One of the seven wonders of the world

March 22 – Word of the Day: Fenomenal (Phenomenal)

Fenomenal — the only word to describe the amazingness that is Machu Picchu.  Machu Picchu is another bucket list item so I´m proud to say I´m off to a pretty good start fo 2014 (I try to accomplish 5 bucket list items each year on a list I started when I was 13… I really didn´t start making a dent in it until college since my ambitions tended to be beyond the means of a teenager.)

I woke up with a terrible headache again due to the altitude so I grabbed a cup of coca tea and J and I headed to the train station.  Normally you take a train and then a bus to get to Machu Picchu from Cusco, but they were doing renovations on the railway so we had to take a bus, then a train, and then another bus to get there.  The coca tea plus a nap on the first bus ride relieved my headache and I was good to go by the time we hit the time to board our train.

A picture of the train we´d be boarding

Excited to take a train!

I took about a bazillion pictures on the train ride but I won´t bore you with them because they honestly don´t look much different from those that I took in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador.  So…. Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca site located 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) above sea level and situated on a mountain ridge above the Sacred Valley which is about 50 miles northwest of where we were staying in Cusco.  Any pictures of river that I post are the Urumbama river.  Most archaelogists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472) and it is often mistakenly referred to as the “Lost City of the Incas.”

The Incas built this amazing city around 1450, but abandoned it a century later during the Spanish conquest.  The locals all knew about it, but it wasn´t brought to international attention until 1911 when the American historian Hiram Bingham made it popular. Nowadays, most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally looked like.  By the 70´s about a third of the city had been restored but the restoration work continues today and they were even working on it when we were visting!

climbing to the top of the mountain for a view

It was a little cloudy but its a picture of Huayana Picchu (which we did not climb)

We lucked out and had about 3.5 hours of sunshine and heat before it started to get cloudy and rain on us.

J and I spent time hiking up the mountain so that we could get a good view of Huayana Picchu.  After hiking for over an hour we still hadn´t reached the top but we needed to turn back since we only had a few hours there before we needed to catch our train back.  As we hiked we got some good pictures of Machu Picchu.  Then we decided to explore the ruins a little more in depth.  You can see us taking a little break among the ruins above.

the three windows or “las tres ventanas”

We also took a photo near the Inca´s sacred rock:

Just as we were wrapping up exploring the ruins, it was starting to drizzle.  Our tickets included a lunch buffet at the Sanctuary lodge so we decided to head in and have a quick lunch before our bus departed to take us back to Aguas Calientes to catch our train.

The train ride to and from Machu Picchu not only had great views but they had light meals and beverages too.  Though for our afternoon ride I couldn´t have been less hungry after our lunch at Machu Picchu!

When we got back to the Cusco, we had a late dinner and then crashed into bed for the evening.  The next two days will be all about exploring the city of Cusco and relaxing.

 

 

Coca tea? Yes please!

March 21 – Word of the Day: Paciencia (Patience)

We had to get up at the crack of dawn… well okay no it was still dark out… to head to the airport to catch our flight to Lima in order to get to Cusco.  We knew they´d make us go through customs in Lima so we were surprised when our luggage was MIA upon arrival.  I asked someone for help and they told me that there would be more luggage coming and to be patient.  Patience is a good lesson for me because most of the time I´m all about efficiency.  We waited… and we waited… and finally 20 minutes later our baggage came through along with a few others.  Good thing customs was quick and we had a longer layover!  Soon we were on our way to Cusco.

Upon arriving in Cusco, the transportation from the JW Marriott picked us up and they were kind enough to stop by the bus station on the way to the hotel so we could purchase our bus tickets for Machu Picchu tomorrow.  Cusco is located in southeastern Peru and its elevation is around 3,400 m (11,200 ft) so most people get elevation sickness.  I kind of thought we´d be fine since prior to the Galapagos we had spent time up in the Andes mountains, but nope, elevation sickness got me.

Upon arriving at the JW, they urged us to drink the Coca tea because it helps relieve the headache and pressure associated with elevation sickness. It worked like a charm!  Upon their recommendation though, we decided to take it easy to help our bodies adjust to the altitude.  I went down to the spa to enjoy the relaxtion pool, hot tub and sauna and read Chelsea Handler´s latest book – Uganda Be Kidding Me.  J (crazy guy) went to work out… not exactly taking it easy.

They told us to eat light for dinner so we just had some appetizers since we´d be leaving at 5am the next day to head to Machu Picchu.

Relaxation

March 20 – Word of the Day: Perezoso (Lazy)

Being that this 12th day of our trip, we were getting tired of the constant movement so we decided we´d take it easy.  We slept in and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Hotel Oro Verde before heading out to explore the city of Guayaquil.

Guayquil was much hotter than Quito thankfully which meant an opportunity to enjoy the outdoor pool later.  We walked through the city all the way down to the riverfront.  There they have some monuments and statues and some fun photo ops. 🙂

One of the monuments on the riverfront

One of the photo opps

           

J and I decided it would be fun to goof around taking pictures in random locations along the riverfront.  The city had a lot of character, but the riverfront wasn´t as pretty as I thought it would be… the river actually looked pretty dirty and I felt a little like I was in St. Louis except with more spanish speaking people.

After exploring the city we were dying of heat so we decided to head back to the hotel to enjy the pool at grab lunch at one of the delis.  It got cloudy and windy in the afternoon so we took advantage of the weather situation to be lazy and catch up on some of our shows.  Probably a good thing that we took it easy because tomorrow we have a very early flight to head to Peru!

Darwin

March 19 – Word of the Day: Agridulce (Bittersweet)

So today was our last day in the Galapagos and the word of the day is bittersweet because it´s so hard to leave such and amazing place but at the same time I´m also excited to continue onward for more adventures.  We began the morning with another delicious breaksfast before heading to the Charles Darwin Research Station.  The station is a specialized breeding and rearing center for the endangered Galapagos Giant Tortoise.  It happens to be a working branch of the international non-profit – Charles Darwin Foundation – which strives to protect and maintain the delicate ecosystems within each island.  On our way in, J found a friend. 🙂

We were able to observe baby tortoises at vary stages of their lives from teensy turtles to giants!

The babies were cute but something about these giant tortoises made me wish I could give them a hug!!

After wrapping up at the research station, we headed back to the bus for a ride back to the channel. On the trip back we stopped to see Los Gemelos or “the twins” which are twin craters of sunken lava formed thousands of years ago.  Unfortunately for me, I get excited and try to take pictures while walking… note to self – don´t take pictures while covering dangerous terrain.  I slipped on some of the rocks and cut open my hand and foot and scraped my leg.  What luck!!! 😦  Oh well, if that´s the worst that happens, it´ll be fine.  I mean… I already survived a killer wasp attack.  I can handle ANYTHING. 🙂

Upon arriving at the channel (and after cleaning my wounds with alcohol swabs and bandaging myself up) we took the ferry over to Baltra for our flight out.  Later that afternoon we arrived in Guayaquil and relaxed a bit, grabbing a drink with another couple – Tony and Linda from our tour group.  Later, one of the Canadian couples joined too so we had a fun time getting to know them.

Tomorrow we´ll spend the day enjoying and exploring Guayquil before we leave Ecuador to head to Peru!

Into the Wild

March 18 – Word of the Day: Salvaje (Wild)

For our third day on the Galapagos, we took the dingy back to the town and drove the same 40 minutes to the channel to hop aboard the Sea Finch yacht again. With all this interim travel to get to places you need to occupy your time and you can only take so many pictures so at this point I had already finished reading Allegiant and was about half way through Orange is the New Black.  If you haven´t read the Divergent series it´s really pretty good brain candy.  I wanted to read all three in the series before the Divergent movie came out and I´m thankful I accomplished that.  Orange is the New Black is good too… funny and it really made me want to do something related to rehabilitating women in prison like helping them write resumes or something.  Kudos to the author!

Anyway, today´s agenda including exploring Plaza island in the afternoon after a morning of snorkeling.  J decided not to snorkel this morning since he got a bit burnt yesterday so he hung out on the boat.  Meanwhile I was on a mission to find something cool.  There weren´t sea lions, seals, penguins or tortoises nearby since we were snorkeling along a steeper cliff so I knew I´d have to look deeper in order to find anything cool beyond fish.

I ended up seeing a TON of different fish this time around and zero sharks. 😦  However, after about 45 minutes I finally saw a sting ray! Here is my attempt at a photo of the stingray.  I got a pretty cool video of him swimming around too. 

After snorkeling we hopped back on the boat for another delicious lunch.  Then we spent the afternoon exploring Plaza island where we ran into more sea lions and fur seals and saw a ton of birds and iguanas.

When the cat´s away, the mice will play! The baby sea lions were super friendly and curious and our naturalist guide explained to us that we should slowly try to back away from them.  By touching them, we can get our scent on them and that can cause the mom to not recognize their baby and reject them.  So as much as we desperately wanted to cuddle these cuties, we had to resist!

After a long day in the wild exploring and learning about all the lovely creatures we were exhausted.  On the bus ride back I decided it was time for a nap.  I was just minding my own business, dreaming about snorkeling with sea lions when I awoke startled by something that felt like a small shock. Natually I flung my hand in confusion and through a wasp toward J.  THAT S.O.B. STUNG ME!!!!!!  (The wasp, not J. :-)) Being the chivalrous husband that he is J, stomped that little sucker to death.  I could not believe it.  I had successfully avoided yellow fever and malaria in the Amazon, and then a killer wasp has to find me sleeping inside of a bus and sting my hand.  Grrrr.

By the time we reached to the town to take the dingy back to the other side of the bay to our hotel, my joints were numbing and my hand was swelling up.  The nurses on the trip with us (who coincidentally were also from the same state) let me know they had benadryl if I needed it.  When we got back to the hotel, I decided I needed to nurse my wound with red wine and dark chocolate naturally.  That meant no benadryl because that makes me drowsy but luckily I had a non-drowsy antihistamine in my toiletries from our last trip to Australia so I took that and iced my hand.  Later that night my hand was back to its normal size and we had finished our box of Chilean red wine and a whole bar of 70% dark chocolate.

Tomorrow morning we head to the tortoise breeding station and then back to Ecuadorian mainland.  I wish we could stay on the Galapagos forever!

Boobies!

March 17 – Word of the Day: Afortunado (Lucky)

I picked the word of the day as a nod to the holiday — happy St. Patrick´s day! — but also because it describes how I feel to be able to enjoy and explore the Galapagos!  We began the day with a breakfast buffet – yummy! – before taking the dingy back across the bay to the town.  There we caught a bus that took us 45 minutes to the other side of Santa Cruz where the channel was located.  We got on the mini-yacht called the Sea Finch to head over to North Seymour island (which is supposed to be a bird lovers paradise). 

We saw all kinds of wildlife including land and marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, lava gulls, frigate birds, fur seals and sea lions.

Initially arriving we were greeted by playful baby sea lions.

Blue footed boobies!!

Wildlife was everywhere and we kept seeing birds in pairs — guess it was mating season!  Some had already mated though and were raising their babies or protecting their eggs.

 

 

After spending time learning about all the species on the island from our naturalist guide, we learned that we would get to snorkel near this island too which was exciting because it meant the slight chance we´d get to snorkel with a better variety of wildlife.

Okay now this may be TMI for some of you but it´s a funny story so don´t read on if you don´t want to.  Whe we got back to the boat, there was a Galapagos shark circling it… now normally this wouldn´t be a problem but my period decided to come a whole week early and needless to say I was unprepared.  Most of the women on the tour with us were older and didn´t have to worry about that sort of thing anymore.  So I was having an internal debate… snorkel anyway because it´s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and risk the sharks…. or skip it.  Luckily, there were two younger girls on the boat and one of them came to my rescue! (See the photos below of the circling, hungry shark)

Because of the shark circling, our guide decided to have us snorkel further down the island where it would be “safer”.  Luckily for us, it was closer to where some of the sea lions were playing too.

J got a picture of me snorkeling and just past me you can see one of the sea lions that jumped in.  That made me day.  We saw a variety of fish, lobsters and even a few nurse sharks down below.

After snorkeling we had all worked up an appetite so we had some lunch on the boat before heading over to north Santa Cruz island for some swimming.  By north Santa Cruz we saw lots of crab colonies and some flamingos.  By the way… did you know flamingos can fly? I sure didn´t.

Later that evening we headed into the little town/the capital and visited the fish market.  We had heard that it´s pretty entertaining because of all the wildlife begging for food…. and it was. 🙂

The last thing I will note about our visit into town was that we went to the supermarket and bought some boxed wine which happens to be from Chile and is about 1,000 times better than the boxed wine in the states.  We also found Aji which made me very happy.  (Aji is this great sauce they have at almost every meal in Ecuador).

Tomorrow we´ll be hitting up another island and we´re excited!

4th Grader´s Dream Come True

March 16 – Word of the Day: Sueno hecho realidad (Dream come true)

Okay I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was about this portion of the trip.  My whole trip was planned around this part — going to the Galapagos Islands.  I have to thank Ms. Hartman at Mill Valley Elementary school for getting me excited about science in 4th grade.  We first learned about Charles Darwin, evolution, and Robert Ballard´s explorations that year and from that point forward I knew that I needed to visit the Galapagos someday.

We began our day with a flight to Guayaquil for a quick stop to pick up other passengers and then our flight over to Baltra in the Galapagos.  Baltra is the island that houses the airport and that´s about it.  The terrain on Baltra is desert-like and aside from Cacti and iguanas there wasn´t much else to see.  There is a channel that connects many of the islands and from Baltra we took a ferry boat down the channel to Santa Cruz island.

I tried to capture the immense beauty that is the Galapagos, but my camera just couldn´t capture it, so while you see this photo is beautiful, in person it was about 100 times more beautiful. We also ran into a sea lion getting some shade on the dock – a sign that this was sure to be a wonderful experience.

The first thing that we did after arriving on Santa Cruz island was visit the lava tunnel.  The lava tunnel is over 2000 meteres long.   Santa Cruz Island is one of the Galápagos Islands and it happens to be the second largest island after Isabela isalnd. Its capital is Puerto Ayora, the most populated urban centre in the islands.  Fun fact: the island is actually a large dormant volcano and they estimate that the last eruption occurred around a million and a half years ago.

Above are pictures of outside the lava tunnel and then inside the lava tunnel.  Below is a picture of one of the insects you see in the Galapagos.  You can see how gigantic is is based on the comparison to J´s hand.

After visiting the lava tunnel, we visited the Rachno Primicias reserve where we got to view some of the giant tortoises in their natural habititat.  Now this is probably the thing I was looking forward to most. 🙂

I tried to capture a few of the different tortoises, and you can see just how big they are by the picture of me and J with our buddy.  J decided he´d see what it would be like to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle by trying on a shell.

If I don´t see anything else for the rest of the trip, I´ll still be a happy camper.  🙂  After seeing the tortoises, we drove to the other end of the island to take a dingy over to yet another section of the island to go to our hotel – Finch Bay Eco Hotel.  From there we relaxed and ate a late dinner before heading to bed.  More exploring of the Galapagos tomorrow!

Flores y Musica

March 15 – Word of the Day: Rosa (Rose)

We again had an early morining start at Hacienda Manteles where we enjoyed a really delicious breakfast including a glass of jugo de tomate del arbol or tree tomato juice.  It might be my new favorite juice.

That morning we headed to a flower plantation to see all the various kinds of roses that they cultivate and export to different countries.  What was most interesting about their roses was that they had no scent since they didn´t allow any insects to pollinate the flowers.  Apparently they export most of the flowers to Russia where they care more about the look of them than the smell.

All of the different colors of roses were absolutely gorgeous.  The temperature difference inside the green house was stunningly different compared to outside the greenhouses.

After exploring the flower plantation, we were headed back to Quito for a night before continuing on to the Galapagos the next day.  On our way back to Quito we stopped for lunch at Hacienda La Cienega which is one of the oldest haciendas in Ecuador, belonging to the descendents of Marques of Maenza.  The hacienda has been around since the 17th century and from there you have a great view of Cotopaxi national park and volcano.  We enjoyed some Ecuadorian music during lunch too… very relaxing.

We arrived back in Quito late afternoon/early evening and explored the artesan market near our hotel and grabbed a drink/played some cards with a few of the other folks in our tour group.  Given that we were headed to the Galapagos the next morning, we spent the evening relaxing and having a few drinks with some of our Canadian friends upstairs in the lounge.

Next Stop: GALAPAGOS!!!! Ahhhhh I can´t wait!

The City of Clouds and Dancing with the Devil

March 14 – Word of the Day: Cascadas (waterfalls)

Despite thoroughly enjoying our trip to the Amazon, it was time to move on to Puyo (City of Clouds) and Banos for the day before stopping for the night in Patate up in the Andes mountains.  We did a hike to view a gorgeous cascada or waterfall called El Pailon del Diablo or “The Devil´s Cauldron.”

After the hike we were starving so we enjoyed the box lunch they provided but also stopped by a cute little stand where I had the most delicious banana and chocolate empanada for only $2.  I should have gotten a picture, but I was devouring it too quickly.

As we drove through the City of Clouds on our way to Banos, we stopped by to ride a cable car to view two more waterfalls called El Manto de la Novia which were supposed to be “bride and groom” waterfalls.

Later that afternoon, we arrived in Banos which is known for its hot springs/baths, shopping and other fun activities like excursions to see waterfalls.  We saw a demonstration on carving with vegetable ivory and walked around exploring the city for a while.  There were a ton of candy shops makeing dulce de la cana or sugar cane candy so of course we tried some.  It was very sweet but pretty flavorless so I think J and I were both a little disappointed.  We did see a lot of vendors selling a delicacy that neither of us was willing to try — cuy (aka guinea pig).

Early evening we traveled to Patate where we would be staying for the evening up in the Andes mountains at Hacienda Manteles.  When we arrived the owner was telling us how we were surrounded by volcanos and he joked that the switch to “turn it on for us” was broken.  To his surprise, about 30 minutes later, the volcano erupted before our eyes and we got some fabulous pictures.

We were very close to farms and the whole landscape was just breathtaking.  J made friends with all the animals including several dogs, goats, and calves.  One calf was tied up just outside our room and was enjoying a delicious dinner of fresh grass.

Queen of the Amazon

March 13 – Word of the Day: Mariposa (Butterfly)

So for our second day in the Amazon we were to eat an early breakfast so that we could go on a rain forest hike right after.  I should mention that they gave us these giant rubber boots to wear on the hike which was pretty fabulous because 1) it was muddy but 2) it protected your feet and legs from danger. While we didn´t see any snakes on the hike, we were told that the Amazon is home to a wide variety of poisonous snakes.  We did see a TON of bugs on the hike though — big and small, colorful and not so pretty.  We kept seeing this gorgeous blue butterfly which would always elude me so I couldn´t get a picture.  I had to pull one off line though to show you… the Blue Morpho butterfly.   This picture doesn´t do it justice though.

The naturalist guide, Carlos, was very informative and taught us all kinds of cool things about the Amazon.  I could make this post really long and boring for you, but I´ll spare you and tell you that the most interesting thing we learned about were the lemon ants which you can apparently eat.  After eating the Palmetto weevil larvae the day before, I wasn´t feeling quite so adventurous, but J decided he was and tried them.  Ewww!

They make all kinds of things out of the palm leaves including hats, crowns, jewelry, parts of their houses.  The Quechua are very resourceful people.  Our guide demonstrated making a crown out of the palm leaves and then crowned me queen of the Amazon. 🙂   Halfway through our rainforest hike we got to take a basket chair zipline which was pretty fun, but less exciting than our ziplining in Costa Rica.  It was definitely HOT and we were ready to jump in the river after the hike.  We didn´t have to though because we were able to cool off on our raft ride back to the hotel.  They showed us how they made a raft out of balsa logs and each raft could hold ten people.  Sitting on it though you get pretty soaked.  Here´s a picture of J on the raft before we started (aka got soaked).  It was pretty cool though and I can now say that I could make a raft assuming I have a tool to cut wood.

After we returned to the hotel, there were optional activities for the afternoon.  Some people chose to head into town and explore… we figured we´d get enough of towns and cities throughout the rest of the trip so we skipped that option.  Others decided to go to the Butterfly Farm, but after the big blue butterfly in the amazon that morning I decided it was cooler to see them in the wild.  So J and I headed to an animal sanctuary run by some Europeans.  The Ecuadorian government sends animals there that need to be rehabilitated and those that can will eventually get re-released into the wild.  There were a lot of animals there that will stay at the sanctuary permanently including some “illegal pets” confiscated by the government.

Starting with the top left and going clockwise you can see a toucan, a tapir, me and my parrot friends who kept whistling at me and a cayman (similar to a crocodile).  There were a variety of other animals too including lots of different birds, monkeys, a capybara, and snakes.  J was in heaven.

I have to say that even though I will be sad to leave the Amazon tomorrow morning, it wil be nice to be back in slightly cooler and less humid temperatures.  Our room is open air (with screens of course) so it can get quite hot… especially if you want a sheet on you to protect you from mosquitos that sneak in.

I can confidently say though that J and I want to come back to the Amazon though probably through Peru or Brazil in the future to see other areas of it.