Chile!! Beach time and host family.

We made it through Peru and on to Chile. The first city we stopped in across the boarder was Arica. Total dump... we didn't take a single picture and left asap....moving on. Next up was Iquique, which we loved. We stayed in a fantastic hostel just steps from the beach. There were tons of fun people there and we partied with Israelis and South Africans. We sat on the beach for two days (only got a little burned) and then took a 19 hour bus ride south to La Serena where we stayed with our first Servas host family.


Note: Servas is an international non-profit organization that pairs travelers and hosts around the world in hope of fostering cross culture relationships and promoting world peace. After you interviewed and approved as a non-ax murder, you can contact the thousands of hosts and stay in their homes for a few days (for free!!)


We stayed with a Chilean woman and her lovely children for two days during which she fed us great local food and helped us do our laundry (which we needed!)

 The Plaza in Iquique

The beach right outside of our hostels 

 The boardwalk in Iquique

The shower AND toilet all in one.  Suddenly it was okay to pee in the shower.

Downtown La Serena 

 La Serena

We spent an afternoon people watching in the Plaza in La Serena.

Three weeks in and we feel like we are getting our travelling stride down.  We are in Valparaiso and plan to hang out for a bit.  More to come!

Arequipa to the Bottom of Colca Canyon

We made the overnight bus ride from Cuzco to Arequipa.  We stayed in a homey hostel and finally got to cook our own dinner and drink some local wine.  We met a British couple, Luke and Catherine, that we ended up joining their trekking group through Colca Canyon.


The trek through either the second or fourth deepest canyon (depending who you ask) was dramatically scenic.  The whole hike had diverse ecosystems.  Our guide educated us the wealth of uses for the insects, cacti and trees that benefit health and can be used for livelihood of the population of the canyon.  


We spent 2 nights, 3 days trekking down into the canyon, through secluded villages that have no road access (they rely on mules to carry in essentials), and then headed out of the canyon before sunrise and breakfast on our last day.

Plaza De Armas in Arequipa (yes same name of the square in Cuzco)

Santa Catalina Monastery

"A city within a city."  The monastery was several city blocks. 

The beginning of the hike looking down into the canyon.

A Native Peruvian tending her sheep.

The end of the hike the first day.

Our first night's stay, the roaring river was feet from our bamboo hut.  

 View of the Canyon.

Marcelo, our guide, walking along irrigation canal leading to the village where we ate lunch.

View from the very bottom of Colca Canyon.

Our second night accommodation.  There was actually a working light bulb inside this one.

Hiking out of the Canyon before sunrise.  

The top!  We climbed the 1200 meters vertical in 2 hours and made to breakfast by 8 am.

Cabanaconde (the town our hike ended in) has a meeting every Sunday.  The mayor addressed the crowd and discusses the pasts week's news and divides the next week's community work.

Where Colca Canyon turns into a valley.  We stopped for the view on the way out of town.  If you look really closely you can see Inca and Pre-Inca terraces used for farming.

We have made it to Chile.  More to come from our upcoming beach towns!

Machu Picchu in March: Clouds, Llamas and Finally Some Sun

We left Cuzco on Sunday for Aguas Calientes, the tourist trap town that serves as the basecamp Machu Picchu. We traveled by train which provided spectacular views (there were windows in the train car ceilings too) of the Sacred Valley and ragging Rio Urbamba. We spent the night in Aguas Calientes in a river front hostel and took a trip to the local hot springs (aguas calientes). 

The next morning we woke up at 4:45 AM and took the shuttle bus up to Machu Picchu in an attempt to catch sunrise over the ruins. However the weather was less than cooperative, as we didn't see the sun until about noon. When we first arrvied at the ruins the fog was so bad you could barely see the structures from 50 yds away and it started pouring rain. A little disheartened, we walked around the ruins in our rain gear taking less than postcard worthy pictures.The one good side to the weather was there were fewer tourists to contend with.

At about 8:30AM we started the hike up to WaynaPicchu, the large peak visible in the background of most Machu Picchu postcards. The park only allows 400 people a day to make the hike so you have to be early to get a pass. The trail consisted of an endless number of steep steps, often with sheer cliffs to one side making it a little hair raising at times. Just as we reached the top, the clouds broke and we were briefly able to see the full ruins from above before the rolling clouds came back in and covered everything up again. 

Since there wasn’t much to see, we decided to take the long trail back which curves around the back side of WaynaPicchu and adds about 2 hours. On the path we crossed the Temple of the Moon, a cave with stone work shrines that was apparently quite important to the Inca’s of Machu Picchu, though much less visited due to the long and steep hike. On the hike back the clouds began to lift and the weather turned extremely muggy. By the time we arrived back at Machu Picchu the clouds were gone and we were able to see the entire surrounding valley and finally get our own classic postcard shots.

Cloudy Machu Picchu. We could barely make out the ruins and absolutely none of the surrounding valley/peaks.

There were about a dozen llamas grazing throughout the park. You could tell they were quite accustomed to tourists and would wander in and out of the maze like ruins. While we were standing in a narrow hallway in between stone walls two llamas came out of nowhere and pushed us out of the way.

The steep steps to the top of WaynaPicchu

The quick view of Machu Picchu we got on the hike up. At the time we thought it might have been our only glimpse of the full ruins.

View from inside the Moon Temple cave.

View down the Urbamba valley and some of the lower terraces

Machu Picchu after the weather cleared

Baby llama!!

Classic post card shot

So most of the day we were wearing layers and didn't realize we were matching. How embarrassing. 

Heading to Arequipa tonight on a 10 hour overnight bus.

Cuzco- Leaving Us Breathless For More Than One Reason

We spent two days in the beautiful city of Cuzco, which sits at 11,200 feet and is surrounded by even taller mountains.  "Cuzco is the Archeological capital of the Americas and the continent's oldest continuously inhabited city." (thanks Kristen:) It's full of old churches, steep steps (tiring with the altitude) and endless solicitors looking to sell touristos (us) everything from paintings to massages and incencently attepting to heard you into their restaurant.  While we spent most of the days saying "no gracias" repeatedly to these folks we did sucumb to one hour long "Inca hot stone" massage for Graham, one pedicure for Sue and a nice painting, but don't worry we bargained, spending a grand total of about $21 US dollars for all three. 

We filled our days walking all over town, including outside the tourist zone (thank god) checking out historical churches, open air markets and unique retaurants with cheap eats.

View from our hostel, which was a great spot, but was unfortuanatleysuffering from some water trouble due to a landslide (fairly common) damaging the water pipe for that part of town. The water was only turned on from 4:30AM-9:00AM daily making things a bit more "rustic". 

Main church in Plaza de Armas (touristo ground zero)

A llama that was tied up outside one of the open air markets up on the hill side.

 The first course of our all you can eat breakfast spot. Coffee, juice, bread, jelly, fruit/yogurt and eggs for about $3 US each.

A church and monastery with lush grounds.

The fountain in the middle of Plaza de Armas at night.

Some of the typical, lung busting steps that climb the hills out of the center of town.

A hillside on the outskirts of town. The trend seemed to be the farther up the hills you got, the more impoverished the area became-opposite of what you often see in the US with those seeking the best views and less congestion. 

More to come from Aguas Calientes and Macchu Pichu!

Avocados, Empenadas y Ritz (Lima to Huacachina)

We spent our last day in Lima exploring the cities beach neighborhoods.  We woke up at 5 am the next day to take a bus to Ica.  We stayed in a town 5 km out of Ica that was in the middle of sand dunes.

We walked from Baranaco to Miraflores along the beaches of Lima.  

Huaca Pucllana Ruins in the middle of Lima dating back to 400 AD

The sun set on our way back to our Lima Hostel so we sat down and drank a beer- as far as we could tell it was okay to drink in public.

On Wed we ended up in a little tourist trap called Huacachina.  Hotels and restaurants sitting on a lagoon surrounded by sand dunes.

 View from the top of the Sand Dune directly behind our hostel.  We opted out of the 40 Soles tour and hiked up ourselves.   Pretty amazing view.

Sue Sandboarding, in case I am going too fast and blurry :)

Graham ripping down the dune.


Yesterday we left Ica/Huacachina for an 19.5 hour bus ride to Cuzco.  Our main diet has been grocery store empenadas not quite ripe avocados,  and ritz crackers picnic style at a scenic spot.
More to come from Cuzco!!!