Lanin National Park

Our one week in San Martin de Los Andes was spent mostly on our five day camping trip near Lago Lacar in the Lanin National Park. Mark and I set out on a sunny Tuesday morning on a boat headed for Quila Quina, a small town 26km from San Martin. After a thirty minute boat ride, we arrived on the shores of Quila Quina. The tourist season had yet to begin and all the shops were closed, but we managed to find signs pointing to the campsite.

After walking for approximately an hour, we came across the Mapuche ran campground situated directly on the lake with amazing views. We were just about the only campers for the night so we got our first pick on a campsite; we chose the one on the peninsula closest to the water. We set up our tent quickly and immediately changed into our bathing suits ready to jump into the cold lake water. We found a nice rock to sunbathe on and spent the entire afternoon lying in the sun, swimming, and talking.

Mapuche Campsite, Lago Lacar

Dinner that night was one of Mark´s camping concoctions - instant mashed potatoes, hot dogs, corn, onion and cheese. We had to get pretty creative in order to cook for two people in our JetBoil, but after a bit of research and preparation, we feel like we ate pretty well for the entire trip!

One of the campsite managers, a younger guy raised near Quila Quina, asked us where we were headed to next. After telling him, ¨Vamos a Lago Escondido¨, he gave us a worried look and wished us good luck dealing with all of the recent ash from the Puyehue Volcano in Chile. We didn´t think much of it and set out the next morning to Lago Escondido, an approximately six hour hike from our location on Lago Lacar.


The hike to Lago Escondido turned out to be quite the ordeal - with no markers or signs pointing in the right direction, we got turned around a few too many times. The two maps that we had did not match up to the roads that we were on and we had to stop many times to ask the locals which way to go. After being led through people´s yards and to roads that we never knew existed, we finally felt like we were on the right trail. 


We came to a house, with a gate and a sign that everyone had told us to look for. We knew that from there it would take at least one more hour to reach the lake. We came across a deep river without a bridge or rocks to cross, and we thought, ¨There´s no way in hell this could be a part of a trail!¨. But, after checking out our other options, we decided to make the crossing wading knee-deep in water to get to the other side. Again, we came across a Y in the road, and after coming to a closed gate, we backtracked and went the other way only to find another river with no bridge or rocks to cross. 


At that point, we had been walking through the ash-covered roads for over six hours and weren´t really sure if we were headed in the right direction or not. We decided to go back to the house that we saw near the gate to see if we could either sleep there for a night or possibly get the right directions from them. On our walk back, we ran into (almost literally) a man with his two dogs and a horse.


He told us to sleep near the river and that he would come back the next morning to escort us to Lago Escondido. We were so thankful to have found him, but not so thankful to have to sleep in cow country! The entire trail to the lake is surrounded by land owned by individual cattle ranchers. These cows are not the everyday mom n pop dairy cows that you see nicely fenced in and minding their own business. These are big-assed, free roaming, balls and horns attached, bulls that stare you down as if they want to make your day miserable. Needless to say, we will be asking about wildlife on all upcoming trips!

Alberto Casanova is a local rancher who owns over three hundred cattle and fifty horses. As promised, he was at our campsite at 8:00am the following morning and led us, with his horse and two dogs, to Lago Escondido. Turns out, we had been going the right way but the trail was actually almost two hours instead of the one hour as expected.

Alberto Casanova

Lago Escondido is a beautiful mountain lake with crystal clear water and jumping fish. Mark crafted a makeshift fishing pole and spent most of the day trying to catch a mid-afternoon snack. But hikers beware, the most aggressive flies we have ever met live in this part of the woods. At one point, we had about twenty of them circling us. The locals say that the more you swat at them, the more they bug you, but it was so hard to resist!

Sunset at Lago Escondido

We spent one night at Lago Escondido before heading back to Quila Quina. We knew that we would have to face the cows for one more day - we practically ran down the mountain! We saw Alberto on our way out checking on his cows and said hello to him.


We made it down from the main trail and were making our final corner before reaching the campiste when all of a sudden, we saw it - a bull walking down the road! I practically jumped off the road into the bushes below, telling Mark to join me. The bull started to pick up speed and I thought ¨Oh, shit!¨. Around the corner came a little girl, who looked about twelve years old, chasing the bull in her bathing suit. They both ran passed us and the girl leapt in front of the bull bringing him to a halt before wacking it on the ass to direct him up the hill. After witnessing this little girl man-handle the bull, I felt slightly embarassed crawling out of the ditch where I was hiding. The next day we walked past the cows like we had been doing it all of our lives.

The highlight of our trip was meeting Alberto and getting a glimpse into his life as an Argentinian cattle rancher. We will always remember this trip as our first real encounter with bulls and meeting the most annoying bugs of our lives. But, we will also remember the friendliness of the locals, the amazing scenery,  and the celebration beers.


We are currently in Bariloche celebrating the holidays in our small studio overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi. We will be going out for a Christmas Eve dinner tonight at a Parilla restaurant called El Boliche de Alberto. Christmas day will be spent at the cabin cooking prime rib, mashed potatoes, plus all of the fixings and a nice Malbec. We wish all of our families and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Vino in Mendoza

From Buenos Aires, we took a bus cross country to wine country in Mendoza, Argentina. We decided to try out our brand new, bright red, beautiful Bike 2 tent out during our stay and found a nice campsite called Parque Suizo. Arriving at the bus station midday, we walked across town to find the 114 bus on Ave Sarmiento.

Situated about 30 minutes by bus from the city center, Parque Suizo is equipped with showers, bathrooms and laundry facilities. We settled in quickly and were so proud to be owners of our beautiful new home - the red tent!

Home for the next 4 months

After a quick walk to the local minimarket, we cracked open our boxed white wine and started playing Spite n Malice and Farkle. The night was spent at our campsite playing games, eating dinner, and relaxing.

We woke up fairly early the following morning with plans to take a bus out to Maipu for our bike ride wine tour. Unfortunately, by the time we got everything figured out, it was too late to make the 45 minute bus ride out to Maipu so we decided to stay local in Mendoza and check out the city center.

After reading a few free magazines, two glasses of orange juice and a bottle of water, we felt like we had a good idea of what we wanted to do that day - wine tasting. What else do you do in wine country?

We found a great wine tasting room near Plaza Independencia called The Vines - we highly recommend it! The staff were extremely friendly; they poured us some great wine and talked with us throughout the tasting about the local wine industry. Mark had the Malbec tasting, which Argentina is famous for, and I had an assortment of reds and Torrentes. They told us about their property in wine country where single investors can purchase the land and they will grow the grapes, harvest, etc. for you - a great, fairly inexpensive way for all of the wine lovers to grow their own wine! Too bad Mark and I are on a budget or else we would be grape growing land owners by now...

Mark at The Vines

After a few hours at The Vines, we checked out a bit more of Mendoza before catching a bus back to the campsite.

The next morning, we again tried to wake up really early to get our Maipu winetasting in! We ended up having to wait for the bus for about 30 minutes and then the bus for Maipu as well, so we didn´t get out there until after noon. We were dropped off on the main road and from there you can choose from many different bike rental companies. We chose Orange Bikes - he was a very helpful man who ran the company from his home. He gave us a map, recommended a few wineries and wished us luck!

Our first stop was a chocolate, olive oil, jam and liquor shop that had tastings for 20 pesos. We felt a bit rushed due to our lack of time, but we still enjoyed some delicious snacks and drinks there! We tried the beer vodka liquor mix, which was extremely high in alcohol and pretty awful! We don´t recommend wasting 1 out of your 2 liquor tastings on it.

From there, we pedalled as fast as we could to our first winery, Trapiche. This winery was founded in 1883 and has been recently refurbished.Wine tastings are much longer in Argentina than we are used to in the States, this one took about two hours! The tour took up the majority of the time, with only about thirty minutes dedicated to wine tasting. I think we all would have been happy to just have the wine - it was amazing!

Trapiche Winery

After the tour, we had only one hour left to go before all of the wineries closed! Again, we pedalled as fast as we could to our next winery where we were hoping to get some lunch. Unfortunately, due to it being a national holiday, the winery was closed. By then, we were pretty worn out and knew that all the other wineries were closing shortly at 5pm. A bit disappointed, we began the bike ride back to Orange Bikes stopping off at La Melesca for a late lunch.

Most bike rental companies include snacks and wine after the tour, so we were sure to take advantage of it! The owner greeted us and brought out some chilled red wine (a bit strange for wine country, but perfect for a hot day) and snacks from cheese puffs to some sweet plums! We were joined by two American girls from D.C. and Chicago, who we got along with great. We spent a little over two hours talking and drinking wine before all catching the bus back to Mendoza together.

Vino and snacks at Orange Bikes

We spent one more night in Mendoza before heading southeast to Neuquen, Argentina. Neuquen was not what we expected so we stayed for only one day, which consisted of eating Parilla and hanging out by the river. For all of those expecting to visit the dinosaur museum in Neuquen, it is not there, but instead 100 km outside of the city. Unfortunately, this was something we found out after we arrived!

From Neuquen, we hopped onto the earliest bus Sunday morning and came here to San Martin de los Andes. We love this little town and are so happy to be near the green mountains and lakes again!

Viva Argentina

From reading the last blog, it appears that we have been in Argentina for almost three weeks now and had no idea that so much time had passed by! We have explored the greater part of Northwest Argentina, Iguazu Falls and currently, Buenos Aires.

We ended up taking Ieuan and Kerry up on the offer to share a rental car for six days. We had the chance to explore the Southern and Northern Circuits that surround Salta on the roads less traveled. The towns along the way in the Southern Circuit were picturesque and the scenery was beautiful! We spent the first three days exploring the small town of Cachi, winetasting in Cafayate, and hiking Rio Colorado.

Wine Tasting - Cafayate, Argentina

Throughout the first three days, we were subjected to extremely bumpy and twisting roads. They were so intense that when we rented the car the saleswoman gave us an estimate of how many curves we would be encountering. We had no idea the extent of the curves, which turned out to be many blind corners and some very slow going!

Road from Cachi to Cafayate, Argentina

Hiking Rio Colorado was a highlight of the Southern Circuit and took approximately three hours. We met a tour guide at the bottom of the trail, negotiated a price and then headed into the mountains. The trails started out gradually until we reached a spot where our guide reached down into some chalk-like substance and motioned that it was ¨for climbing¨. Little did we know, he decided to take us the hard way a.k.a rock climbing because we were ¨young and could do it¨. Looking back, it was a great experience but I don´t think that any of us have ever clung onto a rockwall like that before in our lives! Mark would like to get back into rock climbing when we get home and I´d like to try it out with him, with more appropriate gear next time!

Rio Colorado Hike

After our first three days out, we spent the night in Salta to get ready for the Northern Circuit. The circuit was, again, filled with some crazy, bumpy roads but the ¨Road to the Clouds¨ was great and we really enjoyed the town of Tilcara where we spent two nights playing cards, eating dinner, and drinking wine. Even our day adventure out to Iruya, a small town tucked away in the mountains, was well worth the drive!

Last night out - Tilcara, Argentina

We returned to Salta a bit exhausted, but thankful for the six day trip with Ieuan and Kerry! It´s a trip that we will not forget - thank you both for making it so great!

Our adventure out to Iguazu Falls lasted four days and was worth every penny of the pricey bus ride! We stayed at the Guembe Hostel near the bus station and loved exploring the rainforest town. Our first two days we experienced torrential downpour, the kind of downpour that only seems to happen in the rainforest! We made it out to the falls on our second day and spent the day hiking and viewing the amazing waterfalls. We even saw some crazy rainforest creatures including monkeys and giant bugs!

The falls were better than we expected and made us feel like we were Jurassic Park. The intensity can only be felt when experienced, but we tried to capture it with our camera as well.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

Garganta del Diablo

We spent the remainder of the time in Puerto Iguazu checking out the shops, laying by the pool, and eating our first Chinese food since we left home. We were both so excited to find some different flavors and jumped on the opportunity to eat some Yakisoba. It was delicious! 

From Puerto Iguazu, we took an overnight bus to Buenos Aires where we have been now for over one week. We stayed in the San Telmo neighborhood for one night before moving to the Palermo neighborhood where a lot of the restaurants and shops are. We´ve checked out the impressive Recoleta Cemetery, Puerto Madero, and many of the parks. Today we will be going to our first Polo match, which we are both looking forward to experiencing! We plan on checking out the San Telmo Sunday market tomorrow before heading to Mendoza on Monday. And for all of the foodies out there, we have had some delicious Parilla during our stay here as well!

Our tent has been bought and our plans are coming together for Patagonia. We have rented a cabin for two weeks in Bariloche, Argentina where we will be enjoying the holidays in our cozy 250 sq. ft cabin! We are planning on a lot of hiking, camping and adventure in the upcoming months down south.

Happy Holidays to all of our families and friends back home!

Chaotic Bolivia and Beyond!

With painstakingly slow and semi-costly internet in Bolivia, we decided it was best to hold off on blogging until we got to a more internet friendly city. So here we are in Salta, Argentina ready to resume our blogging hobby!

We left for Bolivia a couple of weeks back with one goal: to see Salar de Uyuni in southern Bolivia. We made a few stops along the way including Copacabana, La Paz, Oruro and the small town of Uyuni itself. In total, we spent almost 2 weeks in Bolivia exploring the streets and travelling from city to city.

Copacabana is a small town on the shores of Lake Titicaca - the highest altitude lake in the world. The lake looked more like a small ocean with islands throughout. We arrived by bus and quickly found our hostel which had a great location and even a private bathroom for a low cost. Our 4 days in Copacabana were spent playing cards in the sun, drinking a few cold beers (Huari was our favorite), and visiting Isla del Sol.

Our visit to Isla del Sol included the boat to and from the island, approximately 3 hours each way, and costed only 2 USD. We now know that going the cheapest way to an island via boat may not be the safest way, which, in hindsight, we should have already known. On the way out to the island, we were all cold as it started to rain. Not only did it rain and get a bit choppy, but our boat actually started to leak! If that wasn´t alarming enough, it was increased when the captain´s son ran to the front to grab himself a life jacket! We wanted off the boat, but knew that we had a couple more hours to go and had to stick it out. Thankfully, we made it to the island and spent the afternoon walking around and eating a delicious steak and egg sandwich on the shore.

We spent quite a bit of time in Copacabana steaking out the best trucha aka trout in town for Mark to enjoy. We found it on the last day in the local food court where all the locals went for fried trucha, rice, potatoes and salad. Mark really enjoyed it while I had a bite just to try it out! Best trout yet...

All in all, Copacabana was simple and relaxing. We ate local popcorn that they sell by the bag with a light sugar coating on it. We spent hours playing Spite and Malice and drinking beers by the water. We had the best burritos in town. And to top it off, we had a great view of the lake from our hostel. Each night, we fell asleep to rain pouring down and woke up to beautiful blue skies.

Eventually, we felt that it was time to move on to the next big thing: La Paz. We hopped onto a local bus and for a few USD made our way to the capital. Arriving in late afternoon and a bit overwhelmed by the hustle and chaos of this city, we took a taxi directly to our hostel, the Adventure Brew Hostel located by the bus terminal.

Fortunately and unfortunately, the hostel is located by the bus terminal. As we all know, that is usually not the best part of town and that was the case in La Paz. We were across the street from a gas station and located in a dodgy area (or so it seemed). Exhausted from a sinus infection, I was not up for much during those few days. Mark explored the nearby areas and reported nothing too positive, so we decided to catch the next bus to Oruro where we could take a train to Uyuni. Talking to others, there´s plenty to do in La Paz, but it just wasn´t in the cards for us this time around.

We arrived in Oruro and immediately felt better about the situation. Oruro is known for being an industrial city and where the train tracks start in Bolivia. We wandered the streets for a bit looking for a hostel. We found one and are pretty sure that we were the only guests! Rooms were simple with HBO which turned out to be a life saver as the city seemed to close down early. Our time spent in Oruro consisted of a chicken for lunch, train tickets bought to Uyuni, and a few good movies on HBO.

Taking the train to Uyuni was a good experience - we saw the desert landscape throughout the country and, again, watched some movies. We aren´t sure why, but they decided to play 3 American action movies: Top Gun, Air Force One, and Casualties of War. The last one was horrible with way too much gore, but the first two weren´t so bad! Mark, in particular, enjoyed them.

Uyuni is a small town with one main street which is also the plaza. We spent our first night at Hotel Julia - overpriced and they didn´t even provide toilet paper! Thankfully, we had been collecting toilet paper throughout Bolivia for just this reason. We switched over to Hostel Cactu, with parrots and dogs in the courtyard and simple, but clean, rooms. We had a great time walking around the city, which has a lot of street vendors and small shops. We bought our tour group tickets to Salar de Uyuni, which included a 3 day, 2 night tour of the salt flats and nearby volcanoes, lagoons and mountains.

Salar de Uyuni was absolutely breathtaking and a must-see for anyone visting Bolivia! We lucked out with a great group of 14 people and 2 excellent drivers. The salt flats are still mined for salt daily - our tour guide told us that the workers receive only 30 Bolivianos per day for an entire truck full of salt. When you think about it, that is less than 5 USD per day. Pretty shocking.

We spent the first day on the salt flats driving throughout and having lunch at a salt hotel, which is no longer used as a hotel due to the negative impact that it had on the salt flats. There, we spent almost an hour taking fun pictures on the flats. We took one picture where a Snickers bar was in the foreground and it looked as though we were sitting on it. It sounds completely ridiculous, but the pictures were pretty awesome! We wish we could share them here, but unfortunately our camera was lost during a horseback ride in Chile - more on that to come!

We shared the SUV with some people from Switzerland and Germany, while the other car was mostly couples from England, France and the Netherlands. It was a great group! Our first night was spent just outside of Salar de Uyuni in a hotel made purely of salt. The ground was even some type of mineral and you could literally taste the salt while breathing. We had an interesting dinner that night; it was some type of casserole made with french fries, hot dogs, onions, beef and hard-boiled eggs. It literally looked like they took whatever they could find and threw it all into a pan! We ate it anyway and had some good laughs over dinner.

I failed to mention earlier that our guide literally left us on the first day and returned to Uyuni. He said that our new guide would be meeting us at the island in the middle of the salt flats, which turned out to be completely false. He tried to hand us over to a guide that he never met before - the other group had paid quite a bit more and were not about to share their guide with us. We spent the next 2 days without a guide and were left with our 2 drivers, which at least knew where they were going! However, we didn´t learn much about the lagoons, flamingos, volcanoes, etc. that we saw.

A highlight of the trip was the thermal springs that we visited on the 3rd day. That morning had been brutally cold at -15 degrees celcius, but we braved the cold and got into our swimsuits and made the plunge! Well worth it and actually ended up warming us up quite a bit.

We made it to the Bolivian border where we said good-bye to part of our group and hopped onto the Colque Tour bus to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. We were accompanied by our new friends from England and France, which was great! After crossing into Chile, Yohan, Jessica, Mark and I wandered the streets (again!) looking for a hostel. We ended up at a small place called Hostel Florida with hammocks in the courtyard and a great little kitchen for cooking. San Pedro is an adorable town with adobe buildings and dirt roads. It is located in the driest desert in the world and has the friendliest local people around! 

That afternoon was enjoyed partly in the hammocks reading books and then later at a restaurant for happy hour with Yohan and Jessica. We all decided that we should go horseback riding and the next afternoon we did just that.

We booked a guided tour on horseback through a company near our hostel for a 3 hour ride through Death Valley in the Atacama Desert. The ranch was located less than 1 mile from town and had 14 horses. We all were assigned our horses and took off into the desert. My horse was particulary slow, which I didn´t mind, and Mark´s was a beautiful tan horse that seemed to be extremely calm. We crossed a desert and went into a canyon before crossing the road into Death Valley. It was a beautiful sight with tall, rock walls surrounding us gradually opening up into huge sand dunes. We climbed to the top of a sand dune where we rested, took pictures, and then continued back to the ranch. I will forever remember my horse using me as a itching post and rubbing it´s head up and down my leg to get rid of the itch behind his ear!

Heading downhill, there was a rock formation that we crossed over before heading down again. My horse either spooked or was just having fun, and took off into a gallop! I said a few choice words and held on for my life before bringing it to a stop. I swear it was bucking, but Mark insists that it wasn´t. Unfortunately, this is when we think that our camera flew off the horse and into the endless sand! Along with it, all of our pictures from Salar de Uyuni and the horseride as well. What a bummer! Our guide went back to search, but with the desert being so big, was unable to find it. The upside to it is that we have my oldschool camera as a backup and will be using that until we find a reasonably priced camera here in Argentina.

We said goodbye to the beautiful horses and went back to our hostel before all meeting up with Ieuan and Kerry for some dinner and drinks. Later that evening, Yohan and Jessica took off to Peru for their last few weeks of vacation so we had to say goodbye to them as well. There may be a trip to France in the near future!

A great night out - San Pedro de Atacama

We spent the night drinking Pisco Sours and Mojitos which turned out to be a fairly late, but very fun evening! We had some great laughs and our server, Diego from Santiago, was very friendly and helpful!

We had to wake up early the next day to catch our long bus ride to Salta, Argentina. I was lucky enough to sleep most of the day, but Mark stayed up for most of it watching movies. We went through two immigrations for both Chile and Argentina which took up a great deal of time. We arrived last night around 9:00pm in Salta. With no money or a hostel, it was a bit stressful but we ended up at the Sol Huasi Hostel where we will most likely spend a few days.

Our plan is to meet up with Ieuan and Kerry tomorrow and possibly rent a car to check out the surrounding cities and outdoorsy spots. We are excited to have some freedom apart from the usual bus ride and to spend some time with new friends.

For the next couple of months, we will spend our time in Argentina visiting Iguaza Falls, wine country and down to Patagonia while making a short stop in Uruguay to lounge on the beach. We are looking forward to some hiking, camping and gigantic steaks!

All the best! 

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Months ago, we decided that we had to see Machu Picchu, one of the Seven World Wonders, and began planning our trip to South America. We had no other set plans except to see this magical place in person and set the goal to plan the trip and to make it a reality.

This last weekend spent in the Andes Mountains was perfect in every way. Not only did we accomplish our goal, but we met some wonderful people along the way and learned more about the fascinating Incan culture. In total, the trip lasted four days and three nights.

Last Saturday, October 22nd, we headed out early from Cusco to head to the Inca Trail. Our tour company, SAS Travel, picked us up from our hostel around 5:00am and we set off on a bus with our group of 16. With our group were our two tour guides, Javier and Oscar. We had no idea what to expect, but were all excited to reach our destination, Machu Picchu.

The bus ride took approximately three and a half hours stopping for breakfast along the way. We arrived at Kilometer 82, the entrance to the Inca Trail, and registered with our passports and tickets at the first control gate. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were surrounded by the Andes Mountains, the perfect start to the trek!

Kilometer 82

The first day we hiked for approximately 10 hours, mostly uphill, to our first campsite. Being rainy season, we were all thankful for the beautiful weather and were in high spirits. We passed a few communities and said ¨Hola¨ to all the passing locals. The people who live in the Andes Mountains are allowed to use donkeys and horses to transport their goods so we saw many of them on the first day. That being said, you had to be very careful where you walked because the animals used the trail as their private bathroom too!

Javier was our main tour guide - he stopped along the way to teach us about the local plants, ruins, and communities. He was very passionate about ¨Pachamama¨ or ¨Mother Earth¨ and explained to us how the Incan´s lives were focused around Pachamama and was also the main source for their religion. We came across a cactus plant and Javier took some white parasites off of it. After squishing them in his hand, he showed us the dark red color that they produce. Incan´s and current Andean people use these parasites to dye their wool, for lipstick, and for many other purposes as well. He squished a few more and began spreading the dark red across our cheeks, our warrior paint for the first day! It was a bit strange smearing parasite guts across our faces, but at the same time a great experience because where else in the world would we do this?

Warrior Paint

Warrior Paint

 



















We continued on for about an hour to a beautiful Incan ruin site that sat at the base of a mountain and was mainly used for growing crops. There, we were able to take photos before sitting in a semi circle around Javier. Overlooking a huge valley, Javier gave us another Incan lesson about why they chose this location, what the site was used for, etc. It felt as if we were in the most surreal classrom ever in the Andes Mountains. After some hydrating, we got our packs on and started the uphill trek again.

Incan Ruins in the Valley Below

We stopped for lunch before continuing the trek - we had four more hours to go. We continued climbing and the trail began to change from a dry, dusty surrounding to a cloud forest feel. All of a sudden, there were lush plants and trees, rivers, and wildlife everywhere. Towards the end of the day, the thunder and clouds began rolling in and before we knew it, it was pouring rain! Luckily, we were within five minutes of our campsite and were able to get to our tents before becoming completely  soaked.

Whenever you arrive at a campsite, you are welcomed by the porters and your tent that has already been set up. We were assigned the tent O2 for the trip which was equipped with a rain fly and all! We quickly got settled in, changed out of our wet clothes and did our best to dry some things off. A porter brought us hot water to wash our faces, which felt great! Soon after, Javier started yelling, ¨Popcorn, cookies, tea!¨ so we quickly put our boots back on and went to the dining tent. Now, we´ve had a lot of popcorn in our lives but for some reason this was the BEST popcorn ever! Warm, salty and a bit buttery too. We all sat around the table eating popcorn and drinking warm tea while the heavy rain continued outside. 

Dinner was served at 7:00pm every night and all were delicious! A soup always came out first followed by some type of potatoe or rice, meat stew and many other local Peruvian dishes. We definitely did not go hungry during the trip; the Chef and the Porters did a great job preparing the meals in such difficult conditions.

That night, the rain let off before we went to bed. The next morning, we were woken up at 5:00am by Oscar saying, ¨Good morning, how are you feeling?¨, and were given some hot Coca Tea to help with the altitude. The second day is known to be the most difficult lasting ten hours and hiking two mountain passes - you are either going straight up or straight down the entire day.

Meeting Our Wonderful Porters on the 2nd Day

That morning was fairly foggy and cold as we climbed higher into the mountains. We had all heard about the difficult ¨Dead Woman´s Pass¨ and were anxious to get our first glimpse of it. After arriving at a rest area, Javier pointed up to show us where we were heading. A steep trail led you to the top of the pass before we would descend back into a valley. We loaded up on Snickers, took a deep breath, put our packs on, and started the ascent step by step to the top.

The climb up was difficult but do-able at a steady pace and we eventually made it to the top with an elevation of 13,781 ft. We all gathered for a group picture, before heading directly down the other side into the valley below.

Dead Woman´s Pass

We stopped for lunch at the bottom of the valley - at this spot, most groups usually camp but our guide suggested that we continue on for another four hours or so to make it to a campsite with greater views and to also shorten our trek for the third day. Unfortunately, at this point, our camera lens got jammed so we were unable to take anymore pictures for most of the afternoon. The rest of the day consisted of one more mountain pass, a beautiful mysterious ruin, and some jungle like trekking.

Arriving at our second campsite, I tossed the camera onto our backpacks dissapointed that it had jammed during our Inca Trail trip. To our surprise, that little bump to the camera opened up the lens so we were back in action taking pictures! That evening, we had some more popcorn, a great dinner and a celebratory drink, made with fruit and cinnamon infused tea, for finishing the most difficult day on the Inca Trail. Our guides told some great stories and we all had a fun evening together before heading to bed around 8:00pm.

On the third day, we woke up early again around 5:30am to our Coca Tea and great views of the snow capped mountains in the distance. The third day was only a half day of hiking, which we had all been looking forward to. We had a large breakfast, packed our packs and headed out to start the day. 

 Morning View from Our Second Campsite

That day we walked through the cloud forest and a few caves. All the hillsides were covered with lush plants, bamboo, and moss. The trail was mostly downhill on the original Inca Trail with extremely steep steps most of the way. At times, we felt that going up would have been easier than going down because it takes a lot more concentration and our legs were exhausted at that point. But, we took it one step at a time and slowly made our way down the mountain. The day was mostly overcast, which felt great while hiking. We passed through two Incan Ruins that day taking some time to explore each one. 

Arriving at our campsite around noon, the sun came out and we all were able to change into shorts and sandals. We got situated in our tents before eating another great lunch together. Nearby were some more ruins, which we decided to go check out. The ruins were perched on a hill overlooking a valley and the Urubamba River. We explored for about an hour before heading back to the campsite. Here, we were able to take showers for 5 Soles, which most of us took advantage of! The shower felt great followed by a nice siesta before waking for our final dinner on the Inca Trail. To our surprise, Ronald presented us with a homemade cake that they had been cooking all day. It was so impressive that they were able to make the cake in the mountains. We saved plenty to share with the Porters as well. 

Celebration Cake!

That night, we gathered with our 22 Porters and 2 Guides to give thanks to each other and to provide them with their well deserved tips. It was such a special night with speeches given in Spanish and the indigenous language of Quechua.

 The Whole Group

It was hard sleeping that night knowing that the next day we would be at Machu Picchu! However, the morning came soon enough at 3:30am. The early wake up was to ensure that we were one of the first groups at the control gates that open at 5:30am. We ate a quick breakfast, put our headlamps on, and started down the trail to the control gates where we waited for a little over one hour. 

  Ready for Machu Picchu!

After passing through the gates, the sun began to rise and we could see the perfectly blue skies and sun shining! We were so fortunate to have this great weather on the day of Machu Picchu. We climbed for approximately one hour through the Gringo Killer steps and up to the Sun Gate where we got our first glimpse of the breathtaking Machu Picchu.

We took many pictures before continuing the forty minute descent to Machu Picchu. In total, we were at the site for a little over four hours and were thankful to get there early before the swarm of other tourists arriving by buses. Javier gave us a two hour tour of the site which was so interesting - the Incan´s had a purpose for everything that they did, which always revolved around Pachamama. Machu Picchu is more amazing than words can describe so here´s a picture to sum up the day...

Machu Picchu

From Machu Picchu, we took the bus back to Aguas Calientes. After our last lunch together as a group and quite a few beers, we boarded our train back to Ollantaytambo before catching our bus back to Cusco. Those four days were absolutely perfect and we could not have asked for a better group, guides, or experience! Thank you to SAS Travel for making the trip so special for us.

We are now back in Cusco and will be here until tomorrow evening before catching a bus to Bolivia. We will most likely spend a few weeks in Bolivia before heading south to Argentina.

Also, to those who have asked  about commenting on the blog, we think that the problem has been fixed and the comments should be working now.

All the best!

 

Sacred Valley & Mark´s 25th Birthday!

When we first booked our Inca Trail tickets to Machu Picchu for October 22nd, we thought, is two weeks too long to be in the Cusco area? We have now been in Cusco for almost two weeks and know the answer...absolutely not! We are still surprised daily with new restaurants, markets, adventures, and the amazing people in both Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Who knows...we may be returning sooner  to the Sacred Valley than ever expected!

Over the last week, we have spent most of our time in the Sacred Valley which is located approximately 1 hour from Cusco. Last Tuesday, we decided to take a 1-day Sacred Valley tour with a local company, Peru Agency. It was a great preview to what would come and a beautiful day to spend walking around the ruins in Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. With the tour, we were able to learn more about the history of the towns and the ruins. The ruins are breathtaking and very impressive when you think about how they were made thousands of years ago. Plus, our tour guide, Raphael, was great! We went with a small group of 9 which was much less than the expected group of 25.  Mark and I enjoyed lunch solo at an Urubamba restaurant while the rest of the group was taken to a much nicer buffet...We still aren´t quite sure what happened there, but we were just thankful that they came back to get us! The tour took all day and was a wonderful way to get to know the Sacred Valley roads and to even see where we would be spending Mark´s Birthday.

 Entering the Sacred Valley

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in Cusco wandering the streets and preparing for our weekend trip to Urubamba and Ollantaytambo (Sacred Valley). We found the BEST wood-fired pizza at a restaurant called Pachapapa in the San Blas neighborhood. We also enjoyed some great carne empanadas and cold beer near the Plaza de Armas.  We even had a chance to try out the local drink, Pisco Sour while we played a few games of Spite and Malice. As you can tell, those two days were mostly focused around food, drinks, and cards, but they were relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time.

We woke up early Friday morning to start our trip to Urubamba to celebrate Mark´s 25th Birthday. We packed our backpacks up and headed to la Calle de Pavitos where you can catch vans easily to the Sacred Valley for only 10 soles.

Van ride to Urubamba

The van ride was fast and easy with a fun driver who blasted the local Peruvian music. He dropped us off right at the entrance to Willka Tika and from there we walked down a gravel road to the resort. We were so excited to be there and immediately were given herbal tea and veggie sandwiches. The sandwiches were delicious made with homemade bread and vegetables from the Willka Tika´s gardens. After lunch, they took us to our room which was absolutely beautiful with a king-sized bed, hot shower, and a cabin feel to it. Don´t get us wrong, we love our hostel but to be at the resort with hot showers and water pressure was definitely a nice change!

We spent the afternoon exploring the Chakra Gardens and reading books under the sun. The owner of Willka Tika spent years creating the gardens which all have special significance and ceremonial purposes as well. We felt like we were in the movie ¨The Secret Garden¨ because of all the gardens and hidden paths.

Dinner was served at 6:30pm in the main area; Mark and I headed there early to get a bottle of wine to celebrate his birthday. We found a great Malbec wine from Argentina, which we both really enjoyed. Dinner was three courses and included a quinoa curry soup, homemade pesto pasta with a fresh tomato sauce, garden salad and a cake dessert. A birthday dinner to remember!

Birthday Boy and his vino!

That evening, we were lucky enough to experience the Solar Baths that are heated throughout the day and fragranced by fresh herbs and flowers. It was such an amazing feeling to be in the Sacred Valley of Peru, under the stars, in a hot bath filled with flowers and herbs. Thank you again to Shari and Greg for such a wonderful evening!

The next day we set off to Ollantaytambo for the next two nights. We hailed down a small motor taxi who took us to the local bus station where we found a van who would take us to Ollantaytambo for 1.30 soles. The trip is only 25 minutes, but the van stops many times to cram in more people along the way! Without a map of Ollantaytambo, we had some difficulties finding our hostel but the locals were helpful and we finally made it to the family run hostel, Hospedaje de Portadas.

Motor Taxi to the Bus Station

We got settled into our room and walked out to the hostel´s courtyard. Immediately, the owner started to speak to us in Spanish asking if we wanted to hike the mountain across the street. We said, ¨Si!¨and before we knew it he was leading us across the street into someone´s yard where he pointed to a trail. The climb up was fairly steep and took us to the ruins that we had seen earlier that week during the Sacred Valley tour. From the top, we had a great view of the Ollantaytambo ruins and the city. Well worth the hike!

View from the hike - Ollantaytambo Ruins and the city

We had lunch at the Heart´s Cafe, which is a British owned non-profit cafe that gives all of their proceeds to the local Andean communities to help feed the children along with many other things. We ended up eating there three times for two reasons: the delicious food and the important cause! We got to know many of the volunteers there and hear their inspiring stories. Ollantaytambo has many great volunteer opportunities, which is reason to return in itself!

That evening, we watched a local volleyball game while enjoying dinner. Every night, the city sets up a volleyball court in the middle of the Plaza de Armas. There are designated teams that play, some even seemed to be sponsored by local companies. It´s a great way to bring the community together and everyone seems to be there from the small children to the elders. We spent quite a few hours watching the game, eating dinner and talking with the locals.

The next day, we set off to the Moray Ruins located almost 2 hours away via taxi. Our driver took us through some crazy gravel roads that headed straight up the mountains. His name was Enrique, and we practiced our Spanish with him throughout the day. We had a lot of questions for him about the area and he had a lot of questions for us about the States. The ruins were great and it was interesting to see how they farmed back then, but we would have to say that the highlight of the day was talking with Enrique. He even went out of his way to take us to a small town where they serve the best Chicha, corn beer. We went to a local woman´s house and she showed us how she prepares Chicha, dries corn, and where she raises the Guinea Pigs (Cuy). Two younger kids were there as well and we were able to learn their names, ages, and about their local school. Small things like that is what makes the trip so special!

 Moray Ruins

Ollantaytambo was a great city to walk around and to meet people from all walks of life. We met a nice young couple who sell the most amazing paintings, but unfortunately are a bit out of our price range this time around. They just appreciated us taking the time to look at their art and for spending time talking to them. We met a volunteer who is from Woodinville, WA while eating breakfast at the Heart´s Cafe - such a small world! Overall, our weekend to the Sacred Valley was spectacular and Mark´s Birthday was perfect.

We are back in Cusco until we leave for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu on Saturday. We are looking forward to the hike and planning our next adventure!

Cusco, Peru

It´s been a few days since we last updated the blog so we will try our best to catch you all up on what we´ve been up to since leaving Lima.

We left Lima on October 5th around 5:30pm on the Cruz del Sur bus headed to Cusco. The bus was everything that we had hoped for - comfy recliners, great TV´s and pretty tasty food! We watched a few movies and had dinner before trying to fall asleep that night. Sleeping was a bit difficult due to the absolutely crazy driving of the bus driver; we were swerving around corners and lights kept flashing warning us that he was going way above the speed limit. Needless to say, it was not a very restful night. We woke up bright and early stopped on the highway in the middle of the Andes. Looking out the window, we noticed one of our rear tires was laying on the road surrounded by the crew. Unfortunately, at this point we were feeling the altitude sickness setting in too. Eventually, we got back on the road and drove for another 3 hours or so before stopping in a small town, Abancay, in the middle of the Andes. At this point, they asked us all to get off the bus because a new bus was coming to get us. To our surprise, when we exited the bus we noticed that the back tire was completely missing! Apparently, they drove those 3 hours with a missing rear tire. We laughed a bit but then thought Holy Shit! That probably wasn´t the safest way to partially cross the Andes. But, the most important thing is that we made it safely to Cusco after 24 hours worth of bus rides.The Andes Mountains is a truly special area that we will forever remember.

Cusco has been absolutely amazing so far! We are staying at the Flying Dog Hostel which is located nearby the main square, Plaza de Armas. Our room is colorful and even has a balcony overlooking the street, Choquechaca. We´ve spent the last few days roaming the city checking out many plazas, markets and the nearby ruins, Saqsaywaman (pronounced Sexy Woman).

On our first evening here we were fairly exhausted so we got settled in and went to a nearby restaurant, Nuna Raymi. We had the set menu which consisted of an appetizer, entree and dessert. We both really enjoyed this Peruvian cuisine and it only cost us 16 soles each, not bad!

The second day here we ventured out to the Plaza de Armas which is very beautiful and surrounded by cathedrals and shops. We even found a huge market nearby that sold everything from bull frogs to coca leaves. Mark got yelled at by a Peruvian woman for taking a picture of the bull frogs; she even sent her son out to yell/bark at him! It was pretty funny, but we were also pretty freaked out.We apologized and ran away as fast as we could. Now we know, do not take pictures of bull frogs!

After the market, we stopped by a ancient cathedral in the Plaza. A nice man gave us a tour and we ended up getting an amazing view of the Plaza de Armas from there.

Dinner was spent at a restaurant on our street called Jack´s Cafe. Hot sandwiches and soups are their specialties and they were delicious! We even had leftovers for the next day which is always great when your on a budget.

We had a fairly relaxing day yesterday visiting the local Chocolate Museum and watching a colorful parade. This month is known for it´s celebration of dance, music, and art which we have been very lucky to experience! At a local market, we bought Alpaca sweaters (to stay warm) and journals.

We bought bracelets from this local woman and her baby Alpaca, Jessica.

Today has been one of the most memorable days as we climbed up to Saqsaywaman and to a lookout on top of one of the mountains. We were amazed by the ruins and spent a good amount of time up there exploring and taking pictures. Pictures to come!

All in all, Cusco has been absolutely great. The people have been more than friendly and you could easily spend weeks exploring the streets and nearby mountains. We are off now to grab a late lunch and then off to the Mushroom Pub with our new friends, Chris and Jackie. We hope all is well at home and will be sure to blog again soon!

We made it to Lima, Peru!

After two flights and a crazy car ride, we made it to Lima! We arrived at the airport around 10:25pm and made it to our hostel a bit after midnight. The hostel staff at Flying Dog greeted us and took us to our room where we managed to fall asleep despite of all the city noise. We woke up fairly well rested and took off downstairs to have breakfast at a nearby cafe. Nothing fancy, just some toast and one egg! But the coffee here is delicious like we remember it being in Europe. After breakfast, we decided to wander around the city for a bit making our way down to Larco Mar. The area has a beautiful view of the water and all of the amazing surrounding cliffs so we spent quite a bit of time down there taking in the view and walking through the shops/restaurants.

We made the executive decision to leave Lima a day early; the city is interesting but we are ready to be in the country near Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. We are heading out tomorrow evening for our 18 hour bus ride to Cusco via Cruz del Sur.

Now, we are off to find a local restaurant where we can enjoy some food and vino!

19 Days To Go...

Mark and I start our 6 month trip to South America in less than a few weeks! We are looking forward to exploring Peru, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay and hope to keep in touch with you all through this blog....stay tuned!