Adios Costa RIca, VIva Mexico!

After arriving back in San Jose we decided to take advantage of our last few moments in Costa Rica and booked a rafting trip in the Pacuare River! We literally had the time of our lives! [as always] We paddled our hearts out for 4 hours down the level III and level IV rapids. It was thrilling to get past every set. When we reached a calm part of the river we got to jump in for a swim. During our swim we got the chance to look up and around us and it was beautiful!! The river is at the bottom of a canyon set in the middle of the jungle, with birds and butterflies flying from every direction and a good share of small, but beautiful, waterfallls along the way. When we hopped back on the raft it was go time again. We never fell out, but our guide did purposely send us rapid surfing in a whirlpool, where our team battled our way back out to keep going. The next day we were quite sore, but it was well worth it!!!

After closing up our Costa Rican adventures we set out for a whole new kind of adventure...... crossing 5 borders in two days! Fear not! The only bad part was that if we had spent one more minute on that bus we would have completely lost our butts! Other than that, it's more difficult to cross into a theme park!

Because we were so sick of busses and had just about three weeks left of traveling, [it would've taken about 30 hours of bus traveling to make the trip to Cancun and back!!! Apparently Mexico is way bigger than we thought!] we decided to skip Cancun. Despite how sick of busses we were, as soon as we filled our bellies with over priced terminal tacos [worth it only because we had been waiting two months to have Mexican food again!] we hopped on our next bus. Thirteen hours later we were in Palenque, Chiapas. We reserved a well deserved night in a beautiful little cabaña nessled in the rainforest with a nice big pool that we could swimin and lounge around in between eating wonderful food and exploring our next sight! After a great night sleep where we were able to lay down [!!!!!!!!!!] , we ventured into the Palenque ruins in the middle of the jungle. These Maya ruins, we were told by a nice man who explained qute a bit of the Palenque history to us, are right up there with Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza in importance! They were absolutely impressive, and we even got a little bit of wild life observing. We saw a huge iguana sun bathing at the top of one of the temples, a butterfly caught a free ride up and down the ruins on my sholder for the day, and we were thanked for our visit by the sounds of howler monkeys in the beautiful rain forest!!!!

More yummy food and a few ice cream bars later we were off again. By morining time we had reached the city of Oaxaca and were welcomed by a bright and warm sun! We were ready to explore soon after arriving only because all of our big breakfasts [filled with hot chocolate, chilaquiles, huevos divorciados, huevos rancheros.... and the list goes on] made up for our long bus rides! And we had mole, 4 tacos for a dollar, tortas, tostadas and more waiting for us for lunch and dinner!!! [We were quite excited for the food!!] By noon we were watching a band play a combination of instuments,including the marumba to make beautiful traditional Oaxacan music! We then explores the old colonial city, surprisingly enough it has been hit with quite a few earthquakes that are not noticible at all! The city was not only filled with history, but also with colors! From the beautiful old buildings, to the tile, decorations, to the street vendors and their carts, baloons, food, and artisan work. And the parks! The plazas and zocalos are equivalent to a Main Sqaure. They are one of my favorite things about latin american cities and the one in Oaxaca was wonderful. It was filled with trees and all sides were closed to traffic, it was bordered by a buitiful colonial church and benches surrounded the kiosks where we filled our bellies with wonderful afternoon traditional Mexican treats!! Tired from our long strolls through the city and the markets, we headed home through the crowds of people watching street performers, and Mariachi bands serrenating couples!

The beach bums that we are, it didn't take us long to crave the pacific ocean again and we quickly bought a one way ticket to Puerto Escondido! Puerto Escondido means hidden port and it lives up to its name. It took us almost 8 hours to get over the hills and through the jungles only about 60 miles away! But once we were there it was just what we wanted! We stayed in Zicatela, which is this great little surf area part of town right by the beach. The beach was filled with palapa restaurants waiting for us to eat there and then relax on their hammocks or lounge chairs! We did all three! After the night came and the sun rose again we were ready for some surfing! We rented two boards from a nice local man that had just moved back home after living in Santa Cruz for more than 20 years!! Anyway we took our boards and quickly headed to Carrisalillo. When we arrived we had to carry our boards dowa steep set of satirs, nothing foreign to us since it's the samecase in SC, but this time there were tropical plants blocking our view of this beautiful coves with turquoise water waiting for us to paddle out to sea! We did just that, but it was pretty flat out so we spent most of the morning playing in the middle ofthe ocean and paddleing around on our surf boards! We later made our way in and rented some snorkel masks that helped us see the shell filled ocean floor and at least 4 different kinds of colorful fish. After snorkeling it seemed like the waves had picked up a bit and we paddled back out! Mike and I both got great rides and stoaked on life we made it back to town after about 10 hours of sun and surf!!!!!!

Next in line was Zipolite! It "only" took us about an hour and a half and the sunshine welcomed us once more. This beautiful little paradise was again filled with vegetation and the water was clear and gorgeous! After a deliscious breakfast we spent some time relaxing in our hammocks overlooking the ocean from our lovely balcony! This beach trip seemed to be like a little vacation in the middle of our big vacation! After maybe to much sun, full bellies and sand between our toes the day was over. We planned on some snorkeling for the next day but the morning wasn't as sunny as we'd hoped....For the first time since Brazil the weather let us down a little bit and we never got our snorkeling trip. The views from our hammocks were still beautiful, the air still warm, and the crashing waves still relaxing, but on the second rainy morning we left the beach. We went back to Oaxaca for the the night so that we could head to Mexico City in the morning! The next morning we learned that towns were getting washed out with over 100 familes losingtheir homes and rivers were overflowing.... we hope that the familes are doing well, but happy that we left the rain behind.

We're now in Mexico City [again welcomed with sunshine!] and once again the city is filled with centuries of history, so much life, beautiful colors and of course wonderful food and wonderful people!!

We love you all and miss you too!!

Pura Vida!

Hello everyone!!

The next part of our story begins on whim... while flying to Central America, and anticipating seeing the glorious Panama Canal, we decided that we could have stayed in the US if we wanted to see things built by Americans. Conveniently for us, our connecting flight landed in Costa Rica, and we simply "missed" our connection! So we found ourselves in San Jose, Costa Rica without a plan or idea, as we had done all our plan-changing during the last 10 minutes of decent. We couldn't have picked a better place to be clueless!!!

COSTA RICA: "Delicious Coast", endangered turtes.
Our Costa Rica trip started slow (no pun intended!)... we heard that we could see some endangered turtles on the Caribbean Coast, so we hopped on a bus bound for Tortugero National Park. After a depressing drive through some banana plantations, we hopped on a sweet speed boat to get to our destination at Parismina, which means "Mina! give birth!", to hopefully lay our eyes on some egg-laying Tortugas. After paying and arm and a leg each, we headed to the beach with our expensive babysitter, who helped us find the massive shelled beasts that left bulldozer tracks in the sand. We walked in the dark for what seemed like forever when out of the blue, crawled a giant from the sea!!! The creature was as long as I am tall and must have weighed 5 times more. She took no notice of us as she climbed the sandy bank to find a spot to lay her eggs. We sat on the beach waiting for her to prepare the perfect spot, not disturbing her ritual, until she gave up and went back into the sea as suddenly as she had come. Apparently, they're picky. That was the only one we saw but so amazing never-the-less. On the way back to Parismina we learned that some people here, lacking any huevos of their own, like to poach the endangered eggs for their aphrodisiac properties and probably the main reason for the turtles' near extinction. It's a bummer, but there are lots of opportunities to volunteer here to help save them.

DAY-O: Why you shouldn't eat bananas.
On the way to and from the Turtle park, we rode through a huge stretch of land where at one time grew a beautiful lush rain-forest, but now is home to a monocrop of billions of Chaquita, Dole, and Del Monte banana trees, each wrapped in a special pesticide-laced, blue, plastic bag that poisons and kills monkeys. So, please don't buy these bananas if you like monkeys. Also, the bananas here are expensive! To put it into perpective, the workers that grow them get paid each day, about $15 or the equivalent of what it costs them to buy about 25 (reject) bananas! That's not enough to cover the healthcare they need after prolonged exposure to harmful pesticides. Anyway, to the workers it might seem like an OK deal at first since the get a secure job, but they aren't really educated about the side effects (both medical and ecological) of their work. In addition, all the local resources the comminiteies may have prior to the banana invasion are bought up by the conglomerates and families are forced to work for them or move somewhere else in their country (which is an expensive option and not always feasible for them). Also, bananas aren't patriotic-- some of these companies (mainly Chaquita aka United Fruit Company) have been charged with "terrorism" as they fund Latin American military groups such as United Self-Defense Forces, National Liberal Army, and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia-- all considered foriegn terror groups by the US state department. Bananas aren't even that good anyway: they go bad quickly, and you get sick of it half way through one. So let's not support terrorists, destory peaceful communites, nor kill monkeys by not buying bananas. Thank you!

FINE BEACHES, BEAUTIFUL COAST
After our somewhat bitter sweet excursion to the Caribbean, it was time to relax!! The next day we bussed it back through San Jose to the Pacific Coast. We arrived in Puntareanas (which I think means something dirty but Kim says I'm wrong... whatever) and spent sometime with Kim's host family with whom she stayed 2 years ago while helping orphans in the same city. We met the best hospitality and had a wonderfully relaxing time. From there we headed to Santa Teresa on the beautiful Nicoya Peninsula where we wasted away the days on the white sandy beaches. We tried to Surf, but the waves came in too fast for us to paddle out, so we rented some cruisers instead and went for a ride. We found a great spot, built a lean-to out of driftwood, ate lunch, swam in the warm water, and built a killer Machu-Picchu-inspired sand castle that would've knocked the Incas off their feet! It felt great to be able to relax by the ocean after so much travelling. After Santa Teresa we bussed to the other side of peninsula to the small town of Montezuma--or Montefuma as the local say for some reason... We hiked through great waterfalls and went for a swim. We had a funny night on the beach watching the most amazing lightning ever and forgetting our hostel keys in the sand.

The next day, after Kim chopped my beard off, we chilled on the beaches in the beautiful Manuel Antonio National Park, just a jetboat ride across the gulf from Montezuma. We saw a few rare, red-backed squirrel monkeys on the way into the park. We over heard a guide say there were only 600 left and they all lived in the park! We are so lucky!

We went to eat sandwiches on the beach there, but as soon as we sat down, a brave little raccoon tried to steal our PB and Js! She and I played tug of war for a while, and I even picked her up and swung her in circles like a small dog plays tug-o-war! We eventually just gave gave her a sandwich because she had babies, and she ate it with us on the beach... literally, sat down next to us on her butt and chowed on the sandwich. Racoons are Awesome! Later, after swimming in the turquoise water, we walked out to be welcomed by a couple Capuchin monkeys, some giant colorful iguanas, and the raccoon with her whole family!! We watched the animals for a while and left the park totally not disappointed!

MONTEVERTE:

After chillin' for a week, it was time for some adrenaline again. And boy did we get it! They sell it at the Farmacia, just kidding-- well I'm not, but we didn't buy any. Instead, we went to Monteverde: where dreams come true! First of all (and yes, this is a tangent), we made the best Tacos ever- so good they put Mexico out of business. Anyway, I really liked the tacos. I digress... we did this canopy tour in the rainforest, but instead of ziplinning from tree to tree like a normal canopy tour, we went from mountain to mountain!! Imagine standing on a 3 story high platform that takes you to the tops of an amazingly lush rain forest canopy. From the platform extends a seemingly infinite long cable that disappears into the cloud forest filling-in some unknown valley in front of you. A man you have never met before attaches the harness you're wearing to a pulley that rests on the cable. He says, "lean back" and you're off! You rise up over the trees that seemed so tall a second ago and then the entire valley drops out from under you. Now, you're flying over hundreds of feet over rivers and forest at insane speeds. After what seems like forever, the opposite side of the valley appears through the fog and you try to see where you're going to land. Finally, you see the end of the line. A man gives you a signal, so you clench the trailing cable hard to brake so you don't smash into the valley wall. You walk through the rain forest, still wearing your harness, and you meet another guy who helps you onto the next cable. You do this 13 times!!!!! Then, at the end, you repel 300 feet out of a really tall tree. You walk a little further, and someone straps you into a rope and pushes you off a platform. You free fall 50 feet before the rope finally becomes taught and you swing out on the biggest rope swing you could ever imagine. You undulate for a while until your ride slows to an end. Two guys catch you with a big balloon animal looking thing, and you're off to the last cable. Someone takes your harness off, turns it around so it's backwards, and lifts you onto the last cable, one harness on your chest and the other at your waste. Then you fly face-first, higher and faster than ever, for over 1/2 a mile!! The ride only takes 20 seconds, which shows you something about how fast you go. You leave with a big smile!

The next day we headed into the beautiful Monteverde Cloud Forest reserve. We didn't see many animals, but we did get to walk through some virgin rainforest, one that had never been cut by humans. The trees here were enormous and the foliage so thick. There seemed to be as many leaves on the forest floor as there were half way up the canopy or at the top. Water dipped constantly from the leaves, though it wasn't rainy, and the whole place felt enchanted. As soon as we left it poured! A really cool fact we learned afterward, was that the huge park only gave visitors access to 3% of its property, the rest being strictly off limits to humans! Also, the whole park is privatly funded, and all donations and park entrance fees go towards buying parcels of even more virgin forests before they are chopped down! On the way home, we stopped at an organic coffee roaster for some of the best coffee and hot coca in the world!!

Tomorrow we head back to San Jose for one last adventure in Costa Rica before we take off to Cancan!! In Costa Rica, they say "Pura Vida" which means live life to the fullest, don't have regrets, and don't sweat the small stuff. So Pura Vida everyone!

Sand Dunes, Penguins, Skeletons=/ and We Can Breath Again!

Again, as Mike promised, we´ve had many more adventures!!! On our way to Lima we made two wonderful stops. The first was in Huacachina, a little oasis in the middle of the second biggest desert in the world and home to the biggest dunes!!! Of course, on our first night there, we had no choice but to climb the tallest dune and get as high as we could and then come back down by rolling, jumping, and ¨swimming¨in the sand! We got our fix and got a good night sleep before big adventures the next day. We started day two by having a REAL breakfast (not just bread and butter, which we were usually given)!! Soon after we were lent sandboards, so that we could get some practice in before heading out on the dune buggy in the afternoon. We headed out for the equivalent o f a bunny hill and met some charming elementary school kids on a school field-trip. They were interested in everything from our names to whether Mike´s dad was the president of the U.S. Basically, they were fascinated with our ¨gringo-ness.¨ I think their favorite part was being able to show off their English speaking skills to their new friends, and being able to ¨teach us¨how to sandboard! Our favorite was how stoked they were! After some good laughs with these awesome kids we headed back up to the top of the sand mountain and had some fun on the boards! We sand boarded (which is pretty similar to snowboarding) all the way down and though we craved a little more speed thought we´d be having a lot more fun once we got better on our feet! In the early afternoon we finally went out on our dune buggy ride! Our driver was fortunately the right dose of crazy and took us on a great ride through the ups and downs of the giant dunes!Towards the end of our ride we stopped to do some sand boarding mod-desert! After we all got the hang of going down the dunes foot first our driver decided it was time for a new adventure. He used Mike to demonstrate how to lay on the board to go head first o n your belly. Just when Mike thought he´d be able to get back up however , our driver gave him a gentle push and Mike flew down the enormous mountain head first on his board and gave us all a big ¨YEAH!¨when he got to the bottom! after that we spent the next hour or so climbing and going down the dunes head first, and the dunes only got bigger every time! It was a real a adrenaline rush and more fun than going down on our feet could have ever been! We later learned that this sort of adventure only exists in Huacachina and in the Sahara!

By day three we had done all there was to do in this lovely oasis and we headed o ff towards Las Is las Ballestas and Paracas National Reserve. The islands are nicknamed the poor Galapagos by the locals because they are a smaller version of the animal populated beautiful islands of Ecuador. Here we got to see hundreds of seagulls and pelicans fishing in the OCEAN! As an extra special little gift we got to see perky little penguins waddling around the island! We also saw quite a few sea lions that reminded us of home and lots and lots of bird poop that covered the islands! We actually learned that every few (4-ish) years about 20 men spend 4 months ¨harvesting¨the bird poop (which they call guano) to use as fertilizer for their crops. After about an hour of circling the beautiful rock islands surrounded by turquoise waters we headed back to the shore where we had earlier head a man playing Hotel California on the guitar and pan flute(!) and found a place to drop off our things and head out for the next adventure!

Our guidebook let us down for the first time! It told us we could walk all the way into the Paracas National Reserve from the little town we were staying in. We headed out at around 12 towards a spot that seemed nice for a picnic by the ocean shore. After about 3 hours o f walking we had walked on the shore, passed by The Hilton´s private beach (and gotten stared at for being poor?), collected about every complete shell I could find, payed our fee and the check point and refused taxi rides on what appeared to be the longest road even in the middle of the desert. If we wouldn´t have known better we wouldn't have known that one day that road would lead us back to the ocean. After a ride in the back of the truck of a nice family through the rest of the National Reserve we learned about how the earthquake that happened last time Mike was here had changed the geography of the area and then followed a trail to our lunch spot (another hour walk in the dunes). The view was beautiful! A lot like the cliffs of Big Sur, but without HWY 1 and with endless sand dunes instead of endless forest. Eventually we headed back to the road to learn that taxis charged an arm and two legs to get us back to town on the 10 kilometer desert road. We walked for about an hour before another lovely family gave us a ride in the back of their truck and got us back into town before dark! We were extremely thankful to them for that!After some chicken and fries for a dollar fifty we slept like babies! The next day we took off for Lima after breakfast, and has the smoothest day of travel we´ve had in South America; despite the fact that we had to take 3 taxis and a bus.

Lima..... I´m so sleepy but the highlights of Lima has been the great cheap food and pastries (mostly at the wonderful market on the Plaza de Armas and the best Chinese food ever!), we got our lost pictures back(!!!) and we visited the creepiest church EVER!!! The the church´s basement was filled with skeletons. The Peruvians found the thousands of skeletons years ago and decided it´d be fun to sort the bones by type of bone. They then took out all of the destroyed bones and arranged the remaining bones by type in huge brick planter looking things so that the tourists could ¨enjoy¨them! AHHH! We´ve decided that either non-cooperating Incas or Inca slaves of the Spanish were the ones buried under the church =(

Chapter 2 starts tomorrow! We´re off to the beautiful beaches of Latin America and as much fun as we´ve been having, we´re SOOOOOO excited for this next part!

We love you and miss you all!

All kinds of Inca Stuff!!

Hi Everyone! It´s been a while since we last had an update, and wow is there a lot to talk about this time! It´s been all about Inca ruins and Quechua culture, as we´ve been exploring Cuzco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu!

Cuzco is beautiful and so full of history! As soon as we got off the bus the city fascinated us with its fusion of colonial-Spanish architecture built on top of ancient-Inca foundations. We went to el Museo Inca (ironically situated in an old Spanish Church) where we learned Peru´s story of conquest. It started with the Chilca´s 18000 years ago and has since been reconquered and inhabited by dozens of other cultures such as the Limas, Nazcas, and Incas, until the Spanish showed up in the 1500s. The Spanish have left since then and the Inca descendants (called the Amayara and Quechua) now proudly live independently. They even have their own flag (it looks just like the Gay Pride Flag) and try to respect their traditional values, rituals, and ways of life. After the Inca museum, we explored some local ruins just a Taxi ride outside of Cuzco. The Inca baths at Tambomachay still had water that was originally irrigated from the Andes over 1000 years ago running through them! What craftsmanship! Puka Pukara was possibly an old hunting lodge, and Q´enqo had some great tunnels to explore as well as an old sacrificial stone (where they sacrificed Chicha a highly alcoholic sacred corn beer). Sacsayhauman, by far the most impressive of the four locals, hosted one of the final Spanish battles. Massive stones, some 4 times the height of a man and equally wide, created huge zig-zags on a ridge high above Cuzco. The stonemanship was so precise that if you closed your eyes and felt the rock, it would be hard to determine where one started and another stopped! There were also a huge arena, some thrones carved out of solid rock, and some scary tunnels, which we navigated piecewise by camera flash! After spending two hours exploring the massive complex (of which the Spanish spared only 20%) we walked back to Cuzco via an ancient Inca road.

The next day we met up with our good friend Mimi from Santa Cruz so we could all conquer the next and most amazing part of the Sacred Valley together! We began our journey to Machu Pîcchu by taking a couple taxis to Santa Teresa. There we walked down river to indulge in some quaint- and very hot-springs to prepare ourselves for the long journey to come! The next morning we started our trek to Aguas Calientes, the little (crappy) town at the base of Machu Picchu mountain (whatever it was called). Our first mission: to cross the river. We had heard about a ¨scary cable car ride¨ we´d have to take to get across. We were surprised to find out it was self-operated. We each took turns getting into the basket and pulling ourselves, hand over hand, across the roaring river! Once on the other side together, we walked... far. It was amazing seeing the scenery change from a sparse high-dessert to a lush jungle throughout the day. Towards the end, we were surrounded by jungle sounds, butterflies, and avocado-bearing trees. We had an early night in Aguas Calientes to rest ourselves for our early start the next day to ..... drum roll ..... Machu Picchu!!!
We woke up at 4 that morning to begin our trek. For about an hour, we followed a long line of people climbing the thousands of Inca-stairs in the pitch dark to get to the entrance. Once inside, we were totally in awe. All the buildings were still so intact that it felt like people could have left yesterday! We climbed to a nice spot to watch the sun rise, bringing the whole place to life! After that, as if part of some torture ritual, we began climbing Wayna Picchu, the tall peak the originates at the ruins and continues up for another 1000 or so feet! Another million steps later, we were rewarded with great views of the whole ancient city and a nice rest. We climbed down and really started exploring the complex. They had everything here! First we saw an impressive drawbridge that was basically 10 stories of piled rocks on each side with a plank of wood in between. We weren't allowed to walk across. Then we went to the observatory, which housed a carefully carved calender rock. Depending on the time of year, shadows would fall along different lines that corresponded to the solstices and equinoxes to tell when seasons started. There were also some irrigation channels and baths that still functioned, quite a few temples, and all kinds of living quarters. A lot of our time was spent chasing llamas around through all the buildings, almost getting spat on a few times, in order to snap the perfect facebook photo. After 9 hours of ruins we ran back down the 1000s of steps (in only 20 minutes!) to take a shower and catch our train back towards the Sacred Valley.

The next day was really special. Kim had been wanting to learn how weave in the incredible way that the Inca descendants still do today. We heard that the town of Chincero offered some classes, so we went there directly from the train. Luckily, that night we found the Weavers Association of Chincero, where the nice Quechua women let us stay the night and use their kitchen. We spent the whole morning the next day learning how to weave! I didn't do too well, but Kim and Mimi were practically certified indigenous-women by the end! (Well, not even close I must confess. It normally takes the experts 3 weeks to weave one single cloth, but the girls got the hang of it pretty well!) After getting our weaving fix (I was quite frustrated by the end), we headed back to Cuzco. We got some well deserved rest and some amazing massages with hot rocks!

Now we're off towards Lima! Our time in South America is coming to an end, but there's still lots to do before we fly to Panama! Keep reading and we'll keep going! Hope everyone is having a great time!

Llegamos antes que las mulas!

Just as Mike promised we had our handful of adventures in Arequipa! A city filled with coloquial buildings from the 1600s made from all white rocks, which i think looks even lovelier at night! We spent the first day enjoying the town we even got a view of the Plaza de Armas from the same roof Mike and Matt were at 4 years ago! We of course later strolled through the plaza like the couples do. By the early afternoon we decided we´d seen what we were going to see and booked our three day trek for the 2nd deepest canyon in the world, the Colca Canyon. We were woken up at 2:30am to get ready for our trip, and by 4 we were on our way! After about a 4 hour ride we arrived at the over crowded and super touristy Cruz del Condor, which we weren´t all that excited about at first. We walked past the crowd to a quiet lookout and after a few minutes started seeing Andean Condors all around us! It was incredible to see them flying over us with their 3 meter wing span! We ended up seeing about 15 even though we were only supposed to see 1 or 2 since they are at risk of extinction! After quite a few pictures we raced back to our bus and drove just a bit longer to where our trek would begin.

The first day we hiked 8 kilometers downhill. It seemed like a breeze, but my muscles didnt agree the next morning! At the end of the day´s trek we had warm alpaca waiting on our plates, and it wasn´t tooo bad! On day two we hiked 5 kilometers (filled with ups downs and straight across-es) through two villages. In one of the villages we stopped for a small tour in a local museum and some chicha (the national fermented corn drink). We ended the day at an oasis at the bottom on the canyon where we dipped in a refreshing pool while we waited for more food! Before going to bed in our grass and adobe rooms we were told that we had the option of finishing the trek on a mule instead of hiking the 6 kilometers uphil for 3-4 hours =/. I pondered the idea since I don´t exacly consider myself a good hiker, but although the experience seemed pretty cool to us both, I didnt want to feel like I´d given up so I decided to hike! We headed up at around 5:30am on day 3, and after thinking we were almost there a few times we finally made it up in less than 2 hours! The best part? We beat the mules we (well probably more like I) would have ridden up! It felt great to make it up and we were rewarded with some wonderful hot springs then headed back to Arequipa.

After a night of trying to sleep during super loud techno music we decided we deseved more fun and went on my first rafting trip in the Rio Chile! We both managed to stay on the raft the whole time, although sometimes maybe more by luck than skill! We had a great time going down some rapids and even getting some speed in that rocky and oh so chilly river! Since then I´ve been trying to recover from some funcky virus, but we´ve left Arequipa and arrived in Cusco this morning ready to explore! You´ll get to read all about it when we come back from Machu Picchu some time next week! Oh and a small bummer... technical dificulties.... something went wrong with our memory card and we dont have access to any of our pictures =( But we´re hoping to get out files extracted somehow and we have a new memory card for new pictures!!! YAY!!!

Lake Titicaca...hehe

Hello friends and family!

After four days, and a few good beers, the time came to get out of La Paz. Kim and I left for Lake Titicaca and the Isla del Sol which Incans said gave birth to the Sun! True to legend, the sun was shinning bright and hot. Our lips peeled and our necks burned -- but the sun rewarded our sacrifice with a deep blue sky, sparkling clear waters, and amazing views of the snow capped Andes. The whole island was beautifully simple. There were no cars, maybe one streetlight, and the Amaraya-speaking residents brought water to the top of the island via donkey! To get there, we took a little boat that probably doubled as a bathroom judging by the smell. After porting, an intimidating ancient-Incan staircase tested our hearts and legs as we already had sore nalgas from the bike ride and now really heavy packs. Eventually, after many breaks and offers to stay at lower hostels, we and some new English friends made it to the top of the island and found the most amzing room. It had a private deck and an amazing view of the lake and mountains, over which the sun rose ever morning -- well worth some tender calves.
On one of the days there, we took a boat to the Northern part. We relaxed on a white sandy beach, saw some cool ruins, and walked back to the south -- not as easy as it sounds. Five miles at 12,000 feet in the scourching sun and biting cool winds while walking on what seemed to be a trail that went prepetually up, was tough. Kim was a champ and never whined like everyone else on the trail. We had some great locally caught trout when we got back!
The next day it was time to leave the island, and Bolivia. We caught a better-smelling little boat back to the mainland and took naps on the cabin roof. We bused to Puno, Peru from there to see some floating islands. We didn´t really get to explore as much as we would´ve liked, but they were still really cool. Descentent from a group that wanted to escape Inca oppresion, the inhabitants built islands out of reeds. Now they have their own system of governement, president, voting system, school, etc... They used to sell their reed boats and fish to make money, but now they mostly survive off of tourism. We ate some of their fish in one of their reed huts with a squishy floor--definatly a unique experience. With that done, we caught a bus to Arequipa, one of my favorite cities, where we will have the next batch of adventures! Hasta luego mis amigos!

We Counquered Death Road!

In between getting aclimated to being at an altitude of 3,600 meters we´ve had what I would say is our best time yet! So much fun that at times I forget that the only times I´ve ever been this cold hvae been in the snow with a lack of layers.

After arriving in La Paz at 5am 3 days ago we waited for the sun to rise at the bus terminal and ate a typical (bread with cheese and tea) Bolivian breakfast. Then I, of ourse, had to pee; so after getting his tail light broken by an open door, our taxi driver dropped us off less than a block away! Mike was thrilled that we payed for that sinvce he told be like 5 times it was extremely close! I´m pretty sure it took our taxi driver longer to argue about his light than it took for him to drive us over…oops! Since then however, we´ve been woken up daily by parades, from ones celebrating the day of the indigenous people to ones getting ready for Bolivia´s Independance day celebration tomorow. We also got a little shopping in since we´ve been here! We visited the numerous markets that sell wondrful traditional and touristy souveneirs, and ended up with some awesome alpaca wool to keep us warm! I´m also quite glad to say that we´ve given most of the money we´ve spent in La Paz to actual Bolivian people! As wonderful as this all has been, obviously none of this includes THE BEST PART!

Yesterday morning we woke up at 6am to walk up the hill for breakfast. By about 7:30 we were on our bikes. Mike was off to the delerium off-road trail and I was off to the windy paved road. We met about an hour later, after biking down to the beggining of Death Road! Mike flew down the wet muddy cliffs and I.. well I went fast enough past all of the crosses to have the experience of a lifetime. I´d say the ride was just a bit different from the rides down west cliff on my beach cruiser. Towards the bottom of the road however, I was speeding down the wider and dryer roads almost keeping up with Mike who was zooming through the last few rivers and waterfalls of the ride! Luckily we had full suspension bikes and we trusted our bikesenough to keep up with usas we gained trust in both our riding and dwindelling away of our fears. The ride was incredible and the scenery was beattiful through the mist and mud, but 6 hours and a 10,000 foot difference in elevation later, some hot tea and a warm shower were well welcomed.