Join us on our adventure as we travel the world!
April 30, 2011
Video of Ziplining
The company we went with (Cola de Mono) is Peru’s first, and South America’s highest. There are 2500 m of cables in six sections. The longest ride or section is 400m long, and the highest is 150m high. It was an amazing experience!
April 29, 2011
Machu Picchu
We’ve just returned from our latest adventure – a 4-day trip to Machu Picchu. The last 4 days have been really busy and non-stop excitement. Before I get into the details of our adventure, I think it would be best to explain just what Machu Picchu is and a bit of the history behind it.
According to what we’ve learned from the guides, Machu Picchu, also known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, was built by the Incans in and around the 15th century. They continued building this city for over 130 years. The city was meant as a refuge for the Incans. Most of them lived in the nearby cities (such as Cusco), but they travelled there for schools, important events, and for holidays. In around 1570 or so, the Spaniards started arriving in Peru. The Spaniards started to invade the culture of the Incans so the Incans decided to leave Machu Picchu in order to hide it from the Spaniards. They fled the city and went to other nearby villages destroying the access routes (the famous “Inca Trail”) so that the Spaniards wouldn’t find it. They were successful, and for hundreds of years the city lay hidden and almost forgotten from memory. In 1911, Hiram Bingham, an American explorer was in the area when he ran into some locals who mentioned to him that they knew about some ruins that existed on the top of one of the nearby mountains. He checked it out and discovered the city and made it well-known internationally. For the first few years the city was raided of almost all of its artifacts and it was treated poorly, but in 1950, the Peruvian government stepped in and restored a lot of it and put in a large number of restrictions in order to preserve the historical city. Today Machu Picchu is one of the most famous tourist destinations in all of South America. For many, it is the reason to visit Peru. Thousands of visitors come every day to explore it’s wonders. The city is extremely picturesque and exciting to explore. Adding to its wonder is it’s remote location. For years the only way to get to it was the famous “Inca Trail”, which itself was also restored. It is a good 3 or 4 day walk through some beautiful scenery to arrive at Machu Picchu. In recent years, they’ve also added a train service for the lazier travellers that brings you to the base of the mountain within a few hours of the city of Cusco. The Inca Trail remains the most popular way to get to Machu Picchu, however unfortunately it’s popularity has also become it’s downfall. Many years of 100’s of hikers every day have taken their toll on the trail and it was starting to lose it’s wonder. The government stepped in an initiated a cleanup and restoration project and it is now much better. They have also added restrictions so that only 500 people a day are allowed on the trail. This means that you need to book months in advance in order to hike the trail.
We had no idea when we were going to arrive in Peru, so we did not book anything ahead of time. When we arrive here in Cusco, we discovered that the trail was booked up until August. Thankfully, the restrictions on the trail has forced the creation of all kinds of alternative trails. We had the option of hiking many of these alternatives, and we eventually decided on the trip named “The Inca Jungle Tour to Machu Picchu”. This looked like the best option for us and we were correct. It was great.
On Monday morning we woke up early to take a 3 hour bus ride to start our trip. On the bus we met the other members of our group. We had two guys from England, two from Israel, one from Germany, and us. They were all pretty nice guys and we got to know them pretty well by the end of the trip. Joh was the only girl in our group which was not so nice for her, but she ended up having a great time and she had no problems keeping up to everyone through all our activities. Also, her sore foot was never really a problem, and for a lot of the trip she was out in front setting the pace.
We finished our initial bus ride on the top of a nearby mountain. The tour company provided mountain bikes for us, and we started our trip by descending over 3000 vertical meters on a 50km road down the mountain. The ride started out at an extremely high altitude, so the temperature was around zero and we were in the middle of a cloud, so we were wet and freezing cold. The first few kilometers were excruciatingly cold, but with every meter of altitude that we lost, it became warmer and warmer. By the time we were 10km into the decent the weather had become much better and we could really start to enjoy ourselves. The biking was very easy, as we were constantly going downhill, but it was wet, so if we went too quickly there was the danger of slipping and falling off the side of the road, hundreds of meters to the valley below, so we took it easy. Eventually we made it down to the bottom where the climate was much different. We were now in the jungle. We biked along the muddy, bumpy jungle road for an hour or so and when were exhausted we finally made it to our lunch stop. All of us were covered in mud and soaking wet so we were really glad to rest for a while. We stopped in a small town where we were to spend the night.
We had the option to do some rafting on the river that afternoon/evening, but our whole group was exhausted and in need of some dry, clean clothes and a rest so we decided to forgo that. Joh had a nice, well-deserved nap in the lodge, and I joined in on a game of soccer with the other travellers and some locals. We had a great time, although my soccer skills were definitely lacking compared to all the Europeans and locals that had grown up playing soccer daily. If only they could have set up some ice hockey or something, then I might have had a chance.
We awoke early the next morning for our trek. The day was spent trekking over 9 hours through the jungle and along some mountain roads. We saw some amazing scenery and walked on parts of the original Inca Trail (a section outside of the official trail leading to Machu Picchu). Parts of the trail were extremely difficult – quite steep and muddy, and it was very hot and humid. We walked through both jungle and mountain terrain so we got to see quite a variety of vegetation and landscapes. By the end of the day we were extremely tired and to be honest - quite sick of walking.
The next day, we had the option to go to a local zip line. We jumped at that opportunity, and we had a great time. We got to slide down 6 different lines, cris-crossing the valleys. We were a little hesitant on the first, but after one or two lines you ignore your nerves and go across with no hands and really enjoy the sensation. Great views too. I managed to take a video of one of the rides, so we’ll try get that posted here on the blog as soon as possible.
After the zip lines we had a short bus ride and then another trek. The trek was pretty simple that day as we just followed some train tracks for a few hours towards the city of Aguas Calientes, which is the small tourist town at the bottom of Machu Picchu mountain. Along the way we were treated to a few views of Machu Picchu from afar, so it really got us excited about the next day when we could see it up close. It was a long walk and we were still pretty tired from the previous day’s trek, but eventually we made it into town. After settling into our hostel there, we explored the town and went swimming in the local hot springs. It felt great to relax in the hot water after all the walking we had done in the last few days. That night we had a big dinner and made plans for our day in Machu Picchu.
One of the popular hikes around Machu Picchu is the climb up to the top of Wayna Picchu, which is a big cliff that is right beside Machu Picchu. The climb up and the view from the top is supposed to be amazing. Unfortunately, only 400 people a day are permitted to climb up the Wanya Picchu, and it is first come, first served. In order to be one of those 400, you need to arrive first thing in the morning. So every morning, there is a big race to try and get to Machu Picchu first to get the permit to climb Wayna Picchu. There are basically two ways to get there: by bus or by walking up the mountain. The first bus leaves at 5:30 and subsequent ones leave every 5 minutes. The gates to climb up the mountain by foot open at 5:00. So either you need to run up the mountain as fast as you can to beat the buses, or get on one of the first buses. In theory, both the runners and the buses should arrive at Machu Picchu at approximately 6:00. We were in no condition to attempt to run up a mountain, so we opted to get up early to try get on one of the first buses. Our guide recommended that we get to the bus stop at around 3:45 in order to guarantee your spot. We woke up the next morning at 3:15 and we were at the bus stop by 3:30. There were already around 30 or 40 people in line so we figured our chances were decent. Unfortunately, those 30 or 40 people over the next two hours swelled to about 100, as people were saving spots for others and there were a few people that managed to cut in front. We ended up on the 3rd bus, and we were still optimistic that we’d be able to get the permit. When we got to the top of the mountain, there was a huge crowd of people. It looked like there were probably around 400 so we were still hopeful. As we moved up in the queue, we got more nervous and eventually one of the guys from our own group grabbed the last permit for himself. He was around 10 to 20 people in front of us in line. We were disappointed, and a little pissed off that we had woken up at 3:15 for nothing, but we put the smiles back on and remembered where we were and resolved ourselves to enjoy the day anyways.
When we entered Machu Picchu it was quite an amazing site. We had seen countless photographs of the place before, but to see it in person is absolutely awe-inspiring. Surrounded by ruins and huge scenic cliffs, it seemed like we were in another world. Our tour included a two-hour guided tour of the city, so we took that and we learned a lot about the history of the place, as well as the architectural methods used. It was pretty amazing. The first few hours were pretty cloudy, so it was difficult to get some great photos, but every once in a while the clouds would move around just enough so that we could get some great shots. After the tour we explored the ruins by ourselves and got a chance to get some really stunning photos. The best view we got was from the path up to the sun gate which is a kilometer or so up the other side of the mountain. From there we had some great views of the whole city and Wayna Picchu. I think the views we got from there were just as good as the ones we would have gotten from climbing up Wayna Picchu, so I have no regrets that we couldn’t go up there. After exploring for about 5 or 6 hours we had had enough. Getting up really early that morning started to take its toll, so we took the bus back down into town and enjoyed a beer and a really badly cooked pizza. We still had a few hours so we spent some time searching the town for a souvenir spoon for my mom (success finally! – they’re hard to find in Peru) and had another meal (trekking and touring makes you really hungry) and then caught the train/bus combo back to Cusco. We arrived back here at around 11pm, and fell into our beds exhausted.
When we woke up this morning we were treated to the most wretched stench ever. The clothes and shoes that we had worn for 4 days in a row were absolutely foul. If you’ve ever hiked for 4 days in the same pair of socks though muddy trails, while constantly sweating you might have some idea as to what that smelled like. I really pity the laundry lady at our hostel.
It was great to have a hot shower and a clean change of clothes. We had a nice breakfast this morning and relaxed in a café while we got caught up on emails and all that. We’ll spend the weekend here in Cusco taking it easy and then we leave on Monday to fly to the north-western region of Peru. There we hope to spend some time living in a beach town (probably Mancora) for a month or so. We plan to learn to surf and to spend some time working on some non-travel-related goals for a while. These last few weeks we’ve seen and done quite a few things so it will be good to focus on something else for a while. We’re really looking forward to it.
Our hostel here in Cusco has Wi-Fi, but it is very slow. We will try post our pictures and videos from our tour soon, but it is likely that it will take a few days to get all the photos uploaded. We’ve got a lot of them, so please be patient. I’m sure Joh will have them ready within the next few days.
According to what we’ve learned from the guides, Machu Picchu, also known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, was built by the Incans in and around the 15th century. They continued building this city for over 130 years. The city was meant as a refuge for the Incans. Most of them lived in the nearby cities (such as Cusco), but they travelled there for schools, important events, and for holidays. In around 1570 or so, the Spaniards started arriving in Peru. The Spaniards started to invade the culture of the Incans so the Incans decided to leave Machu Picchu in order to hide it from the Spaniards. They fled the city and went to other nearby villages destroying the access routes (the famous “Inca Trail”) so that the Spaniards wouldn’t find it. They were successful, and for hundreds of years the city lay hidden and almost forgotten from memory. In 1911, Hiram Bingham, an American explorer was in the area when he ran into some locals who mentioned to him that they knew about some ruins that existed on the top of one of the nearby mountains. He checked it out and discovered the city and made it well-known internationally. For the first few years the city was raided of almost all of its artifacts and it was treated poorly, but in 1950, the Peruvian government stepped in and restored a lot of it and put in a large number of restrictions in order to preserve the historical city. Today Machu Picchu is one of the most famous tourist destinations in all of South America. For many, it is the reason to visit Peru. Thousands of visitors come every day to explore it’s wonders. The city is extremely picturesque and exciting to explore. Adding to its wonder is it’s remote location. For years the only way to get to it was the famous “Inca Trail”, which itself was also restored. It is a good 3 or 4 day walk through some beautiful scenery to arrive at Machu Picchu. In recent years, they’ve also added a train service for the lazier travellers that brings you to the base of the mountain within a few hours of the city of Cusco. The Inca Trail remains the most popular way to get to Machu Picchu, however unfortunately it’s popularity has also become it’s downfall. Many years of 100’s of hikers every day have taken their toll on the trail and it was starting to lose it’s wonder. The government stepped in an initiated a cleanup and restoration project and it is now much better. They have also added restrictions so that only 500 people a day are allowed on the trail. This means that you need to book months in advance in order to hike the trail.
We had no idea when we were going to arrive in Peru, so we did not book anything ahead of time. When we arrive here in Cusco, we discovered that the trail was booked up until August. Thankfully, the restrictions on the trail has forced the creation of all kinds of alternative trails. We had the option of hiking many of these alternatives, and we eventually decided on the trip named “The Inca Jungle Tour to Machu Picchu”. This looked like the best option for us and we were correct. It was great.
On Monday morning we woke up early to take a 3 hour bus ride to start our trip. On the bus we met the other members of our group. We had two guys from England, two from Israel, one from Germany, and us. They were all pretty nice guys and we got to know them pretty well by the end of the trip. Joh was the only girl in our group which was not so nice for her, but she ended up having a great time and she had no problems keeping up to everyone through all our activities. Also, her sore foot was never really a problem, and for a lot of the trip she was out in front setting the pace.
We finished our initial bus ride on the top of a nearby mountain. The tour company provided mountain bikes for us, and we started our trip by descending over 3000 vertical meters on a 50km road down the mountain. The ride started out at an extremely high altitude, so the temperature was around zero and we were in the middle of a cloud, so we were wet and freezing cold. The first few kilometers were excruciatingly cold, but with every meter of altitude that we lost, it became warmer and warmer. By the time we were 10km into the decent the weather had become much better and we could really start to enjoy ourselves. The biking was very easy, as we were constantly going downhill, but it was wet, so if we went too quickly there was the danger of slipping and falling off the side of the road, hundreds of meters to the valley below, so we took it easy. Eventually we made it down to the bottom where the climate was much different. We were now in the jungle. We biked along the muddy, bumpy jungle road for an hour or so and when were exhausted we finally made it to our lunch stop. All of us were covered in mud and soaking wet so we were really glad to rest for a while. We stopped in a small town where we were to spend the night.
We had the option to do some rafting on the river that afternoon/evening, but our whole group was exhausted and in need of some dry, clean clothes and a rest so we decided to forgo that. Joh had a nice, well-deserved nap in the lodge, and I joined in on a game of soccer with the other travellers and some locals. We had a great time, although my soccer skills were definitely lacking compared to all the Europeans and locals that had grown up playing soccer daily. If only they could have set up some ice hockey or something, then I might have had a chance.
We awoke early the next morning for our trek. The day was spent trekking over 9 hours through the jungle and along some mountain roads. We saw some amazing scenery and walked on parts of the original Inca Trail (a section outside of the official trail leading to Machu Picchu). Parts of the trail were extremely difficult – quite steep and muddy, and it was very hot and humid. We walked through both jungle and mountain terrain so we got to see quite a variety of vegetation and landscapes. By the end of the day we were extremely tired and to be honest - quite sick of walking.
The next day, we had the option to go to a local zip line. We jumped at that opportunity, and we had a great time. We got to slide down 6 different lines, cris-crossing the valleys. We were a little hesitant on the first, but after one or two lines you ignore your nerves and go across with no hands and really enjoy the sensation. Great views too. I managed to take a video of one of the rides, so we’ll try get that posted here on the blog as soon as possible.
After the zip lines we had a short bus ride and then another trek. The trek was pretty simple that day as we just followed some train tracks for a few hours towards the city of Aguas Calientes, which is the small tourist town at the bottom of Machu Picchu mountain. Along the way we were treated to a few views of Machu Picchu from afar, so it really got us excited about the next day when we could see it up close. It was a long walk and we were still pretty tired from the previous day’s trek, but eventually we made it into town. After settling into our hostel there, we explored the town and went swimming in the local hot springs. It felt great to relax in the hot water after all the walking we had done in the last few days. That night we had a big dinner and made plans for our day in Machu Picchu.
One of the popular hikes around Machu Picchu is the climb up to the top of Wayna Picchu, which is a big cliff that is right beside Machu Picchu. The climb up and the view from the top is supposed to be amazing. Unfortunately, only 400 people a day are permitted to climb up the Wanya Picchu, and it is first come, first served. In order to be one of those 400, you need to arrive first thing in the morning. So every morning, there is a big race to try and get to Machu Picchu first to get the permit to climb Wayna Picchu. There are basically two ways to get there: by bus or by walking up the mountain. The first bus leaves at 5:30 and subsequent ones leave every 5 minutes. The gates to climb up the mountain by foot open at 5:00. So either you need to run up the mountain as fast as you can to beat the buses, or get on one of the first buses. In theory, both the runners and the buses should arrive at Machu Picchu at approximately 6:00. We were in no condition to attempt to run up a mountain, so we opted to get up early to try get on one of the first buses. Our guide recommended that we get to the bus stop at around 3:45 in order to guarantee your spot. We woke up the next morning at 3:15 and we were at the bus stop by 3:30. There were already around 30 or 40 people in line so we figured our chances were decent. Unfortunately, those 30 or 40 people over the next two hours swelled to about 100, as people were saving spots for others and there were a few people that managed to cut in front. We ended up on the 3rd bus, and we were still optimistic that we’d be able to get the permit. When we got to the top of the mountain, there was a huge crowd of people. It looked like there were probably around 400 so we were still hopeful. As we moved up in the queue, we got more nervous and eventually one of the guys from our own group grabbed the last permit for himself. He was around 10 to 20 people in front of us in line. We were disappointed, and a little pissed off that we had woken up at 3:15 for nothing, but we put the smiles back on and remembered where we were and resolved ourselves to enjoy the day anyways.
When we entered Machu Picchu it was quite an amazing site. We had seen countless photographs of the place before, but to see it in person is absolutely awe-inspiring. Surrounded by ruins and huge scenic cliffs, it seemed like we were in another world. Our tour included a two-hour guided tour of the city, so we took that and we learned a lot about the history of the place, as well as the architectural methods used. It was pretty amazing. The first few hours were pretty cloudy, so it was difficult to get some great photos, but every once in a while the clouds would move around just enough so that we could get some great shots. After the tour we explored the ruins by ourselves and got a chance to get some really stunning photos. The best view we got was from the path up to the sun gate which is a kilometer or so up the other side of the mountain. From there we had some great views of the whole city and Wayna Picchu. I think the views we got from there were just as good as the ones we would have gotten from climbing up Wayna Picchu, so I have no regrets that we couldn’t go up there. After exploring for about 5 or 6 hours we had had enough. Getting up really early that morning started to take its toll, so we took the bus back down into town and enjoyed a beer and a really badly cooked pizza. We still had a few hours so we spent some time searching the town for a souvenir spoon for my mom (success finally! – they’re hard to find in Peru) and had another meal (trekking and touring makes you really hungry) and then caught the train/bus combo back to Cusco. We arrived back here at around 11pm, and fell into our beds exhausted.
When we woke up this morning we were treated to the most wretched stench ever. The clothes and shoes that we had worn for 4 days in a row were absolutely foul. If you’ve ever hiked for 4 days in the same pair of socks though muddy trails, while constantly sweating you might have some idea as to what that smelled like. I really pity the laundry lady at our hostel.
It was great to have a hot shower and a clean change of clothes. We had a nice breakfast this morning and relaxed in a café while we got caught up on emails and all that. We’ll spend the weekend here in Cusco taking it easy and then we leave on Monday to fly to the north-western region of Peru. There we hope to spend some time living in a beach town (probably Mancora) for a month or so. We plan to learn to surf and to spend some time working on some non-travel-related goals for a while. These last few weeks we’ve seen and done quite a few things so it will be good to focus on something else for a while. We’re really looking forward to it.
Our hostel here in Cusco has Wi-Fi, but it is very slow. We will try post our pictures and videos from our tour soon, but it is likely that it will take a few days to get all the photos uploaded. We’ve got a lot of them, so please be patient. I’m sure Joh will have them ready within the next few days.
April 24, 2011
For you chocolate-lovers
The one thing we did do in Cusco so far was enroll in a chocolate-making workshop. We started the workshop by learning about the cacao tree, how it grows and how it is harvested. We learned how the chocolate is made from the bean to the actual chocolate bar. We tasted the bib (contents of the cacao bean) completely raw and then we roasted some and tasted that; both were rather bitter for my taste. After the roasting of the beans, we ground them by hand into a powdering, pasty finish.
We used the grounded beans to make 2 different hot chocolates, one with chili powder and one with sugar and milk.
The last and best part of the workshop was to make your own chocolate. Everyone got their own mold and bowl of 70% chocolate. You could mix different ingredients into your molds, such as nuts, coffee, raisins, salt, chili powder, quinoa, cinnamon, and anis. You could also add powdered milk and sugar to change the sweetness of the chocolate. I made mine with a random mix of ingredients; I forget what I mixed with what. So far, some turned out great and some I wouldn’t recommend others to eat. Jack went with his typical strategic approach, arranging everything with prefect common sense and drawing a diagram to make sure he knew what was what. The workshop turned out to be an awesome way to fill 2 hours.
Roasting the beans
extracting the beans from the shells
grinding the beans
grinding the beans every smaller
preparing our various favours of chocolates
Just a Quick Update
We left La Paz early Tuesday morning by bus, crossed the Peru border and headed into Cusco. Cusco so far seems like an intriguing city full of beautiful buildings and lots of history. We unfortunately have not really explored much of Cusco yet. Both Jack and I contracted some sort of stomach infection (we guess from the Amazon) so we have been a little lazy to take on hours of walking. We have gotten some antibiotics from the local pharmacy and since then we’ve been feeling much better.
We spent a lot of time sitting in the main square, which is the perfect place to people-watch and take in the wonderful cathedrals and building outlining the massive square. The only thing that you have to get used to is being approached every 2 seconds to buy pictures, paintings, massages, tours, drugs, shoe shines and many random knick-knacks. Jack and I had about 100 massage offers in one day.
We leave for a 4-day tour to Machu Picchu on Monday morning. The usual route via the official Inca Trail is sold out so we’ve opted for the “Inca Jungle” tour which includes some mountain biking and trekking through other sections of the Inca Trail for a few days and then spending the last day (Thursday) exploring Machu Picchu itself. We will describe everything in detail when we return.
We return late on Thursday night and stay in Cusco until Monday morning. We plan to jump on a plane to Lima, then a couple hours later jump on a plane to Tumbes. From Tumbes we will take a short bus ride to Mancora. Mancora is a little beach town in the north of Peru where the sun is always shining and there is a great beach where we can hopefully learn how to surf. We would like to rent an apartment there for a month where we can finally enjoy some warm weather for longer than 5 or 6 days.
We spent a lot of time sitting in the main square, which is the perfect place to people-watch and take in the wonderful cathedrals and building outlining the massive square. The only thing that you have to get used to is being approached every 2 seconds to buy pictures, paintings, massages, tours, drugs, shoe shines and many random knick-knacks. Jack and I had about 100 massage offers in one day.
We leave for a 4-day tour to Machu Picchu on Monday morning. The usual route via the official Inca Trail is sold out so we’ve opted for the “Inca Jungle” tour which includes some mountain biking and trekking through other sections of the Inca Trail for a few days and then spending the last day (Thursday) exploring Machu Picchu itself. We will describe everything in detail when we return.
We return late on Thursday night and stay in Cusco until Monday morning. We plan to jump on a plane to Lima, then a couple hours later jump on a plane to Tumbes. From Tumbes we will take a short bus ride to Mancora. Mancora is a little beach town in the north of Peru where the sun is always shining and there is a great beach where we can hopefully learn how to surf. We would like to rent an apartment there for a month where we can finally enjoy some warm weather for longer than 5 or 6 days.
April 22, 2011
Pictures from Rio, La Paz and Rurrenabaque
Hey guys,
Here are the pictures from the past couple weeks(finally). Unfortunately, I lost the pictures from Buzios and Sao Paulo.
Enjoy,
Here are the pictures from the past couple weeks(finally). Unfortunately, I lost the pictures from Buzios and Sao Paulo.
Enjoy,
 |
| BLOG - Rio de Janerio, Brazil |
 |
| BLOG -La Paz, Bolivia |
 |
| BLOG Rurrenabaque, Bolivia - 3 day Pampas Tour |
April 20, 2011
Buzios, Sao Paulo, La Paz, and Rurrenabaque
So it’s been a few weeks since we last wrote on this blog. We have been very busy and we have been travelling in areas where there is very limited internet access. We’ve just jumped on a bus for a 12 hour ride from La Paz Bolivia to Cusco Peru, so I’ve got a bit of time now to let everyone know what’s been going on.
When I last wrote we had just left Rio and were planning a few days in a beach town near Rio called Buzios. The town is a couple hours away from Rio and it is quite a vacation town. It is home to the famous Geriba beach which is world renowned for its surfing. We spent a long weekend here and chilled out on the beach watching the surfers and getting a few rays. It was really nice to relax for a while after a busy previous few weeks. The surfing was really neat to watch and I’m really looking forward to learning how to do it in the future. It was a little expensive to do it there unless you had your own board, so our plan is to spend some time in another country (maybe Costa Rica) and learn there.
In order for us to get back on our travel route we needed to head back to Bolivia. Rather than take a 50 hour bus ride across the continent, we opted for a flight from Brazil back to La Paz. Rio was an expensive option to fly from so we jumped on an overnight bus to Sao Paulo, which is just an absolutely huge city. We spend the day in Sao Paulo and then got on our flight. Sao Paulo is really too big to see in such a short time, but we made the best of it. We walked around downtown and visited the huge market there. The market was really interesting. They had all kinds of fish, ,meat, fruits, and vegetable and it was really interesting to walk around. The fruit vendors would offer you samples of weird colorful Amazonian fruit that you’ve never seen before, and I got to eat some oysters and some other good food. The most famous lunch in Sao Paulo is the huge mortadella sandwich. I had seen it before on one of my favorite travel shows (No Reservations) and I knew I had to try it. I counted 28 layers of meat all on a really good baguette. It was as good as I had imagined.
After our flight back to Bolivia, we arrived in La Paz. After our previous experiences in Bolivia we were looking forward to it again, along with the opportunity to speak Spanish again instead of Portuguese. It was as though everything made sense again. We could chat with taxi drivers and ask questions without looking completely incompetent. We were however quite disappointed with the actual city of La Paz. It was a little too big and busy for our tastes. There was also a huge strike going on so there were protests in the streets and people lighting of firecrackers and small sticks of dynamite all over the place. Needless to say we didn’t feel too safe there and we were anxious to get out of the city and on to our next destination which was exploring the amazon basin.
Another thing happened in La Paz that was quite upsetting and made us not appreciate it as much. Joh’s camera got stolen. We were walking around downtown checking out the sights, when a local woman approached Joh and told her that she had noticed two young guys reach into her purse and take the camera. We were pretty pissed off about this. We knew that something like this would happen at some time during the trip, but it is still something that makes you feel quite violated. Joh is in the habit of downloading the pictures every 2 weeks or so, so we didn’t lose everything, just the photos from the last week or so. All the pictures from Buzios and Sao Paulo are gone – so it’s a tough pill to swallow, but there’s nothing you can do except move on, except the loss, and get yourself a new camera. Luckily we found a decent camera for a decent price in La Paz, so we’re back to taking pictures again.
We booked a flight to the small jungle city of Rurrenabaque which is just a short 45 minute flight away from La Paz. The plane we flew in on was really small (it only had room for 18 passengers) and we were all swished in and we could feel every small change in the wind as the plane was jerked to and fro . We landed on a really small landing strip in the jungle and got out and we were immediately overwhelmed with the drastic change in climate. La Paz is one of the highest cities in the world, so there is very little oxygen in the air and it is always quite chilly. Rurrenabaque on the other hand was a jungle city with low altitude and high humidity. It was a nice welcome change. Rurrenabaque is a town that is definitely one of those towns that is quite obviously on the “backpacker trail”. It was fully of other travellers and lots of good restaurants and travel agencies. Typically when travellers come here they use it as a jumping off point for going on jungle safaris. We booked one as well, specifically we booked a 3 day tour of the Yacuma Pampas. We had been recommended this by some of the other travelers we met there.
The tour was really quite interesting. After a 3 or 4 hour Jeep ride we arrived at the launching point and got into our boats. From then on for the next 3 days we were living above the water. We took boats down the river to all sorts of interesting spots. We saw quite a few animals including alligators, crocodiles, capybara, monkeys, sloth, snakes, piranha, pink dolphins, tones of birds, and trillions of mosquitoes and other insects. It was also neat to see the vegetation as well. All kinds of cool trees and vines. We stayed in a small lodge built up on stilts over the river and ate some good food, relaxed in hammocks, and slept in mosquito nets. There were many, many mosquitos. They were really bad in the evening. We all had clothing that covered up as much skin as we could, and we loaded the mosquito repellant on every few hours. We ended up being ok after the trip, but we saw a few other travellers that had thousands of bites all over their bodies. The highlight of the three day trip was definitely swimming with the dolphins. After being assured that there were no alligators or crocodiles around, we jumped into the river and got to swim with the dolphins. We had never known that there were dolphins in the jungle, but there were actually quite a few. They had pink skin, and we saw them all the time swimming in the water near the boats. While swimming, the dolphins would come up to you and bump you or try nibble on your toes. The dolphin ignored Joh and I but many other the other travellers got to feel the dolphins. It was a little scary at times too, because the water is dark and you can’t see much under the water so you never know if there are piranhas or alligators or whatever else there as well. No one got hurt, so I guess it was safe.
After the tour we spent a few days back in Rurrenabaque, while we waited for our departure flight. We had a few nice days to relax in hammocks and get a bunch of reading done. We flew back to La Paz yesterday (Monday) and then booked a bus to Cusco Peru. We plan on being in Cusco for a week and then we hope to start our trek to Machu Picchu on Monday. We’re pretty excited as we’ve heard nothing but good things about it. Should be good. We’ll post when we get back and we’ll tell you all about it.
When I last wrote we had just left Rio and were planning a few days in a beach town near Rio called Buzios. The town is a couple hours away from Rio and it is quite a vacation town. It is home to the famous Geriba beach which is world renowned for its surfing. We spent a long weekend here and chilled out on the beach watching the surfers and getting a few rays. It was really nice to relax for a while after a busy previous few weeks. The surfing was really neat to watch and I’m really looking forward to learning how to do it in the future. It was a little expensive to do it there unless you had your own board, so our plan is to spend some time in another country (maybe Costa Rica) and learn there.
In order for us to get back on our travel route we needed to head back to Bolivia. Rather than take a 50 hour bus ride across the continent, we opted for a flight from Brazil back to La Paz. Rio was an expensive option to fly from so we jumped on an overnight bus to Sao Paulo, which is just an absolutely huge city. We spend the day in Sao Paulo and then got on our flight. Sao Paulo is really too big to see in such a short time, but we made the best of it. We walked around downtown and visited the huge market there. The market was really interesting. They had all kinds of fish, ,meat, fruits, and vegetable and it was really interesting to walk around. The fruit vendors would offer you samples of weird colorful Amazonian fruit that you’ve never seen before, and I got to eat some oysters and some other good food. The most famous lunch in Sao Paulo is the huge mortadella sandwich. I had seen it before on one of my favorite travel shows (No Reservations) and I knew I had to try it. I counted 28 layers of meat all on a really good baguette. It was as good as I had imagined.
After our flight back to Bolivia, we arrived in La Paz. After our previous experiences in Bolivia we were looking forward to it again, along with the opportunity to speak Spanish again instead of Portuguese. It was as though everything made sense again. We could chat with taxi drivers and ask questions without looking completely incompetent. We were however quite disappointed with the actual city of La Paz. It was a little too big and busy for our tastes. There was also a huge strike going on so there were protests in the streets and people lighting of firecrackers and small sticks of dynamite all over the place. Needless to say we didn’t feel too safe there and we were anxious to get out of the city and on to our next destination which was exploring the amazon basin.
Another thing happened in La Paz that was quite upsetting and made us not appreciate it as much. Joh’s camera got stolen. We were walking around downtown checking out the sights, when a local woman approached Joh and told her that she had noticed two young guys reach into her purse and take the camera. We were pretty pissed off about this. We knew that something like this would happen at some time during the trip, but it is still something that makes you feel quite violated. Joh is in the habit of downloading the pictures every 2 weeks or so, so we didn’t lose everything, just the photos from the last week or so. All the pictures from Buzios and Sao Paulo are gone – so it’s a tough pill to swallow, but there’s nothing you can do except move on, except the loss, and get yourself a new camera. Luckily we found a decent camera for a decent price in La Paz, so we’re back to taking pictures again.
We booked a flight to the small jungle city of Rurrenabaque which is just a short 45 minute flight away from La Paz. The plane we flew in on was really small (it only had room for 18 passengers) and we were all swished in and we could feel every small change in the wind as the plane was jerked to and fro . We landed on a really small landing strip in the jungle and got out and we were immediately overwhelmed with the drastic change in climate. La Paz is one of the highest cities in the world, so there is very little oxygen in the air and it is always quite chilly. Rurrenabaque on the other hand was a jungle city with low altitude and high humidity. It was a nice welcome change. Rurrenabaque is a town that is definitely one of those towns that is quite obviously on the “backpacker trail”. It was fully of other travellers and lots of good restaurants and travel agencies. Typically when travellers come here they use it as a jumping off point for going on jungle safaris. We booked one as well, specifically we booked a 3 day tour of the Yacuma Pampas. We had been recommended this by some of the other travelers we met there.
The tour was really quite interesting. After a 3 or 4 hour Jeep ride we arrived at the launching point and got into our boats. From then on for the next 3 days we were living above the water. We took boats down the river to all sorts of interesting spots. We saw quite a few animals including alligators, crocodiles, capybara, monkeys, sloth, snakes, piranha, pink dolphins, tones of birds, and trillions of mosquitoes and other insects. It was also neat to see the vegetation as well. All kinds of cool trees and vines. We stayed in a small lodge built up on stilts over the river and ate some good food, relaxed in hammocks, and slept in mosquito nets. There were many, many mosquitos. They were really bad in the evening. We all had clothing that covered up as much skin as we could, and we loaded the mosquito repellant on every few hours. We ended up being ok after the trip, but we saw a few other travellers that had thousands of bites all over their bodies. The highlight of the three day trip was definitely swimming with the dolphins. After being assured that there were no alligators or crocodiles around, we jumped into the river and got to swim with the dolphins. We had never known that there were dolphins in the jungle, but there were actually quite a few. They had pink skin, and we saw them all the time swimming in the water near the boats. While swimming, the dolphins would come up to you and bump you or try nibble on your toes. The dolphin ignored Joh and I but many other the other travellers got to feel the dolphins. It was a little scary at times too, because the water is dark and you can’t see much under the water so you never know if there are piranhas or alligators or whatever else there as well. No one got hurt, so I guess it was safe.
After the tour we spent a few days back in Rurrenabaque, while we waited for our departure flight. We had a few nice days to relax in hammocks and get a bunch of reading done. We flew back to La Paz yesterday (Monday) and then booked a bus to Cusco Peru. We plan on being in Cusco for a week and then we hope to start our trek to Machu Picchu on Monday. We’re pretty excited as we’ve heard nothing but good things about it. Should be good. We’ll post when we get back and we’ll tell you all about it.
April 2, 2011
Rio
After yet another 24 hour bus ride we arrived in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro. As I mentioned last time, Rio is one of those cities that we were really excited to see. Everyone has seen beautiful pictures of Rio in magazines and on TV, and we couldn’t wait to see those sights in person. Of course Rio also has that other reputation of being extremely dangerous. All the travel advice literature and websites we read seemed to indicate that if you went to Rio you were sure to be mugged, beaten, and shot just for walking around looking like a tourist. Well after spending almost a week here, we can tell you we never once felt the least bit unsafe. We had no problems walking around and all the people we met were extremely polite and helpful. I’d even go so far as to say that Brazilians, and the people from Rio in particular, have been overall the friendliest people of any place we’ve been to so far. Every time we had a question or met someone that spoke a little English they went the extra mile to help us out.
We were also planning on only spending a few days in Rio due to the supposed high costs. But we really enjoyed the city and there was no way we were ready to leave after only two days – so we stretched it to six days instead. The hostel was a bit more expensive than usual, but still within range of or budget. Also, if you walked a lot instead of using taxis and avoided expensive restaurants ii was actually pretty simple to keep costs down. There were some great places to eat where you could get a huge meal that was more than big enough for two for less than 10 dollars. You just have to look were all the locals are hanging out and that’s where you’ll find the good stuff for a good price. A few blocks over on the Copacabana strip the meals were more than 5 times that price.
We had some really good food here. They have small little juice shops all over the place where you can get a smoothie or a big glass of juice. Our favorite was the cup of Acai berries. In Canada, Acai berries are some popular exotic health food, but here they are very popular and you can get them almost anywhere. They usually blend them all up with some granola and serve it to you in a cup or bowl and it has the consistency of a really thick smoothie. We had one or two of these every day and we really enjoyed them. Another popular drink here is guarana juice. It’s a highly caffeinated fruit and the juice is delicious. Aside from the fruit juices, their most popular dish is something called Fejuada. It is black bean dish cooked with pork. It also was really good, and we had it with rice and meat a few times for dinner.
We visited the three must-see locations in Rio. Sugarloaf mountain, Corcovado with the Redeemer monument on the top, and of course Copocabana beach.
Sugarloaf mountain was really impressive. It dominates the view of the ocean coastline in Rio. There is a cable car that goes to the top, but it was pretty expensive so we walked around the base of the mountain on a nice hiking trail and enjoyed the scenery from that perspective.
Corcovado mountain with the Redeemer monument was also a highlight. The monument is visible from many parts of Rio (including the balcony of our hostel), and it is the unofficial symbol of Rio. The image of the Christ statue with his arms spread out over the city is quite a breathtaking site. I’m not a big fan of the idea of a graven image made of our Lord, but there is no denying that the image definitely has big impact on all who look up at it. The monument is on the top of one of the largest mountains in the city, so the view from the top is legendary. We decided that we couldn’t miss that, so we bit the bullet and spent the money to take the train to the top. We were excited to see the view, but we had some bad luck with the weather when we got up there the area was covered in clouds and we couldn’t see much. We were disappointed but it was still pretty neat to be up there and see the monument up close. We waited around at the top in hopes that the clouds would leave, but we had to give up after several hours of waiting.
The next day we spent the afternoon in Copacabana. Copacabana is probably the most famous beach in the world. It is renowned for its great sand, waves, beautiful people, fantastic weather, and fun atmosphere. The beach lived up to the hype. It was very beautiful. The waves were huge and were fun to swim in. They absolutely bowled you over if you tried to stay standing as they crashed up against you. It was also the first beach that we have been able to go to on our trip, and it was something that we have really been looking forward to so we enjoyed it a lot, and we plan to spend more time at the beach over the next few days.
Rio is also really gearing up for some big events over the next few years. The 2014 World Cup will be here as well as the Summer Olympics in 2016. You can really tell that the city is focused on sports. There are sports facilities all over the place and everywhere you look you can see sports and fitness being encouraged. There are running tracks everywhere as well as small fitness areas in all the parks and beaches. They have chinup-pushup-situp stations all over the place and there are gyms and other sports clubs all over the place and they are very busy. Everywhere you go you see people exercising. Rio is definitely the fittest city I’ve been to. Most of the people you see are in fantastic shape. Six-pack abs and muscles everywhere you look. If you ever wanted to go somewhere for a holiday and get fit while you’re there – Rio is the place to go.
We also spent one day here in Rio at the local hospital. Joh has been having some pain in her right foot lately and it wasn’t going away so we figured we should get it checked out. Turns out that it is probably tendinitis. We’re not 100% sure what it is from, although I’m sure that walking around for hours everyday wearing flip-flops has something to do with it. The doctor gave her some medication to reduce the inflammation and she now has to ice her foot three times a day to speed up the healing process. We are both really hoping that it heals quickly, as we both really enjoy walking and hiking a lot. We were also planning on walking the trail to Machu Picchu in a few weeks, so it would be great if it was healed by then. The hospital experience was also quite something. We had to wait for 8 hours in the waiting room while the hospital confirmed our insurance policy. It wasn’t the best way to spend a day in Rio, but we’re glad we know what the problem was with her foot and we now have a plan to get it resolved.
As for the upcoming weeks, we made some changes to our plans. We originally we planning to travel up the coast of Brazil up to the city of Recife where my cousin Karen and her husband Julius and their children live. Unfortunately we vastly underestimated the size of Brazil and the costs of its transportation system. Visiting them from Rio would be like visiting people in Toronto at home and then saying “Oh, while we’re here, we should go visit so and so in Edmonton”. It just doesn’t make sense for us to go at this time. After doing all the calculations we realized that the cost of going up to Recife and then backtracking back to our travel route would cost more than a month and a half of our travel budget. So instead of going north we’re headed back east to go up the east coast where the travel is much, much cheaper. We’ve booked a relatively cheap flight that leaves Sao Paulo in Brazil on Wednesday to go back to Bolivia, to the city of La Paz. When we’re there we plan on exploring the Amazon rainforest from the east side. It is much more cost effective that way, and when we were there last we saw some great options. After that we’ll head north to Peru and hopefully get a chance to go to Machu Picchu. In the meantime we have a few days to relax here before we go to Sao Paulo. We’re currently on a short bus ride to the beach town of Buzios, where we hope to take it easy and spend some time on a beach.
We were also planning on only spending a few days in Rio due to the supposed high costs. But we really enjoyed the city and there was no way we were ready to leave after only two days – so we stretched it to six days instead. The hostel was a bit more expensive than usual, but still within range of or budget. Also, if you walked a lot instead of using taxis and avoided expensive restaurants ii was actually pretty simple to keep costs down. There were some great places to eat where you could get a huge meal that was more than big enough for two for less than 10 dollars. You just have to look were all the locals are hanging out and that’s where you’ll find the good stuff for a good price. A few blocks over on the Copacabana strip the meals were more than 5 times that price.
We had some really good food here. They have small little juice shops all over the place where you can get a smoothie or a big glass of juice. Our favorite was the cup of Acai berries. In Canada, Acai berries are some popular exotic health food, but here they are very popular and you can get them almost anywhere. They usually blend them all up with some granola and serve it to you in a cup or bowl and it has the consistency of a really thick smoothie. We had one or two of these every day and we really enjoyed them. Another popular drink here is guarana juice. It’s a highly caffeinated fruit and the juice is delicious. Aside from the fruit juices, their most popular dish is something called Fejuada. It is black bean dish cooked with pork. It also was really good, and we had it with rice and meat a few times for dinner.
We visited the three must-see locations in Rio. Sugarloaf mountain, Corcovado with the Redeemer monument on the top, and of course Copocabana beach.
Sugarloaf mountain was really impressive. It dominates the view of the ocean coastline in Rio. There is a cable car that goes to the top, but it was pretty expensive so we walked around the base of the mountain on a nice hiking trail and enjoyed the scenery from that perspective.
Corcovado mountain with the Redeemer monument was also a highlight. The monument is visible from many parts of Rio (including the balcony of our hostel), and it is the unofficial symbol of Rio. The image of the Christ statue with his arms spread out over the city is quite a breathtaking site. I’m not a big fan of the idea of a graven image made of our Lord, but there is no denying that the image definitely has big impact on all who look up at it. The monument is on the top of one of the largest mountains in the city, so the view from the top is legendary. We decided that we couldn’t miss that, so we bit the bullet and spent the money to take the train to the top. We were excited to see the view, but we had some bad luck with the weather when we got up there the area was covered in clouds and we couldn’t see much. We were disappointed but it was still pretty neat to be up there and see the monument up close. We waited around at the top in hopes that the clouds would leave, but we had to give up after several hours of waiting.
The next day we spent the afternoon in Copacabana. Copacabana is probably the most famous beach in the world. It is renowned for its great sand, waves, beautiful people, fantastic weather, and fun atmosphere. The beach lived up to the hype. It was very beautiful. The waves were huge and were fun to swim in. They absolutely bowled you over if you tried to stay standing as they crashed up against you. It was also the first beach that we have been able to go to on our trip, and it was something that we have really been looking forward to so we enjoyed it a lot, and we plan to spend more time at the beach over the next few days.
Rio is also really gearing up for some big events over the next few years. The 2014 World Cup will be here as well as the Summer Olympics in 2016. You can really tell that the city is focused on sports. There are sports facilities all over the place and everywhere you look you can see sports and fitness being encouraged. There are running tracks everywhere as well as small fitness areas in all the parks and beaches. They have chinup-pushup-situp stations all over the place and there are gyms and other sports clubs all over the place and they are very busy. Everywhere you go you see people exercising. Rio is definitely the fittest city I’ve been to. Most of the people you see are in fantastic shape. Six-pack abs and muscles everywhere you look. If you ever wanted to go somewhere for a holiday and get fit while you’re there – Rio is the place to go.
We also spent one day here in Rio at the local hospital. Joh has been having some pain in her right foot lately and it wasn’t going away so we figured we should get it checked out. Turns out that it is probably tendinitis. We’re not 100% sure what it is from, although I’m sure that walking around for hours everyday wearing flip-flops has something to do with it. The doctor gave her some medication to reduce the inflammation and she now has to ice her foot three times a day to speed up the healing process. We are both really hoping that it heals quickly, as we both really enjoy walking and hiking a lot. We were also planning on walking the trail to Machu Picchu in a few weeks, so it would be great if it was healed by then. The hospital experience was also quite something. We had to wait for 8 hours in the waiting room while the hospital confirmed our insurance policy. It wasn’t the best way to spend a day in Rio, but we’re glad we know what the problem was with her foot and we now have a plan to get it resolved.
As for the upcoming weeks, we made some changes to our plans. We originally we planning to travel up the coast of Brazil up to the city of Recife where my cousin Karen and her husband Julius and their children live. Unfortunately we vastly underestimated the size of Brazil and the costs of its transportation system. Visiting them from Rio would be like visiting people in Toronto at home and then saying “Oh, while we’re here, we should go visit so and so in Edmonton”. It just doesn’t make sense for us to go at this time. After doing all the calculations we realized that the cost of going up to Recife and then backtracking back to our travel route would cost more than a month and a half of our travel budget. So instead of going north we’re headed back east to go up the east coast where the travel is much, much cheaper. We’ve booked a relatively cheap flight that leaves Sao Paulo in Brazil on Wednesday to go back to Bolivia, to the city of La Paz. When we’re there we plan on exploring the Amazon rainforest from the east side. It is much more cost effective that way, and when we were there last we saw some great options. After that we’ll head north to Peru and hopefully get a chance to go to Machu Picchu. In the meantime we have a few days to relax here before we go to Sao Paulo. We’re currently on a short bus ride to the beach town of Buzios, where we hope to take it easy and spend some time on a beach.