Huaraz --> Lima

View from the mall overlooking the steep cliffs leading down to the ocean.  

Recovery time!  Dave slept for almost the entire first day in Lima, recovering from a long overnight bus ride and a horrible case of something.  We went to the pharmacy and they gave us some type of miracle antihistamines that cleared up whatever was going on.  Once again, we made the mistake of not having a reservation before entering a big city and were roaming around with a taxi driver at 6am trying to figure out a place to stay.  We finally found a place in the beautiful beach district of Miraflores and camped out on their couches until a room opened up. 

Lima was really different than we thought it would be.  I took off walking while Dave slept the morning away and found this neighborhood to be much like Marina del Rey, CA.  Sweeping views of the ocean from high bluffs, surfers, ocean boardwalks with beautiful public parks, shopping malls, and TONS of people jogging and rollerblading.  WHAT?  It was acutally a strange experience and a weird juxtaposition from Huaraz, an indigenous mountain community.  If this puts it into perspective, they have Starbucks and Tony Roma´s.  It did not feel like Perú, but it was a welcome difference! 

We were pleasantly surpised with how beautiful the colonial old town of Lima was.  The plazas were huge and we enjoyed some quality people watching.  It was HOT in Lima, also a nice change from Huaraz.  Much of our time was spent relaxing, eating amazing food, and taking long walks.  We had the best lunch of our trip, perhaps the best meal so far, at a cevicheria in Miraflores.  Ceviche is a type of raw seafood plate (can be any type of seafood) that is doused in lime juice, tomatoes, and onions.  There are all different types, but the one that we had was ceviche de pescado and it was FANTASTIC.  We couldn´t stop talking about it for the next few days.  Dave and I enjoyed this taste of being back in the first world, but after three nights we boarded the 21-hour luxury bus and headed for Cusco.  Five movies later and some windy ascents up into the high altutude of Cusco, we arrived and have been here since!

Parque del Amor...a perfect representative South American statue with a paraglider in the background.  PS-every park in every city or town in all of South America contains tons of pairs FULL ON making out.  Entirely entertaining. 

Drinking REAL coffee! 

Lima Sunset


All aboard the lux bus for Cusco...21 hours :)

Máncora --> Trujillo --> Huaraz

Colonial Trujillo

Our bus ride from Máncora to Trujillo was interesting...as we weren´t exactly aware that we booked such a crappy bus.  There´s always a bit of adjusting to do when arriving in a new country.  Luckily, we were travelling during the day and didn´t have to sleep on this one.  Still shocked at the bleak landscape for hours upon end, it was so surprising when we would happen upon a little town of 4 of 5 huts and a few people living there.  I don´t know how they survive, have water, or really...live.  As our bus swayed around corners and flew up and down hills and mountains, I also couldn´t help but constantly think of how our friends Dylan and Cheri biked this section.  9 or 10 ish hours later we arrived in Trujillo at night which seemed to be a fairly nice colonial city.  Dave and I enjoyed a good dinner and caught a local music and dance performance in the Plaza de Armas.  Thoroughly impressed.  We were to leave for Huaráz the next day because we weren´t able to make the connection for an overnight bus.  I´m fairly positive that the next day all we did was eat, drink, and walk around.  The guards blew their whistle at us for laying down on the grass in the central plaza.  C´mon man...  (pictures--staring at ourselves in the mirror waiting for our night bus, colonial building...Trujillo, Perú)


Trujillo -->Huaraz

We arrived in Huaraz early morning on an overnight bus.  Dave was feeling a bit ill and we were super tired because all the sleeper busses sold out way in advance so we were on a standard economic bus overnight.  Not having slept very well at all, we got to our hostel at about 6:00 am and slept the rest of the morning.  Huaraz is an interesting place and a bit harsh because it has been devistated in the past by huge floods and earthquakes.  We were greeted by the tall mountain peaks all around the hastily thrown together brick and mud brick buildings that abound in the skyline.  After the earthquake in the 70s, Huaraz had to completely rebuild. 




We met some fun people from Truckee, CA named Kristin and Warren who were on their honeymoon trip to Perú.  We ended up hanging out with them for the evening at the hotsprings and then at the microbrew.  YES...A MICROBREWERY!  Serving up a golden ale, red, porter, and pale ale...we highly enjoyed Sierra Andina brewing company!  We decided to go for a day hike up to Laguna Churup the next day and Warren and Kristen joined us.  We had all kinds of weather along the steep slope, we arrived at a gorgeous turquoise lake for lunch.  Dave and I had intended to do some extended trekking in Huaráz but were finding it difficult to track down reliable information...and Dave was really sick.  We still don´t know if it was a cold or allergies...but after the day hike he was in a miserable state.  Huaraz was a beautiful place and we could have easily spend weeks upon end trekking and exploring the small indigenous villages around the area.  We felt an urgency to move on only because time was ticking and we still had a HUGE chunk of Perú to conquer! 

Trailhead of our day hike.  Laguna Churup, Huaraz

Laguna Churup

Friends who we met un Huaraz, Kristen and Warren from Truckee, CA

Ready to get on the collectivo back down the hill.  End of the trail, Laguna Churup, Huaraz

Little indigenous woman with her cooked entire pig selling it up on the corner in Huaraz.


I´ve opened my own laundry franchise in Huaraz.

Catch-up Time! Ecuador --> Máncora, Perú

Wow, we´ve definitely been on the move lately and have sorely neglected our blog.  Right now we are in Cusco, Perú and will be leaving tomorrow for Lake Titicaca, the highest (elevation) navigable lake in the world.  In attempts to catch you all up on where exactly we´ve been the last three weeks, we´ll do a brief synopsis of our southbound Peruvian travels.  It wasn´t really until we got the Perú travel book that we realized how much ground we had to cover.  We were at our starting point for long bus rides.

 

 Cuenca´s Main Cathedral

Tiny bit of finger in this photo...but it´s Cuenca´s Plaza de Flores.  Beautiful!

Cuenca, Ecuador --> Máncora, Perú

As we descended into incresingly lower elevations toward the boarder of Ecuador and Perú, we really had no idea what to expect.  The boarder crossing was interesting...but not bad.  I had a few problems with ID because the brilliant women at the airport in Quito entered my last name as Foitle.  Nobody really knows why.  The boarder officials were questioning me for 20-30 minutes and took my passport into a back room.  It took me a while to explain to them the American custom of dropping your maiden last name and fully changing to a married name.  Last names do not function the same in Ecuador.  You cannot easily drop your maiden name...you always have it and it´s really expensive to change it.  Has a bit to do with social status and indigeneous roots. 

Anyway, Dave and I were on the bus for quite some time travelling through the bleak southern part of Ecuador and northern Perú.  I never knew how deserty it was and how literally there is not much to see.  We disembarked after about 9 hours of bussing in Máncora, Perú where our taximoto driver put our bags on the back of his tuk tuk and took off.  The highly unfortunate occurance happened of my waist buckle being shattered inside the taximoto wheel.  I was ridiculously frustrated.  For all of you who have carried a 40/45-ish pound backpack without a waist buckle know how uncomfortable it is.  I don´t really think that I talked for the next 30 or so minutes.

Dave and I tried to walk around and find a hostel but we were having little luck, so went to the local bar and got 3x1 beers.  We decided after our 2 nights in Máncora that we were all too entirely spoiled by the amazing beaches in Costa Rica because we didn´t find Máncora very nice at all.  Perhaps if we had wetsuits or knew how to kiteboard we´d be stoked.  Fried seafood seemed to be the food of choice and we enjoyed a bit of that here and there, but were happy to be on our way out.

Northern Perú Landscape

 Classic Typos

Soaking up the Sun

 

Los Altares

Aftering spending some time in the jungle river rafting, we decided our next adventure would need to be in the Andes. Liz hiked up to a volcano while here 5 years ago that she absolutely had to see again. The nearest city to Los Altares is Riobamba, Ecuador, and we spent two nights there to relax and prepare for our trip. We planned on spending 3 days and 2 nights in a valley at the base of the peaks of the mountain. On the morning of our departure we stored our non-backpacking belongings with the hostal we had been staying and caught the 6:45am bus to the small village of Candalaria. We were lucky to be sitting next to a young guy about our age that worked at the ranger station of the National park we were entering (Parque Nacional Sangay). At our bus stop we walked with this guy to the ranger station, registered, and paid our $2 entrance fee. He said that rubber boots were recommended as the trail up to the valley was quite muddy. We didn´t have rubber boots but we did have our waterproof hiking boots and some gaiters we had purchased in Quito.


After some final preparations at the ranger station we set off on the 12.5 km hike up to the valley. The trail starts off weaving through small farms and where the land isn´t developed; thick trees and vegetation take over. The morning was cloudy a bit misty with periods of rain. The trail has a pretty severe incline to start off and is used by hikers, cattle, and horses. Shortly into the hike I learned what muddy means in Ecuador. This isn´t mud that gets on the side of your shoes. This is mud that at certain points will go past your ankle and onto your shins. Parts of the trail were dry and other parts you could navigate around the mud. The interesting parts of the trail were when there was no other way but to trudge right through the mud. Our gear for the most part was up to the task as our boots kept our feet dry and our gaiters kept mud off of our legs and from going into the tops of our boots. After about 3 hours we reached the halfway point. A clearing in the trail that opened up to a nice grassy clearing. Our lunch break was cut short by an increase in the intensity of the rain. We decided to pack up and continue along the trail.

The second half of the trail was a little less steep and the scenery changed to high grass lands. The view was of the mountain when the clouds cleared enough to see and the deep river canyon below. After 6 hours of hiking we arrived in the valley at the base of the peaks of the mountain. There is a refugio there that you can spend the night in, but Liz and I opted to find a protected spot in the valley to camp. The scenery is particulary unique in this area because we were surrounded 360 degrees with high, jagged peaks (Los Altares).  The valley is filled with wild horses and bulls. They mostly are not interested in getting close to people but they use the same paths. Occasionally we had to negotiate around a group of grazing bulls or horses.  I saw another side of Liz when a large group of horses came into our campsite and she waved them away with hand gestures and loud pitched noises.  Interesting. 

We eventually found a nice spot close to the river that runs through the valley and protected from the wind. The first evening around 5pm the clouds began to clear and we were treated to an absolutely spectacular view of the moutain, full moon, and the valley. We couldn´t believe how blessed we were to be in that spot surrounded by amazing beauty. 

The next day we made breakfast and set off for a day hike up to a lake that is in the crater of the volcano. It was a difficult 3hr round trip hike, but the views were well worth the effort. The lake was a mysterious yellowish-green and we heard loud rockfall all around us when we were up in the crater.  It was kind of eerie! That evening about the same time as the night before, the clouds cleared and we were again treated to unbelievable views of the valley and mountain with a full moon to follow. 
The next morning we were to pack up and hike out to catch our bus back to Riobamba. At 6:30am we were out of our tent getting our gear ready to go and were treated to a crisp morning without a cloud in the sky. It was hard to believe we were in that place enjoying the creation and hadn´t seen another soul for 2 days. By 8am we were hiking out of the valley beginning the long plod back to the ranger station. We had some excitment when we rounded a corner to find a pack of bulls happily grazing right in the middle of the trail. We kept our distance making loud noises and eventually got them to reluctantly move out of the way. We made great time on the hike down arriving at the station in 4.5 hrs. Our 12:30 bus was there and we loaded our stuff and hoped on board. We were quite muddy at this point and endured some strange looks from other passengers as we made our way back to Riobamba.


In Riobamba we had just enough time to catch a cab back to our hotel, collect the stuff we didn´t bring, change quickly, catch a cab back to the bus station and climb aboard the last bus out of Riobamba towards Cuenca. We spent the next 6 hours suffering through the maniac bus drivers attempts to make a new land speed record to Cuenca. It was 9pm when we arrived and needless to say we were exhausted, dirty, and irritable but thrilled by what we had the priveledge of experiencing over the last 72 hrs.

Now in Cuenca for the past three days, we´ve walked all over the city and enjoyed the quaint and colonial architecture.  Lots of good food and beautiful sights.  Tomorrow at 7:15am, we board the bus for 9 hours over the border and will end up in Máncora evening.  Hoping that our bus driver is more sane than the last! 

Dave

Ecuadorian Amazon

Man, our first day stepping into the Ecuadorian Amazon was a DOOSEY!  The weather was unbearably hot and Dave and I made the mistake of walking from the bus station about 20 minutes to our hostel with all of our luggage.  I would say at least 90 degrees with a HIGH percentage of humidity.  Wooooah, not ready for that.  The one excellent thing about the jungle though is that just as it gets firey hot outside, it pours rain.  Dave and I found ourselves waiting out thunderous downpours on a frequent basis under awnings and in ice cream stores (thanks to me).  Our main focus in heading off to the jungle was to go rafting.  In Ecuador, the country´s best whitewater is found in the jungle.

Unfortunately, out of ignorance, many of the rivers and ecosystems are rapidly changing in the Amazon area due to logging/deforestation, road development, and mining.  On the flip side, there are some people fighting to keep this pristine place wild, but the protestors are few and the illegal miners and loggers are much more powerful.  People simply go to the areas that they want to develop or mine - no permits, no protocol, no environmental studies, no hydrology experience, nada.  For example, in Tena (the capitol of the Napo province) they mined and changed the riverbed to extract materials for building streets, etc. that they made the surrounding area unstable and Tena has had floods for the past two years.  Not only is the flooding a problem, but it is so evident where the river bed has been altered and how the vegetation grown back after mining.  Good for Tena that their tourism is booming currently, but the citizens need to figure out alternative ways to pave the roads and get materials other than pulling them out of the rivers and changing the paths of the water. 

Needless to say, the rafting was fantastic in Tena.  We were looking to go on a class IV or V section, but could not find anybody else to join on our trip the first day (two paddlers were not going to cut it for those sections apparently...).  We ended up joining in with a British couple who had never been rafting before but haggled our way into an tandem inflatable kayak as an other option instead of being on the raft.  This river was called the Rio Jatunyacu and it was a pool drop class III river.  Super fun!  It rained a ton the night before also so the water was a muddy brown color and a bit more omnious than the typical sea foam-greenish hue.  Dave and I got the hang of the kayak and eventually took it out just the two of us.  The river was wide open and we had one particular instance where we were getting into a big wave to try and surf it and were completely gobbled up and demolished in about 2 seconds.  We both got spit out of the wave and were cracking up, scurried back onto the kayak, and set off down river.  During the trip we headed off into what looked like a crack in a mountainside...a tiny canyon.  Our river guide painted our face with Quichuan traditional clay and we looked like warriors.  LoL...yes, ferocious gringos!  After that awesome and long day on the river (25km) we headed back in the pickup truck with Pilsener in hand to Tena. 

Dave and I decided to take our chances (because they offered it to us) to go, just the two of us, the next day on the class IV.  We had a tiny 12 ft blue boat and we set off, a group of three, and a safety kayaker.  From the drop off point, we hiked downhill for about 30 minutes through the mud and sludge to the river.  Right as we got to the river, our guide re-routed us to an amazing waterfall spot where we were inside a canyon (or kind of like a hole in the earth) and there was a waterfall coming from above and dropping through many terraces.  It´s so hard to explain, but it was the closest I´ve ever felt to Fern Gully.  We were able to get under a waterfall and have a back massage from it while holding onto rocks with a firm death grip!  Beautiful and unbelievable!


The start of the rafting was awesome and super technical.  The river flooded from really intense rains about a week earlier and our guide could not get over how much the river changed.  Literally every rapid he told us how much it was different...like running a completely new river.  It was obvious on the river banks that the level of the water was about 7 or 8 feet higher during the floods, moving around all the rocks, including HOUSE sized boulders.  Crazy!  We got our fair share of paddling in, manuevering around lots of rocks in BEAUTIFUL clear water!  Dave and I really couldn´t get over how amazing it was to be floating through the Amazon on a raft and taking in all of the scenery.
As to be expected, our weather quickly changed from awesome, to 'not as awesome' and we had some pretty big thunder and lightning, and well as pouring rain!  This continued for a good two hours or so, including during lunch, where we stopped at the confluence of the two rivers Jondachi and Hollin.  We literally watched the color of the water change and the water come up during our 30 minutes on shore. 

Our guide grew increasiungly more concerned with the rising water and our light boat.  Needless to say, we got off that shore REALLY quickly and started paddling.  The rapids after lunch were SOLID and really fun!  We couldn´t believe how continuous it was.  Class IV rapids one after the other!  We came really close to flipping once...our boat was sucked back into a huge hydraulic because we were so light.  There was another boat which came from behind us from a different company and booted us out.  We were so lucky!  They had three swimmers though....ha! 

I think that the most extrordinary part of the trip was that we were really remote (like a LONG 6 hour hike to get out of the canyon) and there was only one other boat with us...but from a different company.  The day was topped off again by bridge jumping and Pilsener at the end of the long 40 km (25-ish miles) on the water.  We used the company River People and would highly recommend it to anybody looking for some great rafting in Tena!  Exhausted and hungry, we headed out for an incredible dinner of enchiladas and mentally prepared ourselves for some bussing the following day! 


Off to hiking in the mountains outside of Riobamba!  

Much Love,

Dave and Liz

Up to the Mountains and Back to the Jungle...

After leaving Quito and all of the comforts of our amazing accomodations there at Nieve´s house, we were on our way to El Chaupi.  El Chaupi is an extremely sleepy town of around 1,000 but spread out over 1000s of acres right at the base of El Volcan Corazón and Los Illinzas.  After creeping out of the Andean valley of Quito, we started out heading south on the Avenida de Los Volcanes toward the many towering peaks of Ecuador.  Not going more than 1 hour on a bus toward Machachi, we stood on a street corner of this bustling city and boarded a dingy local bus headed to El Chaupi.  As we bombarded the aisles with our gigantic backpacks, we headed toward the back of the bus.  I realized that we hadn´t even asked the bus driver if the bus was heading in the direction that we wanted.  About 20 minutes in, I went to the bus driver and asked if this bus was heading to El Chaupi, and a few little old women giggled...duh...it was heading right where we needed it to. 

Unfortunately, we were not graced with the views of the volcanoes that day, but held out hope for the next few days to catch a glimpse of Cotopaxi, Corazon, Los Illinizas, or Rumiñaui.  After arriving in El Chaupi, we found our way to a little hostel and gathered our things together in preparation for Los Illinizas the following day.  At around sunset that night, we were outside testing our stove and Cotopaxi came out of the clouds...what a sight!  It was much colder in El Chaupi.  Later on we floundered around with the fireplace and headed off to bed. 



Conditions were less than favorable the next morning when we were to head out for the mountain.  We caught a local pickup to take us 9 km to the trailhead at around 12,500 ft.  The wind was howling and the mountains were completely clouded in.  We took off and headed upward further and further into the weather.  I remembered this ascent from five years ago and all I could recall was that it was a doosey.  The last part we scaled a steep ridge where the wind howled and moisture grew.  The visibility was low and I knew that we were getting closer.  Trudging through the loose volcanic ash, I was thinking to myself that Dave must assume that I´m crazy for bringing him here.  I assured him that the views are amazing and was praying to myself (for his sanity) that the weather would get better.  After about 3 hours and 15 minutes, the trail took a turn to the right and we were nearing the end of the hike.  We were literally 10 feet from the refugio before it came into view.  A rectangular pinkish building made from cinder blocks would be our shelter for the night.  Now we were at about 15,500 feet. 



MAN, it was sooooo cold up there!  One thing that we did know was that the windows inside the refugio were not fogging up, so it was no reprieve from the chilly temperatures outside.  Inside lived Freddy, the guardian of the refugio.  This guy had worked in this tiny rural shelter for 2 years already...neither Dave nor I could understand how he dealt with the solitude and isolation of this tiny place.  We ate some lunch and drank tea constantly inside this tiny place.  Dave and I were planning to camp outside, but Freddy kept on lowering the price of staying inside and we eventually caved.  We continued playing cards and trying to somewhat comfortably pass the time because there were no other current options.  The refugio remained in the could bank.  We were hopeful that the skies would clear in the evening.  Freddy decided to head down the mountain at about 5:00 pm and that left Dave and myself in the refugio.  Glancing out the window, we noticed that the fog was lifting and the clouds parting, giving way to the most spectacular sunset views of the surrounding valley that we could possibly ask for. 

Popping out of the horizon were Cotopaxi, Antisana, Cayambe, Corazon, and Rumiñhaui...not to mention both illinizas right on top of us.  The refugio is located in the saddle between these two twin towering volcanoes.  Absolutely spectacular!  It was truly amazing, and I finally felt like the trip uphill was worth it.  Now Dave could see what I was talking about...all the volcanoes in their sunset alpenglow.  It was AMAZING!  We returned back to the refugio in the dark and had a candle lit dinner of rice and beans and layed awake for hours in bed, restless and unable to

sleep (because of the altitude).  The next morning we
were going to take our chances at attempting Illiniza Norte.  I think that we slept a wink that night. 


In our shallow sleep, we were immediately awakened by an amazing sunrise and quickly hustled around to get all our layers ourside and climb up to the best vantage point.  Dave was unfortunately not feeling well at all.  I immediately suspected that it was the altitude.  He was clearly fatigued and had a consistent head ache.  We waited until about 11:00 am until Freddy came back up and headed back down.  It

was a shame to have to head down, but altitude sickness is a really dangerous thing to toy around with.  The only remedy is to get to lower altitude.  Both of us felt so blessed that we were able to see the amazing views of the mountains from way up high and I was happy to see Dave feeling better as we headed back down the mountain. 


From El Chaupi, we stood alongside the Panamerican Highway and flagged down a bus to Baños.  I love how easy it is to get around down here.  HUGE charter busses stop on a dime and pick up passengers all along the roadside.  We have been in Baños for the past few days, enjoying a slightly warmer climate and taking advantage of the hiking trails and biking opportunities.  Our day hike took us up to the flanks of Volcán Tungurahua.  This volcano is currently active and always on alert.  We went up to the Casa del Arbol to the tiny house of a man who stays up most all day and watches the volcano.  He alerts the town of Baños if it starts to become active.  He just lives and does this job for no salary...just out of personal calling.  He said that he has a poncho, helmet, and gas mask just in case rocks start to fly.  Not a whole lot of fear where there potentially should be...I guess somebody has to do that work.  He also had an epic swing. 




Yesterday, we rented mountain bikes for the day and took them down the highway along the Ruta de Las Cascadas.  In the beginning, the weather was a bit windy and we were zooming downhill with buses and semis passing us.  The tourist bike lane off shoots were a welcome help and made it so that we didn´t have to navigate all of the tunnels.  However, we did have to go through one tunnel where we were sandwiched between a mini-semi and a local bus.  Unnerving.  Both Dave and I have a much better appreciation of our friends Dylan and Cheri Harris

who rode their bikes from the US/Mexican border to Argentina.  Honestly, I have no clue how they did it!  The route was beautiful and we were able to see tons of waterfalls.  After recieving a bit of misinformation from some ecua-tourists, we continues our ride about 20 km more than we bargained for.  At this point the road was skinnier, the towns were further apart, and the shoulder was non-existent.  We found a random bus stop and headed back to Baños...phew...enough of those crazy/windy backroads on a bike!  Dave´s helmet didn´t fit quite right...

Tomorrow we will leave for Tena, out in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  Ready for some rafting!  Ecuos love flipping and I think that it gives them a thrill!  I assume that we´ll be swimming quite a bit.  More updates soon!

Much Love,
Liz and Dave