So nice to meet Jungle Meat!

I just want to give props to all the great people we are "meating" along the path, including our wonderful new friend, Christian. Christian provided us with many a good quote and more laughs than one can count. This picture is exemplifies one of these moments. Dear sweet Christian had been carrying around what he thought was beef jerky, and what actually turned out to be jerk beef, in his backpack for two months. The best part, that he obtained it in the jungle in Brazil, of all places! Christian is one of the most adventurous people I have ever met, and is just one of the amazing people we have met along the path, or added to our pack of travelers :)

Happy Shoes

 

These are some suggestions of what to do when someone "steals your chi" whilst you are traveling: 

 1) Buy some Happy Alpaca Shoes 2) Buy some Alpaca everything (pictures to follow) 3) Eat cotton candy  4) Have a cerveza in the sun! Repeat when necessary!

*Thanks for the chi stealing reference, Lindsay*

Machu-licious!

So we made it to Peru, where we started off in Cusco to do Machu Picchu. I was still feeling a bit under the weather so I missed out on most of the action at the beginning of Peru, but rallied for the Lares Trek, which is one of the alternate routes to Machu Picchu. This particular route takes you over mountains and through villages and farm land. We were trekking through alpaca poop and in hail and resting on the farmland of locals. This route is challenging and less touristic. Rather than see people, you see cows and other farm animals. The hiking was challenging and the nights in the tents were cold. Some of our nicest group members experienced minor rage due to the frostiness of the nights, but the amazing food including the best popcorn ever ! We went with SAS tours, and though it was a bit pricier, I would highly recommend it. Team Shemale was our group's adopted name, as us ladies far outnumbered dear Christian, a spirited young man from Denmark, and our amazing tour guide, James. We were so lucky to travel with such a fun, outgoing group, and James taught us so much about the Incan culture. We learned about their connection with “Pacha Mama” or “mother earth” as well as their belief systems, which focused on nature including mountains, the sun, moon and beyond. Rather than give human form to their gods, they believed the gods were around them as other forms. After the trek we enjoyed the hot springs at Aguas Calientes, where we watched some very frisky locals and then ended up in one of the only bars where we learned tourists can earn free drinks by dancing on the bar!The following day we got up early to head to Machu Picchu, which was more than I had hoped for. The construction of the entire lost city is still in such immaculate shape and the view can't be captured. The place is so large that we may have lost some of our team members, but we found them as well as a baby alpaca! At the end of the day, we returned to Cusco, where we donned our tourist uniform (which consists of many items made from alpaca wool, namely leg warmers and sweaters) to head out with our guide (who was off duty) where we discovered Pisco Sours and why Cusco is known for its late nights!

The Lares trek was incredible. I would hike it again, if I could and we were so fortunate to have adopted one of our team members, a lovely young lady from LA, to travel with!

Brown socks

Only volcanic dirt makes black socks dirty...

Isla de la Plata- this little piece of heaven was well worth the tour. On our way to the island, we stopped for some whale watching, where we we fortunate enough to see Humpback whales come unforgettably close to the boat, including one that swam right under. Unfortunately, I didn't capture a single good picture. It was scarey and amazing, how huge they are! After the whales, we toured the island where we saw many types of birds including blue-footed boobies. They are these curious little birds with cotton-candy blue feet. The view of the coast from the hike is amazing, especially because there are birds everywhere! Once back on the boat, after a roasting hike, we made friends with some turtles, who were interested in our watermelon. Our guide, who took his job quite seriously, but with a good sense of humour, did not approve of my plan to feed the turtles nor did he like my joke about having turtle ceviche. This is, in part, due to the fact that people used to eat turtle, and our guide himself admitted, slightly red in the cheeks, that he himself had eaten turtle as a child. Following the turtles, and some far off dolphin sightings, we went snorkeling. Not that much to see, but the little schools of tiny fish tried to nibble my body, which was slightly weird! The tour was remarkable, and though we may have spent a huge amount of time in the bathroom for the days to follow due to the sandwiches, that won't take away from the fact that we were only feet away from a surfacing whale!

Where's the beach?

We finally made it to Pacific ocean- my first time with my toes in Pacific at Puerto Lopez! We certainly had to earn our beach time though. This should be a warning to any future travelers who ever are trying to make it from Latacunga direction to the coast- do not take the route that goes through Quevedo! Between the combination of late buses, unhelpful people, and more late buses followed by being dropped off on the side of the road 12 hours after we began our way to the coast only to wait for a bus that never came and having a supper of what we though were 30 cent potatoes but turned out to have fish in them and then taking yet another speedy Ecuadorian cab to finally make it to the coast- well, a combination of all of this makes me suggest to anyone not to take this route. We did learn some interesting things though. For example, pigs are very much allowed to ride on the bus, as long as they are stuffed below with the luggage. Also, I actually know what it feels like to think your life might be coming to an end- that feeling was provoked by three people boarding the bus in the middle of know where covered in blood and carrying a machete and huge shears. I felt like I was cast in a horror movie, and Allie was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out and tell us we were being punked! Sadly, we didn't get to meet Ashton, although Allie did get a number from an interesting bus employee named Angel, who may or may not have asked if Allie and I were a couple. Moral of the story- don't take this damn route! BUT- a visit (or two) to Los Frailes, a very secluded beach and national park was well worth the ride!

We almost didn't take the tour to Cotopaxi Volcano, which would have been a travesty. We organized the tour through Hostel Tiana (to avoid another experience with the driver from the tour company from the previous day) and the extra $5 was well worth the awesome guide (go, Diego, go!) and the jeep rather than the van, that was clearly meant for roughing it. Doing Cotopaxi and Quilotoa back to back, made for the most amazing two days EVER! After driving up to the base of the volcano, where we were given a small tour of the museum and had some cocoa tea to help deal with the altitude, we passed stunning landscape from where which we could view the volcano through the clouds. We also saw, what I thought was the most amazing thing ever; wild horses, a herd of them, including young horses grazing at the bottom of the volcano! After Diego towed a van out of a ditch ( he's my hero) we parked and then hiked 300 metres to the refuge- the slowest 300 metres of my life! The altitude makes it impossible to rush and one of the women in our group really struggled. After freezing for a bit in the refuge we made it another 200 metres to 5000 metres where the glacier begins! It was a bit scarey- if you slid down, the only thing to catch you are the rocks! After descending, we stopped to view an untouched glacier lake where we found, again, the wild horses which were frolicking about! BEST DAY EVER!