Our time in Cochabamba is over :`( Joel and I are headed over to the Salt Flats of Bolivia today, which we are both very excited about!
Millie and Jim have been amazing hosts, taking in two sick backpackers and making us all better (well mostly all better...Joel´s still fighting something). They´ve hooked us up with all the good medicines and antibiotics. We had a wonderful guest room to stay in (comfortable bed, hot shower, no mold!) and I´m sad to leave it. They took us out for yummy yummy Bolivian food (best steak ever & a 30 inch hotdog), took us to the markets (much easier with someone who speaks Spanish), and to amazing rural Inca Ruins. Plus we´ve had fast internet and caught up on posting all our pictures! Our time in Cochabamba has definately been a major highlight!
I now have to pack my bags to hit the road again...
Adios!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Clean. Fed. Happy!
We arrived in Cochabamba this morning at 6am. We found an overnight bus from La Paz, but had to wait in the open air bus terminal from 6 til 10:30. Chilly!
I, (Jen here) feel so refreshed to be somewhere with family, it`s only been 13 days and I was already missing the comforts of home! Mostly a comfortable bed, bathroom (without mold), and food I didn´t have to question the safety of. Millie (Joel`s Aunt) took us out to the market today where I got to shop for fun touristy things and practice a bit of Spanish. I looove how everything is so wonderfully affordable, and Millie assured me that *almost* everything was made in South America - no cheap imports! WooHoo!
On Wednesday Joel and I took the tour over to Isla de Sol (Island of the Sun) where we did a fantastic 8km hike from the North end to the Southern end of the Island. All the mountains on the island are terraced for agriculture and there were animals everywhere! We saw llamas, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, donkeys, cows.... the llamas were obviously the highlight! And along the way a Quechuan woman was oh-so-conviently on the side of the trail with her 4 children and llama. Perfect photo-op, and of course Joel and I did one (10 Bolivianos). The youngest boy was so cute, he was holding out his hand for the money, and his mother kept slapping it down. Haha.
I promise pictures are coming soon! Tonight probably!
I, (Jen here) feel so refreshed to be somewhere with family, it`s only been 13 days and I was already missing the comforts of home! Mostly a comfortable bed, bathroom (without mold), and food I didn´t have to question the safety of. Millie (Joel`s Aunt) took us out to the market today where I got to shop for fun touristy things and practice a bit of Spanish. I looove how everything is so wonderfully affordable, and Millie assured me that *almost* everything was made in South America - no cheap imports! WooHoo!
On Wednesday Joel and I took the tour over to Isla de Sol (Island of the Sun) where we did a fantastic 8km hike from the North end to the Southern end of the Island. All the mountains on the island are terraced for agriculture and there were animals everywhere! We saw llamas, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, donkeys, cows.... the llamas were obviously the highlight! And along the way a Quechuan woman was oh-so-conviently on the side of the trail with her 4 children and llama. Perfect photo-op, and of course Joel and I did one (10 Bolivianos). The youngest boy was so cute, he was holding out his hand for the money, and his mother kept slapping it down. Haha.
I promise pictures are coming soon! Tonight probably!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Catch up.
So we are finally in Bolivia. Copacabana is a wonderful little tourist trap of a town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, very close to Peru. Today we took an hour long hike and learned that when 4000m above sea level the tortoise truely does win the race. We stopped every twenty feet or so to catch our breath. We have Bus Tickets booked to LaPaz on the 24th, where we will have to buy our tickets for Cochabamba, and hopefully leave the same night, to arrive in Cochabamba on the morning of the 25th. Tomorrow we are going to go check out some ruins on the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) its were the Inca creation story says life began.
We are both feeling alot better than we were, albeit slightly light headed, and heavy legged. We spent last night in Puno and took a crappy rushed tour of the Floating Islands, made out of reeds. Not fun, I wish we had had the time to hire someone to take us over so we could explore on our own time, but we only had one afternoon in the area. This morning we crossed the border to Bolivia. It was fairly chaotic, we didn´t catch that we needed to get our exit stamp from Peru so we had to run (which is not easy up here) back and forth from Bolivia to Peru, and nearly missed our bus out of the neutral zone.
Before Puna we spent a few days in Arequipa being sick, and visiting Monestario Santa Cantalina, pictures will be coming soon. Its a city within a city completely cut from the outside world for nearly 400 years, where rich nuns lived it up in style.
We are both feeling alot better than we were, albeit slightly light headed, and heavy legged. We spent last night in Puno and took a crappy rushed tour of the Floating Islands, made out of reeds. Not fun, I wish we had had the time to hire someone to take us over so we could explore on our own time, but we only had one afternoon in the area. This morning we crossed the border to Bolivia. It was fairly chaotic, we didn´t catch that we needed to get our exit stamp from Peru so we had to run (which is not easy up here) back and forth from Bolivia to Peru, and nearly missed our bus out of the neutral zone.
Before Puna we spent a few days in Arequipa being sick, and visiting Monestario Santa Cantalina, pictures will be coming soon. Its a city within a city completely cut from the outside world for nearly 400 years, where rich nuns lived it up in style.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Bus Chaos
Our time in Paracas was amazing, I would have liked to stay another day - but we had to continue onto Arequipa. We left on the 5pm bus to Ica (1 hour) then were to transfer in Ica onto another bus for Arequipa (12 hours). So we hop on our first bus, enjoy the comfortable seats, a snack and get dropped off at a fancy hotel in Ica. Our next bus is at 8:30. We get our new luggage tags from the front desk. Joel and I sit there... waiting... waiting... until 9:30. I finally go up to the desk to ask where the bus is (in Span-glish), and the girl makes a phone call, oh - the bus left from the main bus terminal in Ica. WHAT! No one told us we had to be somewhere else, and we were an hour late to catch it. They call a cab for us and we get into the main termial. I try to explain to the guy that we weren´t told that where we got dropped off wasn´t where we´d get picked up. But he spoke No English, and I´m too frustrated and exhuasted to try for any Spanish. So he calls someone, and I try to explain to them, but the guy on the line doesn´t speak much English, and keeps calling me ´Lady, Lady.´ They think we´re just an hour late. And want us to pay for the full bus fare again. So I try something that often works - I cry. Not big sobbing tears, just ones that stream down my face. The guy ends up making us pay for 2/3rds of our new tickets (did the crying work?). So we had to pay for new tickets and a hotel. Yea, that has definately hurt the bank account a lot! And the travel book reccomeneded to stay away from Ica, it´s dangerous, noicy and not friendly to white travellers. I´ve never felt so stared at in my life. On top of that, I´m not recovered fully from food poisoning. I think I should be, but it doens´t help that we haven´t had any fresh fruit (is it safe?) or whole grains (everything is white!)
That was so far the most stressful thing yet, but I´m sure it won´t be the last.
On a positive note, because we were stuck in Ica for 24 hours, there is this little oasis lagoon just 5 km outside where we spent the day. Joel tried sandboarding (much different from snowboarding, but the same board!). We hiked up a sand dune, the view was amazing! We met some locals who were really friendly and we able to practice our Spanish. I bought a pretty necklace with a chunk of petrified wood off a guy, Pedro, who found it in the desert. And we ate some yummy (but expensive) food. Apparently this place used to be a playground for the elite Peruvians a few decades ago, now it´s mostly just backpackers wanting to sandboard. So it was a good day.
Now we are Arequipa. It was a loonnnggg bus ride, but a whole lot more comfortable than a Greyhound! We spent all day yesterday just bumming around the hostel, Joel´s not feeling very well, so he´s slept for almost 20 hours (on and off, up for food occastionally), and I read the last half of my book. (Now I need to find somewhere with English books!) We´re not sure if we´ll be here another day, or leave today to Puno. It depends on how Joel feels. I´d love to stay a week and explore the area around Arequipa, but it just adds too much time that we don´t really have.
Well... that´s the recap of the past few days.... ugh. I´m still exhusted!
And I can´t believe it´s just been one week! 11 more to go!
Sorry, this place we´re at doesn´t allow access to the USB ports on the computer so I sill can´t upload pictures!
That was so far the most stressful thing yet, but I´m sure it won´t be the last.
On a positive note, because we were stuck in Ica for 24 hours, there is this little oasis lagoon just 5 km outside where we spent the day. Joel tried sandboarding (much different from snowboarding, but the same board!). We hiked up a sand dune, the view was amazing! We met some locals who were really friendly and we able to practice our Spanish. I bought a pretty necklace with a chunk of petrified wood off a guy, Pedro, who found it in the desert. And we ate some yummy (but expensive) food. Apparently this place used to be a playground for the elite Peruvians a few decades ago, now it´s mostly just backpackers wanting to sandboard. So it was a good day.
Now we are Arequipa. It was a loonnnggg bus ride, but a whole lot more comfortable than a Greyhound! We spent all day yesterday just bumming around the hostel, Joel´s not feeling very well, so he´s slept for almost 20 hours (on and off, up for food occastionally), and I read the last half of my book. (Now I need to find somewhere with English books!) We´re not sure if we´ll be here another day, or leave today to Puno. It depends on how Joel feels. I´d love to stay a week and explore the area around Arequipa, but it just adds too much time that we don´t really have.
Well... that´s the recap of the past few days.... ugh. I´m still exhusted!
And I can´t believe it´s just been one week! 11 more to go!
Sorry, this place we´re at doesn´t allow access to the USB ports on the computer so I sill can´t upload pictures!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Safe. Sick. Happy.
Hola! Esto es Jen. So much to write about from the last two days! I´ll start at the beginning.
We caught a taxi out to the bus station to get our tickets to Paracas. That was an adventure (caotic traffic). Then we had to buy the tickets, from a woman who spoke no english. Luckily my limited Spanish from grade 10 came in very handy! Then we caught a local bus on the way back to our hostel. Oh yes. Wild adventure. But we are alive. And it was soooo cheap! Una soles, about 35 cents, and it was a great tour of Miraflores!
Then we walked up to some ruins, and there happened to be a tour bus going to Lima comming, so we hopped onto that, since we hadn´t been into Lima yet. The buildings are amazing and huge! There were so many people selling little knick-knacks. I couldn´t resist a pair of earrings (5 soles) and Joel bought a map (8 soles), and Eco-Ninja bought a pin from an adorable kid (see facebook pictures). We took the tour down into the Catacombes below a church. It smelt horrible, I was slightly clostrophobic and the bones creaped me out. Joel loved it. We weren´t allowed to take pictures, so we bought a postcard.
Then back to the hostel. We bought some dinner from the grocery store, and I bought an icecream. Bad idea. Everyone else at the hostel was eating icecream, so I didn´t think twice about it. But no - I´ve ended up with food poisoning. I spent yesterday from 4am to 8am puking, and I now have horrible cramps. I´ve never had food poisoning before, but (luckily?) Joel has, so he knows what I´m going through. It sucks. The 3 hour bus ride felt like 6 hours to me. And we have a 14 hour bus ride coming up tonight. Oh boy. I hope I can sleep through most of it.
Onto happier things. We took the Islas Ballestas tour today. AMAZING! Definatly the highlight of the trip so far, and it´ll take a lot to beat it. There were millions of birds. Seriosly. The islands are a cluster of rocky outcroppings about 10km off the coast of Paracas. We saw Humbolt Penguins, Commerants, Chilian Boobies, Turkey Vultures, Sea Lions, Seals (and baby ones too!), Pelicans and Bottle Nose Dolphins! It doesn´t get much better than that! Plus, the tour was 2 hours long and 35 Soles (about $10).
Paracas is beautiful. It´t not humid like Lima (which kills me), just hot and slightly breezy. It's a desert, with Massive Palm Trees, a beautiful coastline and friendly people. I´m starting to get a tan, but I´m keeping out of the sun as much as possible and putting on loads of sunscreen. Hopefully I´ll be nice and tanned for summer in Canada!
So tonight we head to Arequipa. Ugh. 14 hours on a bus. Good thing they´re way better than Greyhounds!
Oh yea, and I think we´ll be getting to Bolivia after all (sorry Millie if we´re messing with your life!). We´re probably skipping the Arequipa canyon hike to make it to Bolivia... because, we´ll be doing tons of hiking in Patagonia anyways.
We also have a ton of pictures to upload, but the internet in Paracas isn´t so great... so it will have to wait til Arequipa.
So that´s it for now!
Adios!
We caught a taxi out to the bus station to get our tickets to Paracas. That was an adventure (caotic traffic). Then we had to buy the tickets, from a woman who spoke no english. Luckily my limited Spanish from grade 10 came in very handy! Then we caught a local bus on the way back to our hostel. Oh yes. Wild adventure. But we are alive. And it was soooo cheap! Una soles, about 35 cents, and it was a great tour of Miraflores!
Then we walked up to some ruins, and there happened to be a tour bus going to Lima comming, so we hopped onto that, since we hadn´t been into Lima yet. The buildings are amazing and huge! There were so many people selling little knick-knacks. I couldn´t resist a pair of earrings (5 soles) and Joel bought a map (8 soles), and Eco-Ninja bought a pin from an adorable kid (see facebook pictures). We took the tour down into the Catacombes below a church. It smelt horrible, I was slightly clostrophobic and the bones creaped me out. Joel loved it. We weren´t allowed to take pictures, so we bought a postcard.
Then back to the hostel. We bought some dinner from the grocery store, and I bought an icecream. Bad idea. Everyone else at the hostel was eating icecream, so I didn´t think twice about it. But no - I´ve ended up with food poisoning. I spent yesterday from 4am to 8am puking, and I now have horrible cramps. I´ve never had food poisoning before, but (luckily?) Joel has, so he knows what I´m going through. It sucks. The 3 hour bus ride felt like 6 hours to me. And we have a 14 hour bus ride coming up tonight. Oh boy. I hope I can sleep through most of it.
Onto happier things. We took the Islas Ballestas tour today. AMAZING! Definatly the highlight of the trip so far, and it´ll take a lot to beat it. There were millions of birds. Seriosly. The islands are a cluster of rocky outcroppings about 10km off the coast of Paracas. We saw Humbolt Penguins, Commerants, Chilian Boobies, Turkey Vultures, Sea Lions, Seals (and baby ones too!), Pelicans and Bottle Nose Dolphins! It doesn´t get much better than that! Plus, the tour was 2 hours long and 35 Soles (about $10).
Paracas is beautiful. It´t not humid like Lima (which kills me), just hot and slightly breezy. It's a desert, with Massive Palm Trees, a beautiful coastline and friendly people. I´m starting to get a tan, but I´m keeping out of the sun as much as possible and putting on loads of sunscreen. Hopefully I´ll be nice and tanned for summer in Canada!
So tonight we head to Arequipa. Ugh. 14 hours on a bus. Good thing they´re way better than Greyhounds!
Oh yea, and I think we´ll be getting to Bolivia after all (sorry Millie if we´re messing with your life!). We´re probably skipping the Arequipa canyon hike to make it to Bolivia... because, we´ll be doing tons of hiking in Patagonia anyways.
We also have a ton of pictures to upload, but the internet in Paracas isn´t so great... so it will have to wait til Arequipa.
So that´s it for now!
Adios!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Day two
Joel here. The traffic here is insane. Many intersections are unmarked so drivers just honk and dont slow down. In fact I think they speed up when they see pedestrians. We have met a lot of cool people at our hostel, which is supposed to be the second best in South America, so I guess that means its all downhill from here. Weve met people from argentina, texas, kentucky, australia, england. And we have been able figure out how we will get out of Lima, to do so we have to take a bus out of the Miraflores bubble once tomorrow to get our tickets and again the next day to take the bus. So hopefully all goes well on that bit of our adventure. The bus costs about 30 cents US to go most places in Lima. Everything here is sooo cheap. 650ml bottles of cervesa cost 2.30 nuevo soles, which is about 80 cents US. Jen bought a really nice skirt for about 5 nuevo soles. We found out today that weve been drinking the local water without knowing it. At the hostel they have a big Jug of water like what my parents have down on the farm. Apperently its tap water. Good thing we took the anti-e-coli meds before we left. Its really hot and muggy, I have burned my face, Jen used sun screen. grrr. We went for a long walk today along the ocean cliffs of Miraflores, its a pretty western area, we found a starbucks and little piece of me died inside. It doesnt look like well go to bolivia from peru. Its the rainy season and from what we here from other travellers the only way to get there is by flying, as the roads are more sketchy than usual. So our next stop will probably be Paracas, where we will take a boat ride over to islas ballestas, aka "the poor mans galapagos" where we will see our first penguins! Jen is posting some photos to facebook of today, but tomorrow we are going to take one of those dorky open air double decker tourist buses to see more of the city so we will have more pics then.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Hola de Peru!
So we´re here. Safe and sound and very exhuasted after 22 hours of travel and *no* sleep.
The hostel is really nice, clean bright room with hot showers. That´s really all I could ask for right now.
Mmm, I could also use some food.
Sleep or food....
I think sleeping will win...
Adios!
The hostel is really nice, clean bright room with hot showers. That´s really all I could ask for right now.
Mmm, I could also use some food.
Sleep or food....
I think sleeping will win...
Adios!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Okay. This is it.
We leave tomorrow morning.
So what am I doing? A little Facebooking, of course. But I really do need to finish up a few things. Like packing. We have most of our gear all packed, it's just our clothes from the last few weeks that are strewn all over my dad's spare room (aka Brian's room).
I think everything on the list is done: photocopied all documents to leave with dad, called VISA & phone companies, given power of attorney for bank account to dad so he can easily send us new cards if ours get stolen, said goodbye to all....
Is it done? Really? Probably not...
AHHHHH. Seriously. We leave tomorrow. 22 hours of transit time.... just waiting til we get there.... but in less than 48 hours I will happily be drinking cervasa and surfing in warm weather. It's 4 degrees and raining here in Vancouver. It's 22 degrees and sunny in Lima. WooHoo!
So I have no idea what to expect....but the time has finally come!
YIPPEEE!!!
So what am I doing? A little Facebooking, of course. But I really do need to finish up a few things. Like packing. We have most of our gear all packed, it's just our clothes from the last few weeks that are strewn all over my dad's spare room (aka Brian's room).
I think everything on the list is done: photocopied all documents to leave with dad, called VISA & phone companies, given power of attorney for bank account to dad so he can easily send us new cards if ours get stolen, said goodbye to all....
Is it done? Really? Probably not...
AHHHHH. Seriously. We leave tomorrow. 22 hours of transit time.... just waiting til we get there.... but in less than 48 hours I will happily be drinking cervasa and surfing in warm weather. It's 4 degrees and raining here in Vancouver. It's 22 degrees and sunny in Lima. WooHoo!
So I have no idea what to expect....but the time has finally come!
YIPPEEE!!!
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