in Quito and enjoyed walking around the city looking at the beautiful churches and buildings. You could climb the towers of the tallest church in town, which offered some great views of the city. I would recomend not going when there is a hail and lightening storm rolling in though. I´m not sure about the lightening, but the hail hurts!! We also stayed in a hostal with an eating area on the 5th floor/roof that had a great view of the city.

2 Equators...1 Day

We Started the day off at the original equator monument built by France in 1736. We were at the ¨equator¨ so we decided to celebrate with a side of Cuy (guinea pig) with potato and salad. From the ¨equator¨ we ventured about 200 meters north to the equator as we know it today. They say the imposible is possible on the equator, and to some degree that is true. I for instance balanced an egg on the head of a nail. The actual equator, as verified by global positioning satellites, was very interactive and informative with an animal museum that reminded us all why we don´t pee in the Rio Amazonas...see full grown catfish in a jar.

We stormed Ecuador by foot

There are no international trasport services between Colombia and Ecuador where we crossed other than our feet. After waiting over an hour for electricity to be restored, we finally got our exit stamps in Colombia and marched across the boarder bridge to wait in another passport line in Ecuador. Our first stop was Oltavalo for the famous Saturday small animal and artisan markets. The small animal market was a little like an outdoor PetsMart. You could buy anything from dogs and cats, to guinea pigs and baby ducks and chickens. Only it was a food market instead of a pet store. The artisan market was full of all sorts of beautiful alpaca, wool, and carved things to buy. It was fun to walk around barganing with the people, and listening to the 15 or so phrases that they use to entice the passing gringo. ¨Check it out. Machine wash. No problem.¨ It is also incredible how strong these people are!! They are tiny, but they are like the ants on the discovery channel with how much they can carry.

Bye bye beautiful Colombia

The statues are from San Augustin. There were 100´s of them all over the place ranging from 2000-5000 years old (according to the tour guide we didn´t hire). We stayed a night at Purcé National Park with hopes of a 15,000 ft. summit. With 40 something degree temperatures, a 30-40 mile an hour wind, and horizontal flying water pellets, we decided to look for another mountain along the way. We did get some refreshing iodine treated water out of the deal though... The Church is just outside the Colombia boarder town and was built because someone kept seeing the face of the Virgin Mary on the rocks of the gorge. It has a river running under it and a huge waterfall right next to it, I just couldn´t get it all in one picture. The alpaca was grazing on the side of the gorge on the way to and from the church.