TravelStream™ news feed for member krisandmarilyn on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/krisandmarilyn en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 10 Jun 2005 18:49:30 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1118265660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1118265660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1118265660/tpod.html Fri, 10 Jun 2005 18:49:30 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We arrived in La Fortuna after a LONG day of bus and ferry travel, settled in a hotel room and after eating some dinner headed out on a tour of Volcan Arenal. This volcano is one of the most popular attractions for tourists who visit Costa Rica because it is the third most active volcano in the world. The area around the volcano was very attractive and after the sun went down we were able to see the bright orange rocks of lava spewing down the slope. We watched and listened as the lava sporadically flowed for about a half an hour before our tour bus took us back to the hotel. This was the extent of our visit in La Fortuna as the next day Chris and Oli were off to San Jose to fly off (and we had to say our final goodbyes, sadly)and we traveled by "jeep-boat-jeep" to Monteverde.

Monteverde, also quite popular, is where the famous cloud forests exist. The land is lush and green and the weather is wet. Our first day there we rested and took a long walk. The next day we got up early and went to one of the many local forest parks to experience the hanging bridges that get as high as 150 feet in the air. At first look across the first bridge we wondered what we were getting ourselves into, but after beating our fears it turned out to be a beautiful walk with the birds chirping and big flying beetles coming after us.
That night we went to a restaurant just up the dirt road from us and had delicious latino cuisine with tasty latinopolitans. The food and atmosphere were so inviting that we traveled back there the next night too. Apparently our food budget has gone out the window. :)
The next day we woke up even earlier to take a tour of the Monteverde cloud forest, there are actually two cloud forests in the region. We chose the Monteverde forest because it was directly on the Continental Divide and was going to be less humid than the Santa Elena cloud forest. At 7:30 our tour started and for the next three hours we took about 5 courses in 1 in Ecology and Biology, our guide was fantastic. Maybe the most amazing part was that we were fortunate enough to see the Quetzal bird, not once, but twice in our adventure. This is the bird that we looked for in Panama and the same bird that many bird watchers come to this part of the world to see, but often go home without so much as a look.
We had planned on going to the nature preserve later in the day, but as soon as our tour ended the rain started to pour and our only option was to head back to the hotel, where we stayed for the rest of the day as the rain never stopped.

The next day we took our final bus ride and after 9 hours we arrived in Manuel Antonio, the second most visited place in Costa Rica, mainly because it has a rain forest and great beaches all in one. As soon as we arrived at our hotel the people in the pool invited us over so we jumped on in. The guys that we met there were Elgin and David both from Atlanta, and Alfredo who is from Mexico. We all became pretty inseparable for the next five days.
Day one we spent in the pool and then went to eat in a local soda restaurant (where the locals mostly eat) and had some great food - rice with shrimp and fish soup.
Day two we walked down the main beach where one lays on the sand as waiters bring us Piña Coladas and of course we swam. That night we all hung out at the pool and had fun.
Day three we went walking through the rainforest as well as swimming in the gorgeous beaches with perfect waves. That night we all hung out at the pool again.
Day four we did nothing but play yatzee, play beach ball games in the pool, and have fun. However, we should note that after four months of roughing it, we decided to pamper ourselves with a local spa treatment. We had our bodies wrapped with aloe, lavender and cucumber while also receiving facials and food scrubs. It was quite Heavenly. And far to expensive to treat ourselves to more often, but we thought we deserved it.
The next day was pretty much spent traveling back to San Jose and shopping. There isn´t enough to be said about how much fun we had with Elgin, David and Alfredo over these past few days, it was really a great way to leave.

Today is the last day on the trip, tomorrow we head off to LA for a few days.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1118526780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1118526780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1118526780/tpod.html Fri, 10 Jun 2005 18:15:30 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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San Jose, Costa Rica

F.A.Q.´s (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. Q)FAVORITE COUNTRY? A)Bolivia

2. Q)FAVORITE BIG CITY? A)Santiago, Chile

3. Q)BEST SCENERY? A)Peru and Panama

4. Q)BEST FOOD? A)The Caribbean food in both Panama and Costa Rica

5. Q)BEST BEER? A)Imperial from Costa Rica

6. Q)MOST MEMORABLE SIGHTS? A)Maccu Picchu (of course), Salt Desert, Reed Islands

7. Q)MOST FUN? A)Pucon river, Manuel Antonio pool parties, Aguas Calientes, Tigre, Argentina

8. Q)BEST HOTEL? A)Isla Verde, Boquete, Panama

9. Q)MOST RELAXING PLACES?A)Pisco del Elqui y Manuel Antonio

10. Q)BEST TOURS? A)Cloud Forest with Adrian, Pucon River with Oscar, Hiking in Boquete with Antonio, and the Coffee Plantation with Hans.

11. Q)BEST WEATHER? A)Argentina

12. Q)CHEAPEST COUNTRY? A)Bolivia

13. Q)MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRY A)Costa Rica followed closely by Chile

14. Q)WHAT DO WE MISS ALREADY? A) MAGE, Munchi´s ice cream in Arg, Boca Juniors futbol, the music including Attaque 77, Juanes and Alejandro Sanz, the beaches and not working.

15. Q)WHAT WILL WE NOT MISS? A)Mosquitoes, bus rides, musty smelling hostel rooms, and San Jose taxi drivers.

16. Q)WHAT WILL YOU DO NEXT? A)WE´RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1117729320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1117729320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1117729320/tpod.html Thu, 02 Jun 2005 13:49:35 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Montezuma, Costa Rica

Having just about had our fill of bus journeys, we splurged when leaving San Jose by taking an air-conditioned transfer service all the way to Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula of the Pacific Coast. What a treat to sit back and not have to worry about connections or our luggage. We arrived in Montezuma around 3pm, checked into a hotel right on the water and went for a dip before sunset. Montezuma is a very cute town clustered together around 2 beaches, with several restaurants and bars within a few short blocks. We happened to be there on the weekend so the nightlife was rocking; we didn´t close the bars down but we did listen along all night since our hotel was right next door. Not much to do in town unless you join one of the many tours offered, but we did hike to a waterfall and heeded the warnings not to be stupid and try to jump off.

After spending a relaxing few days in Montezuma, we hopped on the school bus, er local bus and made our way to the western side of the peninsula tip to the town of Santa Teresa. It was here that we met up with our friends Chris and Oli, who were staying in Santa Teresa for a week playing surfer dudes. We lucked out with accommodations, found a room reasonably priced that came with a kitchenette and thank heavens, air-conditioning. I was under the impression that the Pacific side would be slightly drier than the humid Atlantic side but my impressions were wrong, it is the rainy season after all. We took a short walk toward the town of Malpais but after 30 minutes could not take anymore of the sauna type heat and had to retreat to the comforts of our climatized room. That night we had the guys over for dinner, they cooked up a feast and we planned our attack of the waves for the following day.

Being beginners in the surfing arena, we decided to rent one surfboard and one boogie board. The beaches at Santa Teresa and nearby Malpais are known for there surfing waves, and as we discovered were a bit scary to the beginner. The waves break constantly, one right after the other and not in sets like we were both accustomed to. That means that there are several walls of whitewater that must be paddled through to get out to the breaking waves. Not that we were interested in getting out that far, what are we supposed to do on a 3-5 foot wave having never surfed before? It turns out that this is no easy task, as we discovered watching Chris and Oli try for an hour to get past the break. Lowering our sites, we paddled around in the whitewater and did our best to try to stand up. It wasn´t so much a day of surfing as it was a day of paddling but it was fun trying. Perhaps we´ll get another chance to try our hand at surfing if we can find a beach with less hectic waves.

We have been very lucky with the weather here in Central America, considering it is the rainy season. Most days are sunny with the rain coming overnight, if at all. Luckily so, because it is not much fun walking around the streets during heavy rains as they turn to mud. The night prior to leaving Santa Teresa, the rains fell in the early evening and we were to meet Chris and Oli at their place to make plans for our departure the following day. We put on our swim wear to make the 3 minute journey, and when we arrived discovered that their glorified shack was leaking water. They were invited to sleep on our floor, which turned out to be there best sleep in a week, and we all awoke at 4am to make our bus journey to see the Arenal volcano. I know, more buses, but we only have a couple more places to visit so I think we will manage. We´ll keep you posted...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1117123620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1117123620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1117123620/tpod.html Thu, 02 Jun 2005 12:42:47 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

We traveled through the last of the Chiquita banana plantations (most of which were in Panama) and arrived in the Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo. P.V. was definitely flavored with Bob Marley music and the colors of Jamaica. The town isn´t very big, but it is full of night life and it seemed as though we were right in the middle of several college students´ vacations. The beach along P.V. is a black sand beach that we did swim in once, but we opted for the few days that we were there to rent bikes and ride the 6kms to Punta Uva or walk 3kms to Cocles to do our swimming. Once again, as we had hoped for, the water was gorgeous, though a bit mellow. Unfortunately we became a bit lazy with bringing the camera out and taking pics so we don´t have any photos for you. Basically all we did was swim during the day and eat at the Thai restaurant at night.

After a few days at P.V. we took a cab to Cahuita, a smaller, more laid back town. At Cahuita the (beautiful) beach borders the Cahuita National Park which we took a long stroll through, seeing monkeys, sloths, and lots of ants. We only stayed one night at Cahuita as we had to get to San Jose and then head up to meet Chris and Oli on the Nicoya Peninsula. But that night we did have some fun as we were having dinner and all of the electricity went out in town, allowing it to be pitch black with the exception of candlss surrounding the restaurant.

From Cahuita we took the local bus to San Jose, approximately a 3 hour ride. Once we arrived at the San Jose bus stop we were bombarded with taxi drivers trying to take us places. Now, we know about all the scamming that goes on with taxi drivers so we prefer to find our own. First, however, we wanted to call the hotel we wanted to stay at and see if they indeed had vacancy. The pay phone didn´t work and we decided to go with one of the taxi drivers since we thought he was giving us a fair rate. Once we got in the car he suggested that we call the hotel to make sure they weren´t booked. Of course when he dialed for us he dialed some place different (and we didn´t know it at the time) and they said they were booked. So he offered to take us to another hotel, which we knew he´d be making commission on, but we would be checking it out before we okay´d the place. He had quoted us 1000 colones (about 2 and a half dollars) to the first hotel to begin with and this hotel that he brought us to was a bit closer so we figured the price would be the same. We didn´t mind the hotel so we decided to stay there and then he said the fare had changed to 1900 colones. Unfortuantely we didn´t know what taxis ran at in San Jose yet, so we paid him. He gave us his cell number so that we could contact him for more rides or he could hook us up with deals (getting him commission of course).
That same day we decided to take a taxi to the hotel that we were wanting to stay at originally to book for the next night and find out about luggage storage. When we took the taxi to the hotel it was about 400 colones. We then realized just how much we´d been ripped off. And the hotel did have rooms for the night and we realized that he had dialed one of his friends to say they were full earlier. After realizing how much advantage he took of us, we are thinking of playing his game and call him to pick us up somewhere on the outskirts of town where there won´t be other people to pick up when he realizes that we are not there. We could still take the high road and just let it go, but we do like our plan of attack.
San Jose in general isn´t bad. We actually went out dancing for the first time on our trip as the bars we wanted to go to were on the same block as our hotel. It was a long, fun night and we met some great people.
We spent a few days in the big city just walking around and enjoying the relaxation. It´s an easy city to spend a few days at in-between coastal visits.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116602820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116602820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116602820/tpod.html Sun, 22 May 2005 13:13:48 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Bocas del Toro, Panama

Bocas del Toro is a set of islands off the Caribbean Coast of Panama very near to Costa Rica, and a 30 min boat ride from the mainland. There is the main island, Isla Colon, which has most of the bars and shops, and several surrounding islands varying in size. When we got there we (now having so much luggage) threw ourselves at one of the first hostels we found. This wasn't the best idea because it was incredibly musty with no windows and a cockroach in the bathroom that appeared in the middle of the night. The good thing about it was that it had air conditioning and cable tv. It's hard to be selective because we have such heavy luggage and are sweaty from the humid heat.

After we threw our stuff in our room, we headed out to soak in the beach town. About five minutes along a local named Robert approached us offering to show us a few things around town and give us any needed information. Usually we shoo these people away, but there were some specific questions we had that we though we could use his help. This lead to Robert giving us a tour of the town and having us meet everyone, it was a bit uncomfortable because it seemed like we were his trophy tourists. But there was something sweet about him that we couldn't just excuse ourselves. One good thing he helped us with was finding lodging on another island. We took a short boat ride (as he makes commission on boat rides, lodging, etc.) to the next island over, also one of the smallest islands in Bocas. He took us along the sea edge to the few hotels that were there. At the end of "the road" we found a great bar on the water with a room available. We went and had a drink with the owner, a nuclear engineer from Florida, and decided that we could very much enjoy living there for a few days. After our decision (we were staying on Isla Colon that night) Robert wanted to take us to meet his other "friends". We figured out that he wanted to take us to all these places because they gave him a free glass of beer. It would have all been tolerable except for that Robert forgot to breath over the 3 hours that he was with us, he was talking so often. And often, talking about nothing. Once we got back to the main island we were able to ditch him and get some dinner at one of the great Caribbean flavored seaside bars.

The next morning we moved all of our stuff to the Pickled Parrot, where we would be staying. What we really wanted to do was swim in the ocean so we packed up our beach gear, which now included a beach ball, and walked halfway around our island until we realized that either the water was to shallow or to rocky. So, we went to George, our nuclear engineer friend, and Jorge, our bartender, to ask about other beaches to swim at. Jorge suggested Wizard Beach which was on yet another island, Bastamentos. We flagged down a boat to take us over to Bastamentos to get something to eat and go swimming. We ended up eating at Roots, which has some of the best Caribbean food... delicious. And cheap. From there we weren't exactly sure how to walk to the beach on the other side of the island so a couple locals offered to take us on their boat, and that they did. It was quite exciting arriving at Wizard Beach because it is a picturesque, solitary spot with Caribbean green water and soft golden-white sand. We played in the water for quite a while.

After returning to the Pickled Parrot, Jorge told us about what great Pina Coladas he made, so we had a couple each before we headed to the other side of the island for some great food at the Sunset Grill.

The next day we got up early and joined a tour for the day. As we were sitting at the tour company getting ready to leave, Robert appeared telling us that he had just come back from our hotel looking for us to join one of his tours. Oops, we accidentally signed up with a different company. He told us not to feel bad, so we didn't.
The first stop on the tour was dolphin watching, which was a lot of fun. We saw about seven or eight of them playing around in the water, it was great. Our group of five people stayed there for about a half an hour and then went snorkeling for a couple hours. The snorkeling was beautiful, the reefs were all around and of course we saw such a diverse group of fish down there. Unfortunately, though we spread the 50 sunblock on ourselves previously, the sun got the best of us, mainly our backs and the backs of our legs. Right now it hurts. After we had lunch we went to another popular beach called Red Frog. It was similar to Wizard Beach, so of course we loved it. We played in the water, doing handstands, dragging eachother, seeing who could stay under the longest, throwing each other off our our shoulders, for about an hour and a half or so. Our last stop was off a small island to do some more snorkeling. We love snorkeling, so we had a great all-around time. Except for the sunburn of course.

That afternoon the rains had set in and we knew that if we stayed on Bocas for a few more days that we would be enjoying a lot of rainfall, so we headed to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica the next day, and that is where we are now. It is very Caribbean here, flavorful and fun. But no breaks in the water these days, so surfing is out of the question for now.

More to come later... stay tuned.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116774600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116774600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116774600/tpod.html Sun, 22 May 2005 12:57:59 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Boquete, Panama

We made the bus ride to the Eastern Province of Chiriqui and to the village of Boquete. It was pouring down rain as we arrived in David and continued pouring down rain from there to Boquete and yet still continued to poor down rain all night in Boquete. This must be why it's so lushfully green there.
Boquete is up in the hills and includes many coffee plantations, hiking trails, a nice river and is an all around relaxing place to be. There have been many Americans who have moved there to retire, and that was quite obvious.
We found a great place to stay, Isla Verde, owned by a German lady named Eva. Our place had a full kitchen and loft bedroom, and because a mutual friend had sent us there, she gave us $20 off the price. Staying in a nice and clean cabin like this turned out to be even more wonderful because for the four and a half days we were there it continued to downpour like clockwork from lunchtime on. Going outside was like standing under a shower head with great water pressure.

On Monday morning Eva hooked us up with a local guy named Antonio who took us on a wonderful hike up into the hills. We weren't prepared for the fact that it would be two and a half hours straight up and two hours right back down, but the trail was fantastic made up of mud, rocks and water. It was so beautiful. And the trail obviously was infrequently used, maybe only by Antonio and his friends, it was very small, sometimes barely wide enough to walk through. One of the highlights was that when we reached the top we could see both the Pacific Ocean to one side and the Atlantic Ocean to the other. The birds were awesome too, they had beautiful songs that they would sing and at one point we all got in tune with one of the birds and developed a harmony. It was pretty incredible.

Tuesday morning we played tourist and went on a coffee plantation tour. Our guide Hans, a tall Dutchman who has lived in Boquete for 8 years, showed us around at the Kotowa plantation. We were lucky to get a private tour that day, only the two of us were signed up so we had Hans and his humor all to ourselves. He was very informative about the production of coffee (shocking that we live in Seattle and don't know more about coffee production) and we got to taste the beans off the tree and straight out of the roaster. After a couple of sample cups, we were ready for the day.

It was hard to pull ourselves away from Boquete but as usual, there were places to be. We certainly enjoyed our stay, spending afternoons playing cards, reading books, and cooking yummy dinners. It was quite relaxing. Maybe they should call Boquete a Tranquilo Paradise.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116000240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116000240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1116000240/tpod.html Fri, 13 May 2005 20:18:22 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Panama City, Panama

I guess we have been lazy, it´s been almost two weeks since our last update. We flew from Cuzco to Lima on May 2nd, which was quite a treat because the bus journey takes about 30 hours. We stayed in the ritzier part of town in Lima called Miraflores and spent most of our time shopping and making travel arrangements. We were treating Lima as simply a stopover destination to catch our flight into Central America. We`d heard mostly negative things about the city so we didn´t plan on doing much sightseeing. That said, we bumped up our flight into Panama by a week and headed out of South America on the 6th.

Landing in Panama City, it was refreshing to feel the hot, humid air and look around at the lush landscape. We were fortunate enough to have a ride arranged from the airport and Max was there on time to pick us up. We headed circuitously into town, thanks to Max making a few wrong turns but arrived safely at Hector`s apartment where we would have the place to ourselves.

The first few days in Panama we spent lounging in the apartment, relaxing and feeling spoiled. Hector`s apartment in centrally located so it is just a short walk to find a restaurant or bar, which is good since the humidity by this point had lost it´s charm. It is the beginning of the rainy season down here, which will last till December, so the days are extremely muggy. Perhaps ideal if you are at the beach, but in the city it can be a bit uncomfortable. With that in mind, we decided to take an overnight trip to the Atlantic side of the country to Isla Grande, only a few hours trip by car. Not having a car, we caught the bus which extended our trip by a few hours. It became apparent to us that there weren´t many tourists visiting this part of Panama during the weekdays in the rainy season because we were the only gringos around. It also became apparent that the only destination gringos tend to go in that area is Isla Grande because the locals were guiding us to the right bus stops without having to ask where we were headed. With that help, we managed to find our way to the island but were a bit disappointed upon arrival. Our objective on this trip was to find a beach with white sand and turquoise water and apparently Isla Grande is not the place for that. We made the best of it though and it still felt great to jump into the warm Caribbean waters. After a rainy, stormy night we checked out of Isla Grande the following morning with a few souvenirs and legs covered in mosquito bites. And they call this paradise?

Back in Panama City, we took a trip to the Miraflores locks to view the Panama Canal. This truly is an engineering marvel. We toured the museum and learned about how it was built and how it operates. The canal is the masterpiece of Panama, so it was great to see it and learn some of the history.

Today, Friday, is our last full day in the city, tomorrow we head to the highlands to see Boquete.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1114963560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1114963560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1114963560/tpod.html Sun, 01 May 2005 13:28:55 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Cusco, Peru

Our last stop on the mighty Gringo trail... Cusco and the famous ruins of Machu Picchu.
We arrived in Cusco on Tuesday in order to relax for a few days before we headed up to Machu Picchu. As one can imagine, this is a very touristy city. Most people that come to South America come to see Machu Pichhu and must begin their tour in Cusco. The main part of the city is the Plaza de Armas which has two beautiful cathedrals and a nice fountain in the middle. However being a gringo means that you have to deal with people from restaurants running out to haunt you with their menus that all look the same, cute boys selling postcards, more cute boys trying to shine your shoes (and if you are ever in Cusco, ask for Mario "The Professional"), people representing tour agencies, etc... and they are RELENTLESS.
(We have enjoyed the local Irish bar a few times because it has the best nachos ever!)
Besides the hounding, the people are very nice and welcoming here. It is quite interesting seeing soo many other tourists, and seeing some again that we have run into at some point of our South America adventure.
On Wednesday we decided to rent horses and a Spanish speaking guide to prance along through the Sacred Valley. There are numerous smaller sized ruins outside of Cusco and on our four hour ride we were able to see four different sets including Q'enqo and Saqsaywaman (say that five times fast). The horses were very sweet, but it was a wee bit scary on the different terrains and cliffs.

Friday we met up with Guy and Viv again to take the train to Aguas Calientes, which is the town that is the starting point for getting to Machu Picchu. The train took 4 hours to get there and the scenery was incredible. As soon as you are outside of Cusco there isn't much besides beautiful lush green hills and a roaring river. We decided to rent a room in Aguas Calientes for the night and take the first bus (6:30am) up in the morning so as to miss much of the crowds. We were very happy that we did this as Aguas Calientes is a great little town to relax in; again, it is so beautiful and relaxing and peaceful. We ended up with a room with 2 large windows that overlooked the river. We probably would have spent a few days there had we not already had our train ticket back on Saturday.

Saturday morning we arose early and caught that bus to Machu Picchu. From the town, the bus takes a winding route up the side of the mountain on scary ledges. Since we were there so early most of the Inca Trail groups hadn't yet arrived, nor had the people who came in from the train for the day. Probably the most mystic part was that it was covered in mist. :) Once we climbed the steep hill to get the view that we all see on the postcards, we were pretty much speechless. As often as you hear about how spiritual and incredible these ruins are, we were still in complete awe. And unfortunately our pictures aren't going to do it much justice. It is hard to describe a place like this. We definitely felt the energy of the space.
We walked around the ruins for about 2 hours, with every corner bringing some "shock and awe". The place is simply amazing, it's a wonder how they were able to build such a city on the top and down the sides of this mountain.

We finally ran into Chris and Oli who had done the Inca Trail and were able to visit with them for a few minutes. And when 11:00 came around the place was crawling with tourists so we decided to head back to Aguas Calientes in order to catch our train home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1114451040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1114451040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1114451040/tpod.html Mon, 25 Apr 2005 15:11:42 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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Puno, Peru

Leaving La Paz, we took a 3 hour bus ride to Copacabana on the Bolivian shores of Lake Titicaca. About 2/3 into the journey, they gather us off the bus and we pay a small amount to be ferried across the lake on a small boat while our bus is loaded a bit precariously onto a larger barge to make it´s journey across. Once safely across, it's a short bus ride longer to Copacabana although a bit nervewracking thanks to narrow roads with lots of curves. Perhaps it is the Latin machismo that prevents drivers from slowing down when most sane people would, but we were definitely looking for a cerveza to settle the nerves once we arrived into town.

Copacabana is a small tourist town that is mainly visited as the stepping off point for visiting Isla del Sol, the largest island in Lake Titicaca. Isla del Sol is said to be where the Incans believed the sun and the moon were created. We checked into a room with a view of the lake and proceeded to relax for 3 days. There weren´t a whole lot of activities offered in town, but we were okay to just chill out. It´s easy to do that when you are over 11,000 ft above sea level because simply walking upstairs is enough to make you winded. The food in town was quite good, we´ve been surprised to find that we are enjoying the Bolivian cuisine better than that of Argentina or even Chile. That has some to do with diversity but probably also with the incredible value.

We had heard a lot about Bolivian protests, people taking to the streets and blocking roads causing transport to come to a halt. We experienced this in Copacabana on the day we were considering leaving. From what we could understand, the community was protesting safety after a member of the municipality was murdered. The town had a very serene feeling that day without the influx and outflux of tourists. Shops were closed and no tours or buses were running. It was a forced day of relaxation and we managed to find 2 decks of cards and spent most of the day playing Canasta.

Next stop on our journey was Puno, Peru. Located 3 hours away by bus from Copacabana, Puno is on the southwest shore of the lake. There are some interesting islands to visit from Puno, but it also serves as a stopover to break up the bus ride to Cusco. After a day and a half in Puno, we realized that there is not much to do but take the boat tour so we spent this morning visiting the floating islands of the Uros people. The islands are a short boat ride from Puno and are made up entirely of totora reeds. The water is shallow where they build their islands and they anchor them with sticks and tie them together with ropes. During the windy season, it is not unusual to wake up with your island in a new location! There are currently 30 islands, and each island consists of between 5-15 families. The history of the Uros settling here is that they chose to live on the water to stay away from the fighting that was happening amongst other tribes on land as they fought for territory. From Puno, it is not obvious to spot the islands so they would have lived mostly undisturbed. The Uros people now survive on fishing and tourism. Lake Titicaca has 5 types of fish; 3 species are native and the fish are quite small, and 2 species are non-native, trout and kingfish. The trout was brought in from Canada and the kingfish from Argentina and these are the fish that are served in all restaurants along the shores of the Lake as well as in Chile. It was a short tour but very enjoyable to see this unique way of life. We were happy to support the community by purchasing some beautiful embroidery and by taking a ride in their traditional reed boat.

One last night in Puno and then we are off for Cusco and the ruins of Machu Picchu. Perhaps we should give the local delicacy a try for dinner tonight - guinea pig. Any takers?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1113936780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1113936780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/krisandmarilyn/southcentral/1113936780/tpod.html Tue, 19 Apr 2005 19:12:13 -0400 Just Another Day at the Office...

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La Paz, Bolivia

Several of us took the 8pm bus from Uyuni to Oruro and transfered to La Paz Friday night. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! We knew we´d be in for an interesting trip on Bolivian buses, and this surpased our expectations. First, they sell standing room only seats for people to stand or sit in the aisle, pressing against you and grabbing your legs, for the extent of the trip (7 hours), second, there was so much dust in there that we were forced to hold some sort of cloth against our faces the whole time. Third, the roads were quite scary. The roads in this area of Bolivia don´t have pavement, in fact, they don´t have much of anything. We kept looking out the window trying to see what exactly we were driving on. (it was hard to see as it was the middle of the night) For approximately half of the trip the bus was at a 45 degree angle feeling like it was about to tip over. We were going over terrain that it would seem a 4x4 would have a little difficulty with. And of course there are no bathrooms on the bus so we had to wait until about 1:30am to pull over and find out way behind a bldg. We arrived at Oruro at 3am and the bus terminal didn´t open until 4, so we just waited. The three hour bus ride from Oruro to La Paz was fine and we were able to get a couple hours of sleep.

La Paz is an interesting city by landscape, actually it´s beautiful. It´s made of steep hills with lower-quality homes and a valley that downtown settles in. There are many gardens dividing the streets and from some viewpoints, gorgeous mountains hiding behind the hills. The people are great! Very friendly and hospitable. La Paz is very different from Buenos Aires and Santiago in that many of the people still hold to their indigenous roots, and it is obvious in their dress. Actually, it´s hard to compare La Paz to B.A. and Santiago because there are such drastic differences. Chile and Arg have a great amount of European influence, where Bolivia doesn´t have that feel at all.

Our first day in La Paz we just walked around and then headed out for dinner and drinks with Guy, Viv, Chris and Oli. Day two we did a little bit of shopping for people. That´s the other highlight of Bolivia, VERY CHEAP. We didn´t feel like going out for food later so we ordered pizza and watched movies at the hostel. Day three we did a lot more shopping, but the highlight of the day was our city tour. We joined Guy and Viv in hiring a taxi (the same driver, Domingo, who took us to a museum the day before) to show us around the city. He took us to some incredibly beautiful parts in town and just outside of town. When he took us up the side of one of the hills surrounding the city, we were stunned at how steep the roads were. He also brought us by his house where we waived at his family from the windows. Three hours later we were done, and while it was a bit expensive, it was very much worth it.
The other interesting thing we did was visit the Coca plant museum. The coca plant is a staple to the Bolivian culture. A large amount of the population chew on this leaf for a variety of reasons. It was banned at the Geneva Convention because of it´s ability to produce cocaine, but years later, under a new president, Bolivia realized that 87% of women and 92% of men chewed this leaf for purposes that didn´t include making cocaine (I believe this was in the 80s) The coca plant is obviously also the plant that Coca Cola was derived from. There was a lot of interesting information on the Bolivian culture and its use of the coca leaf. We tried it, but thought it tasted like hay.
We´re on day four now and just enjoying the city and getting some last minute tasks accomplished. Tomorrow (Wed) we leave for Lake Titicaca for a few days. We checked at a tour company about seeing the Kallawaya medicinal people and the Che Guevara tour, but unfortunately there were no tours to the villages to meet the Kallawayas (we could have taken an 8 hour bus ride, but since they don´t speak Spanish and neither do we, we decided against it) The Che tour seemed interesting, but it was to be a 10 day trip to the other side of the country, we opted against it. ´
We´ll be meeting Chris, Oli, Guy and Viv at the lake.
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