TravelStream™ news feed for member nikolassarah on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nikolassarah en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:06:05 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1213026600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1213026600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1213026600/tpod.html Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:06:05 -0500 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Papeete, Society Islands, French Polynesia

We arrived to the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti and were greeted in the airport by happy men in flowered shirts playing the ukulele and woman in coconut bras putting leis on people (but *still* not us, what gives!!?)  - the ambiance combined with the tropical air made us happy to be in Tahiti.  The airport was beautiful and as I sat there comfortably enjoying the music, a small group of kids from Africa I think were sneaking around me trying to take secret photos of me.  They would sit near me on the bench and have there friends take a photo of them but get me in too - I think I was one of the first white people they'd ever seen and they may have liked my hair...Anyways, I just grabbed a bunch of them and smiled happily for their cameras.  Our attempts to communicate went poorly, but it was fun anyways.    French Polynesia is actually an overseas territory of France and, as such, they have EU passports here which is pretty cool.  It seems an appropriate trade-off though since France uses these islands for nuclear testing - the least they can do is offer a passport.   We were happy to move on from Latin America in many ways....many ways but one.  Not being able to speak French, we were literally back to square one in terms of being able to communicate with locals.  Ah well - we were only there for a short time so we just did the best we could.  Fortunately for us, we met up with an American guy in the airport that spoke French perfectly so we hooked up with him to barter down an outrageous taxi price ($100!!) to a nearby hostel where we found ourselves with the last two dorm beds at the cheapest place in town.  What is cheap in Tahiti for dorm beds?  About $50 each per night.  Seriously.  Tahiti has a lot of things going for it, but it is remarkably expensive.  That being said, their money was some of the most beautifully designed money we had seen yet - large bills, soft paper, beautiful flowers and beach scenes decorate their bills, also on the bills are dudes in canoes and ladies with straw skirts.    The next morning we enjoyed our free breakfast with some wonderful people at the hostel.  We met several people who were on 4 week+ sailing trips coming from San Francisco and who jumped ship in Tahiti, now waiting to hitch a ride on another ship heading to New Zealand or similar.  I had a lot of respect for these people - they had to cook on these boats, sail them, clean them and get along in tight quarters all the while fighting against seasickness.  Another couple we met were from Japan, his name was Hero and they were the absolute cutest, most happy couple we may have ever met.  They had been travelling nearly a year as well and had gone through South-East Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and more, all with hardly any English and even less of the local languages.  We chatted for hours and then set off to catch the ferry heading to the nearby island of Moorea.  Moorea is a small island with many beautiful sites whereas Tahiti is quite large and expensive and time-consuming to travel around.   We arrived to Moorea with the sun shining overhead.  We picked up a few snacks and rented a scooter feeling like old-hands at this by now ;)  We tore off to loop the island but no sooner had we enjoyed our first lookout of crystal clear turquoise waters, immaculate reef and thatched-roof huts built beautifully in the water than the rain clouds settled in.  We drove a bit further stopping here and there but as we were getting pelted with giant Polynesian-sized raindrops, we felt it a good place to stop for pizza.  Yup, all the way in French Polynesia and that's what they serve - pizza, burgers, and Chinese food.  Odd.    As the day cleared, we continued on down remote offshoots of the main road exploring farming areas, climbing twisty roads to view the islands volcanoes from up high, tasting delicious fruits from local farms, visiting a black pearl farm and just taking in the gorgeous coastal scenery around us.  The black pearl farm was mostly closed due to a private function that day, but we were still able to see many of their locally grown pearls and learn about how it's done.  They start with a special black-lipped oyster and place a nucleus inside a special gland called the gonad (yup, gonad) which the oyster then develops his black pearl around.  They repeat this process two more times, but each time they increase the nucleus size so that they yield larger pearls each time.  These special oysters do not start cultivating until they are nearly 3 years old and each pearl generation period is from1.5 to 3 years in total.  Further, they have a shorter life span versus the mussels used to create normal white pearls and, in addition to all the special cleaning and care they require, most die prematurely - over 50%.  Of the remaining 50%, some reject the nucleus and only a small portion yield pearls perfect enough to sell - all in all, less than 8%.  That of course leads to a higher price for us and as such, we didn't buy any.  Though, we've come across some black pearls since then and have realized how inexpensive they really were while there.    We took in a beautiful sunset on the moto and took the ferry back across to Tahiti.  We were sick of the high prices already and were looking for a bargain for dinner.  We had heard of a group of caravans that set up in a parking lot near the port starting at 6pm - they set up tables and cook out of their vans and when all is said and done, they pack it all up and drive away.  Genius!! Of course, the majority of these amazing entrepreneurs were Asians.  We were in!!  We watched this place go from a deserted parking lot to a busy bustling environment, we saw entire pigs being lifted out from these vans and a make-shift rotisserie be set up, there were menu boards and full tables - it was great!  We walked around looking for the most people and the most intense looking chefs and settled for a Chinese van in the corner.  It was amazing!! And while it still cost $18 each, that was considered cheap.  The next day we had breakfast with one of our French hostel-mates again and she started telling us a bit more about the Polynesian culture.  She was asking if we'd seen these she-men yet...We weren't sure what she meant and were pretty sure we hadn't come across to many men posing as ladies - we figured we'd have noticed for sure.  Well, as it turns out, in French Polynesia, there is a custom that the last born daughter in each family is responsible for taking care of the parents for the duration of their lives.  If the parents don't have a daughter as their last child, they simply correct that by raising their last born son as a girl.  Illogical as this may sound, it is still widely practiced today and armed with this knowledge, we saw it everywhere!!!  There is no shame or any negativity associated with this custom, it just is what it is.  As we walked we saw a gorgeous girl with an amazing body talking on her cell phone - but once within ear shot, we heard her deep voice.  As we shopped in the local markets, a she-man was helping me find the perfect dress for me.  They help their parents with all the shopping and more.  It was fascinating!  We roamed the streets taking this in, watching the older ladies sit around the central markets making their intricately beautiful flowered crowns, and learned more of the surf culture Tahiti is famous for.  Unfortunately, all the beaches were quite far from Papeete (our city) and the cost was prohibitive to get there.    That night, we returned to the caravans for some good eats.  We wrongly tried another van and found it to be just horrible - my chicken was only chicken fat and skin and there were dead flies in my beans.  I pointed this out to the waitress and chef and they both refused to compensate me beyond just not paying for the beans.  It was already a rip off in the first place compared to the van the night before.  I had walked away mad and feeling ripped off which only made me more angry - I decided there was little point in feeling upset without following up with action, so I returned to the restaurant (much to Nik's dismay) and stood out front where the waitresses try to get people to come in and I told everyone who considered coming into the restaurant that there were flies in my beans and the other van was better.  After I sent away a good 10 people, I figured I had my compensation and left, but not without putting up a sign in my hostel too.    And it was like that that we left Tahiti.  Beautiful, expensive Tahiti.  It was a nice experience, but it's doubtful it's a place we'd return to, unless of course we win the lottery.  Oh yah, and another thing, they didn't even have Tahiti Treat!!!  Do they even still make Tahiti Treat?   Affectueusement, Nicolas et Sarah
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1213106640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1213106640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1213106640/tpod.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:08:38 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Easter Island, Chile

After saying our goodbye's in Ecuador to all our new friends, we returned to Santiago for a day to see one of Pablo Neruda's famously eclectic houses and got unexpectedly stuck inside a student riot complete with stopped traffic, harassed cars, paddy wagons and lots of riot police.  This was our last day on the South American continent and from here we set off on the last leg of our Latin American experience.  We were on our way to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) which is a special territory of Chile but decidedly Polynesian in culture.   We flew 3600km west off the coast of Chile and arrived in the late evening to what is known as the Navel of the World due to it's extreme isolation.  The weather was hot with just a touch of humidity and though we were disappointed that nobody laid us (with a flower lei, that is) as we disembarked the plane, we were happy to be there nonetheless.  As I scoured the hotel-owner's stalls for a good deal on accommodations, the drug-sniffing dog scoured Nik's bum looking for....well, I have no idea why he had his nose so far up his ass actually.  Anyways, we found a pretty sweet deal and we were set to begin our exploration of this World Heritage Site that's only 163.6km2 in size.    Easter Island was formed millions of years ago by the successive eruptions of 3 volcanoes whose cooled magma overlapped to create the island that we know today.  It is of course famous for it's giant stone statues, known as Moai (moe-eye), that were carved by hand and moved to their locations next to the ocean.   These Moai were carved from the quarry of an extinct volcano by 5 or 6 men over a period of one year and they were to represent a deceased relative and/or a person of importance.  These massive statues would then be removed from the quarry and rolled over logs to their respective family member's land on the coast and then erected on a stone platform known as an Ahu.  These statues could be up to 21m in height - absolutely HUGE - and required up to 200 men to move them!!  They are all of a similar style which is a characteristic face and torso with their hands crossed over their stomachs - they are often kneeling and also wear a top knot which looks like a mini hat but is worn for esthetics and to show status.  There are over 887 of these Moais discovered on the island and are very very humbling to behold.   Legend has it that while the original descendants of Easter Island are Polynesian, sometime around 500AD the white men appeared.  These white men with red hair stayed on the island and - shockingly - enslaved the Polynesian people.  From this time on, the white men were known as the Long Ears and the Polynesians as the Short Ears.  It was the Short Ears who were mandated to carve the Moais for the ruling Long Ears.  This went on for over 1100 years until at last the Short Ears declared war on the Long Ears and overthrew them, saving only one Long Ear.  Today, the people of the island are predominantly Polynesian looking, but there are some white-featured and red-headed people as well.   Once the rule of the Long Ears was overthrown, the Bird Man cult prevailed with MakeMake (Mak-e-Mak-e) as the chief god.  This cult lasted until 1860AD and basically consisted of a yearly competition to become the Bird Man.  The premise is that once a year, all the men would attempt to retrieve the first born egg from a bird's nest - which sounds easy, but this birds nest is located at the top of a spire rock, maybe 50+m high, which is on an island about 500m off the island's coast.  Further, the waves off this coast are unbelievably large and powerful!  Of course many died in the attempt but the man who won lived in near-solitude for one year and had his servant dictate his rules to the rest of the island to obey.    This culture ended when Peruvian slave raiders stole many islanders.  Finally, some of these enslaved Polynesians were able to return, but with them they brought disease and as a result, smallpox devastated the island.  Missionaries later brought tuberculosis and once the population of Easter Island was decimated down to only 111 people, the population was moved to a nearby island to recover.  It was during this time that their unique written language was lost as was much of their culture and customs.  Hizaa!! For European domination and diseases.    The island is also known to represent an extreme example of deforestation.  It is said that "the overall picture for Easter Island is the most extreme example of forest destruction in the Pacific, and among the most extreme in the world: the whole forest gone, and its entire tree species extinct."  This has been attributed to using so many logs to move their Moais and possibly as well to the little ice age, but it is not conclusive.  We were actually surprised to see so many trees having expected a completely barren island, based on this description.    Anyways, our first day on the island was absolutely magical.  We walked a mere 5 minutes from our hostel to see our very first Moais at Ahu Tahai.  This site had one Moai (Ko Te Riku) with its top knot on as well as an Ahu with 5 Moai (Tahai) on top looking inland to watch over the village.  They definitely did not disappoint and it was clear to us immediately why this place is renowned for these statues.  Nearby was an excellent museum where we went to learn all about the island and it's history (basically what I wrote above) and saw the plates the people used to write on, several theories on how the Moai were moved, old weapons, boat construction, and more.    The next day we rented ourselves a scooter (Nik liked to call it a 'Moto' to make it sound more manly) to more fully discover this island.  Initially this sounded like a great idea.  We patiently waited behind a single girl traveler about our age whose hands were shaking like a Mother Ucker as she got on her scooter for the first time too and nearly drove right into oncoming traffic.  'Poor girl', we thought, 'at least that won't be us...we're waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy more scoot....I mean moto-inclined'...  Well, I suddenly wasn't so sure as I climbed on the back behind Nik and we tore gracelessly out of the parking lot nearly turning directly into an oncoming truck - much like the previous girl - since we as yet had no feel for how this thing drives.  As we had our butts pounded along the dirt road up to our hotel, I started questioning how intelligent this decision was...but hey, adventure is the spice of life!   We stocked up and peeled out, fortunately a lot smoother this time, and our first stop was this amazing place called Ana Kai Tangata which we just called 'The Crashy Wave Place'.  We were standing on a cliff nearly 30m high, if not more, and literally the waves would crash into the sheer cliff and spray us so high up - it was incredible and relentless - just amazing to watch.  There was a fisherman next to us precariously balancing on the cliff to bring in his catch, also amazing to watch.  After standing in awe for several minutes, we continued up the not-so-smooth-road and turned onto the never-ending pot-holed-dirt-road.    After a steady climb up this road, we arrived to an outlook over the Rano Kau volcano crater which was incredible and then went further up to Orongo which was the ceremonial center of the Bird Man cult.   From this stone village, we could look out to the island of Moto Ku Kau which is the spire that the Bird Man had to climb to retrieve the first egg from a very mad momma.    From here, we made stops along the incredibly scenic coastal highway to see other Moai and Ahu sites until finally arriving at the most incredible place on the island - the Rano Raraku quarry where all the Moais began and many remain there unfinished or unmoved.    The sheer size of this quarry and the many many Moai still standing, leaning, and half-buried in this space was amazing, very moving and very beautiful.  To build a Moai the family would start carving out the mountain, literally.  They would initially start on the front of the Moai (face and torso) and carve down around the sides of it.  They would then carve cylindrical holes on the bottom (back) of the Moai so that ropes could be strung through the holes and then they could raise the statue into a vertical position.  The last stones connecting the Moai to the quarry would be carved away simultaneous to the family pulling the Moai into a vertical position inside a trench where they finished carving the torso and heads.  Finally, they moved the Moai from the quarry to the final location by rolling it horizontally over a bed of logs.  Again via ropes they would stand the Moai up atop the Ahu and give him a headpiece too, likely by using a crane of some sort.  The whole process is quite amazing, even more so once you've seen the size of these!!   Of course, some of the Moai were never moved and that's why we see them today standing vertically or slightly entrenched at the quarry.    We hiked to the top of the quarry which is actually an extinct volcano and were rewarded with an amazing view of the island.  We were surrounded by innumerable unfinished and abandoned Moais and still there was more beauty to behold - we saw another site in the distance that was incredible and had an ocean back drop, Ahu Tongariki, and then a huge patch of purple flowers that were incredible to look at.  We finished looking around the quarry taking photos here and there then headed of to the next site.   Ahu Tongariki is an amazing collection of roughly 15 Moais standing in a line.  Behind them is a huge table top mountain to one side and gigantic crashing waves to the right.  This area was by far the best area on the island in the way of stone monoliths.  We took our time got our pictures and then headed off to our last spot of the day.    We drove down the road to the final Moais, Ahu Anakena.  The road did seem to deteriorate as we kept driving from one Ahu to the other.  There were 2 portions of the road where it was completely flooded.  I got off the scooter and Nik said he would drive it through the puddle.  Initially I thought he would gun it through the middle, but, Nik had no idea of how deep it was.  He drove it to one of the sides where he saw a bit of a dirt patch - this patch was deceiving though and he skidded out, got a good soaker, and ended up having to pull the scooter along through the puddle while he tried to keep from slipping into the puddle again.  Eventually we made it to Ahu Anakena which is located in a sandy beachy part of the island.  There are coconut trees all around and the only place on the island that has a suitable beach for swimming.  After taking in the scenery, we were both tired and anxious to feel our bums again, so we decided to head back to the hotel.   The next day we got up and saw our final Ahu, since we had to have the scooter back by 11am.  The last one was the most inland of all of them and is actually located between some farmers fields.  It is also the only set of Moai that look out over the ocean.  In fact, we could not only see the ocean but we could also see the initial Moais that we saw on our first day there, just amazing!   When we got back that evening we decided to take in a Polynesian show. It was f-ing incredible.  Usually at Polynesian shows the girls are always the stars, probably because they are in grass skirts and coconut bras (Yeaaahh).  But the guys were awesome, they were jumping around, shoving their staffs in people's faces, acting like monkeys, pretending the floor was a surfboard and paddling out and to top it off they  were dancing like pimps with the girls in grass skirts.  The ladies themselves were pretty nice, I wouldn't kick them out of bed for eating crackers, and they really moved their hips in a sexy way that was pretty top notch.  After a good 1.5 hr show and fantastic Polynesian music, we bought one of their CDs and then headed back to the hotel to practice our new dance moves.    The next few days we kicked around the hotel and didn't do too much.  It pissed rain for 2 days straight, which was pretty shitty since there is not a lot to do on the island when it is raining.  When the rain finally broke, we decided to go back to the inland Moai site which was close to the city to see more of it.  While at Ahu Akivi, we met 2 Polynesians that were showing their mainland relatives around, we got talking to them and then they invited us back to their home for some food and flower crowns - it was one of their birthdays and flower crowns are commonly worn either to dress up or for celebrations.  So we both got all spiffied up and headed off to join our new friends.  When we got there they gave us wicked crowns of red flowers made of hibiscus or heliconia, so we put them on and then had a blast with our new found friends.  It was a nice way to spend our final evening on the island!   The next day we were leaving for Papeete, Tahiti (French Polynesia) on our second of three-leg-tour to get from South America to Australia.  We were both saddened by leaving the beautiful island of Rapa Nui, but, we were positive that we would return to this tropical island 4000 km from anywhere else.    So far we had flown from Santiago de Chile to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), 3600 km from the South American continent.  Now we were flying from Rapa Nui to Tahiti, which was another 4000 km and finally, from there we'd fly to Sydney, Australia which was an additional 3000 km.  Man, Oz is really far from anything else, except for maybe New Zealand but who lives there any way? Just farmers and sheep.   Iorana!   Love Niko y Sarita
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1211128440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1211128440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1211128440/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:34:34 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

<i>Prologue: We've scoured the streets of Quito in search of the greatest Galapagos trip we could find for the least amount of money.&nbsp; We finally find a sweet deal, the only catch is that our travel agent is likely a coke head with a criminal record.&nbsp; We experience a brief hang-up of him forgetting to purchase our plane tickets but soon things are ironed out and we have a few more weeks of teaching English to look forward to before said adventure commences... &nbsp; <i>Our Galapagos Adventure: It's the day of!! We are packed, stoked and set to go and our new parents, Linda and Walter, who we've been living with in Quito for the past month are nice enough to offer us a ride to the airport.&nbsp; It's the crack of dawn on Sunday and we've just finished loading all our stuff into their truck when we suggest that this would be a great time for our first Galapagos photo - 'En route to the Airport'.&nbsp; Walter agrees and closes the car door to make for a better shot...Just as he let's go of the car door, he suddenly remembers that these doors are self locking and he attempts a mad lurch to keep the car door from closing, but it is in vain and the picture instead is snapped of us all standing around staring at this locked truck, which is running and has all our passports, tickets and stuff inside.&nbsp; We had given ourselves about 2hrs to get to the airport.&nbsp; At this point, I knew we could&nbsp;probably get out of the jam, Walter was super pissed - he was pretty much prepared to smash a window...awesome.&nbsp; He had some beef with the car he was given in Ecuador (from his work) and had&nbsp;previous problems with it.&nbsp; Luckily we were able to dissuade window smashing in exchange for calling the security company that Linda and Walter&nbsp;use for help when they get into jams.&nbsp; When our savior appeared cruising towards us on his noisy little motor bike to help us, we were initially hopeful but those hopes were quickly dashed.&nbsp; The dude&nbsp;from&nbsp;the security company was a tool, he had so slim-jim,&nbsp;no tools and then asked if we had a spare set in the house.&nbsp;&nbsp;Obviously&nbsp;we already went over the easiest way to open the car with out this dude asking us.&nbsp; All he did was join in our party of standing around staring at the running vehicle.&nbsp; At this point Walter had remembered that you can remote open the car as long as you have all the significant digits&nbsp;for security.&nbsp; So he called some&nbsp;guy from&nbsp;his work, that guy called GM in Columbia and in about 10 minutes we had the doors remotely opened and all was good, no smashy smashy on the window either :-) When we arrived at the airport we were supposed to meet Aaron, our travel agent that we thought dealt coke.&nbsp; So he hadn't shown up yet, so we paid all the taxes that the islands want you to pay and then we headed to get our flight tickets.&nbsp; The Galapagos wants you to pay a $100 park&nbsp;fee and then you have to pay a $30 entrance fee, its sort of like a VISA for the Galapagos (this is because they stamp your passport when you land so that&nbsp;you don't over extend your 3 month visit on the islands,&nbsp;the same goes for&nbsp;Ecuadorians that were not born on&nbsp;any of the islands in the&nbsp;Galapagos - they also cannot spend more than 3 months on the islands).&nbsp; After we had scanned our bags and all was good,&nbsp;Aaron showed up to help us a bit by leading us to the secure area.&nbsp; After Aaron had left we met up with the majority of&nbsp;the other people on the tour.&nbsp; These were the guys that we were going to spend&nbsp;8 days and 7 nights with together.&nbsp; There names were Justin (USA), Matt (Australia), Charlotte and Jimmy (Norway) and we were very happy to see that they were young too.&nbsp; All together&nbsp;there were 10 passengers and 6 crew making for tight quarters since the&nbsp;catamaran was not huge. On the plane, our boat-mate Justin (American), who was working with kids in Ecuador, was like "Hey what kind of liquor do you want, Rye or&nbsp;Vodka, 'cause I am gonna buy a bottle of each." Sarah and I were both like "Rye" and then we looked at each other and thought it would be a pretty fun week.&nbsp; When we landed we got our luggage, paid more taxes and then&nbsp;were met by our guide, Juan. Juan was our bilingual Naturalist guide who would eventually lead us around the islands explaining all the animals, plants, and evolution of the islands to us.&nbsp; He got us from the plane and basically loaded us back up on the plane 8 days later.&nbsp; Juan was a really great guide with a ton of information about all the species we encountered.&nbsp; He had been working&nbsp;the same&nbsp;boat for about 6 years and was not tired of stupid&nbsp;questions or annoyed by the group at all - he was always happy, easy going and a little bit quirky too - he really made the experience&nbsp;heaps better.&nbsp;&nbsp;In his previous life he was an octopus fisherman and had a lot of cool stories from that too.&nbsp; A little info on the Galapagos Islands:&nbsp; The islands are a archipelago of&nbsp;32 volcanic&nbsp;islands that&nbsp;are located&nbsp;roughly 1000km off the western coast of Ecuador (South America).&nbsp; There are approximately 40,000 people living on the islands, which are considered a province of Ecuador.&nbsp; The islands&nbsp;name <i>Islas Galápagos, comes from&nbsp;<i>galápago, which means "saddle" in Spanish, therefore the islands were named after the shells of saddle-backed Galapagos Tortoises that are found on most of the islands.&nbsp; These islands&nbsp;are famous for the large number of "endemic" (only found in Galapagos) species of animals which&nbsp;gave Charles Darwin more evidence on his theory of evolution through natural selection.&nbsp; Darwin's book The Origin of Species was a gathering of information that Darwin had accumulated on his voyage in&nbsp;the 1830s&nbsp;aboard the Beagle.&nbsp; Darwin stopped on the Galapagos Islands for a short period of time studying the beak structure of 14 different species of&nbsp;Finches (type of bird) found on the&nbsp;islands.&nbsp; The Finches gave Darwin more evidence on&nbsp;his theory of evolution; however, it was his&nbsp;study of&nbsp;different breeds of&nbsp;dogs in England that he&nbsp;based his book and theory on.&nbsp; The Galapagos&nbsp;Islands are not&nbsp;mentioned very much in his book, probably less than 2%. -- <i>Disclaimer: The following is a summary of our 12 day adventure.&nbsp; I would consider this one of the main highlights of our entire year away but am certain that no words can do it justice.&nbsp; When reading, try to imagine the closeness of all these animal encounters, and the fact that these animals exist - in some cases - in no other area of our world.&nbsp; It was truly amazing and I'd recommend this trip to anyone!! -- &nbsp; Day 1 :&nbsp; We started our tour on the island of San Cristobal.&nbsp; That afternoon we had lunch next to a dozen adorable sea lions,&nbsp;and then headed on our first excursion of the island.&nbsp; We took a combi van to the turtle research centre called Galapagogera.&nbsp; This is a place where rangers go around raiding the nests of turtles to collect eggs to hatch in the safety of cages.&nbsp; The hatched turtles will stay in a protected area for the first 2 years of their lives and then they will be reintroduced into the wild.&nbsp;&nbsp; Before this age, these turtles/eggs are prone to predators such as rats, domestic cats and dogs of the islanders, and any type of bird.&nbsp; Naturally we saw a lot of little baby turtles and then some giant ones that were a little larger than a riding mower.&nbsp; The bigger ones were really cool, because they have been around since the dinosaurs and basically still sound like them.&nbsp; We then loaded back into the combi and drove to an extinct volcano that had in the meantime filled with water and was a habitat for a bunch of different birds, Honco Lake.&nbsp; Since the day was slowly becoming overcast we walked around the rim of the volcano and then took off to get on our boat and meet the crew. That afternoon we got a bunch of supplies from the town and all of the guests rented snorkeling gear.&nbsp; We took an inflatable Zodiac from the port to the catamaran that was anchored 100m from shore and got onto the boat that would be our home for the next 7 nights.&nbsp; The crew was made up of the Captain, the Cook, Dude who served us, the Mechanic they called Segundo (second), the Zodiac boat driver, then some random dude that did everything and then our guide Juan.&nbsp; The crew slept in the main areas of the boat like the interior and exterior dining places and everyone except the cook would drive the boat in 2hr shifts.&nbsp; We would mostly sail at night, sometimes sailing when we slept and sometimes we would get going earlier, i.e. during dinner.&nbsp; That night we had dinner and then played a bunch of cards.&nbsp; Sarah and I were pretty beat but hung around the top deck in the dining area and also on these mesh nets strung between the two catamaran hulls on the front of the boat that you can lie in and suntan or chill out like a big firm hammock, &nbsp; and then we went to bed.&nbsp; Our rooms were itsy-bitsy but comfortable.&nbsp; We eventually were very comfortable in this room but the first night was a bit freaky since we are below deck with windows too tiny to fit through and tucked into one of the far corners of the catamaran hulls - a bit claustrophobic!!&nbsp;&nbsp; Before we went to bed though - Justin, the guy who bought the Rye and Vodka, was drinking pretty good and having a good time in all.&nbsp; But...the next morning Justin was completely destroyed, he looked like he was going to spew everywhere and he really didn't eat much, he sort of played with his food (I pounced on his uneaten food).&nbsp; After that night Justin didn't really drink again on the boat.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Day 2:&nbsp; The next morning we awoke to the beautiful island of Espanola.&nbsp; This island and day according to our guide Juan was supposed to be the best.&nbsp; We were pretty much blown away our first day by sea lions playing in the port on Isla San Cristobal and the giant tortoises so this was probably going to blow our minds.&nbsp;&nbsp; Sarah and I both thought this day was amazing, but, we both like day 3 and day 6 the best.&nbsp; But, Day 2 was the day we made our first encounter with the Blue Footed Boobie, it's a diving bird that got its name (bobo - dummy) because when people arrived they thought the bird was very stupid and awkward.&nbsp; Quite the opposite though - this bird is an excellent diving bird, diving into the water from the sky at heights of 20m, they are good swimmers, they have this wicked mating dance and they have blue f-ing feet!!&nbsp; When mating, the boobie lifts one foot then the other foot and honks and stretches its wings out, while doing this it offers a branch to the female to come back to his "pad" so they can knock blue-boots.&nbsp; There were tons of these birds on the island, then we also saw Albatrosses, Marine Iguanas, some Galapagos doves and Sarah saw a Galapagos Hawk.&nbsp; This Hawk is endemic to the islands so it is very difficult to see - also it is endangered so again a little more difficult to see.&nbsp; We then headed to watch an unbelievable cliff lookout to see a Blowhole explode, watching boobies swoop, mate and dance along the way. &nbsp; The second stop of the day was a place on Espanola called Gardiner Bay.&nbsp; The beach here was incredible, very fine sand that was almost white in colour and there were heaps of sea lions scattered all along the beach.&nbsp; To get to every island we always had to board the 10 person Zodiac (like a fishing boat) from the Catamaran and then either have a dry landing where we could step off or a wet landing (usually more fun) were we would land on the sand, jump off, and then hold the boat for other people.&nbsp; So we got our snorkel gear and headed off in the Zodiac to the beach, strapped on the stuff got in the water and then swam around the bay.&nbsp; About 150m from shore there was a rocky island that had lots of sea lions sun tanning and that's where we headed since Juan said they are sea lions that will play with you.&nbsp; The sea lions are very playful and are one of our most favorite animals on the islands, they are very nimble and curious in the water.&nbsp; This is a complete opposite from land were they are giant slug like animals that stink of fish and bark.&nbsp; Under the water sea lions approach you with speed but with caution and can circle around you effortlessly, all of us played with them diving down then swimming up to some of them.&nbsp; Pretty much the best part of my trip - it was a real life changing experience.&nbsp; We swam for another hour or so then headed back to the boat to go to the next island. &nbsp; As soon as we were all on we headed off to the next island, it was getting dark so the crew wanted to haul ass to the next spot.&nbsp; This trip was where mostly everyone got sick or had some sea sickness.&nbsp; Sarah and I both puked in the vomit net (by day the suntanning hammocks, by night, my vomit pad) and missed dinner, we basically hung out in the vomit hammock all night until bed.&nbsp; Shitty deal because the cook was serving a roast beef dinner and cake, which would have been great, but neither of us could even stomach something simple like crackers.&nbsp; Day 3 :&nbsp; We arrived at the island of Floreana very early in the morning, anchored and got to have engine-less sleep for 4 hours or so.&nbsp; When we got up it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and we had heard rumors that we could jump off the end of the catamaran and see some sharks.&nbsp; At first I was a little apprehensive, there was no way I was swimming with sharks, then I was told that these sharks (White Tipped Sharks) are not aggressive and don't eat humans.&nbsp; So Justin and I jumped in and did some snorkeling, we saw about 3 or 4, 1.5m long sharks which was really grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat.&nbsp; Justin and I even saw a hammerhead shark, which is supposedly quite hard to do.&nbsp; &nbsp; When we took the Zodiac to land on the island, we were headed off to a location called Post Office Bay.&nbsp; This is a place where people from the cruises write post cards and put them in this box, a bit different though since the cards don't have postage on them.&nbsp; For instance one traveler from say England would write a post card then put it in the box, at the same time that same person would take out a card that someone else wrote from England and bring it back home with them.&nbsp; People rely on other travelers coming by and picking up letters from their country and then delivering it to them either door to door, if its close, or by mailing it in their country.&nbsp; Sort of like leave a postcard, bring back a postcard, one for one.&nbsp; We took a bunch back from the Toronto region and mailed them from there once back. &nbsp; We then headed off for some lava tubes that had been formed below ground a long time ago and had filled up with frigid sea water in the meantime.&nbsp; Our group headed down a set of damp, dark stairs and walked deeper into the cave via headlamps.&nbsp; At the end of the cave was a cold, dark pool and we all enjoyed a swim in the cold waters.&nbsp; Really refreshing!!&nbsp; After the lava tubes we headed back for a bit more snorkeling and fun in the ocean.&nbsp; Sarah and I saw some sea turtles, one laying and the bottom and then one swimming.&nbsp; The one swimming was really cool, it was circling us and checking us out, and then it just swam off and that was all.&nbsp; We think it was an Oliver Ridley Turtle because it was brownish coloured and looked like the ones in Nicaragua.&nbsp; We also saw sharks and that was Sarah's first time to be swimming with them - initially your instincts go crazy to get away but then you realize that they are the reef sharks and not at all interested in you at which point it is a real privilege to be able to observe them so freely and watch them swim.&nbsp; &nbsp; We then took a Zodiac to another snorkel location called Devil's Crown.&nbsp; This was a place that had crystal clear turquoise water that you cold see easily 25m.&nbsp; The group of us circled around the rock and we saw some more playful sea lions, octopus and sharks and plenty of different coloured fish (big small, and lots of schools of fish that you could swim within without the fish even reacting!).&nbsp; There was one part where you could swim under some of the rocks into a deep chasm, where there were more sharks and sea lions.&nbsp; Sarah, Charlotte, Jimmy and I were a bit cold so we got out early, shitty deal the rest of the group saw a golden ray and then a bunch of other fish.&nbsp; On the other hand, Justin almost got caught in this chasm and lost his flipper which also was a shitty deal...! &nbsp; This day was action packed, the next stop we made was at a place called Punta Cormorant, here we saw beautiful flamingos close up and then walked to another beach and saw frigate birds circling over head, really awesome.&nbsp; Along the way we somehow lost one of our passengers, Jimmy.&nbsp; We were all so absorbed in watching the birds that we didn't know where he went - he probably just took his time taking photos and then didn't see where the group went.&nbsp; Juan didn't like that too much and reamed Jimmy out, poor Jimmy. &nbsp; Heading back to the boat some of us asked if we could sail a bit later, after dinner.&nbsp; So the crew being really awesome and nice agreed, all was well and we got to eat dinner, didn't puke it up, we then got plenty loaded up with drowsy sea sickness pills and then fell asleep.&nbsp; &nbsp; Day 4 :&nbsp; We awoke the next day to the worst weather that we had in the entire 12 days that we were on the Galapagos.&nbsp; The sky was over cast and the night before it rained and rained.&nbsp; The windows were not actually water tight as expected on a sailing ship, so there was some water collecting on our bed - not too much but over the day it added up and made for a very cranky Sarah.&nbsp; (I object to this, I was just cranky cause our whole mattress was a giant wet sponge!!&nbsp; We layed more blankets on top and slept on those though) &nbsp; So the entire party on the boat went through the same routine like every other day.&nbsp; We ate breaky which involved usually fruit, then some type of cereal and then some hot food like eggs and bacon....delicious.&nbsp; Then we got ready and loaded into the Zodiac.&nbsp; We landed on a beach that was littered with more sea lions lounging around and giving us a good look up and down.&nbsp; The minute that we landed on the beach it started pouring, we all got incredibly soaked.&nbsp; &nbsp; Our goal on this day was to see the Yellow Land Iguana, one of the Darwin Finch's and a Cactus tree.&nbsp; All of us were quite wet at this point so we took our photos of the tree, lizard and bird and then&nbsp;headed back to the boat.&nbsp; When we got back to the boat we donned our snorkel gear and then jumped in the water.&nbsp; We were warned not to snorkel next to the beach because there are male sea lion bulls that are really aggressive and can bite and overpower most other people&nbsp;in the water.&nbsp; So we stuck&nbsp;clear away from the beach and had another swim with the sea lions.&nbsp; One of the other boats that consisted of people aged 50-70 had also people in the&nbsp;water, but it was a&nbsp;little strange because they weren't wearing any snorkel gear only life jackets.&nbsp; This was odd because all the action was below the water and none of these floaters could see anything, a little useless&nbsp;to be in the water.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; When we got back to the boat we pulled anchor and then headed off to the most populated island of Santa Cruz.&nbsp; We went&nbsp;here to see more of the giant&nbsp;land tortoises, the Darwin Research Centre (DRC) and also 2 of our passengers were leaving the cruise.&nbsp; About 2 hours later we got into the harbour and went to shore.&nbsp; At this point it was still pretty nice so we toured the DRC seeing all the giant baby tortoises and then we headed to the big guys.&nbsp; The DRC is home to Lonesome George, who is the last know land tortoise of the island of Pinto, the very last, the end of a line, the very last end of the line species of land tortoise from that specific island.&nbsp; Granted there are still other species of giant tortoises on other islands, but, it is still very sad that we are virtually watching this species come to extinction.&nbsp; The good point about George's predicament is that he lives with 2 or 3 other ladies which he tries/or doesn't to have sex with.&nbsp; They have noticed that George doesn't want to mate with any of the other tortoises in his pen.&nbsp; So is George gay?&nbsp; Maybe. Or George might not know how to have sex anymore.&nbsp; Strange but true, they don't know how long George lived alone on Pinto before they rescued him......soooo he could have been there for a while and was never able to clean his pipes.&nbsp; A lady-researcher from Switzerland came to Santa Cruz to give George a little hand.&nbsp; I was asking our guide if she actually gave George a little hand, but, he said she invented this electronic (like a surge or spark on the prostate) ejaculation machine.&nbsp; Unfortunately she left before George came, because her VISA ran out and she had to go back to Switzerland - tough luck for blue-balls George.&nbsp; We did get a glimpse of George which was pretty cool.&nbsp; We then moved on to the other land tortoises that inhabit the other islands of the Galapagos.&nbsp; These creatures are like dinosaurs, they move like you would think giant dinosaurs move, they breathe like you think giant dinosaurs breathe everything that you think dinosaurs would be like, they are.&nbsp; When we got to the area where the males feed, 3 out of 4 of them were asleep from a large meal.&nbsp; We all had our photos with them and then when one of the people from our party, Charlotte, went to have her photo taken with one of them, the tortoise got a huge slimy boner.&nbsp; Then when she left, the boner went away, it did reappear when Charlotte moved closer to this dinosaur, we just wanted to see if the tortoise was turned on by Charlotte.&nbsp; The tortoises were pretty cool; as they age their shell becomes smoother, so you can tell a younger tortoise from an older one.&nbsp; After we got an eyeful of tortoise pride we saw some yellow land iguanas and then a sea lion skeleton.&nbsp; At this point we were on our own to kill time and buy what we needed from the island (i.e. waterproof camera, tourist shit, more snacks) and just chill out.&nbsp; Unfortunately we weren't so lucky as it started to piss rain and the most of our group was scurrying from shelter to shelter until we found a place and had some dessert.&nbsp; Delicious desert with brownies and ice cream. That night we all went out to get pissed and to dance.&nbsp; We headed to land, went to 2 bars to get our salsa on (or at to least pretend we knew how to salsa!), and then headed back to the boat.&nbsp; During this time the two people from Denmark we were dropping off after 4 days wanted to stay for another 4 days like the rest of us and since there was still space available on our boat, then we thought it might be OK.&nbsp; So we pleaded with the crew and our guide, but, they didn't want to take them back on board without asking the owner first, and the owner was in Quito and unreachable.&nbsp; The entire party was tanked so we kept badgering the crew but to no avail.&nbsp; So Kasper and Louise stayed on Santa Cruz and we headed back to the boat.&nbsp; &nbsp; Day 5:&nbsp; We sailed that night for our next island of Rabida, which has a red sand beach and a slew of Galapagos Hawks and Pelicans.&nbsp; All these birds nested on the trees close to the shore on this island.&nbsp; The Pelicans were quite amazing to watch fly, they would flap out of the trees about half a meter above you head and then fly to the water.&nbsp; They then would catch some fish and then head back to the nest.&nbsp; The Pelicans were especially active since they were mating and eating, so lots to see on this island.&nbsp; Oddly enough, the mating itself only lasts about 10 seconds, if that!! We had a bit of a quick snorkel here, but beyond a few fish, we didn't see too much afterall... &nbsp; We headed back to the boat quite quickly and then headed to another island, Puerto Egas.&nbsp; Here we saw a bunch of huge fur seals, some more marine iguanas, another sea turtle, sally light foot crabs and then the sea birds like oyster catchers and lava herons.&nbsp; When we got back to the beach where we had landed the majority of the passengers didn't want to go snorkeling again, since the morning snorkel around Rabida turned up with little or no results.&nbsp; Sarah and I were going to go anyways even if it was for a little bit.&nbsp; As we approached the water this old bird came out and was like, "wow that was amazing; there is a huge school of tuna right of the beach."&nbsp; This school was pretty big and was only about 15m off the shore.&nbsp; So we strapped on our flippers and then dove in.&nbsp; It was only a few minutes when we saw the school of fish and then this huuuuuuge sea lion bull swam right in front of both of us.&nbsp; Man this was incredible, we were a bit scared because the bulls can be quite aggressive and they can defend their 'ladies' by biting other bulls or humans.&nbsp; No worries though, the bull didn't mind us - he swam off and then he was followed by 2 young sea lions that we preceded to chase.&nbsp; This was incredible because as we chased the sea lions they led us to 2 penguins that were diving for fish and other small animals.&nbsp; The penguins were incredible they shot off like darts and as we tried to keep up with them they were too fast and they disappeared into the dark cloudy water.&nbsp; Incredible.&nbsp; After about 20 minutes we had the best snorkels on the island and saw a 'buttload' of animals, played even more with the baby sea lions and penguins, swam with the fish and had our fun, so we headed back to the boat, fully contented, and waited for dinner. &nbsp; That night on the boat was Van Damme night, need I write more...!? :) &nbsp; Day 6 :&nbsp; When we woke up the next day we were at a place called Isla Bartolome.&nbsp; This island had definitely less wildlife, but, it had the best view in all the Galapagos.&nbsp; When atop the island you could see both bays that were separated by the island and in the middle of the separation was a huge 50m tall rock called Pinnacle Rock.&nbsp; The terrain reminded me of what I think the moon looks like, it was very barren with almost no vegetation and the rocks had a slight red colour to them.&nbsp; When we got to the top we took in the views, took our photos and then spoke with some of the other tourists that made it to the top.&nbsp; I met this one chap from Malta, I had no idea where this island/country was, but its amazing how much you learn of the world when you are talking to people from other countries.&nbsp; &nbsp; Juan told us about how the islands were formed while we were walking up.&nbsp; The islands are on top of what is called the Galapagos hotspot, a place where the earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume (upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle, picture a lava lamp with certain globules floating up once heated), and creating volcanoes.&nbsp; The islands lie below a section of the Galapagos Rise, the divergent boundary located between the South American coast and the triple junction of 3 tectonic plates (Nazca, Cocos and Pacific Plates) Back at the beach we readied ourselves for another snorkel trip.&nbsp; This trip was, in my opinion, one of the best as well.&nbsp; We started off with a lot of other floating whities, which were older people with life jackets and masks on.&nbsp; Once we had swam significantly far enough from the beach and close to pinnacle rock we started seeing huge schools of little tiny fish.&nbsp; One thing we started noticing is where there are fish there are cool animals that we can play with, namely penguins and sea lions.&nbsp; A few minutes later we saw 2 penguins out for a swim and eat.&nbsp; We eventually got very very close to 4 penguins that were basically in front of mine and Sarah's faces.&nbsp; Sarah, being very bad was 'forced'&nbsp; to touch one of the little guys.&nbsp; She described it as soft and smooth and kind of squishy, the penguin didn't even mind it just floated there while Sarah touched it.&nbsp; Then the penguins went under the water and they were off - ZOOM-.&nbsp; We snorkeled around Pinnacle Rock for a bit longer seeing more penguins and white tip sharks, then we headed back to the boat.&nbsp; Looking back at all the snorkeling we did, I wish we had rented a wet suit.&nbsp; The water was warm, but, with snorkeling there is a lot of inactivity and a wet suit would have kept us a little bit warmer.&nbsp; That being said, we had another snorkel trip after Pinnacle Rock, where the water was really cold - we were anticipating lots of sharks but there weren't too many, so we didn't last long in the water. The best part about this snorkel was the boat ride to the area...Juan said, 'I won't tell you what you'll see in this area, but there are lots of them' and just when he finished saying that, the classic fin-out-of-the-water shark swam right by our boat, crazy!!!&nbsp; Even more crazy is that we all jumped in right after this to find these sharks, but we only saw a couple and they were a bit far away...&nbsp; &nbsp; Our next island for the day was called North Seymore.&nbsp; Here we got to see Frigate birds up close and trying to attract females.&nbsp; The birds have an inflatable red sack that is located directly below their beaks.&nbsp; To attract a female the bird puffs up the sack to roughly the size of a red party balloon and keeps it inflated until he scores a chick.&nbsp; One scientist did a study, she wanted to see how competitive the birds would get, so she inflated an oversized red balloon and then hung it from a tree.&nbsp; The other males around the balloon got really stressed and eventually left the area because they knew they couldn't compete with the huge red balloon.&nbsp; Pretty strange, but interesting to see the males with a huge puffed up chest.&nbsp; We also saw more blue footed boobies on the island, these were a lot more active then the ones we saw earlier.&nbsp; The males did their mating dance with the twig in their mouths and then the lady birds actually let them score with them.&nbsp; Birds are really quick when they mate, the Boobies were only at it like 10 seconds and this is sufficient to produce offspring. &nbsp; After we had finished walking the island we saw huge waves crashing into the shore with sea lions in the surf riding the waves, this was to a back drop of the sun setting and basically ending one of the best days that we had on the islands.&nbsp; When we walked back to get to the Zodiac there was a huge bull right by the path.&nbsp; We all made it past the bull fine until one of the passengers, Justin, was lunged at by the bull.&nbsp; This was a bit strange because the same thing happened to him on the way on to the island.&nbsp; The huge bull then seemed to burp the alphabet at Justin.&nbsp; Justin did manage to make it around the bull and then back on to the Zodiac. &nbsp; Back on the boat we ate dinner, sat around and were relieved to find out that we weren't sailing until the morning.&nbsp; Yeahhhh.&nbsp; This meant we could eat a little bit more and have some drinks.&nbsp; After dinner Jimmy and Charlotte, a couple from Norway (the first Norwegians I met) showed us how to play this came called Ten Thousand (10,000) with dice - we can't remember how to play it but it was still pretty fun. &nbsp; Day 7:&nbsp; This was the last day for 2 of our passengers from the US (Yellowstone Park), Jerry and Amy.&nbsp; We landed on a little island called Mosquera which is really beautiful, it has a pristine white sand beach with tons of sea lions and their babies playing in the surf.&nbsp; We were supped to see Lava Gulls, but, they were a no show until the end right as we were leaving.&nbsp; We did have our fun with the sea lions, Sarah took heaps of pictures of baby sea lions playing in the water.&nbsp; We lazed around the beach for a little under an hour then headed back to the boat.&nbsp; &nbsp; The crew lifted anchor and then headed right away for the island of Baltra.&nbsp; This was where A&amp;J were getting off to catch their plane back to the mainland and then back to the US. The islands have 2 airports, one on Baltra and the other on San Cristobal.&nbsp; We flew into SC to start our trip, so they were going to take the rest of us back to SC to catch our plane out from there. &nbsp; Once we had dropped A&amp;J off we headed for Black Turtle Cove which had a shipwreck that happened over 60 years ago and was supposed to have turtles and more flamingoes.&nbsp; So we kicked around the island for a bit, saw an empty turtle nest with broken shells and one lone flamingo.&nbsp; Not too shabby, at this point the majority of us were pretty tired and we wanted to get back to Isla San Cristobal.&nbsp; &nbsp; We started sailing at 2pm, along the way we saw a huge manta ray swimming next to us.&nbsp; That afternoon the seas were angry my friends like an old man trying to send soup back at a deli, the sea heaved and tossed and didn't stop until we reached the island.&nbsp; The crew opened up both main sails and then had the engine running so that we would make it back faster.&nbsp; We postponed dinner too until we reached port.&nbsp; While sailing there one of the securing pulleys broke on the main sail, this made the sail flap and the beam was tossed all over the place.&nbsp; After this happened the entire crew started yelling for Segundo the all around mechanic handyman.&nbsp; Luckily he was able to fix it after 5min and then the boat was back on course.&nbsp; Sarah was immobilized by the tossing sea and had to lay down in the cold wind outside to keep from hurling - the problem is too that it's too hard to go to your room to get any warm clothes cause the minute you move, you'll puke.&nbsp; Segundo was sweet enough though to find a blanket and toss it over Sarah while we continued to sail, the whole crew could not have been nicer.&nbsp; We ended up getting into port at 10:30, about 2 hours later than expected.&nbsp; When we got in the cook had made a feast fit for kings - beef, soup and then for dessert, cake.&nbsp; The cook was awesome, he could whip up tons of shit in a little tiny kitchen that kept swaying and heaving.&nbsp; That night some of the crew made it to town to pick up the local pirate hookers, then made it back to the ship with their booty in hand. &nbsp; Day 8:&nbsp; We were counting on this day from the first time we saw sharks in the water.&nbsp; We left the port of San Cristobal and sailed for 30 minutes to a place called Kicker Rock (Leon Dormido), we got on our snorkeling shit and then jumped into the water.&nbsp; Kicker Rock has a very unique formation - it is a passage between 2 islands, the channel is about 30m wide, from the surface down it is roughly 50m deep, and then from the surface up it is 30m high.&nbsp; We started at one end of the channel and then were going to meet the boat on the other side, maybe snorkeling 150m in total.&nbsp; This area was notorious for Hammerhead, White Tip and Galapagos Sharks and we were all excited and nervous at the same time, keeping close to Juan as we went.&nbsp; Juan was actually going to send us out on our own with some excuse like he lost his mask or something, but we came up with an extra for him in the end... &nbsp; As we started swimming, the majority of us saw a few sea turtles in the passage and then we saw a single Hammerhead shark at the bottom.&nbsp; This animal is very stunning - it moved so gracefully at the bottom, not wasting any energy swimming.&nbsp; The shark had no interest in us though so it kept on going.&nbsp; This passage way also has a large abundance of fish, this is why it is so popular with the sharks.&nbsp; When we got near the end of the passage all the passengers started swimming around.&nbsp; This is were we saw a huge number of sharks.&nbsp; Sarah was one of the first to see them she stuck her head under and saw a single 2m shark looking right at her about 4m away, she immediately got a little excited and called Charlotte and Jimmy over.&nbsp; When she took another look there were 2 sharks of the same size, so she called over me and the next closest people.&nbsp; Then we all looked&nbsp;again and there were about 4 sharks now, we waited as the sharks swam off.&nbsp; Each time the sharks came back, they was more of them, just like us getting more or our friends together each time we saw another one...By this time all 6 of us were in the same area including Juan.&nbsp; The sharks came back 2 more times - the first time with 8 sharks and then a final time with about 12 - 2m long sharks.&nbsp; It was literally a shark to human stand-off at this point with all of us gathered together looking out directly at a pack of 12+ sharks all staring directly back at us.&nbsp; Charlotte was definitely the first one to freak but I must admit that I (Sarah) attempted to swim over Matt in a futile attempt to put more distance between me and the sharks.&nbsp; Nik's approach was a little different - upon first seeing the group of 6 sharks or so, his reaction was to swim behind me and then push me forward, further towards said sharks.&nbsp; We all decided, Juan included, that it was a good time to get back to the boat and take off.&nbsp; One small problem though was that the sharks were directly between us and the boat.&nbsp; With no choice in the matter, we all followed Juan back to the boat over top of sharks.&nbsp; Back on board we were all talking about how the sharks started showing up and Sarah asked Juan if he was scared at all, because some of us were really scared.&nbsp; He replied "yeah, I was a little bit scared", apparently Galapagos sharks can become a little bit aggressive (3rd most aggressive shark in the area...!!) and Juan had never been scared before...!! &nbsp; Yikes!!&nbsp; &nbsp; I (Sarah) had a water-proof camera specifically for this day's encounter and despite being scared at some points by seeing these sharks swimming and looking directly at me, I took a ton of photos to capture this amazing experience.&nbsp; Unfortunately, not one turned out - it didn't even register on the negatives.&nbsp; Despite, that, I'll certainly never forget this experience.&nbsp; It was both exhilarating and terrifying and truly exciting all at once, it was amazing!! &nbsp; We headed back to the port in San Cristobal to get off the boat since our trip was now over.&nbsp; We said our goodbye's to the crew, gave our tips and then took some photos with them.&nbsp; We took a Zodiac back to shore with Segundo's girlfriend or what ever she was and then waited at a cafe until the other 4 took off for the airport.&nbsp; Sarah and I were planning 3 more days on the islands to do stuff we couldn't do while on the tour so we had our plane tickets altered from the rest of the group to spend more time on the islands. Eventually it came time when the taxi came around to pick up Jimmy, Charlotte, Justin and Matt but not before we had a good laugh at the times on board and remembered our best days on the islands.&nbsp; &nbsp; After everyone had left we headed down the road to a place called Hotel Orca, where through some fenegaling we got a free nights stay.&nbsp; We took a nap until like 3pm and then went to the town to buy a ferry ticket and also some soft serve ice cream that was ever abundant on the islands.&nbsp; The ferries they have are a little tricky, the one we wanted heading to Santa Cruz only leaves at the ass crack of dawn, around 7am, but we just got back from the shark-snorkel around 9am meaning we still had a whole day to kill on the island.&nbsp; There are only 3 ferries and to get to any outlying islands, you always have to take a ferry to Santa Cruz first, but we were on San Cristobal unfortunately, so that just complicated our planned itinerary.&nbsp; On top of that, each ferry ride is $32.50 USD one way per person, so it's pretty exy.&nbsp; So we decided to get to Santa Cruz first and spend more time there and at the Darwin Research Centre and also have one good snorkeling trip.&nbsp; &nbsp; Day 9 :&nbsp; That morning we woke up packed our shit and then caught the ferry to Santa Cruz, the ride was about 2.5 hrs on this really powerful boat.&nbsp; The sailing trip took us 8 hrs, the super fast huge speed boat took 2.5 hrs.&nbsp; When we got there we found a place to stay (Hotel Elizabeth), then had a super bitchin' breakfast (pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and a fruit plate, each!!).&nbsp; I also found a dive shop that was going to a place that has heaps of hammerheads, manta rays, eagle rays and also Galapagos Sharks.&nbsp; So I booked a dive to Gordon Rocks for the next day and got 2 tanks for $130 which was not too bad.&nbsp; We also heard of a place on the island where you can slip yourself into giant land tortoise shells. A farm about 20 minutes from the city has a bunch of land tortoises, and when they die they leave their shell and so you can slip your whole body into a huge shell.&nbsp; Pretty cool, we were both in so we got a taxi driver/tour guide for the next day.&nbsp; After this we took it easy did some souvenir shopping and then went to bed. &nbsp; Day 10 :&nbsp; I woke up pretty early and headed to the dive shop to set out for my 2 dives.&nbsp; We got all our stuff ready, loaded the boat and the Instructor/Dive Master wanted us to show him our skills (mask skill, regulator recovery and the hand signals) for the pre-dive inspection, since some guys hadn't dove in 2 months to 8 months he wanted to be safe.&nbsp; All was good - we had a blast with the sea lions in a bay for our equipment check out.&nbsp; We then headed to Gordon Rocks, this is an area that you are supposed to have your PADI Advanced Certificate for since we were diving below 18m and the currents are stronger.&nbsp; So we got our briefing and jumped into the choppy waters, we then dove to about 20 - 22 m.&nbsp; Since the Galapagos Islands have 2 sea currents meeting at the island there is a lot of salt in the water and you are extra-buoyant.&nbsp; Generally I use 9 - 12 lbs of weight for ballast, here I had to use 3 times my regular weight 36 - 40 lbs of weight, nuts.&nbsp; Once we got down it was like an aquarium, and the best part was the Instructor was also the camera man, he filmed both dives to create a movie and a bunch of still shots.&nbsp; While we were down we saw a 3m long hammerhead shark another smaller hammer head sharks, then this school of over 30 spotted eagle rays and some golden rays swam right under us, it was f-ing incredible&nbsp; We also saw the regular stuff - about 20 sea turtles, loads of fish and incredible aquatic scenery.&nbsp; I was down for about 37 minutes with my buddy and an extra guy, there were also 2 US guys and a girl on the dive.&nbsp; The 2 guys were buddied together and the chick was with the instructor.&nbsp; The 2 guys from the US went up at 27 minutes, not very long down-time.&nbsp; So after we had both dives and were back on the land the US guys told me that one of the guys had zero certification to dive.&nbsp; He lied to the dive shop and said he had a CMAS diving certificate (French certification that most recreational places don't use or have no idea of), the guy at the office didn't check and that is how come he was able to go out with the group but also why he didn't last as long under water.&nbsp; I really should have said something, which was really really stupid, he could have died if he freaked out or he could have killed his buddy or anyone else on the dive if he panicked.&nbsp; Also he could have gone up too quickly, may have got the bends or some other type of gas expansion problem and then would have been really f-ked.&nbsp; Generally most places recognize PADI and to dive at 22m you have to first have your Open Water Certificate and then your Advanced Open Water to go down to that depth, those two certifications are at least 15-20 dives.&nbsp; But he fooled them saying he had a CMAS certification and the said he forgot his certificate/card.&nbsp; Wow, what an idiot.&nbsp; &nbsp; After that I kicked around town some more and then met up with Sarah.&nbsp; We had lunch, bought some more stuff and then got ready for the tortoise farm.&nbsp; The farm was really cool - we saw a bunch of turtles in a natural setting.&nbsp; The tortoises roam around the farm which is about 20km from the shore and then during mating time they walk all the way to the beach to do their business.&nbsp; So looking around the farm we saw 3 turtles free in the wild which was awesome.&nbsp; We spooked one a bit as we came upon him eating and he tucked his neck in all tight under his shell, then out, then in again, it was so cool!!&nbsp; Then we headed back to the office to try on man-sized real giant tortoise shells. Really cool, good timing too - we left just as a huge bus full of Asians were going to invade the farm, man I love Asians they are sooooo funny.&nbsp; &nbsp; While I had an awesome time diving, Sarah told me what she was doing - she said she went to Tortuga Bay beach and got eaten by horse flies and then saw a naked man standing in a huge screen-less window, so his dink was virtually outside his home.&nbsp; I guess my dive was a bit better than this. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Day 11 :&nbsp; This was the final day of things that we wanted to do.&nbsp; We got up early, ate breakky, did some internet stuff and then sent off some packages in the mail.&nbsp; After this we went to the Darwin Research Centre to see if we could get a better look at Lonesome George, the last Tortoise from Pinto.&nbsp; So we walked around the centre and visited the giant tortoises again.&nbsp; They were a lot more feisty this time as we came around feeding time - we saw one male eating and drinking water, we watched this guy go for like 30 minutes.&nbsp; First he lifted his giant shell, then sloooooowly walked over to gulp water, then walked and got a piece of tree where this huge dinosaur ripped the bark off like it was butta.&nbsp; After, we went to see Lonesome George, which we did get to see better this time.&nbsp; George is a lot smaller than the other giant tortoises that we saw eating and he really does have a cushy life (besides handling the pressure of having the future of his species rest on his shell...).&nbsp; From here we had already packed up, so we loaded on a ferry and then headed back to San Cristobal.&nbsp; It was a really choppy boat ride, Sarah got soaked cause she had to sit outside for fresh air and then got really wet by all the waves.&nbsp; We got a hostel, got some din-din and then went to bed at like 7:30, man did we feel old.&nbsp; &nbsp; Day 12 :&nbsp; We woke up, had breakky and then headed to the Airport.&nbsp; Flight left at 12:30, got to Quito around 5:30 then took a cab back to Linda and Walter's house in Jacaranda, Cumbaya.&nbsp; &nbsp; Sweet trip, saw everything we wanted and more, had amazing boat-mates and a great crew too. It really was the best cruise EVER!!!!!!!! :)Love, Niko y Sarita xoxo
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1210264200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1210264200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1210264200/tpod.html Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:31:12 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Quito, Ecuador

After leaving the sunshine and warm tropical breeze of Mancora we jumped a bus to Ecuador.&nbsp; Our destination was to a town called Cuenca, another high land area.We left Mancora around 12:30 in the afternoon and had a pretty long haul all the way to Cuenca.&nbsp; Our Peru to Ecuador border crossing seemed to take forever, as usual, mainly since the border guards tend to be an uninterested and unmotivated type.&nbsp; This means my arrival at the window usually coincides with the guards spontaneous 10 minute break... We arrived in Cuenca and found this little old man (or, he found us) who ran a hostel and had a double room for us to stay at.&nbsp; Not too bad a price either - only $6 each including breakfast.&nbsp; The hostel owner was really ambitious and seemed to like travelers from different countries, especially the girls.&nbsp; He was reaally affectionate with all the ladies and I was no exception - he was always finding reasons to touch my legs and would even try to modify the traditional cheek-kiss into a full on mouth kiss, but I was always a step ahead.&nbsp; While this was generally quite harmless, it was made all the more creepy by the fact that it was all done with an open fly...&nbsp; Well, anyways he gave us good info on what to do around Cuenca and he made a meaaaaaaan breakfast!When we got up the next morning it was pretty overcast and by the time we had a plan in order, it started to piss rain.&nbsp; Shitty Luck.&nbsp; We headed off to the Museo Pumapungo which is run by a bank probably because other places don't have the money to have an exhibit.&nbsp; The main reason we were going was to see a collection of shrunken heads, really f-ing cool.&nbsp; But, when we got to the museum it was closed despite that our book said it was open as did the sign on the door - it's not that that was so much surprising as we are now used to that sort of thing, but it was moreso annoying since we were now completely soaked...To waste some time on a rainy day, we decided to head to a 'Panama Hat' store.&nbsp; Contrary to what the name suggests, Panama hats are actually from Ecuador.&nbsp; They got this name since all these hats were shipped to Europe and elsewhere via the Panama Canal and, due to their abundance, they were extensively used by the people who worked on the Canal.&nbsp; Their prominance in Panama just natually led to the name of Panama Hat, much to the dismay of the Ecuadorians... At the store, we saw a bit of history on the hat (also called a Montecristi), how they are made, where they are shipped and so on.&nbsp; Basically, local woman start with toquilla palm trees that grow in the eastern jungle of Ecuador from which the palm is cut, peeled, boiled to become pliable, dried in the sun and sometimes dyed.&nbsp; Then it is woven by the ladies into a basic sombrero form.&nbsp; The tighter the weave, the softer and more pliable the hat is - these are the more expensive hats that can be rolled up and slid through a man's ring and then bounce back to perfect form.&nbsp; These hats are then transported to another workshop - predominantly located in Cuenca - where typically men finish off the brim of the hat and finally they are hydraulically pressed to give them their characteristic shape.&nbsp; In this store, we saw a sales-lady operating one of these hydraulic presses to give the hat its shape.&nbsp; Following this, the hat is given to another woman who sews the black band on.&nbsp; We decided to get a hat for Sarah and my dad, so we tried on a few and then found one we liked.&nbsp; The way it works there is that you demo the floor models, but then they make one brand new for you right there.&nbsp; Pretty cool.&nbsp;&nbsp; Some hats in there were pretty expensive and ranged from $10 to $300, depending on the tightness of the weave of the hat.&nbsp; They can reach well over $500 for some of the best made hats.&nbsp; Before we got to Cuenca we were looking for a place to stay a bit longer, since we were a bit tired of hoofing it all over the place.&nbsp; So we applied to teach English in Quito (Capital) through a company and then stay with a local family.&nbsp; The only twist was that they wanted $225 a week per person for us to 'volunteer'...what a sham! That's almost $50 more than what we paid to *receive* 5 hrs a day of Spanish in Guatemala while living with a family too.&nbsp; We were a bit disappointed with being unable to afford volunteering, but fate smiled on us that day. &nbsp;Enter New Parents...In the hat store we met this really nice couple from Canada.&nbsp; Sarah started talking with Linda and mentioned we wanted to go to Quito, volunteer and teach English.&nbsp; Linda then said that she lives in Quito and teaches English to kids and then she invited us to stay with her and Walter.&nbsp; She also mentioned that she would talk to the owner of the school (also named Linda) to see if we could volunteer at the school she owned.&nbsp;&nbsp; Eventually everything worked out and we managed to volunteer at the school for about 2 weeks and also help out with some of the local's kids that Linda knew.&nbsp; It was really rewarding to do that, meet some great people and not have to pay some retarded volunteering fee.Linda and Walter live in a really nice area of Quito, it's called Cumbaya.&nbsp; This area is basically where the ex-pats come to stay if they have a job in Quito.&nbsp; The specific area is called Jacaranda, it's a gated community with guards and the whole nine-yards, it also has a lot of other rich whitties or rich Ecuadorians living here.&nbsp; Walter and Linda are both about our parents' age and are really super-sweet.&nbsp; Walter is down here because he is a Civil Engineer working on the new Quito Airport which will be completed in 2010.&nbsp; They have 3 kids back in Canada that are aged similar to us, so the arrangement really fit.&nbsp; We stayed here for free and Linda fed us delicious food and then they took us around Quito and the area on the weekends.&nbsp; This was probably the sweetest deal EVER!!!So that day in Cuenca we were pretty stoked to have a place in Quito with really nice people.&nbsp; We checked out the main plaza, took more photos of the churches to add to our church collage once home (what the hell else do you do with church photos!?) and then headed back to the hostel.&nbsp; We decided that we were going to go to one more place before heading to Quito. The place we had in mind was Banos, a mountainous area with hot springs and taffy (milcocha), we decided to spend a day or two here before getting to some sweet digs in Cumbaya. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Banos itself was pretty cool, there is a bunch to do there.&nbsp; We could have paraglided, mountain biked, rented a quad or done a bunch of hiking.&nbsp; But, we are really boring and watched TV instead (to be fair, it was *English* programming and I'm addicted to Grey's Anatomy reruns...).&nbsp; Actually, we just feel hiked out and we were also thinking that we had to save money - LOTS of money - for our upcoming Galapagos Island trip.&nbsp; We did end up going to the hot spring that night (before the TV).&nbsp; When we got to the pool they closed the main hot pool for cleaning so they only had one hot one left and it is the size of a kiddie-wading pool and there was about 50 people in there, kids and adults, and everyone was touching each other and you couldn't see below water so you didn't know if the person being indecent on your leg was the big gross man next to you or the 7 year old boy who popped up next to you after.&nbsp; We had just secured a spot on the wall when Nik turned around and saw a green mutant tadpole squiggling around behind us and suddenly swimming towards us.&nbsp; Nik was like, "That's it!! We're outta here!!" and we plowed our way out lighting-quick...only to join another 50 ppl in the communal showers.&nbsp; But, really it was beautiful and we just caught a bad night we think! &nbsp;And, we did feel a lot better when we got back to the hostel, totally relaxed.&nbsp; We pretty much fell asleep the minute we laid down.The next day we kicked around the town of Banos and noticed all these shops with boys standing outside swinging these long strands of taffy around this wooden post on the wall.&nbsp; It was pretty cool to watch, they would basically twirl it into a coil and then lasso the post and repeat and they'd let it get so long that each time it nearly hit the pavement - but these guys are pros.&nbsp; It's supposed to soften up the taffy before they form it into these delicious cigar-shapes.&nbsp; I guess the more they whack it around the pole and swing it, the more air bubbles it puts into the taffy and the more delicious it tastes. Delicious and addictive!!&nbsp; I was certain we'd lose all our teeth before we broke this addiction, but we're off it now.&nbsp; We've moved on to Linda's home-made cookies...We opted to not go back to hot springs that night and then started looking for Galapagos trips instead (man are they pricey, or as Australians say, 'exy'). We left the next day to get to Quito to meet up with Linda and Walter.&nbsp; As we wouldn't see them for a day or so more, and as we wanted to book our Galapagos adventure first, we spent a night or two in the Mariscal area of town.&nbsp; This is an exy area in New Town, but we were lucky to find a cheap and good hotel.&nbsp; We spent a full day visiting Galapagos agencies and comparing itineraries and prices and finally found the "Last Minute Deal" we were looking for.&nbsp; Our tour agent was an ex-con from the Bronx (this is Sarah's theory anyways) with really long yellow fingernails (likely used to snort coke) but yet we trusted him with our $3000 of cold hard untraceable cash.&nbsp; We had to get cash advances on our Credit Cards because we didn't have that amount in one account.&nbsp; So off we went to the bank, Sarah wore her new panama hat to the bank to look classier as she asked for $2G.&nbsp; And then when we payed our tour company she wore the hat again, hoping it would shave a few more hundred off the price by smoothing negotiations over, but, it didn't and they laughed at us.&nbsp; The tour company we ended up going with was called Etnotour and they owned the boat that we selected.&nbsp; The boat was called the Galapagos Vision and it was a 10-guest sailing catamaran with a 6-man crew plus our naturalist guide and we were set to fly out on the 18th of May to the islands, have a cruise for 8 days then 4 extra days and fly out on the 29th. After we had bought our Galapagos trip we met Linda and her friend Therese at the Hilton for lunch....high class!! We totally fit in with our big packs, no one even noticed us, and I think it was in good style too when I ripped my pack away from the bellhop to avoid having to give him a tip.&nbsp; Our "private driver" brought us back to the burbs and we quickly adapted to our new life in a huge home in a gated community.&nbsp;&nbsp; Beautiful place, wonderful people, great location, views of the mountains and nice security guards.&nbsp; We were sooooooooo happy!! We had set up things with Canadian Linda a few days before and she said Spanish Linda would really like us helping out at the school.&nbsp; So off we went to 'The English Club' to meet other Spanish Linda, talked for a bit and then started the next day.&nbsp; Sarah was assigned to teach a 'devil child' - an 8 year old terror of a little girl - and, to quote Sarah, "she broke me."&nbsp; After that she was only given teacher's pets which she could identify with a whole lot more.&nbsp; I played on the internet and drank free cappuccinos from the lady-staff who liked me.&nbsp; I was only given male students (I guess she thought I was a CREEPER), and some were challenging like Miguel with muscular dystrophy, others were challenging cause they didn't know who Macho Man Randy Savage was so I couldn't really get through to them...tough, after that I felt pretty old. In the afternoons we also volunteered to privately tutor some local kids whom our new mother knew.&nbsp; This was really cool since the kids were smart and really listened well and normally Sarah and I had one kid each.&nbsp; But, then the word got out that free English classes were on, so these kids started bringing their brothers and sisters and cousins and so on until it was one of us with 5 of them, all at different levels, and that was pretty overwhelming initially!! We always found ourselves at a loss for resources or the right Spanish words to explain the English word to them, so while teaching, Sarah tried to explain gymnastics to one of the kids and out of desperation resorted to doing a really akward cartwheel.&nbsp; She said she hurt for 2 days after that.&nbsp; These kids belonged to the people that worked for Canadian Linda and Linda was teaching them for free, just to give back to those less fortunate.&nbsp; On Friday night we (Sarah, Linda and Me) went to concert at a church for mother's day.&nbsp; This concert was pretty awesome as it had pan flutes and really good children's choirs.&nbsp; Outside, Linda from 'The English Club' was there promoting her school.&nbsp; We helped her out for a bit, chatting with those who walked by and I think the publicity really helped, as she could show she had 3 native English-speaking whitties helping out at the school - a big attraction for the Latinos wanting to learn. &nbsp; After the concert we went for a night-cap and pizza and I ordered a Cuba Libre (rum and coke) and yet, as if a miracle had occurred in South America, no coke was to be found...gasp!!...it's true!! The impossible became possible.&nbsp; I had to settle for a long-island iced tea, complete with umbrella, that was heavily loaded with vodka.&nbsp; The initial taste was horrible, but afterwards, I felt pretty good. On Saturday we all went to the fruit market and then on Sunday Walter and Linda took us to Old Town for Mother's day.&nbsp; While down there we saw a church with 7 tons (7,000 kg) of gold that had 2 really disturbing pictures of the last testament and hell, holy shit, hell is scary.&nbsp; Then we ate lunch at an old monastery that was turned into a restaurant.&nbsp; This monetary was famous for a monk who used to sneak out nightly by climbing up a giant crucifix of Jesus and using Jesus's shoulder to make the final step out the window.&nbsp; The monk would then sing to women on his guitar, get blasted and score a lot after the serenade.&nbsp; Every night he would sneak out he would hear Jesus say "Until when Father" and then the monk would reply "Until I return."&nbsp; The monk eventually stopped sneaking out when the monastery couldn't find him and thought he was dead, so they had a funeral for him that morning and the monk walked into this funeral and apparently saw himself being carried to his grave.&nbsp; Bizarre, but true...ish.&nbsp; We ended that day by going to a huuuuuuuuge church, 'Basílica del Sagrado Voto Nacional', which was giabungus.&nbsp; They had catacombs in the basement for regular folk and then instead of gargoyles on the spire they had Galapagos animals (turtles, penguins, sea lions, very cool!).&nbsp; We wanted to climb the tower which is supposed to be pretty rickity and scary, but they closed 15 min early that day, of course, so we couldn't go up or go into the church. &nbsp; Instead, we just checked out an artisan market in a park close to Mariscal called Parqe Ejido.&nbsp; The next week flew by, we were working at English school in the afternoon and in the mornings we would kick around the mansion and eat cookies.&nbsp; At night, we usually watched really recent movies.&nbsp; Down in South America they have DVD shops, but, they aren't rental places - you buy the DVD for $1.50.&nbsp; I made the mistake by asking when a DVD had to be returned and she looked at me funny, then said "you own it."&nbsp; Pretty nice since the movies were really new, just released in theatres a day or 2 ago and already on DVD, some were high quality and you could hear people laughing, or clapping or see them sit down in the theatre (movies taken in theater by camcorder).&nbsp; During the week we also took Salsa lessons, we found an instructor through Linda at the school.&nbsp; We danced usually for 1 hr at a gym with this guy name Jean-Paul.&nbsp; I thought he was gay, but, I don't think so.&nbsp; He was a prostar, he was only 21 or so and was helping choreograph dances for the Latin TV knock off of "Dancing with the Stars". &nbsp; The only difference is that the Latin version had no stars - just regular people learning to dance really well...and this is why we have no idea what the show is called.&nbsp; As for how we did, salsa is haaaaaaaaard!! Even for being one of the easier dances, it is fast and requires a LOT of teamwork!&nbsp; Our teacher tried to reassure us by saying, "It's ok! You are Americans, you cannot help that you can't dance".&nbsp; Despite that this comment is basically true, I was still slightly offended. &nbsp; &nbsp; At the end of the second week, our new mom Linda wanted to feel like a backpacker and take a local bus into town so we (Sarah, Nik, Linda and Marlene - Linda's housekeeper) went in Friday to visit a museum (Banco Central) and to pick up our Galapagos tickets.&nbsp; The ride in from the burbs cost a total of $0.50 vs. an $8 cab ride.&nbsp; The Museum was cool, it had a room full of nothing but gold, lots of dioramas depicting ancient life for the natives and actually had nice ceramics that we wanted to look at, not the shattered bits we've seen in every other museum down here.&nbsp; These were elaborate gods and sculptures and figures of ceramics, quite nice! We then headed to our tour company to meet Aaron, aka ex-con coke dealer, who had f-ed up our flights and not told us - when we asked him why not, he acted confused and said that we didn't leave him anyway to contact him, which actually meant that he had lost the emails we gave him two weeks ago.&nbsp; We were going &nbsp;to fly out on the 18th and wanted to return on the 29th, so I could get some diving in. But, Aaron had only done our booking that morning and had us returning on the 27th because there was no room left on the 29th, so it wasn't enough time to have a dive day.&nbsp;&nbsp; We were supposed to leave in a few days for the Galapagos and had no confirmation for return on the 29th.&nbsp; Sarah was pissed and talking with Aaron was going nowhere fast - finally Aaron called over the manager so she could deal with it.&nbsp; Feeling a little stressed, Aaron stepped into the backroom to snort some coke of a hooker's a$$ while we figured things out.&nbsp; The manager gave us a sweet deal on a hotel and promised to get us on the 29th anyways, which she did, and Aaron's retardedness was forgotten.&nbsp; That Saturday, Walter and Linda and us broke into hacienda to see barn owls and potentially a ghost, though we saw neither.&nbsp; The hacienda is actually on the land where the new airport is and it's supposed to be haunted.&nbsp; At the site there is also an old monument to the equator, put there by the French on their first attempt at locating the center of the world - they were about about 400m off which...ok, it's a bit hard.&nbsp; Their second attempt was declared to be exact and as such, they build a huge monument, 'Mitad del Mundo', but it's off too, by about 240m.&nbsp; Despite this, its marketed as being correct and heaps of tourists still think that this is the actual equator and have photos straddling the line and so on.&nbsp; The actual middle of the earth is about 20km north of Quito and was discovered by GPS.&nbsp; At this site is a giant metal tube with a mirror on the ground where, on the 21st of June, the sun shines right down the tube and hits the mirror.&nbsp; The site has less funding than the French exhibit - just volunteer staff - and nearly no tourists.&nbsp; But, it was still really interesting.&nbsp; We had some water that we swirled around while crossing the line several times, trying to swirl direction change from clockwise to counter-clockwise, but our experiment failed miserably.&nbsp; We continued on to a town called Otavalo for a famous Saturday market.&nbsp; It was impossible to bargain but found a couple of hot ponchos, one bright bag and some balls, I mean bowls. On the way back we stopped at a nice but creepy hacienda.&nbsp; The original church at the hacienda is known for soldiers having elaborate orgies inside.&nbsp; They had to build a second church because people disgraced the first; the second church now houses a museum.&nbsp; We did have some bitchin' good hot chocolate and soup for dinner though.When we got home, we packed for the Galapagos Islands.&nbsp; Our plane was to leave the next morning at 10am.&nbsp; Next up, amazing boobies. &nbsp;Love Niko &amp; Saritaxoxoxoxoxoxo
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1209305100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1209305100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1209305100/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:53:24 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Trujillo, Peru

After an overnight ride from Huaraz, we arrived bright and early to Trujillo.&nbsp; Trujillo is famed for a few reasons including the fact that it is a World Heritage Site, the 3rd most populous city in Peru with nearly 800,000 people, and it is also one of the largest exporters of asparagus in the world.&nbsp; After asparagus, it is known for its exports of rice and shoes.&nbsp; We weren't there as much for the shoes and asparagus as we were to visit the sites that have earned Trujillo its status as a World Heritage Site.&nbsp; But first, we needed accommodations.&nbsp; I suppose due to it having one of the strongest economies in Peru, all the hotel prices were waaaaaay more than we had anticipated paying so we had to do some searching.&nbsp; We came across a place recommended in the Lonely Planet book...well, not exactly recommended.&nbsp; I believe the direct quote was something like, 'if you'd like to stay in a prison, here's your place', or something like that.&nbsp; We checked it out, found it to be mildly dingy but really cheap and decided that prison life was good enough for us.&nbsp;&nbsp; Really, had the owner actually wanted to make it look a lot nicer with paint and such, we would just have to pay more.&nbsp; The rooms were clean and that's the main thing.&nbsp; So, there were two main heritage sites to see, the first belonging to the Moche peoples and the second to the Chimu peoples.&nbsp; The Moche lived between 100 and 800AD in the Peruvian desert and are known primarily for their elaborate adobe pyramidal constructions, Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol, and for their irrigation practices.&nbsp; Living under harsh conditions in the desert, they attempted to control the elements through the use of human sacrifices.&nbsp; Typically, they would capture warriors from other tribes during territorial battles and keep them for weeks, draining their blood to drink and use in ceremonies and finally, they would sacrifice this warrior to their gods hoping for fertile land and a stable climate.&nbsp; At times, they also ate this warrior in ritual cannibalism.&nbsp; In the end, it is believed that the demise of their culture was brought on by a 'Super El Nino' around 536AD that created 30 years of rain followed by 30 years of drought.&nbsp; While some Moche did survive beyond this, their culture never really recovered. We had a chance to see the Huaca del Sol from the outside and visit the excavated Huaca de la Luna.&nbsp; I was really thinking, 'Wooooow, another ruin...and one made from adobe bricks at that', but these ruins were actually fascinating - second only to Machupicchu in my mind.&nbsp; Basically, the first ruler of the Moche's lived at the core of this pyramid and each subsequent ruler re-built his home around the previous rulers until the characteristic pyramidal shape had formed.&nbsp; The archeologists have excavated each layer of these pyramids and they are surprisingly intact for going through30 years of constant rain and another 1200 years of desert sun.&nbsp; The colours remain vibrant and the sacrificial areas, ruler's hall and passageways are still remarkably preserved. Nik's guide on how to make adobe bricks:&nbsp; Step 1 - Take sand or dirt or Llama shit or whatever you find on the ground and put in pile, Step 2 - Mix with water and limestone, Step 3 - Put concoction in mould, Step 4 - Put out in sun to dry.&nbsp; Voila instant bricks to make pyramids, Yeah!&nbsp;&nbsp;We also encountered the ugliest ratty-pig dog in the world in Trujillo.&nbsp; This dog is hairless except for a tuff on its head and a little on its tail.&nbsp; Its completely black, because you can only see the black skin of the dog, no hair.&nbsp; It resembles the cross between a black pig and a rat.&nbsp; Really f-ing ugly.&nbsp; Apparently there is no special name for this dog only Hairless Peruvian Dog.&nbsp; Interesting facts - It is a persistent myth that the body temperature of hairless dogs is higher than other dogs; they may feel warmer due to the lack of hair. Letting the dog "hug" you is supposed to help with stomach pain and other disorders, according to Peruvian folklore. Other myths are the dog is a vegetarian or that it cannot bark.That afternoon, we went to the most famous site in Trujillo and the largest pre-Columbian city in South America.&nbsp; This site is known as Chan Chan and was created by the Chimu peoples between 850 and 1470AD.&nbsp; Like the Moches, everything they built was from adobe but rather than worshipping felines, the Chimus worshipped marine life like fish and pelican's and also the moon as they viewed the sun to be a harsh destroyer (but then they *did* choose to live in the desert...). &nbsp;This city-state was incredibly interesting to walk through as it was constructed a lot like an Ikea - It had long maze-like hallways with very elaborate rooms for ceremonies, chambers, temples or residences every so often.&nbsp; It was also huuuuge, housing about 30,000 people and covering over 20km2.The day itself was pretty cool as we did both of these tours with a large Spanish family who were there for a wedding and took a large interest in us and in Canada and we really enjoyed their company throughout the day and during lunch as well.&nbsp; We had lunch at this restaurant featuring typical Peruvian dancing and such, so that was pretty cool.The only part of the day that wasn't so cool was that we showed up about 5 minutes late for our tour.&nbsp; We were late because we are subject to every other Peruvian being oblivious to time and therefore were held up at breakfast and later at the grocery store, nothing that normally bothers us too much.&nbsp; So as we arrived - still early in Peruvian terms - we were surprised to have our agency freaking out on us and embellishing how late we were, yelling about 15 minutes!!, and telling us how our guide is now gone and our tour is impossible to complete yadda yadda yadda.&nbsp; Well, as it turned out they were crazy and the van was sitting just outside - we figured this out after we waited 15 minutes in the office while they talked about us in Spanish.&nbsp; Finally they shuffled us into the van with the nice Spanish family and two Aussies.&nbsp; Ironically, we remained waiting in the van for another 30 minutes until the English guide decided to show up.&nbsp; And, clearly, there is no problem with her being late and us waiting 45min total for her.&nbsp; This is normal; apparently it is only a problem when white people are late.&nbsp; As it turns out, her English was terrible so only the Aussie's went with her and we went with the Spanish guide.&nbsp; Later, this same English guide dragged us away from lunch early insisting that the van was waiting and when we got outside it was nowhere in sight.&nbsp; Again, 30 min later it showed up full of other people so our group had to go with some taxis to the next site arriving only 15 minutes before closing - which according to the English guide was looooooots of time.&nbsp; It wasn't enough to have her wasting our time, but she brought her 8 year old kid who felt that she could yell at all of us as well telling us to hurry up and sighing at how many photos we're taking and such.&nbsp; But, on the bright side, our Spanish guide in the morning was wicked and it was entertaining to see the Spanish dad constantly reminding the English guide how late she was making all of us.&nbsp; At the end of our tour, we ended up at this famous surfing beach right outside of Trujillo known as Huanchaco which was beautiful and chill, a great way to finish.&nbsp; This beach is known for its fishermen that build their own boats out of reeds and then literally need to surf these boats back into shore since the breaks are perfect for surfing - pretty cool to watch!&nbsp; The shoreline was also filled with street vendors selling really interesting and delicious food.&nbsp; Nik dared to try this long rectangle of bright orange pastry from this cute old man and, as it turns out, this is one of the most delicious things we've ever eaten.&nbsp;&nbsp; We went back to this man at least another 3 times - we were totally addicted to this sweet, raison-y cookie-like pastry...mmmmmmm...After another night in jail, we packed up our stuff, took the day pretty easy and hopped the night but to Mancora - a popular beach and surf destination in northern Peru.&nbsp; We were stoked that this night-bus had a bathroom as that seemed to be rare on most buses heading up that way.&nbsp; It was a pretty comfy ride, made more interesting by the old man who repeatedly spit on the floor next to us...odd...but it really shouldn't have been a night-bus as we rolled in around 4am, pretty much the most awkward time to find a hotel.&nbsp; Luckily for us, our tuk-tuk driver was really a genuine, chill beach -town kinda guy and was willing to help us find a nice, cheap and comfy place in town.&nbsp; He drove us all around until we found a sweet deal at a sweet price just a 2 minute walk from the beach. Our first day at the beach was literally a dream come true for me.&nbsp; We walked aimlessly from the town towards the beach and there, staring at me, one might say calling to me, are two gorgeous Peruvian horses.&nbsp; I bee-lined straight at them and the owner said, yup, we could go right away, and no sooner were we up on these horses that they were absolutely tearing down the beautiful coastline of Mancora.&nbsp; Never in my life have I been on a horse this fast - not even one that compares to this speed.&nbsp; Our horses would start to gallop together but the minute Nik's horse even came into view of mine, it was like this whole other gear existed and suddenly we were literally flying, blazing ahead of Nik and anything else.&nbsp; It was incredible - one of the most memorable rides I've ever had and I could then put a check next to 'ride horses on the beach' on my life's 'to do' list.&nbsp; I liked it so much I went again a few days later on another horse and while this one was pretty cool as it's a Peruvian Paso horse and therefore has a really specific gait, it just couldn't compare to my incredible ride earlier.&nbsp; Really, there's not much more to say about Mancora - we spent our time chilling on the beach or in a hammock and it was awesome.&nbsp; It was a chill little town and a nice time for us but we were both ready to move on as well so we hopped a bus driven by a speed-demon, prayed for our lives, and arrived to Cuenca, Ecuador seemingly unscathed where the rest of our adventure just began to unfold.&nbsp; Love Niko &amp; SaritaxoxoxoxoxoBy the way...We are coming to the end of our trip.&nbsp; We leave Latin America in the next few days, these blogs are a bit behind and next we will be flying to Australia.&nbsp; Here is DETAILED info on arrivalsEaster Island&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;June 4th ARRIVALAustralia (Sydney)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sunday June 15th ARRIVAL&nbsp; CANADA (St. Johns's)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Monday July 21st ARRIVALCANADA (Thunder Bay)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Tuesday July 29th ARRIVALCANADA (Return to OTTAWA)-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wednesday August 27th at 6:54pm ARRIVAL
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1208716080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1208716080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1208716080/tpod.html Tue, 06 May 2008 00:25:22 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Lima, Lima, Peru

We hopped a night bus from Cusco to Nazca and were stoked to be getting transportation *plus* accommodations for one low low price.&nbsp; All prepared for a night of catching z`s, we took off on the top level of a double-decker bus.&nbsp; Besides the fact that the leg room allotted was about half of what we needed, this bus had a striking resemblance to our days of comfort in Argentina.&nbsp; As we shut our eyes and prepared for sleep, we were immediately lurched from our seats, swaying waaaaaay right and then waaaaaaaay left and back again and as we peeked outside the windows, we realized that this was exactly what the next 8 hours would be like as we crossed the Andes and descended towards sea-level.&nbsp; At one point where I managed to doze off but Nik was still awake, the bus made a huge lurch and, since we are on the top level, we lurched even more so that Nik plus 4 other guys were staring directly over the edge of the cliff and clenching their bums to keep from pooing their pants.&nbsp; But, alas, we made it to Nazca and were greeted by Miguel at the bus station who gave us a terrible deal on a hotel room that we negotiated into a half-decent one.&nbsp; Once we ended up at the hotel together, he told us that the room was being vacated and cleaned so he would just take this time to tell us all about the magnificant tours he has to offer.&nbsp; While no one left the room and no cleaning staff entered, Miguel talked about all the expensive airplane tours he had of the famous Nazca lines.&nbsp; We had already decided that due to the recent crash and poor mechanical records of the planes, that we would pass on the overflight.&nbsp; When we asked Miguel about the safety of the flights, he responded that whether you crash and die or arrive safely is ´all just a matter of luck´.&nbsp;&nbsp; Ohhhh how reassuring that we don´t have Six Sigma standards, Codes and Practices and Good Engineering to rely on, but only something as intangible as&nbsp;our luck -&nbsp; ´Sign us up!!!´...or not.&nbsp; We ditched Miguel and headed to find ourselves another tour operator to check out the lines from a short tower and crappy little hill.&nbsp; We noticed though that whenever we asked anyone about the recent crash, they laughed and said, ´Yah, only French people are not flying now´or ´Yah, there was a crash, so what?´ or something to that effect.&nbsp; Obviously they are trying to protect their industry and tourism business, but they are clearly not interested in addressing any of the issues behind the crash, just covering it up. We were happy to not be flying.&nbsp; That being said, the tour we had sucked and was expensive - you really can only see the lines from the air.&nbsp; We did, however, see the Marie Reicht museum.&nbsp; She was a German who spent about 60 years of her life studying the Nazca lines.&nbsp; While many of her theories surrounding the lines have today been disproven, she was a pioneer to this area and brought attention to the lines that is still lacking today.&nbsp; We saw her hippie van, her simple house and a museum with some findings from the area including a very-alive-looking mummy.&nbsp; You could still see the skin and the tattoos on the skin of the mummy-man.&nbsp; Freaky deaky.&nbsp; The deal with the Nazca lines is that they are a series of geoglyphs (drawings on the ground) formed by the ancient Nazca people between 200BC and 700AD.&nbsp; These figures are scattered throughout the Nazca desert that has an area of more than 500 square kms.&nbsp;&nbsp;There are over 70 animal figures and 100´s of lines.&nbsp; While the lines likely served as highways and directional markers, it is beleived that the large animal geoglyphs were either places were the Nazca people worshipped the properties of that particular animal or they served as offerings to the Gods living in the heavens above.&nbsp;&nbsp;Some theories suggest that a hot air balloon was&nbsp;made and used by the Nazca people to view and correct&nbsp;their work, but other theories show it was possible to make these lines with the technology available at the time (ie-nothing).&nbsp; Without much delay, we were off the next day heading towards Ica and Huacachina.&nbsp; These two towns, only 4km&nbsp;apart, are famous for their sand dunes&nbsp;- some of the highest in the world! - and lovely oasis.&nbsp; This place is strikingly beautiful.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is the northern part of the Atacama Desert - the desert extending from Chile to Peru - and&nbsp;one of the driest places in the world with an average rainfall of just 1mm per year.&nbsp; The sand dunes are bright, endless, and alternate between soft and rolling and&nbsp;sharp and steep.&nbsp;&nbsp;The town of Huacachina only has about 115 people and all of them seem to build and run dune-buggies.&nbsp; We found this amazing hotel there with a backyard garden, complete with a squirrel monkey, a scarlet macaw, a couple other parrots and a pool.&nbsp; Our room had a back patio overlooking this pool and garden and was fantastic.&nbsp; Anxious to get out into the dunes, we booked our tour for that afternoon and were off within an hour.&nbsp; Our guide was a local and had built his own buggy from the frame of an old VW Bug.&nbsp; It was perfect for four - Nik and I, the driver, and an Israeli traveler who was really sweet.&nbsp; We were stoked!! We all hopped in and after a mandatory push-start, the engine (pulled from a more powerful&nbsp;Nissan)&nbsp;was roaring and we were tearing through the dunes, eyes streaming with tears,&nbsp;our faces being whipped with little bits of sand, and all of us flying around despite our seatbelts inside the dune-buggy, and it was F-U-N!! So fun!! We ripped up and down steep hills and every direction we looked was amazing!&nbsp; After about 10 minutes, we pulled up to a short section where we would try our first sandboarding experience.&nbsp; Nik was awesome, obviously, I was not good but did ok, and the Israeli who had never stood at the top of a hill with a board on his feet was pretty freaked...! But after a few practice runs, we were set.&nbsp; We all piled back into the buggy and tore around some more, screaming and laughing the whole way.&nbsp; We then mastered&nbsp;the intermediate hill and finally hit the big momma hill and it was awesome!! It was so much fun, though much heavier than snow.&nbsp; After this we parked ourselves to check out the sunset over the dunes.&nbsp; On our way back to Huacachina, our driver really gave ´er - and as we were tearing up this really steep bank, all laughing with our mouths wide open, we hit a bump and this sent literally a huge stream of pure sand directly into my mouth and down my throat - it was alllll inside my teeth, so nasty!! And funny!! After emptying the cups of sand from our shoes and getting the first of several days worth of sand from our ears, we cruised the tranquil little&nbsp;oasis-town of Huacachina.&nbsp; We had heard a rumour of a chocolate factory in the nearby town of Ica and decided to check this out the next day before&nbsp;heading to Miraflores.&nbsp;&nbsp;We left from our hotel bright and early and got to the chocolate factory just as it was opening.&nbsp; All the workers were happy to have us there taking photos of the entirely manual process and we were happy to be there to eat all their free samples.&nbsp; &nbsp;Next on the tour was a visit to the famous Pisco bodegas in Ica.&nbsp; Pisco is a brandy made from the distillation of grapes and is popular in both Chile and Peru - in fact, the true owners of this drink is a popular debate between the two countries.&nbsp; I thought it would be funny to say, ´Hey I heard Pisco comes from Chile`while tasting at our first winery, but the acoustics must have been bad cause no one thought it was too funny (ok, except Nik and I).&nbsp; It is said that after the Spanish introduced grapes to the Ica region of&nbsp;Peru, the poorest quality grapes were discarded to the peasant people.&nbsp; Some of these peasants began to distill the grapes, creating a strong and cheap alcohol.&nbsp; Sailors began to ask for this ´firewater´to drink on their voyages to deliver export wine from the nearby port of Pisco to Spain.&nbsp; As such, they began to refer to the brandy as ´Pisco´and the drink gained popularity.&nbsp; It is between 38% and 48%&nbsp;alcohol, looks like pure water, has a slight aroma of grapes, and tastes like crap.&nbsp; Seriously,&nbsp;I don`t know who drinks this stuff.&nbsp; Our guide kept saying `It`s just like water` and he also drank it as such.&nbsp; I started giving him my samples in addition to his own, and then he would go and sneak some more, so I think he may have had just a little *too* much passion for his work, but who am I to judge eh!&nbsp; Ica was one of the areas hardest hit by the August 15, 2007 earthquake (8.0 on the Richter scale) and we were able to see much of the destruction still existing today - mainly due to how slowly aid and funding is becoming available.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;After our Pisco/wine tour in Ica we took the next bus to Lima.&nbsp; Not actually Lima, but a suburb of it called Miraflores.&nbsp; We were a bit freaked out about arriving after dark into Lima because so many people had told us horror stories about getting robbed and what not.&nbsp; So all throughout the bus ride we kept mentioning that we wanted to get out at Miraflores and the guy kept nodding and saying ´Si, al puente´.&nbsp; This meant ´yes, at the bridge´ we thought to ourselves, well I guess he means we are going to get out at the bridge that is leading into Miraflores.&nbsp; Not the first time we were let out at the side of the road.&nbsp; So when we were supposed to get out, we pulled underneath an overpass and then piled out of the bus.&nbsp; No real problems, it was easy to get a cab and then we headed to our hostel which was in a really great location in Miraflores.&nbsp; One thing to mention is that Lima is huge (7.7 Mil), we were still about 20min drive away from downtown where we got left off the bus and our taxi ride to Miraflores was another 20min to the centre of that suburb.&nbsp; &nbsp;A little history of Lima...It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro as the city of Kings (same bastard who killed off a lot of Inca's and the 2 last remaining Inca Kings), it was used by the Spanish as the main city (capital) in South America, it was used as the main port for silver and gold exports to Spain (transport of metals done by mule from Bolivia to Lima, then loaded to ships, sent to Panama on the Pacific side, unloaded to mule train again and loaded on to ships again heading for Spain on the Caribbean side), and since Peru's independence from Spain, Lima has served as the capital of the country.&nbsp; Today,&nbsp;nearly 1/3 of the population of Peru lives in Lima.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lima beans were also cultivated by the Spanish&nbsp;in the Andes around 2000BC and then distributed to all the Americas and Europe&nbsp;from the capital of South America, Lima.&nbsp; As&nbsp;such, they are called Lima Beans.&nbsp; &nbsp;That night we checked our email and got a reply from some one that had been following our blog since Sucre in Bolivia.&nbsp; Katie, who moved to Miraflores with her 3 kids for them to learn Spanish and visit with her husband`s family, invited us to a dinner at her apartment.&nbsp; Bitchin´ - we were really excited -&nbsp;home cooked meal and also we could finally&nbsp;have a&nbsp;chance to&nbsp;meet her and her family.&nbsp; &nbsp;So that day we dolled ourselves up, I shaved and Sarah got a bunch of wax jobs done.&nbsp; Then we leisurely bummed around Miraflores looking for info on Paragliding.&nbsp; Unfortunately we never got around to Paragliding, since there was no wind for about 20 days.&nbsp; No worries, shit happens.&nbsp; We also bought this delicious Alfajore cake for desert at Katie's place.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;That night we went to Katie's place, which was a really nice apartment about 3 blocks from where we were staying.&nbsp; When we got there we met her 3 kids, Madison, Hunter and Sydney.&nbsp; We talked about their travels, our travels, family, school, how they found us and then we played Wii (video game system) for a little bit.&nbsp; After getting my ass handed to me by a&nbsp;9 year old while playing Wii, it was time for dinner.&nbsp; &nbsp;Dinner was really really good; it was nice to have a change from grilled chicken and French fries.&nbsp; On the menu that night was a delicious green salad with blue cheese and a nice vinaigrette with home made croutons followed by green beans, mashed potatoes and a really smoking good meatloaf.&nbsp; To drink, we had wine and Inca Cola which is my new favorite in Peru.&nbsp; Then we had our Alfajore cake for desert with some really strange ice cream.&nbsp; The ice cream was called lucuma, it's a fruit that is common in Peru, it tastes like caramel and is actually healthy for you (the fruit not the ice cream), really good.&nbsp; Then Katie and Madison show us this ice cream container for stuff sold in Peru, its called Brownie ice cream.&nbsp; The container is hilarious; there is a black dude smiling on the ice cream container promoting the flavor which is printed right next to his head in giant letters, obviously Brownie.&nbsp; I am not sure they knew what they were doing when they decided to put this combo on the container - it is shockingly inappropriate...and funny.&nbsp; After dinner we took some photos, thanked all of our new friends very much for dinner and a great evening of company and then headed back to the hostel.&nbsp;The next day we bummed around again, looked at a photo exhibit in the centre of Miraflores which was sponsored by the UN Council on Climate Change.&nbsp; Sarah was calling the shots for the next 2 days since it was her birthday.&nbsp; We then headed to the mall, which was supposed to show films in English.&nbsp; This mall is actually built into the side of the cliff over looking the Pacific, it's a really modern nice mall and it was pretty good to bum around in.&nbsp; We saw a movie there - Sarah`s pick of a romantic comedy - which was pretty entertaining since we hadn't seen one in about 9 or so months.&nbsp; That night we left Miraflores and took a night bus to a place called Huaraz, close to the Cordillera Blanca.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When we rolled into Huaraz around 6am we were immediately bombarded guys we like to call ´bus station vultures.´&nbsp; They only show up to the bus stations when buses come and then like to buzz around the bus station looking for Whities like us to either sell tours to or get a hostel/hotel.&nbsp; So this one guy (Elvis) starts talking to me and he has a hotel for 30 soles per night (both of us, about $12 CDN) including breakfast.&nbsp; I immediately jump on it because we have been paying close to that in all the places we have been in, plus there is breakfast.&nbsp; First mistake, no breakfast included as advertised.&nbsp; Next, when we are checking in he tries to sell us a ruin tour of Chavín de Huántar (reason we were in Huaraz) and then starts talking a mile a minute about trekking and hiking and how many days we are in Huaraz.&nbsp; So I book a tour with this dip-shit because I know how much Sarah hates looking for tours and since it was her birthday I wanted her to have a nice day.&nbsp; &nbsp;We eventually got a good 4 hour sleep in that morning and then headed out to the town.&nbsp; We had read about&nbsp;and seen a little bit of the mountain range that surrounded Huaraz and were thinking about doing a 4 day hike around the range.&nbsp; But, after getting harassed by a lot of tour companies and then again by our friend Elvis we decided to buy a ticket to Trujillo the next day, and leave Huaraz.&nbsp; We really hate being treated like cash cows and we especially hate being lied to or taken advantage of down here (South America).&nbsp; It has happened a lot of times and when we get fed up we tend to really dislike the city or town and then leave very shortly.&nbsp; Later that day we also found out Elvis charged us 15 soles ($5 CDN) more than other places do to get to Chavin, so we were really pissed, plus he lied about the size of the group (30 people, not 6&nbsp;as promised). &nbsp;The next day we were off to Chavín de Huántar which was the closest ruin to Huaraz.&nbsp; This ruin was supposed to be really neat and have an intricate underground labyrinth.&nbsp; It did have a neat underground tunnel system which was why we were there, but, for the 6 hour bus ride we took, it really wasn't worth it.&nbsp; Not to put down the ruins, but, we had already seen a heap of them in Cuzco and Machu Picchu so these one really weren't anything special.&nbsp; The ruins did have some really neat carvings in the structures and also had 28 carved head surrounding the main temple.&nbsp; &nbsp;The Chavin culture was another pre-Inca civilization that had many characteristics that have seemed to follow into the Inca culture.&nbsp; The ruins site, which was a temple, had many carvings and also they had some engineering feats which enabled their buildings to withstand earthquakes.&nbsp; Some of their building techniques features inclined walls (5 degrees), large boulders at the bottom, earth infill within the walls and a layer of large blocks followed by a layer of tiny blocks followed by a layer of large blocks and then repeated.&nbsp; This last system of large-small-large blocks was so that the small blocks were used as a sacrificial blocks, when an earthquake was large the wall would shake and the release of energy would come at the point of the small blocks.&nbsp; Some would release the energy by popping out and then the earth infill would fill the space left by the small block.&nbsp; &nbsp;Pretty neat I have to admit with the engineering of the walls.&nbsp; But, after all these ruin sites and lots of guides and archeologists explaining why ancient civilizations did certain things or how the shape of the puma, snake and condor can be interpreted in everything (mountains, boulders, carved holes in the rock alters,....the list goes on) we were just at our limit of looking at ruins.&nbsp; We headed back to Huaraz that night and then jumped on the night bus to the coast, Trujillo.&nbsp; Time for us to get a tan.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Love, Niko y Sarita xoxo&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1207848840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1207848840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1207848840/tpod.html Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:47:43 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Cusco, Peru

We hopped an overnight&nbsp;bus from Puno in hopes of saving a night of accommodations, but all that happened was that our driver was able to cruise at unheard of speeds and we arrived at the ungodly hour of 3:30am - pretty much the worst time as it is a free ticket to have taxi drivers and hotel owners alike rip you off.&nbsp; While we suffered a bit on the cab ride, the hotel we found was decent and comfortable and relatively cheap so we stuck with it.&nbsp;&nbsp;The next day we basically spent cruising around looking for the best tour packages in town.&nbsp;&nbsp;We have been hearing rumours since Canada that we should book our Inca trail early as it is booked up for months in advance, but we were hoping to be able to just slip on in to fill someone`s cancellations...So, just for fun we started asking about the Inca trail (´Classic Inca´) and found out some interesting information.&nbsp; First, the rumour is true - the Inca trail is booked until *August*....uhhhh.&nbsp; Second, had the Inca trail been available, we would not have done it anyways as it typically costs $400....aaaaagh.&nbsp; Third, the government has put a stop to filling in people`s cancelled spots as tour agencies were inventing people, saying they cancelled, and then filling those spots at the last minute at a higher price plus cancellation fee to make more money.&nbsp; So, in the end, we just had to be more resourceful.Luckily we are not the first disorganized cheap backpackers to come through these parts and, for this reason, other options exist to get us to the infamous MachuPicchu.&nbsp; One option was to take 5 days to cross the Salkantay Mountain pass&nbsp;en route to M.P. - Salkantay is supposed to be quite stunning as it rises to 6262m, but we figured that we have seen and climbed enough mountains.&nbsp; The other option that we decided to do was the Inka Jungle Trail which is 4 days of biking and hiking your way through the Jungle to M.P.&nbsp; The best part is that when we signed up for this route, we were able to get *free* horseback riding to several ruins and a discounted tour of the Sacred Valley (another area with Inca Ruins).&nbsp; And all for the low low price of $177US.&nbsp; Stoked.&nbsp;&nbsp;We spent the&nbsp;rest of the day visiting a couple of museums and enjoying the absolutely gorgeous Plaza del Armas of Cuzco...wow!! The Plaza is huge, green, friendly and another nice thing is that they have tourist police who are always watching out for us - the police&nbsp;stand near when a street vendor approaches you to sell something to prevent the vendors from being&nbsp;overly aggressive or insistent - not that this ever happened, but it`s a nice gesture.&nbsp;&nbsp;The next morning we were whisked away bright and early to start our horseback ride.&nbsp; We mounted our trusty steeds and were sent up this rocky hill with our guide running - not trotting... - behind us.&nbsp; We galloped our way to our first stop which was a set of caves called the Zone X&nbsp;- absolutely no Inca history here at all...&nbsp; These were mildly exciting and only used to give the horses a break we think...So off to the next set of ruins called Tambomachay (Fountain of Water) which was a ritual site for the Incas where they used the set of fountains to cleanse themselves for rituals and perform religious ceremonies dedicated to water.&nbsp; This water was also routed to several Inca-built terraces where the Incas were conducting agricultural experiments.&nbsp; The good thing about this place was that on our way in, we asked around for a guide.&nbsp; A guy and girl were standing there and as soon as we suggested that we`d like a payed tour, the guy`s eyes just lit up and he started going on and on about how important this ruin was and how he couldn´t possibly do it for under 20 soles (about $7).&nbsp; When we said we wanted only 15&nbsp;minutes for 10 soles, he protested again so we just started walking away after which the girl ran after us and said she`d do a tour for 10 soles.&nbsp; Sweet.&nbsp; She was great and really sweet and then as she knew we were heading to the next ruin right next door (Pukapukara), she offered us another tour so in the end she ended up with 20 soles, we had two great tours, and the other guy was still standing by the gates.&nbsp; Pukapukara (Red Fortress) was the Immigration and Border Control site for the Incas as they were able to monitor all tribes and persons&nbsp;coming and going from Cuzco (literally meaning Center of the Universe for the Incas) for markets etc.&nbsp; After this, we hopped our horses once again and headed to Temple of the Moon - a set of caves to hold mummies and a place of worship -&nbsp; and then we had one final gallop through a maze of huge trees before arriving at Q`Enqo (Labyrinth).&nbsp; This site was used as a place of meditation and worship. The spiritual leaders would perform ceremonies here and&nbsp;advise the general population, centered in Cuzco, as to&nbsp;the results and what that meant for the people ie-when to harvest, if a drought is ahead, etc...On our way out of the ruin, we saw a lady selling miniature fuzzy alpacas - we looked at them for a bit and went on our way not wanting to buy anything, but when we told her we didn`t want anything, she started to cry.&nbsp; I don`t know if this was just a lot of practice or if she meant it, but it worked.&nbsp; We went back, bought a useless fuzzy alpaca figurine, and headed down the road to Sacsayhuaman (for us whiteys, that`s Sexywoman).&nbsp;&nbsp;On our way down to Sexywoman, we paused in the village just outside the ruins to sit on the grass&nbsp;and eat some lunch.&nbsp; During this, a man walking just up the road from us paused to wave hello - a nice gesture - and then he came over to see where we were from&nbsp;and so on.&nbsp; He told us that he is the village Shamen and also a sculptur and would like to have us into his house.&nbsp; We let him know at this point that we had no money to buy anything but would come over for a visit anyways.&nbsp; He had a yard full of stray dogs and cats that were adorable and he sat us down and started showing us the sculptures he has made from this Snake Rock (a&nbsp;green rock found near Machupicchu).&nbsp; After this, he started to show us his medicines.&nbsp; One was made from a strong herb called Muña that we had previously had in our tea - he had us pour this on our hands and sniff really hard at which point I thought I had burnt my eyeballs out of my head and could hardly see or smell - he told me this was good to gain an open outlook....or something like that...Again, we told him his stuff was nice but we didn`t come to buy anything today, at which he offered to come buy our hotel for the rest of the money later.&nbsp; The prices he wanted were ridiculous though, totally out of proportion to their economy (much like the $400 Inca trail...!) but still he persisted that we come by his Shamen studio to see this giant&nbsp;Puma he carved.&nbsp; As it was on the way to Sexywoman, we went.&nbsp; Again, he sat us down and had us feel his spiritual rocks and see his carvings and other amulets and finally he offered us a song.&nbsp; Now, I`m all for the spiritual side of life, but all of this was starting to get out of hand and this song was just so beyond anything we`d ever heard before and it just went on and on and on and just as we though things couldn`t get any more awkward, the song ended, he took a drink of some magical herb,&nbsp;approached Nik, removed Nik`s hat, bent Nik`s head forward and spit a huge mouthful of this herb right in the middle of Nik`s head.&nbsp; It was soooooooo funny!! I was watching Nik`s face the whole time and it was this look of utter confusion and surprise and yet he was trying so hard to muffle the urge to laugh or move as this was obviously a very serious matter to the Shamen.&nbsp; After a couple of prayers over Nik`s head, a couple&nbsp;of head kisses and&nbsp;then a&nbsp;repeated ceremony over mine, spit and all, we felt it was time to make our move (ok, past time...).&nbsp; The whole time he kept insisting that he didn`t want us to buy anything, he just enjoys meeting new people and friends, but he sure didn`t seem to happy as we thanked him for everything but refused to buy anything and also said we didn`t want him as a guide either...He`s like, `You`ll probably tell your friends about me, the crazy guy who spit on your head`...uhhhhhhh *yah* you f-ing nut!!&nbsp; I accidentally locked him out of his own house on his way out, just as it started to rain, so feeling increasingly more awkward with each second, we busted it straight to the ruins.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the time it took me to slip into the bathroom, Nik had already got himself roped into looking at another stone puma with a seasoned-old-saleslady who was trying to figure out what hotel we were staying at so she could come by for her money tonight...Ugh!! After a quick rescue mission, we found ourselves a guide and headed into the beautiful ruins of Sacsayhuaman (Satisfied Falcon).&nbsp; The Incas always carved their cities into shapes of dominant animals in their religions, including snakes, condors, and pumas and the ruins of Sacsayhuaman form the head of a puma while the city of Cusco below forms the body of the puma.&nbsp; The walls of Sacsay.&nbsp;are zig-zag shape to represent the thunder-bolt and the wrinkles of the puma´s head, another important element to them.&nbsp; The large base stones forming&nbsp;these mammoth walls still remain, but most of the upper rocks&nbsp;were removed by the Spanish to be used in the construction of their Catholic&nbsp;Churches in Cusco after the fall of the Incas.&nbsp; These walls were quite amazing and withstood many earthquakes -&nbsp;One of these stones was over 90 tonnes and others&nbsp;were carved to have over&nbsp;11 corners (a stone at Machupicchu&nbsp;has&nbsp;36 corners), forming the support and cornerstone of this wall.&nbsp; After enjoying the beautiful weather and incredible view from the top of Sacsayhuaman, we meandered our way back down to Cuzco, absolutely starved...&nbsp;&nbsp;That night we set out in search of this restaurant some Danish friends had recommended on a street called ´The Drug Street.´&nbsp; We had gone over our city maps looking for this Drug street, likely named after some Englishman or something...but we found nothing.&nbsp; We then asked a local who pointed us in the right direction - though the streets actual name was something quite different.&nbsp; Anyways, we were immediately bombarded by mobs of restaurant owners as we tried to find this Danish flag among the menus being held up to our faces.&nbsp; Panicked, we fled further down this street into a pack of sketchy men asking us if we wanted opium, cocaine, weed...and it was then that we understood why this was also called ´The Drug Street.´&nbsp; Cornered, we ventured back the way we came, me staring at my shoes the whole time until Nik found us a cheap restaurant we assumed was as good as the next.&nbsp; Well, we were the only ones there - maybe we were just early?? Either way, I ordered the cheapest thing and Nik ordered the grossest thing.&nbsp; Apparently, Cusquenos (people from Cusco) are apeshit for Cuy which is the Spanish word for Guinea pig (Hamster).&nbsp; Why they love this, we do not know, but Nik wanted to find out.&nbsp; Nik ordered this specialty to be cooked in the oven and - to avoid having something gross looking on his plate - he asked for it with it`s head cut off...muuuuuuuuch better.&nbsp;&nbsp;About half an hour later my food came out which was half decent as just as I was about 1/2 way done, a plate holding a cylindrical piece of shoe leather with 4 tiny legs rounds the corner and is put down in front of Nik.&nbsp; I immediately thought I was going to hurl but managed to get through the rest of my dinner by putting a Newsweek between Nik and I and staring hard at my plate.&nbsp; But, it was to no avail as I could hear Nik ripping these mini-legs from the creature before him and swearing at how little meat there was and how hard it was to get into because it was so leathery and what was that green stuff inside of the guinea pig and on and on and on...Oh my god it was absolutely disgusting.&nbsp; The waiter came up a couple of times to make sure Nik was enjoying it as much as everyone else from Cusco loves cuy, and every time Nik lied through his guinea-pig chewing teeth that he loved it.&nbsp; Gross gross gross.&nbsp; Just when Nik was frustrated with his attempts to get any more meat off this thing and I couldn`t stomach sitting by it anymore, this big, furry, dirty black little rat came scampering across the floor right next to our table and that was it!! We now no longer knew what Nik just ate, what that meat was inside the stuffed peppers, and if anything we just ate was clean...As we tore out of there, all we could hear was the waiter insisting that the cuy was ´Muy rico, muy rico!!´...More like Muy Grosso!!&nbsp;Well, at least we were off to see MachuPicchu the next day!! After a quick briefing at our travel agency on what to bring, we hit the hay with dreams of biking and hiking....What`s this?? A knock on our door at 11pm wakes us up and it`s the girl from our travel agency going on about some landslide that has wiped out part of the road and we`ll have to postpone our tour for one more day and so on and so forth, and yet, where is the rain?? Shitty deal, but bright and early the next morning we set out to straighten things out.&nbsp; They stuck to their story, though we had our doubts.&nbsp; I felt this could be a good opportunity for me to get my legs waxed before hitting the trails so I pulled into one of the first agencies marketing `Massages! Waxing! Pedicures!`on the side of the road.&nbsp;&nbsp;The girls (literally, I think they were 16-ish) were ecstatic to have their first client of the day.&nbsp; There was about 6 of them hustling and bustling about getting the keys to open up the shop and running me in their and putting me on this bed tucked behind some curtain and as I`m looking around, I can tell that something isn`t quite right, but hey, I`m sure it`ll work out fine.&nbsp; So, as I lay there pantless among 6 strangers, understanding nothing of their mile-a-minute Spanish on the other side of the curtain, I`m starting to wonder...Nearly1/2 and hour goes by when two girls show up at my ankles with a sauce pan full of cold hard wax that they are trying to stir.&nbsp; They dab my ankle and take out about 4 hairs when the commotion starts again and they are freaking out because it`s not hot enough - turns out they are using a stove down the street at another one of their friend`s agencies because theirs is broken and then they run back down the street and up 3 flight of stairs hoping that it will still be hot enough to wax my legs which are twice as long as any of theirs...Ridiculous.&nbsp; At this, I felt I had reached my limit - 45 minutes pantless in front of incompetent strangers was enough for me.&nbsp; I jumped up, grabbed my pants, threw some change on the bed and had to talk my way through a line of 6 girls trying to convince me just a few more minutes, or come back tomorrow or something...goooooooood!!&nbsp;We spent the rest of the day learning&nbsp;more about Inca history.&nbsp; The Incas began in 1200 AC and continued to reign until 1532 AC when the Spanish conquistadors&nbsp;arrived and crushed their civilization with their firearms.&nbsp; The development of the&nbsp;Incas was gradual - many pre-Inca tribes contributed to the culture of the Incas, most notable the Tiawanako`s from Bolivia.&nbsp; It is said that the first Inca, Sapa Inca Manco, came from the Tiawanako culture and you can see that at many Inca sites there exists Tiawanako ruins as the Incas often lived at the same sites where the Tiawanako`s lived before.&nbsp; Their construction methods were quite similar as well using a system of concave-convex stones fitted together perfectly, or in other cases, using refined ore cramps to fit two stones together.&nbsp; There were 14 Incas (Inca being the title given to the highest level man, meaning `The Only One`, the common people were called Quechas - they spoke a language of the same name).&nbsp; Pachacuti, in&nbsp;1438, reorganized and expanded the Inca empire, overtaking other tribes and building MachuPicchu - among other cities - as a spiritual retreat.&nbsp; By the time the Spanish arrived in 1526, it was evident that the Inca territory was full of riches and treasures and therefore just ripe for the taking.&nbsp; With Spain`s approval, Francisco Pizarro returned to Peru in 1532 to pursue this goal.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Spanish arrived at an opportune time when the Inca rule was divided between two brothers - both successors of the previous Inca.&nbsp; These brothers were engaged in a Civil War to determine who would lead when the Spanish appeared on the scene.&nbsp; The Spanish met with one of the brothers, Atahualpa, who was immediately imprisoned as he refused to become Catholic (and obviously could not understand the request).&nbsp; As a result, Atahualpa offered the Spanish&nbsp;rooms of gold and silver filled to the same&nbsp;level as his raised arm&nbsp;in exchange for his release - while the Spanish accepted all these riches, they did not release Atahualpa.&nbsp; Instead, they baptized him and then cut his head off (a Catholic death - rather than being burned alive as a non-Catholic).&nbsp; Atahualpa`s brother was then&nbsp;assassinated and the Spanish instilled a new interim Inca ruler until the Spanish put an end to the Inca rule with the final Inca assassination in 1572.&nbsp; While word was getting around that there was some big bad white guys killing Incas and stealing their gold,&nbsp;the&nbsp;elite residents of MachuPicchu collected all their&nbsp;gold (of&nbsp;no monetary value&nbsp;to them but they did not want the Spanish to have it)&nbsp;and retreated into the dense jungle to hide from the Spanish and ensure MachuPicchu was never discovered by them, and it wasn`t.&nbsp; Two local families of later discovered the fertile lands of MachuPicchu for agriculture but did not establish any sizeable population there.&nbsp; Later, in 1911 when Hiram Bingham - an American historian - paid a local 1 sol (1 sol =&nbsp;$0.30 CDN in 2008)&nbsp;to bring him to a rumoured archaeological site.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bingham&nbsp;was actually looking for another location called Vitcos (The Lost City), as MachuPicchu was not even known of at this time.&nbsp;&nbsp;Vitcos remains undiscovered to this day but it is rumoured that it is protected by the jungle tribes living in the East and they immediately kill any white man who approaches this area of the jungle. MachuPicchu was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983 and one of the World`s Seven Wonders in 2007 but it is also being considered by the World Monuments Fund as a candidate for one of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world (we found this out only after the fact).&nbsp; The reason is that to be sustainable, the site can only tolerate about 300 visitors a day.&nbsp; Currently, there are 500 per day on the Classic Inca trail alone and over 2000 visitors total.&nbsp; Other follies include: 1) the destruction of a huge monolith when the president of Spain wanted to visit the site via helicopter and landed directly on top of the monolith, destroying it - and 2) During the filming of a Cusqueña beer commercial at MachuPicchu in 2000, a 990&nbsp;pound crane fell on top of the Intihuantana Stone (sun-dial), breaking it&nbsp;- and 3) Hiram Bingham exported all of Machupicchu`s artifacts to Yale University after his discovery and only as of 2007 have Peru and Yale been able to reach an agreement to have these artifacts as part of a travelling exhibition between the two locations.&nbsp;&nbsp;So, bright and early the next morning - as their was no landslide this time the night before - our agency picked us up in a taxi and lo and behold there were 3 other people on our tour now thanks to the landslide delay.&nbsp; Fortunately for us, two couldn`t make it as they were sick so this meant more room in our taxi and also a quicker hiking group for us too.&nbsp; Our third then was a guy named Tom from Washington, DC -&nbsp; a really nice really fun guy so we were stoked.&nbsp; We took this immensely windy and swaying bus from Cusco to&nbsp;St. Luis&nbsp;- on this ride, the bus attendant kept feeding people sugary drinks and chocolate cake and sure enough, all this came right back up as everyone on the bus felt the effects of the road - it was disgusting.&nbsp; Nearly as gross as when the bus pulled over for Tom to crunch (not feeling too well - we bonded instantly over our shared stomach problems) and the entire bus, 60 people, all piled off to pee and crunch next to each other as well...but, when in Rome!!&nbsp; Anyways, we were all releived when we arrived to our stop, pulled our bikes out from under the bus and&nbsp;were on our way!!! Virtually with no guide at all, we just started tearing our way down these dirt roads on these really well-used bikes with little to no brakes and little to no shocks either, but it was so fun!! We tore through puddles and through little towns - the best part was all the nice people on walking the roads or in the small towns who were just happy to see us and say hello and the cute little boy who chased my bike to give me 5.&nbsp; Very sweet!!&nbsp;3.5 hours later we arrived to our hostel where even the heart-stopping cold shower felt great.&nbsp; We played with some of the local kids while they got haircuts in our hostel courtyard, had a great dinner and fell sound asleep.The&nbsp;next morning, we were up about 5:30am to have breakfast and hit the trails&nbsp;early - I think the intention of this was to beat the heat, but even at 7:30 it was intensely warm on the roads we were walking.&nbsp; It was a relief to&nbsp;hit the start of the trail and get&nbsp;a bit of shade.&nbsp; Before starting the hardest part of&nbsp;our climb, our guide hooked us up with some Inca war-paint that not only looks tough but keeps these annoying little bugs away from your face too.&nbsp; Just before he painted our sweating faces with&nbsp;the seeds of this plant, he mentioned very casually that this plant was actually poisonous and if you ate it you`ll die....We all became a super paranoid group worried that the sweat would carry this poison to our mouths and we would die...Our guide, Angel, later clarified it only makes you kind of sick...which was kind of reassuring.&nbsp; We hit the start of the old Inca Trail (the entire Inca Trail is 82 km, when you hike the Inca Classic Trail you only cover 46 km, so we were on the other part from MP) and after a steep climb for an&nbsp;hour or so,&nbsp;past many entrepreneurial ladies selling water just when you really needed it, we hit this hippie-rasta lodge right in the middle of nowhere, tucked into the jungle.&nbsp; This lady was growing weed among her pineapples and bananas and had pet monkeys and anteaters too.&nbsp; The monkey was cute but the anteater had too good a nose and kept stealing our coca leaves and banana chew for the leaves - friggen brat!! The other interesting thing about this place was that while it was in the middle of the jungle up a really steep narrow trail, she had a full sized freezer up there that was fully in use...bizarre!!After a wicked break, we continued up the last hard bit until we hit the highest point of the trail at about 2300m where we had amazing vistas of the river valley below and the immensity of the jungle all around us and the shear volume of water in the river.&nbsp; Apparently towns like the little one we had stayed in the night before were totally flooded out during El Niño in 2000.&nbsp; We then cruised past banana plantations and other crop fields built on a nearly 90 degree slope until we made our way deep into the river valley for lunch.&nbsp; This place was paradise - literally you could not go hungry here, all the natural plants around you were citrus fruits, bananas, papayas, pineapples, and there were amazing coloured flowers and red fertile soil.&nbsp; It was beautiful!! One of the other guides went out to get some fruit and came back with this amazing fruit that had seeds in a type of fruity-gel, like a passion fruit, but not...sooooo good!! Tangy like a lemon but sweet like an orange too.&nbsp; After a delicious lunch and post-lunch siesta under the trees, we were off again.We had another 3 hours or so till the next town and this was a relatively easy hike along&nbsp;the river that included only one really sketchy river crossing using a rickety old suspension bridge missing a bunch of planks...or so we thought...It turned out that we needed to cross *back* across the river and absolutely none of us were prepared for what we&nbsp;were to use as our `bridge`.&nbsp; Below us was this frigid raging river with boulders jutting out and serious rapids and in front of us was a small crate suspended from a cable that crossed the river...We all stood there in contemplation until the Argentine in the other group, in true fashion, shows up and says, `This!? This is&nbsp;nothing!´ haha&nbsp; Now I know that part of this trip is pushing limits etc, but oh my God this was crazy - you basically load two people into this shitty wooden box and then you get a big push across the 30m wide river where you then pull yourself the rest of the way if there is no one on the other side to help.&nbsp; Angel and Tom went first, and I don`t know how Tom did this as he nearly crapped himself on the suspension bridge.&nbsp; Then it was our turn and after spending some time trying to convince my body to move and get into this crate, I did it and we were on our way with one giant push.&nbsp; All you could hear was the water below and the clink-clink-clink of the rings and&nbsp;rope piling up in front of you and then we slid to a stop and started to slip backwards until Angel - my little saviour - started pulling us in.&nbsp; Really, once you did it it wasn`t so bad, but it was so much more about trusting this little device and the two guides on either side of you to get you across.&nbsp; Once our group and the group of Irish girls and Arrogant...I mean Argentine guy was across, we all headed down the path to the most amaaaazing hot springs ever.&nbsp; The pool were huge, clean, natural and just what we all needed at the end of our hike.&nbsp;&nbsp;That night we hit the crazy clubs of Santa Theresa - decked out in our finest hiking pants, boots&nbsp;and our 1 clean T-shirt, we went all out.&nbsp; Nik and I, the Irish girls, the Argentine and the two guides got to the club around...ohhhhhhhhhh say 8:30 and once inside, the head count was Nik and I, the Irish girls, the Argentine and the two guides...Oh yah, and the DJ/bartender.&nbsp; But it was awesome!! After YMCA and I Like to Move It warmed up the floor and the Peru Libres (Rum and Cokes) started flowing, it was a pretty good time, though the Argentine was convinced that none of us could dance since we didn`t dance like him hahah&nbsp; We closed the place down around 10pm and hit the sack.We had a late start the next day along with fairly tight breakfast (can we pleaaaaase have some more bread?) and just in case the coffee didn`t wake us up yet, we had another shitty crate-and-cable river crossing to start our day.&nbsp; I rode with Tom this time as neither of us wanted to be part of Angel`s running start and I kept my eyes closed the whole time.&nbsp; But, it was short and sweet.&nbsp; The dogs chasing us down the road on the other side was really more of a concern, but we all just&nbsp;threw a bunch of rocks at them and another lady whacked them with some empty buckets she was carrying and all was good.&nbsp; We passed a huuuuge hydroelectric dam that day that was held back by a natural rock formation, which I`m sure I felt some water spitting through from, so I ran that part...!!&nbsp; We had a quick lunch from where we could see the back side of the MachuPicchu mountain - meaning Old Man - as the site is actually made up of two mountains, one being MachuPicchu and the other is HuaynaPicchu, meaning Young Man.&nbsp; After lunch we had the *most boooooooooring* hike yet - 9km along the railroad tracks!!&nbsp; The only exciting part was when our guide misjudged what time the train was coming and we got caught in a narrow part and had to friggen run like hell and jump in next to the bushes to avoid being smushed by the train.&nbsp; After 3 hours of&nbsp;stepping from railroad tie to railroad tie - we&nbsp;calculated there were about&nbsp;21,150 of these&nbsp;ties along the way -&nbsp; we *finally* arrived to Aguas Calientes, a quaint little tourist town at the base of MachuPicchu.&nbsp;&nbsp;The town itself strikes you initially as an Asian town as it is built along the railroad line, there are no cars or vehicles, only men pushing wheelbarrows and people selling things in the sloped streets.&nbsp; We went immediately to the hotsprings there - and while they looked much less appealing, they were smaller, more crowded, kind of yellow and - as Nik observed - smelt like a turkey dinner - they were all the same quite refreshing.&nbsp; Seriously though, they did smell like turkey and we all needed some serious showering after those.&nbsp; We went for our first dinner of the night with Angel who then passed us over to our official MachuPicchu guide.&nbsp; This next guide, Michaelangelo, was a bit of a dream crusher - after&nbsp;he asked us if we`d walk or bus up to the ruins, we said we`d walk to which we went on about how hard it is and how we should reconsider etc etc.&nbsp; Anyways, our minds were made up and we were set.&nbsp; After dinner number two, we got together our water and snacks for the next day and hit the&nbsp;hay just as the Argentine was warming up for another night on the town...&nbsp;The final day of our Inka Jungle tour started at 4:00am in the morning.&nbsp; Both our alarms went off and then there was a knock at the door, it was our guide Angel who only said, ¨Ok, Go¨ and then headed back down the stairs.&nbsp; All of us gathered up what we needed and then the remaining things we could store at a corner store, which doubled as a ticket office for the train back to Ollantaytambo.&nbsp; At the corner store we said our goodbyes to our guide, thanked him for the tour and then headed off for the beginning of the trail to MachuPicchu.&nbsp;The trail up to Machupicchu was supposed to take roughly 1.5hrs from the town of Aguas Calientes, which is the closest town to the ruins.&nbsp; The night before having a great pep talk from our ruins guide we were determined to make it up the hill in less time than that.&nbsp; So we left the town, down a dirt road for about 20 minutes until we hit the man bridge to cross the river.&nbsp; The road was absolutely pitch black, there are no street lights along this road, and Sarah, Tom and I were really glad to have our headlamps.&nbsp; We eventually ended up at the beginning of the trail, not really a trail but a stair case of 1750 steps and afterwards&nbsp;we could really feel it in our legs.&nbsp; Along the way we took several stops, only to be passed by a few other backpackers and some stray dogs (I liked to call them my guide dogs to MP).&nbsp; The hike was pretty demanding and by the time we got to the top we were soaked from our own sweat and the amount of moisture and rain in the air.&nbsp; &nbsp;We reached the top exactly 5 minutes before the gates officially opened.&nbsp; At the top we saw a slew of people already sitting, waiting for the gates to open.&nbsp; The three of us moved under&nbsp;some green umbrellas where we were supposed to meet our guide, changed our clothes and had a bite to eat.&nbsp; During this time we got to see all the micro-buses pulling unloading a fresh batch of tourists that opted to take the bus up the hill, one would drop about 40 people each time about every 5 minutes.&nbsp; &nbsp;Our guide eventually showed up about 3 minutes before his deadline of 6:15am at the top, most of the groups that decided to hike the hill were stewing for about 20minutes before our guide showed up because he had belittled most of us claiming how HARD the hike was.&nbsp;So our tour started at the great ruins at Machupicchu.&nbsp; Unfortunately, our tour guide was not especially great and a lot of the buildings, alters, and other points of interest are a bit of a blur to me.&nbsp; Therefore, the following explanation of our tour&nbsp;is a hybrid between our experience and what the internet tells us we saw...&nbsp;&nbsp;At the beginning of the tour we saw all the agricultural terraces that the Incas used for crop cultivation.&nbsp; Each terraces about 3m in height and basically covers all of the ruins where there are not temples, residences or other buildings of significance.&nbsp; The Incas cultivated lots of different types of grain (Quinua, Wheat), Corn and about 400 types of different potatoes.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;We then headed up a long set of stairs to the Royal Tomb. This cave-like area of Machu Picchu contains ceremonial niches and an Inca cross carved from one wall and is adjacent to the Temple of the Sun. The cross (Andean Cross) resembles a series of steps, and represents the three levels of existence in the world of the Inca. The first step, symbolized by the snake, represents the underworld or death. The second step represents the present, human life, and is symbolized by the puma. The highest step represents the celestial/spiritual plane of the gods, and is symbolized by the condor.&nbsp;We then crossed a large grassy field called the Central Plaza.&nbsp; This plaza separates the Sacred Plaza and the Intiwantana Stone from the more commonplace areas on the far side.&nbsp;&nbsp;After crossing the Central Plaza our guide led us to the Temple of the Condor which was a great example of Inca stonemasonry. A natural rock formation began to take shape millions of years ago and the Inka skillfully shaped the rock into the outspread wings of a condor in flight. &nbsp;On the floor of the temple is a rock carved in the shape of the condor's head and neck feathers, completing the figure of a three-dimensional bird. Historians speculate that the head of the condor was used as a sacrificial altar. Under the temple is a small cave that contained a mummy. A prison complex stands directly behind the temple, and is comprised of human-sized niches and an underground maze of dungeons. According to historical chronicles that documented similar Inca prison sites, an accused citizen would be shackled into the niches for up to 3 days to await the deliberation of his fate. He could be put to death for such sins as laziness, lust, or theft.&nbsp;From there we headed to the Intiwatana, which is known as the "hitching post of the sun" is a carved rock pillar whose four corners are oriented toward the four cardinal points. The Inca were accomplished astronomers, and used the angles of the pillar to predict the solstices. The sun exerted a crucial influence on the agriculture, and therefore the well-being of the whole society. It was considered the supreme natural god (a ceramic corn god gives evidence to the spiritual devotion of the natural world that was common to all pre-Inca cultures). At the winter solstice on June 21, the high priest would rope a golden disc to the Intiwatana, to symbolically catch the sun and bring it back toward earth for another year's cycle of seasons. &nbsp;The Intiwatana is the only one of its kind not lopped off by the Spanish conquerors, who made a point of destroying all implements of Inca religion. Many people today feel that MachuPicchu is one of the Earth's magnetic focal points, and carries an inherent spiritual or metaphysical power. Indeed, it is difficult to sit at the edge of the Sacred Plaza overlooking the Urubamba River below, the stone temples and plazas to the front, and the mountain peaks of MachuPicchu and Huayna Picchu to the left and right, and not feel the magic.&nbsp; &nbsp;Interesting facts Cusqueña beer which is brewed in Cusco shot a beer commercial on top of Machupicchu at the Intiwantana sundial.&nbsp; In the process one of the cameras or the lights struck the sundial and cracked off a good portion of clock.&nbsp; However in the mean time it has been repaired by the caretakers of the Sanctuary.&nbsp; Another great feat of stupidity by both the current Spanish King and the current Peruvian president was that the King of Spain wanted to land his helicopter on the top of MachuPicchu.&nbsp; So the Peruvian government and president made allocations for him, they moved a giant stone monolith or just forgot about it and when his helicopter (yeah lazy f-ing royalty) hit the monolith and knocked it over.&nbsp; So now this monolith, which was severly damaged,&nbsp;has been buried somewhere in the central plaza.&nbsp; How about next time they want to visit this site they take a royal bus up like everyone else, man such arrogance.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Across the Central Plaza and at the far end of MachuPicchu is the Sacred Rock, an object common to most every Inca village. Before a village could be erected, a sacred stone must be dedicated to the site. The Sacred Stone of MachuPicchu sits at the base of Huayna Picchu.&nbsp; From here we decided to climb the mountain to get a bird's eye view of the ruins.&nbsp; We signed in at the Gatekeeper's shack as proof they tackled the steep climb up Huayna Picchu and then started the 1 hour accent up the hill.&nbsp;&nbsp;The climb might not have been so hard if we hadn't climbed to the top of MP, but, who doesn't enjoy a challenge?&nbsp; Climbing up Huayna Picchu was really really steep and since we started the hike around 9:30 the sun was not in full effect.&nbsp; We climbed the hill with 2 other Irish girls that we met along our jungle tour stopping about every 10 minutes to catch our breath or to enjoy the views.&nbsp; We eventually reached the first ruins of the peak which is mind boggling (who would cart rocks up such a steep hill or carve rocks up here) and gave great views of MachuPicchu.&nbsp; After another 10 minutes of climbing and a skootch through a really tight cave with stairs, we reached the peak.&nbsp; The view from every angle was incredible and we could see (sort of) the condor shape that Machupicchu was built in.&nbsp; We ate a sort of snack at the top and then headed back down to look over the ruins some more.&nbsp; &nbsp;Seriously, this place was one of the most beautiful sites - natural or not - that we've seen on this trip.&nbsp; It was incredible.&nbsp; So after being fully saturated in the beauty of M.P., we treated ourselves to a bus ride down the switchbacks back to Aguas Calientes.&nbsp; Here, we basically crashed.&nbsp; We had about 3.5 hours to kill before catching our train so we just chilled at a restaurant, listened to some pan flutes...though we have *almost* reached our limits here...and then went to get our stuff and tickets from the corner store.&nbsp; So, despite what our guide said, there were no tickets for us, but there were tickets for two&nbsp;Korean tourists named Seo Jin&nbsp;and&nbsp; Kwak Hyang&nbsp;that apparently weren't in use, so the owner gave us those and we hoped they would work!!&nbsp; Finally, just when we thought we couldn't keep our eyes open any more, it was time to hit the train.&nbsp; Luckily, our mismatched passports and train tickets hardly got a second look from the train guards.&nbsp; We piled on, anxious for sleep, and were a bit disappointed to see that the Peru Train resembles the C-Train (Calgary's answer to urban sprawl - a Light Rail Transit system): rigid seats, no recline, little legroom.&nbsp; But, despite this, we found some sleep until we got to where we switch from train to bus.&nbsp; Again, not perfectly coordinated - there was no one there to meet us so we had to negotiate our way onto another bus.&nbsp; No problem though and we got reimbursed for the extra expense the next day.&nbsp;We arrived late to Cusco, about 10:15pm and we were totally bagged.&nbsp; After a quick email exchange with Tom, we were back to our hostel and asleep within minutes.&nbsp; We had a fairly early morning the next day as we had booked our Sacred Valley tour about a week before.&nbsp; Originally, we had planned on having a day to sleep in after M.P., but due to the ´landslide´ which we never saw any remnants of by the way,&nbsp;our start was pushed back a&nbsp;day and hence our day of rest vanished.&nbsp; After a bit of confusion at the travel agency - which we now consider the norm - they found us a bus heading on this tour and we were off.&nbsp; The tour itself was nice but it is hard to compare to the experience we just&nbsp;had -&nbsp;and the British people behind us just&nbsp;kept talking and talking about electronica music...uhgggg...The valley though is famed for&nbsp;it`s fertile lands and was used by the Incas for this reason.&nbsp; It cultivates the most corn in Peru and&nbsp;also has many old Inca ruins.&nbsp; In fact the people living in this valley today live exactly where the common Quechua people of Inca times lived.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;We visited the ruins of Pisac which was used for agricultural experimentation,&nbsp;religious purposes, and military defense of the Valleys southern entrance.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here you&nbsp;can also see the sun rise on the June 21st winter solstice directly over this natural pyramid shape in the distant mountain.&nbsp; We also visited their famous market where&nbsp;we bought a ´Magic Inca Jug` where, after&nbsp;you pour water in the bottom, it won`t come back out and you need to use another hole to pour from...yes, magic.&nbsp; We then visited the ruins of Ollantaytambo which are terraced to prevent erosion.&nbsp; They also had a mountain over which the June 21st sun rises, but the shape in the mountain over which the sun rises here is an Incan profile.&nbsp; They showed us these 40 tonne blocks that they Tiawanako/Inca moved 11km to create their sun temple.&nbsp; They used their strongest men to do so - and to prove it was possible, in 2000, people moved a 20 tonne block about 500m...in 2 months....i think that`s a pretty convincing study.&nbsp; Finally, we ended up at Chinchero where the Spanish ripped down the previous Inca temple and built a Church.&nbsp; However, this church today is used for Inca ceremonies and community purposes and therefore lacks any real denomination.&nbsp; The views from this area were worth the trip in itself - we could see the Cordillera of the Andes and the locals harvesting their corn and other crops.&nbsp;&nbsp;While the tour was nice, it was better to be back and by 8pm we were sound asleep again.&nbsp; Our original plan was to take off to Nazca from here to see the famous Nazca lines made by their ancient people, but due to a recent crash that killed 5 French tourists and some independent research that exposed quite&nbsp;a poor safety record&nbsp;of their overflights in general, we have opted to not.&nbsp; Oh yah, and we both just read Alive (The&nbsp;Story&nbsp;of the Andes Survivors)&nbsp;and are now afraid of little shitty planes flying near mountains....Love, Seo Jin&nbsp;and&nbsp; Kwak Hyang&nbsp;(Niko y Sarita. xoxo)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1207264680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1207264680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1207264680/tpod.html Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:57:56 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Puno, Peru

Down at the Copa....Copacobana.&nbsp; We arrived into Copacobana on Thursday evening and found a private room with bath for a whopping $4.50US - we instantly liked it there!! &nbsp;Arriving at Lake Titicaca itself was a bit surreal as we had been in the Bolivian deserts - essentially - for the past&nbsp;3 weeks.&nbsp; Everywhere we had been was mountainous, barren, dry and pounded by the sun.&nbsp; All of a sudden there is this large and instant shift in landscape and you are on the shores of the largest lake in South America at 3812m above sea level.&nbsp; We learned that Lake Titicaca is fed by 5 major rivers as well as rainfall and melt-off from the nearby mountains but only 1 river leaves the Lake accounting for 10% of water lost.&nbsp; The remaining 90% evaporates due to the intensity of the sun at this altitude.&nbsp;We set out bright and early the next morning to visit Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) which is an historically and spiritually important island for the Incas.&nbsp; After a painfully slow 2-hour boatride (plus ½ hour getting the boat to start in the first place), we arrived to the northern tip of the island.&nbsp; This was followed by a painfully terrible museum and then having to pay a lady for having taken a (really bad)&nbsp;photo of her mules...But, after this we were happily on our way amidst the amazing scenery of beaches, coves, endless blue lake, snow capped Andes, fluffy sheep, and colourful flowers.&nbsp; We arrived at the most important Inca ruins on this side of the island - they include the rock Titikala (The Sacred Rock) where the Incas beleive the Sun was born, a sacrificial alter and the remains of where the Incas lived which is now known as the labrynth, so called because of the maze you enter as you step through one of their tiny doors and into the many ruins of their homes.&nbsp; As this island is at about 4000m elevation and the sun is intense, the going was harder than expected despite the easy path crossing from north to south.&nbsp; So, we took it easy and took in all the scenery around us and about 4 hours later, we arrived to the main town on the island which subsists off tourism and subsistence agriculture and fishing, so yes, I paid (5 Bs) to have my photo taken with a lady and her llama.&nbsp; Actually we felt slightly obliged to as well as she kept pressuring us to buy this Euro coin off her which is useless to us and she wouldn`t drop it...Anyways the llama was soooooo cute and so soft it was hard to resist!!&nbsp; Not caring to see the less important ruins on the south side of the island, we hopped a boat back (good thing to as it was the last boat of the day!!) which ended up stopping at the dock near these ruins anyways, so we definitely lucked out.&nbsp; &nbsp;After a delicious meal and meeting our Belgian friends again, we bought out ticket to Puno (the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca) and crashed.&nbsp; In a stroke of fate, when we showed up for our bus the next morning, it was all sold out (yes, we had purchased tickets ahead of time though...??) so we had to wait till the afternoon bus.&nbsp; Initially this seemed crappy but we decided to make the best of our time and climb up this huge hill in town called the Calvario that has a cemetary half way up and worship centers at the very top.&nbsp; But, more important to us than the worship centers were&nbsp;the tiny cars and wads of fake money and tiny houses being sold at little stalls, and as soon as I saw these at the&nbsp;top, it clicked, `This is the stuff they bless for you!!` - I had totally forgotten that Copa has a ritual of blessing cars (both normal sized and small) as well as other random objects for safe travels, health, wealth, etc.&nbsp; We were stoked.&nbsp; In light of our recent micro ride on the Highway of Death and for all the roads ahead, we thought the miniture Toyota Hiace micro-van would be the best option.&nbsp; We bought it, filled out a sort of certificate with our names and the Toyota`s details etc and asked where to bring it.&nbsp; We then remembered the men, Shamen actually, at the halfway point on the mountain and the girl said they would do it for a donation.&nbsp; &nbsp;We raced down to the middle of the mountain where we met our new Shamen friend, Ernesto, who offered to perform the ceremony for us.&nbsp; We told him we wished for safe travels and then bought some incense to start the ceremony.&nbsp; The ceremony consisted of the Shamen blessing us in basically every aspect of our lives, and then each of our brothers/sisters and parents as well and he used a hybrid of Catholicism and Indigenous religion blessing us with a cross and saying Catholic prayers but then dousing the microbus in the incense and making offerings to Pachamama.&nbsp; When the official ceremony was over he ordered us 2L of beer from the ladies nearby.&nbsp; Nervous about our ability to drink so much at 11am, our fears were quickly doused (ha) as he took the first bottle and shook the crap out of it before spraying it in small bursts all around him in offering to Pachamama, spraying the microbus, our hands that we then had to put into our pockets, and after this was done he interpreted the foam shape inside the bottle for us as well.&nbsp; The next bottle we shared among us three as well as each of us offering some to Pachamama too and during this, he read our palms and though we can`t say if he is correct about the future, he was pretty much right on with the past and present, even with current decisions etc and my birth month and so on.&nbsp; It was a reaaaaaaaally cool experience, lasting about 15 minutes total.&nbsp; He was so genuine and interesting and the ceremony was so elaborate and sincere.&nbsp; We were so happy we missed that bus, a real stroke of fate that definitely enriched our time in Bolivia.&nbsp; &nbsp;The border crossing was stress-free and our driver even found us a cheap and nice hotel here in Puno, Peru.&nbsp; Puno is much bigger than Copa but also really nice and right on the shore of the Lake.&nbsp; We decided to take a day to sight-see within Puno before heading to the Islands from here.&nbsp; With some good advice from a nice tour agency, we set out the next morning to a village called Chucuito which is known for it`s Inca ´Templo del Fertilidad´.&nbsp; After a rather expensive cab ride there (long story) we found our way to this temple and were offered a tour by a 15 year old girl working there.&nbsp; Apparently, infertile woman used to enter this temple alone, and along with offerings of coca leaves and an alcohol, they would sit up on the main penis in this temple and think fertile thoughts.&nbsp; From that view point, they could see all the penis sculptures around them in this garden-like temple including the one they planted on the very top of the church next door...muuuuuhahahah.&nbsp; As you can imagine, we spent quite a bit of time taking awesome photos inside this penis garden, it was hilaaaaaarious!! The outter courtyard is lined with phalynx souvenirs which were kinda fun to look at&nbsp;but also sort of weird when the 8 year old girl selling it to you is saying, `Look, erotica!` hahah&nbsp; Nik of course bought some volcanic rock penises which he claims will make good paper weights....We then walked down the road where on the main highway, people have carved two indigenous men`s faces into the rock walls along the road.&nbsp; They were very cool.&nbsp; A quick and cheap collectivo brought us back to Puno.&nbsp;That afternoon, we had a really great tour bring us to Sillustani, essentially a sacred cemetary for the 2 cultures preceding the Inca in this area (including Tiwanako), and finally for the Inca themselves.&nbsp; Each culture built their tombs in a particular manner - all of which were elaborate - but the Inca`s tombs are clearly the most striking.&nbsp; They are called Chullpas and are cylindrical burial tombs large enough to accomodate 7 people of importance.&nbsp; The highest of these tombs stands 12m.&nbsp; We learned how they built these incredible tombs, saw the temples used to track the sun and worship Pachamama, and took in the beauty of the area.&nbsp;The best part of the tour was the unexpected part...On the way back to town, we stopped in to visit a local family and learn about how they live.&nbsp; We were greated by two of the happiest and cutest people I have ever seen standing outside their simple home by two of the cutest alpacas I have ever seen.&nbsp; Just adorable - after snapping some shots of the cute animals, we entered their home where they first offered us some of their baked potatoes (a very important crop here) - but they eat them differently than us.&nbsp; They take some hard clay from the ground and add water to make a type of sauce and while that sounds weird, when you dip the potato into it and have it, it is delicious and also a great source of nutrition.&nbsp; The father then dove right in to showing us how he crushes the quinua grain (also very important here - `Rice of the Andes`), then he ran over to show us how he tilled the land.&nbsp; This part was cool cause the land is so hard that they essentially use a pogo stick and launch themselves into the air and land on the ground forcing their tool into the earth, then they repeat.&nbsp; It looks hard but fun!! Then they have to further smash and break apart the clumps of hard land before they can till a ditch to plant their potatoes 1 foot apart.&nbsp; After this he ran - smiling all the way - into their bedroom.&nbsp; The family of 4 shares one bed which has an adobe base, a reed mat and then a few alpaca blankets.&nbsp; Our dad hops into bed, shows us the cubby-hole for his shoes, puts on his tuque and says `See you tomorrow!` - adorable.&nbsp; Next he hops out of bed and starts weaving an alpaca floor mat!! This guy did everything! We also saw a small hole in the courtyard - apparently they put their babies in this hole while they work and just line up all the baby toys around this hole to keep them happy.&nbsp; Very good idea I thought!!&nbsp; We bought a tuque in appreciation for their hospitality and left so happy to have met a family that was just so genuinely kind and happy, very fun.So, the next day we headed off for our Island Adventure of the surrounding area.&nbsp; We got picked up at our hotel and then headed for the dock where we got on our boat and met our guide.&nbsp; The first island we headed to was called Uros, which also has natives of the same name.&nbsp; The islands here are completely made of tortura reeds (your basic reeds in a lake).&nbsp; The base of the islands are made from the floating roots that are anchored by rope and pegs and then the reeds are layered in a criss-cross pattern until a substantial floor is created.&nbsp; The Uros people had been living there before the Inca inhabited the area, so from before 1400 AD.&nbsp; The islands were pretty cool, we were greeted by natives singing some sort of song when we arrived and then also when we left.&nbsp; The island were obviously really basic - they just installed toilet systems in the past few years due to health issues - and the islands were also really hard to walk on as you sunk into the reeds with every step.&nbsp; The cool thing is that they are totally portable, when the want to change locations, they pull up anchor and paddle their island to the next spot.&nbsp; Also, they pay no taxes as they don`t actually own any land.&nbsp; To cross to the next island we took a Tortura reed boat ride.&nbsp; These boats are created by the men and take approximately 5 weeks to make a complete reed boat.&nbsp; When we got to the adjacent island there wasn´t much different there, some&nbsp;artisan crafts and then there were some restaurants and what not.&nbsp; So off to the next island.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;We got on the boat and then had a pretty chill 2.5 hrs ride to the next island.&nbsp; During the ride the whole group of us (10 people) sat on top of the boat and relaxed until we got to our destination.&nbsp; The following island was called Isla Amantani and it was rock,&nbsp;stone and very fertile land -&nbsp;not a lot of reeds available.&nbsp; When we got to the island we immediately gathered at&nbsp;point on the island and then were introduced to our host family.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;At this point in the trip we were supposed to stay with a&nbsp;host family who would make us lunch, dinner and then breakfast the next morning.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our host mother (Elizabet)&nbsp;was probably the same age as us and&nbsp;had lived on the island all her life, though her brothers and sisters had since moved to the mainland to find work and provide better opportunities for their children.&nbsp; Walking along the paths to her house was interesting scenery, lots of animals (sheep, donkeys and turkeys) and generally a really clean island with little or no litter on the ground.&nbsp; We got back to her house and watched her making our lunch - it was interesting as they have no electricity, running water, or means of refrigeration, and they are all vegetarians.&nbsp; She had to keep all the cooking water in one pail, cleaning water in another, and took her dry&nbsp;cheese out of a container and wet it/washed it before serving it.&nbsp; The toilets are flushed by using a pail of water as well, but everything was really clean and all the meals delicious.&nbsp; After lunch,&nbsp;we bought some&nbsp;touques from Elizabet as, apparently, the entire island is sustained by selling touques and what-nots :-)&nbsp;&nbsp; We then&nbsp;headed back to the tour group to climb one of the hills on the island.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When we gathered with our group our guide gave us a bunch of&nbsp;different plants and herbs that they use on the island.&nbsp; One that we had&nbsp;in our tea for lunch was called&nbsp;muña or something like that, it was&nbsp;real nice though.&nbsp; Interesting part of our lunch was that all the other&nbsp;people, even though they stayed at different houses had the exact same meals as every one else (Quinua Soup, Potato Salad w Cheese and then the tea with muña). After this fascinating revelation we decided to head up the hill to a lookout and then watch the sunset.&nbsp; After walking about&nbsp;15 minutes the group spaced out (we were climbing a hill) and then we met some kids with drums and pan flutes along the path.&nbsp; The&nbsp;kids immediately began to flute and drum as the entire group walked up the hill.&nbsp; This part was pretty amazing, because the kids not only&nbsp;climbed the hill effortlessly, but&nbsp;they were using so much energy to pipe music to us for inspiration.&nbsp; Most of us were amazed that the kids were not out of breath as most of us were.&nbsp; When we made it to the top there was&nbsp;other tourists from other boats that had come to the island as well.&nbsp; We kicked around the top for about 1hr as the sun set over the lake and then headed back down for dinner and also for a dance.&nbsp; That night we ate a dinner that Elizabet had made us and then got dressed in traditional garb for a dance.&nbsp; Sarah got this really frilly dress that puffed out huge, with a white embroidered blouse and then a shall on top of it.&nbsp; She also put on this bitchin´ knitted touque that we had bought on the top of the hill where we watched the sunset.&nbsp; I got a pretty basic blue poncho (and the touque I bought on the hill), pretty sweet since I really didn´t have to do too much.&nbsp; We&nbsp;went with Elizabet by light of the stars to the town hall and met everyone else on our tour group (also dressed up) and the other tourists that came to the island as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;When we got to the hall there was a band (all 12-14 year old) complete with a big drum,&nbsp;2 pan flutes,&nbsp;a mini-guitar and then a drink table.&nbsp;&nbsp;The band started playing and immediately all the host families grabbed the tourist staying with&nbsp;them and started&nbsp;dancing.&nbsp; It&nbsp;was really fun with everyone dancing and really&nbsp;just swaying their arms and ruffling their dresses or ponchos, pretty simple dance.&nbsp; This continued probably for&nbsp;an hour or so and then everyone headed back to their respected houses, nice and toasty warm after a night of dancing. The next morning we gathered up our stuff, ate breakfast and then headed for the&nbsp;dock and the boat.&nbsp; On the way to the boat we were passed by a sprinting herd of sheep and a lady pulling on her mule to get him to move (he wouldn`t) - we passed this same mule again as it got it`s leash all tangled on a rock fence and pulled a bit of it down.&nbsp; These animals are hilarious! We said farewell to our families, hopped our boat and cruised to our final island of Taquile which is known for it`s weaving.&nbsp; On Taquile, as in most other indigenous cultures, the men do virtually all the weavings.&nbsp; This island is interesting too because the weavings they wear reveal their social status.&nbsp; For example, men with a white and red hat are single and either looking for a lady or not depending on which side of their head the tail flops too.&nbsp; Men in red hats are married and therefore are the only ones able to reach high ranks in their culture.&nbsp; Men who reached high ranks wear brimmed hats, and once they retire, they wear a very colourful hat (like a toque) beneath a brimmed hat.&nbsp; Single ladies wear flashy and colourful skirts while married ladies wear solid colours (red or black) to attract less attention.&nbsp; After climbing 150m up to the main square, we saw a group of men (3 married, 1 single) weaving their typical hats.&nbsp; To determine if a man is fit to marry, the woman will take the hat the man has woven for himself and fill it with water.&nbsp; If there is little water lost, the man is considered fit to marry, but if it drips too much water, he`ll likely stay single.&nbsp; The woman of this island also weave a bit, but they typically just weave a strong belt for their husbands, made from their own long hair, and their husbands use this as a back brace for their hard work in the fields.&nbsp; We had a chance to see all these interesting weavings before heading for a delicious lunch and finally departing to make our way back to Puno.&nbsp; On the slow boat back to Puno we had&nbsp;a mix of interesting conversations (since there were 2 Americans, 2 lesbian Danish girls,&nbsp;a Danish couple,&nbsp;a german&nbsp;girl and a girl from Holland), one such conversation involved the girl from Holland asking the&nbsp;Danish couple if they had a&nbsp;´bed pudding´ or something like that.&nbsp; Apparently they do have a rice type dish that is cooked in a bed, but, they were really upset when we mentioned that it was a desert.&nbsp; This dish is made by cooking the rice with a tiny bit of water, then adding a&nbsp;lot of milk, the batch is brought to a boil and then the whole she-bang, pot and&nbsp;all, are placed on a bed and wrapped with the bedding.&nbsp; Then I asked if they ever had&nbsp;any ´bed pudding´accidents...they didn´t think it was very funny.&nbsp; Another conversation in the ride was the girl from Holland asking the Danish&nbsp;couple if they&nbsp;had a food that was ¨a flat&nbsp;dough&nbsp;type food with a hole in the middle and then the middle&nbsp;is filled with jam or sweet custard´.......oh you mean a Danish, (of course its a Danish you&nbsp;idiot)&nbsp;is what&nbsp;I asked the girl from Holland.&nbsp; But, apparently it is another&nbsp;flat bread type thing with a&nbsp;hole for jam or custard.....hmmmmm interesting.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;After one more day of chilling in the area, Nik and I caught the night bus from Puno to Cuzco.&nbsp; We were excited that this bus had heating (as it gets very cold at nights here) until the temperature on the bus hit 26C and we couldn`t stop sweating.&nbsp; Ah well, careful what you wish for I guess!Some random trivia...The native resident of Puno is of the ethnos Aymara (12.9% population of Peru); their language is the Aymara. For the subsistence in height average of 4,000 meters above sea level (13,122 feet) and with a cold climate, they have achieved an excellent adaptation. The color of its skin is dark, high lung capacity and development of the thorax; they have two more litters of blood then the average, with high content of red globules, what grant them great physical resistance.&nbsp;Hugs and Kisses, Niko y Sarita. xoxo
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1206638880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1206638880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1206638880/tpod.html Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:40:21 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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La Paz, Bolivia

After a quick flight in to La Paz, Nik and I were immediately taken aback by the beauty of the city. Though I don`t think words can do La Paz justice (or even our photos for that matter) but it is a city built up the walls of several mountains that all converge to make the valley that holds the downtown of La Paz. Around this cluster of jagged mountain peaks and on either side of La Paz stand two amazing white capped mountains facing each other. All the houses are of the same adobe colour and the impact it makes is quite spectacular.We set out Thursday afternoon to visit the Folkloric Museum that featured a lot of weaving (like the one in Sucre) but also had some amazing rooms dedicated to the dress and accessories of the indigenous of the area including elaborate and colourful feather headdresses, bow and arrows, we saw how the woman created huge pieces of pottery and baked it (really not as easy as I thought...!) - but best of all was this incredible room featuring the masks that the indigenous use for their festivals. The room was all black with lights above each of these really freaky masks - some were of the devil, some of the sun and moon, some were of Africans, old men, all were extremely elaborate with lots of colour.Nik`s mission following this museum was to own one of these masks...which meant a huuuuuuuge headache for me, but more on that later. Following this, we went to the Mueum of Musical Instruments and this place was awesome, all hands on too!! We saw flutes made of llama bones, guitars made from armadillos,saxophones of bamboo, pan flutes bigger than grown men, guitars with 5 arms, drums made of a turtles shell and body, and all the while there was an awesome jam session going on below with traditional instruments. Very cool. The whole area that these museums were located in were very artsy, laid back, and featured a make-your-own suit district as well where you could go from store to store for custom made suits, vests, leather shoes, and more. And all for cheaaaaaapp!! Seeing my opportunity for fun shoes to fit my stompy feet, I asked for a custom pair of heels to which my reply was `Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! No no no!!` they only make up to a 39 or something there, my size was unheard of. Friggen false advertising. The next day was awesome. We woke up early, found the greatest restaurant ever for breakfast and then took off to start our walking tour of the Coca Museum, the Witches Market and the Black Market. First stop was the Coca Museum which was amazing. Apparently the indigenous of Bolivia have had a legend passed down over hundreds and hundreds of years relating to the Coca leaf...The legend goes that their God had given these people the coca leaf to put to their mouths when they felt tired or hungry or sad. This leaf was to be protected and respected as it was a gift. The people were warned that one day a white man from the north would come and try to take their leaves, but all they would find would be anguish and pain - it would magnify the pain that they were running from. The indigenous have used the coca leaf for centuries as an anesthetic for surgeries (while we were knocking each other out or drinking till we passed out), they also exchange it as gifts, use it in their ceremonies, and use it during social events - much they way we use alcohol. However, when the Spanish came to convert the people to Catholicism, the Catholic church viewed the coca leaf as a hurdle to their desired conversion...that is until the Spanish informed the Church about the powers of the leaf. As the Spanish were interested in using the Bolivians to mine as much silver as possible from Potosi , they were very interested in using the coca leaf to their advantage as chewing the leaf dilates the lungs allowing for increased oxygen consumption, it reduces appetite andcreates a feeling of well-being, all this allowing the miners to work continuously for up to 16 hours per day without breaks. When the Church learned of how this leaf could benefit them, they decided that the leaf was not to be banned after all, but to be controlled by the Spanish and sold to the miners with an additional 10% tax heading directly to the Church.&nbsp; Well, this has only led to the continued monopolization of the leaf to this day.&nbsp; &nbsp;So, as the leaf was studied and us white folk (finally)&nbsp;learned of the anesthetic properties of the cocaine alkaloid, other research was done to show that the coca leaf was responsible for the apparent retardation of Bolivians.&nbsp; Well, despite that this is untrue, this was enough for the Geneva convention to launch war on the coca leaf, banning the production and export of the leaf with only one exception - the Coca-Cola company.&nbsp; In 1961, this ruling was modified to permit an exclusive club to import and/or use&nbsp;the coca leaves and this club includes virtually all Western Countries but excludes Bolivia and Peru, the two primary growers.&nbsp; To this day, the US government remains the largest importer of pure coca leaves -separate from the unknown amount the Coca-Cola company imports (there is no cocaine in Coke, but, they&nbsp;do use the coca leaf for ´flavoring´)&nbsp;- and yet they are the ones blaming the Bolivians for their cocaine problems...?!?!?&nbsp;We then saw how cocaine is created in workshops.&nbsp; First 400kg of coca leaves are stomped and crushed, then bathed in gasoline, to which hydrochloric acid and potassium permanganate are added - among various other chemicals - from which 1kg of paste is made.&nbsp; From this paste, you can obtain 1/4kg of actual cocaine which&nbsp;costsroughly $10,000 to make but is worth over 10 times that on the street.&nbsp; &nbsp;After our enlightening experience, we went upstairs to this wicked cafe that served coca cookies, coca beer, coffee and just about anything else you wanted to eat.&nbsp; It was like a very tame version of Amsterdam - so much to sample!!&nbsp; I think that maybe the cocaine got to my head, because after this we made our way to the Downhill Madness store that sells mountain biking trips down the World`s Most Dangerous Road - which I swore I would not do based on how stupid I would feel if I fell off and died - but 10 minutes inside this store, I was convinced that this was something that was gonna rock my world and down went my name for Monday leaving me 2 full days to wonder why the hell I did that...&nbsp;We then took a walk through the infamous Witch`s Market of La Paz.&nbsp; This market spreads over several city blocks and is made up of old ladies at their street-side stall selling coca leaves, coca tea, ohhhhh and what else...oh yah , dried baby llamas and llama fetuses, dried frogs with their eyes replaced by shiny pearls, amulets for anything you want, and so much more.&nbsp; Butyah , they literally have these llama fetuses stacked one on top of the other rising up half a meter and stinking up a whole lot more.&nbsp; The indigenous use these fetuses (along with leaves, sweets, and other amulets) when performing ceremonies to bring good luck to their weaving, crops, health, etc.&nbsp; We only ended up buying a Pachamama (Mother Earth) statue that brings good luck to your home in exchange for taking photos of these incredible items for sale.&nbsp; While browsing through the market, we came across a small alley way where indigenous Shamen were hanging out and available to read your fortune via coca leaves.&nbsp; We thought we were out of luck as none of the men we asked seemed to have change for us, so just as we were about to give up we turned around and a man who we swore wasn `t there a moment before was sitting there with his leaves etc offering us our fortunes *and* he had change.&nbsp; So, with this small omen we went for it.&nbsp; He starts by opening his woven blanket where he keeps his leaves and says a small blessing over them, then he offers a small amount of 95% alcohol to these leaves, and then a little for himself (uhhhhgggggg) and we began. I was represented by a little light green leaf and Nik was the big dark green leaf and then he just started a soft chant and tossed these other leaves across `us` and with every toss he said `Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Suerte!! Suerte!!` which means, `Ohhhh Such good luck!!` - it was adorable.&nbsp; We`ll keep our fortunes a secret to not jinx it, but more memorable than the reading was just the experience.&nbsp; It was a lot of fun and we were fortunate as I`ve heard that they often don`t do this for whiteys like us.&nbsp; :)&nbsp; We continued on up through the Black Market that, despite it`s scary name, was more so for basic household items than selling off stolen goods and afterwards made our way back via the beautiful San Francisco church.&nbsp; One other thing we noticed on this tour is that LaPaz uses girls dressed up in zebra costumes as their traffic police - I suppose they do it because they are hard to miss and also cute enough that you don`t want to run them over.&nbsp; Quirky place!Saturday was mostly spent trying to do things that all failed.&nbsp; First we went to buy Nik a Diablo mask.&nbsp; The masks in La Paz are all located on this brighly coloured street that carries elaborate costumes, boots, masks, and other paraphernalia for Carnaval.&nbsp; After asking around, we were pointed to this mask making workshop where we could see this man`s fantastic work on the walls.&nbsp; After a small deposit, he promised us our very own custom-made Diablo by Tuesday...sweeeet .&nbsp; Next we tried to visit the home of a famous Bolivian sculpture...which is closed Saturdays despite what our book says (Thanks AGAIN Lonely Planet)....So we went to thearchaeological museum which was also closed....So we finally ended up at a really cool Contemporary Art Museum and then walked over to see a recreation of the most important Tiwanaku ruin in Bolivia, featuring their main relic of `The Sun Gate`.&nbsp; The Tiwanaku`s were pre-Incan descendants and one of the ancient Andean cultures, their name meaning `Sons of the Sun`.&nbsp; To cap off our day of wasted time, we then climbed up to a look-out of LaPaz where they also have a giant kid`s playground and found our way home. Sunday,&nbsp; however, was awesome.&nbsp; We took it pretty easy for the morning and then met up with our Belgian friends to head to the Luuuuuuuuucha Libre!!!!!!&nbsp; What, you may ask, is Lucha Libre?? It`s wrestling baby!! And it was awesome!! All us tourists loaded ourselves into a big tour bus and drove up to one of the pooreset areas in La Paz called El Alto where at their multi-sports complex, they feature amateur wrestling every Sunday.&nbsp; The building was tiny but packed with locals of all sorts - sweet old ladies, cute little kids, and everyone in between.&nbsp; We were warned on our ride up to El Alto that we would all be sitting in the front rows and could therefore expect to have absolutely anything thrown on us, from pop torotten fruit to actual wrestlers.&nbsp; Soooooo stoked!! So we slip into our seats and the show begins.&nbsp;&nbsp; The first wrestler was a Spiderman look-alike who was getting pummeled by the other wrestler and the ref too - it was such a soap opera!! Everyone boos the bad guy and cheers the good guy and screams when the ref tries to secretly attack the good guy.&nbsp; As the night progressed, things just got better.&nbsp; A Sargent came out in full military garb and was calling all us tourists `Ash-holes!! You`re all Ash-holes!!` to which we`d boo him and - following the locals lead - throw whatever we had at him, pop, empty bottles, snacks, the lady next to us threw her apple-core haha.&nbsp; They also had this wicked guy dressed in a Skeleton suit that had his own theme music (a refreshing change from Eye of the Tiger on repeat!!) and this hilaaaarious skeleton dance.&nbsp; We saw a couple of these 3 person fights until it turned into an all out brawl between 6 people and chairs were being thrown and people tossed into the tourists and the ground was soaked with pop by this time - it was awesome.&nbsp; After this, the ladies came out - one was a typical Chulita, or indigenous lady in a big skirt with pigtail braids and a shawl, and the other lady was this psycho in a ripped florescent bodysuit and she was nuts!! She was kicking the crap out of the Chulita, throwing her all over the place in the ring and in the stands and yelling at us and finally spotted our friend`s 2L pop which she ripped out of her hands and shook it up, took a swig, and spit it all over the tourists to which she was pummelled with any crap we had.&nbsp; By this time, the show kicked ass.&nbsp; It was awesome.&nbsp; And just when we thought it was gonna get even better - how?? By having the midgets fighting of course - it actually got worse.&nbsp; Our expectation of midget-on-midget was actually a Chulita with another midget-Chulita vs. two men and the men weren `t easy on them.&nbsp; When the men fought each other, they threw plastic chairs, but against the two ladies, they used metal folding chairs and tin roofing and no one really knew how to take this - it *must* be more acting, no?? But when we started to see the midget bleeding, then the big lady next, a lot of us took off outta there - it was too much and definitely wedidn`t support that - that wasn`t what any of us wanted to see!! In the end, I heard that the ladies won, but it wasn `t worth watching.&nbsp; My guess is that as the lowest social class down here, they are just exploited to the extreme.&nbsp; Anyways, up till that it was awesome and the view from El Alto over LaPaz at night was also really cool.&nbsp; The morning of the World's Most Dangerous Road (WMDR) we met at the Downhill Madness Store at 8am.&nbsp; From there we got our helmets, gloves, pants and vest we then packed into 3 vans and headed up to the start of the road at La Cumbre.&nbsp; In total there were 24 riders that were going down the WMDR.&nbsp; The ride took a little longer than 45min and then we were at the gathering point at La Cumbre (4700m elevation), we then got our bikes tested them out, pulled some wheelies and then headed down the first stretch of the 64km long road.&nbsp; The first section they call ´super fast asphalt´ which is 30km of paved road before the official WMDR.&nbsp; &nbsp;In the fist 3-5km we tested our suspension and brakes and also the speed that we wanted to go at.&nbsp; During the whole ride there is a guide at the front of the pack for safety, but, in some instances (at the beginning)&nbsp;we were riding our brakes because the guide was taking&nbsp;extra precautions.&nbsp; In the first 20 minutes we ran&nbsp;into some political problems.&nbsp; The WMDR is traveled by at least 3&nbsp;tour groups a day with 15-24 people in each tour group.&nbsp; So after about 5km we rode into a road block where the locals had strewn all sorts of rocks along the road for about 100m.&nbsp; The locals were protesting to the Bolivian government that their little village wanted electricity; naturally the government wasn't listening so they decided to put rocks on the road.&nbsp; This was probably the sketchiest part of the road because you had a bunch of pissed off locals that might have been drunk and very unpredictable.&nbsp; So our guide told us of the clout and then advised us to continue through the stones and definitely not to stop.&nbsp; Off we headed, the first 5 or so people made it through all right, I was probably the 7th person and Sarah the 9th through and at that point some of the locals started shouting at us (No Hay Paso, Not Allowed to Cross).&nbsp; The guy behind me even had a little rock thrown at his helmet.&nbsp; Luckily no one was hurt or injured and we could continue on the road.&nbsp;The WMDR as of 2006 really does not have huge transports or a lot of traffic because a second safer, paved road was opened from La Cumbre to Coroico.&nbsp; I think the new road was partially paid for by Bolivian road fees (24Bs - $3.50 CDN) from tourists riding down the gravel WMDR.&nbsp; This road has been labelled this because of statistics; it was at one point the road that had the most fatalities in one year and for many years no other road had close to the number of deaths on the WMDR.&nbsp; The road it self is very skinny, only about 3m wide is not paved and really only wide enough for 1 car to travel at one time.&nbsp; If 2 cars approached one other on the road the car coming down the hill had to reverse to the next clearing that was wide enough for both to pass.&nbsp; This usually only occurred every 500m, so naturally a car or truck or even tour bus would have to reverse up to 500m.&nbsp; The other reason this road was dangerous was because some of the drivers would be drunk or very tired, this would cause serious accidents.&nbsp; The other strange but logical thing is that downhill cars have to drive closest to the edge to pass and up hill cars pass on the side closest to the hill, back in the day it was because the downhill driver had a better view of how close he was to the edge.&nbsp; Traveling down the road on a mountain bike is not as dangerous as traveling in a car, but you can't be an idiot because there are HUGE drop-offs (some up to 3000m). &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;We drove downhill along the pavement, probably reaching speeds of 60-70km/h which still was not at 100% speed because the guide kept control of the front of the pack.&nbsp; After 30km we reached the official beginning of the WMDR.&nbsp; From here we had a quick downhill and then the only uphill along the road.&nbsp; The uphill was fairly humorous, most people did not make the uphill without at least getting off and pushing their bikes up.&nbsp; From here we went down, down, down all the way, stopping every 30min for riders to catch up.&nbsp; We descended through very beautiful scenery lush forests, waterfalls, amazing cliffs and very skinny washed out roads.&nbsp; &nbsp;The last stretch of the road was called the ´race portion´ which was one of the best parts because you could go as fast as you wanted.&nbsp; The only thing the guides said before leaving was that it was the most inhabited part and to be careful for animals such as dogs and cats and livestock.&nbsp; I guess I wasn't really listing at that point because along the way, close to the bottom, right when you get a ton of speed some piggies in the right side of the road decided to run right in front of my bike literally seconds before I passed them.&nbsp; I broke very hard, the piggies squealed and darted for the bush, and eventually I found myself over top of my handle bars.&nbsp; The guy behind me was really nice and stopped and helped me up, I dusted my self off and then headed to the next rest stop.&nbsp; I got a couple of scrapes and bruises, but, the worst part was I tore a hole in my pants which sucks since I only have 2 pairs of pants with me and one of the pants doubles as shorts.&nbsp; &nbsp;After another downhill leg, driving through 2 big streams we ended up at the bottom of the hill.&nbsp; There we chatted with the other people on our groups, had some beers and then had a group photo.&nbsp; We then headed in the cars up the hill to a hostel/hotel which had showers, a pool and then a lunch buffet (yummy).&nbsp; &nbsp;After 1hr or so we piled back into the micros and then headed back up the WMDR in a micro.&nbsp; Downhill on a bike not so bad, UPHILL IN A MICRO MUCH WORSE. Along the way back we had heard that the blockage might not have been removed but when we got there, there was a path cleared.&nbsp; So we got back to La Paz around 9:30pm which was only about 1.5hrs later than expected, not too shabby.&nbsp; The ride was incredible, very amazing scenery, you ride down the hill very fast (4000m drop in 64km) and there are some points in which you think to your self&nbsp; ¨What the f- am I doing¨. Good Trip.&nbsp; No regrets from either of us at all.&nbsp; Tuesday came and after a much deserved sleep in, Nik and I went to pick up his awaited mask...but ohhhhhhh wait, not ready you say?? Tomorrow?? I`m slightly annoyed as we`d actually like to leave La Paz at some point soon (ie-Wednesday) but whatever, I`m chill.&nbsp; It`s cool.&nbsp; We piss away another day in a great city, book ourselves into a Tiwanaku tour for Wednesday and decide that we won`t see the jungle afterall - too much money for a non-priority for us.&nbsp; We figure we`ll see it when we visit Brazil in the future.&nbsp; OK, so now Wednesday comes and we go to the ruins (below) and back to the mask-man and what`s this?? Not painted??Riiight ...So he tells us an hour (when the post closes) which is ridiculous as it won`t even be dry by then, so yet *another* day is required.&nbsp; Now Sarah Angry. Thursday morning we get to his place bright and early and Thank God it`s done, we throw it in a box and fly to the post office and yet, what are these chains all over the doors?? A friggen strike! Cross the street to DHL, $270US?? Yah, no.&nbsp; We checked in Copacabana as well, and while not on strike like in La Paz, they only send off items under 1kg....hahaha &nbsp; So now we are stuck with a giant mask in a giant box but, it`s all good.&nbsp; It`s a pretty cool mask and we were able to send if off in Peru for cheap, so no biggie.&nbsp;On Wednesday we headed off to a UNESCO ruin site of a pre-Inca type of people called the Tiwanaku.&nbsp; We had decided not to go to the side initially because a lot of the Stelate replicas were around La Paz, which we had seen.&nbsp; But, we had found a pretty good price (50Bs - $7.50 CDN) to visit the ruins with a guide.&nbsp; The ruins were about 50km from La Paz at a town of the same name as the ruins.&nbsp; Originally the ruins were found in 1860, and nothing was really done until 1960.&nbsp; At this point lots of Stelate´s were uncovered and the site got more attention.&nbsp; It wasn't until 2000 that it was declared a UNESCO site and then the funding started rolling in.&nbsp; The site itself was pretty neat, but, it was heavily damaged by miners and also part of the current town and church are built directly over the ruins.&nbsp; The site itself is pretty big; there is a large temple, sub-terrain temple and then a main temple which originally had a pool of water on the top to reflect the stars.&nbsp; There are various Stelates across the site, some up to 15 tones and the principal attraction is the Sun Gate.&nbsp; This Sun Gate was built from a single piece of stone and was carved to act as a calendar so that the Tiwanaku´s could tell the certain seasons of the year.&nbsp; All ancient people all had similar motifs for telling time, it allowed them to know when to plant and when to dry food for the winter. &nbsp;The Tiwanaku´s were as we were told a predecessor of the Incas.&nbsp; They had similar traditions, but, they did not do human or animal sacrifices.&nbsp; They were pretty advanced having pottery, irrigation systems, ways of telling the seasons and they also preformed brain surgery (nuts).&nbsp; One thing that was really strange they would select their wise men/women, priests and governors when they were 1 year in age.&nbsp; From here they would piece of wood to the forehead and tie it very tightly to form their heads into a cone shaped skull; it was supposed to increase the amount of neurons in the brain.&nbsp; The culture eventually disbanded, like the Maya, because they ran out of food and the other tribes that they had conquered decided to split again from the Tiwanaku´s.&nbsp; One of the main leaders of these people however moved to where Peru is now and started the grounding of the Incas.We made the best of Thursday and hit up Evo`s office.&nbsp; We put on our finest pro-Evo T-shirts and went to the Presidential Palace.&nbsp; We were hooked up with a tour - along with about 6 other teenagers from La Paz - through to his conference rooms, sat in his big chairs, saw the first map of Bolivia, and a sword used by Sucre in the battle for independence against Spain.&nbsp; Very cool, though we did feel pretty dorky with our shirts - that is until we got our awesome photo inside the palace.&nbsp; So that was that, we hit a bus and headed for Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca that afternoon and we were glad for the rest and friendliness of La Paz but also glad to move on.&nbsp; After we crossed a small river, we stood out in the cold waiting for our bus - there was a whole other group of people (mostly tourists) as well waiting in the cold as their bus was broken down.&nbsp; When we all loaded ours, we still had about 8 or 10 free seats but all the locals on the bus were saying `Vamos!! Vamos!!` (Let`s goooooooo!!) not even caring about the others outside.&nbsp; As it was the same company, the bus driver did get most people on to our bus finally and there was only about 4 or 5 people standing, but as we were getting ready to leave one tourist girl ran after the bus - when she got to us, the native lady at the front was like, `No, it`s full, you can`t get on` which was bull but finally enough of us made a stink to fit her on.&nbsp; We were shocked to see this as in no other country would locals have ever left other people behind while there was still room to stand on the bus.&nbsp; I was looking forward toCopa, but also to moving on from Bolivia.&nbsp; Thanks for sticking with such a long one - hugs and kisses, Us. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1206120780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1206120780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikolassarah/s.hemisphere07/1206120780/tpod.html Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:11:05 -0400 Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To Central and South America we go! With 2 back packs and 100 tampons, Hi Ho! Hi ho hi ho hi ho!! The wily adventures of two gringo's in the southern hemisphere...

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Potosi, Bolivia

After our tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats, Nik and I took care of some laundry and set out on our 6 hour dirt-road journey to the World's Highest City and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Potosi, located at an altitude of 4090m.&nbsp; We saw snow during our climb up the highway despite that it is summer here - needless to say, the climate was cool and crisp, and the sun also intense.&nbsp; Beautiful weather!! And a beautiful town, very colonial due to the large Spanish presence here from the 1500`s.&nbsp; Why were the Spanish so interested in this city?&nbsp; Because of the mountain full of silver and the abundance of cheap Bolivian labour of course!&nbsp;Potosi was founded in 1546 and quickly became one of the largest cities in the world with a population of over 200,000.&nbsp; This population and interest was driven by the presence of Cerro Rico (`Rich Mountain`) which is filled with silver, lead, zinc and copper - over 5.5 million metric tons of ore.&nbsp; This mine was then and is today the principal economic activity of Potosi.&nbsp; The abundance of minerals and the control of the mine are the only things that have changed.&nbsp; &nbsp;In the first 225 years, over 45,000 tons of pure silver were mined.&nbsp; The Spanish had control of this mine and used the Bolivian people to extract the minerals.&nbsp; However, due to the extreme number of Bolivian's dying due to mercury exposure and other harsh working conditions, the Spanish subsidized this work force by importing approximately 2000 African slaves each year.&nbsp; These slaves worked in both the mines as well as the mint, serving as mules and turning the mills that made Spanish coins.&nbsp; &nbsp;After 1825 when Bolivia declared independence from Spain, the mine continued to be important to the country (shown on their coat of arms) but there was considerably more tin and less silver being mined.&nbsp; Today, the mine is owned by Bolivia's National Mining Company (COMIBOL) but the actual miners are organized into cooperatives.&nbsp; Typically indigenous workers (Quechan decent), they divide themselves into teams of about 8 people and lease their respective section of the mine from the government for 6% of their earnings.&nbsp; The conditions are still extremely harsh and most miners who enter the mine are said to die within 10 years - and certainly not exceeding 40 or 50 years of age - due to the effects of silicosis.&nbsp; It is said that over 8 million people have died in the mines since its beginning.&nbsp; Because it is a cooperative, any safety equipment or mining supports come directly from their own pockets and, as a result, the mines are crudely supported and of the same condition they were 450 years ago.&nbsp;Nik and I endeavored to visit one of the mines in this largely excavated mountain.&nbsp; We arranged a tour with Greengo tours and left that afternoon with Julio Caesar, an ex-miner himself, to explore the inside.&nbsp; First we made a stop at the infamous Miner's Market where we are able to buy simple gifts of coca leaves, pop and cigarettes for the miner's who you'll visit that day (and obviously interrupt!).&nbsp; Miner's typically live around this market as well as it has cheap accommodations, cheap food, and close proximity to the mine.&nbsp; You need to buy your coca leaves from one specific lady as she is licensed by the government to sell the leaves to the miner.&nbsp; They are expected to consume 100g of coca leaves each day - therefore if she exceeds this average number, she is suspected of selling that excess to the black market which is then used for the production of cocaine.&nbsp; &nbsp;After buying our gifts and slipping into our finest mining gear of rubber boots, rain suits, helmets and a head-lamp, we took a collectivo (public micro-bus) to Cerro Rico.&nbsp; Julio has a private agreement with one of the mine shafts which is great - we don't see other tourists, he knows all the miners personally, and the miners aren't bothered by an onslaught of tourists either.&nbsp; Actually, as Nik and I were the only ones with Julio, and since I didn't go in, it was a really personal experience for Nik.&nbsp; I knew initially that I was just more interested in the history etc of the mine and less interested in going in, and when we approached the tiny black hole on the side of the mountain, I was pretty sure I wasn't going in.&nbsp; I ventured in no more than 100 feet I'm sure.&nbsp; It is just nothing but a small, crude black tunnel, maybe 5-1/2 feet high at most, 3 feet wide, and it literally looks like it goes into a black abyss.&nbsp; There are rail tracks below your feet (for the trolley's to dump their loads outside) along with mud and puddles, there are some wooden supports around you, some air compressor lines loosely strung above your head, and the air is thick and humid.&nbsp; And this was apparently the best part of the mine.&nbsp; Oh, and the mountain - which is literally mined from top to bottom over 450 years - is also settling by the way.&nbsp; I thought I'd bide my time chatting with the miners outside - a hilarious and wonderful experience in itself.We all enter the mine together, Julio then Sarah then me taking up the back.&nbsp; After walking about 30m into the mine Sarah gets a little freaked out and exits the mine.&nbsp; Don't blame her; it was pretty nuts in the mine.&nbsp; Once entering the mine I had to keep a crouched walk the entire time, after I got out about 1.5hrs later my quads were burning.&nbsp; The mine is built for Bolivians so no parts of the mine are greater than 6ft (1.8m).&nbsp; Julio and I walked until we ran into some of the miners pushing a cart full of rock.&nbsp; We chatted for a bit and then I gave them some of the Soda that I bought for them at the Miners Market.&nbsp; After the brief encounter, we headed to a place where some of the workers were drilling holes.&nbsp; The mining conditions are horrendous and I was in a good mine, the other groups (tours) I heard of had lots of dust entering and also the chemicals that leached from the mine produce very noxious chemicals.&nbsp; Luckily our mine had 4cm of water throughout most of the mine, which really kept the dust to a minimum.&nbsp; We ended up to where men were drilling, there was a man positioned right by a winch and a compressed air valve that were 15m above a shaft.&nbsp; The man was to turn the valve in approximately 45min (he had 3 watches to remind him) at this point the men down the shaft would stop drilling and then place dynamite into the holes and then light the fuse, they would have 6 minutes to get out of there before BOOOOM.&nbsp; I really didn't want to be in the mine either when the explosives went off.&nbsp; Julio noticed a huge boulder that had fallen from the top of the mine roof to the floor.&nbsp; The boulder was really close to the valve guy, so he asked him about the boulder - the man shrugged and laughed - so Julio told the valve man to be very careful.&nbsp; Interesting part of Co-Op mining industry is they look at safety as a bit of a joke and also they don't want to put in mine improvement because it takes away from the earnings of the men.&nbsp; So we left and then headed to another station of the mine.&nbsp; At this station, they had blown up minerals the day before and were hauling up the stone in bags about 10kg attached to a winch.&nbsp; At the bottom of the shaft men where putting ore into bags and then 2 men would hand winch up the bags and then pour it on the floor of the upper level, from here it was shoveled into carts and removed.&nbsp; Julio and I got to man the winch for a couple of bags just to see how demanding it was.&nbsp; The weight of the bags was not horrible, but, if I had to do that for 8-12 hrs a day that would suck, plus it is hot and there is not a lot of air circulation (no vents or fans at all).&nbsp; After the winch station we crouch-walked to where the ´Tio´ (Uncle / Devil) was.&nbsp; The ´Tio´ was the guardian or god of the mine, like in Christian beliefs Heaven is up above us somewhere and Hell is below us somewhere.&nbsp; However, in the indigenous beliefs the mountain is where the Devil lives, so men who remove the minerals from his domain should pay homage.&nbsp; This Devil that they have set up is life size, has a hand open for chewed up coca leaves a hand open for 98% Alcohol (which the miners drink) and then a huge dong between his legs, he is also covered in streamers and the miners usually on Fridays have a bit of a party and drink with this idol.&nbsp; The legend as it goes is that if they pay homage to the devil he will keep them safe in the mine and also show them new ´veins´ of minerals (zinc, tin, lead, and tiny bits of silver).&nbsp; After this Julio turned off my head lamp, which was f-ing nuts.&nbsp; It was soooooo dark in the mine and it would really suck if you light went out or if the top of the mine collapsed.&nbsp; At this moment I remembered Julio saying that geologists have been studying the mountain (Cerro Rico) and had came to the conclusion that the mine was settling, almost sinking.&nbsp; I thought to myself that after 400 years of mining the mountain and taking out approximately 500 tones (500,000 kg) a day that eventually the mine would collapse.&nbsp; This naturally spooked me so I was satisfied with the amount of time in the mine and the conditions that the miner worked through and also the darkness.&nbsp; So we headed out of the mine, I can't lie I was really happy to see light at the end of the tunnel and even picked up my pace a little to get out.&nbsp;When outside the mine we met up with Sarah who was flirting with one of the dump truck drivers and then headed into the miners house that they had.&nbsp; This house was a gathering point usually where they smoked cigarettes, drank a bit, chewed coca leaves and generally just shot the shit.&nbsp; I entered the low ceiling house/shack and immediate hit my hand on a live wire (jerry rigged) of some type probably for the lighting.&nbsp; OWWWWWWW, the miners saw me and then told me to sit down and watch my hands and head (great health and safety), so I did.&nbsp; Inside we took a bunch of photos of the miners and such and also talked about what they were doing on the weekend.&nbsp; The miners really liked to take pictures with Sarah, with me not as much.&nbsp; I guess they really like the white female tourists because they can flirt with them and take pictures and tell them stuff like ¨I love you, you are so beautiful, and I want to have twin babies with you¨.&nbsp; With the guys not so much they usually heckle the other miners that had their photo with me, usually they would laugh and say ¨gay¨ to the miner in the photo.&nbsp; All in all they were pretty good sports though.&nbsp; No women workers are allowed in the mine, one reason is because of the ´Tio´ and they women are supposed to be bad luck for finding ´veins´.&nbsp; Another reason is something to do with the Pachamama (Mother Earth) legend of the indigenous and the women and men shouldn't mix in the mine for this reason.&nbsp; However, female tourists are allowed in the mine, because they bring extra revenue to the miners and also gifts (coca, soda, cigarettes) and then the miners can flirt with the girls or even have their photo with them.&nbsp; After the mine we headed back into the centre and then took it easy.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;We visited the Casa Real de la Monedas (the old Potosi Mint) that was active during the peak of the mine.&nbsp; The museum was very well preserved - we were able to see the smelting rooms where they created ingots of silver, the subsequent mill to flatten the ingots, and the stamping area where they created the initially crude coins that were later improved to be quite round and detailed.&nbsp; These coins were used in Spain primarily, but were stamped with the letters PTSI superimposed on each other - this is believed to be the origin of the dollar sign today ($).&nbsp; Nik was able to stamp his own coins here by hammering down on a two sided die with a piece of cut silver between the die.&nbsp; He made one in bronze and one in silver and they look amazing.&nbsp; We also saw some artifacts from Bolivian history including items they used in their three main wars (of which they lost all three), some preserved mummies of small children (hard to look at), and an old lock box that contained donations made to the King of Spain.&nbsp; This lock box contained a slot to deposit donations to the King and once it was filled, it would be locked and sent by boat to Spain for the King's enjoyment.&nbsp; The interesting this was that these boxes had several false keyholes and only one real and hidden keyhole.&nbsp; Actually, sometimes you would have to have three keys entered and turned in a very specific order into these hidden keyholes that would then activate a series of twelve locks.&nbsp; Only then could this box be opened.&nbsp; Very serious business.&nbsp; Unfortunately, all these high-tech keyholes could not protect the treasure from the likes of the ocean, which is where many of them ended up as many of these boats sank en route to Spain.&nbsp; The US recovered one of these said boxes filled with an unreal amount of Potosi's silver (worth over $400 Million Dollars)&nbsp;&nbsp;- they were nice enough to send Potosi two coins from this collection.&nbsp; &nbsp;We also visited an old nun's convent called Santa Teresa, founded in 1685.&nbsp; It was a very interesting tour in an excellently preserved convent.&nbsp; We learned that typically the second daughter of the aristocratic families (Spanish families) would be expected to join the convent.&nbsp; They would be admitted where 1) there was room available as the convent only held 21 women, and 2) when the family made a significant dowry-like contribution to the convent (I forget the exact number but it was in the order of hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in today's money).&nbsp; If by chance a family could not afford this, that girl would be admitted but would have to live on the second floor of the convent and do all the cooking and cleaning duties for the other, more wealthy nuns.&nbsp; &nbsp;They lived a life of complete separation.&nbsp; They were not permitted to leave the convent - if they needed items, they were admitted through a turnstile to the inside of the convent so that they were never seen.&nbsp; They could have a supervised family visit of 1 hour each month, but still their family could not see them (due to a black curtain) or touch them (due to a spiked grate serving as a window).&nbsp; They spent part of their time making elaborate pieces of clothing for use in the church or for sale.&nbsp; We also saw the barbed pieces they used for flagellation.&nbsp; The artwork was amazing inside, as was the extremely elaborate system of keys that they used.&nbsp; I don't know how they ever opened a single door in their - 1000`s of keys, none of them marked. &nbsp;Other than that, we ate some amazing pizza for our Easter celebration.&nbsp; There really wasn't much happening in Potosi - we think everyone makes pilgrimages away from the town.&nbsp; &nbsp;We went to Sucre the next day and were more disappointed than anything.&nbsp; We took a private car there with 4 passengers total.&nbsp; En route, we stopped at a check point where the guy in the front seat was bellowing for something to drink from the street-side vendors.&nbsp; A 13-year old girl came up to offer him a drink.&nbsp; After groping her boob, he finally bought something from her, but not without making a point to touch her again.&nbsp; I was frozen in a mix of surprise, anger, sadness for this girl as it was clearly not the first time this happened, and my Spanish just was not quick enough to respond.&nbsp; Luckily the lady next to us was fluent and she ripped him a new one (she was from France originally) telling him how you can go to jail for shit like that in other countries.&nbsp; Never on our trip have we seen disrespect like that, not even close.&nbsp; It was the first time and very shocking.&nbsp; &nbsp;Sucre was equally disappointing seemingly filled with people who were all convinced that they were number one.&nbsp; We went to get some chicken for dinner and were treated horribly in this restaurant.&nbsp; There was no apparent order for how to go about getting your food - and none of the 8 people working wanted to help us figure that out - they ignored us or were rude to us.&nbsp; After we finally paid, we were told there was no chicken and we'd have to wait.&nbsp; So we grabbed the only free table that was still dirty and sat and waited.&nbsp; While other customers came and went, their tables were cleaned quickly and they were all politely talked to.&nbsp; As we waited for the food to be ready, the girls stared and laughed at us.&nbsp; When the food was ready, it went first to all the Spanish people who came in after us.&nbsp; Another 15 minutes went by.&nbsp; When the second round of food was ready, we were given our food by a snotty girl.&nbsp; I had to clear our own table.&nbsp; It was really unpleasant.&nbsp; &nbsp;The next day we headed to an incredibly interesting museum of indigenous weaving.&nbsp; It is a cooperative set up to rejuvenate creative art, provide income and fund training of the next generation of weavers in the indigenous communities surrounding Sucre.&nbsp; We saw many pieces by several tribes and learned of the significance they put into their art.&nbsp; We saw a lady weaving a very intricate piece on the balcony of the museum.&nbsp; The piece would take her 3 months at 8 hours a day - amazing.&nbsp; &nbsp;After this, we hopped on the Dino Truck and headed to Sucre`s claim to fame - they have dinosaur tracks up to 90cm wide preserved on the side of a mountain near their cement factory.&nbsp; These prints were formed as dinosaurs tracked next to a prehistoric lake that used to exist near Sucre today.&nbsp; When the lake dried and the mountains formed, these footprints were pushed steeply up the side of a mountain.&nbsp; As limestone was removed from the cement factory next door, the workers noticed these mammoth tracks and stopped the excavation.&nbsp; Today, it is a widely studied prehistoric area with amazing replicas of dinosaurs scattered throughout the park.&nbsp; Our guide was excellent and really knowledgeable and the tracks were quite impressive, though we could not get close as previous tourists used to touch and therefore degrade the prints.&nbsp; UNESCO will be covering them in latex next year to help protect them and prolong the inevitable erosion.&nbsp; &nbsp;I was feeling cruddy in Sucre and the 14 hour bus ride to La Paz was not helping the feeling much.&nbsp; We decided to hop a plane for $50 (the price of a bus in Argentina, how can we *not* justify it!!?) and head to La Paz that way.&nbsp; Half hour later, after a delicious snack, we arrived to Beautiful La Paz and what a breath of Fresh Air after Sucre!! &nbsp;La Paz is amazing.&nbsp; We have loved every day here and have learned much of interest about the coca leave and it`s role in Bolivian society, but that will be for the next entry. &nbsp;Thanks as always for sharing in our adventure with us.&nbsp; We love and miss you all!!Niko y Sarita. xoxoxo
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