Lessons from South America

I spent our last day in Mompiche contemplating what I had learned on this 6 week adventure and remembering the interesting and wonderful people I met.

1) I married the right guy. Not to be a sap, but every adventure (i.e., this trip) I really wished he were with me. Whenever you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

2) Often the things I fear are opportunities that become an amazing experience. I was a little apprehensive of traveling to South America because of others' stories and warnings, not because I had experienced it. I learned that there were good intentions in others' warnings, but that there was nothing to fear. I had so many amazing experiences and discoveries.

3) I learned the extent of my extroversion. It's less than I thought. Interacting with people so regularly was EXHAUSTING.

4) Spanish is exciting. I'm motivated to learn and have found it's relatively easy (compared to say, German, or Russian) to pick up

5) Every person I talked to felt like they did not have enough time - whether their trip was 2 weeks of 12 months. I tried to stay in the moment to experience and enjoy the time I had

6) Disconnecting was important for me. Not checking my email or chats every day, and not being in constant contact with the world was refreshing and rejuvenating. This also helped me stay in the moment (#5). Reminder to disconnect for periods of time helps to reset and reflect.

It's good to be home.

More adventures to come!

Banos and Mompiche...

As we are wrapping up our trip, I'm not sure if it was the feeling ready to go home, the temporal location of these towns in our itinerary, or the actual towns that made them less appealing to me. We spent 3 days in Banos. One day with mildly crappy weather where we got massages and manicures for $20, one day trip to the jungle, and one day catching up on post-cards, talking to my husband, dipping in the thermals, and organizing myself for the night bus trip (eek!)

Highlight of the time in Banos was the jungle tour. Cali and Daniel decided to do white water rafting and because I'm probably the opposite of an adrenaline junkie, Holly and I went our separate way to do the jungle. We left around 9am and it was a packed day! We started out at an animal rescue - mostly monkeys and birds being rehabed back to health.

Holly is skeptical of the steamed fish...

We had a traditional lunch of fish steamed in a banana leaf and then trekked through the jungle to the "Hidden Waterfall."

The Hidden Waterfall

It was huge!! We took the path less traveled, which was nice in some ways (no other tourists) and not so nice in others (more overgrown). I completely wiped out in a stream... because yes, part of the path was up said stream.







Next, we went to an indigenous village where 12 year old Shakira painted Achyote on my face and she was adorable. We conversed in my baby Spanish and she chased me down while we were leaving to give me a gift (a piece of jewelry she had made out of shells). Then, we got into a tree-canoe for a ride down the river at dusk. This was so tranquil and meditative. Even with the group of 5 or 6 of us, we were silent and just took in the amazing nature.

We ended our day at a cacao farm making (roasting and grinding) our own cacao! We drank the most amazing hot chocolate and ate some snacks made by the farmers.

There is a delicious milky sweetness around each of the beans. 

Grinding up cacao! 100%...

Our last day in Banos we all went for a dip in the thermals, and got ready for our trip on the night bus from Banos to Atacames - up on the coast west of Quito. We also had to say good bye to Dan and Monique, which was sad. I enjoyed speaking some German with Monique and I could almost understand everything Dan said by the end of the week with him (that Australian accent, holy cow! almost a foreign language). The bus left around 10pm and arrived in Atacames at 5:45 in the morning. We then hung out at the bus station until our bus to Mompiche arrived at 7:20 and we finally arrive in Mompiche at 9:30 in the morning. We slept literally all day, got up for dinner and then went back to bed.

town of Mompiche ends in the ocean

the main street through town

Mompiche was a strange place. Suffice to say that within a few hours of arriving, we were in on the town gossip - the names of the street dogs, who was sleeping with whom, and had all inhaled enough secondary pot smoke to be set for the day. And that was about it. We walked along the beach, Cali took surf lessons, we fed the street dogs (and itsy kitten), and spent 30 minutes with 2 brothers speaking only Spanish... kind of. There was a lot of nothing going on. For some people this could be very relaxing, but it was not my kind of relaxing (which I am capable of, promise). Also, it continued to be overcast and rainy, so that was an added downer. Time to go home.

Cali practicing the stance

the beach in Mompiche

A random band of internationals hikes the Quilotoa Loop

I have about 2-3 more posts to wrap up my South American adventures and need to be clear for upcoming travels! Where was I? Ah yes, in Ecuador, embarking on a self-guided trek to a volcano crater...

I think I've mentioned how one of my favorite and simultaneously least favorite things about traveling is meeting new people. It is really difficult to constantly be in small talk mode, but it's also fascinating hearing peoples' stories, sharing advice and tales. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed the Quilotoa Loop so much. We started a group of 3 women and ended a group of 10 people and 1 puppy, we all got past the small talk, and it kind of felt like a mini-family.

Holly and I left Quito headed for Latacunga via the main bus station. While walking through the station, we picked up an Aussie, Daniel, or Dan the Man, Damn Daniel = Damniel, and any other name variations you can think of. The three of us (Holly, me and Daniel) met Cali in Latacunga before the trek, wandered around town a bit, had dinner, were interviewed on tape by local high school kids who are taking a class in tourism and had a project to make an add for visiting Latacunga.

Squadanas! (Squad of Bandanas) Holly, Daniel, Cali, Jess

The next morning the four of us (me, Holly, Daniel, Cali) met a woman from Munich, Germany (Heidi) and man from Basel, Switzerland (Stefan) on the bus that dropped us off at the starting point of the trek, a town called Sigchos.

Day 1:

Cali the pig whisperer

The (now) 6 of us (me, Holly, Cali, Daniel, Heidi and Stefan) hiked the first day from Sigchos to Isinlivi. It felt like a pretty short trek - only 14k, but the last 5k or so was in the pouring rain, which was a real downer. But the views of the Ecuadorean Andes were paralleled only by the views of the Peruvian Andes from the month prior and our hike to Machu Pichu.  We stayed at an adorable hostel that owned a llama (?!?!) called LluLlu Llama, with delicious food, a composting toilet, and hot showers. They literally greeted us at the door with towels, free hot tea and coffee, which was a life saver after the rain hike. Also at the hostel, we picked up our next 4 group members - Tina and Ian a middle aged couple from Ontario, and their college aged son Gordon, as well as Monique, another woman from Berlin, Germany.

Dan taking a short rest on Day 1 - before the rain started!

Day 2:

Hiked by this mountain stream for a bit on Day 2

Consisted of another 15k from Isinlivi to Chigchulan. The scenery was even better, which is mind blowing. AND the weather was beautiful today. Unfortunately, Cali came down with Montezuma's Revenge, so we left her in the capable hands of the LluLlu Llama staff and essentially traded her for Paul - another U.S. citizen (Nashville). This was my favorite day of hiking, probably because the weather was so fabulous. I mostly just want to share photos from today because I think the views were unparalleled by anything else I saw in South America.  

One of the amazing views on Day 2

Amazing view number 2 from Day 2

Had to cross this bridge - terrifying! No rails!

Heidi bonds with a baby pig towards the end of Day 2

Gordon and Stefan relax after our Day 2 - we beat the rain! 

Day 3: Chigchulan to Quilotoa. Today, we picked up a puppy from another group of hikers who are going the reverse route from us and say she followed them from Quilotoa to Chigchulan. She followed us the whole way back to Quilotoa AND she was reunited with her family just inside the city limits. Today was our longest day of trekking. It was really exhausting, we've been arriving just after lunch time each of the other days and today we didn't arrive until almost dinner. With the high altitude and mountain hiking, I was spent!!! Cali arrived safely by taxi in Quilotoa and rejoined us at the hostel.

Gordon bonds with our new puppy

Some of the trails we hiked looked like this! 

Made it to the Quilotoa Crater Lake!

Our entire group took a van/bus back to Latacunga on the morning of Day 4 and then Daniel, Monique, Holly, Cali, and myself are continuing on to Banos. Heidi, the Canadians, and Paul are headed to Cotopaxi Volcano and Stefan is heading home. Holly and I have to figure out how to spend our next week before we leave. WOW, feels so soon and so ready to see Tim!

The town of Quilotoa with the mountains in the background

Quito & Cotopaxi = more rain?!?!?!

We arrived in Quito and met up with my friend Cali, who I've known since high school. First things first - free walking tour! I learned some great facts during this tour:

Main Square Quito

1) Ecuador, Columbia, and Venezuela are like a mini-EU. They consider themselves a shared Andes Community. They all have the same flag (horizontal gold, blue, red) with different crests.

2) People in Ecuador have much less Inca-proud heritage compared to people in Peru. The Incas took over other pre-Incan groups throughout Ecuador, so the Ecuadorians have more allegiance to the indigenous and pre-Incas. The Incas actually only  made it as far as Quito about 60 years before the empire fell. Many people outside Quito still speak Quechua.

3) Ecuador adopted the U.S. dollar  in the late 1990s or 2000 after instability in their previous currency, the sucre. People were forced to exchange their sucres into U.S. dollars at a rate of 25,000 sucres to $1 (yes you read that correctly). They still really struggle financially. Ecuador has to buy their dollars from the Federal Reserve Bank and pay extra fees and taxes. So it is not a fabulous deal for the people. The president who decided this was apparently air lifted out of the palace, received  asylum in the U.S. and is a professor at Harvard. It made me really sad hearing about everything the US gets involved with on an international level.

Band playing in the square!! 

4) Free national healthcare = lots of ex-pats.

5) Ecuadorians don't believe in using the term "illegal alien" to refer to any person who is inside their country borders. So even tourists can use the public healthcare (according to Free Walking Tour Guide, we did not test this statement). Universities are open to everyone and the government will even cover tuition and living costs for Ecuadorians to receive a degree abroad with the expectation that they return to teach in Ecuador for the same number of years they were abroad.

6) Canelazo: drink served all over Quito. A hot mulled cider, can be served with or without a shot of sugar liqueur.

7) Calle de la Ronda: popular Bohemian colonial street with cafe and restaurants. Here is where you find locals going out to enjoy their evenings. We ate here and enjoyed a cup of canelazo!!

After a quiet day to catch up on laundry and writing, Holly and I booked a trip to Volcan Cotopaxi. The volcano was active just last year and they had to shut down the national park for most of 2015. They are slowly reopening parts of the park over the course of this year. We took a bus into the park and then climbed up to a base camp at 15,000 feet. From the base camp, climbers will attempt to summit the volcano. The entire volcano was covered in clouds and fog and we could literally see NOTHING. We hiked back down to the bus, rode bikes down to a lake, caught a very brief glimpse of the volcano before it was covered in fog again. I think the trip would have been really amazing if the weather was agreeable, but following the beach vacation trend, we were rewarded with only rain and more fog. One fun fact I learned about Cotopaxi is that in Quechua it means "god (coto) of death (paxi)" or they would also sometimes refer to it as the "neck of the moon."

At base camp! feeling hardcore and out of breath

view of Base camp. Can't see far

Quick peak of Cotopaxi on our way down

Next, off to Latacunga to start the highlight of Ecuador - a 3 day trek on the Quilotoa Loop, to a crater lake! 

Cristo Redentor and the Brazilian Beach

We finally and safely arrived at our hostel for a couple days in Rio de Janeiro - Chill on the Beach Hostel, but it was an adventure of sorts getting here. Landed around midnight the night before and took a taxi to a hotel in the Gamboa - Centro neighborhood. Definitely drove through a rough part of town... even our taxi driver in his broke English mentioned that it was "very dangerous for you." Holly kept her Swiss army knife at the ready in the backseat of the cab, just in case. Luckily, our hotel had a security guard and we arrived without incident, so we were set for the night. Amazing breakfast and then did our own walking tour of Rio. It reminded me of Boston in the sense that there were these beautiful old churches and buildings juxtaposed with the business district. We ended the afternoon in the Santa Teresa neighborhood - Bohemian, local artists, vegan food, adorable.

Cristo Redentor

The next morning, we got ourselves moving by noon-time (still on Peru time, which is 2 hours earlier!). Walked down Copacabana Beach observing remnants from the Olympics and bought tickets to take a bus up to Corcovado - Cristo Redentor. The man selling the tickets warned us that the entire mountain was covered in fog, no Cristo to see, no views, so maybe try tomorrow. But we were leaving tomorrow! Decided to risk it. We took the van up, and then another van, and yup - completely 100% surrounded by thick fog. We stayed up there for half an hour or so and things started to clear, and it was actually, I think, even more beautiful. We got clear glimpses of the city through holes in the clouds. The fog eventually lifted enough that we saw JC himself clearly.

So excited that we could finally see him!! 

Peaking through the clouds at Rio

Alley in Historic Buzios, leading to the harbor

Two days in the big city was plenty! We headed off to start the Beach part of the trip. Our first stop was Buzios (3 hours north of Rio), which turned out to be the only town where we got any actual real beach time. Our first day in Buzios was beautiful, we ate delicious vegetables and coconut desserts. The Buzios peninsula has 17 beaches so we were able to role around in sunscreen and spend mid-morning through mid-afternoon lounging on Geriba Beach. It was nice to have a home base for 3 whole nights where we could unpack a bit and cook some of our own meals. The most exhausting thing about this trip so far is the seemingly unending packing and re-packing of all my belongings. Our second day in Buzios was cloudy, so we wandered around Centro/Historico neighborhood, walked along the pier, had a cafesito and explored the Rua de Pedras (Stone Street). Adorable! Shops and cafes along a little cobblestone street.

Geriba Beach on the Buzios peninsula

Paraty

Paraty rained. Colonial town about 4 hours south of Rio. Miserable, cold, wet evening in Paraty. I refused to admit the weather fail and continued to eat acai bowls wearing my coat, rain coat, and scarf to ward off the cold wetness. We also happened to get stuck in a political parade for candidate #14. I'm pretty sure the entire town of Paraty was in this parade. I've never seen so much excitement about politics. Maybe our system would work a little better if people could get excited about any of the issues/candidates on this scale. It reminded me of Germans and the World Cup.

Enjoying a Caipirinha!

The forecast for the next 6 days is rain. Awesome beach vacation! Caipirinha helped turn my spirits around and the next morning - low and behold - there was some sun! Went for a jog and saw Paraty in the beautiful sunlight. I walked up to a fort over the city, sat on the beach and made friends with a street dog.

It was cold and rainy on this beautiful island! 

Then we headed to Sao Sebastiao to grab a ferry to Ilhabela - an island off the coast. We forgot to determine where we were going to stay on Ilhabela, but thought we could grab wifi somewhere and get an address once we arrived. Unfortunately, we were not aware that it was an election day, hence (as in most countries), a national holiday, hence EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED. We found one grocery store that was open (no wifi) so we are literally just walking around this island without a clue of what direction we are going or need to be going to find a place to sleep. Also 15kg backpacks on back, 5kg packs on front. A kind bicyclist stopped and said something to us in Portugese, so we stared at him blankly, and then he says in perfect English, "Do you need help?" He pointed us in the right direction and we finally found a 24 hour convenience store. We each bought a chocolate milk to recharge after our 2k trek and discovered we were only around the corner from the hostel we wanted! The entire time on Ihlabela was cloudy. We went for what was supposed to be a 2 hour hike that accidentally turned into a 6 hour hike through the national park on the island. We cooked a great dinner and crossed our fingers for sun, but no such luck, so off we went, beach vacation FAIL.

Catedral Se

Inside

Of course, we arrived in Sao Paulo (inland, no beaches) to sun. We did a free walking tour of the city, the highlight for me was the Catedral la Se. It was not gaudy with gold or mosaics or stain glass windows, but the size of the pillars and the alter was overwhelming. The size literally took my breath away! and I've seen a good number of giant cathedrals in my day. Another fun fact is that there are so many keys in the organ that it cant be played because it will possibly/probably shatter the windows. I felt completely dwarfed by the sheer size of it. Other than the cathedral, I spent most of the tour talking with a French man who was visiting his sister and 5 day old nephew and to a German from Stuttgart.

 I would have liked to see the Consolcao Cemetery, but they closed at 1pm! It looked amazing through the fence... We wandered through Batman's Alley, which is a street filled with graffiti art, but not just graffiti. Professional graffiti. I did not anticipate being so impressed, but wow. We ended up going to dinner with the German from Stuttgart and his friend, friend's wife, and their 10-month old. Kid and wife went home and the four of us went to a sky bar, overlooking the Sao Paulo skyline. Amazing view, great company, good conversation. I think meeting people is one of my favorite things about traveling.

Batman's Alley graffiti

Our latest night yet! and last night in Brazil. Off on a high note. <5 hours of sleep later, we headed off to the airport for a 13 hour travel day back to Quito, Ecuador.

It´s a Trap!!: Lago Titicaca (and Arequipa)

We split our last week in Peru between two cities - Puno (on the banks of Lake Titicaca) and Arequipa.

The Tourist Trap:

Arriving in Puno, we grabbed an early dinner and slept for about 10 hours (trek recovery, continued). Well, Kaitlyn and I slept. Holly came down with a horrible cold/flu (aka Peruvian Montezuma´s Revenge) and has been unable to do anything, including sleep. She checked into a fancy 4 star hotel (for a whole 40$, splurge!) to just hole up in bed,  but this also means that she successfully evaded the tourist trap! Kaitlyn and I were trying to decide how long to wait until we take her to the doctor. Not sure what is more scary - Holly being sick (insert catastrophic thinking), or trying to get around a health care system in a foreign country/language.

Grenadilla!

While Kaitlyn was still sleeping. I wandered Puno, taking in some of the earlier morning sights, dropped off my trek laundry (necessity), and wrote some postcards over a breakfast of Andean corn pancakes, avocado and tomato, and black coffee. While I am not trying all the fun foods in Peru due to the vegetarian identity, I am loving the fruit juices (jugo de mango y jugo de pina are my favorites). Dishes that I have not tried: alpaca and/or llama steak, frog juice (frog parts, blended with water and some spices?), or cuy (guinea pig). There are many new interesting fruits, and all the fruit is so fresh. We took it easy all day, exploring Puno, sitting at the harbor, churros and jugos . 

Kaitlyn on the boat to Uros

And then we booked a trip to the floating islands (Islas Uros). This experience was ridiculous in every single tourist trap way possible. Luckily it was only about $7.50. We were picked up from our hotel and got on a boat at the harbor. The guide was supposed to be bilingual Spanish/English. There was a group of 5 of us and I was the only one who was not pretty fluent in Spanish. Granted, I understand a fair amount of Spanish, but it takes so much concentration, I get tired after about 15 minutes. The guide would randomly translate single words into English, "por que, because, por que" and then continue on in Spanish, so I stopped paying attention. Twenty minute boat ride out to the islands and then the guide essentially dropped us off on one of the islands and disappeared. Three families lived on the island and they explained how they built the islands (again, speaking native tongue, which was translated into Spanish), invited us into their one room homes, asked us questions about ourselves and shared about them (name, age, marital status, occupation), invited us to try on their clothes (? this is where I start to get pretty uncomfortable), and then because they knew our names, continually asked us to buy things from them.

demonstration of how islands are built

It was interesting to hear about how the islands are built; other than this, I just wanted out. But my general sense of Puno is that it is more metropolitan and less tourist-y than the other places weve been. Theres much less harrassment in the streets to buy things or eat at this restaurant, people essentially stare at the gringo skin or just ignore. I prefer this treatment. Puno seems much more genuinely Peru, which is overall appealing to me. 

Boats used in Uros Islands

I have heard that going to Copacabana and La Paz, Bolivia across the lake is really awesome, but we did not have the time nor the budget (US citizens need a visa - $130 - to visit Bolivia) to do this. So maybe next time! I really did enjoy Puno and the Lake was beautiful, but the Uros Islands were not for me. 

Arequipa:
We have been traveling around South America, planning as we go. We find a place to sleep, complete our planned activities, and begin to plan our next step. This has worked out really well for the most part. Unfortunately, because of this, we missed out on the main reason people travel to Arequipa - Colcha Canyon. We have been told that going to Arequipa and not seeing Colcha Canyon, is essentially going to Cuzco and not seeing Machu Picchu. We assumed that Colcha Canyon would be a day trip from Arequipa. This is correct if you wanted to be picked up at 2am. This was either not appealing or possible, depending on which of the three of us you ask. So we lounged around Arequipa, drinking jugos and relaxing, which was actually wonderful.

Holly playing the tourist in Arequipa

Enjoying jugos on a rooftop balcony

Main Square of Arequipa

Our last night in the hostel, Holly was having some worried dreams about traveling to Brazil the next day. She woke up the entire room with "Oh  (profanity!!!), GUYS!! someone stole my passport!!!!" I calmly sat up and said, "Holly, are you actually awake?" Unfortunately, everyone else in the room did not know her history of sleep talking. Most people checked their gear to make sure computers/phone, etc.  were still there. Her response: "oh nope, everything is fine, sorry"



And on that note, Holly and I sadly left Kaitlyn in Peru, and jetted across the continent, with dreams of beach vacations dancing in our head.