Before I talk about where we are now I have to comment on Mike´s last post which stated that our newer hostel in Cuenca was "1,000 times better" than the first one. Correction: we ended up having to change rooms TWICE at the new hostel due to the muddy rain water that was pouring down on our beds while it rained outside. We finally decided to just leave Cuenca because the second room was flooding too and we had had enough at this point, despite the fact that we loved the city, the artist we met, the food, and more. So we got on a bus and headed to Vilcabamba, a lush mountain town famous for its temporate climate and the longevity of its inhabitants (attributed to the life-giving water here which, ironically, may also be blamed for my upset stomach).
We are staying at a BEAUTIFUL hosteria on top of the mountains overlooking the small town, and for $14 each a night we have a quiet room complete with a private balcony and hammock, a luxurious swimming pool, a free delicious breakfast of eggs, fruit and crepes, a outdoor bar with ping'pong, pool and movies, and a day-spa where we enjoyed a 75-minute full body massage yesterday for... get this... $18. Mike especially appreciated the massage after his horseback riding trip he took earlier that day. Those who know me don´t need an explanation for why I did not go on that trip. And seeing everyone who went wincing when they sit down today, I´m really glad I opted to lay in the hammock and read "Fountainhead" instead. But Mike said it was fun and he got to practice his spanish with the guide.
The absolute highlight of our stay (ít even surpasses a 75 minute massage) was meeting this middle-aged couple from Cuenca at dinner the first night. He is a violinist in the Cuenca orchestra and had brought his guitar, and his wife her ocarina. They invited us to a private concert that evening on a grassy hill, under the stars of vilcabamba, overlooking the city. He played and sang ecuadorian music for us, including both spanish-style and Andian music in quechua (the language here), and the wife introduced each song by explaining the origins and the poetry. She sang the harmony and played the ocarina and I swear, it was so incredibly magical listening to this live music in the darkness. Unfortunately words cannot really get across how amazing this was to us. Weirdly enough, it was almost so intimate an evening that the next day when we saw them at breakfast all of us had that "morning after" awkwardness as if it had been a one-nigh-stand. Mike and I were all fidgety and couldn´t make eye contact, and I think they were the same! oh well, the awkwardness was worth it.
So, between enjoying the view, riding horses, getting massages, reading in a hammock, enjoying the pool, avoiding dogs on hikes, meeting cool people, playing cribbage, and watching Lord of The Rings when it was raining... it´s safe to say we never want to leave and are dreading the long bus-ride to Peru tomorrow. But we are both really excited to get started in Peru and especially the Inca Trail. We´ll post again when theres something interesting to report, which wont be for at least 2-3 days!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Pictures from WEEK 1
Finally they are here. Sorry for duplicates but we don´t really have the energy to sift through them all right now! Love, Mclivelys.
http://picasaweb.google.com/LivelyLaura/SAWeek1?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/LivelyLaura/SAWeek1?feat=directlink
Down in the dumps and talking birds
So last night we got into Cuenca, Ecuador´s third largest city, after an 8 hour bus ride. We took a taxi to our hostal and it was a freaking dump. We had to change rooms because the first one was so bad...carpets that were moldy and probably 80 years old and a sink that had water that didnt shut off. It was gross and we don´t have high standards. Then the next room we got, the beds were at like 70 degree angles and as soon as we turned off the lights, we could hear the guy in the next room snoring like a hacksaw. Needless to say, after a tiring busride, bad weather in Banos, and this horrible hostal, moral was low.
Luckily, this morning we woke up and explored around and Cuenca is a gorgeous town...the most European-looking of the cities that we have seen so far with mostly whitewashed buildings with red tile roofs and a rushing river that cuts through the middle of town. It also helped that we had one of the best breakfasts that we´ve had so far at this huge market in the middle of town. Breakfast empanadas with cheese and sugar on top, tomales with meat and eggs, coffee, etc. Then we found a new hostal which is 1,000 percent better than the old one. Today we spent the day walking around and the highlight was the city´s main museum.
This thing had an awesome exhibit where you walked through life size models of indigenous huts...the highlight was a room that was full of shrunken heads. The tribal people used to shrink the heads of anybody that they killed during battle. They apparently thought that this gave them the strength of their former enemy. Also (I´m just guessing here), they looked pretty bad-ass walking around with 25 little heads of people that they had killed. Probably pretty intimidating. So it was a cool museum and we were on our way out when the reception person told us that we still had one other part to see. They had this HUGE other area that had the foundations of Incan buildings that had been on the site thousands of years ago (only foundations because all of the former stones were taken and used to build colonial buldings after the Spanish took over). Anyway, it was beautiful with a huge garden surrounded by Incan ruins and bright blue sky. Best of all, the last part of the park featured a mini-zoo with a hill full of llamas (our first sighting) and exotic birds.
Bright green and red macaws, giant hawks, etc. We walked past this one cage full of green parrots and as we were walking by one of them did that cat-call whistle that men do when an attractive woman walks by. You know the one...wheee-WHOOO. So we stopped and started whistling back. He did it again and I laughed. Then the whole cage of about 20 parrots all started laughing at once...I´ve never heard anything like it...it was like they were all people. At the next cage, the parrots said ´hola´ as we walked up. Crazy.
We left feeling very happy, and stopped at a Colombian restaurant for what was the best meal that we have had on the trip so far. I had this stew with pinto beans, plaintains, avacado, and like a tomato sauce...it maybe sounds gross but it was incredible...with a side of Colombian corn tortillas and some of the best chorizo that I have had. Laura had awesome spinach soup, and rice with beef. All of this, with a juice made of tree-tomato and a beer, was 6 bucks. 6. Say what you will about South America, but you can eat amazing food here for practically nothing...I love it.
Tomorrow we are going to just take it easy around Cuenca. Then we head south to Loja the day after tomorrow (5 hour ride). We´ll stay in Loja for a day or two and then we take an overnight bus into Peru. Chances are we will take buses all the way to Lima where we will then catch a plane to Cusco. That´s the plan for now anyway. We´ll keep you posted.
Luckily, this morning we woke up and explored around and Cuenca is a gorgeous town...the most European-looking of the cities that we have seen so far with mostly whitewashed buildings with red tile roofs and a rushing river that cuts through the middle of town. It also helped that we had one of the best breakfasts that we´ve had so far at this huge market in the middle of town. Breakfast empanadas with cheese and sugar on top, tomales with meat and eggs, coffee, etc. Then we found a new hostal which is 1,000 percent better than the old one. Today we spent the day walking around and the highlight was the city´s main museum.
This thing had an awesome exhibit where you walked through life size models of indigenous huts...the highlight was a room that was full of shrunken heads. The tribal people used to shrink the heads of anybody that they killed during battle. They apparently thought that this gave them the strength of their former enemy. Also (I´m just guessing here), they looked pretty bad-ass walking around with 25 little heads of people that they had killed. Probably pretty intimidating. So it was a cool museum and we were on our way out when the reception person told us that we still had one other part to see. They had this HUGE other area that had the foundations of Incan buildings that had been on the site thousands of years ago (only foundations because all of the former stones were taken and used to build colonial buldings after the Spanish took over). Anyway, it was beautiful with a huge garden surrounded by Incan ruins and bright blue sky. Best of all, the last part of the park featured a mini-zoo with a hill full of llamas (our first sighting) and exotic birds.
Bright green and red macaws, giant hawks, etc. We walked past this one cage full of green parrots and as we were walking by one of them did that cat-call whistle that men do when an attractive woman walks by. You know the one...wheee-WHOOO. So we stopped and started whistling back. He did it again and I laughed. Then the whole cage of about 20 parrots all started laughing at once...I´ve never heard anything like it...it was like they were all people. At the next cage, the parrots said ´hola´ as we walked up. Crazy.
We left feeling very happy, and stopped at a Colombian restaurant for what was the best meal that we have had on the trip so far. I had this stew with pinto beans, plaintains, avacado, and like a tomato sauce...it maybe sounds gross but it was incredible...with a side of Colombian corn tortillas and some of the best chorizo that I have had. Laura had awesome spinach soup, and rice with beef. All of this, with a juice made of tree-tomato and a beer, was 6 bucks. 6. Say what you will about South America, but you can eat amazing food here for practically nothing...I love it.
Tomorrow we are going to just take it easy around Cuenca. Then we head south to Loja the day after tomorrow (5 hour ride). We´ll stay in Loja for a day or two and then we take an overnight bus into Peru. Chances are we will take buses all the way to Lima where we will then catch a plane to Cusco. That´s the plan for now anyway. We´ll keep you posted.
A City Called Bathroom and 5 year old Hostal Owners
So when we left off last we weren´t sure how we were going to be continuing our trip...via plane or bus. We decided that we had to go by bus since the cheapest flight from Ecuador to Peru was like 1,000 bucks or something stupìd like that. So the next morning in Otavalo we woke up (to the sound of fireworks...which they apparrently set off every Sunday starting at 7am), and took a 2 hour bus south back to Quito. We then hopped into a taxi and rode to the south end of Qutio which took about 40 minutes or so but was much more fun because we rode with two people from Spain and chatted with them most of the time (thank god laura habla espanol). Then hopped on a 4 hour bus ride south to Banos...which I understand to be the spanish word for bathrooms...but it probably means ´baths´to them because there are some natural hotsprings around the town.
So we got off the bus in Banos, which is a very small and touristy town, and walked around to try to find a hostal. The first place we went to, there was nobody around, but a little girl of about 3 years of age was walking up the stairs to the reception desk at the same time that we were. Nobody was at the reception desk but the little girls turns to us and in this tiny voice, politely asks us in Spanish if we have a reservation. We laugh, and tell her that no we don´t. Then she asks us how many of us there will be. We tell her dos personas. We were about to ask her if she ran the hostal. Then she said ´hold on, let me go get my mommy.´ And walked to a nearby door and tried to get in. When it wouldn´t open she started crying loudly...after about 5 minutes the door quickly opened and someone let the little girl in and then slammed the door in our faces. I wonder what the mom was doing in there...hmmm
Anyway, this was all to weird and so we left and found a nice little place with a great mattress- which is VERY hard to find. Then we were going to go try out the hotsprings but the line to get in was about 500 people long...and when we realized that all these people we going to be heading into two tiny little pools of hot water, we decided to skip that. The night probably would have been a total bust but we walked passed a volleyball court.
I should explain that Ecuador is obsessed with volleyball...but it is totally different from the game that we know in the US. First of all, the net is like 5 feet HIGHER than the net in America. Which makes NO sense because the average Ecuadorian is about 5 feet shorter thant the average american. So when I first started watching I thought, ´these guys suck.´ But, I didnt realize that the ball is actually a soccer ball and about 3 times heavier than the ball we use. After watching for a while, Laura convinced me to put some shoes and and to head back to the courts (there were three of them lit up by lights) and try to get into a game.
Turns out that the games are played for money. I figured that it would be for a few bucks per game, but when we asked around, it turned about that they play for TWO HUNDRED dollars PER GAME. No wonder they were yelling at each other like crazy whenever somebody missed a pass or a set. Not wanted to lose money, I finally asked a couple of kids if I could play with them and ended up playing Ecuadorian volleyball for about an hour...let me tell you that it was a humbling experience. My arms still hurt because the freaking ball they use is like a rock and everytime I tried to spike it I just hit it into the net, and the kids would laugh at me and I would say ¨soy idiota¨...and so on for about an hour. Thanks to Laura pushing me, I got to have this totally unique experience and it totally made the night. Hopefully we can figure out how to upload pictures onto the blog so you can see how high the net is, etc.
Anyway, the next day we were going to go for a bike ride that was supposed to take all day and be great, but it was raining so instead we had to change our plans and hopped on an 8 hour bus ride to Cuenca which is where we are now. The next post will pick up from there!
So we got off the bus in Banos, which is a very small and touristy town, and walked around to try to find a hostal. The first place we went to, there was nobody around, but a little girl of about 3 years of age was walking up the stairs to the reception desk at the same time that we were. Nobody was at the reception desk but the little girls turns to us and in this tiny voice, politely asks us in Spanish if we have a reservation. We laugh, and tell her that no we don´t. Then she asks us how many of us there will be. We tell her dos personas. We were about to ask her if she ran the hostal. Then she said ´hold on, let me go get my mommy.´ And walked to a nearby door and tried to get in. When it wouldn´t open she started crying loudly...after about 5 minutes the door quickly opened and someone let the little girl in and then slammed the door in our faces. I wonder what the mom was doing in there...hmmm
Anyway, this was all to weird and so we left and found a nice little place with a great mattress- which is VERY hard to find. Then we were going to go try out the hotsprings but the line to get in was about 500 people long...and when we realized that all these people we going to be heading into two tiny little pools of hot water, we decided to skip that. The night probably would have been a total bust but we walked passed a volleyball court.
I should explain that Ecuador is obsessed with volleyball...but it is totally different from the game that we know in the US. First of all, the net is like 5 feet HIGHER than the net in America. Which makes NO sense because the average Ecuadorian is about 5 feet shorter thant the average american. So when I first started watching I thought, ´these guys suck.´ But, I didnt realize that the ball is actually a soccer ball and about 3 times heavier than the ball we use. After watching for a while, Laura convinced me to put some shoes and and to head back to the courts (there were three of them lit up by lights) and try to get into a game.
Turns out that the games are played for money. I figured that it would be for a few bucks per game, but when we asked around, it turned about that they play for TWO HUNDRED dollars PER GAME. No wonder they were yelling at each other like crazy whenever somebody missed a pass or a set. Not wanted to lose money, I finally asked a couple of kids if I could play with them and ended up playing Ecuadorian volleyball for about an hour...let me tell you that it was a humbling experience. My arms still hurt because the freaking ball they use is like a rock and everytime I tried to spike it I just hit it into the net, and the kids would laugh at me and I would say ¨soy idiota¨...and so on for about an hour. Thanks to Laura pushing me, I got to have this totally unique experience and it totally made the night. Hopefully we can figure out how to upload pictures onto the blog so you can see how high the net is, etc.
Anyway, the next day we were going to go for a bike ride that was supposed to take all day and be great, but it was raining so instead we had to change our plans and hopped on an 8 hour bus ride to Cuenca which is where we are now. The next post will pick up from there!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Perros y cascadas
Whew. We are in an internet cafe right now and my job is to write about yesterday, which seems like a week ago after the crazyness that was today (see Laura´s post about slug juice to see what I mean). Anyway, I´ll give it a shot.
We got up and took a taxi ride across Quito, which probably took 30 minutes at least...this must be the longest city in the world I swear to God, it goes on forever. We (mostly Laura) chatted with the driver the whole time about the differences between Los Estados Unidos and Quito. He was complaining about traffic but we told him that it´s just as bad in the Bay Area, if not worse. Also told him that I was a lawyer to which he exclaimed in spanish, ¨Ay...you must make at least 30,000 per year!¨ We told him that this was about right...but that we weren´t sure because I hadn´t started working yet. Hopefully he never learns the truth...
Anyway, then we arrived at the bus port which is nuts. People everywhere screaming destinations at you. So we made our way to the guy who was screaming ¨Otavalo, Otavalo, Otavalo¨because we were headed for Otavalo, you see. Anyway, the bus ride was pleasant enough, we met a spanish woman named Lydia who has randomly reappeared in our path TWICE since that bus ride...by now she feels like our relative and knows everything about our lives and vice-a-versa. The ride had lots of views of canyons and a snow-capped volcano in the distance. Very impressive.
We arrived in the small(ish) town of Otavalo and made our way with our packs on to our hostal which is called Hostal Chasqui. It is run by this great guy named Roberto who is over-concerned about our comfort at all times. For examle, yesterday he asked us if we had enough blankets...this was over-concern for two reasons. First, we have 3 beds in our room, each with 5 huge wool blankets on them and second, at night it only drops to about 55 degrees so its not even cold. Yet there he is, practically begging us to let him get us ´mas mantas.´ He´s a great guy.
Anyway, he advised us to go check out a local waterfall because it was about two thirty already and there wasnt time to do much else. So we started walking in the direction of the waterfall (la cascada in spanish). Very quickly we were the only gringos for miles around and walking through an area that was in pretty poor shape. Worst of all, for Laura, was that there were literally dozens of dogs (perros) walking around the streets. They were harmless but Laura is afraid of dogs and was literally crying at the slightest bark from the smallest dog. However, I will admit that she was brave enough to press on in the face of her greatest fear, so I was impressed. Eventually, after a nervous walk where we were convinced that every person was about to rob us at gunpoint, we made it to the entrace to the waterfall and things got much brighter and cheery. The waterfall itself was pretty large and the setting was breathtaking with mountains in the distance and perfectly blue skies against bright white clouds. In the end, it was worth all the worry and dog encounters and I think helped both of us to feel more comfortable walking around in cities where there are inevitably shady areas.
We returned by taxi and went out to a great seafood meal only a few blocks from our place. Shrimp ceviche which was excellent and meatballs and trout in a creolle sauce. Delicious. The food so far has been much better than I expected although the ketchup is shit. Its too sweet, so we both put salsa on our fries which come with almost everything here. I´m surprised you dont get ´papas fritas´with your ice cream here.
Today was 1,000 times more exciting and interesting than yesterday, but Laura wrote all about that so I won´t waste my time or yours talking about it. Suffice it to say that it was amazing beyond all descripion and it isn´t even dinner time yet. Our big decision now is whether we will sack up and take the bus all the way to Lima, which will include rides of 10 and 20 hours (several of them)...or if we should just take a plane which will cost a few hundred bucks...neither option seems very good but we will research it more tonight and let you know what we end up doing.
So as of right now we have no idea where we will be tomorrow, but we´ll let you know as soon as we can. Hope everyone is well. Adios para ahora.
We got up and took a taxi ride across Quito, which probably took 30 minutes at least...this must be the longest city in the world I swear to God, it goes on forever. We (mostly Laura) chatted with the driver the whole time about the differences between Los Estados Unidos and Quito. He was complaining about traffic but we told him that it´s just as bad in the Bay Area, if not worse. Also told him that I was a lawyer to which he exclaimed in spanish, ¨Ay...you must make at least 30,000 per year!¨ We told him that this was about right...but that we weren´t sure because I hadn´t started working yet. Hopefully he never learns the truth...
Anyway, then we arrived at the bus port which is nuts. People everywhere screaming destinations at you. So we made our way to the guy who was screaming ¨Otavalo, Otavalo, Otavalo¨because we were headed for Otavalo, you see. Anyway, the bus ride was pleasant enough, we met a spanish woman named Lydia who has randomly reappeared in our path TWICE since that bus ride...by now she feels like our relative and knows everything about our lives and vice-a-versa. The ride had lots of views of canyons and a snow-capped volcano in the distance. Very impressive.
We arrived in the small(ish) town of Otavalo and made our way with our packs on to our hostal which is called Hostal Chasqui. It is run by this great guy named Roberto who is over-concerned about our comfort at all times. For examle, yesterday he asked us if we had enough blankets...this was over-concern for two reasons. First, we have 3 beds in our room, each with 5 huge wool blankets on them and second, at night it only drops to about 55 degrees so its not even cold. Yet there he is, practically begging us to let him get us ´mas mantas.´ He´s a great guy.
Anyway, he advised us to go check out a local waterfall because it was about two thirty already and there wasnt time to do much else. So we started walking in the direction of the waterfall (la cascada in spanish). Very quickly we were the only gringos for miles around and walking through an area that was in pretty poor shape. Worst of all, for Laura, was that there were literally dozens of dogs (perros) walking around the streets. They were harmless but Laura is afraid of dogs and was literally crying at the slightest bark from the smallest dog. However, I will admit that she was brave enough to press on in the face of her greatest fear, so I was impressed. Eventually, after a nervous walk where we were convinced that every person was about to rob us at gunpoint, we made it to the entrace to the waterfall and things got much brighter and cheery. The waterfall itself was pretty large and the setting was breathtaking with mountains in the distance and perfectly blue skies against bright white clouds. In the end, it was worth all the worry and dog encounters and I think helped both of us to feel more comfortable walking around in cities where there are inevitably shady areas.
We returned by taxi and went out to a great seafood meal only a few blocks from our place. Shrimp ceviche which was excellent and meatballs and trout in a creolle sauce. Delicious. The food so far has been much better than I expected although the ketchup is shit. Its too sweet, so we both put salsa on our fries which come with almost everything here. I´m surprised you dont get ´papas fritas´with your ice cream here.
Today was 1,000 times more exciting and interesting than yesterday, but Laura wrote all about that so I won´t waste my time or yours talking about it. Suffice it to say that it was amazing beyond all descripion and it isn´t even dinner time yet. Our big decision now is whether we will sack up and take the bus all the way to Lima, which will include rides of 10 and 20 hours (several of them)...or if we should just take a plane which will cost a few hundred bucks...neither option seems very good but we will research it more tonight and let you know what we end up doing.
So as of right now we have no idea where we will be tomorrow, but we´ll let you know as soon as we can. Hope everyone is well. Adios para ahora.
Mike drank slug juice
WOW. Otavalo and the market is everything you would imagine. We went straight to the animal market at 7:30 because it closes the earliest and were greeted by hoards of Otovaleños with their live animals for sale. Everyone just stands around with their pigs on the end of a rope or holding their live chickens upside-down, or pulling guinnea pigs out of a sack. It was so crazy down there but really awesome. The Otovaleños wear a very traditional and formal dress, even when they are holding a muddy lamb in their laps: dark woolen skirts with beautiful embroidery, a ruffled white blouse with colorful flowers embroidered on the collar, their long dark hair pulled into a long braid wrapped with a colorful strap (men and women) and topped with a Panama Hat which is actually from Ecuador.
We then headed to the food market where we met this American guy who is now a tour guide for Baby Boomers in Peru. He had Mike try this drink called "emoliente" which is this crazy concoction a lady makes right in front of you: first she scrapes into a glass jar tons of slimy aloe vera from the inside of a leaf, then adds a little of liquid from about 10 different unmarked bottles that are various sugar concoctions and vitamins, then a little mollasses. Then she pours it back and forth into a tin cup as it slowly distributes the slimy aloe throughout the whole drink so by the end it resembles a thick snot (sorry). She hands it to mike in a giant jar and instructs him to drink it chug it without stopping or he´ll choke on the semi-liquid stuff that´s already halfway down his throat. He did it perfectly, of course, and acually said he like it! I of course opted to take pictures of it instead. Anyways, there was a huge textile market, fruit market, anything you could imagine and it stretched throughout the whole city. It was incredible.
Somehow we did all that and it was only 11:00am so we hopped on a bus to this tiny town called Quiroga where we were told to hitch a ride to a crater...so we climbed into the back of this guys truck and watched the mountains and volcanoes and villagers pass us by. We arrived at this huge lake inside a crater called Cuicocha, had a great lunch and then right as we were going to start the hike around the lake our Spanish friend Lidia pulls up in the back of a truck, hops out and joins us! Small world. The hike was beautiful and she entertained us with her dirty spanish vocabulary and stories about all her travels through Asia, Africa, Midde East, Europe, and now New Zealand where she is living. Mom... she was ashamed that the spanish I learned from you was so clean... she´s trying to remedy that.
Anyways, we´re in a cafe trying to plan some of our upcoming trip but I wanted to tell you about this great day while it is still fresh in my mind. I am loving it so far and and SO thankful to you mom for teaching me spanish because I don´t know how people get by here without it. I´ll post pics soon when the stupid connection works! I miss you so much, familia. And our friends who are out on travels of their own (ie: nick-- so jealous of your trip), hope you are having a blast.
We then headed to the food market where we met this American guy who is now a tour guide for Baby Boomers in Peru. He had Mike try this drink called "emoliente" which is this crazy concoction a lady makes right in front of you: first she scrapes into a glass jar tons of slimy aloe vera from the inside of a leaf, then adds a little of liquid from about 10 different unmarked bottles that are various sugar concoctions and vitamins, then a little mollasses. Then she pours it back and forth into a tin cup as it slowly distributes the slimy aloe throughout the whole drink so by the end it resembles a thick snot (sorry). She hands it to mike in a giant jar and instructs him to drink it chug it without stopping or he´ll choke on the semi-liquid stuff that´s already halfway down his throat. He did it perfectly, of course, and acually said he like it! I of course opted to take pictures of it instead. Anyways, there was a huge textile market, fruit market, anything you could imagine and it stretched throughout the whole city. It was incredible.
Somehow we did all that and it was only 11:00am so we hopped on a bus to this tiny town called Quiroga where we were told to hitch a ride to a crater...so we climbed into the back of this guys truck and watched the mountains and volcanoes and villagers pass us by. We arrived at this huge lake inside a crater called Cuicocha, had a great lunch and then right as we were going to start the hike around the lake our Spanish friend Lidia pulls up in the back of a truck, hops out and joins us! Small world. The hike was beautiful and she entertained us with her dirty spanish vocabulary and stories about all her travels through Asia, Africa, Midde East, Europe, and now New Zealand where she is living. Mom... she was ashamed that the spanish I learned from you was so clean... she´s trying to remedy that.
Anyways, we´re in a cafe trying to plan some of our upcoming trip but I wanted to tell you about this great day while it is still fresh in my mind. I am loving it so far and and SO thankful to you mom for teaching me spanish because I don´t know how people get by here without it. I´ll post pics soon when the stupid connection works! I miss you so much, familia. And our friends who are out on travels of their own (ie: nick-- so jealous of your trip), hope you are having a blast.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Viewing Airplanes from Above
I only have a few minutes to fire this off. First, just so you know the last post was made by me and not Laura...so the comment about knowing how the Incan statue with the huge penis felt should make a lot more sense...I hope.
Anyway, yesterday was our best day by far. We woke up and took a taxi to the ¨Teleferico¨ which is a huge gondola thing that they have that takes you up to 4,300 meters. That is 14,100 we later found out. The view was incredible. At the top we hiked for about 2 hours up to the base of a mountain peak with amazing scenery of wildflowers, birds, etc along the way. You will see the pictures...simply incredible. That will probably be the highest that we will ever be on Earth. We were both exhausted from the altitude until 30 minutes into our hike when a 80 year old man with a cane PASSED us on the trail...then we picked up the pace a little.
Ended the day with a great meal with three of our hostal-mates from England and Austrailia. Great people, good times. Now we are headed to Otavalo which is 2 hours north and has a famous open-air
market on Saturday (supposedly the largest in South America)! We will be in touch soon!
Anyway, yesterday was our best day by far. We woke up and took a taxi to the ¨Teleferico¨ which is a huge gondola thing that they have that takes you up to 4,300 meters. That is 14,100 we later found out. The view was incredible. At the top we hiked for about 2 hours up to the base of a mountain peak with amazing scenery of wildflowers, birds, etc along the way. You will see the pictures...simply incredible. That will probably be the highest that we will ever be on Earth. We were both exhausted from the altitude until 30 minutes into our hike when a 80 year old man with a cane PASSED us on the trail...then we picked up the pace a little.
Ended the day with a great meal with three of our hostal-mates from England and Austrailia. Great people, good times. Now we are headed to Otavalo which is 2 hours north and has a famous open-air
market on Saturday (supposedly the largest in South America)! We will be in touch soon!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
2 Days in Quito
We´ve been here for two days now and there is already a lot to tell. I´ll start at the beginning.
Yesterday we woke up at our hostal, Chicago Hostal. It´s a great place, with very friendly people, although the mattresses are soft and shaped like banannas so our back are a little sore in the mornings. We have free breakfast here consisting of a plain croissant-type roll, scrambled eggs, pineapple slices, and black tea. I should mention that our breakfast is served on a terrace at the top of the hostal, which is about 5 stories high and up on a hill so there is an awesome view of the city while we eat. This city is absolutely sprawling. It´s about 10,000 feet high nestled in between two giant mountain peaks. The city is only about 2 or 3 miles wide but it is incredibly long and buildings spread out as far as you can see.
After breakfast we headed out to walk around in Old Town which is the historical center of Quito with lots of restored buildings. This city is packed to the brim with people, noises, sounds and colors, but we´ve felt very comfortable and safe walking around. A lot of the streets have dates for names like ¨6 de diciebre¨ which, I think is when Quito gained its independence from Spain- the first of the South American cities to do so we were told. That was in 1809 so if you do the math, this year was their bicentenntial. Turns out that we arrived the day AFTER the huge celebrations for the bicentennial ended...oops. Oh well.
We started our walking tour at Plaza Grande, the main central square of Old Town and immediately took a tour of the nearby cathedral. We also so a few museums in the area, but more exciting was lunch. We had chicken-fried steak that was absolutely amazinga and apparently a local specialty. It was 20 bucks. We thought this was a steal but then today went for lunch at a place where we had corn soup (the corn here has kernels that are about 10 times bigger than our corn and its delicious), lamb chops, desert, drinks, and it was 4 dollars...total. So we learned our lesson that lunch should not cost more than 5 dollars per day.
Today we climbed up the nearby Basilica de Voto which allowed you to climb up like 6 different ladders to the top of the bell tower for another awesome view of the city. I rang the bell at the top which I think was illegal but who knows. We also hiked to the museum of cultural history where we saw tons of different carvings made by local people thousands of years ago. Many of them had men holding their weiners which was pretty funny. The highlight was a carving of a guy on his back holding his member that was about 15 times larger than it was supposed to be (I know how he feels)
. Anyway, we´ve done and seen much more but we only have so much time so that will have to do for now. We are having tons of fun and meeting lots of interesting people at the hostal. You´ll hear about it all later. Hope everyone is doing well!
Yesterday we woke up at our hostal, Chicago Hostal. It´s a great place, with very friendly people, although the mattresses are soft and shaped like banannas so our back are a little sore in the mornings. We have free breakfast here consisting of a plain croissant-type roll, scrambled eggs, pineapple slices, and black tea. I should mention that our breakfast is served on a terrace at the top of the hostal, which is about 5 stories high and up on a hill so there is an awesome view of the city while we eat. This city is absolutely sprawling. It´s about 10,000 feet high nestled in between two giant mountain peaks. The city is only about 2 or 3 miles wide but it is incredibly long and buildings spread out as far as you can see.
After breakfast we headed out to walk around in Old Town which is the historical center of Quito with lots of restored buildings. This city is packed to the brim with people, noises, sounds and colors, but we´ve felt very comfortable and safe walking around. A lot of the streets have dates for names like ¨6 de diciebre¨ which, I think is when Quito gained its independence from Spain- the first of the South American cities to do so we were told. That was in 1809 so if you do the math, this year was their bicentenntial. Turns out that we arrived the day AFTER the huge celebrations for the bicentennial ended...oops. Oh well.
We started our walking tour at Plaza Grande, the main central square of Old Town and immediately took a tour of the nearby cathedral. We also so a few museums in the area, but more exciting was lunch. We had chicken-fried steak that was absolutely amazinga and apparently a local specialty. It was 20 bucks. We thought this was a steal but then today went for lunch at a place where we had corn soup (the corn here has kernels that are about 10 times bigger than our corn and its delicious), lamb chops, desert, drinks, and it was 4 dollars...total. So we learned our lesson that lunch should not cost more than 5 dollars per day.
Today we climbed up the nearby Basilica de Voto which allowed you to climb up like 6 different ladders to the top of the bell tower for another awesome view of the city. I rang the bell at the top which I think was illegal but who knows. We also hiked to the museum of cultural history where we saw tons of different carvings made by local people thousands of years ago. Many of them had men holding their weiners which was pretty funny. The highlight was a carving of a guy on his back holding his member that was about 15 times larger than it was supposed to be (I know how he feels)
. Anyway, we´ve done and seen much more but we only have so much time so that will have to do for now. We are having tons of fun and meeting lots of interesting people at the hostal. You´ll hear about it all later. Hope everyone is doing well!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
We´re hanging out with popstars
We made it and are about to go out and enjoy Quito, but wanted to let you all know we are safe and feeling great. We also met a hugely famous Ecuadorian popstar in airport customs after watching hoards of girls and even men coming up to take pictures with him. I asked his friend who he was and he let me know by handing me a CD and saying "escuchalo" (listen to it) which we will do as soon as we can. Everyone was so distracted that no one even collected our customs tickets! His name is Fausto Miño so you can look up this dreamy ecuadorian if you´re interested. That´s all for now but, needless to say, Quito has been great starting in the first 5 minutes of getting here.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Setting the bar
Our high-set bar is already falling and we haven't even left yet. By chance my friend Eli called me yesterday to hear about our upcoming trip and mentioned "surely you have gotten a visa for Brazil"... oops. Mike forgot to tell me about that chapter of our guidebook before he dove into the bar warp zone. Emergency calls to the Brazilian consulate ensue and, of course, they say the process takes a minimum of 10 business days. When do we leave? In 10 business days-- too risky. So, hours of phone calls to American Airlines and hundreds of dollars later, we are no longer flying out of Brazil because we will be turned away when we try to enter their horribly bureaucratic country. Hooray!!! The first of many upcoming mistakes is actually a blessing because Rio is reallllllly out of the way from the rest of our trip and would have required days of bus riding with dust, chickens, and weird smells (that's how I picture it anyways). This also frees up more time to devote to Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. So, dry your tears. We are happy with the outcome, although this makes me nervous about all the other crucial details we must be completely ignorant of. Stay tuned, it should be quite entertaining...
Wish Mike luck on the bar exam the day after tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.
Wish Mike luck on the bar exam the day after tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.
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