Happy Thanksgiving

We recently just spent a wonderful week in Mancora, Peru lounging by the pool or on the beach at the most magnificent hostel we have ever seen, which is the Loki. Though it was a party hostel and it was difficult to sleep at night, the day time activities and atmosphere made it completely worth it. Our first day we won shirts in a frisbee contest!
The only thing that detracted from the beautiful scenery was the dead seal that washed up on the shore stinking and bloated. Which was reminicent of our time on Playa Blanca, Colombia with the bloated rat.
We also had awesome food in this town varying from pad thai to buffalo chicken sandwiches to the best brownies I´ve had in a long time.

We then left for Guayaquil, our stop-over before the Galapagos, and we were quite excited to see the new Harry Potter movie. We met some lovely Europeans and we all set off for the mall together. There were many showings in English with Spanish subtitles and we grabbed some fast food (burger king and taco bell) before heading into the theater. Little did we know that people in Ecuador go to the movies to chat. First, the man sitting next to Matt came in talking on his cell phone. We all shushed him though it didn´t stop him but he eventually said good-bye. He answered his cell phone and blackberry several more times throughout the first 1/2 hour of the movie. We shushed some more, someone threw popcorn at him and Matt told him to shut up. He finally left acting exasperated that he kept getting so many phone calls he had to answer, though turning his phone off would have been a simple answer.
Then a group of giggling teenagers started at it. There were lots of other conversations throughout the movie and it felt like being in a cafe rather than a movie theater. We couldn´t help but laugh at the rediculousness of it all.
All in all, I would say that we enjoyed the movie, probably one of the best of the series, but we can´t wait to hear the movie minus the additional soundtrack.

We now are in the Galapagos about to check out the giant tortugas!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OUR WONDERFUL FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

Sandboarding and Pisco

There are two things to do in the oasis town of Huacachina, sandboarding and pisco tasting.  We did them both last week. 

The oasis town, sand dunes in the background.

The oasis town from the dunes.

Sandboarding is not an "enhanced interrogation technique".  Sandboarding is what you do when you live in a desert, have a bunch of gringo thirll seekers ready and willing to throw money at you, and a surplus of crapy makeshift snowboards at your disposal.  Last week, for a mere 18 US Dollars, we went out for a 2 hour dune buggy and sandboarding adventure.  It was AWESOME.

The dune buggy ride in and of itself was an amazing experience.  6 of us were strapped into a metal contraption that was twisted and formed into what somewhat resembles a car.  We then darted off into the sand dunes around 4:00pm, the driver immediately doing his best to flip the contraption by taking hairpin turns at ungodly speeds.  Though that was scary, the most nerve racking part was when we would go straight up a dune, get to the top, and slowly tip over and cascade down the backside of a dune. 

Me on top of the dune buggy!

After about an hour of zipping around the dunes, we stopped at the top of a mid sized dune and unloaded the boards.  Jason and I attempted to take the first dune standing up, like the pros we thought we were, but quickly saw that the way to go was to lie on your belly and slide down.  That, and we could get about 20 yards before falling flat on our behinds.  Sliding on your belly you went about 5x faster.  After messing around on the small dune for about half an hour, we went around to 5 more BIG dunes.  Here are some videos from the experience, including an AWESOME wipeout by Jason (nothing hurt, except pride). Elisabeth definitely was the best, she is incredibly aerodynamic. (It took me roughly 4 hours to upload these videos.  Ugh, how I long for high speed internet!)

The day post sand boarding, we went off to do a more relaxed activity -- wine and pisco tasting at some local distilleries.  We made two stops, first to the largest winery in Peru, Vista Alegre.  We had a decent tour in English, and were able to sample 4-5 wines.  The wines weren't anything to rave about, and we were all slightly underwhelmed with the whole experience.  Expectations were low as we set out to the next stop, a small, local pisco distillery.  Fortunately this stop more than made the day.  Our guide was a young, hillarious peruvian who took us through all the steps in making pisco (grape brandy).  Though the guide had only been speaking english for about 9 months (so he said), he was nearly fluent!  His vocabulary was spectacular though, as he alwyas picks up sland from the various international folk he is giving a tour to.  We enhanced his vocabulary by introducing him to the worh ¨hella¨.  After the half hour tour, we sat down and sampled 6 different kinds of Pisco.  I actually quite liked the pisco, it has a very mild taste and nearly no smell.  We spent about an hour laughing and drinking with our guide, before we hoped in the taxi and headed back to our hostal for some R&R.

The various pisco's we tasted.

Our hostel pool. Cost us a whole $10 bucks a night.

The long awaited Cuy!

What has very little meat, tiny little feet, a protruding jaw bone and a whole lot of skin?

Thats right, our meal last Friday.

During our trek (our team name was fittingly team cuy) we informed our guide, David that we wanted to try the Peruvian delicacy, guinea pig more commonly known in these parts as cuy. We apparently were the 1st crazy tourists David had encountered to ask to try this traditional dish. Though he found the request quite strange, he promised to arrange a meal of cuy and chicha, the fermented corn beverage at his house after the trek. Each of us paying 25 soles (the equivalent of $9 US) on Thursday thenç parted ways looking forward to the long awaited meal the following evening.

David met us at our excellent hostel, Pariwana at 6pm the following evening and we took the local colectivo (minibus) up into the hills of Cusco where all of the locals live, far away from the touristy bustling city center. David lives with his mother, his wife Carmen, his two children and his brother who occupies the upstairs. The front room of his home functions as a mini market of sorts selling toilet paper, grains, candy and other odds and ends as well as a chicheria run by David´s mom. Before heading to the kitchen for dinner, we were introduced to the doña and the two elderly neighbors who wore braids, felt hats and sat on their large behinds sipping on their chicha.

In the kitchen was David´s wife, Carmen frying up some of the traditional rodent along with her neice and David´s youngest, Angie. We first were served pints of chicha in enormous glasses to start. The frothy chicha has a decidedly sour flavor and is boasted to be an aphrodisiac. Then on to our main course.

On my plate was boiled potatoes, soggy spaghetti and of course a guinea pig split from nose to tail staring up at me. I didn´t even know where to start so I grabbed a fork and started in on the spaghetti while observing David, Matt and Thomas. Thomas, unsurprisingly, started right in biting at the little creatures behind. David told us that we must eat with our hands like Peruvians do. So I picked up the little guy by the snout and back claw and tried to tear off some skin to no avail. I then decided to flip it over hoping I would have better luck finding some meat on the inside. After observing David a little longer I realized there was some meat on back leg so I moved the tiny paw out of the way and sunk my teeth into the little bit of flesh there was. It tasted a bit like chicken but meatier.

I then went for the ribs but didn´t have the stomach to move any higher than that. After about 15 minutes of staring at my plate and nibbling, I looked over to David who only had a few bones left. After David, Thomas did second best, then Matt and finally me in last. Jason, our dear vegetarian even had a bite of the cuy. We now joke that he only eats exotic meets because he also tried beef heart a few nights before.


Now that we had all finished what we could and were all sufficiently naseous, David said it was time for the macho tea. Macho tea is made of rum, tea, lime and orange with a little sugar cane juice. Peruvians drink it after a particularly greasy meal to settle their stomachs. I must say it did settle mine and was probably my favorite part of the meal. We thanked Carmen for her delicious cooking and made our way back to the chicheria. We chatted a bit more with some of David´s relatives before we were on our way.

All in all it was an unforgettable evening of spectacularly distinct flavors and wonderful company.

Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail

When Elisabeth and I set out on our journey, nearly three months ago now, the only thing we booked in advance was the Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu (with our firends Jason and Thomas). Undoubtedly the most famous Inca site in the world, Machu Picchu is a historical site on par with the pyramids of Egypt and the great wall of China. There are many different ways to get to Machu Picchu; by train, by helicopter (the Queen of Spain and, more recently, the singer Bryan Adams choose this route), or by one of about 4 ancient Inca trails that lead into the site. Because we were unaware of the helicopter option until afterwords, we opted for the classic Inca Trail trek.

Thomas in front of the train full of lazy tourists.

(Quick history of Machu Picchu, feel free to skip if you know!)
The Inca trails were walking paths that the connected the ancient Inca cities to one another and provided a means for transport, communication and trade. When the Spanish arrived in present day Peru in the 1500´s, they very quickly found the Inca capital of Cusco (still inhabited with the Inca people) and essentially destroyed most of the ruins during their stay there. What makes Machu Picchu famous is not that it was the largest or most important Inca city, but the Spanish never found it and therefor the ruins that remain are the same as they were when the Inca´s abandoned the city in the 1540´s.

Elisabeth, fresh off the bus and ready to hike!

We set out on the 4 day, 44km journey on Monday morning at 5:00am. We were picked up in a bus with our other 12 hiking partners and then drove a few hours outside of Cusco to a small town where we stopped, grabbed breakfast, and secured some final supplies for the trek. After piling back on the bus and driving 30 more minutes, we arrived at kilometer 82 -- the official start of Machu Picchu national park and the beginning of our trek. As we crossed the railroad tracks, waving at the lazy tourists in the train taking the easy way to the park, and crossed a wooden bridge over the Urubamba river, Elisabeth gave the first of many offerings to Pachamama (Quechua for mother earth); her prized Panama hat! It was a sad site to watch as the wind ripped it off her head and the river tugged it under a rock and swept it downstream, but Elisabeth was a trooper and didn´t let it faze her for a second.

Elisabeth, seconds before she donates her hate to Pachamama!

Inca flat.

For those that read about our trek to the Lost City in Colombia, you would understand that we had fairly low expectations for the quality of the food on this trek. However, after a beautiful 3 hour hike in the morning, we arrived at our designated lunch spot to find that our tour company, Peru Treks, had gone all out and hired a first class chef. Our first meal consisted of a palta a la reina (similar to a stuffed avocado), local trout, and a delicious soup. Who know you could eat a 3 course meal on a backpacking trek! All in all the hiking on the first day wasn´t to bad. We did 12 km of ¨Inca flat¨, which means the hills undulate a little bit but aren´t THAT bad. Day 2 we did not do ¨Inca flat¨.

Group picture at some point during day 1.

A Choski with a typical load.

Day 2 is the day of hiking that is notoriously difficult. We hike 12km in total, rising from 3,000m (nearly 10,000 feet) to 4,200m (nearly 14,000 feet). It was at some point during this 4,000 foot climb where I realized that Elisabeth probably made the right call when she hired an extra porter (we actually called them chaskis, 22 accompanied our group) to carry the majority of her supplies. Needless to say, due to the altitude, my marginal fitness, and the 15ish pounds on my back, I was dying! It truly was an incredible hike though, more than once I found myself looking at absolutely stunning snow capped peaks and jagged ridges. An inspirational setting.

One of the many stunning views from the trail.

Random ruins on the trail. Not Machu Picchu!

Me at 4215 meters.

The camp we stayed at the second night was at 3600m. This is when things started to get interesting. Day 3 is called the Gringo killer because you hike for 15k, which takes about 8 hours in total (including meal stops), and drop about 3,500 feet. The incredible drop in altitude means that you go down something like 3,000 stone stairs. We knew that it would be tough on both of our knees (Elisabeth´s gave her particular trouble), but what we didn´t account for was a massive 24 hour illness that would knock me on my behind. Three quarters of the way through the hike I started to feel ill. My pace began to slow. Within an hour I was in the bushes, gracing Pachamama with another offering. The rest of that days hike took me nearly 4 hours, as I puked and ran to the pushes every half hour or so. Elisabeth and Jason where huge helps and stuck with me the whole way. Thankfully, after passing out within 10 minutes of reaching camp, I shook the bug and was able to get up bright and early for the day we would actually arrive at Machu Picchu. I literally don´t know what I would have done without Elisabeth! She is the greatest girlfriend ever.

(Side note, turns out our cook might not have been that great because 7 of the 16 hikers got some kind of bug and ended up puking and generally being miserable for various stints on the trip.  Food poisoning????)

The 7 members of team sick.

On Day 4 we woke up at 3:40am so that we could be among the very first in line to see the ruins of Machu Picchu. When the gates opened at 4:30 we were among the first 40 people allowed into the actual city! Once in the gates, we had to hike another 5km that day to reach the actual ruins, so the first hour of the morning we hiked in prehistoric fog that makes San Francisco fog look like a sunny day. Descending into Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate (the way the Inca´s used to enter) was phenomenal. As we got lower, the mist slowly parted and the magnificent ruins lay in front of us. Some lazy train people were already inside (they get to go right to the ruins ) but we beat 99% of them there and were able to see the sun rise over the ruins at 6:00am (or so).

Machu Picchu as the morning sun clears the fog.

Machu Picchu was worth the money, pain and suffering to reach it. We ended up spending about 6 or 7 hours in the park. I actually took a 2 hour nap on top of some ruins as I still was not nearly 100%. Elisabeth ran around with our good friends Jason and Thomas and explored almost every inch of the park including the magnificent Waynupicchu. The pictures don´t do it justice, but here are a few of ours that we took.