Some more Pictures of Machu Picchu:

The view once we reached Machu Picchu looking out over the Andes Mountains as the sun was rising.

Llamas and alpaca graze the Lost City´s center, where the townspeople would gather to listen to Incas and important figures like shamans address the community.
Wildlife:



























The train that we took 11km from the Hydroelectric Plant to Aguas
Calientes.

They say that the Incas carved faces in this stone of spirits. Can you see them? Taylor was a disbeliever, but I can make out a few.


The next three pictures are a series. Can you see what this 20 ft. rock composition makes up?

































The top two pictures are of the wings of the Condor and the bottom is the head.



Intihautana, the hitching post of the sun: a sun dial with a wealth of astronomical and religious importance. Considered the most sacred location in Machu Picchu.














Looking up at agricultural terraces and the guardhouse, through a great example of the Inca's trapezoidal windows - smooth, beautiful, and sturdy enough to withstand earthquakes.

The Islands of Lake Titicaca

After taking a night bus from Cusco to Puno (where we were told it would arrive at 5am and that we could stay on till 6, but instead we arrived at 4 and were told to get off the bus, leaving us to nap some in the terminal, á la Mendoza) we began our exploration of Lake Titicaca. At about 3800m lake Titicaca is billed as ¨the highest navigable lake in the world.¨ After sleeping for a few hours in the bus station, thankfully without incident, we were aproached by a travel agent describing a one night homestay, three meals, and boat ride to some of the islands; we agreed and were quickly off on a new adventure.



We visited a floating island on the lake that was created by first cutting 2m by 2m squares of reed roots, then lashing them together in a grid maybe 20 meters across, and finally laying cut reeds on top of the blocks to create the surface of the island. On this island there are small huts where about 10 people live.

Floating Island:

The next island, Amantani, is where we met our new family that we stayed with for the night and who cooked our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each meal was simple but tasty; both lunch and dinner were served with a spectacular soup, one of quinua and the other of noodles, and a second dish of rice and potoatos. Breakfast was a piece of bread and a delicious pancake. The island was beautiful and simple - it was made up of small villages that surrounded the two peaks, Pachamama and Tatapacha (Mother Universe and Father Universe in Quechua), which stood about 4200m tall. We hiked up Tatapacha at the end of the first day and watched the sun set over the lake which was spectacular, despite being approached a dozen times each by the same five little kids trying to sell us the same bracelets.

The next morning we said goodbye to our new family and got on the boat to head to the next island, Taquile. When we arrived our travel guide gave a great explanation about the history and the culture of the island and then let us walk around and explore before meeting up again for a traditional island lunch. The views from the island were breathtaking and this island was bigger then the last and was more developed, with a Plaza de Armas and electricity unlike Amantani. Lunch consisted of a quinoa soap, and trout with rice. Then after lunch we headed for a three hour boat ride back to the port.

Machu Picchu (and Cuzco pt. 2)

Machu Picchu is only accesible via the town of Aguas Calientes, at the base of the mountain, and Aguas Calientes is accessible mostly via a long, expensive train ride. We elected to take a cheaper, longer, less traveled, and more adventurous route that basically involved a lengthy flanking maneuver by car to approach Aguas Calientes from the more remote back side. It was an all-day affair, with an international cast of 10 stuffed into a minivan; crossing dozens of engorged creeks; climbing up over passes somewhere around 13,000 ft; passing through the cloud forest villages of Santa Maria and Santa Teresa (among smaller ghost towns that the jungle was visibly reclaiming); squeezing into the trees to let big trucks past on an impossibly narrow road; waiting in a crowd to watch two police investigators try to make sense of a head-on collision between a tour bus and a now crumpled minivan eerily resembling ours (we saw an almost identical accident on the return trip); and finally descending into the gorge where a short segment of train tracks reached out from Aguas Calientes to an unlikely transportation outpost - the Cuzco region´s hydroelectric plant. How´s that for a sentence - can you tell Taylor is writing? On the 45 minute train ride upstream from the hydro plant, we got to witness the source of Cuzco´s and Puno´s electricity - the Rio Urubamba, cascading torrentially through the steep gorge with the force of late-summer rains. We checked into our hostal in Aguas Calientes, ate a quick dinner with our fellow tourists, and bedded down to prepare for an alpine start.

Up at 4:30, we left town, crossed a footbridge with the Urubamba thundering below us in darkness, and by light of the moon began the climb to the ¨Lost City of the Incas.¨ We got to the main entrance just before six, as the sun was beginning to illuminate the mist that filled the mountains around us. There we joined a few dozen other smiling hikers waiting for the gate to open, satisfied to have beaten the first bus up the hill. Inside, we had a few minutes to cross the city, grab tickets for the first-come, first-serve climb up the neighboring crag of Wayna Piccu, and meet our tour guide at 6:40. The 2-hour tour was great, though we didn´t learn much that Juan hadn´t already told us at the other ruins. Machu Picchu deservedly bears the title ¨Maravilla del Mundo¨- one of the new 7 wonders of the world. From its breathtaking location to the beauty and scale of its stone architecture, to the feeling it impressed on us of being transported back through time, it was the most memorable thing we´ve seen on the whole trip.

Here´s a shot to go on the wall back at work (the matching shirts were even cuter because our names were on the back). We had do this because our friend Mike brought back a picture with his Second Nature shirt atop Aconcagua, the highest peak in S. America. Maybe this is the start of a tradition...

Yesterday was a day of rest after all that climbing, back in Cuzco with Juan, Marta, Wendy, and Aaron. They took us to a lake where we all crammed into a paddleboat for quick afternoon excursion, then to a local open-air restaurant that specialized in the infamous Peruvian delicacy, Cuy (guinea pig). Unsettling as its appearance was, we had to admit it was not half bad.

Finally, here´s a shot of Cuzco´s central plaza from a balcony where we had lunch today - really good Thai food, of all things. Tonight we're off to Puno and Lake Titicaca.

Cuzco pt. 1

Hey friends,
Well, from Mendoza we headed north to a small mountain town called Cafayate in a valley filled with yet more wineries. We skipped out on doing any more wine tours but enjoyed seeing the town from our dusty, dirty little $3 campsite. Taylor hiked a couple of hours in the sun to see a series of waterfalls on the Rio Colorado, and got to cool off by swimming in a beautiful spot. Unfortunately the pictures have all been unloaded to CDs that are on their way back to the States now. Meanwhile Melissa was busy doing a phone interview with Springfield College, where she just this evening learned she was accepted for grad school!

From Cafayate we slogged a long, long way on a series of buses up through Bolivia (beautiful country, minus all the trash that people throw everywhere), straight through to Lake Titicaca and Peru, winding up in Cusco in time to meet Taylor's mom Lynn the day after she landed. We've now spent the better part of a week in Cuzco, staying with Lynn's shaman friend Juan and his family. We spent several days driving around Cuzco's surroundings, including the Sacred Valley, seeing one impressive set of Incan ruins after another. Usually we arrived early and got the ruins all to ourselves, with our own personal guide recounting humorous legends and giving explanations of all the spiritual architecture from his shamanic perspective. It's been magical.
Tomorrow we leave Cuzco for Aguas Calientes and the crown jewel of South American archeology, Machu Piccu!

Mendoza

First of all, we went back and added some pictures to the last three posts, so check them out.

Well, we`re packing up to leave Mendoza, Argentina tomorrow, after spending a week in the home of a winemaker and truly wonderful host, Pablo. It`s late now, so maybe we can say a little more tomorrow before we catch our bus, but the gist of it is that wine country has been beautiful and relaxing, minus an unexpectedly ugly start:

After getting into the Mendoza bus terminal around 5am, we lay down on our thermarests to nap a bit and let the sun come up. After a while, though, the experience became significantly less restful when a man who had been sleeping on a nearby bench started moaning, then got up and approached us, mumbling unintelligibly and spitting on the floor. We tried to get him to go away, but instead he tried to sit down on Taylor`s thermarest. When Taylor pushed him away, he got angry and started swinging. Fortunately none of the punches landed, and a couple of Gendarmarios (sort of military, sort of police) came around the corner and put him on the ground right as he tried to kick Taylor in the chest. No harm done, except that we were a little shaken up, and that we spent half of our first day in Mendoza sitting in a police station filing a report in two languages with the help of the Tourism Police, a select few officers who speak English and are assigned to help foreigners like us with any problems. I suppose the silver lining of that experience was how helpful they were, even driving us around some and storing our packs as we tried to get ahold of Pablo.

Since then, the week has gone totally smoothly. We`ve toured enough wineries to begin losing track, and consequently have learned (and tasted) a lot. Getting to know Pablo has made the stay here even richer. We also spent two nights up in the mountains outside of Mendoza, where we had a hostel pretty much all to ourselves. This week has added even more variety to our trip, as the slower pace has been a welcome change from the constant turnover of cities, buses, and hikes we`ve experienced so far. Mendoza, we`ll miss you!

Pucón

After Siete Tazas, we headed on a bus through the night to Pucón where we were going to try to climb Villarrica Volcano, just north of the lake region in Chile. We arrived into town in the morning and with little information from the CONAF (forest service) sites or tourist center we headed to the volcano with the hope of summiting it. Villarrica stands 2847 meters and is a steep walk up crushed lava to the rim. On our way into the park we drove by the CONAF officers, who waved us on without giving us any sort of information.

Volcan Villarrica seen from the town of Pucon

When we reached the top parking area where the ascent on foot would begin, we combed the area in search of a trail, or someone to talk to you and ask where to begin and any other information that would be helpful. We found nothing. We spotted a girl coming down the volcano and approached to ask for some information, she pointed us towards the top and said it would take about 5 hours. Since we couild see the top we began to climb upward. We walked for a while until reaching a hut just shy of the snowline, where, for the first time came upon some information about summiting the volcano. It said that noone is able to go beyond this point without registering with CONAF, and without the proper gear - an ice pick, a helmet, and crampons. We were disapointed, but were trying not to lose sight of the spectaular view around us. From where we were, we could see the impressive Volcan Lanin, even taller than Villarrica, towering over nearby Lanin National Park, as well as some lakes scattered across the wide valley.

We hitched a ride back to town with a professor who told us a place to rent the gear we needed and how cheap it was to rent, but since we would need another day for a second attempt, we decided to continue with our plan to return to Santiago through the night. We spent the day walking around the touristy ski town and took a short nap on a black sand beach along the shore of a beautiful mountain lake.

Back in Santiago for one last day, we stopped back in to see Jaime and Pablo, who were now hosting a guy from Norway. We ventured to the zoo, which was a bit of a disappointment. It was disheartening to see how cramped and dusty the habitats were, although because the zoo is situated on the side of a hill, most of the animals do have a nice view of the sprawling metropolis.

Our Adventure Continued

At one point the cairns, cow and horse tracks that we were following disinergrated. We combed the area for any sign of the trail and came up short, so we decided to drop our packs. Taylor went in search of the trail while Melissa stayed with the packs so we wouldn`t lose those or travel any further in the wrong direction. While Taylor went in search of the trail a white tailed hawk flew from his direction over Melissa and perched on a tree in the direction that we came from. So we went with that sign and followed in the hawk`s direction. As Taylor neared the tree the hawk took off and and changed direction; as its path and Taylor's crossed, he stumbled upon another cairn. We took this as an omen that we were being looked after and continued onward.

We hiked till dusk, which was about 8:30, estimating that we had made about 16 - 18 miles this first full day. We found a flat spot on a cliff over looking a lush green valley, which we would later find out was the valley that we wanted to be in to see Siete Tazas. The next morning we awoke sore and exhausted, packed up our stuff and fell back into the routine of trekking. We climbed over a mountain to a plateau to find wild horses grazing in our path and a tree line approaching. The treeline looked hopeful as it seemed to have a more defined trail. After hiking about 4 miles we came up on a man and his son making what looked like a sweat lodge out of organic materials. They had built a hut out of trees, covered it with leaves and were now adding dirt and sealing it with water. After talking to the men about where we were, we found out that we were FAR ,very far from the Park. How far, we didn't know - they had no clue, not even a guess, just very far. However they told us that we could follow the road till it got to a main road and that road would eventually lead us to Molina, the city that we were going towards after the park. So with no clue how far to walk on this dusty road we took off, with blisters, sunburn and disappointment.

About five hours and maybe 6 miles later we saw a house and approached it to ask, again, where we were and how far we were from civilization. A very generous family offered us water with wheat flour and sugar and told us that we were not the first trekkers to have stumbled upon their house. We drank the sweat concoction and were given a bag of tomatoes and peppers and led through a yard under some barbed wire, and over a river by three kids that said we should hit a main road in about an hour or an hour and a half. After two hours of walking down this dusty gravel road we came upon the road that led to the park, right as a bus that read Siete Tazas was coming down the road! We were finally where we had wanted to be, after hiking about 40 miles, in the heat for two and a half days.

The park was not what we were expecting. All of Chile also thought that this would be a great place to pass the hot, summer days and so there were droves of people packed into campgrounds that rimmed the Rìo Claro. As we got to the end of the bus line we were in a dusty overcrowded campground where we were able to buy a few beers and a completo (a hot dog in a bun that was dense and homemade smoothered in chopped tomatoes, guacomole, mayo, ketchup, and mustard. YUMMY!! And yeah, Melissa ate some of the hotdog - we were so hungry after all that hiking we both would have eaten anything at that moment. However, we were well prepared with enough food to make the trip and did not need to buy anything (so you parents don´t worry - we could have cooked a meal for ourselves, for we had enough supplies for a few more days if we were still lost in the woods).

The next day we saw the falls, which were magnificent. We even were able to swim in a pool of water that had a huge waterfall falling into it, which was freezing. All in all the journey turned out to be quite the adventure and all worth it.

Hiking Adventure in Middle Chile

So, we wanted to see a national park called Radal Siete Tazas, named for ¨The Seven Teacups¨ where the Rio Claro drops spectacularly through a series of basalt pools. We had read that it was possible to make it a longer trip by starting out in a neighboring national reserve, Altos de Lircay, and heading north. We heard that although it wasn´t an official trail, the way was becoming better marked, and it was now possible to hike it without a guide.

So we rode a bumping, deafening local bus up into the mountains to Altos de Lircay and asked the ranger at the entrance about getting to Siete Tazas. He first double-checked that we understood our destination was not in his park, then took a pen and appended onto the crummy, pixelated official park map a rough indication of where our path would veer off of their network of trails. He drew a small hill, then at some indeterminate distance beyond it a river, then his line snaked ambiguously toward the top of the page - at which point, presumably, we would end up in or near Radal Siete Tazas, of which he had no map to give us.

Off we headed into the park, with adventuresome spirits and a dim idea of where we might be going. By sunset we had made about 6km and found a picturesque perch that would fit our tent and give us a sweeping view of the valley, aglow with twilight. The next morning we were up at sunrise and off to find our mystery trail. The junction was right where it was supposed to be - so far, so good - but the path quickly bent back toward the park entrance and away from where we wanted to go. Backtracking, we found a second trail branching off of that one, marked with a small rock cairn. It took us to a creek crossing populated by cows, then past the hill we were expecting (in the wrong order per our directions, but why split hairs?). We filled all our water containers, because if this was the water the ranger had indicated, it was supposedly the last for a long while, though again, how long we could only guess.

As we climbed north the trail disintegrated into a series of cairns to mark the way. For the rest of the journey it would alternate this way; at times the path was worn and horse tracks were distinguishable, and at other times we would move in increments, searching for the next stack of rocks to indicate that we were still on course.

...And we interrupt this message for dinner and a bus. This chapter is to be continued...

Valparaiso and Santiago

To try and catch up: We spent two and a half days in Valparaiso, a bustling old port city that grows uphill from the water in a colorful patchwork of houses, restaurants and shops, all stacked precipitously to overlook the freighters that chug back and forth in the bay. Chile´s bohemian enclave, it´s full of steep, winding alleys with messages like ¨Smash your TV; live your life¨ scrawled across the steps, and bright graffiti murals adorn many of the buildings.

Getting off the bus just before sunup, we tried in vain to nap in some chairs in the terminal, then decided that the city was probably awake enough that we ought to give up and start our day as well. We took a long walk across the city in search of an internet cafe that didn´t exist (the first time our Lonely Planet bible has let us down so far), but eventually found another one and managed to book the next 2 nights in a nice little hostel a few blocks up the hill from the main thoroughfares.

The hostel, ¨El Yoyo,¨ was full of friendly people and stocked with the most recent seasons of Family Guy on DVD, so when trying to decipher Spanish got too taxing (explains Taylor), we kicked back and indulged in some familiar laughs. The Yoyo was right up the hill from a crowded open-air market where we bought veggies to cook up, and we ventured down to the port to buy fresh shrimp as well. At first we couldn´t find the fish market, until a security guard answered our question by taking us through a back room and out into an alleyway, warning us in spanish to watch our belongings - he then kindly stayed and watched the whole time as we looked over the fresh catches and bought our camarones.

Other highlights from Valpo include trudging way up to the heights of the city to find one of Pablo Neruda´s houses, which is now a little museum with a view of the bay, and then grabbing lunch at a classy little restaurant on a tiny, romantic balcony overlooking most of the city. We also walked down to the pier, where amid several ¨No Fishing¨ signs, locals were lined up with hooks and spools of line, pulling in fish hand over hand almost as fast as they could get their lines in the water. From there we also saw the resident colony of sea lions basking on a buoy.

As for Santiago, we had a great first experience with couch surfing. Our hosts, Jaime and his partner Pablo, were always gracious and fun to chat with. Saturday night (Valentine´s Day) we cooked dinner for them, shared some wine and fell asleep watching Saturday Night Live, which in Chile is just now catching up to election time, though alas, it wasn´t one of the episodes with Tina Fey doing her Palin impression. For a city of 6 million in South America, Santiago seemed comparatively clean (well, in only smelled of sewage sometimes), and it was easy to find our way around. We were excited to find sushi for the first time since leaving the States. We saw a couple of museums, including one dedicated to pre-Colombian Latin America, which had mummies way older than their Egyptian counterparts and a really cool exhibit on ancient fishermen who speared whales from sealskin catarafts. We also climbed up to Cerro Santa Lucia, a rocky hill in the middle of town, adorned with staircases and fountains, that afforded a nice 360-degree view, despite the smog obscuring Santiago´s mountainous surroundings. After a two and a half days in the city, we were ready to strap on our packs, get out into the backcountry and get some good excercise. Be careful what you wish for...

Valle de Elqui

So, going on a recommendation from a Chilean kid we met in a campground in San Pedro, we stopped in La Serena and caught a bus up the Elqui Valley - ground zero for the production of Pisco, a popular South American liquor. The bus ride was about an hour and a half to get to a little town called Pisco Elqui, where we camped for the night.

The scenery was impressive; all the way up, the valley was blanketed in thick fields of grapevines, most flanking the river but some planted into steep hillsides. The bus followed this lush green swathe, winding up between arid crags reminiscent of a Wyoming range. The campground we found was up a hill near the top of the town and offered rows of shady sites, a homemade lagoon with a dock to dive from, and a massive bonfire pit. It was full to the brim - we had our choice of two tent sites among perhaps a hundred - with students on their summer break and young bohemians taking two weeks off from work.

We were quickly befriended by our neighbor Rodrigo, who had been camping there since New Year´s in a big tent with an air mattress. He was a jovial soul who seemed to know everyone at the campground, probably because he had at one time or another invited all of them into his tent to share some of the fine local pisco or a joint - he kept trying to get us to smoke with him, right up to our goodbyes the next day.

Before we left Rodrigo took us away from the touristy ¨centro¨ to a cheap, fixed-price lunch spot he liked. As he helped us order he explained to the girl behind the counter that our gringo stomachs were having some trouble adapting to Chilean microbes (we haven´t been seriously ill so far, but at the time we both had been brewing some gastrointestinal funkiness for a day or two), so the girl went into the back and, after a few minutes, out came the abuelita (little grandmother) with a secret potion to settle our systems. It was something on the order of cornstarch and sugar stirred into little cups of water, and whatever it was, it seemed to work.

On our way out of Pisco Elqui, we tried hacer debos (hitchhiking) for about an hour, enjoying the exercise of walking with our packs. We got as far as the next town, about 4km down the road, but with the sun beating down and everyone´s cars packed full of people, coolers, and beach towels (for swimming in the river there, which we never made it down to), with no room for us, we went to plan B and hopped a bus back to La Serena.

That doesn´t actually catch us up to now, but we´re on our way out the door to the bus station yet again. Next up for us: our first couch surfing experience, in Santiago. From there we´ll tell you about Valparaiso, where we´re saying goodbye to our hostelling pals right now.

Change of plans, seeing the desert

A relatively quick update: our trip from Arica up to Lauca NP proved logistically complicated for the time being, so we jumped right onto another bus and continued south (another long overnighter) to San Pedro de Atacama. What used to be a dusty stop along a cattle route has in the last decade or so grown into a prime tourist trap - an adobe fortress of tour agencies, knicknack shops and cute restaurants serving pizza, salmon, risotto and milkshakes, among other tourist-friendly fare. We wanted to see the world´s highest geyser field aside the Volcan El Tatio, and after plying around town we were forced to accept that the only way to get there was on a tour bus for about $37 apiece. Not wanting to have ventured inland through the desert for nothing, we sprung for it and joined hundreds of other tourists in a 4am caravan to see sunrise at the geysers. It was pretty, but probably not worth it. Gotta hop a bus now for La Serena, but we´ll write more from there.

The first long bus trip

After being escorted to the bus station by our incomparably helpful new best friends, we embarked on a 20 hr ride through the stark sands of Peru´s South Coast. Here we are with Rosa, her husband Miguel and their little one, Marcello.

There was no air conditioning on the bus, but the windows opened and kept us surprisingly comfortable. The only disappointment was that the overhead lights didn´t work. We woke up as the bus was pulling into Tacna, the gateway to Chile, early this morning. We negotiated a taxi on our own for the first time and were dropped off at the train station to find that the train wouldn´t leave for another 8 hrs. So now we´ve ambled through Tacna to find the city center and a computer.

More on Lima, since we have the time - drivers there are crazy. It makes New York traffic look like Sunday afternoon in Wasilla. Lanes are just a suggestion, and a cacaphony of horn sounds, some like sirens or sci-fi weapons, fills the air - apparently hitting the horn every few seconds is imperative if you want to get somewhere. The ultimate experience was riding in a "combi," a minivan outfitted for about 10 people, with a driver´s assistant perpetually hanging out of the sliding side door, yelling at people to jump in or out as the van lurched in and out of the stop-and-go traffic. Lilian, Rosa´s sister, coached us to hold bags tight in our laps, lest they fall prey to an arm reaching in through the open window. Yikes! Without her and Rosa´s help, trying to navigate around this city of 7 million would´ve been a whole nother ballgame.

We´ve got more pictures - we´ll try to get them up soon. Chao!

Leaving Lima

Days 1-3 have consisted of getting a feel for the hustle and bustle of smoggy Lima and falling in love with a family of new friends. Background- a couple of years ago as my (Taylor's) mom was getting ready to fly home from a trip to Cuzco, she struck up a random conversation with a woman named Rosa, who was working in the airport. Rosa offered up her home and the next time my mom came through on her way to Cuzco (where she also had new friends), she got to meet Rosa's whole family. Now it was our turn to stay with them, so when we landed Monday night, Rosa and her husband Miguel were waiting in the crowd at the airport with a big sign that read ¨Friends Melissa and Taylor!¨

Our gracious hosts gave us a room to ourselves and have cooked us some delicious dishes such as lomo saltado (essentially steak and fries) and ceviche (fish in a rich lime-juice and chili sauce that cooks it chemically; otherwise it's raw). We met a whole slew of the neighborhood kids and got to play futbol and a street game called kiwi with them. They were adorable and loving. Now we're about to hop a bus down to Tacna, by the Chilean border. Should be about a 20 hr ride. See you in Chile!

Getting ready

Hey guys, Melissa and I are in snow-covered Connecticut trying to finish up preparations. We dropped the ball by not making an appointment with a travel doctor in time; fortunately we don't need anything in order to get down there, but once we're there we'll have to get a yellow fever vaccination and some malaria meds before we go to any jungle areas. That should come later, though - we fly into Lima on Monday, then the plan is to hop on a bus and start heading down to Chile along the coast, dip down through the Lakes Region of Patagonia to do some hiking, back up through Argentina's wine country, then explore the Peruvian highlands, the headwaters of the Amazon, and loop over the mountains and through Ecuador's forests, back down the coast to Lima. A little bit of everything.

Right now she's finishing up her grad school applications for the fall, while I'm setting up a profile for us on couchsurfing.com and waiting to watch the inaugural address on youtube since I missed it live because of work. Enjoy your Superbowl parties, and be safe!