Machu Picchu Pics...Well, some of the hundreds

Haynu Picchu

Matt and Katie, chillin

The popular photo shot

This is me exhausted, and that´s Machu Picchu in the background

Hey Y´All!!



Tire?



Just the beginning...

 



To the rescue!





Dear lord, where is our bus?!



I´m back! Short blog break for the pampas. They were AMAZING! It was such a warm relaxing week :) Getting there was a different story- some traveling days are better than others, and this was maybe the worst. Yup, worse than the boat ride to the border. We were told to get to the bus station at 10:30 for our 11am bus departure. The bus "station" turned out to be just a street, that smelled awful. We waited, and waited, and waited, and at 11:30, the bus showed up at least, however all the people were shipping there entire crop and house of furniture with them, so they then spent FOUR hours loading far too much cargo into the bottom of the bus, and on top about 10 ft high, literally. We had potatoes and babies and blankets bursting at the seams. At 3:30pm, movement! The bus was so dirty and smelly and packed. Leaving the city we were stopped at a check point for having too much cargo- shocker, but after much arguing "PORQUE?!" we were allowed to pass. Back on the road with the most terrible spanish love songs blaring, we made it a few hours before getting a flat tire. While they changed it to our spare, all the people poured out of the bus, walked all of maybe two feet and started peeing; men and women....awesome. We reloaded, took off and made it to a stop for some food while they properly fixed the tire. I tried to sleep for a bit afterwards, but on top of being uncomfortable seats, the music was deafeningly loud, and the funk in the air was growing. The women in the seat across from us had passed out, sprawled all over the seat, with her breast out, baby attached but also sleeping, and the woman in front of us had stowed her baby under her seat to sleep, so I was terribly nervous about kicking or stepping on it. Next catastrophe in line was getting stuck in the mud- three times...sigh. Luckily there were tractors to pull us out, so it didn´t take terribly long each time. The grand finale was the road being completely washed out, and we had to walk the last hour to Rurrenabaque. I was only to happy to walk an hour just to be out of that nightmare on wheels. A 36 hour journey...I immediately bought a plane ticket for the return trip. Back to the good stuff! The pampas tour was a small motorized boat, with really comfy little lawn chairs of sort for us to sit on, and we just glided across the water in the sun, looking at all of the animals. We saw tons of ALLEY-GAY-TORES!, tucans (sp?), herons (I really don´t know how to spell bird names, anyhoo). lizards, rampas (I think that´s the name- the largest rodents), squirrel and holler monkeys, PINK DOLPHINS (yay, yay), parahnias, snakes, butterflies...and and and. The first day was just animal watching, and it was just awesome- we went out after dinner also and looked at the glowing camon eyes and the beautiful stars (peace). The second day, we got up and went hunting for anacondas, which now I think, why the hell did I even go? I don´t want to see an anaconda! Luckily, we didn´t find one, and just ended up tromping through the swamp in boots that leaked for like 3 hours- it was exhausting and disgusting.  A guide from another tour was just barely scratched by a green mamba, and apparently if you are full on bit, you die within 30 minutes (another fact that if known pre-snake hunt, I would not have gone). He was okay, but spent the entire night vomitting- scary! After snake hunting and lunch, we went out fishing, and I caught a parahnia!!! You just put a piece of red meet on a hook on the end of a string, drop it in the water and pull it back up, wa-la, dinner! We did cook and eat them that night, but they pretty much tasted like muddy "meh" fish. We put a lot of sauce on them. Day three, we got up at 6am and watched the sun rise while listening to all of the birds and monkeys and sounds of the swamp. AW, it was so nice. After some breakfast, we went swimming with the dolphins! They keep the alligators and parahnias away from you, but you´re still in brown water, knowing that somewhere very close by there are parahnias and alligators, so it´s not the most relaxing/enjoyable swim. And the guide, of course, thought it was hilarious to yell, "Alleygaytore!" as soon as everyone is in the water. Alright, it was a little funny. The dolphins are so cool though- they are grey on top and pink on bottom, and pretty playful, though they don´t actually touch you- they are curious enough to stay close, but won´t come all the way up to you. We had a three hour boat ride back to our jeep, which was the perfect end to the tour. Right before we loaded into the jeep, Stef (friend from Switzerland) was bit by ants, and within about 5 minutes had a horrible allergic reaction, so the ride home was really scary because it was 3 hours to a hospital, and her whole body was a swollen rash. Another girl (met more really cool people on the tour again) had an anti-hystamine, and that tied Stef over thankfully. She´s better today, but she had a rough night. Rurrenabaque is a nice town- small, friendly, cheap, and warm. I went out with some people for dinner and drinks and a little dancing, but went to bed fairly early after realizing that the beer that I was drinking is 7.5% :)

Stef emptying the mud from her high quality swamp boots

My contribution to dinner :)

Sunrise!

That´s a dolphin fin- I have proof!

Waiting for his morning fruit loops

Our Eco-Lodge Bar

My feelings on the snake hunt!

Splinter´s crew

Ello!

HooHooHaaHaa



Pampas Crew!



I´m on a boat!

I finally got my photos uploaded to a website, woooot! Now I just have to get some into my blog- getting closer!

I´m back in La Paz now, and headed to Uyuni tomorrow night to see the salt flats.

Happy Memorial Day all!

Wow, where was I?

It's been a crazy week.  When I got back from the Colca Canyon tour, I caught a bus from Arequipa to Puno, but when it arrived, we were told that there is a strike- I'm not certain of the details, but the farmers were protesting some of their land being sold without their consent (this is the gist that I got from my poor spanish interpretation, so don't take it to be the news), and were blocking the roadways so that no buses could get to Bolivia, and they were said to do the same to get to northern Peru, so instead of risking getting stuck in tourist trap, not that safe, Puno for a month, we immediately got on a boat for the border. The boat ride was terrible- 9 hours long, and not that comfortable. Once we got to the border, the locals scam you as much as possible- they stop the boat about 30 ft from shore, and paddle you in a small row boat for money, in which you have no say, and then hand you your bag and ask for more, in which case I said NO (and not nicely after that atrocious boat ride). They then try to taxi to immigration, which is hard to tell how far it is, but we learned, from walking it thankfully, that it's just around the corner. Immigration was also a nightmare. This line, no that line, now back to the other line, nope, have to photocopy your passport first, oh you're from the states? Just go to the end of the line....About 1.5 hrs, a lot of painful spanish translation for my friend Steph, and $135 later, I was officially in Bolivia, yay!! On to Copa Cabana. It's a beautiful town, and we arrived at sunset, and it's dirt cheap- woot!  We found a little cafe on the main strip, and it was such a cozy, friendly, warm restaurant. There was a man and woman playing a jambe drum and guitar and singing- it was fantastic. Steph (latest travel partner, from Switzerland- speaks 4 languages, so handy!) bought their CD, so I'm hoping to get a copy from her before we part. We ate some delicious food, enjoyed the fantastic atmosphere (love the decor), met some more cool travelers, from Germany, and then mosied to the next bar for a night cap. 

It was unfortunetely another ridiculously early morning to catch the boat to Isle de Sol. The boat ride was painfully slow, but what a gorgeous day it was! Not a cloud in the sky, and yet more amazing scenery. We hiked from the North to South end of the island, ~4hr hike, stopping for lunch and sunshine midway. The little villages had no running water, but very hard working, friendly people- it felt good to be in such a quiet, simple place for the day. We got back to Copa Cabana around 5:30pm, and watched the sunset and had some dinner. Unfortunetely, all the hiking in hot sun with cold dry air, sweating, taking off layers, putting on layers, followed by cold nights, has caught up to me, and tonight I am full blown sick- nose is a faucet, can't stop sneezing, feel TERRIBLE, and I think I have a fever, ugh! Might try the antibiotics tomorrow, if I don't feel any better. I just hope that I don't have pneumonia cause I feel it pretty badly in my chest. Wish I could call mom for the med advise, but I don't have internet here- just typing this in word to post later. Anyhoo, hopefully I feel better soon- tomorrow afternoon is a bus to La Paz, where I will hopefully rest a few days, and then do a tour of the pampas. I'm so excited- it is the mostly densely animal populated area in the world; you see alligators, monkeys, birds, AND PINK DOLPHINS! I must go- I heard pink dolphins, and was immediately online trying to book it. It's a 3 day tour, and only $150- I love how inexpensive Bolivia is. The hostel we're currently at, which is really nice, is only $3.50/night! 

I can't believe all of the amazing stuff that I'm seeing, such an enriching life experience. 

Wishing you all well....Love.

Randoms continued.....

There are walls built up of stone everywhere, and for the ones that people want protected, they plant cacti all along the top, or they embed shards of glass lining the tops of the walls, which is really scary to me, though I'm guessing it's a pretty effective detourant. The stone walls that are built up in the middle of nowhere are a bit confusing. There are some in fields for herding the alpacas, but then there are also ones that look like remains of a broken down shack, and it's unclear as to whether someone is living there or not.  I'm sure in some cases, they are. It's an interesting poverty mix- poor people working very hard, poor people just trying to scam or rob tourists, and then travelers that have chosen the life and seem nothing but happy living day to day in these small villages selling jewelry or such. A guy today put a hair wrap in my hair, and we chatted a bit. He's been traveling for years now, making jewelry and picking up little odds and ends jobs with locals. He gave me two beans that he had painted when I was leaving, and told me that they are for luck- I'm carrying them with me now, so we'll see :)

When we were in Chivay, we went to a dinner where they performed a typico dance, called peno I believe. They had on costumes, and live music, and it was pretty entertaining. They were grabbing people from the audience each song to come up and dance, and everyone was having a good time. Then towards the end of the show, one of them asked me to come up. I jumped up, and was all excited to do a little dance, however, this final routine was a skit instead. The skit involved this very small man, in a very scary colorful ski mask, pretending to feed me a poisonous fruit, so I then had to lay on the ground, shaking (as the poison seeped in), and then the man danced around me and whipped me- yup, with a whip, and kind of hard.....In front of a lot of people. Afterwards, I asked my guide what the significance of this routine was, and she said, oh it's just for fun- it's silly, for us to laugh. Awesome- glad the tourist could awkwardly squirm around on the restaurant floor, while being whipped, so the locals could have a laugh. 

There is a round fruit that grows all over the cacti in the canyon, that they make juice from, or just eat plain- I ate some, and it looks like a white kiwi, and tastes just like one, except really sour. Not really appetizing, but at least not the poisonous fruit that leads to convulsions and whipping.

Colca Canyon pictures:

Just a few random things

Driving here is loco. There are only a handful of stoplights in a city of a million people, and I have no idea what the police are doing, aside from blowing their whistles sporadically throughout the day. There are endless amounts of taxis (super cheap, luckily), and they all apparently have the right away. This morning, as we're approaching Arequipa on the giant double decker bus, the announcer says, good morning- welcome to Arescreeeeeeeech, thud, thud, thud! We passed a semi, and hit another semi truck that was going the same direction as us, but in the left lane with no lights (and it's dark out). Anyhoo, no one was hurt and both vehicles were so enormous that it barely did any damage, but it's crazy to me how few traffic laws they have, or enforce at least.

Wild dogs everywhere! Well, not really "wild", they are quite tame, just don't have homes. Some are adorable, and some it's quite clear why they're homeless. And as much as I'd like to, I'm not bringing any home with me- it's going to be hard enough smuggling all of these coca leaves in.

Tomorrow I'm going on a tour of Colca Canyon, which includes seeing the volcanos and condors- should be pretty cool. I'm not doing the trek this round, and will be going by bus. I'm not sure if I'll ever feel like hiking again in my life after Machu Picchu :p When I return in a couple of days, I'm catching a bus to Puno on Lake Titticaca. From there I hope to go out to the floating islands, though I hear they're ridiculously touristy. The next, and probably final hop before returning to Lima, will be Bolivia, and that's still uncertain since US citizens have to pay $140 just to get into the country, but it's also super cheap once you're there, so we'll see.

My Spanish is still crap, but I'm catching onto the crucial phrases. I've had a mix of really good food, and pretty bad. There are a lot of strange textured food. There's also over 2000 kinds of potatoes! My hostel is having a BBQ tonight, and I'm hoping to get some games of foosball in. I'm also hoping to get some photos uploaded this week, so you guys aren't just bored to tears reading my wandering thoughts.

Soaking up the evening sun- hope you are as well!

Somewhere in the Andes

Holy shit!! The hike to Machu Picchu was, by far, the most challenging and rewarding thing that I've ever done. It was five days of non-stop hiking, but with the most beautiful scenery, and an awesome group of people. Saturday morning I left the hostel at 4am to head to Mollepata where the trailhead is. Our guide took us through several "short cuts", which just means "ridiculously steep paths". By the time we reached our first camp, after 7 hrs of hiking, I was exhausted, and slept like a baby. Our guides woke us up at 5am the next morning, with hot coka tea, and way too much energy :), and we were off. Half of us rode horse back up Salkantay Mountain- I'm so glad that I chose to do it because it was really fun, and I got to just soke up the amazing views the entire morning as we approached the summit. Once we reached the top, we only stayed for 20 minutes to avoid getting altitude sickness, and we parted with the horses. Being up against that mountain was surreal. No one has ever successful climbed to the very top (we were at the snow line, 4608m high). A couple of years ago, two professional climbers from Japan tried to climb it, and neither of them made it to the top and only one of them made it down. Walking from Salkantay down to our next camp was brutal- my knees were spent! We hiked down to 2860m, which was thankfully much warmer, and we were all able to hang out outside. After a 10 hr day, we all were ready to just chill and have a beer. Day three was luckily the "easy" day, with only 6 hrs of hiking, and only a slight decrease in elevation. It was a fun day of picking avocados, and passion fruit, and playing games on the trail. Our third night camp was Santa Teresa, and it was a blast- it's a small village where we hung out with some locals, played cards, danced and had a fire. However, up bright and squirrelly the next day for another 6 hrs of hiking, and unfortunetely it poured rain in the middle of the night, so it was nice and wet. I was so excited when we reached Aguas Calientes- hostel to stay in!! That meant hot shower, and a bed!! I went to sleep as quickly as possible because if you want to get a ticket to climb Huayna Picchu (the huge mtn next to Machu Picchu), you have to get up at 4am, and race the other backpackers up over 1000 steps to the top, as they only allow 400 people a day. This is an experience that I never want to have again in my life- it was sooo hard! I saw two people puke, a few people give up, it was loco! I made it to the top though, and got my ticket!! And totally worth it- the top of Haynu Picchu is like the top of the world. I was so tired walking around Machu Picchu, but it was so unbelievable to seeing these amazing structures at the top of a mtn, and trying to imagine how they could possibly have ever built it! I took way too many photos, but still haven't been able to get anything uploaded =/

Once back at the hostel, I switched rooms to the all girls dorm- yay! So much better- huge private bathroom, and my friend Katy was staying there also. I met so many cool people on my trek!

Today or tomorrow I am ready to burn this banana stand and get out of Cuzco. I'm headed to Lake Titticaca and the floating islands, and then on to Bolivia. I think I'm going to go with Matt, from York, that I also met on my trek.

Aw, almost forgot- went out and had cuy last night....Yup, that means guinea pig! Not the worst thing I've eaten, but I will not ever be eating it again! It's a delicacy, and actually quite expensive here. When in Rome...I also attended a cooking class yesterday where we made savichay (sp?) and pisco sours. It was really fun, and tasted pretty darn good. However, I'm crossing my fingers today, as my food choices were the poison trifecta- raw fish (savichay), raw egg (pisco sour), and rodent for dinner. Oy. So far so good though.

Now I remember why I didn't live in the dorms during college...

I'm a little bummed that I slept half the day away today, but I didn't really have a choice, since I went to bed at 5am. I originally tried to at 11pm, but people were getting all gussied up to go out to the club and celebrate Cinco De Mayo, though I don't think 90% of them even knew what it honors. anyhoo, then at 1am, the a few people from the hostel bar stumbled in, 2am, 3 new women moved into the room, 3am, a drunken, brazillian, D-bag, that looks to be about 16, fell down the stairs into our room (looked very painful), eventually got up, stumbled into the room, fell down again, wryled(sp?) around like a turtle on his back for a good 5 minutes, managed to get into the sitting position where he passed out, woke himself up by farting, and ~5 painful minutes later had managed to climb into his top bunk. At this point, I was just extremely happy that I was not sleeping under him. I managed to fall asleep for a minute, then heard him trying to get down from his bed- he was attempting it on the wrong side of the bed, and managed to wedge himself between the wall and the bunk bed, f'ing idiot....So, after a loud struggle, he found his way back in bed, and began to loudly snore some more. The next thing I hear, at 4:15am, is the sound of water and a woman screaming. I jumped out of bed, and just in time- the brazillian baboon was on the end of his bed, peeing all over this poor woman's backpack (top open :p) and the end of my bed!! sigh. So, this teeny tiny french dude in his teeny tiny underpants (that didn't even know this guy) came over to his bed, pulled him out, and said, apologize to these women now, then again for real in the morning, and threw him into the shower. The front desk got me a different bed for the night, and I finally shut my eyes around 5. Tonight had better go much much differently since I leave at 4am tomorrow for Machu Pichu. All of that being said, it is another gorgeous day here, and I plan to spend the afternoon wondering the city again, as soon as I'm done enjoying more of the wonderful coffee (rich, chocolately flavor- a bit frothy on top, yum!)in the courtyard of the hostel. Hopefully when I get back I can upload the first batch of photos. Happy Friday all!

In awe

This city is truly amazing! I got some great photos today, but I'll wait a few days to post, as it's hard to get computer time to upload with this sea of 18 yr old trust fund babies always online at the hostel. I'm going to give it a few days, but I may be changing hostels- I feel sooo old. Last night the altitude sickness hit- very unpleasant. I spent much of the evening throwing up (yup in a hostel bathroom :p), as well as a bit of a scare when I passed out in the hallway. Oy. However, lots of water and rest, and I feel great today. I also almost murdered one of my flat mates- he literally ate handfulls of the most crunchy cereal in the world ALL night long; he never stopped- I don't know how he didn't explode into a down pour of lucky charms. This morning I had DELICIOUS coffee, and walked to Plaza de Armas. I sat there for a couple of hours, just taking it all in- the beautiful churches, school children in their ridiculously adorable uniforms, panhandlers EVERYWHERE (phrase of the day, no gracias), a water fountain, cobble streets....aw! I'm currently typing this with my awesome wireless keyboard (thanks Thomas!!) and iphone. I guess it's cinco de Mayo- not sure if I'll be celebrating, alcohol at this elevation is dangerous. Can't wait to get some of the fantastic souvenirs to send home to peeps- again, trying to pace myself :) and shop around- haggling is welcome here.

Home sweet Peru

Made it! Got in to Cuzco at 11am today. Had to immediately take a long nap- the plane consisted of cramped legs, small spurts of sleep, very odd meal, and a depressing Paul Giomatti film (like he has any other kind). Loki hostel seems pretty cool so far- the taxi ride here was awesome, the city just sprawls up the mtn sides. It was so sunny and beautiful today- I really wanted to get out, but I also needed to take a 5 hr nap in my bed, so tomorrow the city exploration begins. I am hiking on foot with a guided group to Machu Pichu, starting at 4am Saturday morning, oy. It's a 5 day, 4 night hike that's going to kick my butt, but be oh so amazing!! Other interesting tours are rafting, zip lining, and several day hikes. I'm trying to remind myself to pace, as I have four more months to do these things. Peru will probably be mostly hiking, adjusting to dorm style living, and trying to improve my Spanish. Thanks for all the well wishes, it was an encouraging send off. Pictures start in full force tomorrow! Xoxo

Blast off!

Whew! Holy hectic morning- true Maggi fashion, I made sure to procrastinate a few tasks, which made my morning ridonkulous. Just minor things like printing my itinerary with my printer that decided to take it's own life this morning. Anyhoo, made it to the airport ONtime, frisbee strapped to the outside of my backpack, and smile on my face. Smile faded ever so slightly when the check-in lady, that was standing behind her counter enhaling fumes from her hairspray and gossiping with the agent next to her that also had no customers, said, "Did you not notice the abundance of kiosks that we have, most of them open, where you can just (insert gesture of little baby hands typing here)type in your info to check in?!" Why yes, yes, I did see those, and I also saw the sign that said for intl, I need to see an agent. "oh. Where are you going?" LA to Lima. "Hopefully not alone- you're not goin alone are you?!" Yes. "You are crazy!!"....(no response from me) "Passport". Atleast there was no security line at 2pm on a Tuesday. Made friends with an elderly lady at the bar- i asked her if the bloody marys were delicious (which clearly they are, as she was on her second in 20 mins), and that opened the flood gate to her life story of living in Alaska, visiting her sister in Kentucky, and how outrageous she thinks it is that her husband Dick goes to bed at SEVEN THIRTY EVERY night! LA is beautiful weather today; doesn't make up for the fact that it's LA. The main reason I know about the weather is because you have to leave the terminal, walk down the street a block to a new bldg for intl flights, after being misdirected a few times, then go back through security, get asked twice by TSA if you're Canadian, get xrayed again, pass through the 15 officers standing around talking (I'm fine with increased security, but we may need to utilize a little differently), and back at the bar- for food and free water this time. And here I sit, the lone girl in the corner, typing on her phone like a teenager, listening to a group of obnoxious germans (or maybe it just seems obnoxious because i dont speak the language), awaiting the departure to Lima in two hours....summary for the day- traveling is so interesting, LA is awful, I'm Canadian...miss ya'all!!