ok, dont want you followers to give up on us so must try to keep updating!
current location: santiago, chile. population of 6 million. though we only arrived yesterday, the impression is of an incredibly cosmopolitan, europeanesque capital with underlying influences from its south american location. today we walked and walked (a bit too much for poor sean) through our neighborhood in barrio brasil (bohemian, up-and-coming spot) to el centro, where there are massive skyskrapers and the presidential palace (where salvador allende was famously killed). last night we overheard a group of gringos trying to decipher what is Santiago's culture. they seemed to agree that in basically lacked one based on its efforts to appear like any other first world city. i cant say i agree right now, especially after seeing other parts of chile and how they play a role here. the colonial past is evident from much of the stunning architecture and cobblestone pedestrian streets. indigenous roots arent so clear but many markets still sell traditional crafts like wooden flutes, cups for drinking mate (type of south american tea) and blankets make on looms. will have to comment on our impressions more after a full week in the city!
our trajectory thus far has made for a really interesting transition. Peru was a completely new world where though we were sometimes uncomfortable, it made for really interesting new experiences. as soon as we crossed the border into Chile we noticed the differences in people. everyone is much more concerned about their appearance being western, wearing more fashionable clothes and listening to lady gaga on their cell phones. along with this first world consumerism comes a lot more obesity. one of the main foods of the chilean diet is schop, a massive hotdog covered in every known topping. no, i haven't eat it yet, don't plan on it.
will talk more about our recent adventures, including mountain biking in the desert and looking at jupiter through a telescope on a mountain, very soon!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
cuzco, inka trail, arequipa, parque nacional lauca
Cuzco´s main square: Plaza de Armas
A view of the neighbourhoods on the hill from the plaza
Our group at Kilometre 82, the official start of the Inka Trail
View from ¨Dead Woman´s Pass¨: 4600m (editors note: the blue specks on the right are our porters trucking it up this mountain)
A nice scene to wake up to! Our camp on day 2
Sabrina and I on day 3. The edges of the trail were pretty much a sheer drop to one´s death.
The Andes Mountains
Me, contemplating descending the stairs
Atop ¨Phuyupatamarka¨ ruins (Quechua meaning: cloud forest)
Group making its way, gingerly, down the slick steps. Health and safety regulations here were top notch.
Looking down the valley.
Group shot at the ¨Yunkapata¨ruins
¨Wiñaywayna¨ (Quechua meaning: forever young)
First view of ¨Machu Picchu¨ (Quechua meaning: Old Mountain) ruins from the sun gate
Sabrina and I
The classic shot
Looking down at Machu Picchu from the top of Wainapichu
The PLaza de Armas in Arequipa, Peru. Our last stop on the way to Chile.
weird animals.
A secret picture. Sabrina snapped these local women weaving blankets out of alpaca wool.
Different colours of alpaca yarn. The bowls show the different natural ingredients used to make the many colours you see in the scarves.
Our visit to the 400 year old Convent. It was pretty rowdy.
Sabrina acting like a crusty old nun.
Our drive up to the national park in northern Chile. They actually gave us a car for some reason.
Vicuñas. The alpacas for rich people. The cadillacs of camelids.
Weird rabbit looking creature. Called a vizcacha.
A remote church.
One of the highest non-navigable lakes in the world.
Creepy llama patrolling the park.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
end of peru, start of chile
so, finally getting back to the blog to update about the end of our journey in peru and the start of another one in chile.
Macchu Pichu/inka trail: the inka trail is a 4 day, 3 night journey through the andes mountains of peru that ultimatelye ends up at macchu pichu. The journey is broken up into 4 pretty gruelling, at times, days of hiking. the first day is a relatively flat, nice walk to get you adjusted to the altitude and the terrain. In total it is about 14 km, broken up by visits to ancient archaeological sites and a nice lunch. The second day, 12 km, is deadly! The day begins by going sdtraight uphill for about 3 hours on the biggest steps youve ever seen. Sometimes about 2 feet high. after your summit the first pass (4,600 m above sea level), Dead Womans Pass (nobody, not even a woman has died here. It is named this bceause from half way up, the mountrain you´re summitting looks like a boob), you head down for a couple hours to the lunch spot. Then you finish with anoether, less severe summit, ending at the camp for the night. Relief. The third day is more relaxing. It is about 7 km and is meant to be a resting day so that you can wake up nice and early the next day to catch the nicest scene of macchu pichu. There´s even a restaurant at the camp site, which sells beer, and is very busy with all of the campers. Finally, the 4th day, you wake up at 3:30am and begin the 8km hike to the finish. After all the hiking you kind of forget why youre there and coming over the top of the last massive set of stairs, aptly names ¨the gringo killers¨, you get to the peak and can see macchu pichu. It was amazing, beyond words. Hopefully pictures can do it justice.Then we actually hiked up the mountain at the site, called Wainapichu. Hard, but so worth it because you can see macchu pichu from a distinace.
The trail was awesome. We were with a group of 18 other people, 2 aussie guys, doctors who were very cool, an aussie father/son duo, the son was a vegan, making it hard on the porters and chef, an irish couple, one british girl, also a doctor (it was reassuring to have 3 doctors with us), and 2 americans, plus our 2 guides, Javier and Danny. Along with us was our 20 porters (the porters carry all the stuff up the mountain, like food, tents, cooking equipment, etc. and make the journey doable). In all, there was close to 40 people. The group got very close throughout the days, and this made the trip. In fact, when we finished and headed for the 4 hour train back, all of us packed into a train and proceeded to drink it out of beer in celebration of our trip. It was awesome.
Chile:
Now we are in Chile. A lot more expensive, but with that comes some of the creature comforts we get at home (ie. hot water, toilets with seats on them, stuff like that). We started in a costal town called Arica, known for its surfing. We surfed for a few days and relaxed, which was nice. Then we actually rented a car and drove north to this national park called ¨Lauca¨. This place is absoluetely peppered with llamas, alpacas and vicuña (these are a relative of the llama but look like deer and have the most valuable wool in ethe world. ffor a vicuña scarf it is about $600.00 american). We drove back, handed the car back in, unscathed, thankfully, and headed further south, in hopes of getting closer to Santiago. we´re now in Iquique, another coastal town and are chilling again. It feels like vacation, which also makes it feel like we´re just galavanting around the world. I think we need some more volunteer work to keep us humble. Anyways, looking forward to seeing parents and family in the near future. Loving life, as always! Adios.
Macchu Pichu/inka trail: the inka trail is a 4 day, 3 night journey through the andes mountains of peru that ultimatelye ends up at macchu pichu. The journey is broken up into 4 pretty gruelling, at times, days of hiking. the first day is a relatively flat, nice walk to get you adjusted to the altitude and the terrain. In total it is about 14 km, broken up by visits to ancient archaeological sites and a nice lunch. The second day, 12 km, is deadly! The day begins by going sdtraight uphill for about 3 hours on the biggest steps youve ever seen. Sometimes about 2 feet high. after your summit the first pass (4,600 m above sea level), Dead Womans Pass (nobody, not even a woman has died here. It is named this bceause from half way up, the mountrain you´re summitting looks like a boob), you head down for a couple hours to the lunch spot. Then you finish with anoether, less severe summit, ending at the camp for the night. Relief. The third day is more relaxing. It is about 7 km and is meant to be a resting day so that you can wake up nice and early the next day to catch the nicest scene of macchu pichu. There´s even a restaurant at the camp site, which sells beer, and is very busy with all of the campers. Finally, the 4th day, you wake up at 3:30am and begin the 8km hike to the finish. After all the hiking you kind of forget why youre there and coming over the top of the last massive set of stairs, aptly names ¨the gringo killers¨, you get to the peak and can see macchu pichu. It was amazing, beyond words. Hopefully pictures can do it justice.Then we actually hiked up the mountain at the site, called Wainapichu. Hard, but so worth it because you can see macchu pichu from a distinace.
The trail was awesome. We were with a group of 18 other people, 2 aussie guys, doctors who were very cool, an aussie father/son duo, the son was a vegan, making it hard on the porters and chef, an irish couple, one british girl, also a doctor (it was reassuring to have 3 doctors with us), and 2 americans, plus our 2 guides, Javier and Danny. Along with us was our 20 porters (the porters carry all the stuff up the mountain, like food, tents, cooking equipment, etc. and make the journey doable). In all, there was close to 40 people. The group got very close throughout the days, and this made the trip. In fact, when we finished and headed for the 4 hour train back, all of us packed into a train and proceeded to drink it out of beer in celebration of our trip. It was awesome.
Chile:
Now we are in Chile. A lot more expensive, but with that comes some of the creature comforts we get at home (ie. hot water, toilets with seats on them, stuff like that). We started in a costal town called Arica, known for its surfing. We surfed for a few days and relaxed, which was nice. Then we actually rented a car and drove north to this national park called ¨Lauca¨. This place is absoluetely peppered with llamas, alpacas and vicuña (these are a relative of the llama but look like deer and have the most valuable wool in ethe world. ffor a vicuña scarf it is about $600.00 american). We drove back, handed the car back in, unscathed, thankfully, and headed further south, in hopes of getting closer to Santiago. we´re now in Iquique, another coastal town and are chilling again. It feels like vacation, which also makes it feel like we´re just galavanting around the world. I think we need some more volunteer work to keep us humble. Anyways, looking forward to seeing parents and family in the near future. Loving life, as always! Adios.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
pictures pictures pictures!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Update at last! Huancayo to Huacachina to Pisco
Whoops!
Been a while since we updated - internet is hard to come by and often you pay money so we try to keep it short. Right now Sean and I are in Pisco, a city on the coast of Peru a few hours south of Lima. 3 years ago there was a massive earthquake here, which destroyed 80% of the city and killed 500 people. The NGO we are volunteering with, Pisco Sin Fronteras, has been helping rebuild the community since the earthquake. PSF is really awesome, over 90 volunteers from around the world eat breakfast and dinner together, and spend the days helping local families to improve their lives. We got to spend Halloween here which was such a blast - the homemade costumes were hilarious. Nevertheless, we missed the good ol times in montreal where halloween last for about 5 nights. Unfortunately im a little sick, but stomach bugs are really common.
Before coming here we spent a few days in an amazing little place called Huacachina (click to see some pictures). Its basically a lagoon in the middle of the desert. Definitely a gringo hotspot. We went on a dune buggy ride through the dunes which was absolutely amazing basically a rollercoaster ride. then we got to go sandboarding down the dunes and watch the sunset! nevertheless, little huacachina is lovely but there isnt a whole lot to do so we shipped off to Pisco a bit early.
We´ll be sticking around til Monday when we head off to Cuzco! really excited for that and Machu Picchu.
Will try to post pictures soon - internet here is mega-slow.
missing everyone back home and some of the creature comforts - i.e. home-cooked meals, movies that arent dubbed, and clean bathrooms.
please post so we know what you are all doing! what did you do for halloween??
Been a while since we updated - internet is hard to come by and often you pay money so we try to keep it short. Right now Sean and I are in Pisco, a city on the coast of Peru a few hours south of Lima. 3 years ago there was a massive earthquake here, which destroyed 80% of the city and killed 500 people. The NGO we are volunteering with, Pisco Sin Fronteras, has been helping rebuild the community since the earthquake. PSF is really awesome, over 90 volunteers from around the world eat breakfast and dinner together, and spend the days helping local families to improve their lives. We got to spend Halloween here which was such a blast - the homemade costumes were hilarious. Nevertheless, we missed the good ol times in montreal where halloween last for about 5 nights. Unfortunately im a little sick, but stomach bugs are really common.
Before coming here we spent a few days in an amazing little place called Huacachina (click to see some pictures). Its basically a lagoon in the middle of the desert. Definitely a gringo hotspot. We went on a dune buggy ride through the dunes which was absolutely amazing basically a rollercoaster ride. then we got to go sandboarding down the dunes and watch the sunset! nevertheless, little huacachina is lovely but there isnt a whole lot to do so we shipped off to Pisco a bit early.
We´ll be sticking around til Monday when we head off to Cuzco! really excited for that and Machu Picchu.
Will try to post pictures soon - internet here is mega-slow.
missing everyone back home and some of the creature comforts - i.e. home-cooked meals, movies that arent dubbed, and clean bathrooms.
please post so we know what you are all doing! what did you do for halloween??
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Volunteering in Huancayo
So Sabs and I arrived in Huancayo yesterday night at about 9:30 after a long, but comfortable bus ride through the mountains. I now know what altitude sickness is (Sabrina fared much better)! Huancayo is a city nestled in the mountains about 7 hours from Lima, boasting a population of around 0.5M. We were greeted at the nus station by our hosts, Eli and Nestor, a husband and wife from the city, who are both increidible people with hearts bigger than the mountain range we crossed, as we found out today. After going to a highly religious ceremony in the city centre, we got to bed, anticipating out first days work.
I was swiftly taken to a modest school located in a rural village outside of Huancayo in the province of Junin. Very basic amenities: a couple of class rooms, a small yard where the boys play marbles and the girls play "Cinqo". Since it is mostly female volunteers here, I was a welcome sight to the "muchachos" who wanted me to partake in all their games with them. A fun, humbling experince.
Sabrina went to the medical centre, also outside of Huancayo, where she met the doctor/nurse she will be shadowing and helping for the next week. She seemed to also be humbled, but was a wee bit trepedatious also. I think she will make a welcome addition to the medical centre. Interestingly our hosts explained to us, over breakfast, that many people in Peru, especially those in rural areas, still entrust their health to local withc doctors. A tradition treatment for common health problems is to take a guinea pig, wave it over the person's body until it squeals, which is supposed to show the "doctor" where the maladie is. Next, they sacrifice the little guy and open it up to ensure that the medical problem has "passed" from the human to the guinea pig. Prett crazy, I know.
We also take part in an after school program together where we keep the kids occupied with games and the like for a couple hours until their parents come in from the fields. Day one, check. 4 more to go.
I was swiftly taken to a modest school located in a rural village outside of Huancayo in the province of Junin. Very basic amenities: a couple of class rooms, a small yard where the boys play marbles and the girls play "Cinqo". Since it is mostly female volunteers here, I was a welcome sight to the "muchachos" who wanted me to partake in all their games with them. A fun, humbling experince.
Sabrina went to the medical centre, also outside of Huancayo, where she met the doctor/nurse she will be shadowing and helping for the next week. She seemed to also be humbled, but was a wee bit trepedatious also. I think she will make a welcome addition to the medical centre. Interestingly our hosts explained to us, over breakfast, that many people in Peru, especially those in rural areas, still entrust their health to local withc doctors. A tradition treatment for common health problems is to take a guinea pig, wave it over the person's body until it squeals, which is supposed to show the "doctor" where the maladie is. Next, they sacrifice the little guy and open it up to ensure that the medical problem has "passed" from the human to the guinea pig. Prett crazy, I know.
We also take part in an after school program together where we keep the kids occupied with games and the like for a couple hours until their parents come in from the fields. Day one, check. 4 more to go.
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