Let me just start by saying, I must really love my girlfriend. There have been a number of times that I have allowed her to convince me to partake in activities that I had sworn off for life. On this trip alone she has several times convinced me to change our itinerary to follow some new adventure, including adding two unplanned countries to our journey -- Uruguay and Bolivia. Now, this is not to say that I have ever regretted allowing her to pull me from my somewhat rigid proclomations against certain activities, just to illustrate the degree to which my seeming inflexibility fades with the appearance of the puppy dog eyes and an excited face.
As you may have guessed at this point, one of my 'I am not doing that!' exclamations applied to the Amazonian jungle. Bugs and I have a very unequal relationship, which is to say, they love me and I, in turn, hate them. Having declared all blood sucking insects my sworn enemies, I saw no reason to seek them out unnecessarily.
I went astray by convincing Kate that she too should read our guidebook as I had already done months before. Dutifully fullfilling my request, she poured through numerous sections on towns (and entire countries) that I had avoided bringing up during the planning process. As she read, she would excitedly tap me on the shoulder and relate details of various locations that peaked her interest. I, at that point, would make my best, most stern 'we don't have time for that' face, but ultimately her excitement and curiosity almost always won out.
It was by this means that I succumbed to researching and eventually booking a jungle tour before we left for the Inca Trail. After a few days rest, we set out for 5 days and 4 nights in the Madre de Dios region, a feeder river of the Amazon located near the Bolivian and Brazilian borders in Peru.
Mind you, I had not exactly packed with a jungle adventure in mind, though we did have a hefty supply of 30% deet bug spray and malaria pills due the to the overcautiousness of Kate's travel doctor. The result is that I had to decide between sweating profusely inside my wool long-sleeved shirt (not having any lighter weight long-sleeve shirts) on a 90 degree, 95% humidty, 6 mile trek through the jungle or being driven insane trying to fight off bugs for over 4 hours. From the title of this post you can guess which option I chose.
Additionally, because of particularly aggressive ants that latch on to your shoes as you walk and procede to climb up your legs under your pants and chomp on you, I made the fashion-forward decision to tuck my pants into my socks. A smart choice, I might add, as I did find several ants on my pants, which is a far better place to find them then under your pants.
Despite the fact that I was drenched in sweat (and still sustaining some bites on my small patches of uncovered skin, namely my neck), it was a great day. The hottest and longest hiking day of the 5 we spent in the jungle, but full of memorable sights. On the hike our guide lured several tarantula out of their homes in the ground - one the size of my fist; spotted a 'monster' frog that looks remarkably like the dried leaves covering the forest floor; caught a transparent butterfly whose wings are completely see-through but for a touch of fuschia on the tips; teased out a baby caiman (alligator) in the lake we visited and its 10 foot long mother; introduced us to the call of the howler monkey whose territory we walked straight into in time to see several of the monkeys including a mother with its baby clinging to it; and pointed out the Amazon's largest snake, the Anaconda, sunning his over 30 foot long body beside the lake (the width of this guy was slightly larger than my head and he is capable of comfortably eating a child of 4 feet or so, though he only really needs to hunt once a year and spends the rest of it basking in the sun and digesting). Additionally, we saw tons of birds including colorful macaws and Hotazins (at least, I think that's how you spell it, but here's a good picture nonetheless), a stick bug, numerous turtles as well as jungle plants and flowers.
I probably lost about 5 pounds in water weight on that particular day, but the heat certainly made the lack of hot water at our lodge a downright blessing. That this town is a mere 30 min plane ride from Cuzco - 18 hrs by bus because of the poor road conditions - and the Andes is just amazing to me. They are working on building a road and expect to have it completely paved in the next 3 yrs, cutting the journey down to 8 hrs by car. There are also plans for a bridge over the river, making the trip to Bolivia and Brazil more navigable as well. (Presently vehicles have to be put on a boat and ferried across the river, much like what we experienced on our trip from La Paz to Copacabana where our big tour bus was put on a very rickety boat while the rest of us took a more sea-worthy vessel across a small section of Lake Titicaca.)
So ultimately, I should stop my whining because it was a pretty amazing experience. All the same, I did my best to minimize developing a photographic record of what I looked like on that particular day, though I think Kate sneaked in two which she might presently be uploading on the computer next to me. I'll let you all search for them!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The Inca Trail: Amazing!
Yesterday Jess and I completed one of the activities in our trip that we were most looking forward to: the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. This benchmark also means that we are done with half of our trip, which is sort of unbelievable. However, the Inca Trail was everything we had hoped it would be. For 4 days we fell into a comfortable routine of hiking till exhaustion, eating, sleeping, and seeing Inca ruins. The food was also amazing: 3 or 4 courses of good local food for breakfast, lunch and dinner with plenty of snacks in between. We had a lot of fun with the other couples in our group--an interesting assortment of people from England, Sweden, Holland and Portugal.
The Incan Trail was certainly anything but flat and the Incan´s don´t appear to have been interested in switchbacks. We hiked mostly stone stairs up and down the Andes for 4 days. The second and hardest day involved hiking over Dead Women´s Pass at 13,776 feet. The pass is so named because the profile of the pass looks like a woman lying on her back, including her nipple which we spent hours staring at trying to reach! On the third day we saw several ruins as we continued to hike up and down two more passes. Our extremely knowledgable guide taught us a great deal about the Inca Empire and ethic, some of which survives to this day in remote mountain communities.
However, the fourth day, when we were to arrive in Machu Picchu, was when the real contest began. The checkpoint at the beginning of the final stretch of trail leading to Machu Picchu opens at 5:30 am and everyone wants to be the first group to reach the Sun Gate for the postcard picture of the city at dawn. Our group woke at 3:30 that day in order to eat and queue up at the checkpoint--ensuring that we would have a competitive advantage on the final 6 km hike. After passing through the checkpoint, our group broke into a run, fueled mostly by the desire to be first for it´s own sake (we were a bit of a competitive group). I suspected that it might not really matter all that much but the game had already begun.
We lost a bit of steam when we arrived at a set of stone stairs leading straight up for about 50 feet. The stairs were each about 6 inches deep and 2 feet tall, meaning that all 4´s were necessary. Afterwards the trail leveled out a bit only to take a sharp left turn into an even longer and steeper set of stairs. This is when it began to feel like a real pilgramage. I thought maybe the Sun Gate would be at the top...but it wasn´t. When we did arrive a few minutes later we realized that we had won! We were the first group to the Sun Gate overlooking Machu Picchu! It took me a minute to locate the ancient city, however, because it was obscured in a giant cloud that wouldn´t burn off for an hour or so, by which time it would be filled with tourists. No matter however, because they also sell the postcard pictures and they are probably better than I could take anyway.
For the next few hours our guide gave us a tour of the city and explained that this was likely the center of learning and religion for the Incas: here they were undertaking the study of astronomy, experimental farming with plants from the Amazon, and worship of the Sun. It was also the location of the Temple of the Condor, one of the three mythically important animals for the Incas (the others being the serpent and the puma). It was an amazing city and I think that the 4 day trek made us appreciate it even more.
After exploring Machu Picchu a bit on our own we headed down the mountain to the nearest inhabited town called Aguas Calientes, so named because of its thermal springs. Our group indulged in some beer and pizza and headed for the springs to soak our achey muscles.
Feeling two parts tired and one part nostalgic, we headed back to Cuzco where we prepare for our next trip, this one to the Amazonian jungle. As we have had more luck with the internet connection here, you can find some new pictures on Flickr now. Our new strategy is to post only highlight photos, not all the photos and some are quite old as we have much catching up to do. Enjoy!
The Incan Trail was certainly anything but flat and the Incan´s don´t appear to have been interested in switchbacks. We hiked mostly stone stairs up and down the Andes for 4 days. The second and hardest day involved hiking over Dead Women´s Pass at 13,776 feet. The pass is so named because the profile of the pass looks like a woman lying on her back, including her nipple which we spent hours staring at trying to reach! On the third day we saw several ruins as we continued to hike up and down two more passes. Our extremely knowledgable guide taught us a great deal about the Inca Empire and ethic, some of which survives to this day in remote mountain communities.
However, the fourth day, when we were to arrive in Machu Picchu, was when the real contest began. The checkpoint at the beginning of the final stretch of trail leading to Machu Picchu opens at 5:30 am and everyone wants to be the first group to reach the Sun Gate for the postcard picture of the city at dawn. Our group woke at 3:30 that day in order to eat and queue up at the checkpoint--ensuring that we would have a competitive advantage on the final 6 km hike. After passing through the checkpoint, our group broke into a run, fueled mostly by the desire to be first for it´s own sake (we were a bit of a competitive group). I suspected that it might not really matter all that much but the game had already begun.
We lost a bit of steam when we arrived at a set of stone stairs leading straight up for about 50 feet. The stairs were each about 6 inches deep and 2 feet tall, meaning that all 4´s were necessary. Afterwards the trail leveled out a bit only to take a sharp left turn into an even longer and steeper set of stairs. This is when it began to feel like a real pilgramage. I thought maybe the Sun Gate would be at the top...but it wasn´t. When we did arrive a few minutes later we realized that we had won! We were the first group to the Sun Gate overlooking Machu Picchu! It took me a minute to locate the ancient city, however, because it was obscured in a giant cloud that wouldn´t burn off for an hour or so, by which time it would be filled with tourists. No matter however, because they also sell the postcard pictures and they are probably better than I could take anyway.
For the next few hours our guide gave us a tour of the city and explained that this was likely the center of learning and religion for the Incas: here they were undertaking the study of astronomy, experimental farming with plants from the Amazon, and worship of the Sun. It was also the location of the Temple of the Condor, one of the three mythically important animals for the Incas (the others being the serpent and the puma). It was an amazing city and I think that the 4 day trek made us appreciate it even more.
After exploring Machu Picchu a bit on our own we headed down the mountain to the nearest inhabited town called Aguas Calientes, so named because of its thermal springs. Our group indulged in some beer and pizza and headed for the springs to soak our achey muscles.
Feeling two parts tired and one part nostalgic, we headed back to Cuzco where we prepare for our next trip, this one to the Amazonian jungle. As we have had more luck with the internet connection here, you can find some new pictures on Flickr now. Our new strategy is to post only highlight photos, not all the photos and some are quite old as we have much catching up to do. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The World´s Most Dangerous Road
After what had seemed like an eternity in the driest desert on the planet (no joke--not even an insect lives there), Jess and I thought it might be nice to have a change in ecosystem. This is the reason we chose to ride mountain bikes down the world´s most dangerous road in Bolivia. This road, now only used by tours and mountain bikers since the construction of a less crazed road, drops roughly 10,000 feet in 80 kilometers. That is to say, it is 90% downhill riding, which is about all the biking we were up for after 6 weeks of being lazy vacationers.
The road began in the mountains outside of La Paz where glaciers and clouds flanked the road. The guide gave us instructions on proper braking, which would be our primary occupation for the next 6 hours. We also loaded up on the clothing layers which we would shed throughout the day. After getting a few kilometers under our belts (and one drug check-point), the sharp sting of cold air started to ease and the clouds got a lot more dense. We also started to see some small scrubby plants. This was the beginning of the cloudforest. The air slowly got more humid and the plants more dense though the mountains peaks remained dramatically steep. We dropped a couple of layers in the support bus.
Soon we were riding through the clouds and it started to rain on my glasses. The pavement gave way to gravel and the greenery got greener and bushier. Moss and vines started to appear and we had to do a bit of uphill riding before the road turned to dirt and rocks. After droping another layer in the bus, the clouds slowly disappeared and the trees got bigger and more tropical. We saw bananas, butterflies and squaking birds. Yet the peaks and drop-offs remained quite steep and our guide had us pause to look at a dead truck that had fallen 600 feet strait down into a gulch. He also pointed out a precipice from which several political dissidents were tossed (perhaps not remarkable when one considers that the country has had over 220 coups and 175 presidents in about 155 years of independence). We paused for some bug spray and a snack.
It was then time to decend into the Yungas, the tropical coffee, banana and coca-growing region. We stripped down to bare essentials for the final drop as we passed terraced agricultural plots in the mountain-sides and rode through small waterfalls. We made our way to our final destination: the animal refuge in Coroico. There we ate a much deserved buffet with beer among the monkeys (recovering pickpockets), maccaws, and jungle chickens.
I write this post from the beautiful Lake Titicaca--birthplace of civilization according to the Incas. Tomorrow we are off to Cuzco to prepare for hiking the Incan trail to Macchu Pichu. More stories will surely follow!
The road began in the mountains outside of La Paz where glaciers and clouds flanked the road. The guide gave us instructions on proper braking, which would be our primary occupation for the next 6 hours. We also loaded up on the clothing layers which we would shed throughout the day. After getting a few kilometers under our belts (and one drug check-point), the sharp sting of cold air started to ease and the clouds got a lot more dense. We also started to see some small scrubby plants. This was the beginning of the cloudforest. The air slowly got more humid and the plants more dense though the mountains peaks remained dramatically steep. We dropped a couple of layers in the support bus.
Soon we were riding through the clouds and it started to rain on my glasses. The pavement gave way to gravel and the greenery got greener and bushier. Moss and vines started to appear and we had to do a bit of uphill riding before the road turned to dirt and rocks. After droping another layer in the bus, the clouds slowly disappeared and the trees got bigger and more tropical. We saw bananas, butterflies and squaking birds. Yet the peaks and drop-offs remained quite steep and our guide had us pause to look at a dead truck that had fallen 600 feet strait down into a gulch. He also pointed out a precipice from which several political dissidents were tossed (perhaps not remarkable when one considers that the country has had over 220 coups and 175 presidents in about 155 years of independence). We paused for some bug spray and a snack.
It was then time to decend into the Yungas, the tropical coffee, banana and coca-growing region. We stripped down to bare essentials for the final drop as we passed terraced agricultural plots in the mountain-sides and rode through small waterfalls. We made our way to our final destination: the animal refuge in Coroico. There we ate a much deserved buffet with beer among the monkeys (recovering pickpockets), maccaws, and jungle chickens.
I write this post from the beautiful Lake Titicaca--birthplace of civilization according to the Incas. Tomorrow we are off to Cuzco to prepare for hiking the Incan trail to Macchu Pichu. More stories will surely follow!
Monday, September 03, 2007
Living the high life
We´ve been spending our time at a pretty high elevation lately. After travelling to Chile under a full lunar eclipse, we spent four days trying to rid ourselves of the light nagging headaches that are so common when you jump thousands of feet. Fortunately, the coca leaves kept it all under control. You buy them in packages of maybe $1 or 2, stick seven leaves in your mouth and chew, swallowing the juice and spitting out the leaves. They work so well that I wonder if I´m going to undergo a withdrawal when we leave the coca-legal countries.
Kate described our first few days in San Pedro de Atacama - salty lakes, hot springs and geysers - in her last post. After mastering the 16,000 foot elevation of the geysers, we decided we were ready for a larger physical challenge. We rented mountain bikes and sand boards and headed out for the dunes. I´m sure I´d say differently right after finishing a half ironman, but really, lugging your bike through the sand with a board on your back and then climbing up sandy dunes when you´re at 9,000 feet is probably on par with the effort expended completing a triathlon. All that energy to spend 30 or 40 seconds flying down a dune - and in my case, trying not to eat too much sand as you wipe out in an effort to control your speed. Fun, but I won´t be starting my sand surfing career real soon.
Having decided that we hadn´t punished our bodies enough, we kept the bikes for the rest of the day and rode out to another ¨Valle de la Luna¨. It turns out this a really popular name for parks in South America...you´d think half the continent resembled the surface of the moon! I have to admit, however, that this park was pretty darn amazing, with giant sand dunes, multi colored, striped cliffs and amazing views. I´ve never seen anything like it in my life. We sat there for a good hour at the top of one dune recovering for the ride back and taking in the breathtaking scenery.
Jump ahead one day and we find ourselves on a 3 day tour of Bolivian sights with quite the international group - Ireland, Scotland, Japan, France, Holland, Australia and the U.S. all being represented. I think the iconic image of these past three days must be a circa 1985 four by four with heaps of luggage, a spare tire and spare gas strapped to the roof, bumping its way across this lonely, high desert leaving behind a stream of dust. What a crazy place this is...where the lakes are red, green and white, where the flamingoes share the landscape with a rare cousin of the llama and smoking volcanoes. I don´t think the dust will be off our packs, clothes or hair till we leave Bolivia and I barely remember what a paved road feels like at this point.
Hasta luego, mis amigos!
Kate described our first few days in San Pedro de Atacama - salty lakes, hot springs and geysers - in her last post. After mastering the 16,000 foot elevation of the geysers, we decided we were ready for a larger physical challenge. We rented mountain bikes and sand boards and headed out for the dunes. I´m sure I´d say differently right after finishing a half ironman, but really, lugging your bike through the sand with a board on your back and then climbing up sandy dunes when you´re at 9,000 feet is probably on par with the effort expended completing a triathlon. All that energy to spend 30 or 40 seconds flying down a dune - and in my case, trying not to eat too much sand as you wipe out in an effort to control your speed. Fun, but I won´t be starting my sand surfing career real soon.
Having decided that we hadn´t punished our bodies enough, we kept the bikes for the rest of the day and rode out to another ¨Valle de la Luna¨. It turns out this a really popular name for parks in South America...you´d think half the continent resembled the surface of the moon! I have to admit, however, that this park was pretty darn amazing, with giant sand dunes, multi colored, striped cliffs and amazing views. I´ve never seen anything like it in my life. We sat there for a good hour at the top of one dune recovering for the ride back and taking in the breathtaking scenery.
Jump ahead one day and we find ourselves on a 3 day tour of Bolivian sights with quite the international group - Ireland, Scotland, Japan, France, Holland, Australia and the U.S. all being represented. I think the iconic image of these past three days must be a circa 1985 four by four with heaps of luggage, a spare tire and spare gas strapped to the roof, bumping its way across this lonely, high desert leaving behind a stream of dust. What a crazy place this is...where the lakes are red, green and white, where the flamingoes share the landscape with a rare cousin of the llama and smoking volcanoes. I don´t think the dust will be off our packs, clothes or hair till we leave Bolivia and I barely remember what a paved road feels like at this point.
Hasta luego, mis amigos!
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