Wow, what a time we’ve had in Peru. We walked across the border into the country on October 20th and fell in love almost immediately. We’ve spent 62 days here and have really enjoyed the diversity of topography, the friendliness of the people and the amazing historic sites. Here’s my list of thoughts from our time here:
1.Spanish is the national language and is necessary for lots of the day-to-day business, but a little bit of Quechua could also come in handy.
2.The Andes will take your breathe away, literally, they’re up there.
3.Chachapoyas is well worth the hassle to get there – everything cool is nearby. My advice is to skip Gocta, but definitely see Kuelap.
4.Dogs are everywhere and probably out number people 3:1.
5.Peru has tons of varieties of food. They can grow tropical, high altitude and everything in between. Also, Peruvian chicken, papas and salad can go a long way towards Thanksgiving abroad. Take it easy on the Chaufa and don’t have the Aji twice a day for a month.
6.Seeds of Hope, Peru… great organization. Volunteering was the single greatest activity of our trip.
7.Machu Picchu is worth the hype. It does not disappoint and arriving by foot is pretty dramatic. Hike up to Winay Picchu, too. Want more? Check out our Machu Picchu page and the PeruTreks company.
8.Trixie was absolutely a Peruvian street dog.
9.Beards are fairly novel. For some reason, kids want to touch a buzz cut and facial hair all the time.
10.Four pairs of underwear is definitely enough, but I did pick up another T-Shirt in Peru.
11.Peruvian buses are really nice, peruvian roads are not. When we sprung for the full cama on Crux del Sur, I was living the lap of luxury.
12.The cure for nearly anything can be found in a well placed movie.
We’re glad to be heading back to the land of the free, but will leave a part of hearts and minds here in Peru. We’ve both been captivated by our time in the Andes. We were able to visit several Inca and pre-Inca sites, learn about the having of the good techniques and make some great friends along the way.
The numbers look like this: 58 videos and 519 photos from Peru (not including the 150 photos from the Inca Trail and 105 photos from Machu Picchu). 2 long treks and countless hikes and day trips to see mountains, lakes, waterfalls, ruins, artisans and even our future dog.
Last night, everybody got together at the Seeds of Hope volunteer house to wish Kenya a safe voyage back home. He’s been in Huaraz, working as a volunteer for a year and half. Before dinner, we shot this video that shows what folks were up to after a long day working with the kids:
Friday Night at Seeds of Hope
After a week of helping to kids, this is the calm before the storm at the Seeds of Hope volunteer house. It’s the last night in Huaraz for long-time volunteer Kenya and we’re all excited about the dinner he’s made.
Kenya made pasta with pesto sauce and papas with a yellow/spicy sauce… delicious! We all shared some wine and beers to offer toasts to the upcoming concert and thank Kenya for his work. After dinner, we headed over to a local bar, 13 Buhos, to watch Kenya, Yury Grande, Yuri Pequeño and Josh from Colorado play some music. Good times were had by all!
On Saturdays, there are no classes for the kids, but we went over to the school to finish a project with Isabelle (our ‘boss’ and S.O.H. volunteer coordinator). We’re prepping for Christmas already so that all 50 kids can get a present this year. In addition, there are donated clothes to sort and divide up for the kids depending on sizes and need.
Tomorrow, we’re going to try a hike that we read about in the Rough Guide to Peru. There’s a large glacial lake up at about 4800m (or roughly 15,840 feet) that offers spectacular views of the valley. Afterwards, we can relax in the natural saunas in nearby caves heated by hot springs. Monday, we’ll be back to work for week #2 with the kiddies.
We found a great chicken place for Thanksgiving Dinner in Peru. A whole (peruvian) chicken, fries (AKA Papas/Potatoes), salad and sauces for $10 USD. We also drank our first wine (not from a cardboard box) of the trip, too. Delicious! For dessert we had a huge slice of apple pie with a scoop of ice cream, of course. Not at delicious as the feast in Rochester, but REALLY good Peruvian food!
Mary and Patrick at the dinner table:
Staring things off with some Chilean wine…
Rotisserie chicken, salad, fries and wine… an excellent choice for an ex-pat Thanksgiving.
Almost ready to call it quits…
Apple Pie (of course you can find Ice Cream in Peru).
We have a surprisingly good Wifi connection at our hostel and have been busy waiting for the sunshine by uploading pictures and videos from our first 2 weeks in Peru. During the time we spent in Chachas and trekking, we took 175 photos in the Peru 2008 set on Flickr:
Also, we’ve posted more videos onto YouTube from our time so far in Peru. Here’s a couple videos to whet your proverbial whistles:
Kuelap Peanut Fiasco
Mary and Edgar making peanut butter in Kuelap… Patrick is only interested in having a snack.
Mary and her Mule
Mary rode a mule (named Macho) up a mountain, they became fast friends.
Cows in the Valle de Belen
Cows being crazy in the Valle de Belen, drinking our water and saying hello.
Caught a WiFi signal here in our hostel and have been able to upload 3 videos of our final days in Ecuador (below). Also, I added 66 pictures to our flickr photos under the Ecuador 2008 set. Some of my favorite photos (from the new additions) are the ones where we’re on the train and then the train off the tracks:
Also, Mary + Patrick in front of a huge, hidden waterfall (also seen in the third video below):
We are moving through Ecuador and have posted (to date) 150 pictures and 18 videos of our travels. To see the pictures of our adventure, thus far, check out the photoset on Flickr:
Mary and have bounced back from our days Cotopaxi via Quito for a single night at the Secret Garden, Quito. While we were near Cotopaxi, we stayed in the other, possiblly more lovely, Secret Garden hostel. We arrived via bus from Quito in Machachi and found the bus up the mountain, which let us off at the end of the hostel´s driveway. From there, we hitched a ride with Roberto and got in with time for lunch.
The place is super cozy and the indoors revolves around the large fireplace, with couches and a huge dinner table. The outside has hammocks, a composting toilet and several outbuildings for cabins and the dorms. There was a distinctly European crowd and we made fast friends with some brits, swiss and dutch folks. On the second day, we went horse back riding to a cool river, where we attempted to pull fish directly from the stream (seemed alot easier when Vera, our guide, described it). Our horses were very gentle and we had a blast being out in the country-side for so long.
I´ve just uploaded a video of Mary and I on the horses about 3km from the hostel:
After a nap and dinner, we played cards and laughed with our neighbors. The next morning, a bunch of folks trekked up to the glaciers surrounding the Cotopaxi Volcano, but we opted to stay back and rest. Some colds we´d picked up from the nights in our hostels needed some tender loving care. We banded together several people to share a ride back into town and caught a bus towards Quito. We arrived back at the Secret Garden and got some time in an internet cafe before dinner time. We attempted some Skype calls, but have struggled to find a good connection or computers that have working microphones.
At the moment, we´ve been in Baños, Ecuador for almost an entire day. Our colds are on the mend and we may get out for a hike tomorrow. Yesterday was a bit crazy, but are glad to have found such nice town, at a good elevation (1200m or 3600ft) where it´s warm and sunny. On our way to the internet cafe yesterday, we crossed paths with a student protest that seemed to surround their desire to have free bus fare to/from school. When it became apparent that the internet cafe was unavailable, we hoped in a cab to the bus terminal and took off for Baños, which is about 3.5 hours south of Quito. The town is prepping for Columbus Day weekend, which they call Dia de la Raza.
A final note, some pictures from our first week are posted on our flickr account, here are some favorites:
These posts are slightly out of order, but before we went out to Otavalo, there were videos from Quito. The Quito set includes the Belfry of the Basillica, Guayasamin Museum, the teleferiQo and more. They are embedded here, but you can also view our videos directly from YouTube, via:
Recent Comments